【80年代英语精读课文】The_Fifth_Freedom_by_Seymour_St._John.ppt

Beginning with the earliest pioneers, Americans have always highly valued their freedoms, and fought hard to protect them. And yet, the author points out that there is a basic freedom which Americans are in danger of losing.　　What is this endangered freedom? For what reasons could freedom-loving Americans possibly let this freedom slip away? And what-steps can they take to protect it ---- their fifth freedom? 第五种自由 by Seymour St.John 西摩·圣约翰 More than three centuries ago a handful of pioneers crossed the ocean to Jamestown and Plymouth in search of freedoms they were unable to find in their own countries, the freedoms we still cherish today: freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of speech, freedom of religion. 一小群早期拓荒者为了寻找在他们自己的祖国已不存在的自由，在三百多年前远涉重洋，来到詹姆斯敦和普列茅斯。这自由我们今天仍然格外珍惜。它们是：脱离贫穷，消除恐惧、言论以及宗教信仰的自由。 Today the descendants of the early settlers, and those who have joined them since, are fighting to protect these freedoms at home and throughout the world. 如今这些拓荒者的后代以及后来加入其行列的新老移民仍然在美国本土和世界各地为这些自由而奋斗着。 And yet there is a fifth freedom--basic to those four--that we are in danger of losing: 与此同时还存在着第五种自由，也是上述四种自由之基石，我们有丢失它的危险。 the freedom to be ones best. 它是达到个人成就顶峰的自由。 St. Exupery describes a ragged, sensitive-faced arab child, haunting the streets of a North African town, as a lost Mozart: he would never be trained or developed. 在法国作家圣·埃克休帕里的作品里，一个破衣烂衫却长得聪明伶俐的阿拉伯少年，经常闲逛于北非某城市，被描写成一个被埋没的莫扎特，他不可能受到训练或培养。 Was he free? No one grasped you by the shoulder while there was still time; and nought will awaken in you the sleeping poet or musician or astronomer that possiby inhabited you from the beginning. 这个孩子有自由吗？“在还来得及的时候却得为到培养。你也许很可能有着与生俱来的成为诗人、音乐家或天文学家的潜能，但却不可能被唤醒了。 The freedom to be ones best is the chance for the development of each person to his highest power. 完善自我的自由是一种让每个人把自己的能力发展到最高水平的机会。 How is it that we in America have begun to lose this freedom, and how can we regain it for our nations youth? 在美国我们为什么会开始失去这一自由呢？如何为我国的青年人重新获得这一自由呢？ I believe it has started