小故事

The Gettysburg Address
葛底斯堡演说
Fourscore 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.
八十年前，我们的先辈在这块大陆上创建了一个新的国家。她孕育于自由之中，奉行人人生而平等的原则。
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，我们正从事于伟大的国内战争，以考验这个国家，或者说，以考验任何孕育于自由，奉行人人生而平等的原则的国家能否长久生存。我们聚集在这场战争中的一个伟大的战场上。我们相聚在这里，是为了把这战场的一部分奉献给那些为这个国家的生存而献身的烈士，作为他们的最后安息之所。我们这样做，是理所当然、恰如其分。
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 us-that from these honoured 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，我们无法奉献、无法圣化、无法神化这块土地。那些曾在这里战斗过的勇士们，活着的和死去的，已经将这块土地神圣化了，这远不是我们微薄的力量所能增减的。全世界不大会注意，也不会长久记住我们今天在这里所讲的话。但是，全世界永远不会忘记这些勇士在这里做过的事。对我们这些活着的人来说，倒是应该把自己奉献于勇士们以崇高的精神向前推进而尚未完成的事业，应该把自己奉献于仍然留在我们面前的伟大任务——那就是从这些可敬的死者身上汲取更多的献身精神，来完成他们为之献出全部忠诚的事业；那就是我们要在这里下定最大的决心，不让烈士们白白牺牲；那就是使我们的国家在上帝的保佑下获得自由的新生，要使我们这个民有、民治、民享的政府永世长存。

重点讲解

重点讲解：
1. engage in
参与；从事；
eg. Faculty who engage in research seem to have more knowledge to pass on to their students.
从事研究工作的教师似乎有更多的学识可以传授给学生。
eg. So we have to be very cautious of you know what kind of activities we engage in.
所以我们对参加哪种集体活动都会谨慎的考虑。
2. be dedicated to sth./doing sth.
奉献给；献身于；致力于；
eg. He was a consultant physician, a serious man dedicated to his calling.
他是个会诊医生，严肃认真，对自己的职业全身心投入。
eg. Health products company dedicated to innovative research and development.
公司致力于健康产品的创新研发。
3. in vain
徒劳；白费力气；
eg. It became obvious that all her complaints were in vain.
很明显她所有的抱怨都是白费口舌。
eg. The thief tried in vain to open the locked door.
小偷试图把锁着的门打开，但枉费心机。