晨读英语美文100篇 Passage 5 Declaration of Independence
分类: 英语美文
音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:00.87]Passage 5 Declaration of Independence
[00:07.00]When in the Course of human events,
[00:10.39]it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands
[00:15.75]which have connected them with another,
[00:17.93]and to assume among the powers of the earth,
[00:21.22]the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,
[00:28.33]a decent respect to the opinions of mankind
[00:32.16]requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
[00:38.08]We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
[00:44.74]that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
[00:50.21]that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
[00:55.47]—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
[01:00.39]deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
[01:05.31]—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
[01:10.67]it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
[01:15.38]and to institute new Government,
[01:17.90]laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form,
[01:24.35]as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
[01:30.37]Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
[01:35.51]should not be changed for light and transient causes;
[01:39.34]and accordingly all experience has shown,
[01:42.62]that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
[01:48.64]than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
[01:53.89]But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
[01:58.16]pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them
[02:03.63]under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
[02:08.88]to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
[02:15.56]—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies;
[02:20.58]and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
[02:28.49]The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III]
[02:34.00]is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,
[02:38.82]all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
[02:45.49]To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.