VOA慢速英语:Lincoln Struggles to Keep Kentucky, Missouri in the Union

短语讲解：

1. The Confederacy would then become too powerful to fight, he thought.

too...to... 太…以致不能…
例句：It's too early to tell.
现在做判断还为时过早。

2. Lincoln had said that he did not want to interfere with slavery where it already existed.

interfere with 干预;  阻挠
例句：I don't want to interfere with you; proceed with your work. 
我不想打扰你了,你继续工作吧。 

3. Missouri and Kentucky -- along with Delaware, Maryland, and eventually West Virginia – were called border states.

along with 和…一起[一道]，随着
例句：The bill came along with the package. 
单据和包裹一起来的。 

4. "We have towns that divide, cities that divide, communities, families that divide from one another."

divide from 把…分开
例句：She comes to brazil to provoke us, to try and divide us from our brothers.
她来巴西是为了挑唆我们，试图分裂我们这些兄弟国家。