Passges for Recitation.doc

Poems1. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers Emily DickinsonBiographyDickinson, Emily Elizabeth (1830-1886), Americas best-known female poet and one of the foremost authors in American literature. Dickinsons simply constructed yet intensely felt, acutely intellectual writings take as their subject issues vital to humanity: the agonies and ecstasies of love, sexuality, the unfathomable nature of death, the horrors of war, God and religious belief, the importance of humor, and musings on the significance of literature, music, and art.Hope is the thing with feathers希望长着羽毛That perches in the soul, 栖在灵魂里，And sings the tune without the words, 唱着无词的乐曲，And never stops at all. 从来不停息。And sweetest in the gale is heard; 风越大声越甜；And sore must be the storm寻常的风暴That could abash the little bird 休想嚇倒这双That kept so many warm. 温暖众生的小鸟。Ive heard it in the chillest land, 我曾听她在最寒帶,And on the strangest sea; 最陌生的海上；Yet, never, in extremity, 却从不因为潦倒,It asked a crumb of me. 向我乞讨丝毫。2. Sonnet 18William Shakespeare BiographyShakespeare, William (1564-1616), English playwright and poet, is recognized in most of the world as the greatest of all dramatists. Shakespeares plays communicate a profound knowledge of the wellsprings of human behavior, revealed through portrayals of a wide variety of characters. He left behind a multitude of masterpieces, including 37 plays and 156 sonnets. Many of his plays are still performed and frequently adapted to movies.Shall I compare thee1 thee: old use or poetic objective case of thou to a summers day? 能否把你比作夏日的璀璨？Thou art2 Thou art: old use you are more lovely and more temperate: 你却比炎夏更可爱温存；Rough winds do shake3 shake: shake off the darling buds of May, 狂风摧残五月花蕊娇妍，And summers lease4 lease: allotted time hath all too short a date5 date: duration. 夏天匆匆离去毫不停顿。Sometime6 Sometime: sometimes too hot the eye of heaven7 the eye of heaven: i.e. the sun shines, 苍天明眸有时过于灼热，And often is his gold complexion dimmed; 金色脸容往往蒙上阴翳；And every fair from fair8 fair from fair: beautiful thing from beauty sometime declines, 一切优美形象不免褪色，By chance9 By chance: by fortune, good or ill, or natures changing course10 course: order or process untrimed11 untrimmed: stripped of its beauty: 偶然摧残或自然地老去。But thy12 thy: possessive case of thou eternal summer shall not fade, 而你如仲夏繁茂不凋谢，Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst13 fair thou owst: beauty you own; 秀雅风姿将永远翩翩；Nor shall death brag14 brag: brag that thou wanderst in his shade, 死神无法逼你气息奄奄，When in eternal lines15 eternal lines: lines of immortal verse to time thou growst16 to time thou growst: you grow as long as time lasts, 你将永生于不朽诗篇。So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 只要人能呼吸眼不盲，So long lives this17 this: i.e. my poetry, and this gives life18 life: immortality to thee. 这诗和你将千秋流芳。（孙梁 译）3. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningBy Robert FrostBiographyFrost, Robert (1874-1963), a homespun American poet, whose poetry is set amid the natural beauty of rural New England and conveys a wide range of emotions in a concise and direct manner. Frost won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry four times (1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943) and became known across the country when he recited his poem “The Gift Outright” at President John F. Kennedys inauguration in January 1961. Frosts poems are easy to read but one has to read beyond the lines to understand their underlying meanings.Whose woods these are I think I know. 林主曾相识,His house is in the village though; 村中有其舍,He will not see me stopping here 未悉我在此,To watch his woods fill up with snow. 凝视林中雪。My little horse must think it queer 小马颇多疑,To stop without a farmhouse near 荒野何伫立?Between the woods and frozen lake 林边冻湖间,The darkest evening of the year. 岁末黑夜里。He gives his harness bells a shake 小马摇缰铃，To ask if there is some mistake. 似问有误否，The only other sounds the sweep 唯闻飒飒声，Of easy wind and downy flake. 寒风共雪舞。The woods are lovely, dark and deep. 密林景色美，But I have promises to keep, 信誓不可移,And miles to go before I sleep, 安眠不可得，And miles to go before I sleep. 尚须行数里。 （关山 译）Speeches1. As You Like It (Act II, Scene vii)William ShakespeareBackgroundThe following is a famous monologue from the Bards comedy masterpiece, As You Like It, in which through the mouth of a melancholy youth, Jaques, a humorous and ironic account is given of the different stages of a mans life. JAQUES All the worlds a stage, 杰奎斯 大千世界是个舞台，And all the men and women merely players; 所有男男女女不外是戏子；They have their exits and their entrances; 各有登场和退场，And one man in his time plays many parts, 一生扮演着那么些角色，His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, 七样年龄分七幕。首先是婴儿，Mewling and puking mewling and puking: archaic crying and giving off bad smell in the nurses arms; 在奶妈怀中啼哭着、呕吐着。Then the whining whining: making a complaining, miserable noise school-boy, with his satchel 接着是狼嚎着的小学生，背者书包，And shining morning face, creeping like snail creeping like snail: moving slowly like a snail 挂着洁亮晨光的面孔，象蜗牛般Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, 勉强爬行上学。跟着是情人，Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad furnace: enclosed fireplace for heating metals woeful: poet sad 息得象熔炉，专为情妇的Made to his mistress eyebrow. Then a soldier, 娥眉作悲歌。