09年奥巴马开学演讲中英文对照.docx

1、09年奥巴马开学演讲中英文对照IN A NATIONAL ADDRESS TO AMERICAS SCHOOLCHILDRENWakefield High SchoolArlington, Virginia12:06 P.M. EDTTHE PRESIDENT: 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 Spi

2、cer? (Applause.) I am here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And weve 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 hos

3、t. Give yourselves a big round of applause. (Applause.)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, its your first day in a new school, so its understandable if youre a little nervous. I imagine there are some

4、 seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now - (applause) - with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade youre in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you couldve stayed in bed just a little bit longer this morning.I know that feeling. When I was young, m

5、y family lived overseas. I lived in Indonesia for a few years. And my mother, she didnt 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 throug

6、h Friday. But because she had to go to work, the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the morning.Now, as you might imagine, I wasnt too happy about getting up that early. And a lot of times, Id fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever Id complain, my mother would just give me

7、one of those looks and shed say, This is no picnic for me either, buster. (Laughter.)So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But Im here today because I have something important to discuss with you. Im here because I want to talk with you about your education and what

8、s expected of all of you in this new school year.Now, Ive given a lot of speeches about education. And Ive talked about responsibility a lot.Ive talked about teachers responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn.Ive talked about your parents responsibility for making sure you stay

9、on track, and you get your homework done, and dont spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox.Ive talked a lot about your governments responsibility for setting high standards, and supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that arent working, where students aren

10、t getting the opportunities that they deserve.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 sho

11、w 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. Thats what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.I want to start with the res

12、ponsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something that youre good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. Thats the opportunity an education can provide.Maybe you could be a great writer - maybe eve

13、n 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 thats 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 vac

14、cine - 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.And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that

15、youll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? Youre going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a g

16、ood job. Youve got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.And this isnt 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 youre learning in school today

17、will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.Youll 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. Youll need the insights an

18、d 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. Youll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boo

19、st our economy.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 dont do that - if you quit on school - youre not just quitting on yourself, youre quitting on your country.Now, I know its

20、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.I get it. I know what its 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

21、 times to pay the bills and wasnt 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 didnt fit in.So I wasnt always as focused as I should have been on school, and I did some things Im

22、 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.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 ha

23、s a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didnt 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.Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you dont have adults in your life who give you the

24、 support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and theres not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you dont feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know arent right.But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your l

25、ife - what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what youve got going on at home - none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. Thats no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. There is

26、 no excuse for not trying.Where you are right now doesnt have to determine where youll end up. No ones written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.Thats what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.Young people lik

27、e Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didnt 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. J

28、azmin Perez.Im thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, whos fought brain cancer since he was three. Hes 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 never

29、fell behind. Hes headed to college this fall.And then theres Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods in the city, she managed to get a job at a local health care center, start a program to keep young peop

30、le out of gangs, and shes on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.And Jazmin, Andoni, and Shantell arent any different from any of you. They face challenges in their lives just like you do. In some cases theyve got it a lot worse off than many of you. But they refused to gi

31、ve up. They chose to take responsibility for their lives, for their education, and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.Thats why today Im calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education - and do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something

32、as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending some time each day reading a book. Maybe youll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe youll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all young people deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe youll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, by the