美文欣賞-I Am America

I’m Illinois, the 24th largest state, and the 21st to be admitted to the Union in 1817. There are two sides to me. First, I’m farmland, rolling hills and small country towns. And then, I’m a city, not my capital city of Springfield, though that’s a great place, but the windy city, Chicago, where half my people live. You can always count on having a hot time in Chicago, but one night, in 1871, it got a little too hot. Rumor has it that a fire started in Mrs. O’Leary’s shed when a cow kicked over a lantern, and that fire ended up destroying much of the city. Today we have the three largest buildings in the world, the largest grain exchange in the country, and the world’s busiest airport, O’Hare International. Before I go, I want to tell you about a favorite son of mine, Abraham Lincoln. Abe was a poor farmer’s son, who taught himself to read and write. He studied law and went into politics. He became the sixteenth, and some say one of the greatest presidents this country ever had. I am proud to call myself Illinois, the land of Lincoln.

13 我是美國

我是第二十四大州伊利諾斯，于1817年做為第二十一州加入聯(lián)邦。我有兩種面貌。首先，我有農(nóng)田、迤邐的山嶺和小城鎮(zhèn)。我又是城市--并非首府斯普林菲爾德，盡管那是個好地方--而是居住著我半數(shù)居民的風(fēng)城芝加哥。在芝加哥你總能期冀到炎熱。但是1871年的一天晚上，溫度有些過高了。傳聞?wù)f一場大火起于歐力里夫人家的牛圈里，牛踢倒了一只燈籠?；馂?zāi)摧毀了相當(dāng)部分的芝加哥城。今天，我們擁有世界上的三大建筑，全國最大的谷物交易所，世界上最繁忙的機(jī)場，歐海爾國際大廈。在我離開前，我要給你講講我最疼愛的一個兒子--亞伯拉罕•林肯。亞伯是一個窮農(nóng)夫的兒子，靠自學(xué)學(xué)會讀和寫。他學(xué)習(xí)法律，后進(jìn)入政界。他榮任第十六屆美國總統(tǒng)，有些人說他是本世紀(jì)最偉大的總統(tǒng)之一。我很驕傲地宣稱自己為伊利諾斯州--林肯之鄉(xiāng)。