1. People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about reporter Ida Minerva Tarbell.2. Ida Tarbell was one of the most successful magazine writers in the United States during the last century. She wrote important stories at a time when women had few social or political rights.
3. Ida Tarbell used her reporting skills against one of the most powerful companies in the world. That company was Standard Oil. Ida Tarbell charged that Standard Oil was using illegal methods to hurt or destroy smaller oil companies.
4. She investigated these illegal business dealings and wrote about them for a magazine called McClure's. The reports she wroteled to legal cases that continued all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.
5. Ida Tarbell was born in the eastern state of Pennsylvania in November, eighteen fifty-seven. Her family did not have much money. Her father worked hard but had not been very successful.
6. When Ida was three years old, oil was discovered in the nearby town of Titusville. Her father entered the oil business. He struggled as a small businessman tocompete with the large oil companies.
7. Ida's mother had been a school teacher. She made sure that Ida attended school. She also helped the young girl learn her school work.
8. Ida wanted to study science at college. Most people at that time thought it was not important for young women to learn anything more than to read and write. Most people thought educating women was a waste of money.
9. Ida's parents, however, believed education was important -- even for women. They sent her to Allegheny College in nearby Meadville, Pennsylvania. She was nineteen.
10. Those who knew Ida Tarbell in college say she would wake up at four o'clock in the morning to study. She was never happy with her school work until she thought it was perfect. In eighteen eighty, Ida finished college. In August of that year, she got a teaching job in Poland, Ohio. It paid five hundred dollars a year.
11. Miss Tarbell learned that she was expected to teach subjects about which she knew nothing. She was able to do so by reading the school books before the students did. She was a successful teacher, but the work, she decided, was too difficult for the amount she was paid. So she returned home after one year. A small newspaper in the town of Meadville soon offered her a job.
12. Many years later, Ida Tarbell said she had never considered being a writer. She took the job with the newspaper only because she needed the money. At first, she worked only a few hours each week.
13. Later, however, she was working sixteen hours a day. She discovered that she loved to see things she had written printed in the paper. She worked very hard atbecoming a good writer.
14. Miss Tarbell enjoyed working for the newspaper. She discovered, though, that she was interested in stories that were too long for the paper to print. She also wanted to study in France. To earn money while in Paris, she decided she would write for American magazines.
15. Ida Tarbell found it difficult to live in Paris without much money. She also found it difficult to sell her work to magazines. The magazines were in the United States. She was in Paris. Some of her stories were never used because it took too long for them to reach the magazine. Yet she continued to write. Severalmagazines soon learned that she was a serious writer.
16. A man named Samuel McClure visited Miss Tarbell in Paris. He owned a magazine named McClure's. Mister McClure had read several of her stories. He wanted her to return to the United States and work for his magazine. She immediately understood that this was a very good offer. But she said no. She proposed that she write for McClure's from Paris.
- able to = capaz de
- against = contra
- also = também
- amount = quantia
- At first = No início
- attended = frequentasse
- becoming = tornar-se
- business dealings = relações comerciais
- businessman = empresário
- charged = acusou
- college = faculdade
- compete = competir
- during = durante
- eastern = oriental, do leste
- enjoyed = adorava
- even = até mesmo
- few = poucos(as)
- finished = concluiu
- found it difficult = achou difícil
- got = obteve, conseguiu
- had written = tinha escrito
- however = contudo
- hurt = prejudicar
- job = emprego
- knew = conheciam
- learn = aprender
- led to = levou a
- made sure = certificou-se de que
- magazine = revista
- Miss = senhorita
- named = chamado(a)
- nearby town= = cidade vizinha
- oil = petróleo
- owned = possuía
- paid = pagava
- parents = pais
- powerful = poderoso(a)
- reporting = comunicação
- rights = direitos
- sent = enviaram
- Several = vários(as)
- she was expected to = esperava-se que ela
- skills = habilidades
- soon = logo
- struggled = lutou, batalhou
- subjects = assuntos
- successful = bem-sucedido(a)
- though = no entanto
- thought = achavam
- understood = entendeu
- until = até que
- wake up = acordar
- was born = nasceu
- waste = desperdício
- while = enquanto
- without = sem
- wrote = escreveu
- Yet = Porém
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