名校励志英语演讲 第16期:失败的额外收益和想象力的重要性

[00:00.17]What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. 再者，父母这样做是希望我不会过穷日子，所以我不能责怪他们。 [00:07.09]They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, 他们经历了贫穷，我后来也一度贫穷， [00:11.17]and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. 所以我很理解他们，因为贫穷并不是一种高贵的经历。 [00:16.45]Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; 贫穷会让人感觉恐惧、有压力，有时甚至让人感觉沮丧。 [00:22.18]it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. 贫穷意味着说不尽的羞辱和艰辛。 [00:26.19]Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, 靠自己的努力摆脱贫穷值得自豪， [00:31.19]but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools. 只有傻瓜才会将贫穷浪漫化。 [00:36.59]What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure. 像你们这么大时我最害怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。 [00:43.25]At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, 像你们这么大时，尽管我明显缺乏在大学学习的动力， [00:48.20]where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, 花大量时间在咖啡馆写小说，用于听课的时间很少， [00:51.59]and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, 但我却有通过考试的本领。 [00:57.32]and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers. 多年来，考试一直是衡量我和同龄人成功的标准。 [01:04.55]I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, 我不会笨到因为你们年轻、 [01:08.39]gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. 有才华并且受过良好的教育，就认为你们从来没有经受过困难或心碎的时刻。 [01:16.02]Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates, 才华和指挥并不能使人摆脱命运的反复无常; [01:22.24]and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment. 我从来没有认为在座的每一个人一直以来都享有优越和满足。 [01:30.44]However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. 然而，即将从哈弗毕业这一事实就意味着你们很少会经历失败。

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