美国经典英文演讲100篇:A Whisper of AIDS(1)
Less than three months ago at platform hearings in Salt Lake City, I asked the Republican Party to lift the shroud of silence which has been draped over the issue of HIV and AIDS. I have come tonight to bring our silence to an end. I bear a message of challenge, not self-congratulation. I want your attention, not your applause.
I would never have asked to be HIV positive, but I believe that in all things there is a purpose; and I stand before you and before the nation gladly. The reality of AIDS is brutally clear. Two hundred thousand Americans are dead or dying. A million more are infected. Worldwide, forty million, sixty million, or a hundred million infections will be counted in the coming few years. But despite science and research, White House meetings, and congressional hearings, despite good intentions and bold initiatives, campaign slogans, and hopeful promises, it is — despite it all — the epidemic which is winning tonight.
In the context of an election year, I ask you, here in this great hall, or listening in the quiet of your home, to recognize that AIDS virus is not a political creature. It does not care whether you are Democrat or Republican; it does not ask whether you are black or white, male or female, gay or straight, young or old.
Tonight, I represent an AIDS community whose members have been reluctantly drafted from every segment of American society. Though I am white and a mother, I am one with a black infant struggling with tubes in a Philadelphia hospital. Though I am female and contracted this disease in marriage and enjoy the warm support of my family, I am one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his family's rejection.
大约3个月以前，在盐湖城举办的一次论坛会上，我要求共和党揭开捂在艾滋病病毒和艾滋病上面的盖子。我今天来的目的，就是要打破我们对此的沉默。我要吹响战斗的号角，而不是自我陶醉。我需要的是你们对艾滋病的关注，而不是你们的掌声。
我从没有想到自己是个艾滋病病毒携带者，但是，既然我感染了艾滋病病毒，我还是要泰然处之，我很高兴站在你们和全国人民面前。艾滋病的事实已经很清楚，有20万美国人已经死亡或面临死亡，100多万人感染了艾滋病病毒。在全世界，4000万，6000万或1亿感染艾滋病病毒的人在为了几年里也会遭受同样的厄运。但是，除了对此的科学研究，白宫会议，国会听证会之外，除了善良的意图，大胆的行为，竞选口号和乐观的许诺之外，除了这一切之外，它还是个引起今晚关注的流行病。
在大选年的背景下，我请求在会堂里的你们或在家里通过电视，收音机静听我演讲的人，要认识到艾滋病病毒不是一个政治性的东西，它不在乎你是民主党还是共和党，它才不问你是黑人还是白人，男人还是女人，同性恋者还是异性恋者，年轻人还是老人。
今天晚上，我就向你们介绍一个艾滋病大家庭，其成员不情愿地从美国社会的各个机体中退了出来。虽然我是个白人母亲，我却有一个黑人婴儿在费城的医院里同死神搏斗；虽然我是个婚内感染了艾滋病病毒的女人，得到家庭对我的温暖关怀，我却和一个孤独的男同性恋者在一起，因为他被家人抛弃，在寒风中蜷缩在摇曳的烛光下。
1. platform n. 月台, 讲台
He was walking up and down the station platform.
他在火车站的月台上走来走去。
2. applause n. 鼓掌, 喝彩
Let's have a good round of applause for the next performer.
咱们为下一个表演者热烈鼓掌吧。
3. infect v. 传染, 感染
The open wound soon became infected.
裸露的伤口很快就受到了感染。
4. context n. 上下文, 环境
This speech needs to be set in the context of Britain in the 1960s.
这篇演说需要放到20世纪60年代的英国这一背景之下来看待。
5. rejection n. 拒绝, 被弃
Her rejection of him seems to have made him go back into his shell.
他遭她拒绝后就更不爱吭声了。
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