今天出国留学网小编为大家带来的英语听力练习材料是美国总统英语访谈录，采访奥巴马01：我们要生产可再生能源。希望能对大家的英语听力练习有所帮助!
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Reporter: Hello, again. In nine days he will be president of the United States. This morning Barack BO is our exclusive headliner. Welcome back to This Week.
记者：大家好。他9天后就将成为美国 的总统。今天早上巴拉克奥巴马是 我们唯一的主角。欢迎来到《本周》。
Obama ： Thank you, George.
奥巴马：谢谢你，乔治。
Reporter: Does it feel like you’re president already?
记者：现在是不是觉得自己已经是总统了?
Obama: No.
奥巴马：没有。
Reporter: This is on quite a pace.
记者：很快就是了。
Obama: All of those bells and whistles ——as much we are working hard in the next couple of weeks, I think that when you’re actually in the Oval Office making decisions, I think that’s going to be different.
奥巴马：所有这些华而不实的东西——我 们在接下来的几周也 同样要努力做，我想 当你真正在白宫作决定时，事情就会有所不同了。
Reporter: You know, we asked our viewers what they wanted to hear from you, and we got hundreds of pages of questions, thousands of questions, almost all about the economy. And it’s clear there’s a lot of pain out there, a lot of fear. And if I could sum up the questions, it would be very simple, can you fix this?
记者：你知道，我们问我们的观察员，他们想要从你这了解什么时，我们拿到 了数百页的问题，有数千道问题，几乎 都是与经济相关的。显然经济方面有很 多硬伤，也让很多人担心。而如果我简 单总结一下这些问题，那就是一句话： 你能不能扭转经济?
Obama: I think we can fix this. But it’s going to take some time. It’s not going to happen overnight. And what we tried to do this week was, first of all, explain where we are in the economy. That the jobs numbers this week were terrible. That means we’ve lost 2.5 million last year. That’s the most since World War II. You’ve got another 3.4 million people who have gone from fulltime work to part-time work，or want full-time work. So the underemployment rate is extremely high. And, you know, whether it’s retail sales, manufacturing, all of the indicators show that we are in the worst recession since the Great Depression. And it’s going to take some time to fix it. What we tried to do was put forward a plan that says let’s act boldly. Let’s act swiftly. Let’s not only provide a jumpstart to the economy and immediately or save 3 million jobs, but let’s also put a down payment on some of the structural problems that we have in our economy.
奥巴马：我想我们能。但是这需要时 间。这不是一夜之间就能发生的事。我 们这周首先要做的就是解释一下我们现 在究竟处于什么样的经济形势下。这周 的就业率很低。这也就意味着去年我们 失去了 250万个就业机会。这是自二战 后失业人数最多的了。我们还有340万 人被迫从全职工作者，或者是想要做全 职工作的人变成了兼职工作者。所以未 充分就业的比率非常高。而且你知道， 不管是零售业还是制造业，所有的指标 都显示此次危机是自大萧条后最严重的 经济衰退。现在需要时间来恢复。我们 现在想要推行的计划就是让我们勇敢行 动起来，迅速行动起来。我们不能只提 供一次性经济跳跃或者是立即挽救300 万工作岗位，我们也应该在经济的结构 问题上进行投资。
Reporter: It has been pretty well-received in the Congress. But you’re getting some pushback as well, especially from Senate Democrats on the tax cut portions. Senator Tom Harkin said this is trickle down economics all over again. They’re focused especially on the business taxes. Do you really believe those business tax cuts are going to work to create jobs? Or do you put them in so you could get Republican votes?
记者:这在国会收到了很好的反响。但 是也受到了阻力，特别是来自于民主议 会关于减税部分的议题。汤姆?哈金 议员说这是又一次对经济的玩弄。他们尤其关注商业税问题。你真的认为减少 商业税就能创造就业机会?或者你提出 这个问题是为了得到共和党的支持?
