美国总统英语访谈录，采访美国第35任总统：约翰肯尼迪---一个留下很多未解谜团的总统:I Didn't Plan to Be a Politician 我没有想过会成为政治家.和出国留学网小编一起来感受一下原滋原味的地道的口语吧!希望能对大家的英语听力和口语有所帮助!
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Reporter: Senator, you know we feel sometimes that the candidates get lost behind the campaign posters, so we thought we’d just talk to you today about Kennedy, the man, if that’s all right with you, sir.
记者：参议员，你知道我们常常觉得候 选人总会迷失在竞选海报后面，所以我 们今天将和你谈一下肯尼迪本人，如果 你不介意我这么说的话。
Kennedy： All right.
肯尼迪：没关系。
Reporter: Your grandfather, Mayor John Fitzgerald, of Boston, is once supposed to have said, “Come in first; second place is failure." You certainly seem to have lived up to his maxim so far. At 26 — I mean, at 29, in 1946, you were elected to Congress, and in 1952, that upset when you defeated Senator Lodge, now the Vice Presidential candidate, on the Republican side, for his Senate seat, in Massachusetts. And, of course, your sensational string of primary victories leading to your nomination in July. Now, if you are elected, at 43，you will be the youngest man ever elected to the Presidency of the United States. And of course this whole matter of maturity has come up somewhat in the campaign. I’m just wondering if you don’t feel you’ve aged a little bit in these last three weeks of active campaigning?
记者：你的祖父，波士顿市长约翰菲 兹杰拉德有一次曾经说过，“要拿就拿 第一，第二等于失败。”目前为止你好 像是没有辜负他的这一信条。1946年， 你26岁，不是，是29岁的时候，就进 入了国会，1952年，你打败了现在的共 和党副总统候选人洛奇议员，取得了马 萨诸塞州议员的席位。当然，你这一系 列的轰动性的胜利最终让你于7月份赢得了提名。现在，如果你当选总统，才 43岁，你就将成为美国当选的最年轻的 总统了。当然成熟与否的问题也出现在 竞选上了。我在想你是否觉得在前三周 激烈的竞选中自己变得成熟了?
Kennedy: Yes. Well, we’ve been campaigning for a long time. I ran in seven primaries and of course the responsibility is much greater and therefore the pressures are greater. Theodore Roosevelt was was younger than I when he became President, but of course he became because of the death of the President, and he was Vice President. I’ve been in Congress for 14 years, which is a long time, particularly compared to the amount of time that other Presidents have served. It，s always interesting to realize that Lincoln was in the House, but when he ran for the Senate in 1858, he was defeated. Yet he emerged, I suppose, as one of the two or three greatest Presidents we have had. So, it really depends, in the final analysis，on the competence and responsibility of the individual.
肯尼迪：是的。我们已经竞选很长时间 了。我进行了 7次初选，当然责任也 越来越大，因为压力越来越大。西奥 多罗斯福当选总统时比我年轻，当然因为当时总统去世，作为副总统的他 直接就宣誓就职了。我在国会工作了 14年， 这是很长的一段时间， 特别是与之前的总统在 议会的时间相比，算是 很长的了。想到林肯当 年已经在白宫，但是 1858年他竞选议员的 时候却失败了，想到这 总是觉得很有意思。但 是他确实脱颖而出，成 了我们最伟大的两三个 总统之一。所以，个人 的能力和责任在定棺盖论的时候真是不 好说。
Reporter: Senator, do you ever wish that you looked older?
记者：议员，你有没有希望自己能看起 来更成熟一点?
Kennedy: Well, I suppose you have what—I’ve gotten along reasonably well. As it is, I think the people can make a judgment as to whether the candidate is able to meet the responsibilities of whatever office he holds. I ran against Senator Lodge back in ‘52, which was eight years ago; and I met some of the same problems then. But of course this is the great test.
肯尼迪：嗯，我想我现在很好。因为人 们能够判断出候选人是否能承担他所竞 选职位的责任。8年前，也就是1952 年，我和洛奇议员竞争的时候就遇到了 同样的问题。但是当然，这是一个很大 的考验。
Reporter: Senator, there’s one little item that has come up I’ve always wondered about, and stop me if you’ve heard this one, but the change of the hair style to get away from the forelock, was that a considered political opinion or is that your own?
