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2015年6月的英语四六级考试已经告一段落,听力部分一直以来都是同学们考试时的难点,也是吐槽最多的部分。2015年12月份的四六级考试还离我们比较远,但是千里之行始于足下,没有积累很难有提升,想要早点为下半年的四六级考试做准备就来四六级考试网练习一下英语四级听力题吧。
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On April 9, 1865 Confederate General Robert E. Leesurrendered his army to Union General UlyssesGrant. The event marked the beginning of the end ofthe four-year U.S. Civil War that killed more than700,000 people and freed the slaves.
Today, Americans note the 150th anniversary ofGeneral Lee's surrender. Many consider it one ofthe most emotional moments in U.S. history.
David Ward is a senior historian at the SmithsonianInstitution's National Portrait Gallery. He calls thesurrender scene dramatic.
One reason, he says, is because the personalities of Lee and Grant showed the two sides of thewar.
Lee's side, the south, included many large farms that depended on slave labor. The southernfarm owners were often wealthy, polite and well-connected in society. Even though Lee was notwealthy, he belonged to a famous family.
"And he very much embodied the whole seigniorial, aristocratic, paternal element in the OldSouth, the slave-owning states.
In contrast, Grant's family had neither money nor social influence. But he, like the north, wasable to use the resources he had in a new way to achieve success. Grant eventually defeatedLee because Grant's army had more food and supplies.
When it became clear that Lee could not continue to fight, the two generals agreed to meet in ahouse in a Virginia town called Appomattox Courthouse.
Historian David Ward says Lee arrived at the meeting well-dressed. Grant wore a dirty uniform.Their appearances, too, seemed to show their differences. But, Mr. Ward explains, GeneralGrant did not know the fighting was going to end and so did not have his best uniform ready.
Mr. Ward calls the meeting "awkward," or uncomfortable. He says the men talked aboutunimportant things at first because they did not know what to do.
"Grant reminds Lee that they had met in the war with Mexico, and Lee, who is a much tallerman, Lee looks down at Grant and says, ‘I don't remember you at all.' Which, I always think, itmust be really tough to lose a war. And Lee at that point I think really feeling the fact that he'shaving to surrender to somebody who he's not regarding really as his equal."
Except for that moment, Mr. Ward says the two men behaved politely. Lee reminded Grant theywere there to discuss the conditions of surrender. Grant sat down and quickly wrote them in aletter.
Most historians agree the conditions were generous. They permitted the southern soldiers tokeep their horses and personal weapons. Grant also offered to feed the southern troops.
Mr. Ward points out the conditions discussed only military issues. They did not force Lee toagree to political or social changes. In that way, he says, the conditions aimed to make it easierfor the south and north to operate as one country again.
"It's this moment where the society rips itself apart, remakes itself, and now everyonerecognizes in some way, shape or form, through some compromise or another, we now haveto put everything back together again."
Indeed, when Lee left the building, Grant stopped the Northern troops from cheering. He saidthe two sides were no longer enemies, and the best way to show the North's joy was not tocelebrate the South's defeat. |
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