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約翰·肯尼迪《我們選擇登月》英語演講稿
n this 1962 speech given at Rice University in Houston, Texas, President John F. Kennedyreaffirmed America's commitment to landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s.The President spoke in philosophical terms about the need to solve the mysteries of spaceand also defended the enormous expense of the space program.
President pitzer Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, andCongressman Miller, Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, and ladies andgentlemen:
I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assureyou that my first lecture will be very brief.
I am delighted to be here and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion.
We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a state noted forstrength, and we stand in need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, ina decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater ourknowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.
Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive andworking today, despite the fact that this Nation's own scientific manpower is doubling every 12years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despitethat, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still faroutstrip our collective comprehension.
No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the50,000 years of man's recorded history in a time span of but a half-century. Stated in theseterms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced manhad learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, under thisstandard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years agoman learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago.The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power. Newtonexplored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobilesand airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television andnuclear power, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will haveliterally reached the stars before midnight tonight.
This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old,new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise highcosts and hardships, as well as high reward.
So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait.But this city of Houston, this state of Texas, this country of the United States was not built bythose who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered bythose who moved forward--and so will space.
William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that allgreat and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must beenterprised and overcome with answerable courage.
If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest forknowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space willgo ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and nonation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race forspace.
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