Abraham Lincoln亚伯拉罕·林肯
William Shakespeare威廉·莎士比亚
Auguste Rodin奥古斯特·罗丹
Elizabeth Taylor伊丽莎白·泰勒
Margaret Hilda Thatcher 玛格丽特·希尔达·撒切尔
Albert Einstein 阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦
Andre Agassi安德烈·阿加西
Cristiano Ronaldo克里斯蒂亚诺·罗纳尔多
David Beckham大卫·贝克汉姆
Isaac Newton艾萨克·牛顿
Lance Armstrong兰斯·阿姆斯特朗
Lev Tolstoy列夫·托尔斯泰
Rafael Nadal拉斐尔·纳达尔
Charles Robert Darwin查尔斯·罗伯特·达尔文
Roger Federer罗杰·费德勒
Dante Alighieri 但丁·阿利吉耶里
Shaquille O’Neal沙奎尔·奥尼尔
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi莫罕达斯·卡拉姆昌德·甘地
Yao Ming姚明
Alexandre Dumas, fils亚历山大·小仲马
Christopher Columbus克里斯托弗·哥伦布
George Gordon Byron乔治·戈登·拜伦
Giuseppe Verdi朱塞佩·威尔第
Jacqueline Kennedy杰奎琳·肯尼迪
James Earl Carter詹姆斯·厄尔·卡特
John Herschel Glenn约翰·赫谢尔·格伦
Queen Joséphine约瑟芬皇后
Nelson Mandela纳尔逊·曼德拉
Pablo Picasso 巴勃罗·毕加索
Queen Elizabeth I女王伊丽莎白一世
Sarah Bernhardt莎拉·伯恩哈特
Victor Hugo维克多·雨果
Walt Whitman 沃尔特·惠特曼
William Wordsworth威廉·华滋华斯
Winston Churchill温斯顿·丘吉尔
Gabrielle Chanel加布里埃尔·香奈儿
Maria Callas玛丽亚·卡拉斯
King Henry VIII国王亨利八世
內容試閱:
Abraham Lincoln
亚伯拉罕?林肯
亚伯拉罕?林肯(1809—1865),出生在肯塔基州哈丁县一个清贫的农民家庭,他的童年是“一部贫穷的简明编年史”。在青年时代,林肯通过自学使自己成为一个博学而充满智慧的人。1860年,林肯成为共和党的总统候选人,11月,选举揭晓,他以200万票当选为美国第16任总统。他信仰人人平等,领导美国南北战争走向全面胜利,并颁布了《解放黑人奴隶宣言》,维护了美联邦统一,为美国在19世纪跃居世界头号工业强国开辟了道路,被称为“伟大的解放者”。
Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 in a log cabin① to very humble,
uneducated parents; he did grow up in a backwoods settlement that
was virtually a wilderness; there, beginning at the age of seven,
he did help his father to hew a farm out of that wilderness with an
axe; with the benefit of only a few months of schooling, he did
study diligently on his own to acquire basic skills in reading and
writing; as a young man out on his own and working at menial jobs,
he did teach himself from books such subjects as English grammar,
sufficient mathematics to learn surveying, and enough law to enter
the legal profession at the age of 27. And, of course, he did
perform triumphantly in the United States’ most severe crisis,
saving his country from dissolution, presiding over the destruction
of slavery, and dying an authentic American martyr②.
亚伯拉罕?林肯1809年出生于一户贫困人家的小木屋里,父亲母亲都没怎么上过学。林肯自幼在野地里长大,长到7岁时,开始帮助父亲在村中做一些砍伐的活计。幼年的林肯从仅有的几个月上学时间里刻苦习得了基本的读写能力。逐渐长大后,小伙子开始自食其力,做一些体力活,并通过读书自学了英语文法、基本算数技能,并由此掌握测量调查的学问。其法律知识更是自学成才,到27岁时林肯已能通过法律专业的考核。正是他带领全美人民度过了最严峻的国难危机,拯救国家于分裂之中,主持废除了奴隶制度,不愧是一位美国本土的国家英雄。
A Mind Ripe for Learning
From the very beginning, Abraham Lincoln was different, and in a
way that many of hisneighbors—and especially his father—did not
approve. Unlike almost everyone else he grew
up with, Lincoln was intensely interested in words and meanings.
He learned to read and writeat a very early age, actively seeking
out books to borrow and taking notes on what he read.When he left
home and struck out on his own at the age of 22, Lincoln settled in
thesmall village of New Salem, Illinois, where he spent six
eventful years. Unprepossessing① inappearance, he was frequently
described as gawky② and ill-dressed, but the other residents soon
discovered he had many assets. In addition to being intelligent and
surprisingly well informed, he was unusually good-natured and
friendly. He excelled in popular athletic contests such as running,
jumping, and throwing weights; he was unusually strong and a nearly
unbeatable wrestler; and though he did not drink, he was convivial③
and had great ability as a storyteller. He was thus well liked.
Supporting himself with a variety of jobs, Lincoln studied
assiduously during his New Salem years to make up for his lack of
formal education, of which he remained painfully conscious all his
life. Borrowing books wherever he could, he studied history and
biography, and he displayed an eager appetite for literature, being
particularly fond of Shakespeare and of the Scottish poet Robert
Burns.
年少发奋
那段日子里,林肯同时打几份工来维持生计。但他从未停止过对于学习的热情,在新塞姆村居位的时光里他一直孜孜不倦,以弥补自己没有接受过正规教育的遗憾。这一遗憾整整伴随了他的一生。无论何时,只要有机会,他就借书来读,钻研历史知识、研读人物传记,还对文学表现出极大的热情,尤其钟爱莎士比亚和苏格兰诗人罗伯特?彭斯。
As a Member of Congress
Before his first year in New Salem was out, he declared himself
a candidate for the state legislature, but failed. When he ran
again at the next election, he won handily, and served four
successive terms. In his second term, in spite of being one of the
youngest legislators, he was chosen as his Whig Party’s floor
leader, an honor that reflected his effectiveness as a speaker, his
energy, and his organizational and leadership abilities.
At about the time of his marriage, Lincoln declined to run for a
fifth term in the state legislature and began angling for election
to the U.S. Congress. When he finally succeeded and took his seat
in the House of Representatives in December 1847, the Mexican War
was coming to a victorious conclusion, and Lincoln lost no time in
joining other Whig members in attacking President James K. Polk for
unconstitutionally① provoking an unjust war for the purpose of
acquiring new territory.
This earned Lincoln considerable criticism back home, where the
war was very popular. Even as Lincoln contradicted his pro-war
Democratic constituents② on a matter of principle, he offended some
of his fellow Whigs with his practicality. So when Lincoln’s
congressional term was over, he was denied as the head of the
General Land Office.
As his brief congressional career ended, Lincoln returned to
Illinois, his political ambitions frustrated. With this greater
attention to his legal profession, Lincoln’s skill and reputation
as a lawyer rose, and his firm gained a prominent position in the
Illinois bar. He was “losing interest in politics,” he said of this
period. But as the slavery issue heated up in the 1850s, Lincoln’s
long-standing affi nity① for political controversy unexpectedly
revived.
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