Obama: Well, let’s look at the package as a whole, the bulk of the package is direct government spending. And here are a few things we’re going to do. We’re going to alternative energy production. We are going to weatherize 2 million homes. We are going to create a much more efficient energy system. And that’s going to have enormous ramifications for the economy as a whole down the line. I think we can create a new green economy. And that’s going to be one of the keys to the 21st Century. Health care, which is a drain on our economy, both families and businesses, we’re going to make investments in information technology, update our systems work, reduce medical error, that’s going to save people money. Education, we want to create a classroom for the 21st Century for every child, as well as community colleges and public universities. So we’re making a series of investments that point to the future as well as just dealing with rebuilding our roads, bridges, et cetera. Now there is no doubt that that probably gives you the most bang for the buck in terms of stimulus, in terms of getting the economy started, putting people back to work. But there are only so many spending projects that you can do quickly of that sort. And so then the question becomes, do tax cuts also provide a stimulus? Do they also help? And they may not help as much as some of the direct spending projects do, but they still provide a stimulus, especially if they are targeted towards people who are really in need. And there are a lot of families hurting out there. So what we’ve done is design the bulk of our tax cuts...
奥巴马：让我们从整体上看一下经济一 揽子计划，总体是政府直接投资。这里 我们要做的一些事情。我们要生产能源。 我们要使200万家庭适应气候变化。我 们要创造一个更有效的能源系统。这就 将从整体上给经济带来巨大的效果。我 认为我们能建立一个新的绿色经济。这 将是我们21世纪的重要任务之一。关 于消耗我们家庭经济和商业经济的医疗 保健问题，我们也将在信息技术方面 进行投资，更新我们的系统，减少医 疗事故，从而为人们省钱。教育方面， 我们想要为21世纪的每个孩子建立教 室，当然还有社区学院和公立大学。我 们要为未来进行一系列投资，并解决道 路、桥梁等的重建问题。现在，毫无疑 问，这可能是刺激美元、重启经济和让 人们重新就业的最重要的一击。但是只 有那么多投 资计划可以 迅速地起到 立竿见影的 作用。那么 问题就出现 了，减少税 收也能刺激 经济吗?真 的有用吗? 可能并不能像直接投资的计划一样有效，但是仍然 会起到剌激作用，特别是如果减税直接 针对那些真正需要帮助的人们的时候。 而且很多家庭在受税收之苦。所以我们 所做的就是确定好减税的尺度……
Reporter: But you might give up on some of the business tax cuts?
记者：但是你可能会放弃某些商业减税 措施?
Obama: Well, you know, there are a range of different business tax cuts that we proposed，that we looked at. Some of them, for example, accelerating the depreciation, accelerating the losses that can be written off by businesses, it turns out those are short-term, temporary measures that actually can have an impact. But our general philosophy and I said this yesterday when I was asked at a press conference, is we don’t have pride of authorship. There are a couple of basic principles that I laid out. We’ve got to move quickly. We’ve got to make sure that any investments that we make have good longterm benefits for the economy, not just short-term. We can’t set up a situation where we’re adding to the structural deficit over the longterm. We can’t have waste and abuse in it.
奥巴马：嗯，你知道，我们关注并提议 了很多不同的商业减税措施。其中的一 些，如加快贬值、提高公司注销造成的 损失等这些措施，都证明只能起到暂时 的短期作用。但 是昨天在新闻发 布会上被问到这个问题时我也说 了，我们的一般 理念是我们没有 独创的自豪感。 我摆出了几条根 本原则。我们必 须迅速行动。我 们必须确定我们 所做的任何投资 都是长期对经济 有利的而不仅是 短期的。我们不 能让经济长期处 于结构赤字的状 态下。我们的经费不能浪费或者滥用。
Reporter: Well, let’s look at some...
记者：嗯，让我们看一些……
Obama: But — just to finish the point, if people have better ideas on certain provisions, if they say，you know, this is going to work better than that, then we welcome that. And so we，re going to have a collaborative, consultative process with Congress over the next few days. But what we can’t do is get involved in the typical partisan wrangling or pet project, you know, I iirtc rinii that takes place.
奥巴马：但是——让我把刚才的观点说 完，如果人们在某些条款上有更好的意 见，你知道，如果他们说他们的想法会 比哪些条款更有效，那我们欢迎他们多 提意见。而且在接下来的日子里我们将 和国会开始协作咨询的进程。但是我们 不能参与典型的党派争斗或者是“争宠” 斗争中，你知道，发生等价交易。
Reporter: Well, that’s what I wanted to ask you about, because like one of the signature proposals already is this Museum of Organized Crime out in Las Vegas. I had Mitch McConnell out on the show last week and he ridiculed it, saying that, you know, this is an example of the kind of pork we don’t want. Yet its advocate say, wait a second, it’s a construction project, it’s ready to go, it’s going to create jobs. Is that the kind of project that you want to fund or not?
