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.

   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.

   But in a large 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 honored dead we take increased devotion to the 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.

生词和词组

Gettysburg 葛底斯堡（美国地名）

address   n. 演说，讲话

fourscore   n. & adj. 八十；八十的

conceive   v. 创立；产生

dedicate   v. 奉献；献身

proposition   n. 理念；提议；主旨

engaged in   从事

endure   v. 持续；持久

battlefield   n. 战场

portion   n. 一部分；一份

altogether   adv. 完全，全然

consecrate   v. 奉献；献祭

hallow   v. 使成神圣；把视为……神圣

detract   v. 减损；贬低

nobly   adv. 高尚地；壮丽地

advance   v. 推进；促进

devotion   n. 献身；忠诚

resolve   v. 决心，决意

作者亚伯拉罕•林肯（Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865），美国第16任总统。

葛底斯堡演说

    87年前，我们的先辈在这块大陆上建立起一个崭新的国家。它孕育于自由之中，信奉人人生来平等的理念。

    现在，我们正在进行一场伟大的国内战争。这场战争将考验我们这个国家以及任何一个孕育于自由、信奉平等理念的国家是否能够长久存在。今天我们在这场战争的一个伟大战场集会。我们来到这里，将这个战场的一部分土地奉献给在此为国家生存而献出生命的人们，作为他们永久安息之所。我们这样做，是完全恰当，也是合乎情理的。

   然而，就更深一层意义而言，我们不能奉献这片土地，我们不能圣化这片土地，不能神化这片土地。在这里战斗过的勇士们，无论他们是活着或已死去，已经使这片土地变得如此神圣，我们微薄的力量对此远不能有所增减。世人将不会注意、也不会长久地记住我们在这里所说的话，但世人永远不会忘记他们在这里所做的一切。更重要的是，我们仍然活着的人应该献生于在此战斗过的人们英勇地推进但尚未完成的事业。为了这个事业，他们作出了最后的、彻底的奉献；这些令人崇敬的死者应当激励我们奉献更多的忠诚，更加努力地致力于依然摆在我们面前的伟大任务。我们在此立誓：我们决不能让烈士们的鲜血白白流淌；在上帝的庇佑下，我们一定要使我们的国家获得自由的新生；我们一定要让我们这个民有、民治、民享的政府永世长存！