演讲
Weekly Address
Obama
Hi,everybody.This Labor Day weekend,as we gather with family and friends,we’ll also come together as a nation to honor some of our own–the working men and women of America who, across the generations,built this country up and helped make us who we are today.
On Monday,we’ll celebrate that proud history.We’ll pay tribute to the values working Americans embody–hard work;responsibility;sacrifice;looking out for one another. And we’ll recommit ourselves to their cause;to securing for them a better bargain so that
everyone who works hard in America has a chance to get ahead.See,over the past four and a half years,we’ve fought our way back from the worst recession of our lifetimes.And thanks to the grit and resilience of the American people, we’ve begun to lay a foundation for stronger,more durable economic growth.But as any working family will tell you,we’re not where we need to be.
For over a decade,working Americans have seen their wages and incomes stagnate,even as corporate profits soar and the pay of a fortunate few explodes.For even longer than that,inequality has steadily risen;the journey of upward mobility has become harder.And in too many communities across this country,the shadow of poverty continues to cast a pall over our fellow citizens.
Reversing that trend needs to be Washington’s highest priority.It’s certainly mine.That’s why,over the past month,I’ve traveled all across America,laying out my ideas for how we can build on the cornerstones of what it means to be middle class.A good job that pays a good wage.A good education.A home of your own.Health care when you get sick.A secure retirement even if you’re not rich.And more chances for folks to earn their way into the middle class as long as they’re willing to work for it.
The truth is,it’s not going to be easy to reverse the forces that have conspired– for decades–against working Americans.But if we take a few bold steps–and if Washington is able to come together with common purpose and common resolve–we’ll get there.Our economy will keep getting stronger and more Americans will be able to join the ranks of the middle-class.So this Labor Day,while you’re out there grilling in the backyard,or taking that final trip for
the summer,I hope you’ll also take a moment to reflect on the many contributions of our working men and women.For generations,it was the great American middle class that made our economy the envy of the world.And as long as I’m President,I’m going to keep fighting to make sure that happens again.
Thanks,and have a great weekend.
文章梗概奥巴马在此次纪念劳动节的演讲中，表达了对促使美国运转的精神品质（勤劳、责任、牺牲和同甘共苦精神）的赞扬，感念人们从经济颓势中走出的坚定信念，并展望了未来的美好前景。
词汇
grit[grɪt]n.勇气，决心
resilience[rɪ′zɪliǝns]n.恢复力，弹力
pall[pɒl]n.遮盖物
cast a pall煞风景，蒙上阴影
长难句
We’ll pay tribute to the values working Americans embody–hard work;responsibility; sacrifice;looking out for one another.
我们将向那些彰显美国气质的精神（勤劳、责任、牺牲和同甘共苦）表达敬意。
For over a decade,working Americans have seen their wages and incomes stagnate, even as corporate profits soar and the pay of a fortunate few explodes.
在过去的十多年里，美国人民已经目睹了他们的工资和收入停滞不前，甚至是当公司利益飙升、一少部分走运的人收入暴增的时候。
Steve Jobs’Commencement Speech at Stanford
Steve Jobs
I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit.So why did I drop out?It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young,unwed graduate student,and she decided to put me up for adoption.She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates,so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife,except that when I popped out,they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.So my parents,who were on a waiting list,got a call in the middle of the night asking,“We’ve got an unexpected baby boy.Do you want him?”They said,“Of course.”My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school.She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.
This was the start in my life.And seventeen years later,I did go to college,but I naïvely chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford,and all of my working-class parents’savings were being spent on my college tuition.After six months,I couldn’t see the value in it.I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life,and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out,and here I was,spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life.So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.It was pretty scary at the time,but looking back,it was one of the best decisions I ever made.The minute I dropped out,I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.
It wasn’t all romantic.I didn’t have a dorm room,so I slept on the floor in friends’rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with,and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.I loved it.And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.Let me give you one example.
