letters.doc

(1) Famous letterLetter to Horace GreeleyWritten during the heart of the Civil War, this is one of Abraham Lincolns most famous letters. Greeley, editor of the influential New York Tribune, had just addressed an editorial to Lincoln called The Prayer of Twenty Millions, making demands and implying that Lincolns administration lacked direction and resolve. President Lincoln made his reply when a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation already lay in his desk drawer. His response revealed his concentration on preserving the Union. The letter, which received acclaim in the North, stands as a classic statement of Lincolns constitutional responsibilities. A few years after the presidents death, Greeley wrote an assessment of Lincoln. He stated that Lincoln did not actually respond to his editorial but used it instead as a platform to prepare the public for his altered position on emancipation. Executive Mansion,Washington, August 22, 1862. Hon. Horace Greeley:Dear Sir. I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right. As to the policy I seem to be pursuing as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be the Union as it was. If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free. Yours,A. Lincoln.Newsman Francis Pharcellus Church wrote The Suns response to Virginia. Eight-year-old Virginia OHanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New Yorks Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become historys most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, If you see it in THE SUN its so. Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?VIRGINIA OHANLON.115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be mens or childrens, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but thats no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.You may tear apart the babys rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.(3)Open letterAn open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.1Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an individual but provided to the public through newspapers and other media, such as a letter to the editor or blog.2 Especially common are critical open letters addressed to political leaders.Letters patent are another form of open letter in which a legal document is both mailed to a person by the government, and publicized so that all are made aware of it. Open letters can also be addressed directly to a group rather than any individual.Motivations for writing open lettersThere are a number of reasons why an individual would choose the form of an open letter, including the following reasons:To state the authors position on a particular issueAs an attempt to start or end a wider dialogue around an issueTo criticise someones actionsAs an attempt to focus broad attention on the letters recipient, prompting them to some actionFor humor valueSimply to make public a communication that must take place as a letter for reasons of formalityToyotas letter to its customers regarding the recent recalls on vehicles with obstructing floor mats and faulty accelerator pedals.Rob Lewis Entrepreneurs letter to The Times warning of the dangers of a Lib-Lab coalition ahead of the 2010 UK general election.7The times newspaperTIMES的销量并不算多，仅约45万份，但是它不仅蜚声英国报坛，被誉为“最为权威性的报纸”，而且在全球也享有很高的声誉。大英百科全书不无吹嘘地称它是“世界第一大报纸”（The First Newspaper in the World）。这家被西方新闻学者称为“现代新闻事业鼻祖”的报纸是世界上连续出版的少数古老报纸之一，其读者对象主要是国会议员、政府官员、上层知识分子、企业家和金融界人士，各国外交部和研究机构一般也均有订阅。该报名称虽有“时报”之意，但因其发音与泰晤士河名称相近，最初被汉译为泰晤士报，此后一直沿用此译名。 该报自称“独立”、“客观地报道事实”，实际上长期充当着大英帝国的喉舌，至今在重大的国内外政策方面基本上仍反映官方意图，“独立”只是一个标志而已。该报在政治上的最大错误与污点是在本世纪30年代坚决支持英国政府对纳粹德国的绥靖政策。英国报纸多数在政治上支持当时的保守党政府，二次大战前只有每日电讯报等少数报纸反对绥靖政策。如果说泰晤士报同其他报纸一样主张对德采取绥靖政策还只是一个政治错误的话，那么，该报在德国吞并捷克的苏台德区和吞并奥地利时竟然发表社论为希特勒的侵略行径辩护，就不能不是严重的污点了。该报为纳粹侵略者辩护的荒谬言论，不仅在当时及此后受到了各方的严厉指责，而且连该报在1985年庆祝建报200周年特刊（special supplement）上也不得不承认当时的社论是它的“历史上的重大污点”。编辑本段消息灵通、享有声誉尽管该报有过“错误”和“污点”，但较之其他英国报纸，其国际消息较多，自19世纪以来一直被人们公认为消息灵通、享有声誉的一份报纸。它不像美国纽约时报等大报那样，有令人生畏或令人生厌的大量版面，一般在20版至30版之间，内容较为“严肃”，对官方文件、议会辩论等刊登较为详尽。它的篇幅虽然不多，但是新闻的容量却不少，内容涉及到国内外重大事件、金融、科学、教育、文体、法律等，其中国内外要闻和经济新闻的比重最大，这是它与通俗报纸的鲜明不同之处。自默多克接办后，其风格也略有变化，如体育版扩大了，图片加大了，偶尔也登一些社会新闻，其目的无非是为了“调剂”读者阅读的兴趣和扩大销路，因为它刊登的广告仅占报纸总篇幅的百分之二十五左右，较之美国大报广告占百分之六七十的篇幅要少得多。 泰晤士报的编辑、记者阵容相当强大，在国内外拥有广泛的记者网，并经常聘请知名专家、学者撰写稿件。该报还同法国世界报（Le Monde），意大利新闻报（La Stampa）和西德世界报（Die Welt）联合出版以西欧经济和商业情况为主的月刊欧洲（Europe）。