(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Les Paul, one of the most influential people in modern popular music. He was a skillful guitarist who played an energetic mixture of jazz and country songs. He was also an inventor.
The electric guitar and recording devices he created changed the sound of popular music and greatly influenced rock and roll.
That was the song "Lover", first released in nineteen forty-eight. To make this song, Les Paul layered eight recordings of himself playing the electric guitar. Some of the tracks were recorded at normal speed and some were recorded at half speed. Played at normal speed, the half speed recordings sound twice as fast. The song gives a good example of Les Paul's experimental style and inventive spirit.
Les Paul is best known for creating one of the first solid-body electric guitars and the eight-track recording device. He also perfected new recording methods to give special effects to his music.
Les Paul was born Lester William Polfuss (POLL-fuss) in nineteen fifteen in Waukesha, (WAH-kuh-shaw) Wisconsin. By the age of nine, he had taught himself to play the harmonica and had built a radio. He also learned to play the guitar and banjo. He could not read music, but he could play music that he heard. And he had a good sense of musical structure.
Les Paul was soon performing in country bands in the Midwest. He left high school to perform full time on radio shows. He performed using the names "The Wizard of Waukesha", "Hot Rod Red" and "Rhubarb Red." He also started playing music influenced by great jazz guitarists including Django Reinhardt.
By nineteen thirty-seven, he had formed the Les Paul trio. He moved to New York City the next year. Les Paul played with many famous performers including the popular singer Bing Crosby.
Around nineteen forty-one, Les Paul invented his famous guitar. He wanted to make an instrument that could play a note longer than notes played on a traditional acoustic guitar. He developed a new kind of electric guitar that had a solid body. On an acoustic guitar, the strings vibrate and the hollow part of the instrument, or the sound box, also vibrates. Les Paul wanted an instrument in which only the strings vibrated.
Making a guitar with a solid body permitted the sound of the strings to last longer because their vibrating energy was not weakened by a vibrating sound box. And this design reduced feedback, a noise problem common with acoustic guitars.
To make his guitar, Les Paul attached guitar strings and two electronic pickup devices onto a flat piece of wood from a railroad track. A pickup is a device that captures the vibration of the metal guitar strings and changes them into electronic sound signals. He called his non-vibrating guitar body "the Log." It was a very strange- looking instrument, so he hid it inside the body of a traditional guitar.
Les Paul said that guitarists could play louder and truly express themselves with this new guitar. He said guitarists could become some of the most powerful people in a band. Les Paul was not the only person to make a solid-body guitar. Leo Fender created another version, the Fender Telecaster, in nineteen forty-eight.
The Gibson Guitar Company hired Paul to design a special "Les Paul" guitar. Versions of the guitar he created in nineteen fifty-two are still huge sellers, even today. Some of the top guitarists in the world have used this guitar. They include Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page from the band Led Zeppelin and Slash from the band Guns N' Roses.
That was the song "Vaya Con Dios" which Les Paul performed with his wife, singer and guitarist Mary Ford. The two began playing together in nineteen forty-seven. The next year, Les Paul had a serious car accident that left him with severe injuries. His right arm was crushed. Once set, he would never be able to bend his arm again. He decided to have his arm set at an angle so that he could keep playing the guitar.
During the nineteen fifties, Les Paul and Mary Ford recorded many hit songs including "Mockingbird Hill" and "How High the Moon." Mary Ford performed on Les Paul's radio show. Later they had a television show. Les Paul continued to experiment with different recording methods. He built his own recording studio in his house. He used technology and electronic effects to add a special sound to his music. In the late nineteen fifties he invented the eight-track recording method known as multi-track recording. Each track could be recorded and changed separately, without affecting the others.
By the nineteen sixties, Les Paul and Mary Ford's series of hits came to an end and they later ended their marriage. But Paul never stopped improving his guitars and other musical devices. He invented the "Les Paulverizer" device which permitted a performer to echo, or repeat, his or her music.
In the nineteen seventies, Les Paul made two records with the country guitarist Chet Atkins. One was called "Chester and Lester." It won a Grammy Award in nineteen seventy-six. Starting in the early nineteen eighties, Paul began playing in jazz clubs in New York City. He kept on performing weekly until a few months before his death.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honored Les Paul by making him a member in nineteen eighty-eight. He was also a member of the Grammy Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame and National Inventors Hall of Fame. His last record was "Les Paul and Friends: American Made World Played." It was released in two thousand five to observe his ninetieth birthday. On the album, Les Paul plays with guitar greats including Jeff Beck and Keith Richards. The album earned him two more Grammy Awards.
Les Paul died in August of two thousand nine. He was ninety-four years old. Someone once asked him if he thought he would still be playing at one hundred years old. He said he did not see why not, as long as people put up with him and he was having fun.
重点解析
1.be able to会；能够
They should be able to read and understand everything on the printout.
他们应该能够阅读和理解打印输出上的所有内容。
2.come to an end结束
For us, a nightmare that lasted 132 days has come to an end today.
对于我们来说，持续了132天的一场噩梦在今天终于结束了。
3.keep on继续
But I think that it is important that we keep on trying.
但是我认为最重要的是我们继续在努力着。
4.put up with忍受
We would take her if she could put up with so bad living conditions there.
如果她可以忍受那儿如此之差的生活条件，我们可以接收她。
5.as long as只要
They can be applied in any context, as long as you understand how to apply them, of course.
他们可以在任何一种背景下应用，当然，只要你懂得如何去应用他们。
6.By the age of到了...岁
By the age of two or so, circuits here have started to develop.
