Don’t Let Yourself Down

⊙ By Barack Obama

翻譯：T Boy

Don’t Let Yourself Down

別給自己丟臉

⊙ By Barack Obama

翻譯：T Boy

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. So I know that some of you are still adjustingto 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.

I wanna 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.

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 class paper that’s1)assigned to you. Maybe you could be an2)innovator or an inventor, maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or the new medicine or3)vaccine, but you might not know it until you do your project for your science class.

And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You wanna be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You wanna be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our4)military? You’re gonna 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.

I know that sometimes you get that sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work—that your ticket to success is through rapping or

basketball or being a reality TV star. Chances are you’re not gonna be any of those things.

推薦背誦

The truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject that you study. You won’t5)click with every teacher that you have. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right at this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try. That’s OK.

You can’t let your failures define you—you have to let your failures teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently the next time. So if you get into trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker; it means you need to try harder to act right. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid; it just means you need to spend more time studying.

背誦理由

1) assign [??sa?n] v. 布置（作業）

2) innovator [??n??ve?t?（r）] n. 改革者，革新者

3) vaccine [v?k?s?n] n. 疫苗

4) military [?m?l?ter?] n. 軍隊

5) click with 情投意合，一見如故

我們聽過、讀過許多關于成功不是輕易可得，以及如何應對失敗的話。這兩段話的特別之處在于它們并沒有滔滔不絕地泛泛而談，而是從學生每天都可能面對的不愉快——不稱心的老師、不合意的作業、不理想的成績等——談起，貼近學生生活，有的放矢。既有諄諄教誨，又有具體內容，語句簡潔有力，不繞圈子，更容易讓臺下的學生接受。

So I expect all of you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best6)effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down. Don’t let your family down or your country down. Most of all, don’t let yourself down. Make us all proud.

6) effort [?ef?t] n. 努力

You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job.

Drop out指退學、輟學，drop into則指在計劃之外的偶然拜訪，兩者都含有未經思考的輕率之意。奧巴馬巧妙地在這個短句里同時用了drop out和drop into這兩個簡單易懂的常用詞組，突顯一些人在做法上的隨意性，強調某些想法不切實際，加上drop一詞在發言中顯得響亮干脆，整句話讓聽眾印象深刻。

我知道，對你們中的許多人來說，今天是開學的第一天，所以，我可以理解有些人還在為進入開學狀態作調整，但今天我站在這里，是為了和你們談一些重要的事情。我來這里是為了和你們談一談你們的教育，以及在新的學年里，你們每個人都應當做些什么。

我想先談談你們對自己有什么責任。你們中的每一個人都會有自己的專長，每一個人都是有用之材，而發現自己的才能究竟是什么，就是你們要對自己擔起的責任。教育正好可以給你們提供發現自己才能的機會。

或許你能寫一手好文章，甚至可以寫一本書或者在報紙上發表文章，但如果你不完成英語課的作文練習，就不會發現自己有這樣的天賦；或許你可以成為一名革新能手或者發明家，甚至可以設計出下一個像iPhone這樣的產品，或研制出新的藥物、疫苗，但如果你不完成科學課布置的作業，就不會知道自己有這樣的天賦。

而且，我可以向你保證，不管你將來想要做什么，你都需要接受教育。你想當一名醫生、教師或警官？你想成為護士、建筑設計師、律師或軍人？無論你選擇哪一種職業，良好的教育都必不可少，這世上不存在不好好把書念完就能有一份好工作這種好事，任何工作都需要你為之接受培訓，付出艱辛和汗水，學習相應的技能。

我知道有些時候電視上播放的節目會讓你產生這樣那樣的錯覺，似乎你不需要付出多大的努力就能腰纏萬貫、功成名就，以為只要玩玩說唱、打打籃球，或者參加個什么真人秀節目就能輕易成功，但現實是，你幾乎沒有可能通過這些途徑獲得成功。

事實是——成功并非易事。你不可能對現在要學的每門課程都興趣盎然，你不可能和每位教師都相處得來，你的作業也不可能都與現實生活關系密切，而且，并不是你做的每件事在頭一次嘗試時都能獲得成功。但這都不要緊。

你不能讓失敗左右自己，而是要從中吸取教訓。你必須學會在失敗中搞明白下一次應該如何改變：假如你惹了什么麻煩，那并不代表你就是個搗蛋鬼，而是提醒你，要更努力，不再做錯事；假如你成績不好，那并不是說你就是個笨蛋，而是提醒你，要在學習上花更多的時間。

因此，我希望你們今年都能夠認真起來，我希望你們盡力去做好每一件事，我希望你們每一個人都有所成就。請不要讓我們失望，不要讓你的家人、你的國家失望，最重要的是，不要給自己丟臉。讓我們為你們驕傲吧。