名人教英文：mahatma gandhi
mahatma gandhi (甘地) discovered that india was full of lawyers and there was no need for him. he spent many desperate (绝望的) days looking for work. while at home, he tried to teach his wife a skill she had never learned — how to read and write. but she resisted his efforts.
laxmidas, his brother, and the rest of the family were disappointed that gandhi was not finding work. in october 1892 a second son, manilal, was born to gandhi and his wife. now gandhi had a wife and two children to support. gandhi did a few odd jobs working with other lawyers. he made some money. but he knew he could not go on like this without a steady income. then he got an offer to go to south africa to help a muslim lawyer prepare a lawsuit (诉讼). gandhi hated to leave his family again, but he had no choice. leaving his wife and sons with laxmidas, gandhi set out for durban, south africa, in april 1893.
south africa was a large country then ruled by great britain. the largest population was black africans, and they had almost no rights. the british were at the top of the social system. at the bottom were the africans. in the middle but near the bottom were asians, mostly indians. they had come to south africa to work as labourers. the white people included the ruling british and the afrikaners (南非白人), or boers (荷裔南非人). the boers were dutch. both the british and the boers agreed on the idea that people of colour were inferior (低等的).
since gandhi was very dark skinned, he soon ran into trouble in south africa. coloured people were not allowed to ride with white people on the trains. they had to use a separate compartment (车厢). when gandhi was told this, he refused to take the train at all.
the muslim lawyer with whom gandhi worked was dada abdulla. gandhi went to court with him. the judge asked gandhi to remove his black turban (头巾). gandhi refused and said he was insulted (侮辱). he left the courtroom rather than removing his turban.
when gandhi tried the train again on a journey from durban to the transvaal border, he had a first class ticket. still, he was ordered to ride in the second class. when he refused, his luggage was thrown off the train and he was shoved (推) onto the platform. gandhi had to spend the night in the cold station, shivering without his topcoat, which was in his lost luggage.
gandhi was deeply offended by the bad treatment of his indian brothers in south africa. he made up his mind he would do something about it. he remembered reading in the bhagavad-gita (《博伽梵歌》) that a good man was a man of action working for justice. gandhi helped dada abdulla win the lawsuit. by then, he was nearing the end of the year he planned to spend in south africa. but, to help his fellow indians, he decided to spend some additional time there.
most indians had come to south africa as indentured servants (契约仆人). they had promised to work for a period of time in exchange for their ticket to south africa. they were little more than slaves. the government wanted to take from them what little rights they had. there was this natal legislative assembly bill (法案), also known as the "indian franchise", in the south african legislature (立法机关). it was meant to deprive (剥夺) indians of the right to vote, which gandhi believed to be a basic human right. he organised meetings of indians to protest against it through petitions (请愿书). the indians lost the voting battle.
gandhi believed that the indians in south africa were citizens of the british empire. he thought that they deserved equality (平等) under the law. it was clear that gandhi had a lot of work to do in south africa. it seemed that he would not be returning home soon.