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Test your English listening ability.

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[media]http://i6.sina.com.cn/edu/specialenglish/makingofthenation/8.mp3[/media]

[M37]

[本帖由great修改于2009-04-07 17:09:36]

great

BBC news is fast. Let's change it to VOA.

great

Now, it is suitabe for Chinese people to listen and write. [M03]

黑衣人

哇, 这豆芽字儿的听写有点挑战性~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [M34]

黑衣人

楼主你老五了啦, 现在已经是奥巴马时代, 而不是克林顿时代, So I ~~~~~~ [M04] [M41]

喜欢教书的我

有一些人名和地名，听得不是很清楚，其它的，你们试着对一下，看看行不？
．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．
This is XX. And this is XX with the making of our nation.A VOA special English programme about the history of United States.

Today we tell about the presidential election of 2000. It was an event that few Americans would soon forget.

In the year 2000, the United States was preparing to elect a new president. Bill Clinton would finish his second term as president in January, 2001. The constitution prevented him from competing for a third term.This meant Mr. Clintion's democractic party needed to choose a new candidate for president. The democratic party nominated vice president Al Gore. Mr. Gore had served almost 8 years as vice president under President Clinton. Mr. Gore chose senator Joe Lieberman of the state of Connecticut to compete for vice president. Mr.Lieberman was first elected to the United State senate in 1988. He was the first Jewish person ever nominated for one of America's top position.

Al Gore was born in Washington D.c in 1948. His father was a United State senator from the state of Tennessee. Young Al Gore grew up in Washinton and in XX, Tennessee,where his family had a farm. AL Gore studied government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusettes.He graduated in 1969. His father opposed American involvement in the war in the Vietnam. Al Gore joined the army during the war. He spent about 6 month's service as a reporter in Vietnam.

Back in civilian life, Mr. Gore again worked as a reporter.Later he studied religion and then law. He was elected to the united states house of representatives in 1976. He became known for supprotinng nuclear arms control and protecting the environment. Mr. Gore was elected to the united states senate in 1984. He was reelected 6 years later. He tried and failed to become the democratic candidate for president in 1988. Four years later, Bill Clintion won the democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Clinton chose Mr. Gore as his vice presidential candidate. As vice president, Al Gore was praised for his work on the environment, technology,and foreign relations.

The republican party nominated a son of former president George Bush. They chose governor George. w.Bush of Texas as their candidate for president. Richard Cheney, a former secretary for defense, was chosen to compete for vice president. George. W. Bush was born in the state of Texas in 1946. He is the oldest child of former president Bush. The younger Mr.Bush is often called W because his name is so similar to that of his father. George. W. Bush grew up in the Texas city of midland and Houstan. He　graduated from Yale university in xx. Connecticut. He studied business as a graduate student at Harvard university. George. W. Bush was a pilot in the Texas air national guard during the Vietnam war. Later he worked in the oil and gas industry.

In 1988, Mr. Bush worked on his father's successful campaign for president. Later George W.Bush was one of the owners of the Texas xX, a professional baseball team. He was elected governor of Texas in 1984. He was reelected 4 years later by a large majority. At governor Bush's urging, Texas legislators enacted measures to improve public schools. However, critics charged that public education in Texas was still very poor. And they said the state's criminal justice policy supported by Mr. Bush was too severe. For example, Texas executes more criminals than any other state.

Presidential candidates Gore and Bush disagreed on most major issues. For example, Al Gore said women should have the right to end unwated pregnancy. He supproted gun controls and restrictions on tobacco sales. He supported higher wages for the lowest paid workers.Governor Bush opposed him on these issues. Governor Bush supported a plan to provide public money for students to attend private schools. And he supported investing taxes on goverment retirement money in private retirement plans. Mr. Gore opposed these measures.

Several otehr candidates also ran for president in the Nov 7th election.They represented small politicall parties. For　example,activist xx was the candidate of the Green Party. He criticized large corporations for having too much influence in America. Conservative XX ran as a reform party candidate.

Opinion studies showed that the race between the Republican and the democratic candidates was extremely close.

On Nov 7, 2000. More than 100 million people voted for either Mr. Gore or Mr. Bush. In this popular vote, Al Gore received more votes than George. w. Bush.But final vote would show that Mr. Gore received about 540,000 votes than Mr. Bush. But that alone did not make Mr. Gore president of united states. Americans do not vote directly for their president. They vote for electroals to represent them in the electroal college. The electroal college then elects the president.

Each state has at least 3 electroals. The states with the most popluation have the most electroals and the most electroal votes. In general, the candidate with the most votes in a state wins that state's electroal votes. There are 538 electroals in the electroal college. To become president, a candidate must win 270 electroal votes. Neither Mr. Gore nor Mr. Bush had received that many electroal votes. No winner was declared because of the situation in the state of Florida. Florida had enough electroal votes to make either candidate the winner. The big southern state counted almost 6 million votes on November 7th. Mr. Bush had slightly more votes than Mr. Gore.But the election was still not over. Florida state law calls for a recount when the difference in votes between two candidates is less than one half of 1 percent of the votes. This
meant Florida had to count the vote again. State recounts normally involve the governor. But the Florida governor said he would not be involved. That is because governor Jack Bush is a brother of George. W. Bush.

The election in Florida involved several problems. Some voting machines counted the votes incorrectly. Some African-Americans said the election workers prevented them from voting. And many supporters of Mr. Gore in one area believed they had voted for reform party candidate xx by mistake. The names of Mr. xx and Al Gore was next to one another on the ballot. Democrats charged that the ballot design was illegal. But republican say democratic officials never objected.

Almost 3 weeks after the election. Florida declared Mr. Bush the winner of the state's 25 electroal vote.Florida election officials said Mr. Bush won the popular vote in Florida by 537 votes. That total was out of 6 million ballots.

But the election was still not over. Mr. Gore and supporters in Florida protested the result. They asked the court to reconsider because of what they called the many voting problems. The Florida supreme court ordered the disputed ballot counted again. This could have given Florida's electroal votes to Mr. Gore. The votes could have made him president.

Bush campaign officals quickly appealled to the united state's supreme court. A majority of the high court justices declared the Florida court ruling

unconstitutional. They said Florida law did not explain how officals should judge the ballot.They ruled that the disputed ballot should not be recounted. The supreme court justices said not enough time remained to settle the problem before the electroal college held its required meeting.

On Dec 18th,2000, electroal college memebers met in each state capital. They made the election official.George. W. Bush became the 43rd president of the United States.

This program of the making of the nation was written by xx. This is xx and this is xx.Join us again next week for another voa special English program about the history of the united states.

yezlyx

头晕 [M10]