英语高级听力 11 课 （译文及图片）

Lesson Eleven

Section One: News in Brief

1. Texas Air announced today that it will buy the troubled People Express Airlines for about a hundred and twenty-five million dollars. The proposed deal would allow most People Express employees to keep their jobs, although the company will eventually lose its identity and become part of Texas Air. Federal officials must approve the merger. Texas Air is also trying to buy Eastern Airlines.

2. A rally on Wall Street today after six consecutive losing sessions, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day up nearly nine points, to close at seventeen sixty-seven point fifty-eight.

3. What's being called a 'freedom flight" of seventy former Cuban political prisoners landed in Miami today to an ecstatic reception by thousands of relatives and well-wishers. The plane also carried forty － one relatives of former prisoners. The flight culminated nearly two years of negotiations with the Castro regime.

第一节 简明新闻

1. 德州航空公司今天宣布，将斥资约 1 亿 2500 万美元收购陷入困境的人民快捷航空公司。拟定的协议将允许大多数人民快捷的雇员保住他们的工作，但该公司最终将失去其身份，并成为德州航空公司的一部分。联邦官员一定会批准该合并。德州航空公司还将试图收购东方航空公司。

2. 今天在华尔街有一个集会，在 6 个交易日的连续下跌后，道琼斯工业平均指数当日上涨近 9 点，收于 1767.58 。

3. 搭载 70 名前古巴政治犯被称作“自由航班”今天降落在迈阿密，受到上千名亲属和善心人士的热烈欢迎。飞机还上还载有 41 名前囚犯的亲属。航班的最终成行是与卡斯特罗政权近两年谈判的结果。
 
Wall Street

Section Two: News in Detail

Texas Air Corporation today announced that it has agreed to buy People Express Airlines for one hundred twenty-five million dollars in securities. Texas Air already owns Continental Airlines and New York Air. It is in the process of acquiring Eastern Airlines. People Express, one of the first no-frills, low-fare air carriers, has been in financial trouble lately. It was forced to shut down its subsidiary, Frontier Airlines. Texas Air now says it will acquire Frontier's assets as part of its deal with People Express. Joining us now from New York . NPR's business reporter Barbara Mantel.

'Barbara, it is said this is a very attractive low price, this one hundred twenty-five million dollars in securities. Besides that, why does Texas Air want People Express?'

"Well, Frank Lorenzo, who is Chairman of Texas Air, will get airplanes from People Express, which he might need. He will get the lowest cost work-force in the industry at People Express. He will get a new terminal at Newark , New Jersey that People Express is building. He'll get flights to London , and he will get control over competition. People Express competes heavily, especially in the northeast corridor, with Texas Air.'

'This issue of competition has been a sticking point before for the Department of Transportation when two airlines wanted to get together. How will Texas Air get around it this time?'

'Well, they might not. Texas Air wanted to acquire East ..., or wants to acquire, Eastern Airline, and the Department of Transportation said, 'No, not unless you sell more landing slots, more slots in the northeast corridor to Pan Am so that we'll have some competition there.' And Texas Air agreed to that just last week. That may happen again here. The Department of Transportation may require that Texas Air sell some slots or some gates to another airline to ensure that there is still competition in the northeast part of the marketplace. But Texas Air has some leverage here with the Department of Transportation because People Express is a failing company. And the Department of Transportation may feel, 'Well, we'll let them buy People Express and keep it running, rather than let it fail and lose all those jobs.'"

'Mm hm. Now, if the deal is approved by the Department of Transportation, what is it likely to mean for consumers? If there's less competition the fares could possibly go up."

'Well, yes. You would think that when you move from two competitors in a market to just one airliner that prices would just have to go up. But I want you to keep in mind that unrestricted fares of the kind People Express offered, you know, wholesale unrestricted fares, were being eliminated and phased out anyway, because they were not profitable. And the Department of Transportation theory here is that if you allow mergers to take place, or many mergers to take place, you might create more efficiencies and low costs, leading possibly to lower fares. And also the Department of Transportation believes that there's a lot of potential competition in the marketplace. Airlines can move planes around and buy gates, and so that if an airline in a particular market segment was making a lot of money and raising prices excessively, other airlines would move in and prices would be brought down through competition. So that it's a nice theory, the theory of potential competition keeping prices in line, but it's sort of a new idea and it's not clear that that's really the way it would work.'

'Thanks.' From New York , NPR's Barbara Mantel.

