Labor Day
美音、自然拼读、分级阅读与词汇复习
Table of Contents Back to School.
回校目录.
4 Machines and Workers.
4机器与工人.
5 Tough Jobs.
5个艰苦的工作。
6 Child Labor.
6 童工。
7 Workers Join Together.
7名工人联合起来。
8 Honoring Workers.
8名荣誉工人。
13 A Better Future.
13 “更美好的未来”。
15 Glossary.
15 词汇。
16 Back to School Many students in the United States go back to school right after Labor Day, the first Monday in September.
16回学校 美国许多学生在9月第一个星期一的"劳动节"(Labour Day)后立即返回学校.
For those students, this federal holiday marks the end of summer.
对于这些学生来说,这个联邦假期标志着夏天的结束.
It’s a time to enjoy one last blast of fun before the school year starts.
在学年开始之前,
Many businesses and all government offices close.
许多企业和所有政府办事处关闭。
Communities often hold parades and picnics.
社区经常举行游行和野餐.
People may take advantage of the long weekend to throw a party or go to the beach.
人们可能利用漫长的周末来搞派对或去海滩.
Many just enjoy the extra day off at home.
很多人只是享受 额外一天在家休息。
Labor Day isn’t just a day to take it easy, however.
劳工日不仅仅是轻松的一天。
It’s also a day that the U.
也是U的一天。
S.
师曰.
government set aside to recognize the contributions and achievements of American workers, past and present.
承认美国工人过去和现在的贡献和成就。
In order to understand what Labor Day honors, it’s important to learn about the labor movement.
为了了解劳动节的荣誉,了解劳动运动很重要。
This term refers to an organized effort by workers to improve their economic and social conditions by joining together.
该名词指工人通过联手改善经济和社会条件的有组织努力.
Cheer squad members march during a Labor Day parade in Newtown, Connecticut.
啦啦队成员在康涅狄格州新城的劳动节游行中游行.
Machines and Workers During the Industrial Revolution (late 1700s to early 1800s), new technology allowed many jobs once done by hand to be done faster and more easily by machines.
工业革命期间(1700年代后期到1800年代初),新技术使得许多曾经手工完成的工作能够更快地完成,更方便地由机器完成.
Many farmers began using machines instead of workers to plant and harvest crops.
许多农民开始使用机器而不是工人来种植和收割农作物.
Using machines often increased profits, but doing so also put many small family farmers out of business.
使用机器往往能增加利润,但这样做也使许多小家庭农民失去经营能力.
The new machines also allowed factories to produce cloth and other items at a much lower cost than small home businesses.
新机器还允许工厂以比小型家用企业低得多的成本生产布料和其他物品.
Because of these changes, many people living in rural areas and small towns moved to cities and went to work in factories.
由于这些变化,许多生活在农村地区和小城镇的人搬到了城市并去工厂工作.
Horses provided much of the energy used in farming before machines became available.
马在机器可用之前提供了农作中使用的许多能量.
A farmer uses a tractor to plow a field in 1925.
1925年农民用拖拉机耕田.
Tough Jobs Many employers wanted to keep expenses low so the businesses could earn higher profits.
艰苦的工作 许多雇主希望降低开支,以便企业能够赚取更高的利润。
Though some employers treated their workers well, many did not.
虽然有些雇主对待工人很好,但许多雇主没有这样做。
Workers needed jobs and were often powerless in the face of poor treatment.
工人需要工作,在待遇不佳的情况下往往无能为力。
In the 1800s, low wages, long workdays, and terrible working conditions were common in the United States.
1800年代,低工资,长工作日,恶劣的工作条件在美国很常见.
The labor movement began as a result of workers wanting more of a voice in how they were treated.
劳工运动的开始是因为工人们希望更多地表达他们受到的待遇。
Many workers in the 1800s didn’t receive much time off.
许多工人在1800年代没有多少休息时间。
At that time, the United States had no limits on the number of hours workers put in at their jobs each day or week.
当时,美国没有限制工人每天或每周工作的时间。
The average manufacturing employee worked one hundred hours a week!
制造业雇员平均每周工作100小时!
(That’s more than fourteen hours per day, every day.)
每天超过14小时。
Women work in a factory in 1870.
1870年,妇女在一个工厂工作.
Long hours and overcrowding were common in factories at that time.
当时工厂里工作时间长,人满为患.
Child Labor The Industrial Revolution also led to an increase in child labor.
童工 工业革命还导致童工增加.
In many factories, much of the machinery could be run by children.
