十二月一日SAT 歷史文章竟然考出了文學評論

What else can happen The States, even in their own despite? That huge English flow, so sweet, so undeniable, has done incalculable good here, and is to be spoken of for its own sake with generous praise and with gratitude. Yet the price The States have had to lie under for the same has not been a small price. Payment prevails; a nation can never take the issues of the needs of other nations for nothing. America, grandest of lands in the theory of its politics, in popular reading, in hospitality, breadth, animal beauty, cities, ships, machines, money, credit, collapses quick as lightning at the repeated, admonishing, stern words, Where are any mental expressions from you, beyond what you have copied or stolen? Where the born throngs of poets, literats, orators, you promised? Will you but tag after other nations? They struggled long for their literature, painfully working their way, some with deficient languages, some with priest-craft, some in the endeavor just to live—yet achieved for their times, works, poems, perhaps the only solid consolation left to them through ages afterward of shame and decay. You are young, have the perfectest of dialects, a free press, a free government, the world forwarding its best to be with you. As justice has been strictly done to you, from this hour do strict justice to yourself. Strangle the singers who will not sing you loud and strong. Open the doors of The West. Call for new great masters to comprehend new arts, new perfections, new wants. Submit to the most robust bard till he remedy your barrenness. Then you will not need to adopt the heirs of others; you will have true heirs, begotten of yourself, blooded with your own blood.”

（本翻譯屬於白話解釋，並不是逐字翻譯，原文其實很難，沒那麼好懂。）

「那麼，美國有什麼樣的弱點呢？美國承襲了英國的語言，這是無比的恩澤，我們當感恩讚嘆。但是，拿了人家的東西，總是要付出代價的，而且這個代價不小，至今仍然影響著我們的社會。美利堅地大物博，峨巍浩蕩，為其他國家所莫能及。我們的政治理論與學術理論成就輝煌，人民古道熱腸，而且生態之美，世界無雙。我們的城市、船隻、機械、金錢、銀行，都是世界第一。但是，我們的文學卻慘到不行。我們只會抄襲別的國家的文學，沒有自己的傳統。一個國家，應當要有偉大的詩人、偉大的小說家、偉大的演說家，美國卻沒有。美國難道只會山寨別人的嗎？許多國家經歷了許久的奮鬥，披荊斬棘，篳路藍縷，最終樹立了自身的文學傳統。這些國家有些甚至連語言都有缺陷，有些受到巫術迷惑，有些國家生存都有問題了，但是他們卻產生了偉大的文學作品、偉大的詩作。或許，對這些國家來說，文學是衰敗與屈辱的過程中唯一的慰藉吧。美國很年輕，美國的語言比其他國家都來得高等，美國有言論自由，有民主政府，總而言之，美國有得天獨厚的條件。有這麼好的條件，不創造傑出的文學作品，實在是對不起自己吧！假若你寫了首詩，歌唱家卻不願意把你的詩唱出來，那就掐死他吧！讓我們開啟西方之門，呼召偉大的藝術家來創作偉大的作品。讓我們用詩人來潤澤大地，讓貧瘠的土地長出果實來。如此一來，美國就不需要依靠別的國家的傳統了，因為美國將會樹立自己的傳統。」

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舉例來說：

That huge English flow, so sweet, so undeniable, has done incalculable good here, and is to be spoken of for its own sake with generous praise and with gratitude.

這句其實想說的就是：「美國承襲了英國的語言，很好。」核心意思讀出來就好，其他的修飾就不用在意了。

同樣地：

America, grandest of lands in the theory of its politics, in popular reading, in hospitality, breadth, animal beauty, cities, ships, machines, money, credit, collapses quick as lightning at the repeated, admonishing, stern words, Where are any mental expressions from you, beyond what you have copied or stolen? Where the born throngs of poets, literats, orators, you promised? Will you but tag after other nations?

這句話非常難理解。主詞為America，動詞為後面的collapses。至於at the repeated, admonishing, stern words，指的則是後面的那些問題。Where are any mental expressions from you, beyond what you have copied or stolen? Where the born throngs of poets, literats, orators, you promised? Will you but tag after other nations? 簡單來說，這句話的意思是，美國很厲害，但是卻無法回答一個admonishing又stern的問題：你們的詩人在哪裡？因此，這整段的意思是，美國的科技跟政治都很厲害，但是文學卻慘到不行，只會抄人家的。

接下來：
Will you but tag after other nations? They struggled long for their literature, painfully working their way, some with deficient languages, some with priest-craft, some in the endeavor just to live—yet achieved for their times, works, poems, perhaps the only solid consolation left to them through ages afterward of shame and decay.
Will you but tag after other nations? 的tag這個字，用前後文脈絡可以猜得出來是抄襲或是山寨的意思。這種猜字的能力很重要，畢竟不可能每個字都看得懂。另外，要理解這段，就必須理解畫底線的那個they指的是什麼。They指的是上一句的other nations。這樣就很好懂了。核心意涵就是：「其他爛國家都有文學了！（美國那麼強，怎麼可以沒有？）」

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