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster,every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed.Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes,I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces,about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great.It was beautiful,historical,artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture,and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer,it all came back to me,and we designed it all into the Mac.It was the first computer with beautiful typography.If I had never dropped in on that single course in college,the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts,and since Windows just copied the Mac,it’s likely that no personal computer would have them.
If I had never dropped out,I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.
Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very,very clear looking backwards 10 years later.Again,you can’t connect the dots looking forward.You can only connect them looking backwards,so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.You have to trust in something—your gut,destiny,life,karma,whatever—because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart,even when it leads you off the well-worn path,and that will make all the difference.
文章梗概
这是苹果公司创始人乔布斯在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲，没有高谈阔论，也不斗志昂扬，他只是平直朴实地为与我们分享了3个故事，学业与兴趣（寻常和反常）、爱以及失去（生活起伏）和死亡（永恒话题）。在第一个故事中，他谈到了自己辍学后在校园中培养了对自己真正感兴趣的事物—对书法的爱好和钻研，而这个兴趣日后改变了世界。
词汇
relent[rɪ′lɛnt]v.发慈悲
stumble[′stʌmbl]v.绊倒，踌躇
calligraphy[kǝ′lɪgrǝfl]n.书法、笔迹
serif[′sɛrɪf]n.衬线
sans serif无衬线字体
typography[taɪ′pɑgrǝfi]n.排印，印刷格式
font[fɑnt]n.字体
长难句
1.You have to trust in something—your gut,destiny,life,karma,whatever—because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart,even when it leads you off the well-worn path,and that will make all the difference.
你必须对某些东西深信不疑——你的勇气、命运、因缘，无论是什么，因为正是坚定地相信生命中的点将会在你的人生路上串联起来，会给你听从内心的勇气，即使在当它引你背离常路时。要相信，你所深信不疑的一切将非同凡响。
Bush’s Farewell Address
George Walker Bush
This evening,my thoughts return to the first night I addressed you from this house—September the 11th,2001.That morning,terrorists took nearly 3,000 lives in the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor.I remember standing in the rubble of the World Trade Center three days later, surrounded by rescuers who had been working around the clock.I remember talking to brave souls who charged through smoke-filled corridors at the Pentagon,and to husbands and wives whose loved ones became heroes aboard Flight 93.I remember Arlene Howard,who gave me her fallen son’s police shield as a reminder of all that was lost.And I still carry his badge.
As the years passed,most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11.But I never did.Every morning,I received a briefing on the threats to our nation.I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.
Over the past seven years,a new Department of Homeland Security has been created.The military,the intelligence community,and the FBI have been transformed.Our nation is equipped with new tools to monitor the terrorists’movements,freeze their finances,and break up their plots.And with strong allies at our side,we have taken the fight to the terrorists and those who support them.Afghanistan has gone from a nation where the Taliban harbored al Qaeda and stoned women in the streets to a young democracy that is fighting terror and encouraging girls to go to school.Iraq has gone from a brutal dictatorship and a sworn enemy of America to an Arab democracy at the heart of the Middle East and a friend of the United States.
There is legitimate debate about many of these decisions.But there can be little debate about the results.America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil.This is a tribute to those who toil night and day to keep us safe—law enforcement officers,intelligence analysts,homeland security and diplomatic personnel, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.
Our nation is blessed to have citizens who volunteer to defend us in this time of danger.I have cherished meeting these selfless patriots and their families.And America owes you a debt of gratitude.And to all our men and women in uniform listening tonight:There has been no higher honor than serving as your Commander-in-Chief.
The battles waged by our troops are part of a broader struggle between two dramatically different systems.Under one,a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology,condemns women to subservience,and marks unbelievers for murder.The other system is based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God,and that liberty and justice light the path to peace.
This is the belief that gave birth to our nation.And in the long run,advancing this belief is the only practical way to protect our citizens.When people live in freedom,they do not willingly choose leaders who pursue campaigns of terror.When people have hope in the future,they will not cede their lives to violence and extremism.So around the world,America is promoting human liberty,human rights,and human dignity.We’re standing with dissidents and young democracies,providing AIDS medicine to dying patients—to bring dying patients back to life, and sparing mothers and babies from malaria.And this great republic born alone in liberty is leading the world toward a new age when freedom belongs to all nations.