记者：参议员，我一直在想一件事，如 果你听别人说过就告诉我，那就是你留海的发型变了，这是政治方面的考虑还 是你自己的想法?
Kennedy: No, I've been cutting it the same way for about six or seven years, but-even longer, but unfortunately, when you run for the Presidency your wife’s hair or your hair or something else always becomes of major significance. I don’t think it’s a great issue, though, in 1960.
肯尼迪：不是，六七年前我就剪的这个 !发型，或许时间还要更长些，但不幸的 是，竞选总统的时候我妻子或者我的发 型或者别的什么就会变得很重要了。尽 管i960年我就不认为这是大事了。
Reporter: Senator, Mrs. Kennedy said, in one interview, that you prefer, rather than social engagements, to prop up in bed and read, biographies being your favorite reading, she said; and some of your biographers have noted, that you are not necessarily the gregarious type. I wondered if you, yourself, feel any sort of sense of shyness about meeting large crowds and the constant handshaking which is part of the political decorum.
记者：参议员，肯尼迪夫人在一次访谈 中说过，你不喜欢社会交际，更喜欢趴 ;在床上读书，最喜欢读传记。给你写传 记的人也曾说过你不是那种喜欢社交的 人。我想知道你是否感觉与很多人见面 并且不停的握手会觉得害羞，因为那是 政治礼仪的一部分。
Kennedy: No, I don’t. My grandfather, I guess, was a much more natural politician than I was, I’m told. When I was at school I never thought of going into politics. I always wanted to write or practice law. But now I’ve run and I don’t — people are very — particularly in recent years I think they are interested in politics in the sense of being concerned about the issues which affect them and their lives，and so they are friendly and interested and I don’t find it difficult to go around. But I，m not, in fact I would say，looking over the United States Senate, that the old-time image of a back-slapping politician is faded. Most of them are quiet and serious and interested in their work. It’s a very — the issues we deal with, compared to the issues which were before us in the Nineteenth Century，Daniel Webster and Calhoun, all the great figures in the Nineteenth Century, really dealt with about four or five great issues in their whole career — tariff, the expansion of the West，slavery; and we deal with matters which are extremely technical and sophisticated, they come across our desk day by day and week by week. I think the needs of politicians have changed. I think there has to be a good deal of serious interest in the complexities of the problems which face the United States and people aren’t as interested in back-slapping politicians.
肯尼迪：没有，我不觉得。我想，我的 祖父与我相比是一名天生的政治家，这 I是他们告诉我的。我上学的时候从来没 想过从政。我总想编写法律或者从事律 师工作。但是现在，我参选了。特别是 近几年人们对影响他们生活的政治事情 尤其感兴趣，所以政治就变得亲切而有 趣，于是我便觉得政治也没什么难的。实际上，我想说，看看美国的议院，旧 时代的政治家形象已经褪色。他们大多 数人都对工作很认真，怀有兴趣。和我 们19世纪面对的问题相比，这是我们 要应对的问题，丹尼尔怀布斯特和 卡尔霍恩这些19世纪的伟大人物在他 ：们的全部政治生涯上真正处理的是四五 件大事——关税、西进运动和奴隶制; 我们处理的事情则非常有技术性，很辨 证，它们每周每天都会出现在我的办公 桌上。我想对政治家的需求已不如往昔 了。我认为美国和人民面对的问题复杂 性中的严肃利益问题已不像当年的政治家要处理的事情那么让他们感兴趣。
Reporter: Senator, you said that you hadn’t planned on being a politician. And we, of course, have heard the story many times, occasionally from your own lips I believe, but that you got into politics sort of take the place of your other brother, Joe, who was killed during the war.
记者：参议员，你说你没有想过成为政 治家。而我们，当然也听了很多次，我 相信是你的原话，但是你从政就好像是 为了替代你那位在战争中死去的哥哥乔 —样。
Kennedy: Yes. He was going to be a politician I think. In fact he was a delegate to the 1924 - 1940 Convention when he was only 24. And then he was killed in the war and I came back from the war and I was in the hospital for a while and his seat became vacant. I worked for a newspaper for a while and I decided to run, and here we are.