记者：嗯，那也是刚才我想问你的，因 为像其中已经有的一个签名提议来自拉斯维加斯的有组织犯罪问题博物馆。上 周我在节目中和麦康奈尔讨论了这个问 题，他嘲讽说，你知道这就是我们不想 要的那种猪肉。但是提议的拥护者说， 等一下，这是一个建设工程，要准备开 工，这也会创造就业机会。这是你想要 投资的那种工程吗?
Obama： Well, let’s be clear, that was a project that was proposed as part of the mayors’ project. The country’s mayors put together — here are a range of projects we can do, we didn’t include that.
奥巴马：嗯，简单地说，提议的那个项 目是市长工程的一部分。国家所有的市 长放在一起——这是我们能做的一系列 工程。我们没有包括那个。
Reporter: But would you want to fund it or not?
记者：但是你想要资助那个项目吗?
Obama: Well, I think that what we have to do is evaluate whether or not these are projects that, as I said, are going to provide long-term benefits to the economy. You know, I would prefer spending money on things like making sure that all federal buildings are energy efficient so the taxpayers are saving money over the long-term. I want to make sure that on health care we are creating the infrastructure that can make our health care more - system more efficient. So, you know, we want to spend the money wisely. We want to spend it prudently. In a package of this magnitude, will there end up being certain projects that potentially don’t meet that criteria of helping on health care, energy, or education? Certainly. But what we don’t want is this thing to be a Christmas tree loaded up with a whole bunch of “pet projects” that people have for their local communities.
奥巴马:嗯，我想我们必须要做的是评 估这些项目，像我之前所说的，对经济 是否长期有利。你知道，我更愿意把钱 花在一些能确保有效利用资源的联邦建 筑上，这样纳税人就能在长期内省下更 多的钱。我想要确保我们在医疗保健方 面建立的基础结构和医疗保健体系更加 有效。所以，你知道，我们想明智的投 资。我们想要谨慎的投资。在这个高度 上的经济一揽子计划，会结束那些在帮 助健康医疗、能源或者教育方面潜在的 不符合标准的项目吗?当然会。但是我 们不想这件事成为人们在当地社区庆祝 圣诞的挂满“宠物工程”的圣诞树。
Reporter: I’ve heard that — and your meetings on Capitol Hill, the one thing you’ve been most focused on is get this done now.
记者：我听说——你在美国国会的会 议演讲上，你一直关注的事情是现在 就实施。
Obama: Yes.
奥巴马：是的。
Reporter: It has to be done...
记者：必须得完成……
Obama: Right.
奥巴马：没错。
Reporter: What happens if it’s not?
记者：如果完不成会怎么样?
Obama: Well，you know, then Congress was going to hear from me. And I was pleased to hear Nancy Pelosi say that if we don’t get it done by the Presidents Day recess, we won’t have a Presidents Day recess.
奥巴马：嗯，你知道，那么国会很快 就会收到我的信息。我很高兴听到南 希?佩洛西说，如果我们不在总统曰休 假前完成，我们就不会有总统曰休假。
Reporter: But what’s your fear?
记者：但是你担心什么?
Obama: Well, the concern is that in a non-emergency situation, Congress exercises all sorts of prerogatives. They’ve got all sorts of procedures. Everybody wants to be heard. And I’m respectful of that. I’m coming from the United States Senate. I understand why that is important. And, you know, one of the things that we’re trying to set a tone of is that, you know, Congress is a co-equal branch of government. We’re not trying to jam anything down people’s throats. Here’s what we know though, that the sooner a recovery and reinvestment package is in place, the sooner we can start turning the economy around. We can’t afford three, four, five, six more months where we’re losing half a million jobs per month.
奥巴马：嗯，我担心的是在非紧急情况 下，国会运用各种特权。他们有各种各 样的程序。每个人都想要发言。我很尊 重这一点。我也是从美国议会过来的。 我明白为什么这很重要。而且，你知 道，我们想要设定一种论调，国会是与 政府同等重要的分支。我们不能剥夺人 们说话的权利。尽管我们都明白，如果 经济能尽快复苏、重新投资的一揽子计 划尽快到位，经济形势就能尽快开始扭 转。我们耽误不起三四个月甚至是五六 个月，我们每月会丢失掉将近50万个 工作岗位。
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