名人励志英语演讲 第102期:当梦想来临时抓住它(3)

 　　My Grandpa used to carry an "Alley¹ Oop" hammer--a very iron pipe with a big hunk of lead melted on the end. The workers made them during the sit-down strikes to protect themselves. When I was growing up, we used that hammer whenever we needed to pound a stake or something into the gard. It is wonderful that most people don't need to carry a heavy blunt object for protection anymore. But just in case, my brother is with me.

　　我的祖父经常扛着一个大铁锤——在末尾熔了一大块铅的重铁管。那是工人们静坐罢工时用以保护自己的。在我小的时候，我们就用那个大铁锤在地上砸树桩什么的。现在人们不再需要扛着个笨重的大家伙保护自己了，这很好。但为了以防万一，我兄弟跟我一起来了。

　　My Dad became a professor at uh... Michigan State, and I was an incredibly lucky boy. A professor's life is pretty flexible, and he was able to spend oodles of time raising me. Could there be a better upbringing than university brat²?

　　我父亲后来成为……密歇根州立大学的教授，我也是个非常幸运的孩子。教授的生活是非常有弹性的，他有大量的时间培养我。哪里有比在大学培养孩子更好的地方呢？

　　What I'm trying to tell you is that this is WAY more than just a homecoming for me. It's not easy for me to express how proud I am to be here, with my Mom, my brother and my wife Lucy, and with all of you, at this amazing institution that is responsible for my very existence. I am thrilled for all of you, and I'm thrilled for your families and friends, as all of us join the great, big Michigan family I feel I've been a part of all of my life.

　　我想告诉大家的是，我来这里不仅仅是回家看看。我难以表达我来这里的自豪感，与我母亲、我哥哥、我的妻子露西，还有你们大家，在这个证明我存在的神奇的学院。我为你们感到骄傲，为你的亲朋好友们感到骄傲，我们都加入了伟大的、大密歇根家庭，我感觉它是我生命的一部分。

　　What I'm also trying to tell you is that I know exactly what it feels like to be sitting in your seat, listening to some old gasbag give a long-winded commencement speech. Don't worry. I'll be brief. I have a story about following dreams. Or maybe more accurately³, it's a story about finding a path to make those dreams real. You know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night with a vivid dream? And you know how, if you don't have a pencil and pad by the bed to write it down, it will be completely gone the next morning?

　　我想告诉大家的是，我很清楚你们坐在座椅上，听着一个老家伙废话连篇地做毕业典礼演讲的感受，不要急，我会很简短地说。我有个关于追寻梦想的故事。或者更准确地说是一个找到梦想成真之路的故事。你们知道，午夜从一个逼真的梦境中醒来是什么感觉吗？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？

　　重点讲解：

　　1. sit-down

　　静坐抗议，静坐罢工

　　eg. Teachers staged a sit-down protest in front of the president's office.

　　老师们在校长办公室门前举行了一场静坐抗议。

　　eg. A sit-down strike began as a result of the poor conditions.

　　由于条件太差，结果发生了静坐罢工。

　　2. in case

　　万一，以防；如果

　　eg. She had had the foresight⁴ to prepare herself financially in case of an accident.

　　她有先见之明，经济上作了准备以防万一发生事故。

　　eg. They watched him closely in case he should escape.

　　他们严密监视他，惟恐他会逃脱。

　　3. spend sometime (in) doing sth.

　　花费时间做某事；

　　eg. Engineers spend much time and energy developing brilliant solutions.

　　工程师们花费很多时间和精力来开发完美的解决方案。

　　eg. The time I spend in commuting⁵ every day adds up to three hours.

　　我每天上下班乘车花费的时间加起来有3个小时。

　　4. long-winded

　　adj. 长篇累牍的；冗长的；啰嗦的

　　eg. I hope I'm not being too long-winded.

　　我希望我不是太啰嗦。

　　eg. The manifesto⁶ is long-winded, repetitious and often ambiguous or poorly drafted.

　　宣言长篇大论，内容叠床架屋，词句常常含混不清或不知所云。

　　名人简介：

　　拉里·佩奇是Google的创始首席执行官，2001年4月转任现职(产品总裁)，他仍与Eric Schmidt和 Sergey Brin 一起共同负责 Google的日常运作。

　　刚进入而立之年的Google创始人拉里·佩奇和谢尔盖·布林，让全球数百万人利用Google搜索引擎创造财富，让员工们由公司上市而获得财富，也同时为自己带来了巨额收益。谢尔盖·布林和拉里·佩奇计划出售手中2.5%的股权，这将使他们俩每人获益1亿多美元。布林和佩奇在接受美国广播公司记者彼得·杰宁斯采访时说，“对我们来说，最大的责任就是当人们提出要求时，准确地提供他们所需要的东西。”“我们希望在接下来的工作中，能够继续利用科技给人们的生活和工作带来真正巨大的变化。”

　　布林说，早在网络工作的最初阶段，他们就决定专做“搜索”，“搜索”关乎于信息，只有它才能为人们的生活带来真正的变化。Google能够帮助人们回答各式各样的问题，提供几乎所有人们想知道的信息，而且能够接受中文、英文、日文等100多种语言的查询。据说美国中央情报局也是Google的大客户。

1 alley   

n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路

参考例句：

• We live in the same alley.我们住在同一条小巷里。
• The blind alley ended in a brick wall.这条死胡同的尽头是砖墙。

2 brat   

n.孩子；顽童

参考例句：

• He's a spoilt brat.他是一个被宠坏了的调皮孩子。
• The brat sicked his dog on the passer-by.那个顽童纵狗去咬过路人。

3 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

4 foresight   

n.先见之明，深谋远虑

参考例句：

• The failure is the result of our lack of foresight.这次失败是由于我们缺乏远虑而造成的。
• It required a statesman's foresight and sagacity to make the decision.作出这个决定需要政治家的远见卓识。

5 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。

6 manifesto   

n.宣言，声明

参考例句：

• I was involved in the preparation of Labour's manifesto.我参与了工党宣言的起草工作。
• His manifesto promised measures to protect them.他在宣言里保证要为他们采取保护措施。