到大约两岁的时候，这个区域的神经回路就开始发育了。
参考译文
我是雪莉·格里菲斯，我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔。这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们讲述莱斯·保罗的故事，他是现代流行音乐中最有影响力的人物之一。他是一位技艺高超的吉他手，演奏混合了爵士乐和乡村歌曲的精力充沛的歌曲。他也是个发明家。
他发明的电吉他和录音设备改变了流行音乐的风格，并极大地影响了摇滚乐。
这首歌曲名为《爱人》，它于1948年发布。为了创作这首歌，莱斯·保罗将自己弹电吉他的8张唱片分层。有些歌曲是以正常速度记录的，有些歌曲是以半速记录的。在正常速度下播放，半速录音的速度是正常速度的两倍。这首歌很好地体现了莱斯·保罗的实验风格和创新精神。
莱斯·保罗最为人所知的是，他创造了世界上第一台实心电吉他和八轨录音设备。他还完善了新的录音方法，使他的音乐加上特效。
莱斯·保罗于1915年在威斯康星州沃基夏出生，原名莱斯特·威廉·波尔弗斯。九岁时，他自学吹口琴，还造了一台收音机。他也学了弹奏吉他和班卓琴。他不识谱，但是他可以弹奏自己听过的音乐。他有很好的音乐结构感。
很快，莱斯·保罗就在美国的中西部的乡村乐队演出。高中毕业后他在电台节目中全职表演。他以“沃基夏奇才”、“热棒红”和“川军红”为名进行演出。他也开始演奏受包括金格·莱恩哈特在内的伟大的爵士吉他手影响的乐曲。
1937年，保罗组建了莱斯·保罗三重奏。第二年，他搬到了纽约。莱斯·保罗和包括平·克劳斯贝在内的很多著名的歌手合作表演过。
大约在1941年，莱斯·保罗发明了他著名的吉他。他想制作一种乐器，它能演奏比传统原声吉他更长时间的音符。他发明了一种有坚固琴体的电吉他。原声吉他的弦振动时，乐器的中空部分，也就是音箱也会振动。莱斯·保罗想要一种只有琴弦震动的乐器。
制作一个有坚固琴体的吉他会使弦发出的声音更为持久，因为他们的振动能量没有被振动音箱削弱。而且这种设计减少了反馈噪音，这个问题在原生吉他中很常见。
为了制作他的吉他，莱斯·保罗把吉他弦和两个电子拾音器装置连接在一片来自铁轨的木板上。拾音器是一种能够捕捉金属吉他弦的振动并将其转换成电子声音信号的设备。他把他那没有振动的吉他叫做“原木”。这个乐器看起来很奇怪，所以他把他藏在一个传统吉他的内部。
莱斯·保罗认为，吉他手可以弹奏地更响亮，用这种新吉他真正的表现自己。他认为吉他手可以成为一支乐队中最有影响力的人。莱斯·保罗不是唯一制作有坚固琴体的人。利奥芬达于1948年创建了另一个版本，芬达电吉他。
吉普森吉他公司雇佣保罗设计一种特殊的“莱斯·保罗”吉他。他于1952年创造的几种吉他仍然非常畅销，即使是今天。世界上的一些顶级吉他手都使用过这种吉他。包括艾瑞克·克莱普顿，齐柏林飞艇乐队的吉米·佩琪和枪炮玫瑰乐队的史莱许。
莱斯·保罗妻子是一位歌手和吉他手。这是他和妻子玛丽·福特一块演奏的歌曲《与上帝同行》。两人于1947年开始合作。第二年，莱斯·保罗出了一场严重的车祸，受了重伤。他的右臂被压断了。一旦坐好，他的胳膊就再也不能弯曲了。他决定让他的手臂成一个角度，这样他就可以继续弹吉他了。20世纪50年代，莱斯·保罗和玛丽·福特录制了包括《知更鸟山》和《月亮有多高》在内的很多大热歌曲。玛丽·福特在莱斯·保罗的电台节目中演出。后来，他们有了一个电视节目。莱斯·保罗继续以不同的录制方法进行实验。他在自己的家中建造了自己的录音棚。他使用技术和电子音效来为他的音乐添加一种特殊的声音。
20世纪50年代末，他发明了一种被称为多轨录音的八轨录音法。每条轨道都可以单独记录和改变，而不影响其他轨道。
20世纪60年代，莱斯·保罗和玛丽·福特的系列热曲结束了，他们后来结束了婚姻。但是保罗从未停止改善他的吉他和其它音乐设备。他发明了“Les Paulverizer”设备，它可使演奏者重复自己的音乐。
20世纪70年代，莱斯·保罗和乡村吉他手查特·阿特金斯制作了两张唱片。其中一张唱片叫做《切斯特和莱斯特》。这张唱片在1976年赢得了格莱美奖。从20世纪80年代早期开始，保罗开始在纽约的爵士俱乐部演奏。他一直坚持每周演出，直到自己去世前几个月。
1988年，摇滚名人堂授予莱斯·保罗荣誉，使他成为其中一员。他也是格莱美名人堂、作曲家名人堂和国家发明家名人堂的成员。他的最后一个唱片是《莱斯·保罗和朋友们：美国制造，世界弹奏》。它是在2005年发布的，以庆祝他的90岁生日。在这张专辑中，莱斯·保罗与包括杰夫·贝克和基思·理查兹在内的吉他大师一起演奏。这张专辑为他赢得了两项格莱美奖。
莱斯·保罗于2009年8月去世。享年94岁。有人曾经问保罗，他是不是到100岁的时候还在演奏。他说，为什么不呢，只要人们能容忍他，而且他还能享受乐趣。
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