在许多工厂,许多机器可能由儿童经营。
It was less expensive for employers to hire children than adults, and they were easier to control.
雇主雇用儿童的费用低于成年人,而且他们更容易控制。
Also, their small size allowed them to move in tight spaces around machines.
另外,它们的体型小,使得它们可以在机器周围的紧凑空间中移动.
By the early 1800s, roughly two million school-aged children were working in mills or factories in the United States.
到1800年代初,大约200万学龄儿童在美国的磨坊或工厂工作.
Many were from families too poor to support them.
许多家庭太穷,无法养活他们。
Children often held jobs before the age of seven and worked six days a week for up to eighteen hours each day.
儿童通常在7岁之前从事工作,每周工作6天,每天最多18小时。
They had little time for rest and no time for school or play.
他们几乎没有时间休息,也没有时间上学或玩耍。
They also often faced dangerous working conditions.
他们还经常面临危险的工作条件。
Many children became ill from the conditions and long hours at work.
许多儿童因病生病,工作时间很长。
At the end of the 1800s, only twenty-eight states had laws against child labor.
1800年代末,只有28个州制定了禁止童工的法律.
Here, three boys aged ten to twelve work in a fish cannery in Eastport, Maine.
三个十到十二岁的男孩 在缅因州东港的鱼罐头厂工作
Workers Join Together Over time, workers started to join together to improve conditions at their jobs.
工人联合起来 随着时间的推移,工人开始联合起来改善他们的工作条件。
They formed labor unions—organized worker associations set up to protect and expand workers’ rights in the workplace.
他们成立了工会 -- -- 组织工人协会,以保护和扩大工人在工作场所的权利。
The first labor unions, founded in the late 1800s, were for all workers, but later they split into separate ones for different jobs or trades.
最早的工会成立于1800年代后期,是面向所有工人的,但后来为了不同的工作或行业而分成了单独的工会.
The goal of any union is to bargain with employers on behalf of its members.
任何工会的目标是代表其成员与雇主谈判。
Unions negotiate for such things as better hours, wages, working conditions, and benefits.
工会就更好的工作时间、工资、工作条件和福利等问题进行谈判。
They sometimes call for strikes to protest unfair situations or to give workers a stronger hand in negotiations with their employers.
他们有时呼吁罢工来抗议不公平的情况,或让工人更有力地与雇主谈判.
In 1866, an organization called the National Labor Union (NLU) urged Congress to pass a law making the eight-hour workday standard for all workers.
1866年,一个名为"全国劳工联盟"(NLU)的组织敦促国会通过一项法律,为所有工人制定8小时工作日标准.
Despite its name, the NLU was more of a political organization than a labor union.
尽管名称相同,但NLU更是一个政治组织而不是一个工会.
It laid some of the groundwork for the labor unions that would come later, however.
不过,它为稍后成立的工会奠定了一些基础。
Although the NLU did not succeed in getting the law passed, it did bring attention to the issue of the eight-hour workday.
尽管国家劳动联盟未能成功地通过法律,但它确实提请注意8小时工作日的问题。
In 1869, President Ulysses S.
1869年,总统尤利西斯·斯.
Grant announced that government employees would be guaranteed an eight-hour workday and a stable wage.
格兰特宣布,政府雇员将保证每天工作8小时,工资稳定。
He also encouraged workers in the private sector to seek out the same legal guarantee.
他还鼓励私营部门的工人寻求同样的法律保障。
The new eight-hour workday was not popular with many employers.
新的8小时工作日并不受到许多雇主的欢迎。
Large numbers of them refused to cooperate after Illinois signed the eight-hour workday into law for all workers except those working on farms.
在伊利诺伊州签署了除农场工人以外的所有工人的8小时工作日成为法律之后,许多人拒绝合作。
On May 4, 1886, eighty thousand strikers and supporters gathered at Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest employers’ lack of cooperation with the law, and police officers used heavy force to stop the rally.
1886年5月4日,八万罢工者和支持者聚集在芝加哥的海市广场以抗议雇主与法律缺乏合作,而警察则用重力来阻止集会.
That event became known as the Haymarket Affair.
这一事件被称为"海市交易"。
Workers march while on strike for an eight-hour workday in New York City in 1872.
工人在罢工期间游行,1872年在纽约市工作了8小时.
Labor Unions Today Union membership in many businesses has dropped since the 1970s.
自1970年代以来,许多企业的今天工会会员人数已经减少。
However, unions for government workers are steadily growing.
然而,政府工作人员工会正在稳步增长。
Teachers, postal workers, firefighters, and police officers all have powerful unions.
