无缓冲奥巴马：我们为什么要上学(中英对照)

2021年1月19日发(作者：improve是什么意思)







我们为什么要上学？

——奥巴马在开学第一天的演讲




Hello,
everybody!
Thank
you.
Thank
you.
Thank
you,
everybody.
All
right,
everybody
go
ahead
and
have
a
seat.
How
is
everybody
doing
today?
(Applause.)
How
about
Tim
Spicer?
(Applause.) I am here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we've
got students tuning in from all across America, from kindergarten through 12th grade. And I am
just
so
glad
that
all
could
join
us
today.
And
I
want
to
thank
Wakefield
for
being
such
an
outstanding host. Give yourselves a big round of applause. (Applause.)

大家好！
谢谢你们。
谢谢你们。
谢谢你们大家。
好，
大家请就坐。
你们今天都好吗？
（ 掌
声）蒂姆
?
斯派塞（
Tim Spicer
）好吗？（掌声）我现 在与弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿郡韦克菲尔德高
中的学生们在一起。美国各地从小学预备班到中学
12< br>年级的学生正在收听收看。我很高兴
大家今天都能参与。我还要感谢韦克菲尔德高中出色的组织安 排。请为你们自己热烈鼓掌。
（掌声
)

I
know
that
for
many
of
you,
today
is
the
first
day
of
school.
And
for
those
of
you
in
kindergarten,
or
starting
middle
or
high
school,
it's
your
first
day
in
a
new
school,
so
it's
understandable if you're a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling
pretty good right now -- (applause) -- with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade
you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you could've stayed in bed
just a little bit longer this morning.

我知道，今天是你们很多人开学的日子。
对于进入小学预备班、 初中或高中的学生，今
天是你们来到新学校的第一天，
心里可能有点紧张，
这是可以理 解的。
我能想象有些毕业班
学生现在感觉很不错——
（掌声）——还有一年就毕业了。 不论在哪个年级，你们有些人可
能希望暑假更长一点，今天早上还能多睡一小会儿。





I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived overseas. I lived in Indonesia for a
few
years. And my
mother, she didn't have the money to send me where all the American kids
went to school, but she thought it was important for me to keep up with an American education.
So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday. But because she had to
go to work, the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the morning.

我了解这种感觉。我小时候，我们家生活在海外。
我在印度尼西 亚住了几年。我妈妈没
有钱送我上其他美国孩子上的学校，
但她认为必须让我接受美式教育。< br>因此，
她决定从周一
到周五自己给我补课。不过她还要上班，所以只能在清晨四点半给我 上课


Now, as you might imagine, I wasn't too happy about getting up that early. And a lot of times,
I'd fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I'd complain, my mother would just
give me one of those looks and she'd say,

你们可以想见，
我不太情愿那么早起床。
有很多次，我趴在餐桌上就睡着了。但每当我
抱怨的时候，我妈妈都会那样地看我一眼，然后说：
“小子，这对我也并不轻松。
”
（笑声）


So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I'm here today
because I have something important to discuss with you. I'm here because I want to talk with you
about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.

我知道你们有些人还在适应开学后的生活。
但我今天来到这里是因为有重要的事情要和
你们说。
我来这里是要和你们谈谈你们的教 育问题，
以及在这个新学年对你们所有人的期望。


Now, I've given a lot of speeches about education. And I've talked about responsibility a lot.

我做过很多次有关教育问题的演讲。我多次谈到过责任问题


I've talked about teachers' responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn.

我谈到过教师激励学生并督促他们学习的责任。


I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and you get
your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox.

我谈到过家长的责任，要确保 你们走正路，完成家庭作业，不要整天坐在电视前或玩
Xbox
游戏。




I've
talked
a
lot
about
your
government's
responsibility
for
setting
high
standards,
and
supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working, where students
aren't getting the opportunities that they deserve.

