初中英語(yǔ)閱讀拓展名人勵(lì)志演講選擇塑造人生素材.docx

選擇塑造人生As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially Days of our Lives. My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every few summers, wed join the caravan. Wed hitch up the Airstream to my grandfathers car, and off wed go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers.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蘩碣?gòu)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，那是一群駕駛氣流拖掛式房車的人們，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)加入這個(gè)旅行隊(duì)伍。我們把氣流拖掛式房車掛在祖父的小汽車后面，然后加入300余名氣流探險(xiǎn)者們組成的浩蕩隊(duì)伍。I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell.我愛(ài)我的祖父母，我崇敬他們，也真心期盼這些旅行。那是一次特殊的旅行，那是我大約十歲。我照例坐在車后座的長(zhǎng)椅上。祖父開(kāi)著車，祖母坐在他旁邊，整個(gè)旅程她都在吸煙。我討厭煙味。At that age, Id take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. Id calculate our gas mileage-figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. Id been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I cant remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per day, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that Id come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, At two minutes per puff, youve 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)和小算術(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)關(guān)于吸煙的廣告活動(dòng)。我不記得細(xì)節(jié)了，但廣告的大意是說(shuō)，每吸一口香煙會(huì)減少幾分鐘的壽命，我想大概是兩分鐘。無(wú)論如何，我決定為祖母做個(gè)算術(shù)。我估測(cè)了祖母每天要吸多少支香煙，每支香煙要吸幾口等等。當(dāng)我心滿意足地得出了一個(gè)合理的數(shù)字后，我往車前探探頭，拍了拍祖母的肩膀，然后驕傲地宣布，“每吸一口煙就減少兩分鐘的壽命，你已經(jīng)減少了九年的壽命！”I have a very vivid memory of what happened next, and it was not what I had expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and my arithmetic skills. Jeff, youre so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division. Thats not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do.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。我本期待著我的小聰明和算術(shù)技巧能贏得贊美。“杰夫，你很聰明，你做了些復(fù)雜的估算，計(jì)算出一年中有多少分鐘，還做了些除法?！钡遣](méi)有發(fā)生。相反，我的祖母哭泣起來(lái)。我坐在后座不知道該怎么辦。While my grandmother was crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, Jeff, one day youll understand that its harder to be kind than clever.我祖母坐在那里一直哭，而我的祖父之前一直在默默開(kāi)車，他把車停在了高速路邊，走下車來(lái)，打開(kāi)了我的車門(mén)，等著我跟他下車。我惹麻煩了嗎？我的祖父是一個(gè)充滿智慧而安靜的人。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？也許他會(huì)讓我回到車上跟祖母道歉？我以前跟祖父母從未遇到過(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，善良比聰明更難做到。”But what I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy-theyre given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if youre not careful, and if you do, itll probably be to the detriment of your choices.但是今天我想對(duì)你們說(shuō)的是，天賦和選擇之間的區(qū)別。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)。而選擇卻頗為艱難。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。This is a group with many gifts. Im sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. Im confident thats the case because admission is competitive and if there werent some signs that youre clever, the dean of admission wouldnt have let you in.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。我之所以如此確信，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. Well invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it. Atom by atom, well assemble small machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs. This month comes the extraordinary but inevitable news that weve synthesized life. In the coming years, well not only synthesize it, but engineer it to specifications. I believe youll 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. As a civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts as you sit before me.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)祟惐M管跬步前行，卻終將令自己大吃一將。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，有一件非凡而不可避免的事情發(fā)生了，那就是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)吹轿覀兣靼琢巳祟惖拇竽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。How will you use these gifts? And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?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？I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. Id never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles-something that simply couldnt exist in the physical world-was very exciting to me. I just turned 30 years old, and Id been married for a year.16年前，我萌生了創(chuàng)辦亞馬遜的想法。那時(shí)我面對(duì)的現(xiàn)實(shí)是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)使用量以每年2300%的速度增長(zhǎng)，我從未看過(guò)或聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)任何增長(zhǎng)如此快速的東西，創(chuàng)建涵蓋幾百萬(wàn)種書(shū)籍的網(wǎng)上書(shū)店的想法令我興奮異常因?yàn)檫@個(gè)東西在現(xiàn)實(shí)世界里根本無(wú)法存在。那時(shí)我剛剛30歲，結(jié)婚才I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldnt work since most startups dont, and I wasnt sure what would happen after that. MacKenzie, also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row, told me I should go for it. As a young boy, Id been a garage inventor. Id invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires, a solar cooker that didnt work very well, out of an umbrella and aluminum foil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings. Id always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.我告訴妻子麥肯琪說(shuō)我想辭去工作，然后去做這件瘋狂的事情，很可能會(huì)失敗，因?yàn)榇蟛糠謩?chuàng)業(yè)公司都是如此，而且我不確定那之后會(huì)發(fā)生什么。麥肯琪告訴我，我應(yīng)該放手一搏。她也是從普林斯頓畢業(yè)的，現(xiàn)在就坐在第二排那里。在我還是一個(gè)男孩兒的時(shí)候，我是車庫(kù)發(fā)明家。我曾用水泥填充的輪胎，不太好用的太陽(yáng)灶，一把雨傘和鋁箔以及用來(lái)詐騙兄弟姐妹的報(bào)警器制作了一個(gè)自動(dòng)關(guān)門(mén)器。我一直想做一個(gè)發(fā)明家，麥肯琪支持我追隨內(nèi)心的激情。I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didnt already have a good job.我當(dāng)時(shí)在紐約一家金融公司工作，同事是一群非常聰明的人，我的老板也很有智慧，我很欽佩他。我告訴我的老板說(shuō)我想開(kāi)辦一家在網(wǎng)上賣(mài)書(shū)的公司。他帶我到中央公園漫步良久，認(rèn)真地聽(tīng)我講完，最后說(shuō)：“聽(tīng)起來(lái)真是一個(gè)很好的主意，但是對(duì)那些目前沒(méi)有謀到一份好工作的人來(lái)說(shuō)，這個(gè)主意會(huì)更好?！盩hat logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didnt think Id regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and Im proud of that choice.這一邏輯對(duì)我而言頗有道理，他說(shuō)服我在做出最終決定之前再考慮48小時(shí)。那樣想來(lái)，這個(gè)選擇確實(shí)很艱難，但是最終，我決定拼一次。我認(rèn)為自己不會(huì)為嘗試后悔，為失敗遺憾，倒是有所決定但完全不付諸行動(dòng)會(huì)一直煎熬著我。在深思熟慮之后，我選擇了那條不太安全的道路，去追隨我內(nèi)心的激情。我為那個(gè)決定感到驕傲。一年。Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life-the life you author from scratch on your own-begins.明天，非常現(xiàn)實(shí)地說(shuō)，你們的人生你們從零塑造自己的人生即將開(kāi)啟。How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?你們將如何運(yùn)用自己的天賦？你們又將做出怎樣的抉擇？Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?你們是被慣性所引導(dǎo)，還是追隨自己內(nèi)心的激情？Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?你們會(huì)墨守成規(guī)，還是勇于創(chuàng)新？Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?你們會(huì)選擇安逸的生活，還是選擇一個(gè)奉獻(xiàn)與冒險(xiǎn)的生活？Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?你們會(huì)屈從于批評(píng)，還是會(huì)堅(jiān)守信念？Will you bluff it out when your