大学英语精读听力第二册 2_un03

[00:00.00]Unit Three Text
[00:25.08]Jefferson died long ago,
[00:28.84]but many of his ideas are still of great interest to us.
[00:34.12] LESSONS FROM JEFFERSON
[00:37.67]Bruce Bliven
[00:40.72]Thomas Jefferson,the third President of the United States,
[00:46.18]may be less famous than George Washington and Abraham Lincoln,
[00:52.14]but most people remember at least one fact about him:
[00:57.89]he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
[01:02.75]Although Jefferson lived more than 200 years ago,
[01:08.10]there is much that we can learn from him today.
[01:12.86]Many of his ideas are especially interesting to modern youth.
[01:19.41]Here are some of the things he said and wrote:Go and see.
[01:26.18]Jefferson believed that a free man obtains knowledge
[01:31.64]from many sources besides books and that personal investigation is important.
[01:39.29]When still a young man,
[01:42.95]he was appointed to a committee
[01:46.71]to find out whether the South Branch of the James River
[01:52.27]was deep enough to be used by large boats.
[01:57.13]While the other members of the committee sat in the state capitol
[02:03.32] and studied papers on the subject,
[02:07.37]Jefferson got into a canoe and made on-the-spot observations.
[02:14.03]You can learn from everyone.
[02:17.80]By birth and by education Jefferson belonged to the highest social class.
[02:25.03]Yet,in a day when few noble persons ever spoke
[02:30.60]to those of humble origins except to give an order,
[02:36.45]Jefferson went out of his way to talk with gardeners,servants,and waiters.
[02:43.81]Jefferson once said to the French nobleman,Lafayette,
[02:49.27] "You must go into the people's homes as I have done,
[02:54.73]look into their cooking pots and eat their bread.
[02:59.77]If you will only do this,
[03:03.43]you may find out why people are dissatisfied
[03:08.47]and understand the revolution that is threatening France." Judge for yourself.
[03:16.62]Jefferson refused to accept other people's opinions without careful thought.
[03:23.18]"Neither believe nor reject anything,"he wrote to his nephew,
[03:29.42]"because any other person has rejected or believed it.
[03:34.99] Heaven has given you a mind for judging truth and error.Use it.
[03:40.87]" Jefferson felt that the people
[03:46.43]"may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false,
[03:52.31]and to form a correct judgment.
[03:56.15]Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers
[04:03.02]or newspapers without a government,
[04:06.96]I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
[04:12.53]"Do what you believe is right.
[04:16.05]In a free country there will always be conflicting ideas,
[04:21.83]and this is a source of strength.
[04:25.67]It is conflict and not unquestioning agreement that keeps freedom alive.
[04:32.74]Though Jefferson was for many years the object of strong criticism,
[04:39.09]he never answered his critics.
[04:43.04]He expressed his philosophy in letters to a friend,
[04:48.18]"There are two sides to every question.
[04:52.41]If you take one side with decision and act on it with effect,
[04:58.95]those who take the other side will of course resent your actions."
[05:05.21]Trust the future;trust the young.
[05:09.58]Jefferson felt that the present should never be chained
[05:14.85]to customs which have lost their usefulness. "No society," he said,
[05:22.12]"can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law.
[05:29.25]The earth belongs to the living generation.
[05:33.90]"He did not fear new ideas,nor did he fear the future.
[05:40.06]"How much pain,"he remarked,"has been caused by evils which have never happened!
[05:47.14]I expect the best,not the worst.
[05:51.90]I steer my ship with hope,leaving fear behind.
[05:57.64]" Jefferson's courage and idealism were based on knowledge.
[06:03.57]He probably knew more than any other man of his age.
[06:09.16]He was an expert in agriculture,archeology,and medicine.
[06:15.51]He practiced crop rotation
[06:19.27]and soil conservation a century before these became standard practice,