奥巴马在开学第一课上的演讲词(中英文对照)(共12页).doc

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1、精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上奥巴马2009年全美开学演讲 Hello, everybody! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. All right, everybody go ahead and have a seat. How is everybody doing today? (Applause.) How about Tim Spicer? (Applause.) I am here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And weve got s

2、tudents tuning in from all across America, from kindergarten through 12th grade. And I am just so glad that all could join us today. And I want to thank Wakefield for being such an outstanding host. Give yourselves a big round of applause. (Applause.) 大家好！谢谢你们。谢谢你们。谢谢你们大家。好，大家请就坐。你们今天都好吗？（掌声）蒂姆 斯派塞（

3、 Tim Spicer ）好吗？（掌声）我现在与弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿郡韦克菲尔德高中的学生们在一起。美国各地从小学预备班到高三年级的学生正在收听收看。我很高兴大家今天都能参与。我还要感谢韦克菲尔德高中出色的组织安排。请为你们自己热烈鼓掌。（掌声） I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, its your first day in a new school, so its

4、 understandable if youre a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now - (applause) - with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade youre in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you couldve stayed in bed just a litt

5、le bit longer this morning. 我知道，今天是你们很多人开学的日子。对于进入小学预备班、初中或高中的学生，今天是你们来到新学校的第一天，心里可能有点紧张，这是可以理解的。我能想象有些毕业班学生现在感觉很不错 （掌声） 还有一年就毕业了。不论在哪个年级，你们有些人可能希望暑假更长一点，今天早上还能多睡一小会儿。 I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived overseas. I lived in Indonesia for a few years. And my mother, she didnt have

6、 the money to send me where all the American kids went to school, but she thought it was important for me to keep up with an American education. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday. But because she had to go to work, the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in th

7、e morning. 我了解这种感觉。我小时候，我们家生活在海外。我在印度尼西亚住了几年。我妈妈没有钱送我上其他美国孩子上的学校，但她认为必须让我接受美式教育。因此，她决定从周一到周五自己给我补课。不过她还要上班，所以只能在清晨四点半给我上课。 Now, as you might imagine, I wasnt too happy about getting up that early. And a lot of times, Id fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever Id complain, my mothe

8、r would just give me one of those looks and shed say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.” (Laughter.) 你们可以想见，我不太情愿那么早起床。有很多次，我趴在餐桌上就睡着了。但每当我抱怨的时候，我妈妈都会那样地看我一眼，然后说： “ 小子，这对我也并不轻松。 ” （笑声） So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But Im here today because I have so

9、mething important to discuss with you. Im here because I want to talk with you about your education and whats expected of all of you in this new school year. 我知道你们有些人还在适应开学后的生活。但我今天来到这里是因为有重要的事情要和你们说。我来这里是要和你们谈谈你们的教育问题，以及在这个新学年对你们所有人的期望。 Now, Ive given a lot of speeches about education. And Ive talk

10、ed about responsibility a lot. 我做过很多次有关教育问题的演讲。我多次谈到过责任问题。 Ive talked about teachers responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn. 我谈到过教师激励学生并督促他们学习的责任。 Ive talked about your parents responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and you get your homework done, and dont spend ev

11、ery waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox. 我谈到过家长的责任，要确保你们走正路，完成家庭作业，不要让你们整天坐在电视前或玩 Xbox 游戏。 Ive talked a lot about your governments responsibility for setting high standards, and supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that arent working, where students arent gettin

12、g the opportunities that they deserve. 我多次谈到过政府的责任，要制定高标准，支持教师和校长的工作，彻底改善不能为学生提供应有机会的、教育质量差的学校。 But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world - and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter unless all of

13、 you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. Thats what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you h

14、as for your education. 然而，即使我们拥有最敬业的教师，最尽力的家长和全世界最好的学校 如果你们大家不履行你们的责任，不到校上课，不专心听讲，不听家长、祖父祖母和其他大人的话，不付出取得成功所必须的勤奋努力，那么这一切都毫无用处，都无关紧要。这就是我今天讲话的重点：你们每个人对自己的教育应尽的责任。 I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something that youre good at. Every single one o

15、f you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. Thats the opportunity an education can provide. 我首先要讲讲你们对自己应尽的责任。你们每个人都有自己的长处。你们每个人都能做出自己的贡献。你们对自己应尽的责任是发现自己的能力所在。而教育能够提供这样的机会。 Maybe you could be a great writer - maybe even good enough to write a book

16、 or articles in a newspaper - but you might not know it until you write that English paper - that English class paper thats assigned to you. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor - maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or the new medicine or vaccine - but you might not know

