Who Was Ronald Reagan 罗纳德·威尔逊·里根 Chapter 1 A Boy Called “Dutch”

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, on February 6, 1911. It was a snowy day, and his father left the general store where he worked and made his way home through the snowdrifts. Jack¹ Reagan ran up the stairs to his family’s apartment, a one-room flat on the second floor over a bakery. When he saw his new son, he laughed. “Why, he looks like a fat little Dutchman!”

The nickname² stuck. The baby was known as “Dutch” all through his childhood.

Jack Reagan was a tall, handsome man who loved to tell stories and talk about politics. He was a good salesman. But every so often, he would go out and get drunk³.

When Jack started to drink, he often ended up losing his job. Usually that meant that the family would have to start over in a new town. The Reagans moved a lot.

Although this often made things hard on Dutch, when he was older, Ronald Reagan remembered how much he appreciated growing up in a small town.

He said, “You get to know people as individuals … The dreams of people may differ, but everybody wants their dreams to come true … And America, above all places, gives us the freedom to do that.”

Dutch and his older brother, Neil, were always the new boys in school. This didn’t seem to bother Neil. He would find a group of boys to hang around with.

Dutch was more of a loner. He liked to hike along the banks of the Rock River, pretending to be a fur trapper of long ago. In one house the Reagans rented, Dutch found an old collection of butterflies and birds’ eggs in the attic⁴. He spent a lot of time studying them.

Dutch’s mother was Nelle Wilson Reagan. Nelle Reagan was a very cheerful person. She always said that God had a plan for her life, so there was no reason to worry or feel sad.

Wherever the Reagans moved, Nelle always found some needy⁵ family to help. She even visited prisoners in the jails⁶, bringing them apples and crackers⁷. Nelle never seemed to notice that the Reagans were poor themselves.

For Sunday dinner, Nelle would feed the family liver⁸, not roast beef or chicken. Instead of hamburgers, she fried⁹ up patties made of oatmeal. They tasted awful!

Years went by before Dutch figured out that Nelle served these meals because she didn’t have enough money to buy anything better. As a little boy, he thought his mother was just a bad cook.

When Dutch and Neil were little, Nelle read them stories every night. She would read slowly and point to each word as she said it aloud. By the time he was five, Dutch was able to read the newspapers on his own.

Dutch read a lot of books, mainly boys’ adventure stories. He read novels about Tarzan, the king of the jungle, and novels about some characters called the Rover Boys.

Dutch also liked to draw funny pictures. He thought that when he grew up, he would like to be a cartoonist. Maybe he could draw his own comic strip¹⁰.

Jack Reagan was an Irish American and a Catholic¹¹. But he was not a very religious man. Dutch later joked that his dad was the kind of Catholic who gave up going to church for Lent.

Neil usually followed what his dad did. So he became a Catholic, too. However, Dutch decided¹² to join his mother’s church. It was called the Disciples¹³ of Christ¹⁴. He was baptized when he was eleven years old.

Nelle was against drinking alcohol¹⁵. She even wrote a play about how drunkenness caused family fights. It was performed at her church. Although Jack Reagan promised to give up drinking, he kept going back to his old ways.

Even Prohibition¹⁶, which made buying liquor¹⁷ illegal, didn’t change him.

One day, when Dutch was eleven, he came home in the evening and found his father passed out in the snow, on the steps leading to the front door.

Dutch woke his dad up and helped him inside. He was angry and embarrassed. What if the neighbors had seen his father drunk?

When his mother came home, she sat Dutch down for a long talk. “Don’t turn against your dad,” she told him. “He has a sickness. He just can’t help himself.”

Dutch tried to follow his mother’s advice. Anger was just a waste of energy. He would try to think positive thoughts.

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 nickname   

n.绰号，昵称；v.给...取绰号，叫错名字

参考例句：

• She called me by my nickname.她叫我的外号。
• Why do you fasten such a nickname on her?你为什么给她取这样一个绰号？

3 drunk   

adj.醉酒的；(喻)陶醉的；n.酗酒者，醉汉

参考例句：

• People who drives when they are drunk should be heavily penalised.醉酒驾车的人应受重罚。
• She found him drunk when she came home at night.她晚上回家时，经常发现他醉醺醺的。

4 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

5 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

6 jails   

监狱( jail的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Accounts of cruel tortures in the jails of the reactionary government would curl one's hair. 关于反动政府监狱里酷刑情况的介绍听了会叫人毛骨悚然。
• The jails were full of prominent citizens and there they stayed without hope of early trial. 监狱里关满了有声望的市民，他们待在那里没有获得早日审判的希望。

7 crackers   

adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘

参考例句：

• That noise is driving me crackers. 那噪声闹得我简直要疯了。
• We served some crackers and cheese as an appetiser. 我们上了些饼干和奶酪作为开胃品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 liver   

n.肝；肝脏

参考例句：

• He has a weak liver.他的肝脏不好。
• The largest organ in the body is the liver.人体最大的器官是肝脏。

9 fried   

adj.油煎的；油炒的

参考例句：

• I ate everything fried.所有油炸的我都吃。
• I prefer fried peanuts.我选择炸花生。

10 strip   

n.长条，条状；连环漫画；n.脱衣舞；vt.脱衣，剥夺；挤干(牛奶)；vt.拆卸；去除(烟叶的茎)；vi.脱衣，表演脱衣舞；剥落

参考例句：

• I need one more strip of cloth to finish this decoration.我还要一根布条来完成这个装饰品。
• We had to strip the old paint from the doors.我们只好把门上的旧漆刮掉。

11 catholic   

adj.天主教的；n.天主教徒

参考例句：

• The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。
• She was a devoutly Catholic.她是一个虔诚地天主教徒。

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

13 disciples   

n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一

参考例句：

• Judas was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. 犹大是耶稣十二门徒之一。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• "The names of the first two disciples were --" “最初的两个门徒的名字是——” 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

14 Christ   

n.基督，救世主，耶稣

参考例句：

• I regarded him as the Christ.我把他当作救世主。
• Christ preached that we should love each other.基督在布道中说人们应该互爱。

15 alcohol   

n.酒精，乙醇；含酒精的饮料

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors.法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。
• The alcohol is industrial.这些酒精是供工业用的。

16 prohibition   

n.禁止；禁令，禁律

参考例句：

• The prohibition against drunken driving will save many lives.禁止酒后开车将会减少许多死亡事故。
• They voted in favour of the prohibition of smoking in public areas.他们投票赞成禁止在公共场所吸烟。

17 liquor   

n.酒，烈性酒

参考例句：

• He keeps away from liquor and tobacco.他不喝酒，不抽烟。
• The liquor is not strong enough.这酒不够劲儿。