∷经纬 选注

第35任美国总统约翰·肯尼迪遇刺50年后，人们要对他盖棺定论似乎仍是一件不可能的事。重新忆起这个英俊帅 气、充满斗志的人，这位美国历史上最年轻的总统，最先浮现于人们脑海的是达拉斯市那条被阳光照得明晃晃的大街、肯尼迪微笑着挥手以及刺耳的来福枪枪声。他的遇刺是除了“9·11”恐怖袭击事件之外美国人所经历的最具创伤性的公共事件，在其后数十年中一直影响着美国政治的发展方向。在他的任期中，肯尼迪提出了登月计划、“新边疆”口号和称霸世界的承诺，雄心勃勃地带领美国走向未来。虽然他的生命逝去了，但是他的梦想、他的遗产却永远留在美国人民的心中……

Among the many monuments to John F. Kennedy,perhaps the most striking is the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas.1.monument： 纪念馆，纪念碑；striking： 引人注目的，突出的；Sixth Floor Museum： 肯尼迪遇刺博物馆，亦称“第六层博物馆”。馆址就是刺杀肯尼迪的狙击手射击之处，现改造为肯尼迪纪念馆，陈列了众多肯尼迪的遗物，并详细介绍了肯尼迪遇刺事件的前前后后。Every year, nearly 350,000 people visit the place where Lee Harvey Oswald waited on November 22, 1963, to shoot at the president’s motorcade.2. Lee Harvey Oswald： 李·哈维·奥斯瓦尔德（1939—1963），美籍古巴人，被认为是肯尼迪遇刺案的主凶；motorcade： 汽车队列游行，车队游行。The museum itself is an oddity because of its physical connection to the event it illuminates; the most memorable—and eeriest—moment of a visit to the sixth floor is when you turn a corner and face the window through which Oswald fired his ri fle as Kennedy’s open car snaked through Dealey Plaza’s broad spaces below.3. 这座博物馆本身带有一种“穿越感”，因为这个地点与在此所发生的事件之间的物理联系；参观位于六层的这座博物馆时最令人难忘的时刻——也是感觉最怪异的时刻——就是你转个弯面对着奥斯瓦尔德扣下来福枪扳机的那个窗口之时，当时肯尼迪乘坐一辆敞蓬汽车在楼下宽阔的迪利广场上蛇形穿行。oddity： 怪异或奇怪的事物，这里是指重温事件发生之地带给人们的奇怪感觉，似乎回到了过去；eerie： （因阴森或怪诞而）令人害怕的，引起恐惧的；snake： 曲折行进，迂回前进；Dealey Plaza： 迪利广场，位于美国得克萨斯州达拉斯市中心街区西区的一个小广场，由于美国总统约翰·肯尼迪在此遭到枪击身亡而使得该广场名声大振。The windows are cluttered once again with cardboard boxes,4. clutter： 乱堆，塞满；cardboard box： 纸箱。just as they had been on that sunny afternoon when Oswald hid there.

Visitors from all over the world have signed their names in the memory books, and many have written tributes5. tribute： （尤指对死者的）致敬之词。: “Our greatest President.” “Oh how we miss him!” “The greatest man since Jesus Christ.”Many visitors also wrote about the possible conspiracies that led to JFK’s assassination.6. conspiracy： 阴谋，密谋；assassination： 暗杀，行刺。The contradictory realities of Kennedy’s life don’t match his global reputation. But in the eyes of the world, this reticent man became a charismatic leader who,7. reticent： 沉默寡言的，谨慎的；charismatic： （有领袖人物的）超凡魅力的。in his life and in his death, served as a symbol of purpose and hope.

President Kennedy spent less than three years in the White House. His first year was a disaster, as he himself acknowledged. The Bay of Pigs Invasion of Communist Cuba was only the first in a series of failed efforts to undo Fidel Castro’s regime.8. 借猪湾事件侵略社会主义国家古巴仅仅是一系列试图废除菲德尔·卡斯特罗领导政权的失败举措中的第一个。The Bay of Pigs Invasion： 猪湾事件。1961年4月17日，在美国中央情报局的协助下，逃亡美国的古巴人在古巴西南海岸猪湾向菲德尔·卡斯特罗领导的古巴革命政府发动的一次失败的入侵。猪湾事件标志着美国反古巴行动的第一个高峰。His 1961 summit meeting in Vienna with the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was a humiliating experience.9. Nikita Khrushchev： 尼基塔·赫鲁晓夫（1894—1971），曾任苏联最高领导人，苏联共产党中央委员会第一书记及苏联部长会议主席（政府首脑）等重要职务。这里提到的事件是肯尼迪和赫鲁晓夫在维也纳的一次高峰会谈；humiliating： 使蒙受耻辱的，丢脸的。Most of his legislative proposals died on Capitol Hill.10. legislative： 立法的；Capitol Hill： 国会山，美国首都华盛顿哥伦比亚特区的一个街区，美国政府最高的权力象征——美国国会大厦即坐落于此。此处用这个地名指代美国国会。

