每日英语口语练习 2026-09-19（星期六）

周末综合 · 名人演讲名篇（全文收录）主题：Franklin D. Roosevelt 首次就职演说（1933）“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” 来源：Yale Avalon Project 权威全文今日时长：6 分钟（含全文跟读 + 即兴发挥）

📖 原文/对话（来源：First Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt, March 4, 1933）

I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.

Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.

Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.

In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others— the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.

If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.

Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.

It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stem performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.

🎬 视频/音频资源

📝 重点词汇（8-10 个）

candor /ˈkændər/ n. 坦率、直言 — He spoke with candor about the crisis.
preeminently /priˈemɪnəntli/ adv. 最突出地、尤其是 — This is preeminently the time to speak the truth.
curtailment /kɜːrˈteɪlmənt/ n. 削减、缩减 — Governments faced serious curtailment of income.
abdicate /ˈæbdɪkeɪt/ v. 放弃（职责）、退位 — They admitted their failure and abdicated.
unscrupulous /ʌnˈskruːpjələs/ adj. 肆无忌惮的、不讲道德的 — Unscrupulous money changers misled the public.
exhortation /ˌeɡzɔːrˈteɪʃn/ n. 劝诫、敦促 — They resorted to tearful exhortations for confidence.
evanescent /ˌevəˈnesnt/ adj. 转瞬即逝的 — the mad chase of evanescent profits
resolutely /ˈrezəluːtli/ adv. 坚决地、毅然 — the good neighbor who resolutely respects himself
interdependence /ˌɪntərdɪˈpendəns/ n. 相互依存 — We realize our interdependence on each other.
sanctity /ˈsæŋktəti/ n. 神圣、庄严 — He respects the sanctity of his agreements.

💬 跟读练习建议

分段跟读：把全文按语意切成 4 个意群——①开场定调（第 1 段）；②直面困境（第 2–5 段）；③价值观重构（第 6–9 段）；④行动号召（第 10 段至结尾）。逐段模仿罗斯福沉稳、安抚性的电台语调。
双轨练习：同一段先以「朗读角色」慢速逐句示范，再以「跟读角色」原速复诵两遍；遇到长句先拆成意群再连读。
换气点：在分号与长句的逗号处自然停顿换气，例如 “Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; / taxes have risen; / our ability to pay has fallen;” 用三连短句制造节奏。
重读锚点：务必重读 “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” 中的 fear itself，并让结尾 “May He guide me in the days to come.” 用轻柔、上扬的祈愿语气收束。

🔄 即兴口语练习

If you were addressing a nation in crisis, what would you say first?（若由你向危机中的国民讲话，你会先说什么？）
- 参考要点：先坦诚承认现实（如 FDR 的 “speak the truth, the whole truth”），再给出希望与具体行动方向，避免空话；可用 “The first thing I would say is… / What we need now is…” 起句。
What does “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” mean to you in daily life?（这句话在你日常生活中意味着什么？）
- 参考要点：焦虑与恐惧往往比问题本身更阻碍行动；面对考试、演讲或转行时，先把”怕”拆成可执行的步骤；可用 “To me it means… / When I feel anxious, I try to…” 展开。
Do you think leaders should show vulnerability? Why or why not?（你认为领导者该展现脆弱吗？为什么？）
- 参考要点：坦诚能建立信任（对应 candor）；但也要有 vigor 与方向感；可用 “I think… because… / On one hand… on the other hand…” 做平衡论述。

📋 发音技巧提示

弱读与连读：“the only thing we have to fear” 中 we 弱读为 /wi/，have 与 to 之间自然连读 /hæv tə/；整句避免在每个词上都重读，保持主重音落在 only、fear、itself。
元音对比：练习 endure /ɪnˈdʊr/ 的短 /ʊ/ 与 prosperity /prɑːˈsperəti/ 的长 /ɑː/，以及 shrunken /ˈʃrʌŋkən/ 的 /ʌ/，避免把 “prosper” 读成 /ˈprɒspər/。
排比重音递进：“nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror” 三个形容词用阶梯式重音（nameless → unreasoning → unJUSTified）层层加重，营造排比气势；“action, and action now” 中第二个 action 须明显加重并短促收尾。

🗣 今日金句

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” 我们唯一需要恐惧的，就是恐惧本身。