高中英语 voa常速听力2012年09月合辑文本war-of-1812-flag-still-inspires-after-200-years素材.docVIP

高中英语 VOA常速听力2012年09月合辑（文本）War-of-1812-Flag-Still-Inspires-After-200-Years素材 This is a really big year at Fort McHenry, a star-shaped fortification overlooking the harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore and a few other places are commemorating the 200th anniversary of the start of what Americans call the War of 1812 - even though it wasn抰 finished until 1815. Fort McHenry, and an oversized flag that flew above it, played a memorable part in that war. What is sometimes called our nation抯 揝econd War of Independence?against Britain was not going well for the young United States when Fort McHenry came into play in September of 1814. The British had torched the White House and Capitol in Washington, and they headed north to Baltimore. Their gunships pounded Fort McHenry mercilessly for 25 straight hours. If it fell, the harbor would be under British control, and so would Baltimore. But at dawn, as Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer who observed the shelling, wrote in a poem, a miraculous visage of 揵road stripes and bright stars?of the U.S. flag appeared, still 揼allantly streaming?over Fort McHenry. Thwarted and out of ammunition, the British sailed away and Key抯 verses became the words to the U.S. national anthem, 揟he Star-Spangled Banner.? As for the largest battle flag ever flown at the time, which Fort McHenry抯 commandant, Lt. Col. George Armistead, had ordered raised as a defiant symbol of resistance: It survived, shot full of holes. Col. Armistead kept it and allowed several pieces, including one of its 15 stars, to be snipped off and given away as souvenirs. In 1912, what was left of the flag was presented to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. After many restorations, it is front and center at the National Museum of American History. And on Flag Day, June 14, this year, three red threads from the historic Fort McHenry flag were sewn into the 揘ational 9/11?flag, a tattered remnant of an even more terrible attack on the United States by ter