书城外语美国公民读本(彩色英文版+中文翻译阅读)
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第66章 谁统治我们(2)

29.人们太急于快速致富了。许多人的确一夜暴富,但更多的人却没有如愿以偿。对突然腰缠万贯的极度渴求,使人对那些成功者心怀嫉妒,而且在很多情况下,这种渴求使不诚实的人更多学会的是贫穷而不是邪恶。实际上,每个人都能够通过诚实劳动过上好日子,可能的话,还可以为将来存上一笔钱。但是,绝对的正直要比所有百万富翁的一切财富都更值得称道。

30.另一个缺点是:我们总喜欢对发生在离我们最近的地方的事情关注最少。关税的调整、政府发行什么货币以及国外爆发什么战争,这些事总能让我们激动不己,但我们却将自己当地的政府忘得一干二净。我们共和国最大的缺陷之一,就是我们的城市管理太糟糕。倘若人们像对待已方参选总统的候选人那样,去努力地挑选出诚实的市政委员会委员,那么我们的政府在各个方面肯定都好得多。如果市和县的政坛上充斥着腐败和无能,那么州和国家的政坛也好不到哪儿去。扶贫济弱等爱国精神的培育应当先从当地开始。

31.我们的一些需求。在一个自由的共和国里,所有公民都应当有聪明才智。每个人都应当了解政府,应当清楚自己身为公民的权利和义务。

32.我们需要更多的独立性,少一点对政党领袖的追随。投票人应当有自己的主见,知道什么有利于集体利益,只有这样,他们才能凭良心投票而不是受某个政党的影响去投票。

33.我们需要更强的幽默感。我们应当感到自重比财富更值钱;任何人都不可能在不失去自尊的前提下,做一件猥琐或不光彩的事。但是,政治上和公职岗位上的欺诈,既猥琐又不光彩。

34.我们需要有一颗更加高尚的爱国心。我们应当热爱自己的祖国,爱到我们不仅为其辉煌成就而自豪,而且对它享有的盛誉心生嫉妒的地步。我们应当做好一旦需要便为保卫祖国而献身的准备,就像很多勇敢者在战场上所表现的那样。我们还应当时刻为国家服务,千方百计使自己的祖国远离骂名。

35.我们国家的赞歌。塞缪尔·F·史密斯于1808年出生于波士顿,1829年毕业于哈佛大学,与奥利弗·温德尔·福尔摩斯在同一个班。正是在该班同学的一次聚会上,福尔摩斯博士读到了一首名叫“男孩们”的有趣的诗,并用以下几句话向史密斯博士提到了这首诗:

有这样一个堪称人间精华的帅小伙老天却叫他史密斯,想以此来隐瞒事实;但他却大声吟唱一首献给勇敢者和自由者的歌不妨读一读他奖章上写的字,“亲爱的祖国,我为你歌唱!”36.“亚美利加”这首歌写于1832年,是史密斯专门为波士顿一所主日学校的孩子们聚会而写的。如今,它成了脍炙人口的国家赞歌。史密斯博士逝世于1895年。

1亲爱的祖国,美好自由之邦,我为你歌唱。父辈生死之地,移民夸耀之邦。让自由之声,响彻山岗!

2我出身之地,崇高自由之乡,我热爱你。无论是山是石,树林和淙淙小溪,我满心喜悦地,热爱着你。

3密密的树林里,荡漾起美妙的自由之歌。男女和老少,欢乐地歌唱,山岳和大地,同声应和。

4父辈的上帝,自由的创造者,我为你歌唱。愿自由的圣光,照亮我祖国,愿神保佑我们,上帝我王。

Who We Are

1.Americans Not of One Race.Much is said by some people about “Americans,”and Americans are quite right in being proud of their country.But,for all that,it is just as well for us not to look down on the people of other countries.The fact is that the white people of our republic all of them either were born in Europe or are the descendants of those who came from Europe not so very many years ago.

2.English.The first European people who came to America,north of Florida,were English.They settled in Virginia in 1607,less than three hundred years ago.

3.But,in truth,not very many of us are descended from these early settlers.Other English people came to America throughout the seventeenth century and the eighteenth,and they have kept coming in the nineteenth.So quite a number of us are English in blood,as the national language of all of us is English.But how long we and our fathers and grandfathers have been living in this country is another question.And some of us really do not know when our first ancestors came from the old country to America,nor do we know what kind of people they were,or whether we could be proud of them or not,even if we did know.In many cases all we can be quite sure of is that some time in the last three centuries our first American ancestor did come here from Europe,and here made his home and that of his children.Perhaps he was English;perhaps he was Scotch,or Welsh,or Irish.Many of those British peoples have emigrated to America all through our history,and many of them are coming over in our time.

4.Dutch.Then,it was not British people only who settled the first European colonies along the Atlantic.The first settlers of New York were Dutch,from Holland.After the English seized the colony the Dutch name “New Amsterdam”was changed to the English one whichTHE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLERS LANDING IN VIRGINIA,1607The first permanent English settlement in the new world was at Jamestown,on the James River,Virginia.The river and the settlement were both named from James the First,who was then king of England.

we know.But the Dutch colonists continued to live there,under the English flag,and today their descendants are yet found in the city and state of New York and elsewhere in the republic.Dutch names,such as Stuyvesant,Van Cortlandt,Van Rensselaer,Bogart,Van Dusen,Suydam,are yet common in some parts of New York.

5.Swedes.In Delaware the earliest settlers were Swedes.But there were not many of them,and their colony was taken away by the Dutch,and was seized by the English when they took New Amsterdam.There are many Swedish people now living in the United States,but they or their ancestors have mostly come here recently.

6.Germans.In Pennsylvania many Germans settled at a very early period,and their descendants live there to this day.“Pennsylvania Dutch”they were commonly called by their English neighbors in New York and New England,but,in fact,they were not Dutch at all,butGermans.“Dutch”people come from Holland,not from Germany.Butvery many Germans have settled among us within the present century.

7.French.There were many French emigrants who came to South Carolina,and some to New York,nearly two hundred years ago.They were driven out of their own country by the tyranny of a foolish king.But they were very excellent people,and they made good American citizens.And the first settlers in Louisiana and Michigan were French.

NEW AMSTERDAM,1665

The Dutch village at the lower end of Manhattan Island,which has grown into the greatcity of New York.

8.Americans.In our times the descendants of all these European settlers,whether British,or Dutch,or Germans,or French,or Swedes,are simply Americans .They are all pretty much alike,using the same language,having the same sorts of ideas,loving the republic and its flag,and proud of being American citizens.