午后咖啡unit35 Rebel Wild Rose 叛逆的野玫瑰

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叛逆的野玫瑰

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羅斯?奧尼爾?格林豪是美國內(nèi)戰(zhàn)時(shí)期南部聯(lián)盟的著名間諜,被稱為“叛逆的野玫瑰”。她利用華盛頓社交名媛的身份以及個(gè)人的魅力與才智，滲入北方聯(lián)邦政府的高層政治、軍事機(jī)構(gòu)，并多次將重要情報(bào)藏在女人的發(fā)髻里，交給南部作戰(zhàn)將領(lǐng)，并因此兩次被北方政府監(jiān)禁。獲釋后，羅斯前往英國、歐洲為南部聯(lián)盟的事業(yè)進(jìn)行游說募捐。1864年，她乘坐一艘英國戰(zhàn)艦偷越北方封鎖線，在華盛頓附近的費(fèi)爾岬河口船只擱淺。她登上一只小劃艇逃避北方聯(lián)軍炮艇的追擊，不幸船翻澧水身亡，死時(shí)年僅47歲。

Rose O'Neal Greenhow (1817 – 1864) was born in Montgomery County, Maryland. “Rebel Wild Rose", as she was sometimes called, was a distinguished hostess in Washington society, a passionate secessionist (分離論者), and one of the most renowned spies in the Civil War.

“I am a Southern woman," she wrote, "born with revolutionary blood in my veins”. It was this fervor--along with her many intimate connections in the capital--that made Greenhow, a prime rebel recruit when the Civil War finally broke out in April 1861. She proved her worth as a spy in a very short time. From her home on 16th Street NW, Greenhow was running a spy ring meant to undermine the Union war effort. Her efforts on behalf of the South were relentless. "She did a better job than most in infiltrating (滲透) the political and military elite of Washington," says Tyler Anbinder, associate professor of history at George Washington University. "She flattered men into revealing sensitive information." With her charm, intellect and ambition, as well as through her husband, Robert, a State Department official whom she married in 1835, Rose Greenhow came to know virtually everyone of importance in Washington. Among her accomplishments was the ten-word secret message she sent to General Pierre G.T. Beauregard which ultimately caused him to win the battle of Bull Run. She spied so successfully for the Confederacy that Jefferson Davis credited her with winning the battle of Manassas.

Her courier, a young woman named Betty Duvall, rode out of Washington dressed as a country girl. Meeting Gen. Milledge L. Bonham at the Fairfax County Courthouse, Duvall advised him that she had an urgent message for Gen. Beauregard. "Upon my announcing that I would have it faithfully forwarded at once," Bonham later recalled, "she took out her tucking comb and let fall the longest and most beautiful roll of hair I have ever seen. She took from the back of her head, where it had been safely tied, a small package, not larger than a silver dollar, sewed up in silk."

Washington has seen plenty of covert operatives, as well as highly connected grand dames, but Greenhow managed to unite the two professions in herself. Indeed Greenhow's covert activities did attract unfavorable attention in Washington. She was imprisoned for her efforts first in her own home and then in the Old Capital Prison. Despite her confinement, Greenhow continued getting messages to the Confederacy by means of cryptic (秘密的) notes which traveled in unlikely places such as the inside of a woman's bun of hair. After her second prison term, she was exiled to the Confederate states where she was received warmly by President Jefferson Davis.

Her next mission was to tour Britain and France as a propagandist for the Confederate cause. Two months after her arrival in London, her memoirs were published and enjoyed a wide sale throughout the British Isles. In Europe, Greenhow found a strong sympathy for the South, especially among the ruling classes. In 1864, after a year abroad, she boarded the Condor, a British blockade-runner (偷越封鎖線的船) which was to take her home. Just before reaching her destination, the vessel ran aground at the mouth of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. In order to avoid the Union gunboat that pursued her ship, Rose fled in a rowboat, but never made it to shore. Her little boat capsized (傾覆) and she was dragged down by the weight of the gold she received in royalties (版稅) for her book.

In October 1864, Rose was buried with full military honors in the Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington. Her coffin was wrapped in the Confederate flag and carried by Confederate troops. The marker for her grave, a marble cross, bears the epitaph (墓志銘), "Mrs. Rose O'N. Greenhow, a bearer of dispatches to the Confederate Government."

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經(jīng)典句型

1. From her home on 16th Street NW, Greenhow was running a spy ring meant to undermine the Union war effort. 克林豪夫人在自己西北第16街的府邸，操縱著一個(gè)旨在顛覆北部聯(lián)軍軍事行動的間諜機(jī)構(gòu)。

2. She took out her tucking comb and let fall the longest and most beautiful roll of hair I have ever seen. She took from the back of her head, where it had been safely tied, a small package, not larger than a silver dollar, sewed up in silk. 她取下插在頭發(fā)上的木梳，放下我所見過的最長最美麗的一卷頭發(fā)，然后從頭發(fā)里拿出一個(gè)小包裹。這個(gè)不如一個(gè)銀元大的小包裹是用絲綢縫制的，被安全地捆扎在腦后的發(fā)髻里。

速記生詞

accomplishment n. 成就 bear vt. 攜帶，帶有

bearer n. 送信人 board vt. 登上(車、船、飛機(jī))

coffin n. 棺材 courier n. 信使

covert adj. 隱蔽的 credit vt. [+ sb with…] 認(rèn)為某人具有……

destination n. 目的地 dispatch n. 急件

exile vt. 流放 fervor n. 熱情，狂熱

flatter vt. 奉承 imprison vt. 監(jiān)禁

intimate adj. 親密的 marble n. 大理石

memoir n. 備忘錄 passionate adj. 充滿激情的

propagandist n. 宣傳員 rowboat n. 劃艇

undermine vt. (暗中)破壞 vein n. 血管

wrap vt. 包裹

流行短語

grand dame 名媛 on behalf of 代表

make it to…成功抵達(dá) run aground 擱淺

the British Isles 英倫諸島 the ruling class 統(tǒng)治階層

知識鏈接 ―― 南北戰(zhàn)爭時(shí)期的幾個(gè)重要人物(Important Figures in American Civil War)

1. Harriet Beecher Stowe哈瑞特?比切爾?斯托(1811-1896)

美國女作家斯托夫人，是另一位對美國南北戰(zhàn)爭有著重大影響的女人，她的成名作《湯姆叔叔的小屋》(Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1851)引起了美國乃至世界其他國家對黑人奴隸制的關(guān)注與爭議。1862年林肯總統(tǒng)接見她時(shí)說“So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!”(“您就是那為引發(fā)這場偉大真正的小婦人!”)