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1. This is Gwen Outen. And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today we tell the story of athlete Jesse Owens. He once was the fastest runner in the world.2. In the summer of nineteen thirty-six, people all over the world heard the name of Jesse Owens. That summer, Owens joinedthe best athletes from fifty nations to compete in the Olympic games. They met in Berlin, Germany. There was special interest in the Olympic games that year.
3. Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany. Hitler and his Nazi party believed that white people -- especially German people – were the best race of people on Earth. They believed that other races of people -- especially those with dark skin -- werealmost less than human.
4. In the summer of nineteen thirty-six, Hitler wanted to prove his beliefs to the world. He wanted to show that German athletes could win every important competition.After all, only a few weeks before the Olympics, German boxer Max Schmeling had defeated the great American heavyweight Joe Louis, a black man.
5. Jesse Owens was black, too. Until nineteen thirty-six, very few black athletes had competed in the Olympics for the United States. Owens was proud to be on the team. He was very sure of his ability.
6. Owens spent one week competing in four different Olympic track and field events in Berlin. During that time, he did not think much about the color of his skin, or about Adolf Hitler.
7. Owens said later: "I was looking only at the finish line. I thought of all the years of practice and competition, and of all who believed in me."
8. We do not know what Hitler thought of Jesse Owens. No one recorded what he said about this black man who ran faster and jumped farther than any man of any color at the Olympic games. But we can still see Jesse Owens as Hitler saw him. For at Hitler's request, motion pictures were made of the Berlin Olympic games.
9. The films show Jesse Owens as a thin, but powerfully-built young man with smooth brown skin and short hair. When he ran, he seemed to move without effort. When he jumped, as one observer said, he seemed to jump clear out of Germany.
10. Jesse Owens won the highest award -- the Gold Medal -- in all four of the Olympic competitions he entered. In the one-hundred meter run, he equaled the fastest time ever run in that Olympic event. In the long jump and the two-hundred meter run, he set new Olympic records.
11. And as part of a four-man team, he helped set a new world record for the four-hundred meter relay race. He was the first American in the history of Olympic track and field events to win four Gold Medals in a single Olympics.
12. Owens's Olympic victories made him a hero. He returned home to parades in New York City and Columbus, Ohio, where he attended the state university.Businessmen paid him for the right to use his name on their stores. No one, however, offered him a permanent job.
13. For many years after the nineteen thirty-six Olympic games, Jesse Owens survived as best he could. He worked at small jobs. He even used his athletic abilities, but in a sad way. He earned money by running races against people, motorcycles and horses. He and his wife and three daughters saw both good times and bad times.
14. Poverty was not new to James Cleveland Owens. He was born in nineteen thirteen on a farm in the southern state of Alabama. He was the youngest of thirteenchildren. His parents did not own the farm, and earned little money. Jesse remembered that there was rarely enough food to eat. And there was not enough fuel toheat the house in winter.
Vocabulary
1. After all = Afinal de contas
2. against = contra
3. all over the world = de todo o mundo
4. almost = quase
5. as best he could= da melhor forma que pôde
6. attended = frequentava
7. award = prêmio
8. beliefs = crenças
9. both = tanto
10. brown = marrom
11. Businessmen = executivos
12. children = filhos
13. clear = totalmente
14. compete = competir
15. could win = podiam vencer
16. dark skin = pele escura
17. daughters = filhas
18. Defeated = derrotado
19. During = durante
20. earned = ganhou
21. Earth = Planeta Terra
22. enough = suficiente
23. equaled = igualou
24. even = até mesmo
25. ever = de todos os tempos
26. farm = fazenda
27. Field = campo
28. finish line = linha de chegada
29. fuel = combustível
30. He was very sure = ele tinha muita certeza
31. heard = ouviram
32. heat = aquecer
33. Heavyweight = peso pesado
34. hero = herói
35. However = contudo
36. in a sad way = de uma forma triste
37. joined = juntou-se a
38. jumped farther = saltava mais longe
39. less than = menos do que
40. met = reuniram-s
41. Nazi party = partido nazista
42. No one = ninguém
43. Offered = ofereceu
44. Once = uma vez, outrora
45. own = possuir
46. parades = desfiles
47. parents = pais
48. Poverty = pobreza
49. practice = prática
50. proud = orgulhoso
51. Ran = corria
52. Recorded = registrou
53. relay race = corrida de revezamento
54. request = pedido
55. Right = direito
56. runner = corredor
57. saw = viu
58. seemed = parecia
59. set = estabeleceu
60. short hair = cabelos curtos
61. show = mostrar
62. single = único(a)
63. smooth = liso
64. Spent = passou
65. still= ainda
66. summer = verão
67. Survived = sobreviveu
68. the best race = a melhor raça
69. the fastest = o mais rápido
70. There was = havia
71. thin = magro
72. thought = pensei
73. Track = pista
74. very few = pouquíssimos, muito poucos
75. was born = nasceu
76. Who = que
77. wife = esposa
78. winter = inverno
79. without effort = sem esforço
80. won = conquistou, venceu
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