名校励志英语演讲 37:如何解决这个世界上最严重的不平等?

 　　Should the world's most privileged people learn about the lives of the world's least privileged?

　　世界上那些过着最优越生活的人们，是否应该对那些最困难的人们的境况有所了解？

　　These are not rhetorical questions—you will answer with your policies.

　　这些问题并非语言上的修辞。你必须用自己的行动来回答。

　　My mother, who was filled with pride the day I was admitted here—never stopped pressing me to do more for others. A few days before my was married, she hosted a bridal event, at which she read aloud a letter about marriage that she had written to Melinda. My mother was very ill with cancer at the time, but she saw one more opportunity to deliver her message, and at the close of the letter she said: "From those to whom much is given, much is expected."

　　我的母亲在我被哈佛大学录取的那一天，曾经感到非常骄傲。她从没有停止督促我去为他人做更多的事情。在我结婚的前几天，她主持了一个新娘进我家的仪式。在这个仪式上，她高声读了一封关于婚姻的信，这是她写给美琳达的。那时，我的母亲已经因为癌症病入膏肓，但是她还是认为这是又一个传播她的信念的机会。在那封信的结尾，她写道："对于那些接受了许多帮助的人们，人们对他们的期望也越大。"

　　When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given—in talent, privilege, and opportunity—there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.

　　想一想吧，我们在这个院子里的这些人，被给予过什么——天赋、特权、机遇——那么可以这样说，全世界的人们几乎有无限的权力，期待我们做出贡献。

　　In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort¹ each of the graduates here to take on an issue—a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal. But you don't have to do that to make an impact.

　　同这个时代的期望一样，我在这里也要向今天在座的毕业生们提出一个忠告：你们要选择一个问题，一个复杂的问题，一个有关于人类深刻的不平等的问题，然后你们要变成这个问题的专家。如果你们能够使得这个问题成为你们职业的核心，那么你们就会非常杰出。但是，你们不一定要去做那些大事。

　　rhetorical

　　adj. 修辞的

　　eg. The Grand Design reached its rhetorical apogee².

　　宏伟计划达到口头上的高潮。

　　exhort

　　vt. 劝诫，忠告

　　eg. The opposition³ can only question and exhort.

　　反对党只能提出质问和告诫。

1 exhort   

v.规劝，告诫

参考例句：

• The opposition can only question and exhort.反对党只能提出质问和告诫。
• This is why people exhort each other not to step into stock market.这就是为什么许多人互相告诫，不要涉足股市的原因。

2 apogee   

n.远地点；极点；顶点

参考例句：

• The orbit of the artificial satellite has an apogee of 200 miles from the earth.这个人造卫星的轨道，其最远点在离地球200英里的地方。
• Apogean tides occur when the moon is at the apogee of its orbit.远月潮在月球位于其轨道的最远点时发生。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。