第二节 详细新闻 德州航空公司购并人民快捷航空公司

德州航空公司今天宣布，它已同意以 1 亿 2500 万美元收购人民快捷航空的证券。德州航空公司已经拥有美国大陆航空公司和纽约航空公司。它正在收购东方航空。人民快捷是第一个不提供无必要服务的低票价的航空公司之一，最近已陷入财政困境。它被迫关闭子公司――边疆航空公司。德州航空公司说，它将收购边疆航空公司的资产作为与人民快捷交易的一部分。欢迎收听我们从纽约的报道。全国公共电台的商业记者芭芭拉曼特尔。

“芭芭拉，有人说这是一个非常有吸引力的低价格，这 1 亿 2500 万美元的证券。除此之外，为什么德州航空希望得到人民快捷呢？”

“嗯，弗兰克罗伦佐，德州航空主席，将得到人民快捷公司的飞机以满足他的需要。他会得到人民快捷在行业内的最低成本的工作团队。他将得到人民快捷修建的位于新泽西州纽瓦克的新机场。他将获得前往伦敦的航班，他将获得操控竞争的力量。人民快捷与德州航空在东北走廊竞争激烈。”

“当两家航空公司要走到一起时，这种竞争问题就成为摆在运输部面前的一个症结。德州航空这次如何能绕过去？”

“哦，他们可能绕不过去。德州航空想要收购东 ... ，或想购买东方航空公司，而美国运输部说，‘不，除非你卖掉东北走廊更多的降落时段，更多的东北走廊的时段给泛美航空，以便我们在这里有一些竞争存在。’德州航空上周同意了。这可能会在这里再次发生。运输部可以要求德州航空出售一些时段或一些登机口给另外一些航空公司，以确保在东北部市场的竞争。不过，德州航空在这里是举债经营，对交通部门来说，因为人民快捷是一个破产的公司。而运输部可能会觉得，‘好吧，我们会让他们购买人民快捷的，并让他继续经营，总比让他倒闭失去所有这些工作机会强。’”

“嗯，嗯。现在，如果交易获得运输部批准，对消费者意味着什么？如果竞争少了机票价可能会上升吗？”

“嗯，是的。你会这样想，当你从有两个竞争对手的市场上转到只有一个航班，价格会上涨。但我希望你记住像人民快捷提供的那种不受限制的票价，你知道，批发销售不受限制的机票会被淘汰，无论如何会被取消，因为他们没有盈利。而且交通部的理论是，如果允许合并发生，或有更多的合并发生，你会建立更多的效率，成本低，可能导致降低票价。运输部也相信，市场存在着大量的潜在竞争。航空公司可以移动飞机并购买登机口，因此，如果在特定细分市场的航空公司也可以赚到很多钱，而提价过高，其他航空公司会加入进来，价格就会由于竞争而降低。所以，这是一个不错的理论，可能规范价格竞争理论，但它是有几分新的概念，尚不清楚真要是遇到这种情况是否有效。”

“谢谢。”全国公共广播电台芭芭拉曼特尔来自纽约的报道。

于1986年被收购的人民快捷航空公司的波音747客机

Section Three: Special Report

"My audiences have been very devoted over the years throughout the country. And they've expanded and grown and the country audience has been just as kind and as supportive as the folk audience has been.'

'I was thinking though, nonetheless, when I put on this album, 'The Last of the True Believers,' especially the title cut, that I heard more country there than I'd perhaps heard before."

"Well, I guess it has... I've moved in that direction, mainly because I am playing with the band more. My natural roots are there in country and hillbilly music. And so I think that that just comes out more when you put the band with it."

'I want to ask you some questions, please, about this album, about the ... not so much what's on the inside right now, but what’s on the outside - a picture on the front of you in front of a Woolworth store, someplace, I guess, in Texas or Tennessee, and…”

' Houston , Texas .'

“In Houston , Texas ? Is it the Woolworth store that has the hardwood floor still and the parakeets in the back and that sort of thing?'

"Well, this one that we shot this in front of in Houston Texas is one of the largest ones in the country. It's a two-storey and it's got the escalator that does a little pinging noise every couple of minutes. And it takes up a whole city block."

"But, why a cover photo in front of Woolworth's?'

“Well, that comes from the song 'Love at the Five and Dime,' which was a song that Cathy Mattea also cut this year and had my first, you know, top five country hit with. And it deals with the Woolworth store.”

"There is, on the cover, you are holding a book, and you can’t really see. ... What is the name of the book on the cover you're holding?'

"In the Kindness of Strangers, the latest Tennessee Williams' biography.”

"And on the back is Larry McMurtrie's book about a cattle drive around the turn of the century, Lonesome Dove."

"He's my main prose hero. "

"Now, why? Why would you do that? Why would you pose with a book? "

"Well, I have, my audience consists of a lot of young people between the ages of, maybe you know, fourteen and twenty-f'ive. And I read a lot, and I also write short stories and have written a novel. And I just feel like young people are missing out because they don't read books. And any time I have the opportunity to influence the young person to pick up a book and read it, I would try to do that. "

“When you hear these lyrics, when the words come to you, are you hearing the stanzas as poetry or as music?”

