万花筒 2009-06-08&06-09 诺曼底登陆65周年

Well, the weather's deteriorated¹ from those ceremonies earlier in the day when we had plenty of sunshine. Now, this is a pretty good imitation of what the soldiers, sailors and airmen must have faced 65 years ago on D-Day morning, it’s of course evening in Normandy now, but in fact you can see the surf kicking up out there quite a bit. It’s raining and back then on D-Day morning they had fog, and I want to just point out the sort of difficulty that some of the servicemen had coming ashore² here. This is Omaha Beach, part of Omaha Beach, and coming in off the beach, they had to go up these cliffs, like you see off to my left, and in fact quite steep perhaps several hundred feet tall. And at the top were German gun emplacements and trenches³, and the Germans were able to fire down directly onto the oncoming allied⁴ soldiers. It was the kind of thing that was relived over and over again today in various parts of the beaches along here, the difficulty with coming ashore, establishing the beachhead and the amazing accomplishment⁵ of those people who did it. President Barack Obama talked about that in his speech today, directly speaking to the very veterans who were here .

"You, the veterans of that landing are why we still remember what happened on D-Day. You’re why we keep coming back, for you remind us that in the end, human destiny is not determined⁶ by forces beyond our control. You remind us that our future is not shaped by mere⁷ chance or circumstance, our history has always been the sum total of the choices made and the actions taken by each individual man and woman. It has always been up to us."

All in all, a very moving occasion with all four leaders, the two presidents and two prime ministers, directly addressing the men who fought their way ashore here 65 years ago today.

Jim Bittermann CNN on Omaha beach.
 

1 deteriorated   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her health deteriorated rapidly, and she died shortly afterwards. 她的健康状况急剧恶化，不久便去世了。
• His condition steadily deteriorated. 他的病情恶化，日甚一日。

2 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

3 trenches   

深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕

参考例句：

• life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
• The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。

4 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

5 accomplishment   

n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能

参考例句：

• The series of paintings is quite an accomplishment.这一系列的绘画真是了不起的成就。
• Money will be crucial to the accomplishment of our objectives.要实现我们的目标，钱是至关重要的。

6 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

7 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。