【新闻精讲】

Four score 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.
87年前，我们的先辈们在这个大陆上创立了一个新国家，它孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人生来平等的原则。

Score
1. 20 一组
2. scores 许多：
Scores of people attended the rally.
有许多人参加了示威活动
Bring forth
产生，出生
plants bringing forth fruit.
Conceive
构想出：构想出或持有一种想法：
Ancient peoples conceived of the earth as flat. 古人认为地球是平的
Dedicate 为某一特殊用途而奉献：
dedicated their money to scientific research.把他们的钱用于科学研究
Dedicated 献身的：全心全意地交付给一特定的想法或行动的；一心一意的：
a dedicated musician. 富有献身精神的音乐家
Proposition
1. 任务：要处理的事务；任务：
Finding an affordable apartment will be a difficult proposition.
要找到一间付得起的公寓是件难事
2. 提议
The proposition that democracies do not fight each other is based on a tiny historical sample.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
现在我们正从事一场伟大的内战，以考验这个国家，或者任何一个孕育于自由和奉行上述原则的国家是否能够长久存在下去。

Engage
1. 预订：为使用作安排；保留：==book
engage a room预订房间
2. 赢得，吸引住：
His smile engages everyone he meets. 他的微笑吸引住了每一个他所遇到的人
3. 参加：使加入；使卷入其中：
engage a shy person in conversation。使害羞的人加入了交谈
Endure
1. 持续；持久：
buildings that have endured for centuries.
经受数世纪风雨的建筑
2. 度过，忍受：不顾艰难险阻而忍耐下去；容忍：
endure an Arctic winter.
忍受北极的冬天
3. 容忍：= bear
“We seek the truth, and will endure the consequences”(&b{Charles Seymour})
“我们寻找真理，并将忍受一切后果”(查尔斯•西摩)

We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
我们在这场战争中的一个伟大战场上集会。
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.
烈士们为使这个国家能够生存下去而献出了自己的生命，我们来到这里，是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给他们作为最后安息之所
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
我们这样做是完全应该而且是非常恰当的。

Battle
战争：敌对力量间的冲突，会战：
an important battle in the Pacific campaign.
太平洋战役中的一次重要会战
Resting
安息：死亡的平静：
eternal rest.
长眠
Fitting
1. 合适
A solitary man, it was perhaps fitting that he should have died alone.
2. 配件
He has made fittings for antique cars.
3. 试衣服
She lunched and shopped and went for fittings for clothes she didn't need.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow, this ground.
但是，从更广泛的意义上来说，这块土地我们不能够奉献，不能够圣化，不能够神化。

Sense 意义
He's not the leader in a political sense.
Make sense
有意义，有道理
It doesn't make sense to buy that expensive coat when these cheaper ones are just as good.
这些便宜的大衣也很好,何必非买那件贵的不可.
Consecrate = hallow
神圣

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
我们今天在这里所说的话，全世界不大会注意，也不会长久地记住，但勇士们在这里所做过的事，全世界却永远不会忘记。

Nor
也不是：或不；也不；也不是：
has neither phoned nor written us;
既没打电话也没写信给我们；
在写作表达的时候，我们更喜欢中文习惯是，
忘记我们做的事情一般是
Forget the things !!! 喜欢那些事情
更加地道的表达是
What they do here !!! What they are interesting in

It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work for which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
毋宁说，倒是我们这些还活着的人，应该在这里把自己奉献于勇士们已经如此崇高地向前推进但尚未完成的事业。

Rather
宁可：更愿意地；较合意地：
I'd rather go to the movies.
我宁愿去看电影
Noble
表现出崇高的：来自或表示出这种性质的；表现出高尚的：
“What poor an instrument/May do a noble deed!”(&b{Shakespeare})
“如此差的器具/可能做出高尚的事”(莎士比亚)

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 that 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.
倒是我们应该在这里把自己奉献于仍然留在我们面前的伟大任务——我们要从这些光荣的死者身上汲取更多的献身精神，来完成他们已经完全彻底为之献身的事业；我们要在这里下定最大的决心，不让这些死者白白牺牲；我们要使国家在上帝福佑下得到自由的新生，要使这个民有、民治、民享的政府永世长存。

Honor 给予…荣誉：
He has honored us with his presence.
他的到来是我们的光荣
Measure
范围，程度：
The problem was in large measure caused by his carelessness.
这个问题在很大程度上是由他的粗心造成的
Devotion
1. 献身
2. 祈祷文或宗教课本：
a book of devotions. 祈祷书
Resolve
1. 解决
We must find a way to resolve these problems before it's too late
2. 下定决心
She resolved to report the matter to the hospital's nursing manager.
In Vain(没有结果)
徒劳：毫无收益的；未成功：
Our labor was in vain.
我们的劳动是白费力气
Perish
1. 丧生：死或被害，尤指在暴力下或以突然的方式：
“Must then a Christ perish in torment in every age to save those who have no imagination?”(&b{George Bernard Shaw})
“那基督必须每年为拯救那些缺乏想象力的人们而受一次死亡的折磨吗?”(乔治•萧伯纳)
2. 消亡：消失；渐渐消失：
“Man will go down into the pit, and all his thoughts will perish”(&b{A.J. Balfour})
“人最终会入土，他所有的思想也将随之而消亡”(A.J.贝尔福)