With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
“Watch the clock” 的意思是 “因感到无聊、想要或需要做其它事情而频繁地查看时钟或手表上的时间”。你可以用名词 “clock-watcher” 指 “总是掐着点下班或休息的人”。
“Peace is indeed harder than war,” the Irish author Colum McCann recently wrote. “And its constant fragility is part of its beauty. A bullet need happen only once, but for peace to work we need to be reminded of its existence again and again and again.”
“Make headway” 表示 “在某个项目或任务上取得进展”。它也可以按字面意思使用，特别是在谈论与航行有关的话题时，表达 “make headway” 的意思是 “乘风破浪，前进”。
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
如果你 “get your head down（把你的头低下来）”，意思就是 “你把全部的精力集中在一项特定的任务上，全力以赴”。“Get your head down” 也可以表示 “躺下睡觉”。
But this question of domestic slavery is of far graver importance than any mere political question, because should the agitation continue it may eventually endanger the personal safety of a large portion of our countrymen where the institution exists.
合成形容词 “garden-variety” 的字面意思是 “花园品种”，实际所表达的意思是 “普通的，平常的，寻常的”。
But if your past is limited, your future is boundless. Its obligations throng the unexplored pathway of advancement, and will be limitless as duration. Hence a sound and comprehensive policy should embrace not less the distant future than the urgent present.
“Head in the clouds” 可以用来描述某人 “心不在焉，注意力不集中”。在谈论某人白日做梦、空想时，也可以使用这个表达。“Head in the clouds” 的另一个用法是形容某人的 “想法不切实际，异想天开”，可能暗指这个人 “脱离现实”。
As American freemen we can not but sympathize in all efforts to extend the blessings of civil and political liberty, but at the same time we are warned by the admonitions of history and the voice of our own beloved Washington to abstain from entangling alliances with foreign nations.
“March to the beat of a different drum” 的字面意思是 “踏着不同的鼓点前进”，它实际用来指
“某人不遵守社会规范，独树一帜、标新立异”。这个表达也可以被说成 “march to the beat of a different drummer”，意思不变。
Democracy was never meant to be transactional – you give me your vote; I make everything better. It requires an active and informed citizenry. So I am also asking you to believe in your own ability – to embrace your own responsibility as citizens – to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure.
英国剧作家威廉·莎士比亚在他的戏剧《凯撒大帝》中首次使用了表达 “beware the ides of March（谨防3月15日）”。这是预言者对凯撒的一个警告，提醒凯撒提防3月15日，随后他在这一天遇刺身亡。现在，人们用 “beware the ides of March” 来提醒他人要谨防可能发生的危险。
It is up to us to add our voices and our votes to the course of history, echoing heroes like John Lewis who said, “When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something.” That is the truest form of empathy: not just feeling, but doing; not just for ourselves or our kids, but for everyone, for all our kids.
当有人问你或告诉你一件意想不到的事情时，就可以使用表达 “spring something on someone（突然告知，冷不丁地问）” 来描述这一情况。这件事情通常可能是听讯者不知道的信息或不了解的工作，因此，这个表达多用来描述一个不愉快的意外。
As my daughters prepare to set out into the world, I want a leader who is worthy of that truth, a leader who is worthy of my girls’ promise and all our kids’ promise, a leader who will be guided every day by the love and hope and impossibly big dreams that we all have for our children.
“Steal a march on someone” 的意思是 “通过先发制人的方式获得优势，抢先对手一步”。这个表达可用在描述人与人或企业之间竞争的语境中。
We don’t turn back. We leave no one behind. We pull each other up. We draw strength from our victories, and we learn from our mistakes, but we keep our eyes fixed on that distant horizon, knowing that Providence is with us, and that we are surely blessed to be citizens of the greatest nation on Earth.
“Mother Nature” 的意思是 “大自然，自然界”，它用来描述 “自然界影响世间芸芸众生的力量”。
