5月14日是什么日子-篮球拉拉队口号

奥巴马演讲中英文对照版

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 Spicer? (Applause.) I am here with students at
Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve 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 host. Give yourselves a big round of applause. (Applause.) 嗨，大家好!你们今天过得怎么样?我现在和弗吉尼亚州阿林顿郡韦克菲尔德高中的学生们在一起，全国各地也有从幼儿园到高三的众多学生们通过电视关注这里，我很高兴你们能共同分享这一时刻。

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, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I
imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now -- (applause) -- with just one more
year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you
could’ve stayed in bed just a little bit longer this morning.
我知道，对你们中的许多人来说，今天是开学的第一天，你们中的有一些刚刚进入幼 儿园或升上初高
中，对你们来说，这是在新学校的第一天，因此，假如你们感到有些紧张，那也是很正常 的。我想也会有
许多毕业班的学生们正自信满满地准备最后一年的冲刺。不过，我想无论你有多大、在读 哪个年级，许多
人都打心底里希望现在还在放暑假，以及今天不用那么早起床。

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived overseas. I lived in Indonesia for a few years. And
my mother, she didn’t 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 through Friday. But because she had to go to work, the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the
morning.
我可以理解这份心情。小时候，我们家在大洋彼 岸——我们在印度尼西亚住过几年。我妈妈没钱送我
去其他美国孩子们上学的地方去读书，因此她决定自 己给我上课——时间是每周一到周五的凌晨4点半。

Now, as you might imagine, I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. And a lot of times, I’d fall asleep
right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and
she’d say,
显然，我不怎么喜欢那么早就爬 起来，很多时候，我就这么在厨房的桌子前睡着了。每当我埋怨的时
候，我妈总会用同一副表情看着我说 ：“小鬼，你以为教你我就很轻松?”

So I know that some of you are still adjusting to 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.
所以，我可以理解你们中的许多人对于开学还需要时间来调整和适应，但今 天我站在这里，是为了和
你们谈一些重要的事情。我要和你们谈一谈你们每个人的教育，以及在新的学年 里，你们应当做些什么。

Now, I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked about responsibility a lot.
我做过许多关于教育的讲话，也常常用到“责任”这个词。

I’ve talked about teachers’ responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn.
我谈到过教师们有责任激励和启迪你们，督促你们学习。

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and you get your homework
done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox.
我谈到过家长们有责任看管你们认真学习、完成作业，不要成天只会看电视或打游戏机。

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, and supporting teachers and
principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working, where students aren’t getting the opportunities that
they deserve.
我也很多次谈到过政 府有责任设定高标准严要求、协助老师和校长们的工作，改变在有些学校里学生
得不到应有的学习机会的 现状。

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 show 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. That’s what I want
to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.
但哪怕这一切都达到最好，哪怕我们有最 尽职的教师、最好的家长、和最优秀的学校，假如你们不去
履行自己的责任的话，那么这一切努力都会白 费。——除非你每天准时去上学、除非你认真地听老师讲课、
除非你把父母、长辈和其他大人们说的话放 在心上、除非你肯付出成功所必需的努力，否则这一切都会失
去意义。

I want to 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.
而这就是我今天讲话的主题：对于自己的教育，你们中每一个人的责任。首先，我想 谈谈你们对于自
己有什么责任。你们中的每一个人都会有自己擅长的东西，每一个人都是有用之材，而发 现自己的才能是
什么，就是你们要对自己担起的责任。教育给你们提供了发现自己才能的机会。

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 paper -- that English class paper that’s 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 vaccine -- 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.
或许你能写出优美的文字——甚至有一天能让那些文字出现在书籍 和报刊上——但假如不在英语课上
经常练习写作，你不会发现自己有这样的天赋;或许你能成为一个发明 家、创造家——甚至设计出像今天的
iPhone一样流行的产品，或研制出新的药物与疫苗——但假如 不在自然科学课程上做上几次实验，你不会
知道自己有这样的天赋;或许你能成为一名议员或最高法院法 官，但假如你不去加入什么学生会或参加几次
辩论赛，你也不会发现自己的才能。

And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll 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? You’re going to 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.
而且，我可以向你保证，不管你将来想要做什么，你都需要相应 的教育。——你想当名医生、当名教
师或当名警官?你想成为护士、成为 建筑设计师、律师或军人?无 论你选择哪一种职业，良好的教育都必不
可少，这世上不存在不把书念完就能拿到好工作的美梦，任何工 作，都需要你的汗水、训练与学习。

