And New York keeps the promise of its first appearance. There is no such fulness of life elsewhere in all the world. The common man in the streets is a bigger common man than any Old World city can show, physically7 bigger; there is hope in his eyes and a braced8 defiance9. New York may be harsh and blusterous and violent, but there is a breeze from the sea and a breeze of fraternity in the streets, and the Americans of all peoples in the world are a nation of still unbroken men.
I went to America curious, balancing between hope and scepticism. The European world is full of the criticism of America, and for the matter of that America too is full of it; hostility10 and depreciation11 prevail,—overmuch, for in spite of rawness and vehemence12 and a scum of blatant13, oh! quite asinine14 folly15, the United States of America remains16 the greatest country in the world and the living hope of mankind. It is the supreme17 break with the old tradition; it is the freshest and most valiant18 beginning that has ever been made in human life.
Here was the antithesis19 of India; here were no peasants whatever, no traditional culture, no castes, no established differences (except for the one schism20 of color); this amazing place had never had a famine, never a plague; here were no temples and no priesthoods dominating the lives of the people,—old Trinity church embedded21 amidst towering sky-scrapers was a symbol for as much as they had of all that; and here too there was no crown, no affectations of an ancient loyalty22, no visible army, no traditions of hostility, for the old defiance of Britain is a thing now ridiculous and dead; and everyone I met had an air as if he knew that to-morrow must be different from to-day and different and novel and remarkable23 by virtue24 of himself and such as himself.
I went about New York, with the incredulous satisfaction of a man who has long doubted, to find that after all America was coming true. The very clatter25 pleased me, the crowds, the camp-like slovenliness26, a disorder27 so entirely28 different from the established and accepted untidiness of China or India. Here was something the old world had never shown me, a new enterprise, a fresh vigor29. In the old world there is Change, a mighty30 wave now of Change, but it drives men before it as if it were a power outside them and not in them; they do not know, they do not believe; but here the change is in the very blood and spirit of mankind. They breathe it in even before the launch has brought their feet to Ellis Island soil. In six months they are Americanized. Does it matter that a thing so gigantic should be a little coarse and blundering in detail, if this stumbling giant of the new time breaks a gracious relic31 or so in his eager clutch and treads a little on the flowers?
点击收听单词发音
1 onset | |
n.进攻,袭击,开始,突然开始 | |
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2 extraordinarily | |
adv.格外地;极端地 | |
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3 stimulating | |
adj.有启发性的,能激发人思考的 | |
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4 swirling | |
v.旋转,打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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5 hooting | |
(使)作汽笛声响,作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 ); 倒好儿; 倒彩 | |
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6 crescendo | |
n.(音乐)渐强,高潮 | |
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7 physically | |
adj.物质上,体格上,身体上,按自然规律 | |
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8 braced | |
adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 );撑牢;使自己站稳;振作起来 | |
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9 defiance | |
n.挑战,挑衅,蔑视,违抗 | |
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10 hostility | |
n.敌对,敌意;抵制[pl.]交战,战争 | |
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11 depreciation | |
n.价值低落,贬值,蔑视,贬低 | |
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12 vehemence | |
n.热切;激烈;愤怒 | |
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13 blatant | |
adj.厚颜无耻的;显眼的;炫耀的 | |
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14 asinine | |
adj.愚蠢的 | |
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15 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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16 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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17 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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18 valiant | |
adj.勇敢的,英勇的;n.勇士,勇敢的人 | |
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19 antithesis | |
n.对立;相对 | |
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20 schism | |
n.分派,派系,分裂 | |
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21 embedded | |
a.扎牢的 | |
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22 loyalty | |
n.忠诚,忠心 | |
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23 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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24 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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25 clatter | |
v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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26 slovenliness | |
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27 disorder | |
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调 | |
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28 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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29 vigor | |
n.活力,精力,元气 | |
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30 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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31 relic | |
n.神圣的遗物,遗迹,纪念物 | |
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