教师、邮政工人、消防员和警官都拥有强大的工会。
Currently, more than fourteen million people in the United States are union members.
目前,美国有1400多万人是工会会员.
Minimum Wage When the Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938, the minimum wage was $0.
公平劳动标准时的最低工资 1938年通过的法案,最低工资为0.
25 per hour.
每小时25分
(Adjusted for 2016 buying power, that figure would be $4.
(按2016年购买力调整,该数字为4美元.
As of early 2016, the federal minimum wage was $7.
截至2016年初,联邦最低工资为7美元.
25 per hour.
每小时25分
Individual states are free to set it higher, and many have.
个别州可以自由提高,许多州也有。
Slowly, things began to change.
慢慢地,事情开始改变。
In 1906, facing the threat of a nationwide strike by union members, two large printing companies switched to an eight-hour workday.
1906年,面对工会会员全国罢工的威胁,两所大型印刷公司改用8小时工作日.
In 1914, Henry Ford increased automobile workers’ wages to $5.
1914年,亨利·福特将汽车工人的工资提高到了5美元.
00 a day—more than twice the average of other automakers.
每日00美元,是其他汽车制造商的两倍多。
Ford said that well-paid workers had a better attitude, produced higher-quality work, and were less likely to quit.
福特说,高薪工人的态度较好,生产出更高质量的工作,也不太可能退出.
In 1926, the Ford Motor Company switched to a five-day, forty-hour workweek.
1926年,福特汽车公司改用5天40小时工作周.
The year 1938 was a turning point in labor reform.
1938年是劳动改革的转折点.
Largely through the efforts of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
主要通过富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福总统的努力,国会通过了"公平劳动标准法"(FLSA).
Its purpose was to protect workers from being taken advantage of by employers and being forced to work in poor conditions.
其目的是保护工人不被雇主利用并被迫在恶劣的条件下工作。
The act limited the workweek to forty-four hours (changed to forty hours in 1940).
该法将每周工作时间限制为44小时(1940年改为40小时)。
It also set the minimum wage—the lowest wage employers were allowed to pay their workers.
它还规定了最低工资——允许最低工资雇主向工人支付工资。
The act also said that workers had to be paid extra when they work longer hours than usual, or overtime.
该法还规定,如果工人工作时间比平常长,或者加班,必须支付额外报酬。
With overtime, each hour over forty worked in a single workweek is paid at a rate of one-and-a-half times a worker’s usual hourly rate.
在加班的情况下,每40多小时在一个工作周工作,工资按工人通常每小时工资的一倍半计算。
The idea behind overtime pay was to discourage employers from overworking employees and encourage employers to hire more workers (to avoid having to pay overtime).
加班工资背后的想法是劝阻雇主避免雇员过度工作,并鼓励雇主雇用更多的工人(以避免支付加班费)。
The act also established safety regulations in the workplace and banned most kinds of child labor.
该法还确立了工作场所的安全条例并禁止了大多数类型的童工。
It set the minimum age at sixteen during school hours, fourteen for certain after-school jobs, and eighteen for dangerous jobs.
它规定在校期间的最低年龄为16岁,某些课后工作为14岁,危险工作为18岁。
During the 1894 Pullman Strike, railroad workers struck for over two months because of wage cuts that hurt their families.
在1894年的"普尔曼罢工"中,铁路工人因为削减工资伤害了家人而罢工了两个多月.
Math Minute A worker’s rate of pay is $15.
数学分钟 劳动者的工资标准为15美元。
00 per hour.
每小时00分
How much does that worker earn in a forty-hour workweek?
这个工人每周工作40小时挣多少钱?
How much does he or she earn in a week with ten hours of overtime at one-and-a-half times the normal rate?
每周加班十小时能挣多少钱?
Answers: $600; $825 Key People in the Labor Movement Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones, 1837–1930) helped coal miners in the early 1900s.
回答:600;825 劳工运动的关键人物 母亲琼斯(Mary Harris Jones,1837–1930)在1900年代早期帮助了煤矿工人.
Union members called her “Mother” because of her hard work on behalf of the miners.
工会成员称她为“母亲”,因为她为矿工做了辛勤工作。
She traveled across the United States to help striking miners and to end child labor.
她横行美国各地帮助打击矿工并结束童工.
Samuel Gompers (1850–1924) was president of the American Federation of Labor for almost forty years.
塞缪尔·贡珀斯(1850–1924)曾出任美国劳工联合会主席近40年.
