King Tut, Egypt’s famous boy king, was buried with many valuable objects. A dagger (匕首)discovered in his tomb has recently attracted extra attention. Researchers have concluded that the dagger was probably made from a special material.

King Tut was only about nine years old when he became ruler of Egypt more than 3, 300 years ago. The young king died when he was just 19, His body was buried in a tomb filled with objects that people believed he would need in the afterlife.

In 1922, Howard Carter discovered Tut’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. Up to now, it was the best preserved ancient Egyptian tomb ever found. In 1925, Carter found the dagger which has a gold handle and an iron blade (刀片).The blade had confused experts because iron was hardly used at that time in ancient Egypt. In fact, it was so rare that it was considered more valuable than gold. Where did the iron for the blade come from?

Around the time of King Tut, ancient Egyptians started using a new word for iron that translates as “iron from the sky”. This led some experts to believe that the iron for the blade came from a meteorite (陨石).But studies of the dagger carried out in the 1970s and 1990s didn’t support that idea.

That’s where modern technology comes in. Researchers used a new technique to examine the blade. They discovered that it was made up of iron and other materials found in meteorites. After comparing it to several meteorites, they even found its possible match — a meteorite that landed in northern Egypt thousands of years ago.

Scientists hope the new study will lead to more discoveries about other ancient Egyptian relics, “It would be very interesting to analyze more Pre-iron Age objects and we could gain precious discoveries.” Daniela Comelli, who is a professor, said.

The Story of the Gettysburg Address (葛底斯堡演说)

By Leslie W. Leavitt & Abraham Lincoln

One of the great and bloody battles of the war was the battle of Gettysburg. Here the Southern armies were beaten and driven back into the South, but not until many thousands of brave men on both sides had lost their lives. They were buried where they fell.

Later a great meeting was held on the battlefield of Gettysburg to honor the brave dead. Thousands of people came from miles around to the meeting, and to hear the two speakers, Mr. Everett and President Lincoln. Mr. Everett was a man of wide experience, the president of a college, one who had travelled much, a fine speaker. He spoke for two hours.

Lincoln rose to speak. He had given but little thought and time to what he was to say, and had only just finished writing the end of his speech before riding out to the field. He stood before the greatest crowd, tall and thin, his sad face showing the sorrow of the war. He was silent for a moment, and then, as though he did not see the crowd, he spoke slowly, in a high voice, for three minutes. Its simple and beautiful English, its noble meaning and forgiving spirit, make it one of the greatest speeches of the world. Its famous ending is well known:

“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work, which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 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 gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish(湮灭) from the earth.”

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States alone.

The strength of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is its ability to show slavery’s effect on families. Stowe’s characters freely debated the causes of slavery, the Fugitive Slave Law(逃亡奴隶法), the future of freed people, what an individual could do, and racism. In the 1950s, poet Langston Hughes called the book a “moral battle cry for freedom.”

It is said that Abraham Lincoln greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862 by saying, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Whether the story is true or not, there is some connection between Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Civil War. The Civil War rose from a mixture of causes including regional conflicts between North and South, economic forces, and concerns for the welfare of slaves. The four-year war almost destroyed the United States. Uncle Tom’s Cabin contributed to the outbreak of the war by personalizing the political and economic arguments about slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped many 19th-century Americans determine what kind of country they wanted.

Immediately after its publication, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was both praised as an achievement and attacked as inaccurate. Liberal abolitionists(废奴主义者) felt the book was not strong enough in its call to immediately end slavery, disliked Stowe’s tacit(暗含的) support of the colonization movement, and suggested that Stowe’s main character Tom was not forceful enough. More moderate anti-slavery advocates and reformers praised the book for putting a human face on those held in slavery, emphasizing the impact slavery had on families, and helping the public understand and empathize with the plight of enslaved mothers. Pro-slavery forces claimed that slavery was approved in the Bible, the Tom was too noble, and accused Stowe of fabricating(捏造) unrealistic, one-sided images of Southern slavery.

Stowe responded to her readers by writing The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Her second anti-slavery novel, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856), was much more forceful and called for an immediate end to slavery. During the Civil War, Stowe criticized British businesses that continued to trade with Southern cotton suppliers, and was impatient with President Lincoln’s willingness to put off freeing people held in slavery.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin made Stowe an international celebrity. When she traveled to Britain in 1853 to secure copyright protection for her novel Dred, she was rushed excitedly by crowds on the streets and invited by nobility to their estates. She was presented with a 26 volume leather bound petition signed by British women living all over the world, including the Duchess of Sutherland, the Countess of Shaftsbury, and bakers’ wives, begging their American sisters to immediately abolish slavery.

Stowe was invited to anti-slavery rallies(集会), where she hid behind Victorian propriety and had her husband or her brother present comments on her behalf. Queen Victoria was eager to meet the famous author, but was urged by advisors not to receive such a controversial figure. Instead, as Stowe’s sister Mary related in a letter, the Queen arranged to pass Stowe’s carriage on the road, so the two women could silently nod to each other.

Stowe’s three European tours brought her similar acclaim. She was welcomed by ex-patriot American writers in Italy with whom she established long-term friendships. The power of her celebrity and influence made other social reform groups appeal for her support.