關(guān)于畢業(yè)的英文文章(2)
關(guān)于畢業(yè)的英文文章
關(guān)于畢業(yè)的英文文章篇【3】
亞馬遜總裁在普林斯頓大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮的演講
As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fixwindmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas everyafternoon, especially "Days of our Lives." My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a groupof Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every fewsummers, we'd join the caravan. We'd hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather's car,and off we'd go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. I loved and worshipped mygrandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather wasdriving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, andI hated the smell.
在我還是一個(gè)孩子的時(shí)候，我的夏天總是在德州祖父母的農(nóng)場(chǎng)中度過(guò)。我?guī)兔π蘩盹L(fēng)車，為牛接種疫苗，也做其它家務(wù)。每天下午，我們都會(huì)看肥皂劇，尤其是《我們的歲月》。我的祖父母參加了一個(gè)房車俱樂(lè)部，那是一群駕駛Airstream拖掛型房車的人們，他們結(jié)伴遍游美國(guó)和加拿大。每隔幾個(gè)夏天，我也會(huì)加入他們。我們把房車掛在祖父的小汽車后面，然后加入300余名Airstream探險(xiǎn)者們組成的浩蕩隊(duì)伍。我愛(ài)我的祖父母，我崇敬他們，也真心期盼這些旅程。那是一次我大概十歲時(shí)的旅行，我照例坐在后座的長(zhǎng)椅上，祖父開(kāi)著車，祖母坐在他旁邊，吸著煙。我討厭煙味。
At that age, I'd take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I'd calculate ourgas mileage — figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I'd been hearing anad campaign about smoking. I can't remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puffof a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been twominutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated thenumber of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When Iwas satisfied that I'd come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front ofthe car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, "At two minutesper puff, you've taken nine years off your life!"
在那樣的年紀(jì)，我會(huì)找任何借口做些估測(cè)或者小算術(shù)。我會(huì)計(jì)算油耗還有雜貨花銷等雞毛蒜皮的小事。我聽(tīng)過(guò)一個(gè)有關(guān)吸煙的廣告。我記不得細(xì)節(jié)了，但是廣告大意是說(shuō)，每吸一口香煙會(huì)減少幾分鐘的壽命，大概是兩分鐘。無(wú)論如何，我決定為祖母做個(gè)算術(shù)。我估測(cè)了祖母每天要吸幾支香煙，每支香煙要吸幾口等等，然后心滿意足地得出了一個(gè)合理的數(shù)字。接著，我捅了捅坐在前面的祖母的頭，又拍了拍她的肩膀，然后驕傲地宣稱，“每天吸兩分鐘的煙，你就少活九年!”
I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to beapplauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. "Jeff, you're so smart. You had to havemade some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do somedivision." That's not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in thebackseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, whohad been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of thecar and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? Mygrandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, andmaybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car andapologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and noway to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfatherlooked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, "Jeff, one day you'llunderstand that it's harder to be kind than clever."
我清晰地記得接下來(lái)發(fā)生了什么，而那是我意料之外的。我本期待著小聰明和算術(shù)技巧能贏得掌聲，但那并沒(méi)有發(fā)生。相反，我的祖母哭泣起來(lái)。我的祖父之前一直在默默開(kāi)車，把車停在了路邊，走下車來(lái)，打開(kāi)了我的車門，等著我跟他下車。我惹麻煩了嗎?我的祖父是一個(gè)智慧而安靜的人。他從來(lái)沒(méi)有對(duì)我說(shuō)過(guò)嚴(yán)厲的話，難道這會(huì)是第一次?還是他會(huì)讓我回到車上跟祖母道歉?我以前從未遇到過(guò)這種狀況，因而也無(wú)從知曉會(huì)有什么后果發(fā)生。我們?cè)诜寇嚺酝Ｏ聛?lái)。祖父注視著我，沉默片刻，然后輕輕地、平靜地說(shuō)：“杰夫，有一天你會(huì)明白，善良比聰明更難。”
What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Clevernessis a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they're given after all. Choices can be hard. Youcan seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably be to thedetriment of your choices. This is a group with many gifts. I'm sure one of your gifts is the giftof a smart and capable brain. I'm confident that's the case because admission is competitiveand if there weren't some signs that you're clever, the dean of admission wouldn't have let youin.
今天我想對(duì)你們說(shuō)的是，天賦和選擇不同。聰明是一種天賦，而善良是一種選擇。天賦得來(lái)很容易——畢竟它們與生俱來(lái)。而選擇則頗為不易。如果一不小心，你可能被天賦所誘惑，這可能會(huì)損害到你做出的選擇。在座各位都擁有許多天賦。我確信你們的天賦之一就是擁有精明能干的頭腦。之所以如此確信，是因?yàn)槿雽W(xué)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)十分激烈，如果你們不能表現(xiàn)出聰明智慧，便沒(méi)有資格進(jìn)入這所學(xué)校。
Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels. We humans —plodding as we are — will astonish ourselves. We'll invent ways to generate clean energy anda lot of it. Atom by atom, we'll assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and makerepairs. This month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we've synthesizedlife. In the coming years, we'll not only synthesize it, but we'll engineer it to specifications. Ibelieve you'll even see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo,Newton — all the curious from the ages would have wanted to be alive most of all right now. Asa civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual giftsas you sit before me. How will you use these gifts? And will you take pride in your gifts orpride in your choices?
你們的聰明才智必定會(huì)派上用場(chǎng)，因?yàn)槟銈儗⒃谝黄錆M奇跡的土地上行進(jìn)。我們?nèi)祟悾M管跬步前行，卻終將令自己大吃一驚。我們能夠想方設(shè)法制造清潔能源，也能夠一個(gè)原子一個(gè)原子地組裝微型機(jī)械，使之穿過(guò)細(xì)胞壁，然后修復(fù)細(xì)胞。這個(gè)月，有一個(gè)異常而不可避免的事情發(fā)生了——人類終于合成了生命。在未來(lái)幾年，我們不僅會(huì)合成生命，還會(huì)按說(shuō)明書(shū)驅(qū)動(dòng)它們。我相信你們甚至?xí)吹轿覀兝斫馊祟惖拇竽X，儒勒·凡爾納，馬克·吐溫，伽利略，牛頓——所有那些充滿好奇之心的人都希望能夠活到現(xiàn)在。作為文明人，我們會(huì)擁有如此之多的天賦，就像是坐在我面前的你們，每一個(gè)生命個(gè)體都擁有許多獨(dú)特的天賦。你們要如何運(yùn)用這些天賦呢?你們會(huì)為自己的天賦感到驕傲，還是會(huì)為自己的選擇感到驕傲?
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