首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Abraham Lincoln turns 200 this year, and he’s beginning to show his age. When his birthday arrives, on February 12, Congress wil
Abraham Lincoln turns 200 this year, and he’s beginning to show his age. When his birthday arrives, on February 12, Congress wil
admin
2022-06-16
47
问题
Abraham Lincoln turns 200 this year, and he’s beginning to show his age. When his birthday arrives, on February 12, Congress will hold a special joint session in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall, a wreath will be laid at the great memorial in Washington, and a webcast will link school classrooms for a “teach- in” honoring his memory.
Admirable as they are, though, the events will strike many of us Lincoln fans as inadequate, even halfhearted and—another sign that our appreciation for the 16th president and his towering achievements is slipping away. And you don’t have to be a Lincoln enthusiast to believe that this is something we can’t afford to lose.
Compare this year’s celebration with the Lincoln centennial in 1909. That year, Lincoln’s likeness made its debut on the penny, thanks to approval from the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Communities and civic associations in every comer of the county erupted in parades, concerts, balls, lectures and military displays. We still feel the effects today: The momentum unloosed in 1909 led to the Lincoln Memorial, opened in 1922, and the Lincoln Highway, the first paved transcontinental thoroughfare.
The celebrants in 1909 had a few inspirations we lack today. Lincoln’s presidency was still a living memory for countless Americans. In 2009 we are farther in time from the end of the Second World War than they were from the Civil War; families still felt the loss of loved ones from that awful national trauma.
But Americans in 1909 had something more: an unembarrassed appreciation for heroes and an acute sense of the way that even long-dead historical figures press in on the present and make us who we are.
One story will illustrate what I’m talking about.
In 2003 a group of local citizens arranged to place a statue of Lincoln in Richmond, Virginia, former capital of the Confederacy. The idea touched off a firestorm of controversy. The Sons of Confederate Veterans held a public conference of carefully selected scholars to “reassess” the legacy of Lincoln. The verdict—no surprise—was negative: Lincoln was labeled everything from a racist totalitarian to a teller of dirty jokes.
I covered the conference as a reporter, but what really unnerved me was a counter-conference of scholars to refute the earlier one. These scholars drew a picture of Lincoln that only our touchy-feely age could conjure up. The man who oversaw the most savage war in our history was described—by his admirers, remember—as “nonjudgmental,” “unmoralistic,” “comfortable with ambiguity.”
I felt the way a friend of mine felt as we later watched the unveiling of the Richmond statue in a subdued ceremony: “But he’s so small!”
The statue in Richmond was indeed small; like nearly every Lincoln statue put up in the past half century, it was life-size and was placed at ground level, a conscious rejection of the heroic—approachable and human, yes, but not something to look up to.
The Richmond episode taught me that Americans have lost the language to explain Lincoln’s greatness even to ourselves. Earlier generations said they wanted their children to be like Lincoln: principled, kind, compassionate, resolute. Today we want Lincoln to be like us.
This helps to explain the long string of recent books in which writers have presented a Lincoln made after their own image. We’ve had Lincoln as humorist and Lincoln as manic-depressive, Lincoln the business sage, the conservative Lincoln and the liberal Lincoln, the emancipator and the racist, the stoic philosopher, the Christian, the atheist—Lincoln over easy and Lincoln scrambled.
What’s often missing, though, is the timeless Lincoln, the Lincoln whom all generations, our own no less than that of 1909, can lay claim to. Lucky for us, those memorializers from a century ago—and, through them, Lincoln himself—have left us the hint of where to find him. The Lincoln Memorial is the most visited of our presidential monuments. Here is where we find the Lincoln who endures: in the words he left us, defining the country we’ve inherited. Here is the Lincoln who can be endlessly renewed and who, 200 years after his birth, retains the power to renew us.
According the passage what really makes the 1909 celebrations different form this year’s?
选项
A、Structures constructed in memory of Lincoln.
B、Variety and magnitude of celebration activities.
C、Respect for great people and their influence.
D、Temporal proximity to Lincoln’s presidency.
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/XgTO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Hewill______resigninviewofthecompletefailureoftheresearchproject.(2011年四川大学考博试题)
InNovember1987thegovernment______apublicdebateonthefuturedirectionoftheofficialsportspolicy.(2008年四川大学考博试题)
BillGatesandWaltDisneyaretwopeoplethemagazinehas______tobetheGreatestAmerican.(2014年厦门大学考博试题)
Howcanyoubest______inyourstudentsthespeechhabitsoftheEnglishlanguage?
Iaskedhimwheremysisterwas,andhe______thestoreacrossthestreet.
AIDSiscausinggreatpublicconcernbecausethe______fataldiseasehitsprimarilyyoungpeople.(2002年中国人民大学考博试题)
Thepatient’shealthfailedtosuchanextentthathewasputinto______care.
Inhernovelof"Reunion,AmericanStyle",RonaJaffesuggeststhataclassreunion"ismorethanasentimentaljourney.Itis
Planningisaveryimportantactivityinourlivesyetreallysophisticated.Itcangivepleasure,evenexcitement,【C1】______ca
Becauseacirclehasnobeginningorend,theweddingringisasymbolof______love.
随机试题
分部工程的验收应由()来组织。
抗菌药物的作用机制有()。
急性胰腺炎腹痛的特点以下哪一项不符合()
关于CT扫描方式的叙述,错误的是
构件的强度是指()。
2019年3月1日,甲上市公司(以下简称“甲公司”)因面临严重财务困难,公布重大资产重组方案,其部分要点如下:(1)甲公司将所属全部资产(包括负债)作价2.5亿元出售给本公司最大股东A;(2)A将其持有甲公司的35%股份全部协议转让给B
行政行为在主体上、权限上、内容上或者程序上存在缺陷,该行政行为属于()。
A、 B、 C、 D、 A
世界上公认的第一台电子计算机诞生的年代是()。
InancientGreeceathleticfestivalswereveryimportantandhadstrongreligiousassociations.TheOlympianathleticfestival,【
最新回复
(
0
)