陳蕙雅思教材 - 雅思閱讀精選 (The Historical Significance of  American Revolution)

The  Historical  Significance  of AmericanRevolution

The ways of history areso intricate and the motivations of human actions

so complex that it isalways hazardous to attempt to represent events

covering a number ofyears, a multiplicity of persons, and distant

localities as the        expression of one intellectual or socialmovement; yet

the historical processwhich culminated in the ascent of          ThomasJefferson

to the presidency can beregarded as the outstanding example not only of

the birth of a new way oflife but of nationalism as a new way of life. The

American Revolutionrepresents the link  between  the seventeenth century,

in which modern Englandbecame conscious of itself, and the awakening of  

modern Europe at the endof the   eighteenth century. It may seemstrange

that the march of historyshould have had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but  

only in the NorthAmerican colonies could a struggle for civic liberty lead

also to the foundation ofa new nation.

Here, in the popularrising against a "tyrannical" government, the fruits

were more than thesecuring of a freer    constitution. Theyincluded the

growth of a nation bornin liberty by the will of the people, not from the

roots of common descent,a geographic entity, or the ambitions of king or

dynasty. With theAmerican nation, for the first time, anation was born,

not in the dim past ofhistory but before the eyes of the whole world.

美國革命的歷史意義 歷史的進程是如此錯綜複雜，人類行為的動機是如此令人費解，以至於想把那些時間跨

度大，涉及人數多，空間範圍廣的事件描述成為一個智者或一場社會運動的表現的企圖是危 險的。  

然而以湯瑪斯·傑弗遜登上總統寶座為高潮的那一段歷史過程可以被視為一個特殊 的例子。  

在這段歷史時期裡不僅誕生了新的生活方式，而且民族主義成為了一種新的生活 方式。  美國獨立戰爭成為聯結 17 世紀現代英格蘭的自我意識和 18

世紀末現代歐洲的覺醒 的紐帶。  歷史的行程需要跨越大西洋，這看起來似乎有些奇怪，但卻只有在北美殖民地為 民權和自由的鬥爭才能導致新國家的建立。  

這裡，反對"暴政"的民眾起義的成果不僅是獲 得一個包含更多自由的憲法，還包括了一個依照人民的意願誕生在自由中的國家的成長。這

個國家不是基於血緣、地理、君主或王朝的野心。  由於有了美國，第一次一個國家的誕生

不是發生在歷史模糊的過去，而是在全世界人們的眼前。