雅思閱讀精選：奧巴馬第二任期就職演講稿全文
雅思全新推出每日雅思閱讀精選欄目，我們將為大家精心挑選國外網站上的優秀文章供考生們進行閱讀練習，幫助大家提高雅思閱讀水平，每天讀幾篇文章，每天有一點提高，相信不久之后，雅思閱讀考試將不再是困擾考生們的難題。
推薦閱讀方法：首先快速閱讀全文，掌握文章大意，提高閱讀速度;再進行精讀訓練，學習其中的詞匯和語言的用法。
2023年1月24日雅思閱讀精選：
From：TIME,Jan. 22, 2023
Obamas Inaugural Speech
MR. OBAMA: Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:
Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional what makes us American is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth. The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a Republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed.
For more than two hundred years, we have.
Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.
Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce; schools and colleges to train our workers。
Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play.
Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from lifes worst hazards and misfortune.
Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all societys ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, these are constants in our character.
But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. For the American people can no more meet the demands of todays world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias. No single person can train all the math and science teachers well need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.
This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. Americas possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it so long as we seize it together.
【相關視頻：奧巴馬第二任期就職演講】
For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. We believe that Americas prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.
We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher. But while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American. That is what this moment requires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed.
We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future. For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. Thats what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.
We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully not because we are nave about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear. America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation. We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.
We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths that all of us are created equal is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.
It is now our generations task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.
That is our generations task to make these words, these rights, these values of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time but it does require us to act in our time.
For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that todays victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.
My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or faction and we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service. But the words I spoke today are not so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier signs up for duty, or an immigrant realizes her dream. My oath is not so different from the pledge we all make to the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with pride.
They are the words of citizens, and they represent our greatest hope.
You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this countrys course.
You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.
Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.
Thank you, God Bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.
美國總統奧巴馬于當地時間1月21日在國會山發表其第二任期就職演講。奧巴馬在演講中追溯美國民主傳統和憲法精神，通過闡述就業、醫保、移民、財政、同性戀及氣候變化威脅等多項議題與現實有力契合。奧巴馬強調，偉大國家的塑造必須依賴每個美國人的力量，而非少數人的成功，并強調國家團結的重要性。奧巴馬提及這代美國人從建國之父那里繼承的精神還沒有完成實踐，現在的美國人需要繼續努力，實現生存、自由與追求幸福的權利。以下為奧巴馬就職演說全文：
謝謝，非常感謝大家。拜登副總統、首席大法官先生、國會議員們、尊敬的各位嘉賓、親愛的公民們。
每一次我們集會慶祝總統就職都是在見證美國憲法的持久力量。我們都是在肯定美國民主的承諾。我們重申，將這個國家緊密聯系在一起的不是我們的膚色，也不是我們信仰的教條，更不是我們名字的來源。讓我們與眾不同，讓我們成為美國人的是我們對于一種理念的恪守。200多年前，這一理念在一篇宣言中被清晰闡述：
我們認為下述真理是不言而喻的，人人生而平等。造物主賦予他們若干不可剝奪的權利，包括生存、自由和追求幸福的權利。
今天，我們繼續著這一未竟的征程，架起這些理念與我們時代現實之間的橋梁。因為歷史告訴我們，即便這些真理是不言而喻的，它們也從來不會自動生效。因為雖然自由是上帝賦予的禮物，但仍需要世間的子民去捍衛。1776年，美國的愛國先驅們不是只為了推翻國王的暴政而戰，也不是為贏得少數人的特權，建立暴民的統治。先驅們留給我們一個共和國，一個民有、民治、民享的政府。他們委托每一代美國人捍衛我們的建國信條。
在過去的200多年里，我們做到了。
從奴役的血腥枷鎖和刀劍的血光廝殺中我們懂得了，建立在自由與平等原則之上的聯邦不能永遠維持半奴隸和半自由的狀態。我們贏得了新生，誓言共同前進。
我們共同努力，建立起現代的經濟體系。架設鐵路與高速公路，加速了旅行和商業交流。建立學校與大學，培訓我們的工人。
我們一起發現，自由市場的繁榮只能建立在保障競爭與公平競爭的原則之上。
我們共同決定讓這個偉大的國家遠離危險，保護她的人民不受生命威脅和不幸的侵擾。一路走來，我們從未放棄對集權的質疑。我們同樣不屈服于這一謊言：一切的社會弊端都能夠只靠政府來解決。我們對積極向上與奮發進取的贊揚，我們對努力工作與個人責任的堅持，這些都是美國精神的基本要義。
我們也理解，時代在變化，我們同樣需要變革。對建國精神的忠誠，需要我們肩負起新的責任，迎接新的挑戰。保護我們的個人自由，最終需要所有人的共同努力。因為美國人不能再獨力迎接當今世界的挑戰，正如美國士兵們不能再像先輩一樣，用步槍和民兵同敵人作戰。一個人無法培訓所有的數學與科學老師，我們需要他們為了未來去教育孩子們。一個人無法建設道路、鋪設網絡、建立實驗室來為國內帶來新的工作崗位和商業機會。現在，與以往任何時候相比，我們都更需要團結合作。作為一個國家，一個民族團結起來。
這一代美國人經歷了危機的考驗，經濟危機堅定了我們的決心，證明了我們的恢復力。長達十年的戰爭正在結束，經濟的復蘇已經開始。美國的可能性是無限的，因為我們擁有當今沒有邊界的世界所需要的所有品質：年輕與活力、多樣性與開放、無窮的冒險精神以及創造的天賦才能。我親愛的同胞們，我們正是為此刻而生，我們更要在此刻團結一致，抓住當下的機會。
因為我們，美國人民，清楚如果只有不斷萎縮的少數人群體獲得成功，而大多數人不能成功，我們的國家就無法成功。我們相信，美國的繁榮必須建立在不斷上升的中產階級的寬闊臂膀之上，我們知道美國的繁榮只有這樣才能實現。只有當每個人都能找到工作中的自立與自豪時才能實現。只有當誠實勞動獲得的薪水足夠讓家庭擺脫困苦的懸崖時才能實現。我們忠誠于我們的事業，保證讓一個出生于最貧窮環境中的小女孩都能知道，她有同其他所有人一樣的成功機會。因為她是一個美國人，她是自由的、平等的。她的自由平等不僅由上帝來見證，更由我們親手保護。
