Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas.Jazmin didn’tspeak English when she first started school. Neither of her parentshad gone to college. But she worked hard, earned good grades, andgot a scholarship to Brown University-- is now in graduate school,studying public health, on her way to becoming Dr. JazminPerez.
来自得州罗马城的贾兹敏佩雷斯(JazminPerez)就是一个例证，她刚开始上学时并不会说英语。她的父母都没有上过大学。然而，她非常勤奋，成绩优秀，获得了布朗大学的奖学金，她如今正在读研究生，攻读公共卫生专业，不久将成为贾兹敏佩雷斯博士。
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from LosAltos,California,who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’shad to endure all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of whichaffected his memory, so it took him much longer -- hundreds ofextra hours -- to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind. He’sheaded to college this fall.
我想起了加州洛斯阿尔托斯城的安多尼舒尔茨(AndoniSchultz)，他从三岁开始就一直与脑癌进行抗争，他不得不忍受各类治疗和手术带来的痛苦，其中一项手术曾影响了他的记忆，因此他花在功课上的时间比一般人长得多，要多出数百个小时。然而，他从未落后。他今年秋季将迈进大学。
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago,Illinois.Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in thetoughest neighborhoods in the city, she managed to get a job at alocal health care center, start a program to keep young people outof gangs, and she’s on track to graduate high school with honorsand go on to college.
我还想起家乡伊利诺伊州芝加哥市的尚特尔史蒂夫(ShantellSteve)。她曾在芝加哥最困难的社区生活，寄养于多个不同的家庭，但她最终在一家地方医疗中心找到工作，并开始了一项帮助年轻人远离流氓团伙的计划，她即将以优异成绩从中学毕业，紧接着将上大学。
And Jazmin, Andoni, and Shantell aren’t any different from any ofyou. They face challenges in their lives just like you do. In somecases they’ve got it a lot worse off than many of you. But theyrefused to give up.They chose to take responsibility for theirlives, for their education, and set goals for themselves. And Iexpect all of you to do the same.
贾兹敏、安多尼和尚特尔与你们中间的每个人没什么两样。跟你们一样，他们在生活中面临种种挑战。在某些情况下，他们的处境比起你们许多人更差。但他们拒绝放弃。他们决定要为自己的一生、自己的教育负起责任，为自己设定各项奋斗目标。我期待你们大家都会这样做。
That’s why today I’m calling on each of you to set your own goalsfor your education -- and do everything you can to meet them. Yourgoal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, payingattention in class, or spending some time each day reading abook.Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity,or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up forkids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or howthey look, because you believe, like I do, that all young peopledeserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decideto take better care of yourself so you can bemore ready to learn.And along those lines, by the way, I hope all of you are washingyour hands a lot, and that you stay home from school when youdon’tfeel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu thisfall and winter.
因此，我今天呼吁你们每一个人为自己的教育设定目标，并尽自己的最大努力来实现这些目标。你的目标可以是一件十分简单的事情，例如完成家庭作业、上课专心听讲、或每天花一点时间读一本书。也许你会决定要参加课外活动或在你的社区提供志愿服务。也许你会决定挺身而出保护那些因为身份或长相而受人戏弄或欺负的孩子，原因是你和我一样认为所有的年轻人都应该享有一个适合读书和学习的安全环境。也许你会决定更好地照料自己，以便有更充沛的精力来学习。顺便提一下，除了这些事情外，我希望大家要勤洗手，身体感到不舒服的时候要呆在家里不去上学，这样我们能防止人们在今年秋冬季节染上流感。
But whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. Iwant you to really work at it.
但无论你决定做什么，我希望你保证去做。我希望你脚踏实地地去做。
I know that sometimes you get that sense from TV that you canberich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket tosuccess is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TVstar. Chances are you’re not going to be any of those things.
我知道有时候你会从电视上得到这样的印象：你不用做任何艰苦的工作就能发财致富并取得成功，唱小调、打篮球或成为真人秀明星是走向成功的途径。但实际情况是：你可能不会成为其中的一员。
The truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love everysubject that you study. You won’t click with every teacher that youhave. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevantto your life right atthis minute. And you won’t necessarily succeedat everything the first time you try.
事实上，取得成功不是轻而易举的事情。你不会喜欢你学习的每一门课目。你不会与你的每一位老师都很投契。不是所有的家庭作业似乎都与你眼前的生活完全有关。你第一次尝试做每件事的时候，不一定成功。
That’s okay. Some of the most successful people in the world arethe ones who’ve had the most failures. J.K. Rowling’s -- who wroteHarry Potter -- her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 timesbefore it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from hishigh school basketball team.He lost hundreds of games and missedthousands of shots during his career. Buthe once said, “I havefailed over and over and over again in my life. Andthat’s why Isucceed.”
