The Words That Changed A Nation
On a grey afternoon on 19 November 1863, a tall, thin man mounted① a platform in a field in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and began to speak.The place was the site of a recent battle [1]where thousands of soldiers had died.The man was Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and he was there in memory of② the soldiers [2]who had died.The speech [3]he gave was just 268 words long and lasted two minutes.But this address③ to the crowd changed the minds of his people and helped shape④ a nation.
[1]where引导定语从句，修饰a recent battle。
[2]who引导定语从句，修饰the soldiers。
[3]he gave为定语从句，修饰The speech，从句省略了关系代词that或which。
At that time, America was bitterly⑤ divided⑥.For two years, its people had been deep in a civil⑦ war between the slave⑧owning Confederate⑨ Southern States and the “free” Northern States of the Union⑩.The worst battle lasted three days and took place at Gettysburg in 1863.The Union side won, but at a great cost?.Over 50,000 soldiers were killed or wounded, and people lost hope and purpose.What was all this suffering for?
Lincoln understood the feelings of the civilian? people.His speech gave them hope, belief? and a reason [4]to look to the future.He gave them a new vision of [5]what the United States of America should be, based on the ideals set down? by its Founding Fathers 87 years before.It was [6]what the soldiers had died for.Now it was up to the living to remove not only the divisions? between North and South, but the boundaries between black and white, and work step by step? towards the equality? of humankind.
[4]动词不定式短语作定语，修饰名词reason。
[5]what引导宾语从句；过去分词短语based on ...在句中作状语；过去分词短语set down by its Founding Fathers 87 years before作定语，修饰the ideals。
[6]what引导表语从句，在从句中作宾语。
Four score? and seven years ago our fathers brought forth?， upon this continent, a new nation, conceived? in Liberty， and dedicated to the proposition [7]that all men are created equal.
[7]that引导同位语从句，作the proposition的同位语。
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, [8]testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure.We are met here on a great battlefield of that war.We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those [9]who here gave their lives that that nation might live.[10]It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
[8]现在分词短语testing ...作定语，修饰civil war；whether引导宾语从句。
[9]who引导定语从句，修饰代词those；第一个that引导目的状语从句，省略了so。
[10]It作形式主语；that引导主语从句。
But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow this ground.The brave men, living and dead, [11]who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.The world will little note， nor long remember, [12]what we say here, but can never forget [13]what they did here.It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work [14]which they have, thus far， so nobly carried on.[15]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 here gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain；that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
(“The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln)
[11]who引导非限制性定语从句，修饰The brave men。
[12]what引导宾语从句，作动词remember的宾语。
[13]what引导宾语从句，作动词forget 的宾语。
[14]which引导定语从句，修饰the unfinished work。
[15]本句为主从复合句。其中含有四个that引导的同位语从句，它们均为名词task的同位语。for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion为定语从句，修饰that cause；that these dead shall not have died in vain为宾语从句，作动词resolve的宾语。