Yet he was also responsible for some extraordinary accomplishments. The most important, and most famous,was his adept management of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, widely considered the most perilous moment since World War II.11. adept： 有技巧的，熟练的；management of Cuban missile crisis： 此处是指肯尼迪得知苏联在古巴部署的核弹计划之后，选择封锁苏联船只，并与赫鲁晓夫谈判，而不是像军事专家和内阁成员所建议的那样对古巴的核弹发射井进行空袭，从而阻止了有可能爆发的核战争；perilous： 危险的，濒临毁灭的。Most of his military advisers—and they were not alone—believed the United States should bomb the missile pads that the Soviet Union was stationing in Cuba.12. missile pad：（核弹、导弹等的）发射井，发射台；station：安置，驻扎。Kennedy, aware of the danger of escalating the crisis, instead ordered a blockade of Soviet ships.13. escalate： 使……升级，使……上升；blockade：（对某地，尤指对部分海岸、港口等的）封锁。In the end, a peaceful agreement was reached. Afterward, both Kennedy and Khrushchev began to soften the relationship between Washington and Moscow.

Kennedy, during his short presidency, proposed many important steps forward. In an address at American University in 1963, he spoke kindly of the Soviet Union,thereby easing the Cold War.14. address： 演说，发言；thereby： 从而，因此。The following day, after almost two years of mostly avoiding the issue of civil rights, he delivered a speech of exceptional elegance,and launched a drive for a civil-rights bill that he hoped would end racial segregation.15. 次日，在将近两年尽量避免谈及人权问题之后，他发表了一场非常精彩的演讲，并推进民权运动，倡导通过一项民权法案，他希望这能终止种族隔离。exceptional： 优越的，杰出的；drive： 运动，热潮；racial segregation： 种族隔离。He also proposed a voting-rights bill16. a voting-rights bill： 一项关于选举权的法案。and federal programs to provide health care to the elderly and the poor. Few of these proposals became law in his lifetime—a great disappointment to Kennedy, who was never very successful with Congress.But most of these bills became law after his death—in part because of his successor’s political skill, but also because they seemed like a monument to a martyred17. martyred： 殉难的，被杀害的。president.

Kennedy was the youngest man ever elected to the presidency, succeeding18. succeed： 继承，继任。the man who, at the time,was the oldest. He symbolized—as he well realized—a new generation and its coming-of-age.19. symbolize： 成为……的象征，成为……的符号；coming-of-age： 逐渐成熟，成年。He was the first president born in the 20th century, the first young veteran20. veteran： 老兵，有经验的战士。of World War II to reach the White House. John Hersey’s powerful description of Kennedy’s wartime bravery, published inThe New Yorkerin 1944, helped him launch his political career.

In shaping his legend, Kennedy’s personal charm helped. A witty and articulate speaker, he seemed built for the age of television.21. witty： 诙谐的，幽默的；articulate： 口才好的，善于表达的；built for： 为……而建，引申为“非常适合某事”之意。To watch him on film today is to be struck by the power of his presence and the wit and elegance of his oratory.22. presence： 风采，风度；oratory： 慷慨激昂的演说。His celebrated inaugural address was filled with phrases that seemed designed to be carved in stone, as many of them have been.23. celebrated： 著名的，驰名的；inaugural address： 就职演说；carved in stone： 刻在石头上，引申为“流传于世，流芳百世”之意。He exhorted24. exhort： 告诫，规劝。Americans: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

He was handsome and looked athletic. He was wealthy. He had a captivating wife and children, a photogenic family.25. captivating： 迷人的，有魅力的；photogenic： 上相的，适于被摄影的。The Kennedys lit up the White House with writers, artists, and intellectuals: the famous cellist Pablo Casals, the poet Robert Frost, the French intellectual André Malraux.26. cellist： 大提琴演奏家；Pablo Casals： 帕布罗·卡萨尔斯（1876—1973），西班牙大提琴家、作曲家、指挥家，1958年曾被提名诺贝尔和平奖；Robert Frost： 罗伯特·弗罗斯特（1874—1963），美国诗人，曾四度获得普利策奖；André Malraux： 安德烈·马尔罗（1901—1976），法国著名作家，曾任戴高乐时代法国文化部长，曾被提名诺贝尔文学奖。Kennedy had graduated from Harvard, and stocked his administration with the school’s professors. He sprinkled27. sprinkle： 点缀，使零星分布。his public remarks with quotations from poets and philosophers.

The Kennedy legacy has a darker side as well. Prior to his presidency, many of JFK’s political colleagues considered him merely a playboy whose wealthy father had bankrolled his campaigns.28. prior to： 在……之前；bankroll： 提供资金，为……支付费用。Many critics saw recklessness, impatience,impetuosity.29. recklessness： 鲁莽，轻率；impetuosity： 草率行事，冲动。Nigel Hamilton, the author ofJFK: Reckless Youth, a generally admiring study of Kennedy’s early years,summed up after nearly 800 pages:

He had the brains, the courage, a shy charisma, good looks, idealism, money … Yet, as always, there was something missing—a certain depth or seriousness of purpose …

I. F. Stone, the distinguished liberal writer, observed in 1973:“By now he is simply an optical illusion.30. optical： 视觉的；illusion： 幻觉，假象。这里是指：肯尼迪徒有英俊的外表，但不干实事。” Kennedy’s image of youth and vitality31. vitality： 旺盛的精力，蓬勃的生机。is, to some degree, a myth.

