VOA常速英语2018--纪念马丁·路德·金博士

Today, on the fifty-year anniversary, we mourn the assassination 1 of civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Dr. Martin Luther King.

在五十周年纪念日的这一天，我们悼念民权领袖以及诺奖获得者马丁 路德 金(Martin Luther King)博士的遇刺。

Born in 1929 into the family of an Atlanta Baptist minister, young Martin was a gifted child who entered Morehouse College at 15 years old, where he studied theology under the mentorship of Dr. Benjamin Mays, an outspoken 2 advocate for racial equality. In 1955, Martin Luther King earned a doctorate 3 in theology from Boston University. That year, he made his first significant mark on the civil rights movement leading a bus boycott 4 in Montgomery, Alabama.

1929年，金博士出生在亚特兰大的一个牧师家庭里。他年少时就显露出了自己的才华，15岁就被莫尔豪斯学院录取。在那里，他师从本杰明 梅斯(Benjamin Mays)，专攻神学，并且公开表示支持种族平等。1955年，金博士获得了波士顿大学的神学博士学位。同年，他在民权运动领域迈出了重大的第一步，即在阿拉巴马州的蒙哥马利领导了一场公共汽车抵制运动。

Under Alabama's segregationist 5 laws of that time, black customers were required to ride in the back of the bus, and to give up their seat for a white passenger. But on December 1, 1955, African American seamstress Rosa Parks, tired after a hard day's work, refused to yield her bus seat to a white passenger; she was arrested and fined. Four days later, Dr. King organized a bus boycott, during which African Americans refused to ride city buses to protest segregated 7 seating. The boycott began on December 5, 1955, and ended on December 20, 1956. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme 8 Court ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system. The bus boycott is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration 9 against segregation 6.

根据阿拉巴马州那时候的种族隔离主义法律，黑人乘客只能待在车的尾部，而且必须要给白人乘客让座。但1955年12月1日，一名从事缝纫工作的非裔美国女性罗莎 帕克斯(Rosa Parks)在经历了一天的劳累工作后拒绝将自己的座位让给一名白人乘客；她因此遭到逮捕和罚款。4天后，金博士组织了一次公共汽车抵制运动。该运动期间，非裔美国人以拒绝乘坐城市公交车的方式来抗议种族隔离的让座机制。这次抵制运动从1955年12月5日持续到1956年12月20日。最后，美国最高法院命令蒙哥马利整合其公交系统。这次抵制运动被视为美国针对种族隔离的首次大规模示威。

Dr. King was heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, who utilized 10 non-violent actions to affect change. Until his death in 1968, Dr. King organized and participated in mass-action boycotts 11, sit-ins, peaceful marches and other non-violent acts of civil disobedience.

金博士深受圣雄甘地的影响，后者通过非暴力的行为来影响并产生改变。1968年，金博士去世。他生前曾组织并参与过多次大规模的抵制运动、静坐抗议、和平游行等非暴力反抗行动。

On July 2, 1964, the hard work of Dr. King and thousands of civil rights activists 12 was rewarded with the signing of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits segregation in public places, as well as employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender 13 or national origin.

1964年7月2日，金博士和无数民权活动家的艰苦工作有了回报——《民权法案》得以签署。该法案不仅禁止公开场合的种族隔离行为，也禁止基于种族、肤色、宗教、性别、国籍而产生的就业歧视。

For his nonviolent resistance to racial prejudice, Dr. King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. At 35 years of age, he was the youngest person ever to receive the award.

由于金博士在种族歧视非暴力反抗方面的贡献，1964年，他获得了诺贝尔和平奖。获奖时，他才35岁，是世界上获得该奖项的人中最年轻的。

On April 4th, 1968, as he stood on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. King was fatally shot by petty thief and virulent 14 racist 15 James Earl Ray.

1968年4月4日，站在田纳西州孟菲斯市某旅店露台上的时候，他受到致命的枪击，凶手是小偷，也是怀有敌意的种族主义者詹姆斯 厄尔 雷(James Earl Ray)。

At the time of his death, Dr. King was 39 years old.

金博士逝世时才只有39岁。

Nonetheless, his life is well summed up in his own words: The quality, not the longevity 16, of one's life is what is important.

虽然如此，他的一生还是可以用他自己的来总结，即：重要的是，人的一要活得有素质，而不是活得长久。