Questão2016Inglês
(UECE - 2016/2)
President Obamas Speech in Hiroshima, Japan
[1]Seventy-one years ago, on a bright cloudless morning, death fell from the sky andthe world was changed. A flash of light and awall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated[5]that mankind possessed the means to destroyitself.
It is not the fact of war that setsHiroshima apart. Artifacts tell us that violentconflict appeared with the very first man. Our[10]early ancestors having learned to make bladesfrom flint and spears from wood used thesetools not just for hunting but against theirown kind. On every continent, the history ofcivilization is filled with war, whether driven[15]by scarcity of grain or hunger for gold, compelled by nationalist fervor or religious zeal.Empires have risen and fallen. Peoples havebeen subjugated and liberated. And at eachjuncture, innocents have suffered, a countless[20]toll, their names forgotten by time.
The world war that reached its brutalend in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was foughtamong the wealthiest and most powerful ofnations. Their civilizations had given the world[25]great cities and magnificent art. Their thinkershad advanced ideas of justice and harmonyand truth. And yet the war grew out of thesame base instinct for domination or conquestthat had caused conflicts among the simplest[30]tribes, an old pattern amplified by newcapabilities and without new constraints.
In the image of a mushroom cloud thatrose into these skies, we are most starkly reminded of humanitys core contradiction.[35]How the very spark that marks us as aspecies, our thoughts, our imagination, ourlanguage, our toolmaking, our ability to setourselves apart from nature and bend it to ourwill those very things also give us the[40]capacity for unmatched destruction.
How often does material advancementor social innovation blind us to this truth? Howeasily we learn to justify violence in the nameof some higher cause.
[45] Every great religion promises a pathwayto love and peace and righteousness, and yetno religion has been spared from believers who have claimed their faith as a license tokill.
[50] Nations arise telling a story that bindspeople together in sacrifice and cooperation,allowing for remarkable feats. But those samestories have so often been used to oppressand dehumanize those who are different.
[55]Science allows us to communicateacross the seas and fly above the clouds, tocure disease and understand the cosmos, butthose same discoveries can be turned intoever more efficient killing machines.
[60]The wars of the modern age teach usthis truth. Hiroshima teaches this truth.Technological progress without an equivalentprogress in human institutions can doom us.The scientific revolution that led to the[65]splitting of an atom requires a moralrevolution as well.
Mere words cannot give voice to suchsuffering. But we have a shared responsibilityto look directly into the eye of history and ask[70]what we must do differently to curb suchsuffering again.
Since that fateful day, we have madechoices that give us hope. The United Statesand Japan have forged not only an alliance but[75]a friendship that has won far more for ourpeople than we could ever claim through war.The nations of Europe built a union thatreplaced battlefields with bonds of commerceand democracy. Oppressed people and nations[80]won liberation. An international communityestablished institutions and treaties that workto avoid war and aspire to restrict and rollback and ultimately eliminate the existence ofnuclear weapons.
[85]Still, every act of aggression betweennations, every act of terror and corruption andcruelty and oppression that we see around theworld shows our work is never done. We maynot be able to eliminate mans capacity to do[90]evil, so nations and the alliances that we form must possess the means to defend ourselves. But among those nations like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue [95] a world without them.
We may not realize this goal in my lifetime, but persistent effort can roll back the possibility of catastrophe. We can chart a course that leads to the destruction of these [100] stockpiles. We can stop the spread to new nations and secure deadly materials from fanatics.
And yet that is not enough. For we see around the world today how even the crudest [105] rifles and barrel bombs can serve up violence on a terrible scale. We must change our mindset about war itself. To prevent conflict through diplomacy and strive to end conflicts after theyve begun. To see our growing [110] interdependence as a cause for peaceful cooperation and not violent competition. To define our nations not by our capacity to destroy but by what we build. And perhaps, above all, we must reimagine our connection [115] to one another as members of one human race.
For this, too, is what makes our species unique. Were not bound by genetic code to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can learn. [120] We can choose. We can tell our children a different story, one that describes a common humanity, one that makes war less likely and cruelty less easily accepted.
My own nations story began with [125] simple words: All men are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Realizing that ideal has never been easy, even within our own [130] borders, even among our own citizens. But staying true to that story is worth the effort. It is an ideal to be strived for, an ideal that extends across continents and across oceans. The irreducible worth of every person, the [135] insistence that every life is precious, the radical and necessary notion that we are part of a single human family that is the story that we all must tell.
Ordinary people understand this, I [140] think. They do not want more war. They would rather that the wonders of science be focused on improving life and not eliminating it. When the choices made by nations, when the choices made by leaders, reflect this [145] simple wisdom, then the lesson of Hiroshima is done.
The world was forever changed here, but today the children of this city will go through their day in peace. What a precious [150] thing that is. It is worth protecting, and then extending to every child. That is a future we can choose, a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare but as the start of our own [155] moral awakening.
From: www.nytimes.com
*os nmeros entre colchetes indicam os nmeros das linhas do texto original.
The verb tenses in Their civilizations had given the world great cities (lines 24-25) and the war grew out of the same base instinct (lines 27- 28) are respectively