文章梗概
这是美国第43任总统乔治·布什的离职演讲，在演讲中他向新任总统表达了祝贺，总结了自己过去八年来的执政经历，感谢了美国人民的支持和努力，并提出了国家在未来可能面临的挑战。
词汇
brutal[′brutl]adj.残忍的，野蛮的
tribute[′trɪbjut]n.礼物；致敬
toil[′tɔɪl]n.辛苦，苦工
extremist[ɪk′strimɪst]n.极端主义者
malaria[mǝ′lɛrɪǝ]n.疟疾，胀气
dissident[′dɪsɪdǝnt]n.持异议者
长难句
1.We’re standing with dissidents and young democracies,providing AIDS medicine to dying patients—to bring dying patients back to life,and sparing mothers and babies from malaria.And this great republic born alone in liberty is leading the world toward a new age when freedom belongs to all nations.
我们支持异见人士及年轻的民主体，提供艾滋病药物让濒临死亡的病人恢复生机，不让疟疾伤害母亲与婴儿。这个仅为自由而生的伟大共和国带领世界走向自由属于所有国家的新时期。
FirstⅠnaugural Address of Franklin D.Roosevelt（节选）
I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels.This is preeminently the time to speak the truth,the whole truth,frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today.This great Nation will endure as it has endured,will revive and will prosper.So,first of all,let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless,unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.
In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties.They concern, thank God,only material things.Values have shrunken to fantastic levels;taxes have risen;our ability to pay has fallen;government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income;the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade;the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side;farmers find no markets for their produce;the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.
More important,a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence,and an equally great number toil with little return.Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance.We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid,we have still much to be thankful for.Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it.Plenty is at our doorstep,but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed,through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence,have admitted their failure,and abdicated.Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion,rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
True they have tried,but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money.Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership,they have resorted to exhortations,pleading tearfully for restored confidence.They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers.They have no vision,and when there is no vision the people perish.
The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization.We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money;it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits.These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
文章梗概
富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福（1882年1月30日—1945年4月12日），美国第32任总统，美国历史上唯一连任超过两届（连任四届，病逝于第四届任期中）的总统，美国迄今为止在任时间最长的总统。罗斯福家族在美国大约有近300年的历史，美国第26任总统西奥多·罗斯福是富兰克林·罗斯福的堂叔。
本文选自罗斯福第一任总统就职演说，文章首先指出美国还存在很多问题，并且给民众信心，认为一切危机都会过去的。接下来客观罗列了美国的现状，如经济亟待恢复、事业问题等，并且指出之前一些经济措施的不当之处，最后为美国人树立正确的金钱观和价值观，即不能把物质财富作为衡量成功的唯一标准。
词汇
inaugural[ɪ′nɔ:gjʊr(ǝ)l]adj.开始的；开幕的；就任的，就职的
induction[ɪn′dʌkʃ(ǝ)n]n.入门培训，入职仪式
candor[′kændɚ]n.坦白；直率
preeminent[prɪ′emɪnǝnt]adj.卓越的；超群的
paralyze[′pærǝ，laɪz]vt.使麻痹；使瘫痪
retreat[rɪ′tri:t]n.撤退；休息寓所；撤退
withered[′wɪðǝd]adj.枯萎的；憔悴的
plague[pleɪg]n.瘟疫；灾祸
locust[′lǝʊkǝst]n.[植保]蝗虫
peril[′perɪl;-r(ǝ)l]n.危险；冒险
languish[′læŋgwɪʃ]vi.憔悴；凋萎；失去活力
stubborn[′stʌbǝn]adj.顽固的；顽强的；难处理的
abdicate[′æbdɪkeɪt]vi.退位；放弃
unscrupulous[ʌn′skruːpjʊlǝs]adj.肆无忌惮的
exhortation[egzɔ:′teɪʃ(ǝ)n]n.讲道词，训词；劝告
perish[′perɪʃ]vi.死亡；毁灭；腐烂；枯萎
evanescent[i:vǝ′nes(ǝ)nt;ev-]adj.容易消散的；逐渐消失的
长难句
Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence,have admitted their failure,and abdicated.
