1 . After seemingly endless waiting, news finally reached President Abraham Lincoln. The North had won at Gettysburg. The citizens of Pennsylvania created a national cemetery（公墓）for the soldiers who lay dead at Gettysburg. A ceremony was planned. Lincoln received an invitation to attend. He was not asked to give the major speech of the day. That honor was given to a New England statesman and professional speaker named Edward Everett. The president was asked instead to say “a few words”.
As the day approached, Lincoln’s wife asked him to reconsider. Their son, Tad, had fallen ill. Mary Lincoln was near crazy. On the morning of the day, Tad was so sick that he could not eat. Lincoln felt unwell himself, but he decided to go anyway.
On Thursday, November 19, for two hours, Everett held the audience spellbound with his rich voice and inspiring words. Then Lincoln rose to speak. “Four score and seven years ago,” he began in his high pitched（声调高的）voice. He spoke for barely three minutes.
As Lincoln sat down, some eyewitnesses recalled little applause（掌声）. Others heard “not a word, not a cheer, not a shout”. A person taking notes asked Lincoln, “Is that all?” Embarrassed, Lincoln replied, “Yes--for the present.” A photographer in the crowd had not even had time to take a picture.
Lincoln thought his speech was a failure. Some newspapers considered it as “silly” and “boring”. But Everett correctly predicted that the Gettysburg Address would “live among the history of man”. A few days after both of them had spoken at Gettysburg, he wrote to Lincoln, saying that he wished he had come “as close to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes”. Lincoln replied, telling Everett how pleased he was that “the little I did say was not entirely a failure.”
Indeed it was not. It gave the North new hope and purpose as to why it was fighting the war. Today, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is remembered as one of the greatest speeches of all time.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．Lincoln was asked to give a mini speech. |
| B．Lincoln was elected President on the victory of Gettysburg. |
| C．Lincoln’s speech was given to celebrate the end of the War. |
| D．Lincoln ordered the construction of a cemetery in Gettysburg. |
| A．To show the disappointment of the audience. |
| B．To show the greatness of Lincoln’s speech. |
| C．To laugh at Lincoln for his unsuccessful speech. |
| D．To tell us that Lincoln was very sad about his speech. |
| A．Sympathy. | B．Criticism. |
| C．Appreciation. | D．Embarrassment. |
| A．Because it was distinctively well constructed. |
| B．Because it was concise and delivered in a rich voice. |
| C．Because Everett, a great speaker, sang high praise for it. |
| D．Because people got hope and a sense of purpose from it. |
