①His forte, and first love, was foreign policy. ②He had been ambassador to the UN for Nixon, an envoy to China for Gerald Ford (he and Barbara riding round delightedly on bicycles) and head of the CIA, besides, as vice-president, a follower-of-the-hearse at dozens of state funerals. ③Instinctively, he thought in terms of global power games; fortuitously, his time as president coincided with the end of the cold war, a heady and fascinating moment. ④With Mikhail Gorbachev he struck up an easy working friendship, and in 1991, in the wake of the Gulf war, he even had a moment of comprehensive vision: a new world order, based not on force but on the rule of law, which America would strongly lead.
【段落大意】
他的专长和最爱是外交政策。他曾经是尼克松统治时期的联合国大使，杰拉尔德统治.福特统治时期的美国驻北京大使（他和妻子芭芭拉曾在中国愉快的骑车），也曾是美国中情局局长，且在担任副总统期间频繁出现在国葬现场，被戏称为“灵车追随者”。本能的，他考虑事情都是从全球权利游戏基础出发，幸运的是他当总统时恰好遇到冷战结束，是民众泛发活力的时刻。随着他与戈尔巴乔夫（前苏联领导人）建立了轻松工作友谊，及随之而来的1991年的海湾战争，他曾经一度有一个整体构想：构建一个新的世界秩序，不是基于强权而是基于美国领导的一套强有力的法治规则。
这一段是老布什政治生涯的一个缩影，关于布什副总统期间频繁出现在国葬上，在英语百科上有这样的描述：The Bushes attended a large number of public and ceremonial events in their positions, including many state funerals, which became a common joke for comedians. Mrs. Bush found the funerals largely beneficial, saying, "George met with many current or future heads of state at the funerals he attended, enabling him to forge personal relationships that were important to President Reagan." 葬礼成了交际的场合，刷新了认知。
【好词好句】
① forte: be sb's forte to be something that you do well or are skilled at 是某人的专长 可用于替代“advantage"
造句：作为作家，她的专长是写喜剧：As a writer, her forte is comedy.
② in the wake of ：if something,especially something bad,happens in the wake of an event, it happens afterwards an usually as a result of it.【尤指不好的事】紧随某事而来，最为某事的后果。
造句：旱灾之后，饥荒紧随而来。Famine followed in the wake of the drought。
①Such grandiloquence, like eloquence, was rare in him. ②He was schooled in modesty, fond of the small behind-the-scenes gesture rather than the large public show. ③He belonged to a generation that had no patience for today’s blowhards who, putting self before nation, always push themselves forward. ③But when the times and events demanded he could, perhaps to his own surprise, find the right words and walk confidently ahead.
【段落大意】
夸夸其谈、雄辩很少在他身上出现，他是受过谦逊教育的人，更喜欢在幕后操纵而不喜欢在公众面前作秀。他是属于对当今哪些自吹自擂的人没有耐心的一代，这些人将自己放在国家前面，总喜欢出风头。但是当时间和事情一旦确定下来，即使他自己也很意外，他也会找到正确的理由并坚决执行。
这一段很
【好词好句】
①He was schooled in modesty, fond of the small behind-the-scenes gesture rather than the large public show. 在这句话中Small behind-the-scenes gesture和large public show的对比，更形象显示出老布什给人的谦逊、低调的印象，喜欢幕后不喜欢前台。老布什一直在听妈妈的话：”Now, George, don't walk ahead."
②push themselves forward: to try to make other people notice you 表现自己，出风头。
