这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报告。
Millions of high school students have read "To Kill a Mockingbird." The novel by Harper Lee offers moral lessons about racial justice and respect. It tells the story of a young girl named Scout and her father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer. He defends a black man wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. In the end, an all-white jury sentences Tom Robinson to death.
数百万高中学生都读过《杀死一只知更鸟》。这部哈柏·李(Harper Lee)写的小说给读者上了一堂关于种族平等与尊重的道德课。它讲述了一个名为斯考特（Scout）的女孩和她的父亲，阿提克斯·芬奇律师（Atticus Finch）的故事。阿提克斯为被错误控告强奸了一名白人妇女的黑人男子汤姆·鲁滨逊辩护。然后最终，全为白人的陪审团判处了汤姆死刑。
The book is set in the American South in the nineteen thirties. But it was published fifty years ago, on July eleventh, nineteen sixty. It came out as the civil rights movement in the United States was gaining strength. Laws and customs in the South, however, still kept blacks and whites mostly separated.
故事设定发生在20世纪30年的美国南部，但直到50年前（即1960年）的7月11日这部小说才得以出版。其出版背景是当时美国民权运动不断扩大，而在美国南部，法律和习俗仍将大部分黑人和白人隔离开来。
A mockingbird is a kind of gray songbird. The book gets its title from something Atticus Finch was told in his childhood when his father gave him a gun. Gregory Peck won an Academy Award for the nineteen sixty-two film version.
知更鸟是一种灰色的会唱歌的小鸟。这本书的名字来自童年时阿提克斯的父亲交给他一把枪时对他所讲的故事。格利高里·派克（Gregory Peck）凭借着根据这本小说改编的电影获得了1962年的奥斯卡奖。
ATTICUS FINCH: "I remember when my daddy first gave me that gun, he told me that I should never point at anything in the house, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted, if I could hit them. But remember, it was a sin to kill a mockingbird."
阿提克斯：“我记得我爸爸第一次给我那把枪时告诉我，不应该瞄向家里任何东西。只要我够本事，鹣鸟（bluejays）可以随便打。但是要记住杀死知更鸟则是一种罪过。”
Killing them is a sin, he explains, because they don't hurt anyone, they just make music. And that is the moral of the story, says Melinda Byrd-Murphy, head of the Alabama Center for Literary Arts.
他解释说，杀害知更鸟是一种罪过，因为他们不伤害任何人，他们只是歌唱。阿拉巴马文学艺术中心的负责人梅林达·伯德-墨菲（Melinda Byrd-Murphy）表示，这是这部小说的寓意所在。
She has read the book four times.
这本书她读了四次。
MELINDA BYRD-MURPHY: "I think if anything, this story talks about humanity and the universality of humans and how there's goodness in people and you just have to get to know one another."
梅林达：“我认为这个故事讲述的是人性和人类的普遍性，以及人们任何善良。而你只需要了解彼此。”
Ms. Byrd-Murphy is a native of Harper Lee's hometown of Monroeville. The author, who published only the one novel, is still alive but rarely speaks publicly.
伯德-墨菲女士是哈柏·李的家乡门罗维尔人。哈柏·李只出版了这一部小说，她依然健在，但已很少在公开场合发表言论。
Some people say "To Kill a Mockingbird" treats racism in a way that is simplistic, even offensive to blacks, and out of date in today's America. Still, it has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold over forty million copies. It won a Pulitzer Prize and is often required reading in high school.
有些人说《杀死一只知更鸟》以一种简单化的方式对待种族主义，甚至冒犯了黑人。在当今美国它已经过时。但尽管如此，这部小说已被翻译成超过40种语言，并已售出4千余万册。它获得了普利策奖，还往往是高中生的必读书目。
The story takes place in a town that Harper Lee called Maycomb. But she based the characters on real people she knew growing up.
故事发生在一个哈珀·李称为梅岗城的小镇，但是小说中人物的性格都基于她成长过程中所认识的人。
Since then, Monroeville has changed a lot. A number of African-Americans serve in the local government. The courthouse, made famous by the book, is now a museum. A small shop and a fast-food restaurant called Mel's Dairy Dream have replaced Harper Lee's childhood home.
从那时起，门罗维尔有了很大的变化。许多非洲裔美国人任职于当地政府。因这部小说而出名的法院现在成了博物馆。一家小商店和一个叫做Mel's Dairy Dream的快餐店取代了哈珀·李童年时的家。
But in Monroeville and around the country, fans of "To Kill a Mockingbird" are celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Events include readings, discussions and movie showings.
而在门罗维尔和全国各地，《杀死一只知更鸟》的书迷们正用阅读、讨论和电影放映的方式纪念这本书出版五十周年。