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Time：高雄第17次例會，2008年6月8日（週日）下午16:00~18:00
Place：
viewtopic.php?t=15
Time:
16:00 ~16:45(Free Talks)
16:45~18:00 (Topic Discussion)
Host:Cheng-hong Lo
Assistant Host:Alice Chen
Topic: An Exceptional Case
Election Year Rhetoric Focuses on America’s Role in the World
Source: CNN Interactive English May 2008 NO.92 P46~P50
CNN ANCHOR
Barrack Obama is looking for a victory in Mississippi’s primary on Tuesday following a decisive win in Saturday’s Wyoming caucuses. The Obama-Clinton race dominates the U.S election coverage now that John McCain has clinched the Republican nomination, but when you listen to the candidates this year you can hear a similarity in their rhetoric no matter what party they represent. Now it’s especially noticeable from outside the United States. Jill Dougherty now with a look at just what that is.
JILL DOUGHERTY CNN REPORTER
Why do U.S presidential candidates talk this way?
JOHN MCCAIN, REP. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
We are the world’s leader.
HILLARY CLINTON, DEM. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
Together we will seize this moment, lift this nation and heal and lead this world.
BARACK OBAMA, DEM. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
The United States of America is and always will be the last, best hope on Earth.
JILL DOUGHERTY CNN REPORTER
“The last, best hope of Earth.” Other American politicians have used that phrase. It was coined by Abraham Lincoln back in 1862. It’s part of a long tradition of U.S political rhetoric that depicts the United States as unique in world history---as Ronald Reagan put it in 1989, a “shining city upon a hill.”
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER U.S PRESIDENT
And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness toward home.
JILL DOUGHERTY CNN REPORTER
That “city upon a hill” comes from Puritan leader John Winthrop who used it more than three centuries ago. The current resident of the White House has put the United States’ version of democracy at the center of his foreign policy. Here’s what President Bush said in his second inaugural address:
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S PRESIDENT
So, it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movement and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.
JILL DOUGHERTY CNN REPORTER
But in today’s world, this “American exceptionalism,” as it’s called, this idea of America’s uniqueness, often is understood abroad as a declaration of American superiority: the united states acting unilaterally, rejecting any attempt to question its good intentions. Here, at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, Americans we spoke with agree their country is unique, but they sat they’re not out to convince the rest of the world that American values right for everyone.
RACHEL ARMY, TEACHER
I have a lot of pride in our government, but, at the same time, it is ours and I don’t think that it’s right to force it on other people.
JERMANE BONILLA
I’m not sure if it’s the same model that everybody needs to be using, but certainly the United States is a special country.
JILL DOUGHERTY CNN REPORTER
That’s exactly what the book analyzing the roots of anti-Americanism around the globe shows. The authors, president of the Pew Research Center Andrew Kohut and journalist Bruce Stokes, analyzed a series of international surveys, plus more than 100,000 interviews in 60 countries.
“American’ pride in their country is not evangelistic,” they say. ”The American people, as opposed to some of their leaders, seek no converts to their ideology.” It’s true, the authors say, American are more likely to express their pride and patriotism, especially compared with western Europeans. They say their findings show Americans are far more likely to say, quoting here, “We think the American way is great. We assume you want to be like us, but if you don’t, that’s really not our concern.”
Vocabulary:
Questions:
1.What do you think of American?
2.Do you agree with the way American think?
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