40.High School English Reading Listening

Elizabeth Freeman was born about 1742 to African American parents who were slaves. At the age of six months she was acquired, along with her sister, by John Ashley, a wealthy Massachusetts slaveholders. She became known as “Mumbet” or “Mum Bett”.
　　For nearly 30 years Mumbet served the Ashley family. One day, Ashley's wife tried to strike Mumbet's sister with a spade. Mumbet protected her sister and took the blow instead. Furious, she left the house and refused to come back. When the Ashleys tried to make her return, Mumbet consulted a lawyer, Theodore Sedgewick. With his help, Mumbet sued(起诉) for her freedom.
　　While serving the Ashleys, Mumbet had listened to many discussions of the new Massachusetts constitution. If the constitution said that all people were free and equal, then she thought it should apply to her. Eventually, Mumbet won her freedom—the first slave in Massachusetts to do so under the new constitution.
　　Strangely enough, after the trial, the Ashleys asked Mumbet to come back and work for them as a paid employee. She declined and instead went to work for Sedgewick. Mumbet died in 1829, but her legacy lived on in her many descendants(后裔). One of her great-grandchildren was W.E.B.Du Bois, one of the founders of the NAACP, and an important writer and spokesperson for African American civil rights.
　Mumbet's tombstone still stands in the Massachusetts cemetery where she was buried. It reads, in part: “She was born a slave and remained a slave for nearly thirty years. She could neither read nor write, yet in her own sphere she had no superior or equal.”
译文：
伊丽莎白-弗里曼大约出生于1742年，父母都是非洲裔美国人，是奴隶。在她6个月大的时候，她和她的妹妹一起被马萨诸塞州富有的奴隶主约翰-阿什利收购。她被称为 "Mumbet "或 "Mum Bett"。
　　姆贝特为阿什利家族服务了近30年。有一天，阿什利的妻子试图用铲子打孟贝特的妹妹。姆贝特保护她的妹妹，反而挨了那一击。她很生气，离开了房子，拒绝回来。当阿什利夫妇试图让她回来时，孟贝特咨询了一位律师西奥多-塞奇威克。在他的帮助下，Mumbet为她的自由提出了诉讼。
　　在为阿什利夫妇服务时，孟贝特听了许多关于马萨诸塞州新宪法的讨论。如果宪法说所有的人都是自由和平等的，那么她认为这应该适用于她。最终，孟贝特赢得了自由--马萨诸塞州第一个根据新宪法获得自由的奴隶。
　　奇怪的是，审判结束后，阿什利夫妇要求孟贝特回来为他们工作，成为一名有偿雇员。她拒绝了，转而去为塞奇威克工作。曼贝特于1829年去世，但她的遗产在她的许多后裔中继续存在。她的曾孙之一是W.E.B.Du Bois，他是有色人种协进会的创始人之一，也是美国黑人民权的重要作家和代言人。
　姆贝特的墓碑仍然矗立在她被埋葬的马萨诸塞州的公墓里。它的部分内容是 "她生来就是奴隶，并在近三十年里一直是奴隶。她既不识字，也不会写字，但在她自己的领域里，她没有任何优势或平等。"
重点词汇：
At the age of 在…岁时
along with 随着 ; 除某物以外 ; 随同…一起，跟…一起
known as 被称为 ; 被认为是 ; 以…而闻名
One day 将来有一天;总有一天;有朝一日 ; 一天；一日
come back 回来 ; 回忆起 ; 回想起来 ; 重新流行 ; 再度时兴
consulted 咨询 ; 请教 ; 商议，商量 ; 查阅 ; 查询 ; 参看