我多次谈到过政府 的责任，
要制定高标准，
支持教师和校长的工作，
彻底改善不能为学
生提供应 有机会的、教育质量差的学校。


But
at
the
end
of
the
day,
we
can
have
the
most
dedicated
teachers,
the
most
supportive
parents,
the
best
schools
in
the
world
--
and
none
of
it
will
make
a
difference,
none
of
it
will
matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless
you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other
adults
and
put
in
the
hard
work
it
takes
to
succeed.
That's
what
I
want
to
focus
on
today:
the
responsibility each of you has for your education.

然而，
即使我们拥有最敬业的 教师，
最尽力的家长和全世界最好的学校——如果你们大
家不履行你们的责任，不到校上课，不 专心听讲，不听家长、祖父祖母和其他大人的话，不
付出取得成功所必须的勤奋努力，
那么这一 切都毫无用处，
都无关紧要。
这就是我今天讲话
的重点：你们每个人对自己的教育应尽 的责任。



I
want
to
start
with
the
responsibility
you
have
to
yourself.
Every
single
one
of
you
has
something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a
responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.

我首先要讲讲你们对自己应尽的责任。
你们每个人都有自己的长 处。
你们每个人都能做
出自己的贡献。
你们对自己应尽的责任是发现自己的能力所在。
而教育能够提供这样的机会。


Maybe you could be a great writer -- maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a
newspaper -- but you might not know it until you write that English paper
-- that English class
paper that's assigned to you. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor -- maybe even good
enough
to
come
up
with
the
next
iPhone
or
the
new
medicine
or
vaccine
--
but
you
might
not
know it until you do your project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator
or a Supreme Court justice -- but you might not know that until you join student government or
the debate team.

你或许能成为一名出色的作家——甚至可能写书或在报纸上发表文章——但你可能要
在完成那篇英文课的作文后才会发现自己的才华。
你或许能成为一名创新者或发明家——甚
至可 能设计出新一代
iPhone
或研制出新型药物或疫苗——但你可能要在完成科学课的实验后才会发现自己的才华。
你或许能成为一名市长或参议员或最高法院的大法官——但你可能
要在参加学生会的工作或辩论队后才会发现自己的才华。


And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you'll need an education
to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a po1ice officer? You want to be a nurse or an
architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every
single one of those careers. You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've
got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.

不论你的生活志向是什么，
我敢肯定你必须上学读书才能实现它。
你想当医生、
教师或
警官吗？你想当护士、建筑师、
律师或军人吗？你必须接受良好的教育，
才能从事上述任何
一种职业。你 不能指望辍学后能碰上个好工作。你必须接受培训，为之努力，为之学习。


And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your
education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. The future of America depends
on you. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our
greatest challenges in the future.

这并非只对你个人的人生和未来意义重大。
可以毫不夸大地说，
教育给你带 来的益处将
决定这个国家的未来。
美国的未来取决于你们。
你们今日在校学习的知识将 决定我们作为一
个国家是否能够迎接我们未来所面临的最严峻挑战。


You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure
diseases
like
cancer
and
AIDS,
and
to
develop
new
energy
technologies
and
protect
our
environment.
You'll
need
the
insights
and
critical-thinking
skills
you
gain
in
history
and
social
studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more
fair and more free. You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build
new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

你们将需要利用你们通过自然科学和数学课程所学到的知识和解决问题的 能力来治愈
癌症、
艾滋病及其他疾病，
开发新的能源技术和保护我们的环境。
你们将需要利用你们在历
史学和社会学课堂上所获得的知识和独立思考能力来抗击贫困和解决无家可归问 题，
打击犯
罪和消除歧视，
使我们的国家更公平、
更自由。
你们将需 要利用你们在所有课堂上培养的创
造力和智慧来创办新公司，增加就业机会，振兴我们的经济。


We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so
you can help us old folks solve our most difficult problems. If you don't do that -- if you quit on
school -- you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.