The Times is a British daily national newspaper published in London since 1785, when it was known as The Daily Universal Register. The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, since 1981 a subsidiary of News International. News International is entirely owned by the News Corporation group, headed by Rupert Murdoch. Though traditionally a moderately centre-right newspaper and a supporter of the Conservatives, it supported the Labour Party in the 2001 and 2005 general elections.2 In 2004, according to MORI, the voting intentions of its readership were 40% for the Conservative Party, 29% for the Liberal Democrats, 26% for Labour.3 The Times is the original Times newspaper, lending its name to many other papers around the world, such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, The Daily Times (Malawi), Jimma Times (Ethiopia), The Times of India, The Straits Times, The Times of Malta and The Irish Times. For distinguishing purposes it is therefore sometimes referred to, particularly in North America, as the London Times or The Times of London.45 The paper is also the originator of the ubiquitous Times Roman typeface, originally developed by Stanley Morison of The Times in collaboration with the Monotype Corporation for its legibility in low-tech printing. The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, but switched to compact size in 2004 partly in an attempt to appeal to younger readers and partly to appeal to commuters using public transport. An American edition has been published since 6 June 2006.4The Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its early life, the profits of The Times were very large and the competition minimal, so it could pay far better than its rivals for information or writers.Readership profile and image The British Business Survey 2005 named The Times as the UKs leading daily newspaper for business people. This independent survey was sponsored by The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Economist, and The Times. The latest figures from the national readership survey show The Times to have the highest number of ABC1 2544 readers and the largest numbers of readers in London of any of the quality papers.21 The certified average circulation figures for November 2005 show that The Times sold 692,581 copies per day. This was the highest achieved under the last editor, Robert Thomson, and ensured that the newspaper remained ahead of The Daily Telegraph in terms of full-rate sales, although the Telegraph remains the market leader for broadsheets, with a circulation of 905,955 copies. Tabloid newspapers, such as The Sun and middle-market newspapers such as the Daily Mail, at present outsell both papers with a circulation of around 3,005,308 and 2,082,352 respectively.citation needed By March 2010 the papers circulation had fallen to 502,436 copies daily and the Telegraphs to 686,679, according to ABC figures. edit Format and supplements The Times features news for the first half of the paper with the leading articles on the second page, the Opinion/Comment section begins after the first news section, the world news normally follows this. The business pages begin on the centre spread, and are followed by The Register, containing obituaries, Court & Social section, and related material. The sport section is at the end of the main paper. edit Literary Supplement Main article: The Times Literary Supplement The Times Literary Supplement (TLS) is a separately-paid-for weekly literature and society magazine. edit Science Reviews Main article: The Times Science Review Between 1951 and 1966 The Times published a separately-paid-for quarterly science review, The Times Science Review. Remarkably, in 1953 both the newspaper and its science supplement failed to report on the discovery of the structure of DNA in Cambridge, which was reported on by both the News Chronicle and The New York Times. The Times started another new (but free) monthly science magazine, Eureka, in October 2009. edit Times2 The Timess main supplement was the times2, featuring various lifestyle columns.clarification needed It was discontinued on 1 March 2010, most of its regular features being absorbed into the main paper, the puzzles into a new supplement called Mind Games. Its previous incarnation began on 5 September 2005, before which it was called T2 and previously Times 2. Regular features included columns by a different columnist each weekday. There was a column by Marcus