万花筒 Kaleidoscope 2007-06-24&25, 尼克松总统的传奇一生

Angela Drews and her colleagues at the National Archives have been packing for months.

Plain cardboard boxes with odds¹ and ends from the Nixon White House, including gifts given to the president, both priceless…

The gemstones in here are pink sapphires², which are very rare.

And worthless…

This is just an ordinary beach rock that a donor³ found on the beach, and they thought it looked like Richard Nixon.

Congress ordered all these stuff held here while all sorts of legal issues were settled.

This is the Nixon White House taping system.

John Powers has looked over and looked after a warehouse⁴ full of doodads and documents detailing the Nixon years.

This is the tape box, for the 18 1/2-minute gap. The tapes are also kept here in a vault⁵ that is off-limits to the public to preserve them and protect some still classified conversations.

Powers knows as much about the inner workings of the Nixon administration as you can, without ever having been indicted⁶.

So how well do you think you know Richard Nixon?

I know him pretty well.

You like him?

At times.

There are roughly 42 million pages of documents stored here, 500,000 photographs and 30,000 presidential gifts. It's a comprehensive record of history, not just as it was, but as it might have been.

OK, here, now we've got a problem here.

It turns out Nixon was prepared for anything, when the Apollo 13 spacecraft was severely⁷ damaged by an explosion. The astronauts made it back to earth, but if they hadn't, the president would have said this: they dared greatly, they died bravely. The world will long remember the searing human drama of Apollo 13.

I shall resign the presidency⁸ effective…

And though this is the most famous speech Nixon ever delivered, he also had one written that would have stunned⁹ the nation.

He was prepared to announce he would not resign.

He says, therefore, I shall see the constitutional process through whatever its outcome.

Of course his dreams of fighting on to vindication¹⁰ were just words on a piece of paper.

Now one of millions of documents researchers will soon start poring over, to help render history's judgment¹¹, on the legacy¹² of Richard Nixon.

Richard Schlesinger, CBS News, College Park, Maryland.

1 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

2 sapphires   

n.蓝宝石，钢玉宝石( sapphire的名词复数 )；蔚蓝色

参考例句：

• Again there was that moment of splintered sapphires before the lids, dropping like scales, extinguished it. 她眼眶中又闪烁出蓝宝石的光彩，接着眼睑象鱼鳞般地垂落下来，双目又黯然失色了。 来自辞典例句
• She also sported a somewhat gawdy gold watch set with diamonds and sapphires. 她还收到一块镶着钻石和蓝宝石的金表。 来自辞典例句

3 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

4 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

5 vault   

n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室

参考例句：

• The vault of this cathedral is very high.这座天主教堂的拱顶非常高。
• The old patrician was buried in the family vault.这位老贵族埋在家族的墓地里。

6 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

7 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

8 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

9 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

10 vindication   

n.洗冤，证实

参考例句：

• There is much to be said in vindication of his claim.有很多理由可以提出来为他的要求作辩护。
• The result was a vindication of all our efforts.这一结果表明我们的一切努力是必要的。

11 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

12 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。