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Young Voice英语广播:2022(40)乔布斯2005年斯坦福大学演讲

通讯员:邹昊宁    编辑者:陈三    发布时间:2022年09月26日    阅读:    



大家好,这里是湖北理工学院外国语学院英语调频广播台,我是主播邹昊宁。在斯坦福大学演讲中,乔布斯为我们讲述了三个故事,在每个故事中我们发掘到其性格中的闪光点,这或许就是其成功的关键因素,现与大家分享交流一下其中的一些片段吧。

首先让我们来了解一下这篇文章里出现的一些重要词汇

commencement /kəˈmensmənt/ n.毕业典礼

Unwed /ˌʌnˈwed/adj.未婚的

popped out出生

biological mother生母


Steve Jobs at Stanford University in 2005

乔布斯2005年斯坦福大学演讲

I am honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.Truth be told , I never graduated from college .And this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.Today I want to tell you three stories from my life .That’s it . No big deal . Just three stories .

我今天很荣幸能与诸位一起参加毕业典礼。说实话,我从未大学毕业。这应该算是我一生中离大学毕业最近的一次了。今天我想向你们讲述我生活中的三个故事。不是什么大不了的事情,仅仅是三个故事而已。


The first story is about connecting the dots.I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months.But then stayed around as a drop - in for another 18 months or so before I really quit .So why did I drop out ? It started before I was born .My biological mother was a young ,unwed college graduate student.And she decided to put me up for adoption.

第一个故事是关于如何把生命中的点点滴滴串连起来。我在雷德大学读了6个月之后就退学了。但是在十八个月以后一一我真正的作出退学决定之前,我还是经常去学校。那我为什么要退学呢?那要从我出生的时候讲起。我的亲生母亲是一个年轻的,没有结婚的大学毕业生。她决定让别人收养我。


She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates,so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.So my parents,who were on a waiting list,got a call in the middle of the night asking.They said :“Of course .”My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school.She refused to sign the final adoption papers.She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.This was the start in my life.

她十分想让我被大学毕业生收养,所以她为我做好了一切,我被一个律师一家收养。但出乎意料的是,当我出生之后,律师夫妇突然想要一个女孩。所以我的养父母(在待选名单上的)突然在半夜接到了一个电话“我们现在这儿有一个不小心生出来的男婴,你们想要他吗?”他们回答道:“当然!”但是我生母随后发现,我的养母从来没有上过大学,我的养父甚至从未读过高中。她拒绝签这个收养合同。几个月后,在我的养父母承诺一定会送我上大学后,她才勉强同意。 这是我生活的开始。


And 17 years later I did go to college .But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford .And all of my working - class parents’savings were being spent on my college tuition .After six months , I couldn’t see the value in it .I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out .And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life .

十七年后,我真的上了大学。但是我很愚蠢的选择了一个几乎和你们斯坦福大学一样贵的学校。我父母还处于蓝领阶层,他们几乎把所有积蓄都花在了我的学费上面。在六个月后,我已经看不到其中的价值所在。我不知道要怎么做,我也不知道大学能不能帮我找到答案。而且在这里,我几乎花光了我父母这一辈子的全部积蓄。


So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.It was pretty scary at the time,but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me,and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.It wasn’t all romantic.I didn’t have a dorm room,so I slept on the floor in friends’rooms.

所以我决定要退学,我觉得这才是正确的选择。我那时的确很害怕,不过现在看来,那应该是我人生中做得最正确的选择。在我做出退学决定的那一刻,我终于可以不必去读那些令我提不起丝毫兴趣的课程了,然后我可以去攻读那些我喜欢的课程了。不过那也不都是那么的浪漫。我失去了我的宿舍,所以我只能睡在朋友房间的地板上。


I returned coke bottles for the five - cent deposits to buy food with,and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.I loved it.And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.Let me give you one example.

我又去捡五美分的可乐瓶了,仅仅是为了填饱肚子。每个星期天晚上,我会走7英里的路穿过波特兰市区去Hare Krishna神庙去吃顿好的。我爱上了它。很多在这段跟随自己的好奇心和直觉度过的日子里学到的东西,后来都让我获益匪浅。我给你们举个例子。


Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.Throughout the campus every poster,every label on every drawer,was beautifully hand calligraphed.Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes . I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.It was beautiful,historical,artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture,and I found it fascinating .

雷德大学当时的书法课程大概是美国国内最好的了。校园里的每一幅海报,抽屉上的每一个标签,都是用漂亮的字体手写而成的。因为我已经退学,用不着去上常规课。所以我决定去参加一门书法课,去学写字。它很美、有悠久历史、精妙的艺术感,为科学所无法企及,我对它着迷了。


None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.But ten years later,when we were designing the first Macintosh computer,it all came back to me.And we designed it all into the Mac.It was the first computer with beautiful typography.If I had never dropped in on that single course in college,the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts .

这些对于我的生活毫无任何实际的用途,我也从没指望。但是在10年后,当我们正在设计第一台Macintosh的时候,这些又回到了我的脑海里。并且我们把这些都注入到了Mac中去。那是第一台拥有着美丽字体的计算机。假如我当年没有旁听这门课程,Mac也许就不会有那么多种不同的字体以及字符按比例间隔的字形。


And since Windows just copied the Mac,its likely that no personal computer would have them.If I had never dropped out,I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class,and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college . But it was very,very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again,you can’t connect the dots looking forward,you can only connect them looking backwards .

而且要不是Windows照抄了Mac的设计,也许今天的个人电脑就不会拥有这些了。假如我当年没退学,也许我就不会旁听这这门书法课了,也许个人电脑就不会有那么好看的字体。当然,在学校的时候我不可能预见到这些点滴事件之间的联系。但是,10年之后再看过去,这种联系非常非常清楚。再说一遍,你没法预知你人生的点点滴滴之间会有怎样的联系,你只能在事后把它们串接起来。


So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.You have to trust in something, your gut,destiny , life , karma,whatever .Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well - worn path,and that will make all the difference.

因此,你必须相信,这些人生的片段会在你的未来产生联系。你必须相信点什么,你的勇气、命运、生活、因缘,什么都可以。因为相信那些片段会在之后的人生之路上给你以发自内心的自信,甚至引导你走出颓废,那将改变一切。

今天的节目到这里就结束了,想要获取音频回放以及更多完整版稿件,请到湖北理工学院外国语学院英语语言学习示范中心自行了解http://sfl.hbpu.edu.cn/sfzx/cxxm/dpgb.htm,我是主播邹昊宁,我们下期再见。

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