du Sautoy each Wednesday, for example. The back pages were devoted to puzzles and contain sudoku, Killer Sudoku, KenKen, word polygon puzzles, and a crossword simpler and more concise than the main Times Crossword. The penultimate page was Young Times, with puzzles and news for children. All these features are now found in Mind Games. The supplement also contained arts and lifestyle features, TV and radio listings and reviews which have now become their own weekly supplements. edit The Game The Game is included in the newspaper on a Monday, and details all the weekends football activity (Premier League and Football League Championship, League One and League Two.) The Scottish edition of The Game also includes results and analysis from Scottish Premier League games. edit Saturday supplements The Saturday edition of The Times contains a variety of supplements. These supplements were relaunched in January 2009 as: Sport, Weekend (including travel and lifestyle features), Saturday Review (arts, books, and ideas), The Times Magazine (columns on various topics), and Playlist (an entertainment listings guide). Saturday Review is the first regular supplement published in broadsheet format again since the paper switched to a compact size in 2004. At the beginning of Summer 2011 Saturday Review switched to the tabloid format The Times Magazine features columns touching on various subjects such as celebrities, fashion and beauty, food and drink, homes and gardens or simply writers anecdotes. Notable contributors include Giles Coren, Food And Drink Writer of the Year in 2005.The Times commissioned the serif typeface Times New Roman, created by Victor Lardent at the English branch of Monotype, in 1931.26 It was commissioned after Stanley Morison had written an article criticizing The Times for being badly printed and typographically antiquated.27 The font was supervised by Morison and drawn by Victor Lardent, an artist from the advertising department of The Times. Morison used an older font named Plantin as the basis for his design, but made revisions for legibility and economy of space. Times New Roman made its debut in the 3 October 1932 issue of The Times newspaper.28 After one year, the design was released for commercial sale. The Times stayed with Times New Roman for 40 years, but new production techniques and the format change from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004 have caused the newspaper to switch font five times since 1972. However, all the new fonts have been variants of the original New Roman font: Times Europa was designed by Walter Tracy in 1972 for The Times, as a sturdier alternative to the Times font family, designed for the demands of faster printing presses and cheaper paper. The typeface features more open counter spaces. Times Roman replaced Times Europa on 30 August 1982.29 Times Millennium was made in 1991,29 drawn by Gunnlaugur Briem on the instructions of Aurobind Patel, composing manager of News International. Times Classic first appeared in 2001.30 Designed as an economical face by the British type team of Dave Farey and Richard Dawson, it took advantage of the new PC-based publishing system at the newspaper, while obviating the production shortcomings of its predecessor Times Millennium. The new typeface included 120 letters per font. Initially the family comprised ten fonts, but a condensed version was added in 2004. Times Modern was unveiled on 20 November 2006, as the successor of Times Classic.29 Designed for improving legibility in smaller font sizes, it uses 45-degree angled bracket serifs. The font was published by Elsner + Flake as EF Times Modern; it was designed by Research Studios, led by Ben Preston (deputy editor of The Times) and designer Neville Brody.31 edit Sponsored events The Times, along with the British Film Institute, sponsors the London Film Festival (or more specifically, The Times bfi London Film Festival). As of 2005, it is Europes largest public event for motion pictures. The Times also sponsors the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature at Asia House, London. edit Political allegiance The Times was a traditional Conservative Party supporter, even after its 18-year rule in government was ended by the Labour landslide of 1997, but for the 2001 general election the paper declared its support for Tony Blairs Labour government, which was re-elected by a landslide. It supported