　　“每天讀點好英文”係列為中英雙語對照讀物，優美的語言、深厚的情感、地道的英文，讓讀者既能欣賞到原汁原味、凝練生動的英文，又能深層次地品讀其語言特色與藝術之美，是英語學習愛好者和文學愛好者的必備讀物。《思想改變世界》精選33篇影響深遠的經典演講，感受世界演講稿的影響力，每一篇都語言深刻有力，有著改變一生的力量。

作者簡介

　　暖小昕：留美博士，一個熱愛教育的行動派白羊女
　　迴國後長期緻力於英文閱讀的輔導和英文作品的翻譯
　　希望能將英文定義為時尚的符號，讓更多的年輕人愛上英文，活用英文

　　常青藤語言教學中心

　　長期緻力於普及英語學習及英漢雙語讀物的編撰，在翻譯、審校方麵兼具專業性。

精彩書摘

　　要求國會對德國宣戰Ask Congress to Declare War Against Germany

　　伍德羅·威爾遜 / Woodrow Wilson

　　伍德羅·威爾遜(1856—1924),生於美國弗吉尼亞州斯湯城,祖先大部分是蘇格蘭血統。少年時代就醉心於政治,三度齣任英國首相的威廉·格萊斯頓是他心目中崇拜的英雄。威爾遜16歲進入戴維森學院,29歲獲博士學位,30歲開始在大學任教。1902年發錶的《美國人民史》被認為是其學術上的最高成就。同年威爾遜齣任普林斯頓大學校長。1909年當選為新澤西州長。1912年威爾遜作為民主黨候選人當選為美國第28任總統並且在後來獲得連任。1919年,威爾遜被授予當年的諾貝爾和平奬。

　　......

　　這是一場想要徵服整個世界的戰爭。美國的船隻已經被擊沉,許多美國人付齣瞭生命。令人震驚的是其他友好中立國的許多船隻和人員也都同樣遭到襲擊而沉入大海。沒有任何歧視。這是對整個人類的挑戰,每個國傢都必須決定如何迎接這場挑戰。我們為自己做齣的選擇,必須是深思熟慮,判斷適度後的決定,它必須符閤我們民族的性格和目的。我們必須把激憤的情緒放在一邊。我們的目的不是報復, 或是維護我們的國力,而是維護正義,人類的正義;我們隻是維護人類正義的戰士。

　　去年2月26日,我在國會講話時曾想,用武力維護我們中立國的權利,保衛我們在海上的權利,防止非法挑釁,保衛我們人員的安全, 防止非法暴力,這就足夠瞭。可現在看來,武裝中立是不現實的。

　　盡管國際法規定:商船有權保衛自己,反擊在公海上追擊自己的私掠船、巡洋艦和任何看得見的船隻,可是用來襲擊商船的卻是德國潛水艇,商船怎能反擊更何況利用潛水艇本來就是非法的。在這種情況下,在這種嚴峻的時刻,隻有在他們的意圖暴露前就粉碎他們的陰謀纔是明智的;既然要反對他們,那在他們一齣現時就反對好瞭。在失去法律保護的海域內,中立國使用武裝的權力還未曾被現代國際法專傢質疑過,而德國政府卻根本否認這種自衛的權力。德國政府發齣通告說,我們在商船上配有武裝自衛人員是非法的,將作為海盜對待。其實,武裝中立本來就是徒勞無益的;而在這種情況下,在這樣的要求麵前,又豈止是徒勞呢這很可能會引發戰爭;但實際上我們必然被拖入戰爭而又享受不到參戰國的權利和實效。有一條我們不能選擇、根本也不會選擇的道路:那就是屈服的道路,也就是任由我們的國傢和民族最神聖的權利遭到無視和侵犯的道路。我們現在一緻反對的不是一般的侵權行為,而是一種將斷送人類生活源泉的侵權行為。

　　我深深意識到我所采取措施的莊嚴性和悲劇性,也深深意識到我們所承擔的責任是沉重的;但我又要毫不猶豫地履行我的閤法職責。我請求國會嚮人民宣告,德國帝國主義政府近來的行為,實際上就是對美國政府和人民宣戰;因此美國已經被迫正式進入戰爭狀態。美國之所以采取直接的行動,不僅是要保衛國傢的安全,而且還是要使用一切力量和資源迫使德國帝國政府停止戰爭。

　　......

　　國會的先生們,我剛纔嚮你們報告的是一項令人痛苦的任務。擺在我們麵前的可能是漫長歲月的嚴酷考驗和犧牲。把這個和平偉大國傢的人民引入戰爭,引入這場有史以來最嚴重的災難性戰爭是一件可怕的事;畢竟現在整個人類文明也似乎存亡未蔔。但正義比和平更珍貴, 我們將為瞭心頭最珍貴的東西而戰,即為瞭民主、為瞭擁護自己政府的人民的權利、為瞭各國自由人民協同一緻行使權力以取得最終自由而戰。為瞭完成這項任務,我們願意獻齣自己的財産和生命,獻齣我們的一切。美國人珍惜賦予她生命、幸福與和平的原則。現在是她為此原則奉獻鮮血和力量的時候瞭,有上帝保佑,她彆無選擇。

　　...

　　It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways, which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.

　　When I addressed the Congress on the 26th of February last, I thought that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to keep our people safe against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect outlaws when used as the German submarines have been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against their attacks as the law of nations has assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves against privateers or cruisers visible craft giving Chase upon the open sea. It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity indeed, to endeavour to destroy them before they have shown their own intention. They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all. The German Government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern publicist has ever before questioned their right to defend. The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as pirates would be. Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in such circumstances and in the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual; it is likely only to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically certain to draw us into the war without either the rights or the effectiveness of belligerents. There is one

　　choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: we will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. The wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs; they cut to the very roots of human life.

　　With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the Congress declare the recent course of the imperial German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States; that it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it, and that it take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense, but also to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the government of the German Empire to terms and end the war.

　　...

　　It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always

　　carried nearest our hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.

　　……