名校励志英语演讲 95:如何实现你的梦想

 　　When I was a young boy of only 7, it was decided¹ that I should take piano lessons. This is a true story, by the way. I swear. I studied piano for three years and learned to play one song poorly, which actually turned out to be an improvement over high school. Nobody was willing to tell me that I had no musical talent whatsoever². Finally, after three years, I was invited by my piano teacher, Mr. Dillman, to play in a recital³. I was told recently that Mr. Dillman twitched⁴ visibly when my name was mentioned at his funeral.

　　当时我只有七岁，经过决定我应该去上钢琴课。我发誓，这是一个真实的故事。我学了三年钢琴，但只会弹一首曲子，而且弹得很糟，这种情况到高中结束后才有了改善。没人愿意告诉我我没有音乐天赋。结果，三年后，我的钢琴老师迪尔曼先生邀请我在一个独奏会上演奏。最近我被告知，在迪尔曼先生的葬礼上，当提及我的名字的时候，他明显抽搐了。

　　I can't answer for others, but I was very excited that I was at last going to play my song in front of an audience. The day of the recital arrived. That morning, I got the chicken pox and, tragically⁵, I never got to play my song. But today I've taken the liberty of bringing with me a small keyboard and, with your permission, I will finally get to play my song in front of an audience. I swear to you (that) this is the song that I learned to play after three years — the only song I know how to play on the piano. I think you will see that the lesson is patience. There comes a time for everything.

　　我不能达到别人的标准，但当时我非常兴奋因为我终于有机会在观众面前弹奏我的歌曲了。独奏会的日子终于到来了，可是偏偏在那天早晨，我得了水痘，悲惨的是，我再未有机会演奏我的歌曲。但是今天我擅自带了一个小键盘，如果你们允许的话，我最终将能在观众面前演奏我的歌曲。我向你们发誓这是一首我学了三年的歌曲，是我唯一能弹奏的一首钢琴曲。我想你们将会明白这是关于耐心的课程。得到一切的时机就要来临了。

　　Congratulations! Welcome to real life! You graduated from the University of Wisconsin! You can do anything! Thank you.

　　最后，再一次祝贺你们！欢迎来到真实的生活！你们从威斯康辛大学毕业了！你们能做任何事情！谢谢你们！

　　杰里·朱克给我们的启示

　　As you begin your new journey, you can try to remove everything that you find distasteful in the world , or you can just pour in more love. It's the only thing that the more you give the more you have.

　　就像你开始一段新的旅程一样，你可以费力去把所有令人不快的东西都清除掉，也可以倾注更多的爱。付出的越多，得到的就越多，这是唯一的真理。

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。

3 recital   

n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会

参考例句：

• She is going to give a piano recital.她即将举行钢琴独奏会。
• I had their total attention during the thirty-five minutes that my recital took.在我叙述的35分钟内，他们完全被我吸引了。

4 twitched   

vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Her lips twitched with amusement. 她忍俊不禁地颤动着嘴唇。
• The child's mouth twitched as if she were about to cry. 这小孩的嘴抽动着，像是要哭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 tragically   

adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地

参考例句：

• Their daughter was tragically killed in a road accident. 他们的女儿不幸死于车祸。
• Her father died tragically in a car crash. 她父亲在一场车祸中惨死。