随后是士兵，Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard oaths: swear words, rude words beard like pard: with a beard like a leopard, 胡子象豹的，满是新奇的骂人话，Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, 吵架时鲁莽冲动，却热衷荣誉，Seeking the bubble reputation 追求那泡沫的名声Even in the cannons mouth. And then the justice justice: judge , 连火炮口也不怕。然后是法官，In fair round belly with good capon lined1 belly: coll stomach. capon: male chicken fattened for eating, 那好圆的肚子用上等的阉鸡填满，With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, 眼色严峻，胡须正经，Full of wise saws and modern instances2 saws: archaic sayings or proverbs. instances: examples ; 多的是智慧的格言、日常的事例 And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts 演着自己。第六样年龄Into the lean and slippered pantaloon3 lean: thin slippered: with slippers on. pantaloon: archaic trousers, 化作瘦削的、穿便鞋的傻老头，With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, 鼻子戴眼镜，身边挂钱袋；His youthful hose4 hose: a kind of trousers, well saved, a world too wide 年的裤，好好的储存了，已太宽松，For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice5 This line and the line above means: The trousers which were saved from when he was young are now much too big for his body, which has shrank. , 合收缩了的小腿；雄壮的嗓子Turning again toward childish treble, pipes 转向小孩的高音，听来And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, 象打呼哨。最后的一场戏 That ends this strange eventful history, 结束这变化莫测的戏剧的一场 Is second childishness and mere oblivion6 oblivion: forgetfulness; 是再来的幼稚、全然的健忘，Sans teeth, sans7 sans: French without eyes, sans taste, sans every thing. 没牙齿、没眼力、没口味、没一切。 2. Address at Gettysburg By Abraham LincolnNovember 19, 1863BackgroundAbraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was President of the United States during the Civil War. Though Lincoln wrote a number of well-known speeches during the course of his long political career, the address at Gettysburg is perhaps the most widely quoted of them all. It was delivered soon after a decisive battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. At first, it was not given much attention, overshadowed on the same occasion by Edward Everett, a popular orator at the time, who had made a long and polished speech. But as it turned out, Lincolns speech after its publication has been considered one of the best in oratory history and there has hardly been any child of school age in the United States who has not had studied and memorized it. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 87年前，我们的先辈们在这个大陆上创立了一个新国家，它孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人生来平等的原则。Now we are engaged in a great civil war; testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 现在我们正从事一场伟大的内战，以考验这个国家，或者任何一个孕育于自由和奉行上述原则的国家是否能够长久存在下去。我们在这场战争中的一个伟大战场上集会。烈士们为使这个国家能够生存下去而献出了自己的生命， 我们来到这里，是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给他们作为最后安息之所。我们这样做是完全应该而且是非常恰当的。But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before usthat from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 但是，从更广泛的意义上来说，这块土地我们不能够奉献，不能够圣化，不能够神化。那些曾在这里战斗过的勇士们，活着的和去世的，已经把这块土地圣化了，这远不是我们微薄的力量所能增减的。我们今天在这里所说的话，全世界不大会注意，也不会长久地记住，但勇士们在这里所做过的事，全世界却永远不会忘记。毋宁说，倒是我们这些还活着的人，应该在这里把自己奉献于勇士们已经如此崇高地向前推进但尚未完成的事业。倒是我们应该在这里把自己奉献于仍然留在我们面前的伟大任务 我们要从这些光荣的死者身上汲取更多的献身精神，来完成他们已经完全彻底为之献身的事业；我们要在这里下定最大的决心，不让这些死者白白牺牲；我们要使国家在上帝福佑下得到自由的新生，要使这个民有、民治、民享的政府永世长存。 3. The Tribute Earl SpencerBackgroundDiana, Princess of Wales, died of injuries in an automobile accident in Paris, France, on August 31, 1997, aged 36, an event that shocked and saddened the world. Dianas funeral was held on September 6 in Westminster Abbey. At the service, Earl Spencer, Dianas brother, in his eulogy, praised her for her charitable works, criticized the press, and said goodbye to his sister, “the unique, the complex, the extraordinary, and irreplaceable Diana.” This is a speech loaded with strong emotions of sadness, indignatin and dedication. I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in shock. We are all united, not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana, but rather in our need to do so. For such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions of people taking part in this service all over the world via television and radio who never actually met her, feel that they, too, lost someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday morning. It is a more remarkable tribute to Diana than I can ever hope to offer her today.Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity.A standard bearer1.a standard bearer: 倡导者, 领导者, 旗手 for the rights of the truly downtrodden2.the downtrodden: 被践踏、被压迫的人们, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.Today is our chance to say thank you for the way you brightened our lives, even though God granted you but half a life. We will all feel cheated always that you were taken from us so young, and yet we must learn to be grateful that you came along at all. Only now you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are now without and we want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult. We have all despaired at our loss over the past week and only the strength of the message you gave us through your years of giving has afforded us the strength to move forward.There is a temptation to rush to canonise your memory, there is no need to do so. You stand tall enough as a human being