口语进阶一般为更资深的英语学习者准备，包括对词汇的了解，对语态的理解等。下面请结合mp3以及下方的原文和翻译，开始今天的口语进阶练习吧！

原文及翻译

One of the most tragic parts of the history of North and South America is the period of African slavery. For hundreds of years, many people were taken from Africa by force to work in the fields of many different countries in North and South America. When Europeans first came to the Americas, some of them realized that they might make money by growing crops and selling them in Europe. 

北美和南美历史上最悲惨的部分之一是非洲奴隶制时期。数百年来，许多人被强行从非洲带走，在北美和南美许多不同国家的田地里工作。当欧洲人第一次来到美洲时，他们中的一些人意识到他们可以通过种植农作物并在欧洲出售来赚钱。

However, in order to make money, they would need a cheap source of labor. Few Europeans would come to the Americas to work for low wages, so instead, the land owners looked for slaves in the areas of great farms or plantations. There were few Indians, so they used another source of slaves: Africa. The plantation owners usually obtained slaves by buying them from local kings in western Africa. 

然而，为了赚钱，他们需要廉价的劳动力来源。很少有欧洲人会来美洲工作，只拿低工资，所以土地所有者反而在大农场或种植园地区寻找奴隶。印第安人很少，所以他们使用另一个奴隶来源：非洲。种植园主通常从西非的当地国王那里购买奴隶。

This led to many wars between rival kings within Africa, who tried to capture each other's people in order to sell them as slaves. A few kings tried to avoid the slave trade, but this was very difficult. During a period of several hundred years, from the 1500s to the 1800s, about 12 million people were taken from western Africa to the Americas. 

这导致了非洲内部敌对国王之间的许多战争，他们试图俘虏对方的人民，以便将他们作为奴隶出售。一些国王试图避免奴隶贸易，但这非常困难。从16世纪到18世纪的几百年间，约有1200万人从西非被带到美洲。

Many more people died as slaves before leaving Africa, and many more died on the ships that took them to the Americas. This was because the conditions on the ships were extremely unhealthy; the ships were far too crowded, and there was little food and water.

许多人在离开非洲之前就作为奴隶死去，还有许多人死在前往美洲的船上。这是因为船上的条件极其恶劣；船上太拥挤，食物和水很少。

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