美洲—美国举行长达一天的葬礼以纪念民权女英雄罗莎·帕克斯

US Civil Rights Heroine Rosa Parks Honored with Day-Long Funeral

美国举行长达一天的葬礼以纪念民权女英雄罗莎·帕克斯

 

Civil rights heroine Rosa Parks, who died last week at age 92, was laid to rest in Detroit on Wednesday. Thousands of people attended a day-long funeral for the the woman who inspired the U.S. civil rights movement 50 years ago by refusing to give up her seat on a city bus.

 

(MUSIC)

 

Rousing gospel music filled Detroit's Greater Grace Temple Church as what was supposed to have been a three-hour service turned into a daylong event. More than 4,000 people packed the church to honor the African-American woman who in 1955 refused to give up her bus seat for a white man, as the law in Montgomery, Alabama, required at the time.

 

Former President Bill Clinton, who honored Mrs. Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996, recalled riding a segregated¹ bus to school in Arkansas when he was a child.

 

Bill Clinton: The world knows of Rosa Parks because of a single simple act of dignity and courage that struck a lethal² blow to the foundations of legal bigotry³.

 

Mr. Clinton said Mrs. Parks ignited the most significant social movement in American history with her refusal, which triggered a 381-day boycott⁴ of the Montgomery bus system led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., who was not well-known at the time.

 

Bill Clinton: Let us never forget that in that simple act and a lifetime of race and dignity, she showed us every single day what it means to be free. She made us see and agree that everyone should be free.

 

U.S. Senator Barack Obama, of Illinois, the only African-American in the U.S. Senate, said Mrs. Parks made history, even though she never held public office and was not a wealthy woman.

 

Barack Obama: It is this small, quiet woman, whose name will be remembered long after the names of senators and presidents have been forgotten. It's her name that will be recalled as having helped lay the foundation for a nation to live up to its creed⁵.

 

Mrs. Parks made history again after her death as she became the first woman and only the second African-American to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda⁶ in Washington. She was to be entombed in a mausoleum at the prestigious⁷ Woodlawn Cemetary, where some of Detroit's leading citizens have been laid to rest.

 

This is Mike Cooper for VOA news, Atlanta.

 

注释：

rousing [5rauziN] adj. 鼓舞人的

lethal [5li:WEl] adj. 致命的

bigotry [5bi^Etri] n. 固执，顽固

ignite [i^5nait] v. 点燃

Reverend [5revErEnd] adj. （对牧师的尊称，前面与the连用）尊敬的

creed [kri:d] n. 信条

entomb [in5tu:m] vt. 埋葬

1 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

2 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

3 bigotry   

n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等

参考例句：

• She tried to dissociate herself from the bigotry in her past.她力图使自己摆脱她以前的偏见。
• At least we can proceed in this matter without bigotry.目前这件事咱们至少可以毫无偏见地进行下去。

4 boycott   

n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与

参考例句：

• We put the production under a boycott.我们联合抵制该商品。
• The boycott lasts a year until the Victoria board permitsreturn.这个抗争持续了一年直到维多利亚教育局妥协为止。

5 creed   

n.信条；信念，纲领

参考例句：

• They offended against every article of his creed.他们触犯了他的每一条戒律。
• Our creed has always been that business is business.我们的信条一直是公私分明。

6 rotunda   

n.圆形建筑物；圆厅

参考例句：

• The Capitol at Washington has a large rotunda.华盛顿的国会大厦有一圆形大厅。
• The rotunda was almost deserted today,dotted with just a few tourists.圆形大厅今天几乎没有多少人，只零星散布着几个游客。

7 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。