And this isn’t 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 you’re learning
in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
不仅仅对于你们个人的未来有重要意义，你们 的教育如何也会对这个国家、乃至世界的未来产生重要
影响。今天你们在学校中学 习的内容，将会决定我们整个国家在未来迎接重大挑战时的表现。

You’ll 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. You’ll need the insights
and 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. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop
in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
你们需要在数理 科学课程上学习的知识和技能，去治疗癌症、艾滋那样的疾病，和解决我们面临的能
源问题与环境问题; 你们需要在历史社科课程上培养出的观察力与判断力，来减轻和消除无家可归与贫困、
犯罪问题和各种歧 视，让这个国家变得更加公平和自由;你们需要在各类课程中逐渐累积和发展出来的创新
意识和思维，去 创业和建立新的公司与企业，来制造就业机会和推动经济的增长。

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 don’t do that -- if you quit on school -- you’re not just quitting
on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
我们需 要你们中的每一个人都培养和发展自己的天赋、技能和才智，来解决我们所面对的最困难的问
题。假如你 不这么做——假如你放弃学习——那么你不仅是放弃了自己，也是放弃了你的国家。

Now, I know it’s 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.
当然，我明白，读好书并不总是件容易的事。 我知道你们中的许多人在生活中面临着各种各样的问题，
很难把精力集中在专心读书之上。

I get it. I know what it’s 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 times to pay the bills and wasn’t 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 didn’t fit in.
我知 道你们的感受。我父亲在我两岁时就离开了家庭，是母亲一人将我们拉扯大，有时她付不起帐单，
有时我 们得不到其他孩子们都有的东西，有时我会想，假如父亲在该多好，有时我会感到孤独无助，与周
围的环 境格格不入。

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been on school, and I did some things I’m 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.
因此我并不总是能专心学习，我做过许多 自己觉得丢脸的事情，也惹出过许多不该惹的麻烦，我的生
活岌岌可危，随时可能急转直下。

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 has a similar story. Neither of her
parents had gone to college, and they didn’t 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.
但我很幸运。我在许多事上都得到了重来的机会，我得到了去大学读法学院、实现自 己梦想的机会。
我的妻子——现在得叫她第一夫人米歇尔奥巴马了——也有着相似的人生故事，她的父母 都没读过大学，
也没有什么财产，但他们和她都辛勤工作，好让她有机会去这个国家最优秀的学校读书。

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the
support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and there’s not enough money to go
around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do
things you know aren’t right.
你们中有些人 可能没有这些有利条件，或许你的生活中没有能为你提供帮助和支持的长辈，或许你的
某个家长没有工作 、经济拮据，或许你住的社区不那么安全，或许你认识一些会对你产生不良影响的朋友，
等等。

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life -- what you look like, where you come from, how
much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home -- none of that is an excuse for neglecting your
homework or having a bad attitude in school. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or
dropping out of school. There is no excuse for not trying.

但归根结底，你的生活状况——你的 长相、出身、经济条件、家庭氛围——都不是疏忽学业和态度恶
劣的借口，这些不是你去跟老师顶嘴、逃 课、或是辍学的借口，这些不是你不好好读书的借口。

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written yourdestiny for you,
because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
你的未来，并不取决于你 现在的生活有多好或多坏。没有人为你编排好你的命运，在美国，你的命运
由你自己书写，你的未来由你 自己掌握。

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
而在这片土地上的每个地方，千千万万和你一样的年轻人正是这样在书写着自己的命运。

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t 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. Jazmin Perez.
例如德克萨斯州罗马市的贾斯敏佩雷兹(Jazmin Perez)。刚进学校时，她 根本不会说英语，她住的地方
几乎没人上过大学，她的父母也没有受过高等教育，但她努力学习，取得了 优异的成绩，靠奖学金进入了
布朗大学，如今正在攻读公共卫生专业的博士学位。

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three.
He’s 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 fell behind. He’s headed to college this
fall.
我还想起了加利福尼亚州洛斯拉图斯市的安多尼舒尔兹(Andoni Schultz)，他从三岁起就开始与脑癌病
魔做斗争，他熬过了一次次治疗与手术——其中一次影响 了他的记忆，因此他得花出比常人多几百个小时
的时间来完成学业，但他从不曾落下自己的功课。这个秋 天，他要开始在大学读书了。