of unique qualities not need to be seen as a saint. Indeed, to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the very core of your being, your wonderfully mischievous sense of humour with a laugh that bent you double1 a laugh that bent you double: 让你笑得前仰后合 . Your joy for life, transmitted wherever you took your smile, and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes. Your boundless energy, which you could barely contain. But your greatest gift was your intuition and it was a gift you used wisely. This is what underpinned all your other wonderful attributes2 This is what underpinned all your other wonderful attributes 这是你其他优秀品质的基础 and if we look to analyse what it was about you that had such a wide appeal we find it in your instinctive feel for what was really important in all our lives.Without your God-given sensitivity we would be immersed in greater ignorance at the anguish of Aids and HIV sufferers, the plight of the homeless, the isolation of lepers, the random destruction of landmines. Diana explained to me once that it was her innermost feelings of suffering that made it possible for her to connect with her constituency of the rejected. And here we come to another truth about her. For all the status, the glamour, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for others so she could release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating disorders were merely a symptom3 release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating disorders were merely a symptom 使自己从深深的自卑感中解脱出来，而她饮食方面的紊乱正是这种自卑感的表现. The world sensed this part of her character and cherished her for her vulnerability whilst admiring her for her honesty.Last time 1 saw Diana was on July 1, her birthday, in London, when typically she was not taking time to celebrate her special day with friends but was guest of honour at a fundraising charity evening. She sparkled, of course, but I would rather cherish the days I spent with her in March when she came to visit me and my children in our home in South Africa. I am proud of the fact apart from when she was on public display meeting President Mandela we managed to contrive to stop the ever-present paparazzi4 paparazzi （靠收集名人消息并向媒体出售牟利的）狗崽队 from getting a single picture of her - that meant a lot to her.These were days I will always treasure. It was as if we had been transported back to our childhood when we spent such an enormous amount of time together the two youngest in the family. Fundamentally, she had not changed at all from the big sister who mothered me as a baby, fought with me at school and endured those long train journeys between our parents homes with me at weekends. It is a tribute to her level-headedness and strength that despite the most bizarre life imaginable after her childhood, she remained intact, true to herself.There is no doubt that she was looking for a new direction in her life at this time. She talked endlessly of getting away from England, mainly because of the treatment that she received at the hands of the newspapers. I dont think she ever understood why her genuinely good intentions were sneered at by the media, why there appeared to be a permanent quest on their behalf to bring her down. It is baffling. My own and only explanation is that genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum1 genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum 真正的善意对站在道德立场对立面的那些人构成了威胁. It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was2注:Diana 黛安娜, 古罗马神话中处女性守护神, 狩猎女神和月亮女神, 相当于希腊神话中的Artemis, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age.She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved boys William and Harry from a similar fate and I do this here Diana on your behalf. We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair. And beyond that, on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative and loving way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.We fully respect the heritage into which they have both been born and will always respect and encourage them in their royal role but we, like you, recognise the need for them to experience as many different aspects of life as possible to arm them spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead. I know you would have expected nothing less from us. William and Harry, we all care desperately for you today. We are all chewed up with the sadness at the loss of a woman who was not even our mother. How great your suffering is, we cannot even imagine.I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown us at this dreadful time, for taking Diana at her most beautiful and radiant and when she had joy in her private life. Above all we give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud to be able to call my sister, the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds.4. A Speech in Xian By U.S. President Bill ClintonJune 25, 1998BackgroundThis is the speech that former American President Bill Clinton made at the welcome ceremony in Xian, the first leg of his 1998 China trip.Mayor Fang, Governor Cheng, Secretary Li:Ni Men Hao! Thank you for the key to your city and for this magnificent welcome. Here in this ancient capital, China seems very young to me tonight, blessed with both a proud history and promise of tomorrow1 blessed wit