这些都没关系。世界上最成功的人士中有一些是遭遇失败最多的人。作者JK罗琳(J.K.Rowling)所写的系列小说《哈利波特》(Harry Potter)第一部在获得出版之前被退稿12次。迈克尔?乔丹(MichaelJordan)曾被他的高中篮球队除名。在乔丹的篮球生涯中，他输过数百场比赛，有成千上万个球没有投中。但他曾说过：“在我的一生中，我失败了一次又一次、一次又一次。这就是我成功的原因。”
These people succeeded because they understood that you can’tletyour failures define you -- you have to let your failures teachyou. You have to let them show you what to do differently the nexttime. So if you get into trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re atroublemaker, it means you need to try harder to act right. If youget a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid,it just means youneed to spend more time studying.
这些人士获得成功，因为他们懂得：你不能让失败来限制你，而必须让失败来开导你。你必须让失败向你展示下次如何以不同的方式去做这件事情。因此，如果你遇到麻烦，那并不表示你是麻烦的制造者，而意味着你需要更加努力去把它做对。如果你有一门课分数低，那不表示你比别人笨，而只表示你需要花更多的时间学习。
No one’s born being good at all things. You become good atthingsthrough hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time youplay a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you singa song. You’ve got to practice. The same principle applies to yourschoolwork. You might haveto do a math problem a few times beforeyou get it right. You might have toread something a few timesbefore you understand it. You definitely have to doa few drafts ofa paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
没有一个人天生擅长做各种事情。你通过勤奋而变得擅长于各种事情。第一次从事新的体育项目时，你不可能是一位主力队员。第一次唱一首歌曲时，你不可能唱准每个音。你必须练习。同样的道理适用于你的学业。你可能要把一道数学题做几次才把它做对。你可能要把一些材料阅读几遍才能理解。在交出一篇优美的作文之前，你肯定需要打几遍草稿。
（奥巴马餐厅“约会”女学生）
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for helpwhen you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a signof weakness, it’s asign of strength because it shows you have thecourage to admit when you don’t know something, and that thenallows you to learn something new. So find an adult that you trust-- a parent, a grandparent or teacher, a coach or a counselor --and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
不要害怕提问。不要在需要帮助时害怕请求别人帮助。我天天请求别人的帮助。请求帮助不是软弱的表现，它是力量的标志，因为它表明你有勇气承认自己对某些事情不懂，这样做会使你学到新的东西。因此，请确定一位你信任的成年人，例如家长、祖父母或老师、教练或辅导员，请他们帮助你遵循既定计划实现你的目标。
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’rediscouraged, andyou feel like other people have given up on you, don’t ever give upon yourself, because when you give up on yourself, you give up onyour country.
即使当你苦苦挣扎、灰心丧气、感到其他人对你不抱希望时，也不要对你自己丧失信心，因为当你自暴自弃时，你也抛弃了自己的国家。
The story of Americaisn’t about people who quit when things gottough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, wholoved their country too much to do anything less than theirbest.
书写美国历史的不是在困难时刻退缩的人，而是坚持不懈、加倍努力的人，他们对国家的爱促使他们全力以赴。
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago,and went on to wage a revolution and they founded this nation.Young people. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago whoovercame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civilrights and put a man on the moon.Students who sat where you sit 20years ago who founded Google and Twitter and Facebook and changedthe way we communicate with each other.
书写美国历史的是250年前坐在你们的位置上的学生，他们后来进行了独立战争并创建了这个国家。还有75年前坐在你们的位置上的年轻人和学生，他们走出了大萧条并打赢了一场世界大战;他们为民权而奋斗并把宇航员送上了月球。至于20年前坐在你们的位置上的学生，他们创办了谷歌(Google)、叽喳网(Twitter)和脸谱网(Facebook)，改变了我们交流沟通的方式。
So today, I want to ask all of you, what’s your contributiongoing to be? What problems are you going tosolve? What discoverieswill you make? What will a President who comes here in20 or 50 or100 years say about what all of you did for this country?
而今天，我要问问你们大家，你们将做出什么贡献?你们将解决什么问题?你们将有什么发现?20年、50年或100年后来到这里讲话的总统将会怎样评价你们大家为这个国家所做的一切?
Now, your families, your teachers, and I are doing everythingwecan to make sure you have the education you need to answer thesequestions.I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get youthe books and the equipment and the computers you need to learn.But you’ve got to do your part,too. So I expect all of you to getserious this year. I expect you to put yourbest effort intoeverything you do. I expect great things from each of you. Sodon’tlet us down. Don’t let your family down or your country down. Mostofall, don’t let yourself down. Make us all proud.
你们的家人、你们的老师和我正在竭尽全力保证你们接受必要的教育，以便回答上述问题。我正在努力工作，以便你们的教室得到修缮，你们能够得到学习所需的课本、设备和电脑。但你们也必须尽自己的努力。因此，我希望你们大家从今年起认真对待这个问题。我希望你们尽最大努力做好每一件事。我希望你们每个人都有出色的表现。不要让我们失望。不要让你们的家人或你们的国家失望。而最重要的是，不要辜负你们自己，而要让我们都能[为你们]感到骄傲。
Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God blessAmerica.Thank you. (Applause.)
非常感谢你们大家。愿主保佑你们。愿主保佑美国。谢谢你们。
本文来源：网易教育论坛
责任编辑：
王晓易_NE0011
