Text D Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) served as America's thirty-second president of the United States. He was elected to an unprecedented four terms and served during the Great Depression and World War II.
1. In June 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt received the Democratic presidential nomination. At first glance, he did not look like a man who could relate to other peoples’ suffering -- Roosevelt had spent his entire life in the lap of luxury.
2. Born in 1882 to one of New York's wealthiest families, Roosevelt enjoyed a privileged youth. He attended Groton, an exclusive private school, and then went to Harvard University and Columbia Law School. After three years in the New York state senate, Roosevelt was tapped by President Wilson to serve as assistant secretary of the navy in 1913. His status as the rising star of the Democratic Party was confirmed when James Cox chose Roosevelt as his running mate in the presidential election of 1920.
3. Handsome and outgoing, Roosevelt seemed to have a bright political future. Then disaster struck. In 1921, he was stricken with polio(脊髓灰质炎). The disease left him paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Instead of retiring, however, Roosevelt labored diligently to return to public life. “If you had spent two years in bed trying to wiggle（摆动） your toe,” he later declared, “after that anything would seem easy.”
4. Buoyed（鼓舞） by an exuberant（旺盛的）optimism and devoted political allies, Roosevelt won the governorship of New York in 1928 -- one of the few Democrats to survive the Republican landslide（一方占绝对优势的选举）. Surrounding himself with able advisors, Roosevelt labored to convert New York into a laboratory for reform, involving conservation, old-age pensions, public works projects, and unemployment insurance.
5. In his acceptance speech before the Democratic convention in Chicago, Roosevelt promised “a New Deal for the American people.” Although his speech contained few concrete proposals, Roosevelt radiated（散发）confidence, giving many desperate voters hope. He even managed during the campaign to turn his lack of a blueprint into an asset, offering instead a policy of experimentation. （摸着石头过河）“It is common sense to take a method and try it,” he declared, “if it fails, admit it frankly and try another.”
Questions for Discussion or Reflection
1. What qualities of President Roosevelt impress you most?
2. “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails,
admit it frankly and try another.” Comment on this quotation.
Proper Names
Franklin D. Roosevelt 富兰克林·D.罗斯福
Franklin D.Roosevelt, the only president of the four terms in the history of the United States.
He lifted himself from his wheelchair and liberated the whole country from its own surrender.
He overthrew more precedents than anyone, and he smashed more ancient structures than anyone, and he changed the whole face of the United States more rapidly and fiercely than anyone else. However, it is his deepest conviction that the whole building of the United States is quite good.
富兰克林·罗斯福，美国历史上唯一的四连任总统。他从其轮椅上站起来，把整个国家从屈服中解放出来。他推翻的先例比任何人都多，打碎的古老体系结构比任何人都多，他比任何人都更迅速、更猛烈地改变了美国的整个面貌。然而，他最深信不疑的是，美国整体上来说相当不错。
Iowa 爱荷华州
the Great Depression 经济大萧条
the New Deal 新政
Woodrow Wilson 伍德罗·威尔逊
Notes
1. Woodrow Wilson: He was son of a Presbyterian minister. He was born in Staunton, Virginia, in 1856. Educated at Princeton, the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University, he became a professor at Princeton. He also published the book, “History of the American People”. In 1912, he was elected as the twenty-eighth president of the United States.
2. Laissez-faire: Laissez- faire is a term used to describe a policy of allowing events to take their own course. The term is a French phrase literally meaning “let do” (“allow to do”). The term is often used to refer to various economic philosophies and political philosophies which seek to minimize or eliminate government intervention in most or all aspects of society.