“Well, I'm hearing them as music. Lyrics usually come to me, and songs come to me as a total picture. And the music and the lyrics come at the same time. Sometimes they shoot me straight up in bed, you know, in the middle of the night. 'The Wing and the Wheel' is a very special song to me. It's probably my favorite song that I've ever written. And that song was inspired at the Vancouver Folk Festival by two people who are from Managua , Nicaragua . They have a duo call Duo Guar Buranco. And just about four o'clock in the morning, I was sitting in my hotel room and listening to them sing in the room next door, and looking out the window at this little fingernail moon hanging out over the Vancouver Bay, and that song just came flowing, you know, and was inspired by those two people.”

“Now, that sounds easy.”

“Well, it is easy. If you listen to yourself and you listen to the inspiration that's bringing on that particular song, it's easy. It's just a matter of getting up and writing it down.”

Nancy Griffith, talking with us in WPLN in Nashville . She is continuing her national tour with the Everly Brothers. Her latest album is called "The Last of the True Believers. "

第三节 特别报道 采访美国乡村女歌手南希格里菲斯

“我的观众数年来遍及全国各地已经付出很多。与此同时，他们已经扩大和增长，乡村（歌曲）的听众已经像民谣（歌曲）听众一样地支持我。”

“我在想，虽然，然而，当我把这张专辑《最后的忠实信徒》特别是把标题删掉，我听到许多的乡村音乐，比以前听过的要多。”

“嗯，我猜会有 ... 在这方面我很感动，主要是因为我更多地用乐队的演奏。我的根基自然而然地是在乡村和山地音乐。所以我认为，当你加入乐队进来的时候就得要走得更远。”

“我想问你一些问题，有关这个专辑，关于 ... 不是很多，现在里面有什么，外面有什么？ - 在你面前的一张照片，在伍尔沃斯商店前面，某个地方，我猜，是在德州和和田纳西州，而且 ... ”

“德州休斯敦。”

“在德州休斯敦？难道伍尔沃斯商店还有硬木地板，而且后面有鹦鹉之类的东西？”

“嗯，这一张是我们在它前面拍摄的在得克萨斯州休斯敦，它在当地是最大的一个。有两层，它的自动扶梯每两分钟会发出乒乒的声音。而且占了用整个街区。”

“但是，为什么封面照片要在伍尔沃斯前面拍呢？”

“嗯，这来自一首名叫《爱在五块一》的歌，这首歌今年被凯蒂玛蒂亚给删了却是我的第一首歌，你知道，中选为排行前五名的乡村音乐。歌里提到了伍尔沃斯商店。”

“这里在封面上，你们拿着一本书，你不是真的能看到的。 ... 你拿的这本书封面上的名字是什么？”

“《在善良的陌生人当中》，最新的田纳西威廉斯的传记。”

“背面是拉里麦克墨惕尔的书，是关于一次在世纪之交赶家畜的人的故事《寂寞的鸽子》。

“他是我的主要散文的主人公。”

“现在，为什么？为什么你会怎么做呢？为什么你会写出一本书？”

“嗯，我写过，我的听众包括很多的年轻人，年龄在，也许你知道， 14 － 25 之间。我看过很多书，我也写短篇小说而且也写了本小说。而我刚刚觉得像年轻人一样迷失，因为他们从来不读书。而且任何时候只要我有机会就会影响年轻人拿起一本书来读它，我在尝试这样做。”

“当你听到这些歌词，当这些词句感动了你，你听到的每小节像是诗歌还是音乐？”

“哦，我听到他们像是音乐。歌词源源不断地涌向我，而歌曲对我来说完全是一幅画。音乐和歌词在同一时刻涌来。有时他们直接把我扑到床上，你知道，在半夜。《翼与轮》对我来说是一首非常奇特的歌。这也可能是我曾经写过的最喜欢的歌。而这首歌的灵感来自于温哥华民俗节上的两个分别来自马那瓜和尼加拉瓜的人。他们是一个表演组合叫‘瓜布瑞可组合’。早上四点左右，我在我的旅馆房间里，听到他们在隔壁房间唱歌，望着窗外一小块指甲大小的月亮挂在温哥华湾，那首歌涓涓流出，你知道，就是这两个人带来的灵感。”

“现在，这听起来很容易。”

“好吧，这很容易。如果你听，你听到你自己和你听到那首带来灵感的特殊的歌，起床把它写下来是很容易的事。”

南希格里菲斯，与我们在在纳什维尔的 WPLN 电台进行交谈。她将继续与艾佛利兄弟全国巡回演出。她的最新专辑叫做《最后的忠实信徒》。


Nancy Griffith (1953-)


The Last of the True Believers