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人人听力网(rrting.com)Passage 80 John Brown (B)

Brown finally agreed to let the train pass over the bridge and continue on to Baltimore.The train left at sunrise.

By this time, word of Brown's attack had spread to Charles Town more than twelve kilometers away.

Officials called out the militia, ordering the men of Charles Town to get ready to go to the aid of Harper's Ferry.

Soon after sunrise, men began arriving at Harper's Ferry from other towns in the area.

They took positions above the armory and started shooting at it. The militia from Charles Town arrived

at the Maryland end of the Potomac Bridge.

They charged across,forcing Brown's men on the bridge to flee to the armory Only one of Brown's man was hit. He was killed instantly.

Brown saw that he was surrounded.

His only hope was to try to negotiate a cease-fire and offer to release his thirty hostages,

if the militia would let him and his men go free.

Brown sent out one of his men and one of the prisoners with a white flag. The excited crowd refused to recognize the White flag. They seized Brown's man and carried him away.

Brown moved his men and the most important of his hostages into a small brick building at the armory.

Then he sent out two more of his men with a prisoner to try to negotiate a cease-fire. One of them was his son, Watson. This time,the crowd opened fire.

Watson and the other raider were wounded. Their prisoner escaped to safety.

Watson was able to crawl back to the armory.

One of the youngest of Brown's men,William Leeann, tried to escape.

He ran from the armory and jumped into the Potomac planning to swim across the river. He did not get far.

A group of militia saw him and began shooting.

Leeann was forced to hide behind a rock in the middle of the river. Two men went out to the rock with guns and shot him. His body lay in the river for two days. Later,more people were killed.

One was the mayor of Harper's Ferry,Fontana Buckram. After the mayor's death, a mob went to the hotel where one of Brown's men had been held since he was seized earlier in the day.

They pulled him from the hotel and took him to the bridge over the river Several members of the mob put guns to his head and fired. They pushed his body off the bridge and into the water.

Across town,three of Brown's men were in trouble at the gun factory. The factory was built on an island in the Shenandoah River. the island was now surrounded Militia

Forty of the soldiers attacked the factory from three sides.

They pushed the three raiders back to a small building next to the river. The three men fought as long as possible.

Then they jumped through a window into the river. They tried to swim to safety.

Men with guns were waiting for them. Bullets fell around the three like rain. One man was hit. He died instantly.

Another was wounded.

He was pulled to land and left to die. The third man escaped death. He was captured and held for trial. All through the afternoon and evening,

Brown's men at the armory continued to exchange shot with the militia. Several more on both sides were killed or wounded. One of those was another of Brown's sons,Oliver He was shot and seriously wounded.

Night fell.Then,a militia officer,Captain Sinn, walked up to the small building held by Brown.

He shouted to the men inside that he wished to talk. Brown opened the door and let him in. For almost an hour, the two men talked.

They talked about slavery and the right to rebel against the government

Brown was furious that the crowd outside had refused to honor his white flag of truce earlier in the day.

He told Sinn that his men could have killed unarmed men and women but did not do so. \\

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In Washington, President Buchanan and Secretary of War

Lohn Floyd did not learn of the rebellion at Harper's Ferry until after ten o'clock that morning. The president wanted immediate action.

Passage 73 1850 Compromise(B)

Fillmore was from New York State. His family was poor.

His early education came not from school teachers but from whatever books he could find.

Later,Fillmore was avle to study law.He became a successful lawyer. He also served in the United States congress for eight years.

He Whig Party chose him as its vice presidential candidate in the election of 1848.

He served as vice president for about a year and half before the death of President Taylor. fillmore has disagreed with Taylor

over the congressional compromise on slavery and the western territories. Unlike Taylor,Fillmore truly believed that the nation was facing a crisis. The compromise would help save the union.

Now,as president,Fillmore offered his complete support to the bill. Its chances of passing looked better than ever. Fillmore asked the old cabinet to resign. He named his own cabinet members. All were strong supporters of the union. All supported the compromise.

Congress debated the compromise throughout the summer of 1850. There were several proposals in the bill.

Supporters decided not to vote on the proposals as one piece of legislation

They saw a better chance of success by trying to pass each proposal separately.Their idea worked. By the end of September,both the senate and House of Representatives had approved all parts of the 1850 compromise.

President fillmore signed them into law.

One part of the compromise permitted California to enter the union as a free state. One established territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah. One settled the dispute between Texas and New Mexico. Another ended the slave trade in the district of Columbia.

Many happy celebrations took place when citizens heard that Presisent Fillmore had signed the 1850 compromise.

Many people believed the problem of slavery had been solved. They believed the union had been saved.

Others,however,believed the problem had only been postponed.

They hoped the delay would give reasonable men of the north and south time to find a permanent answer to the issue of slavery. Time was running out.

It was true that the 1850 compromise had ended a national crisis. But both northern and southern extremists remained bitter.

Those opposed to slavery believed the compromise law on runaway slaves violated the constitution.

The new law said Negroes accused of being runaway slaves could not have a jury trial.

It said government officials could send Negroes to whoever claimed to own them. It said Negroes could not appeal such a decision.

Those who supported slavery had a different idea of the compromise. They did not care about the constitutional rights of Negroes.

They considered the compromise a simple law for the return of valuable property. No law approved by congress,and signed by the president could change these beliefs. The issue of slavery was linked to the issue of secession. Did states have the right to leave the union?

If Southern states rejected all compromises on slavery, did they have the right to secede? The signing of the 1850 compromise cooled the debate for a time. But disagreement on the issues was deep.

It would continue to build over the next ten years. Those were difficult years for America's presidents.

60) Human Genome Project

A private American company says it has identified all the chemical pieces in the genetic material that shapes human life.

Celera Genomics Group says it has identified and named all the genetic parts of the material inside the nucleus of the cell of a human being.

And,the company says it probably will succeed in placing the chemicals exactly as they appear in the human cells in a few weeks.

Finishing this process would be an extremely important discovery. It would describe a person's complete genetic structure.

This structure depends on more than 3,000,000,000 chemical pieces chained together.

This chain decides a person's physical appearance, such as hair color and eye color and height. The genetic structure also may make a person more likely to suffer diseases like diabetes or some kinds of cancer.

Completion of the human genetic map will permit scientists to study the mysteries of human health and disease.

The discovery is expected to change the way some diseases are treated.

It would help doctors develop new treatments that fight disease on the level of cells and genes. Celera is competing with a government-led group of scientists to be first to complete the human genome project.

Francis Collins heads the other group of scientists.

Their work is being led by the National Institutes of Health.

Doctor Collins says he does not believe Celera has succeeded in completing the human genetic map.

Doctor Collins says he believes it will take several more years to do this.

He says his group has finished about 90% of the genetic work and will announce early results by the end of June.

The government-led scientists have shared their research results on the Internet computer system.

Earlier, experts had criticized Celera Genomics for wanting property rights to information provided by the government group,

However, Celera now says it will put most of its information on the Internet when its studies are completed.

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