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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
The ways of history are so intricate and the motivations of human actions so complex that it is always hazardous1 to attempt to represent events covering a number of years, a multiplicity of persons, and distant localities as the expression of one intellectual or social movement; yet the historical process which culminated2 in the ascent3 of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency4 can be regarded as the outstanding example not only of the birth of a new way of life but of nationalism as a new way of life. The American Revolution represents the link between the seventeenth century, in which modern England became conscious of itself, and the awakening5 of modern Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. It may seem strange that the march of history should have had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but only in the North American colonies could a struggle for civic6 liberty lead also to the foundation of a new nation. Here, in the popular rising against a “tyrannical” government, the fruits were more than the securing of a freer constitution. They included the growth of a nation born in liberty by the will of the people, not from the roots of common descent, a geographic7 entity8, or the ambitions of king or dynasty. With the American nation, for the first time, a nation was born, not in the dim past of history but before the eyes of the whole world.
1 hazardous | |
adj.(有)危险的,冒险的;碰运气的 | |
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2 culminated | |
v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3 ascent | |
n.(声望或地位)提高;上升,升高;登高 | |
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4 presidency | |
n.总统(校长,总经理)的职位(任期) | |
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5 awakening | |
n.觉醒,醒悟 adj.觉醒中的;唤醒的 | |
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6 civic | |
adj.城市的,都市的,市民的,公民的 | |
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7 geographic | |
adj.地理学的,地理的 | |
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8 entity | |
n.实体,独立存在体,实际存在物 | |
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