如何像里根一样演讲

如何像里根一样演讲

半个世纪前，初出茅庐的罗纳德·里根以一篇《抉择时刻》的演讲震撼了美国。它的影响是如此之大，以至于被称为"The Speech"。英国作家萨姆·利思说，我们能从里根那儿学到很多东西，比如“不要选比新娘更漂亮的伴娘”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

make a case for 提出充分理由

detente 缓和局面

impromptu [ɪm'prɒm(p)tjuː] 即兴表演、演说

Reaganomics 里根经济学，主要内容是依靠减税、去管制和货币政策来治疗“滞胀”问题

lucid 清晰易懂的

bridesmaid 伴娘

ant heap 蚁丘

阅读即将开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用时间，并对照我们在文章最后给出的参考值来估算您的阅读速度。

Ronald Reagan’s career-making speech still shines 50 years on

by Sam Leith, October 27, 2014

* * *

What were the great turning points of the cold war? You could make a case that one was 50 years ago on Monday when Ronald Reagan gave a speech, “A Time For Choosing”, in support of the Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

The speech – or The Speech, as it became known – helped make Reagan’s political career. Shortly afterwards he was nominated to run for governor of California – which led on to the White House, the partnership with Margaret Thatcher, detente with Mikhail Gorbachev, perestroika(“reform” in Russian), impromptu wall-demolition in Germany, and all that jazz.

So what made “the Great Communicator” such a great communicator? There are abundant examples in this speech. Wherever you stand on Reaganomics, that is a lucid, cogent and fiercely persuasive statement of the case for small government and market freedoms, and a refusal to accommodate with communism.

One thing any business communicator can learn from is how it deals with statistics. It is packed, at least in the first half, with facts and figures: a nightmare in unskilled hands. They are given persuasive life by Reagan. Here is folksy style; philosophical wit; and above all a clever use of metaphor – which provides an easily grasped interpretation for the statistics.

The most quoted passage is the pivot: “You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down – [up to] a man’s old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.”

Here, introduced with that seductive “you and I” (inviting us into collusion against “they”), is a spatial metaphor: reframing right versus left as up versus down. And – with his ant heap image.

Also, instead of attacking the Democrats as a threat, he treated them as idiots who missed the point of a greater threat. His sonorous high style was reserved for the communist menace; the Democrats, he made fun of them. That’s far deadlier.

In a splendid reductio ad absurdum(reduction to absurdity), he quoted an optimist on the $298bn hole in the Social Security budget: “He said there should be no cause for worry because as long as they have the power to tax, they could always take away from the people whatever they needed to bail them out of trouble.”

Another jewel: “For three decades, we’ve sought to solve the problems of unemployment through government planning, and the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.” One more: “Well, the trouble with our Democrat friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”

What did this brilliant speech do for Goldwater? He lost the election by miles. People concluded that someone had the vision thing; and that someone was Reagan rather than Goldwater. Which offers an extra lesson: don’t – figuratively speaking – pick a bridesmaid who’s much prettier than the bride.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1. What is correct about this speech?

a. With it, Reagan accpeted his candidacy for governor of California.

b. The speech helped Barry Goldwater win the presidency in 1964.

c. Reagan called for the demolition of the Berlin Wall.

d. The speech paved the way for his future presidency.

2. How did Reagan manage statistics?

a. He was simply "the Great Communicator".

b. He used mataphors for the audience to grasp the idea.

c. He packed only the first half of his speech with numbers.

3. How did he criticize the Democrats?

a. He attacked them as a threat.

b. He pictured the opponents' policy as "ant heap".

c. He used reductio ad absurdum to make fun of them.

[1] 答案d. The speech paved the way for his future presidency.

解释：这次演讲helped make Reagan’s political career.

[2] 答案b. He used mataphors for the audience to grasp the idea.

解释：他的接地气的风格、哲学般的睿智，以及最重要的是聪明的运用了比喻，使得听众能很容易把握他的数据的要点。presentation中堆积数据是生手容易犯的错误。

[3] 答案c. He used reductio ad absurdum to make fun of them.

解释：用归谬法批判对手的观点是非常好用的，以此来嘲弄对方是非常致命的。he treated them as idiots who missed the point.