这主要是因为主宰人类物资交换的统治者们失败了，他们固执己见而又无能为力，因而已经认定失败了，便撒手不管了。
FirstⅠnaugural Address of William Jefferson Clinton（节选）
To renew America,we must be bold.
We must do what no generation has had to do before.We must invest more in our own people,in their jobs,in their future,and at the same time cut our massive debt.And we must do so in a world in which we must compete for every opportunity.
It will not be easy;it will require sacrifice.But it can be done,and done fairly,not choosing sacrifice for its own sake,but for our own sake.We must provide for our nation the way a family provides for its children.
Our Founders saw themselves in the light of posterity.We can do no less.Anyone who has ever watched a child’s eyes wander into sleep knows what posterity is.Posterity is the world to come—the world for whom we hold our ideals,from whom we have borrowed our planet,and to whom we bear sacred responsibility.
We must do what America does best:offer more opportunity to all and demand responsibility from all.
It is time to break the bad habit of expecting something for nothing,from our government or from each other.Let us all take more responsibility,not only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our country.
To renew America,we must revitalize our democracy.
This beautiful capital,like every capital since the dawn of civilization,is often a place of intrigue and calculation.Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out,who is up and who is down,forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way.
Americans deserve better,and in this city today,there are people who want to do better.And so I say to all of us here,let us resolve to reform our politics,so that power and privilege no longer shout down the voice of the people.Let us put aside personal advantage so that we can feel the pain and see the promise of America.
Let us resolve to make our government a place for what Franklin Roosevelt called“bold, persistent experimentation,”a government for our tomorrows,not our yesterdays.
Let us give this capital back to the people to whom it belongs.
To renew America,we must meet challenges abroad as well at home.There is no longer division between what is foreign and what is domestic—the world economy,the world environment,the world AIDS crisis,the world arms race—they affect us all.
Today,as an old order passes,the new world is more free but less stable.Communism’s collapse has called forth old animosities and new dangers.Clearly America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make.
While America rebuilds at home,we will not shrink from the challenges,nor fail to seize the opportunities,of this new world.Together with our friends and allies,we will work to shape change,lest it engulf us.
When our vital interests are challenged,or the will and conscience of the international community is defied,we will act—with peaceful diplomacy whenever possible,with force when necessary.The brave Americans serving our nation today in the Persian Gulf,in Somalia,and wherever else they stand are testament to our resolve.
文章梗概
本文选自克林顿第一任总统就职演说，与大多数总统就职演说一样，克林顿在这篇演讲中也客观分析了美国目前的现状与存在问题以及制定了今后如何做，并且定下了主要施政基调，即变革与复兴。
词汇
posterity[pɒ′sterɪtɪ]n.子孙，后裔；后代
intrigue[ɪn′tri:g]n.阴谋；诡计
calculation[kælkjʊ′leɪʃ(ǝ)n]n.算计，心计
maneuver[mǝ′nʊvǝ]vi.[军]机动；演习；调遣；用计谋
toil[tɒɪl]n.辛苦；苦工
animosity[，ænɪ′mɒsɪtɪ]n.憎恶，仇恨，敌意
lest[lest]conj.唯恐，以免；担心
testament[′testǝm(ǝ)nt]n.[法]遗嘱；圣约；确实的证明
长难句
When our vital interests are challenged,or the will and conscience of the international community is defied,we will act—with peaceful diplomacy whenever possible,with force when necessary.
当我们的切身利益受到侵害或者我们在国际社会的意志受到挑战的时候，我们就会在必要的时候根据和平政策而有所行动。