17、 it until you do your project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice - but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team. （推荐背诵） 你或许能成为一名出色的作家 甚至可能写书或在报纸上发表文章 但你可能要在完成那篇英文课的作文后才会发现自己的才华。你或许能成为一名创新者或发明家 甚至可能设计出新一代 iPho

18、ne 或研制出新型药物或疫苗 但你可能要在完成科学课的实验后才会发现自己的才华。你或许能成为一名市长或参议员或最高法院的大法官 但你可能要在参加学生会的工作或辩论队后才会发现自己的才华。 And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that youll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a law

19、yer or a member of our military? Youre going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job. Youve got to train for it and work for it and learn for it. 不论你的生活志向是什么，我敢肯定你必须上学读书才能实现它。你想当医生、教师或警官吗？你想当护士、建筑师、律师或军人吗？你必须接受良好的教育，

20、才能从事上述任何一种职业。你不能指望辍学后能碰上个好工作。你必须接受培训，为之努力，为之学习。 And this isnt just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. The future of America depends on you. What youre learning in school today will determine wheth

21、er we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future. 这并非只对你个人的人生和未来意义重大。可以毫不夸大地说，教育给你带来的益处将决定这个国家的未来。美国的未来取决于你们。你们今日在校学习的知识将决定我们作为一个国家是否能够迎接我们未来所面临的最严峻挑战。 Youll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to deve

22、lop new energy technologies and protect our environment. Youll need the insights and critical-thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. Youll need the creativity and ingenuity you d

23、evelop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy. 你们将需要利用你们通过自然科学和数学课程所学到的知识和解决问题的能力来治愈癌症、艾滋病及其他疾病，开发新的能源技术和保护我们的环境。你们将需要利用你们在历史学和社会学课堂上所获得的知识和独立思考能力来抗击贫困和解决无家可归问题，打击犯罪和消除歧视，使我们的国家更公平、更自由。你们将需要利用你们在所有课堂上培养的创造力和智慧来创办新公司，增加就业机会，振兴我们的经济。 We need every si

24、ngle one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks solve our most difficult problems. If you dont do that - if you quit on school - youre not just quitting on yourself, youre quitting on your country. 我们需要你们每个人发挥你们的聪明才智和技能，以便帮助老一辈人解决我们面临的最棘手问题。如果你

25、们不这样做，如果你们辍学，你们不仅仅是自暴自弃，也是抛弃自己的国家。 Now, I know its not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork. 我自然知道要做到学业优秀并非总是易事。我知道你们许多人在生活中面临挑战，难以集中精力从事学业。 I get it. I know what its like. My father left my fa

26、mily when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mom who had to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasnt always able to give us the things that other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and I felt like I

27、 didnt fit in. 我明白这一点。我有亲身感受。两岁时，我父亲离家而去，我是由一位单亲母亲抚养成人的，母亲不得不工作，并时常为支付生活费用而苦苦挣扎，但有时仍无法为我们提供其他孩子享有的东西。有时，我渴望生活中能有一位父亲。有时我感到孤独，感到自己不适应社会。 So I wasnt always as focused as I should have been on school, and I did some things Im not proud of, and I got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could

28、 have easily taken a turn for the worse. 我并非总是像我应该做到的那样专心学习，我也曾做过我如今不能引以为豪的一些事情，我曾惹过不应该惹的麻烦。我的人生原本会轻易陷入更糟糕的境地。 But I was - I was lucky. I got a lot of second chances, and I had the opportunity to go to college and law school and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, she has a sim

29、ilar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didnt have a lot of money. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country. 但是，我当年际遇不错。我有过许多第二次机会，我有幸能上大学，上法学院，追求自己的理想。我的妻子，我们的第一夫人米歇尔 奥巴马，也有着类似的经历。她的父母都未曾上过大学，家里很穷。但他们非常勤奋，她也是如此，因此她得

30、以进入一些美国最好的学校。 Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you dont have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and theres not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you dont feel safe, or have frie

31、nds who are pressuring you to do things you know arent right. 你们中有一些人可能没有那些有利条件。或许你们生活中没有成年人为你们提供你们所需要的支持。或许你们家中有人失业，经济非常拮据。或许你们生活在使你们感觉不安全的社区，或有朋友逼迫你们去做你们知道不对的事情。 But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what youve g

32、ot going on at home thats no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. Thats no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. Thats no excuse for not trying. 但归根结底，你的生活状况 你的长相、出身、经济条件、家庭氛围 都不是疏忽学业和态度恶劣的借口，这些不是你去跟老师顶嘴、逃课、或是辍学的借口，这些不是你不好好读书的借

