unit35 Rebel Wild Rose 叛逆的野玫瑰（在线收听）

Rebel Wild Rose

叛逆的野玫瑰

本文看点

罗斯?奥尼尔?格林豪是美国内战时期南部联盟的著名间谍,被称为“叛逆的野玫瑰”。她利用华盛顿社交名媛的身份以及个人的魅力与才智，渗入北方联邦政府的高层政治、军事机构，并多次将重要情报藏在女人的发髻里，交给南部作战将领，并因此两次被北方政府监禁。获释后，罗斯前往英国、欧洲为南部联盟的事业进行游说募捐。1864年，她乘坐一艘英国战舰偷越北方封锁线，在华盛顿附近的费尔岬河口船只搁浅。她登上一只小划艇逃避北方联军炮艇的追击，不幸船翻澧水身亡，死时年仅47岁。

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 (分离论者), 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 (渗透) 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 (偷越封锁线的船) 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 (倾覆) and she was dragged down by the weight of the gold she received in royalties (版税) 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 (墓志铭), "Mrs. Rose O'N. Greenhow, a bearer of dispatches to the Confederate Government."

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经典句型

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，操纵着一个旨在颠覆北部联军军事行动的间谍机构。

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. 她取下插在头发上的木梳，放下我所见过的最长最美丽的一卷头发，然后从头发里拿出一个小包裹。这个不如一个银元大的小包裹是用丝绸缝制的，被安全地捆扎在脑后的发髻里。

速记生词

accomplishment n. 成就 bear vt. 携带，带有

bearer n. 送信人 board vt. 登上(车、船、飞机)

coffin n. 棺材 courier n. 信使

covert adj. 隐蔽的 credit vt. [+ sb with…] 认为某人具有……

destination n. 目的地 dispatch n. 急件

exile vt. 流放 fervor n. 热情，狂热

flatter vt. 奉承 imprison vt. 监禁

intimate adj. 亲密的 marble n. 大理石

memoir n. 备忘录 passionate adj. 充满激情的

propagandist n. 宣传员 rowboat n. 划艇

undermine vt. (暗中)破坏 vein n. 血管

wrap vt. 包裹

流行短语

grand dame 名媛 on behalf of 代表

make it to…成功抵达 run aground 搁浅

the British Isles 英伦诸岛 the ruling class 统治阶层

知识链接 ―― 南北战争时期的几个重要人物(Important Figures in American Civil War)

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

美国女作家斯托夫人，是另一位对美国南北战争有着重大影响的女人，她的成名作《汤姆叔叔的小屋》（Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1851）引起了美国乃至世界其他国家对黑人奴隶制的关注与争议。1862年林肯总统接见她时说“So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!”（“您就是那为引发这场伟大真正的小妇人！”）