发表于2024-11-23
CHAPTER I Our Country
CHAPTER II The Republic
CHAPTER III Laws and Their Makers
CHAPTER IV What We Mean by Government
CHAPTER V How the People of Europe Found America and Came to Live in It
CHAPTER VI National Independence
CHAPTER VII A Federal Republic
CHAPTER VIII American Home Rule
CHAPTER IX The Law-Makers
CHAPTER X How Laws Are Enforced
CHAPTER XI The President's Cabinet
CHAPTER XII How Laws Are Enforced in the States
CHAPTER XIII Judge and Jury
CHAPTER XIV How the Government Gets Money
CHAPTER XV Who We Are
CHAPTER XVI Who Are Our Rulers
APPEND A Brief Account of the Constitution of the United States
PART II 中文阅读
CHAPTER 01 我们的祖国
CHAPTER 02 共和国
CHAPTER 03 法律和立法者
CHAPTER 04 政府对我们的地位是怎样界定的
CHAPTER 05 欧洲人怎样发现美洲并迁居于此
CHAPTER 06 民族独立
CHAPTER 07 一个联邦制的共和国
CHAPTER 08 美国的地方自治
CHAPTER 09 立法者
CHAPTER 10 法律是怎样执行的
CHAPTER 11 总统内阁
CHAPTER 12 法律在各州是怎样执行的
CHAPTER 13 法官和陪审团
CHAPTER 14 政府怎样筹钱
CHAPTER 15 我们是谁
CHAPTER 16 谁统治我们
CHAPTER I Our Country
1. Why We Love Our Country. Every good American citizen loves his country and is proud of it. We have very good reasons both for the love and for the pride. Ours is one of the greatest nations of the world, in area of territory, in number of people, in wealth and in power. We also think that the citizens of the great republic are among the most intelligent in the world. Free public schools make it possible for every one to get some sort of an education, and books and newspapers are found in every home. But better still is the liberty which we enjoy. We have no king or emperor to rule over us. We choose our own officers of state, who, indeed, are not our rulers, but are merely public servants. In some countries the police are constantly interfering with people. A public meeting cannot be held without the consent of the police. The police watch the hotel registers and keep careful track of all strangers. If a club or a debating society is formed, the police have to be notified. Then, too, every young man has to spend several years as a soldier-for most of the nations of Europe keep vast armies always ready for war. Now, with us the policeman and the soldier are much less prominent. As long as one is not a thief or some other sort of criminal, the police let one quite alone. And no one in our country needs to be a soldier at all. Our few soldiers are all volunteers. In short, we live in a free land, in which every one may live his life in his own way, so long as he does not interfere with the rights of his neighbors.
2. These are some reasons for loving our country. There are many other reasons too, but perhaps these are enough to show what we mean. Still, it may be as well to add one more-it is our home. There are few words dearer to any genuine man or woman than home. But just as the home is the center of the life of the family, so our country is the center of the nation's life. It is our home land-the land of our fathers and mothers, of our brothers and sisters. And he is a poor ingrate who does not dearly love his home.
3. What We Mean by a Patriot. A patriot is one who loves his fatherland-his country. People show patriotism in various ways. In time of war, when the national safety is menaced by a public enemy, men are ready to enter the army and to give their lives, if need be, in defense of their country. A true patriot, too, is pleased by everything which reflects credit on his homeland. He is anxious that its public affairs shall be stained with no meanness or dishonor. He is anxious that its government shall always be just and generous in dealing with the governments of other nations. He does not wish an advantage secured from any other nation, especially from a weaker one, by wanton violence or by fraud. He is delighted with every advance of his country in the arts of civilization, and pained at the triumph of evil men or of vicious measures. And he is always ready to do what he can to make his country better or stronger or safer.
4. What a Patriot is Not. We have seen some of the reasons which an American has for being proud of his country. But in order to be a patriot it is not at all necessary to be a boaster. Indeed, a true patriot is so sure of the solid merit of his country that he does not need to say much about it. If a man is in the habit of talking about his own honesty, it leads others to suspect that perhaps after all he is trying to cover up a streak of dishonesty. At any rate, bragging is a weak and foolish habit. And bragging of one's country is quite as foolish as it is for a boy to boast of his father's wealth or of his sister's beauty.
5. Neither is it a sign of patriotism to despise other countries. We may love our own the best, but one who does not know that other countries also are great and powerful and famous, is merely very ignorant. If we respect other nations for their good qualities, we are all the better fitted to understand and admire the like qualities in our own.
6. Sneering at other races is no sign of patriotism. Boys and girls sometimes are apt to think themselves better than one of their mates who was born in a foreign land, and to show their superiority by using for him some sort of foolish nickname. But this is very silly. Is he a German? The Germans have some of the greatest names and have done some of the greatest deeds in all history. Is he an Italian? Italy is a beautiful land, famous for some of the finest painters and musicians, and for some of the wisest statesmen and the bravest soldiers of any land. Is he a Jew? They are a wonderful people, and a list of the great men who are Jews would be a very long one. Indeed, one may well be glad and proud to belong to any of these races, or of many others which might be mentioned.
7.What a Patriot Should Know. It is not enough for a patriot to think that his country is a very good and comfortable land. No opinion is worth much unless it comes from actual knowledge. It is a very commonly observed fact that the more ignorant people are, the more they are stuffed with prejudices. But prejudice is merely a strong opinion which is formed with a very scanty basis of knowledge. Now, in fact, no opinion is worth much, as we said, unless it belongs to one who knows what he is talking about. A jeweler who has spent all his life in a city, probably would not know much about farming. If, then, he should go into the country and begin giving a farmer advice about the management of his crops, the farmer would laugh at him. The jeweler's opinion about repairing a watch would doubtless be better than the farmer's, but, on the other hand, the farmer would be apt to know more about planting corn. In other words, it is knowledge that gives an opinion its value.
8. Then, our opinions about our country are not worth very much unless we know something of its history. We ought to know how it is governed, how the laws are made, how they are enforced, what the courts are and how they do their work, what are the rights of a citizen and what are not his rights. We ought to know how our country came to be what it is, who are some of the great men it has produced, and what they have done. With some of this knowledge our opinions are much less likely to be mere prejudices.
9. There is another important reason for knowing something about the way in which our country is governed. With us about every man of full age, that is, twenty-one years old or over, is a voter. The most of all public officers are elected. And a voter is not very useful whose ideas of what he is voting for are in a fog. He is easily led by shrewd and unscrupulous demagogues; he is simply a tool, a slave. It is often said that knowledge is power. We might add that knowledge of public affairs is liberty.
10. The Flag. Every nation has a flag of its own, with
美国公民读本(英汉双语版) 下载 mobi epub pdf txt 电子书 格式
美国公民读本(英汉双语版) 下载 mobi pdf epub txt 电子书 格式 2024
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美国公民读本(英汉双语版) mobi epub pdf txt 电子书 格式下载 2024