VOA常速英语2008年-US Marks 40th Anniversary of Assassination of M

By Mike Cooper
Atlanta
04 April 2008

The assassination¹ of the Rev². Martin Luther King Jr. was remembered on Friday in the southeastern United States -- where he was born and preached and where he was shot dead 40 years ago. Mike Cooper reports from the slain³ civil rights leader's hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.

Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, two of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s children, began the day by laying a wreath at the crypt where their father and mother, Coretta Scott King, are buried.

Then, at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the inner-city Atlanta church where King preached, more than 2,000 high-school students recited a pledge to follow King's principles of non-violent social change.

Bernice King, who was five years old at the time of King's assassination, told the students she went through anger, rage and hatred⁴ as a teenager, but she now knows that non-violence is the only alternative today.

"I suggest to you that you make non-violence your personal way of life and recognize it is a daily fight. It is a daily quest. It is a discipline that starts with you. And as you are personally transformed, you will have the same power that Dr. King had to transform the issues and the problems and the conflicts that are presented in your generation," she said.

Also in Atlanta, the King National Historic Site opened a new exhibition in remembrance of King's assassination 40 years ago. It includes the wooden wagon⁵, pulled by mules⁶, that led King's 1968 funeral procession and a march by 200,000 people through Atlanta streets. In the state of Indiana, Barack Obama, who could become the first African-American to win a presidential nomination⁷, remembered King's message during a town hall meeting.

"This is the struggle that brought back Dr. King to Memphis. It was a struggle for economic justice for the opportunity that should be available to people of all races and from all walks of life. Because Dr. King understood that the struggle for economic justice and the struggle for racial justice were really one that each was a part of a larger struggle for freedom for dignity and for humanity," he said.

In Memphis, Tennessee, where King was shot by James Earl Ray, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain delivered speeches.

Also in Memphis, about 1,000 people marched in the rain to remember King -- and the strike by sanitation⁸ workers that brought King to Memphis, where he was shot and killed on a downtown hotel balcony.

1 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

2 rev   

v.发动机旋转，加快速度

参考例句：

• It's his job to rev up the audience before the show starts.他要负责在表演开始前鼓动观众的热情。
• Don't rev the engine so hard.别让发动机转得太快。

3 slain   

杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词)

参考例句：

• The soldiers slain in the battle were burried that night. 在那天夜晚埋葬了在战斗中牺牲了的战士。
• His boy was dead, slain by the hand of the false Amulius. 他的儿子被奸诈的阿缪利乌斯杀死了。

4 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

5 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

6 mules   

骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者

参考例句：

• The cart was pulled by two mules. 两匹骡子拉这辆大车。
• She wore tight trousers and high-heeled mules. 她穿紧身裤和拖鞋式高跟鞋。

7 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

8 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。