文章背景介绍

● Author

Roger Rosenblatt is a journalist, author, playwright and professor. As an essayist for Time magazine, he has won two George Polk Awards, and awards from the Overseas Press Club and the American Bar Association.

● The Air Crash

On Jan. 13, 1982 one of the worst snowstorms in the history of Washington, D.C. hit the city. Just about everything closed down—the government, businesses, schools, the airports. By about noon, the skies cleared and Washington’s National Airport reopened for business. The crew of Air Florida Flight 90 began preparing for a nonstop trip to sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At 3:59 p.m., the twin-engine Boeing 737 was cleared for takeoff and began rumbling down the runway on its final flight.

Minutes later, the plane smashed into the 14th Street Bridge, only 1,200 yards from the Pentagon, destroying four automobiles and killing five people. The jet then fell into the ice-covered Potomac River, bringing all the passengers to their instant death except five—four passengers and one flight attendant—from the tail section, who found themselves gasping and struggling in the icy waters.

These five people however survived and they were able to survive because of four heroes. The author wrote this essay in praise of these heroes, three of whom had risked their lives to rescue the survivors and were able to live to tell the story, but the man that really held the whole nation’s attention was the fourth one who had kept pushing his lifeline and flotation rings to others until he went under.

● Washington, D.C.

● Presidential Monument

In recognition of his leadership in the cause of American independence, Washington earned the title “Father of His Country”. With this monument, the citizens of the United States show their enduring gratitude and respect for the first President of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson—political philosopher, architect, musician, book collector, scientist, horticulturist (园艺学家), diplomat, inventor, and third President of the United States, also author of the Declaration of American Independence, and Father of the University of Virginia.

The Lincoln Memorial is a tribute to President Abraham Lincoln and the nation he fought to preserve during the Civil War (1861-1865). The Lincoln Memorial was built to resemble a Greek temple. It has 36 Doric columns, one for each state at the time of Lincoln’s death. A sculpture by Daniel Chester French of a seated Lincoln is in the center of the memorial chamber.

● Potomac River

The Potomac River is often referred to as the “Nation’s River”, because it flows through the nation’s capital, where the magnificent monuments of the Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln memorials are reflected in its waters. It is one of the most beautiful and bountiful rivers on the East Coast and is known for its historic, scenic and recreational significance. It begins as a small spring at the Fairfax Stone in West Virginia, and winds its way through the mountains and valleys of Appalachia, past battlefields and old manufacturing towns. The river flows more than 380 miles and grows to more than 11 miles wide as it reaches the Chesapeake Bay at Point Lookout, Maryland.

●Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) is one of the most famous American essayists, poets and philosophers. Known as a transcendentalist, his main themes are individualism, independent thinking, self-reliance, idealism and the worship of nature. His works include Nature, Self-reliance, American Scholar, Overload and many other essays and poems.

Transcendentalism:

a philosophy/doctrine that knowledge may be obtained by a study of the mental processes, apart from experience.

先验哲学： 认为不必依赖经验仅研究心智活动即可获得知识的学说。

Quotes from Emerson:

“The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.” / “Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself.” / “Goodbye, proud world! I’m going home; Thou art not my friend; I am not thine.” / “A man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots, whose flower and fruitage is the world.”

Quotes from Emerson:

“Discontent is the want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will. ” / “Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.” / “Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff. ” / “The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one”