33、口。 Where you are right now doesnt have to determine where youll end up. No ones written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future. 你的未来，并不取决于你现在的生活有多好或多坏。没有人为你编排好你的命运，在美国，你的命运由你自己书写，你的未来由你自己掌握。 Thats what young people like you are doing every day, al

34、l across America. 而在这片土地上的每个地方，千千万万和你一样的年轻人正是这样在书写着自己的命运。Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didnt speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got

35、 a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez. 例 如德克萨斯州罗马市的贾斯敏 佩雷兹（ JazminPerez ）。刚进学校时，她根本不会说英语，她住的地方几乎没人上过大学，她的父母也没有受过高等 教育，但她努力学习，取得了优异的成绩，靠奖学金进入了布朗大学，如今正在攻读公共卫生专业的博士学位，马上就要变成了佩雷兹博士。 Im thinking about Andoni Schultz

36、, from Los Altos, California, whos fought brain cancer since he was three. Hes endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer hundreds of extra hours to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and hes headed to college this fall. 我还想到

37、了来自加利福尼亚州Los Altos的安东尼斯楚茨（Andoni Schultz），他从三岁起就开始和脑癌作斗争。他经受了各种各样的治疗和手术，其中有一次影响了他的记忆，所以他需要花更长的时间来作作业，几百个小时的额外时间。但是他的学业从来没有落后过，今年秋季，他就要上大学了。And then theres Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she mana

38、ged to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and shes on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college. 又比如在我的家乡，伊利诺斯州芝加哥市，身为孤儿的香特尔 史蒂夫（ ShantellSteve ）换过多次寄养家庭，从小在治安很差的地区长大，但她努力争取到了在当地保健站工作的机会、发起了一个让青少年远离犯罪团伙的项目，很快，她也将以优异的成绩从中学毕业，去大学

39、深造。 Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell arent any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same. 贾斯敏、安多尼和香特尔与你们并没有什么不同。和

40、你们一样，他们也在生活中遭遇各种各样的困难与问题，但他们拒绝放弃，他们选择为自己的教育担起责任、给自己定下奋斗的目标。我希望你们中的每一个人，都能做得到这些。 Thats why today, Im calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, o

41、r spending time each day reading a book. Maybe youll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe youll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids

42、deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe youll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope youll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you dont feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall

43、and winter. 因此，在今天，我号召你们每一个人都为自己的教育定下一个目标 并在之后，尽自己的一切努力去实现它。你的目标可以很简单，像是完成作业、认真听讲或每天 阅读 或许你打算参加一些课外活动，或在社区做些志愿工作；或许你决定保护那些因为长相或出身等等原因而受嘲弄或欺负的孩子、维护他们的权益，因为你和我一样，认为每个孩子都应该能有一个安全的学习环境；或许你认为该学着更好的照顾自己，来为将来的学习做准备 当然，除此之外，我希望你们都多多洗 手、感到身体不舒服的时候要多在家休息，免得大家在秋冬感冒高发季节都得流感。 Whatever you resolve to do, I want y

44、ou to commit to it. I want you to really work at it. 不管你决定做什么，我都希望你能坚持到底，希望你能真的下定决心。 I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work - that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are,

45、 youre not going to be any of those things. 我知道有些时候，电视上播放的节目会让你产生这样那样的错觉，似乎你不需要付出多大的努力就能腰缠万贯、功成名就 你会认为只要会唱 rap 、会打篮球或参加个什么真人秀节目就能坐享其成，但现实是，你几乎没有可能走上其中任何一条道路。 But the truth is, being successful is hard. You wont love every subject you study. You wont click with every teacher. Not every homework assig

46、nment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you wont necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try. 因为，成功是件难事。你不可能对要读的每门课程都兴趣盎然，你不可能和每名教师都相处顺利，你也不可能每次都遇上看起来和现实生活有关的作业。而且，并不是每件事，你都能在头一次尝试时获得成功。 Thats OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the on

47、es whove had the most failures. JK Rowlings first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, I have failed o

48、ver and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. 但那没有关系。因为在这个世界上，最最成功的人们往往也经历过最多的失败。 J.K. 罗琳的第一本哈利 波特被出版商拒绝了十二次才最终出版；迈克尔 乔丹上高中时被学校的篮球队刷了下来，在他的职业生涯里，他输了几百场比赛、有几千次投篮未中，知道他是怎么说的吗？“ 我一生不停地失败、失败再失败，这就是我现在成功的原因。 ” These people succeeded because they understand that you cant let your failures define you you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in tro