我们需要你们每个人发挥你们的聪明才智和技能，
以便帮助老一 辈人解决我们面临的最
棘手问题。
如果你们不这样做，
如果你们辍学，你们不仅仅是自 暴自弃，也是抛弃自己的国
家。


Now, I know it's not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in
your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

我自然知道要做到学业优秀并非总是易事。
我知道你们许多人在生活中面临挑战，< br>难以
集中精力从事学业。


I get it. I know what it's like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was
raised by a single mom who had to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't
always able to give us the things that other kids had. There were times when I missed having a
father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and I felt like I didn't fit in.

我明白这一点。
我有亲身感受。两岁时，我父亲离家而去，我是由一位单亲母亲抚养
成人的，
母亲不得不工 作，
并时常为支付生活费用而苦苦挣扎，
但有时仍无法为我们提供其
他孩子享有的东西 。
有时，我渴望生活中能有一位父亲。
有时我感到孤独，
感到自己不适应
社会 。


So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been on school, and I did some things I'm not
proud of, and I got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn
for the worse.

我并非总是像我应该 做到的那样专心学习，我也曾做过我如今不能引以为豪的一些事
情，我曾惹过不应该惹的麻烦。我的人生 原本会轻易陷入更糟糕的境地。


But I was -- I was lucky. I got a lot of second chances, and I had the opportunity to go to
college and law school and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, she has a
similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have a lot of money. But
they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

但是，我当年际遇不错。我有过许多第二次机会，我有幸能上大学，上法学院，追求自
己的理想 。我的妻子，我们的第一夫人米歇尔
?
奥巴马，也有着类似的经历。她的父母都未
曾上 过大学，家里很穷。但他们非常勤奋

，她也是如此，因此她得以进入一些美国最好的
学校。


Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don't have adults in your life who
give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and there's
not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel safe, or
have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right.

你们中有一些人可能没有 那些有利条件。
或许你们生活中没有成年人为你们提供你们所
需要的支持。
或许你们家 中有人失业，
经济非常拮据。
或许你们生活在使你们感觉不安全的
社区，或有朋友逼迫 你们去做你们知道不对的事情。



But at the end of the day, the circumstances of
your life
-- what
you look like, where
you
come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home -- none of that is an
excuse
for
neglecting
your
homework
or
having
a
bad
attitude
in
school.
That's
no
excuse
for
talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. There is no excuse for not
trying.

但归根结底，你的生活状 况——你的长相、出身、
经济条件、
家庭氛围——都不是疏忽
学业和态度恶劣的借口，
这些不是你去跟老师顶嘴、逃课、或是辍学的借口，
这些不是你不
好好读书的借口。< br>

Where
you
are
right
now
doesn't
have
to
determine
where
you'll
end
up.
No
one's
written
your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own
future.

你的 未来，
并不取决于你现在的生活有多好或多坏。
没有人为你编排好你的命运，
在美国，你的命运由你自己书写，你的未来由你自己掌握。


That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

而在这片土地上的每个地方，千千万万和你一样 的年轻人正是这样在书写着自己的命
运。


Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn't speak English when she
first started school. Neither of her parents had gone to college. But she worked hard, earned good
grades, and got a scholarship to Brown University -- is now in graduate school, studying public
health, on her way to becoming Dr. Jazmin Perez.

例如德克萨斯州罗马市的贾斯敏·佩雷兹（
Jazmin Perez
）
。刚 进学校时，她根本不会说
英语，
她住的地方几乎没人上过大学，她的父母也没有受过高等教育，
但她努力学习，
取得
了优异的成绩，靠奖学金进入了布朗大学，如今正在攻读公共卫生 专业的博士学位。


I'm
thinking
about
Andoni
Schultz,
from
Los
Altos,
California,
who's
fought
brain
cancer
since he was three. He's had to endure all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected
his memory, so it took him much longer -- hundreds of extra hours -- to do his schoolwork. But he