亚伯拉罕·林肯 / Abraham Lincoln
亚伯拉罕·林肯（1809—1865），美国第十六届总统。出身于肯塔基州一个农民家庭。从7岁开始就帮助父母放牛、耕地和打柴。当过雇农、船夫、小店铺里的伙计，后来又当过乡村邮递员和土地测量员。他一生在学校学习的时间加起来不到一年，但是他刻苦勤学，通过自学成为一位博学的人。他先后任过州议员、律师、众议员，并于1856年加入共和党。他反对奴隶制度，认为奴隶制度违反自由平等原则。但他又不是废奴主义者，他只是要求限制奴隶制向西部扩张。任内发表了《解放宣言》，提出“民有、民治、民享”的口号，并领导人民投入南北战争，重新统一了美国。1864年连任总统。1865年4月14日被南方奴隶主反对派指使的暴徒杀害。
Practicing for Better Learning
Read the following article carefully,and answer the questions below.
1.According to the author, what influences will the Civil War bring to America?
2.What does“the great task”imply?
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new Nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.Now, we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that Nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.We are met on a great battlefield of that war.We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that Nation might live.It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.It is for us, the living,rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not died in vain; that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the People, by the People, and for the People, shall not perish from the earth.