背景知识

美国在1776年独立，脱离英国的管治，不足一百年间，已发展成一个超级大国。由于国土辽阔，南北之间的分歧亦大。

美国北方依靠工商业，要求提高关税以保护他们产品的市场；南方依靠农业，需要自由贸易制度，以便他们的棉花、烟草和大米卖到欧洲各国。但双方更大的分歧在于是否解放黑奴。

1860年，林肯(Abraham Lincoln) 当选美国总统，尽管南方人也认同林肯的看法，奴隶制最终要从地球上消失，但黑奴种植棉花为他们带来经济繁荣，他们害怕改变。南方炮兵于1861年4月12日首先开火，美国开始了持续四年的内战。

内战的其中一次主要战役，发生于首都华盛顿附近的盖提斯堡，林肯总统在纪念阵亡士兵的仪式上，向在场的一万人发表了著名的「盖提斯堡演说」(Gettysburg Address)，鼓励人民为人人平等的民主原则而战，时维1863年11月19日。

林肯在1865年3月第二度当选美国总统，六个星期后，他在剧院遇刺，一颗子弹射穿他的大脑，他倒下了。这一年，林肯56岁。

林肯不仅是美国史上最伟大的总统，而且是伟大的演说家，他的演说充满魅力，文采精炼，是传世的文学作品。

演讲原文

The Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln
19 November 1863

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth¹ on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated² to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fit and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate³ - we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated⁴ it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.

 解说：
想学好英文，不外乎几个途径--多听、多讲和多写。要听好的英语，最好是听百多二百年来英语世界的名人演讲，不单学习他们的腔调，也学习他们遣词造句的精髓，以及人生的智能。

演讲在西方有悠久的传统，希腊的学者和政治家在三千前，已经在广场向群众宣扬自己的学说和政治理念。

从政者必须是一个出色的演说家，前美国总统林肯，就是最伟大的英语演说家之一，他的文辞浅白，从不在演语中乱丢书包、或故意卖弄，而且句子简洁、铿锵有力。发表于1863年的「盖提斯堡演说」（The Gettysburg Address）可说是其中的佼佼者。

演讲首重煽动性，林肯在演说中，要说服全美国的国民，跟他一起打赢一场南北战争。任谁都害怕战争，但在美国总统眼中，这是对国家利益的全民奉献，因此他很技巧地捉住Dedicated这个字。

第一段已画龙点睛，倾注美国宪法中的立国精神︰Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Dedicated或Dedication即奉献，正如孙中山先生所说的「革命尚未成功，同志仍需努力」，也是奉献的意思，不过孙中山用了一句口号来包装，而林肯则在演说中不断重复这个字。例如︰

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

又如︰It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work.

一个演讲要令群众听后有崇拜之情、也要有感情起伏，就要捉紧一个字眼，而dedicated是一个非常显浅的字，每一个美国人都会明白，林肯于是执着这个字，不断变戏法、翻筋斗和表演杂技。

林肯演讲中每一个字都精挑细选，他为了令民众留下更深刻印像，有时会用一些像吟诗一样的句子，例如︰But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow this ground. Dedicate和consecrate既押韵、同为三音节、也都是奉献的意思，可见林肯用字的心思。

林肯这篇演讲最为人津津乐道的是最后一句︰that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth. 孙中山先生将of the people, by the people, for the people转化成三民主义，即民族、民权、民生。这些英文翻译成中文不容易，但英文本身却是如此浅白，以致美国人一听即难以忘怀。

听完林肯的演讲，如果我们在写求职信的时候，也用上dedicated这个字眼，在信末加一句Should I have the honour of becoming an employee of this Company, I shall remain dedicated to my career and to the Company. 相信你的未来雇主也会另眼相看！