肯尼迪和杰奎琳

Half a century after his presidency, the endurance of Kennedy’s appeal is not simply the result of a crafted image and personal charm.32. endurance： 持续，持久；appeal： 感染力，号召力；crafted： 精心设计的，精心编造的。It also re flects the historical moment in which he represented. In the early 1960s, much of the American public was willing, even eager, to believe that he was the man who would “get the country moving again,” at a time when much of the country was ready to move. Action and dynamism33. dynamism： 干劲，活力。were central to Kennedy’s appeal.

Kennedy helped give urgency to the idea of pursuing a national purpose—a great American mission.34. 肯尼迪给予了追求国家统一目标—— 一个伟大的美国使命—— 一种紧迫感。In the 15 years since World War II,ideological momentum had been slowly building in the United States, fueled by anxieties about the rivalry with the Soviet Union and by optimism about the dynamic performance of the American economy.35. 在二战之后的15年间，意识形态发展的势头渐渐地在美国国内高涨了起来，受到对竞争对手苏联的焦虑感和对美国经济表现良好的乐观情绪所推动。momentum： 力量，势头；fuel： 推动，促进。When Kennedy won the presidency,the desire for change was still tentative36. tentative： 踌躇的，犹豫不决的。, but it was growing. Kennedy seized the moment to provide a mission—or at least he grasped the need for one—even though it was not entirely clear what the mission was.

This re flected John Kennedy’s worldview, one of commitment, action, movement. Those who knew him realized,however, that he was more cautious than his speeches suggested.

John F. Kennedy was a good president but not a great one,most scholars concur37. concur： （意见）一致，同意。. A poll38. poll： 民意测验，投票调查。of historians in 1982 ranked him 13th out of the 36 presidents included in the survey. Thirteen such polls from 1982 to 2011 put him, on average, 12th. Yet in the 1970s, Richard Neustadt, the prominent presidential scholar,remarked: “He will be just a flicker, forever clouded by the record of his successors. I don’t think history will have much space for John Kennedy.”39. prominent： 著名的，重要的； flicker：获得短暂成功的人，受到短暂关注的人；cloud： 遮盖，蒙上阴影。

But 50 years after his death, Kennedy is far from “just a flicker.” He remains a powerful symbol of a lost moment, of a soaring idealism and hopefulness that subsequent generations still try to recover.40. soaring： 高涨的，猛增的；subsequent：随后的，后来的。His allure—the romantic, almost mystic, associations his name evokes—not only survives but flourishes.41. allure： 吸引力，魅力；evoke： 唤起，使人产生（联想、感情等）； flourish： 繁茂，茂盛。

The circumstances of Kennedy’s death turned him into a national obsession42. obsession： 着迷，痴迷。. A vast number of books have been published about his assassination, most of them rejecting the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. After the assassination, even Robert F. Kennedy,the president’s brother, spent hours—perhaps days—phoning people to ask whether there had been a conspiracy, until he realized that his inquiries could damage his own career. To this day, about 60 percent of Americans believe that Kennedy fell victim to a conspiracy.

There are many reasons to question the of ficial version of Kennedy’s murder. But there is little concrete43. concrete： 具体的，实在的。evidence to prove any of the theories. Some people say his death was a result of Washington’s covert44. covert： 秘密的，隐秘的。efforts to kill Castro. For many Americans, it is hard to accept that an event so epochal can be explained as the act of a still-mysterious loner.45. epochal： 划时代的，影响很大的；loner： 孤独的人，不合群者。

Like all presidents, Kennedy had successes and failures. His administration was dominated by a remarkable number of problems and crises—in Berlin, Cuba, and Vietnam; and in Georgia, Mississippi,and Alabama. Some of these, he managed adroitly46. adroitly： 巧妙地，机灵地。and, at times,courageously. Many, he could not resolve.

Yet many people saw him—and still do—as an idealistic and passionate president who would have transformed the nation and the world, had he lived. His legacy has only grown in the 50 years since his death. He reminds many Americans of an age when it was possible to believe that politics could speak to society’s moral yearnings and be harnessed to its highest aspirations.47. 提起他，许多美国人就想起了他所在的时代——在那个时代，人们相信政治可以为社会的道德向往代言，政治若是加以利用，可帮助人们到达最高的理想状态。yearning： 渴望，向往；harness： 控制……以产生动力，利用；aspiration： 抱负，理想。More than anything, perhaps, Kennedy reminds us of a time when the nation’s capacities looked limitless, when its future seemed unbounded48. unbounded： 不受束缚的，不受约束的。, when Americans believed that they could solve hard problems and accomplish bold deeds.