2009年春高级口译阅读训练(17)《美国人的法国血缘》

　　But the truth cannot be so easily buried. Although overlooked, a brutal first chapter had been written in the most untidy history of a "Christian nation." And the sectarian violence and hatred that ended with the deaths of a few hundred Huguenots in 1565 would be replayed often in early America, the supposed haven for religious dissent, which in fact tolerated next to none.
　　Starting with those massacred French pilgrims, the saga of the nation's birth and growth is often a bloodstained one, filled with religious animosities. In Boston, for instance, the Puritan fathers banned Catholic priests and executed several Quakers between 1659 and 1661.
　　Cotton Mather, the famed Puritan cleric, led the war cries against New England's Abenaki "savages" who had learned their prayers from the French Jesuits. The colony of Georgia was established in 1732 as a buffer between the Protestant English colonies and the Spanish missions of Florida; its original charter banned Catholics.
　　The bitter rivalry between Catholic France and Protestant England carried on for most of a century, giving rise to anti-Catholic laws, while a mistrust of Canada's French Catholics helped fire many patriots' passion for independence. As late as 1844, Philadelphia's anti-Catholic "Bible Riots" took the lives of more than a dozen people.
　　The list goes on. Our history is littered with bleak tableaus that show what happens when righteous certitude is mixed with fearful ignorance. Which is why this Thanksgiving, as we express gratitude for America's bounty and promise, we would do well to reflect on all our histories, including a forgotten French one that began on Florida's shores so many years ago.

　　词汇：
　　commemorate 纪念 庆祝 纪念
　　pilgrim 朝圣者
　　coq au vin 酒闷仔鸡
　　Bordeaux 波尔多葡萄酒
　　Counterpart 相似之物
　　Dissident 意见不同的，不同意的
　　Sectarian 宗派的，偏狭的
　　barmy 芳香的
　　fortify 设要塞，加强
　　cannon 大炮；开炮
　　cask 桶，木通；装入木桶
　　veritable 真实的，真的
　　heretic 异教徒
　　parish 教区
　　inconspicuous 不易察觉的，不显眼的
　　disappeared from the pages of history 从历史上消失了
　　casualty 变故，伤亡人数
　　erase 抹去，擦掉
　　demote 降级，降职
　　brutal 野蛮的
　　saga 传说，英雄事迹，冒险事迹
　　bloodstained 染着血的
　　animosity 憎恨，仇恨
　　buffer 缓冲，缓冲区
　　rivalry n.敌对，竞争，对抗
　　bleak 严寒的，阴郁的
　　tableau 画面，活人画
　　certitude 确实，确信
　　bounty 慷慨，宽大，恩惠