He believed in the power of collective bargaining—talks between union leaders and employers to reach agreements that helped both sides.
他相信集体谈判的力量——工会领导人和雇主之间的对话能够达成对双方都有帮助的协议。
Through his leadership, collective bargaining became the model for how most unions work today.
通过他的领导,集体谈判成为了当今大多数工会如何运作的模式.
Eugene Debs (1855–1926) helped found major labor unions for railroad workers and industrial workers.
尤金·德布斯(1855–1926)帮助找到了铁路工人和工业工人的主要工会.
He ran for president five times between 1900 and 1920.
他在1900年至1920年间五次竞选总统.
Debs traveled the country helping workers bargain with their employers.
德布斯出国帮助工人与雇主讨价还价。
César Chávez (1927–1993) was forced by hardship to become a migrant farm worker when he was eleven.
César Chávez(1927-1993)在11岁时因艰苦而被迫成为农民农场工人.
In 1962, Chávez helped found what later became the United Farm Workers.
1962年,查韦斯帮助找到了后来成为"联合农场工人"的东西.
This labor union works for the rights, safety, and fair treatment of migrant farm workers.
这个工会致力于农民农场工人的权利、安全和公平待遇。
Honoring Workers Labor Day was first celebrated in New York City in 1882.
荣誉工人劳动节最早于1882年在纽约市被庆祝.
The celebration was held by the Central Labor Union of New York to give all working citizens a day off.
庆祝活动由纽约中央劳工联盟举行,让所有工作公民休息一天.
In 1887, Oregon became the first state to pass a law making Labor Day an official holiday.
1887年,俄勒冈州成为第一个通过法律使"劳动日"成为法定假日的州.
Thirty more states passed similar laws before the U.
还有30个州在U之前通过了类似的法律.
S.
师曰.
government made Labor Day an official nationwide holiday in 1894.
1894年政府将"劳动日"定为全国正式假日.
Workers march as part of a Labor Day celebration in 1882 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
工人游行是1882年在宾夕法尼亚州匹兹堡举行的劳动节庆祝活动的一部分.
Canada also celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday in September.
加拿大还庆祝了9月第一个星期一的劳动节.
More than sixty other countries around the world instead celebrate International Workers’ Day on May 1.
5月1日是国际工人日,
The inspiration for International Workers’ Day was the May 4, 1886, Haymarket Affair in Chicago.
国际工人日的灵感来自1886年5月4日的芝加哥海市事件。
Important people, including the president, give speeches on Labor Day, and parades have been common since the holiday began.
包括总统在内的重要人物在劳动日发表演讲,从节日开始,游行就很常见.
Many communities also have festivals featuring music, crafts, boating, fall foods, classic cars, or other themes.
许多社区也有以音乐,工艺品,划船,倒食,经典汽车等为主题的节日.
Canadian ironworkers march together during a Labor Day parade in Toronto, Ontario.
加拿大铁工人在安大略省多伦多的劳动节游行中一起游行.
A Better Future The labor movement improved the way workers are treated and paid.
更美好的未来 劳工运动改善了工人的待遇和报酬。
It set limits for workdays and workweeks, introduced safety regulations, brought an end to child labor, and more.
它规定了工作日和工作周的限制,引入了安全条例,终止了童工,以及更多的童工。
Labor Day honors these accomplishments as well as the efforts of all American workers to build and sustain their country.
劳动节纪念这些成就以及所有美国工人为建设和维持国家而作的努力。
So enjoy a day off on Labor Day and be sure to have some fun.
所以请在劳动节放一天假 一定有乐趣
Just remember to take a moment to honor the workers who labored to build a better future for themselves, their families, and every American citizen.
请记住,要花点时间来纪念那些为为自己、家人和每个美国公民建设一个更美好未来的工人。
Workers wear safety gear while working in a modern bolt factory.
工人在现代螺栓工厂工作时会穿安全用具.
Today’s factories are much safer than many were in the past.
今天的工厂比过去许多工厂安全得多。
Glossary economic (adj.)
经济词汇(adj.)
related to buying and selling of goods and services (p.
关于买卖货物和服务(第2页)
4) federal (adj.)
4) 联邦(adj.
of or relating to a central government that shares power with separate states (p.
中央政府或与中央政府有关,中央政府与不同的州分享权力(p.
4) guaranteed (v.)
4) 保障(五.
promised or ensured (p.
承诺或保证(第6页)
9) Industrial Revolution (n.)
9) 工业革命 (n.
wage (n.)
工资(不详)
(n.)
(无)
(n.)
(无)