肯尼迪：是的。我想他本来是想当政治 家的。事实上，他24岁时就成为1924 年到1940年政党代表大会的代表。他 在战争中死去后，我从战场上回来，我 在医院住了一段时间，他的席位就空了 出来。我在一家报社里工作了一段时间 后决定参加竞选，所以就这样了。
Reporter: Was it a conscious feeling on your part of taking Joe’s place?
记者：你是有意识的代替乔的位子吗?
Kennedy: No，but I - I never would have run for office if he had lived. I think he was destined to be very successful in politics. But，I was, at the end of the war I was interested in politics, at least in the issues the country faced. I had been a reporter at the United Nations Conference and then at the Pottsdam Conference in Germany in ‘45. And when the Congressional seat became vacant, as I had grown up in an atmosphere where government and politics were followed by both my grandfathers and my father and my brother，and there I was so that I never would have imagined before the war that I would have become active in politics but everything seemed to point to it.
肯尼迪：不是，但是如果他还活着，我 肯定不会竞选。我想他一定会在政界上 取得成功。但是，战争结束后我对政治 有了兴趣，至少对国家要解决的那些事 情很感兴趣。我在联合国会议上担任过 记者，还有1945年参加了德国召开的 波茨坦会议。我成长在祖父母、父母和 哥哥都从政的家庭中，国会有职位空缺 的时候，战争开始前我决不会想到我会 活跃在政坛上，但是所有的一切都似乎 让我最终选择了这条路。
Reporter: You don’t have any sense of being a stand-in for Joe in this Presidential race?
记者：你有没有在总统竞选上是乔的替 身的想法?
Kennedy: No, I don’t. Time has moved on. I once said that I thought that I think, he would have done very well and would have been very successful, but I have sort of made my own career now. But then I always feel that he would have done very well indeed.
肯尼迪：没有。那都过去了。我曾经说 过我当时觉得自己会做得很好，会很成 功，但是我现在是自己开拓事业。我总 是觉得他会做得很好。
Reporter: Senator, actually, the Presidency has been mentioned around the Kennedy family for quite a while. Joe, Jr.'s stated ambition, even before Harvard, was that he wanted to be President of the United States. And, of course, your father was mentioned quite prominently in the 1940 campaign before Roosevelt decided to run for a third term.
记者：参议员，实际上，肯尼迪家族有 很长一段时间都在讨论竞选总统。乔在 上哈佛大学前就说过自己的雄心是成为 美国的总统。当然，1940年在罗斯福决 定第三次竞选的时候，你爸爸当时也被认为是很有希望成功竞选的。
Kennedy: That’s right.
肯尼迪：没错。
Reporter: You were 23 in that year of the ‘40 campaign.
记者：1940年竞选的时候你23岁。
Kennedy: That’s right.
肯尼迪：对的。
Reporter: Did you have any great ambitions for your father to become President? Do you remember your emotions at the time?
记者：你有没有让你爸爸成为总统的愿 望?你还记得你那时的情绪吗?
Kennedy: No. Actually I don’t think he ever would have thought he would be nominated. There were other potential candidates for the Democratic nomination and of course there was no indication that President Roosevelt would not run. So that while his name appeared in the paper, I don’t think he ever inhaled the atmosphere.
肯尼迪：不记得。实际上我想他从没想 过被提名的事情。当时民主党还没有其 他潜在的候选人，当然罗斯福总统当时也没有说要竞选。所以当他的名字出现在文件上时，他并没有融入那种氛围。
Reporter: Visions of those famous Kennedy touch football games on the White House never danced through your head?
记者：著名的肯尼迪家族一起在白宫踢 足球的场面就没在你脑子里浮现过吗?
Kennedy: No — no — no.
肯尼迪：没有，没有。
Reporter: Senator, you mentioned that if Joe had lived and become a politician you possibly wouldn’t have. And yet now we find your brother Bob quite prominent in government affairs in Washington, and your younger brother, Teddy, is talking about a political career.
记者：参议员，你提过如果乔还活着， 成为了政治家，有可能你就不会从政 了。但是现在我们发现你哥哥鲍勃在华 盛顿政府做得很出色，你的小弟弟泰迪 也说想从政。
Kennedy: That’s right.
肯尼迪：是的。
英语 听力练习：白宫对我的意义
听力材料：我的父亲母亲性格迥异
约翰逊：I Want to Be Able to Keep It As Low As We Can
