精美英文欣赏:拉里•佩奇密歇根大学演讲

A long time ago, in this cold September of 1962,there was a Steven's co-op at this very university.

很久以前，1962年的寒冷9月，这座校园里有一家史蒂文消费合作社。

That co-op had a kitchen with a ceiling that had been cleaned by student volunteers probably every decade or so.

此合作社有一间厨房，那里的天花板由学生志愿者打扫，大概每十来年才一次吧。

Picture a college girl named Gloria,climbing up high on a ladder,struggling to clean that filthy¹ ceiling.

想象一下，画面上有位名叫格洛里亚的女大学生，爬上了高高的梯子，努力地打扫那脏兮兮的天花板。

Standing² on the floor,a young boarder named Carl was admiring the view.

一位名叫卡尔的寄宿生站在地上，为该情景钦佩不已。

And that's how they met.

这就是他俩的初次邂逅。

They were my parents,so I suppose you could say I'm a direct result of that kitchen chemistry experiment,right here at Michigan.

他俩就是我的父母亲。所以我想你们会说，我就是这里—密歇根大学那个“厨房化学实验”的直接成果。

Everyone in my family went here to Michigan: my brother,my Mom, my Dad-all of us.

我们家的所有成员都毕业于密歇根大学:我哥哥、我妈妈和爸爸—我们全家。

My father's father worked in the Chevy plant in Flint, Michigan.

我的祖父在密歇根州弗林特的雪佛兰汽车工厂工作，

He was an assembly line worker.

他是装配线上的一名工人。

He drove his two children here to Ann Arbor,and told them: That is where you're going to college.

他曾开车把两个孩子送到安娜堡这儿，并告诉他们:这是你们今后要上的大学。

I know it sounds funny now.

我知道现在听起来很好笑。

Both of his kids actually did graduate from Michigan.

他的两个孩子也的确从密歇根大学毕业。

That was the American dream.

这就是“美国梦”。

You know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night with a vivid dream?

你们知道，午夜从一个逼真的梦境中醒来是什么感觉吗?

And you know how,if you don't have a pencil and pad by the bed,it will be completely gone by the next morning?

你们知道如果床边没有纸笔，而第二天一早就忘个精光又会怎样吗?

Well, I had one of those dreams when I was 23.

喔，我23岁的时候，就做过一个那样的梦。

When I suddenly woke up, I was thinking:

我猛然惊醒，想着:

What if we could download the whole web,and just keep the links?

如果我们能把整个网络下载下来，但仅保存链接会怎样?

And I grabbed⁴ a pen and started writing!

然后我抓起一支笔写了起来。

Sometimes it's important to wake up and stop dreaming.

有时候别做梦，及时醒来是非常重要的。

I spent the middle of that night scribbling⁵ out the details and convincing myself it would work.

我花了一个午夜描画出细节，并确信那是可以做得到的。

Soon after, I told my advisor⁶, Terry Winograd,it would take a couple of weeks for me to download the web-he nodded knowingly,fully aware it would take much longer but wise enough not to tell me.

不久后，我告诉我的导师特里?温诺格拉德，那要花几周时间来下载整个网络—他只是会意地点点头，他完全知道要花的时间其实长得多，但他很睿智，并没有告诉我。

The optimism⁷ of youth is often underrated!

年轻人的乐观精神通常不可低估!

Amazingly, at that time,I have no thoughts building a search engine.

令人惊讶的是，我当时没有想过要造一个搜索引擎。

The idea wasn't even on the radar⁸.

这一概念甚至没有进入我脑海。

But, much later we happened upon a better way of ranking and we made a really great search engine,and Google was born.

但很久以后，我们突然找到更好排列网页的方法，并造出一个非常好的搜索引擎—谷歌就这样诞生了。

When a really great dream shows up, grab³ it!

当伟大的梦想闪现时，抓住它吧!

1 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

2 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

3 grab   

vt./n.攫取，抓取；vi.攫取，抓住(at)

参考例句：

• It is rude to grab a seat.抢占座位是不礼貌的。
• The thief made a grab at my bag but I pushed him away.贼想抢我的手提包，但被我推开了。

4 grabbed   

v.抢先，抢占( grab的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指匆忙地）取；攫取；（尤指自私、贪婪地）捞取

参考例句：

• He was grabbed by two men and frogmarched out of the hall. 他被两个男人紧抓双臂押出大厅。
• She grabbed the child's hand and ran. 她抓住孩子的手就跑。

5 scribbling   

n.乱涂[写]胡[乱]写的文章[作品]v.潦草的书写( scribble的现在分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下

参考例句：

• Once the money got into the book, all that remained were some scribbling. 折子上的钱只是几个字！ 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• McMug loves scribbling. Mama then sent him to the Kindergarten. 麦唛很喜欢写字，妈妈看在眼里，就替他报读了幼稚园。 来自互联网

6 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

7 optimism   

n.乐观，乐观主义

参考例句：

• Don't pour cold water on their optimism.别给他们的乐观态度泼冷水。
• Optimism made him alive through the hard days.乐观主义使他在艰难的岁月里活了下来。

8 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。