《2015年高中英语 世界名人演讲词 45 Ronald Reagan素材》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《2015年高中英语 世界名人演讲词 45 Ronald Reagan素材（4页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、四十五、Ronald ReaganRemarks on the 40th Anniversary of D-DayWere here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, mil
2、lions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue. Here, in Normandy, the rescue began. Here, the Allies stood and fought against tyranny, in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France.
3、 The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, two hundred and twenty-five Rangers jumped off the British landing cr
4、aft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here, and they would be trained on the beach
5、es to stop the Allied advance.The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers at the edge of the cliffs, shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When
6、 one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they b
7、egan to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only ninety could still bear arms.And behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.
8、 These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. And these are the heroes who helped end a war. Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spenders poem. You are men who in your lives fought for life a
9、nd left the vivid air signed with your honor. I think I know what you may be thinking right now - thinking we were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day. Well everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops wer
10、e pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they werent. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around
11、 him. Lord Lovat was with him - Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, Sorry, Im a few minutes late, as if hed been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth hed just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken. There was the impos
12、sible valor of the Poles, who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold; and the unsurpassed courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit
13、Juno Beach, they never looked back.All of these men were part of a roll call of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore; The Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Polands 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of Englands armored divisions, the fo
14、rces of Free France, the Coast Guards Matchbox Fleet, and you, the American Rangers.Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everythi
15、ng here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love.The men
16、 of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next. It was the deep knowledge - and pray God we have not lost it - that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cau
