书城外语用耳朵听最优美的讲演
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第63章 智慧人生(10)

障碍词先听为快Words and Expressions

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好英文娓娓动听Words and Expressions

While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway.He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow.Was I in trouble?My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man.He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time?Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother.I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be.We stopped beside the trailer.My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said,“Jeff, one day you"ll understand that it"s harder to be kind than clever.”

What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice.Gifts are easy-they"re given after all.Choices can be hard.AYou can seduce yourself with your gifts if you"re not careful, and if you do, it"ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.

This is a group with many gifts. I"m sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain.I"m confident that"s the case because admission is competitive and if there weren"t some signs that you"re clever, the dean of admission wouldn"t have let you in.

Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels. We humans——plodding as we are——will astonish ourselves.We"ll invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it.BAtom by atom, we"ll assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs.CThis month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we"ve synthesized life.In the coming years, we"ll not only synthesize it, but we"ll engineer it to specifications.I believe you"ll even see us understand the human brain.Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton——all the curious from the ages would have wanted to be alive most of all right now.As a civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts as you sit before me.

难点重点,一目了然!

长难句解析Sentence Structures

AYou can seduce yourself with your gifts if you"re not careful, and if you do, it"II probably be to the detriment of your choices.

如果你不小心,你可能会被天赋所诱惑,而这可能会不利于你做出选择。

to the detriment of 有损于,有害。例如:He works long hours, to the detriment of his health.他长时间工作,有损健康。

BAtom by atom, we"II assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs.

我们将会一个原子一个原子地组装微型机械,使之穿过细胞壁,然后修复细胞。

cell walls指的是细胞壁。

CThis month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we"ve synthesized life.

这个月,有一个非同寻常而不可避免的事情发生了——人类终于合成了生命。

这是一句完全倒装句,表示时间的短语放在句首,动词一般用表示运动的不及物动词come, go等。

118.We Are What We Choose(3)选择塑造人生(3)

Track 118. MP3

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总词汇量:0380词汇

每篇好演讲都有灵魂!

今日关键语导读Today"s Key Points

“你们会为自己的天赋而骄傲,还是为自己的选择而骄傲?”在天赋面前,是顺其自然还是慎重地做出决定,亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝佐斯最初创立亚马逊的情况又告诉我们什么呢?

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好英文娓娓动听Words and Expressions

How will you use these gifts?And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?

I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year.AI"d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles——something that simply couldn"t exist in the physical world——was very exciting to me.

BI had just turned 30 years old, and I"d been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn"t work since most startups don"t, and I wasn"t sure what would happen after that.MacKenzie(also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row)told me I should go for it.As a young boy, I"d been a garage inventor.I"d invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires, a solar cooker that didn"t work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings.I"d always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.

I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the lnternet.He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said,“That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn"t already have a good job.”That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before ****** a final decision.CSeen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot.I didn"t think I"d regret trying and failing.And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all.After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I"m proud of that choice.

难点重点,一目了然!

长难句解析Sentence Structures

AI"d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles——something that simply couldn"t exist in the physical world——was very exciting to me.

我从未看到或听说过任何如此迅速发展的东西。创建涵盖几百万种书籍的网上书店的想法令我异常兴奋,因为这个东西在物质世界里根本无法存在。

that在句中做副词修辞fast,表示“那么”,起强调作用。

BI had just turned 30 years old, and I"d been married for a year.

那时我刚刚30岁,结婚才一年。

turn表示达到或超过(某年龄或时间)。例如:She turned forty last June.她在刚过去的六月满四十岁。

CSeen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot.

那样想来,这个决定确实很艰难,但是最终,我决定拼一次。

Iight表示启发,领悟。give a shot 表示尝试。

119.Everything ls Possible(1)一切皆有可能(1)

Track 119. MP3

朗读指数:◆◆

背诵指数:◆◆

难度指数:◆◆

总词汇量:0338词汇

每篇好演讲都有灵魂!

今日关键语导读Today"s Key Points

曾为雅芳全球董事会主席兼首席执行官钟彬娴,是全球最有影响力的商界女性。她凭借深厚的中国传统文化底蕴和追求梦想的执着精神,成为了一名优秀的商业领袖。梦想有多大,就能走多远。

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障碍词先听为快Words and Expressions

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