And then there’s 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 people out of gangs, and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors
and go on to Jazmin, Andoni, and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They face challenges
in their lives just like you do. In some cases they’ve got it a lot worse off than many of you. But they refused to
give 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.
又比如在我的家乡，伊利诺斯州芝加哥市，身为孤儿的香特尔史蒂夫(Shantell Steve) 换过多次收养家庭，
从小在治安很差的地区长大，但她努力争取到了在当地保健站工作的机会、发起了一 个让青少年远离犯罪
团伙的项目，很快，她也将以优异的成绩从中学毕业，去大学深造。贾斯敏、安多尼 和香特尔与你们并没
有什么不同。和你们一样，他们也在生活中遭遇各种各样的困难与问题，但他们拒绝 放弃，他们选择为自
己的教育担起责任、给自己定下奋斗的目标。我希望你们中的每一个人，都能做得到 这些。

That’s why today I’m 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 as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in
class, or spending some time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular
activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll 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 you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to
learn. And along those lines, by the way, I hope all of you are washing your hands a lot, and that you stay home
from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
因此，在今天，我号召你们每一个人都为自己的教育定下一个目标——并在之后，尽自 己的一切努力
去实现它。你的目标可以很简单，像是完成作业、认真听讲或每天阅读——或许你打算参加 一些课外活动，
或在社区做些志愿工作;或许你决定为那些因为长相或出身等等原因而受嘲弄或欺负的孩 子做主、维护他们
的权益，因为你和我一样，认为每个孩子都应该能有一个安全的学习环境;或许你认为 该学着更好的照顾自

己，来为将来的学习做准备……当然，除此之外，我希望你们都多多 洗手、感到身体不舒服的时候要多在
家休息，免得大家在秋冬感冒高发季节都得流感。

But whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at 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 going to be
any of those things.
不管你决定做什么，我都希望你能坚持到底，希 望你能真的下定决心。我知道有些时候，电视上播放
的节目会让你产生这样那样的错觉，似乎你不需要付 出多大的努力就能腰缠万贯、功成名就——你会认为
只要会唱rap、会打篮球或参加个什么真人秀节目 就能坐享其成，但现实是，你几乎没有可能走上其中任
何一条道路。

The truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject that you study. You won’t 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.
因为，成功是件难事。你不可能对要读的每门课程都兴趣盎然，你不可能 和每名带课教师都相处顺利，
你也不可能每次都遇上看起来和现实生活有关的作业。而且，并不是每件事 ，你都能在头一次尝试时获得
成功。

That’s okay. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. J.K.
Rowling’s -- who wrote Harry Potter -- her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it was finally
published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. He lost hundreds of games and missed
thousands of shots during his career. But he once said,
that’s why I succeed.
但那没有关系。因为 在这个世界上，最最成功的人们往往也经历过最多的失败。J.K.罗琳的第一本《哈
利·波特》被出版 商拒绝了十二次才最终出版;迈克尔·乔丹上高中时被学校的篮球队刷了下来，在他的职业
生涯里，他输 了几百场比赛、投失过几千次射篮，知道他是怎么说的吗?“我一生不停地失败、失败再失败，
这就是我 现在成功的原因。”

These people succeeded because they understood that 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.
他们的成功，源于他们明白人不能让失 败左右自己——而是要从中吸取经验。从失败中，你可以明白
下一次自己可以做出怎样的改变;假如你惹 了什么麻烦，那并不说明你就是个捣蛋鬼，而是在提醒你，在将
来要对自己有更严格的要求;假如你考了 个低分，那并不说明你就比别人笨，而是在告诉你，自己得在学习
上花更多的时间。

No one’s born being good at all things. You become good at things through hard work. You’re not avarsity
athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to
practice. The same principle applies to your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before
you get it right. You might have to read something a few times before you understand it. You definitely have to do
a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
没有哪一 个人一生出来就擅长做什么事情的，只有努力才能培养出技能。任何人都不是在第一次接触
一项体育运动 时就成为校队的代表，任何人都不是在第一次唱一 首歌时就找准每一个音，一切都需要熟
能生巧。对于 学业也是一样，你或许要反复运算才能解出一道数学题的正确答案，你或许需要读一段文字
好几遍才能理 解它的意思，你或许得把论文改上好几次才能符合提交的标准。这都是很正常的。

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking
for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength because it shows you have the courage to admit when you
don’t know something, and that then allows 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。不要不敢向他 人求助。——我每天都在这么做。求助并不是软弱的表现，恰恰相反，
它说明你有勇气承认自己的不足、 并愿意去学习新的知识。所以，有不懂时，就向大人们求助吧——找个
你信得过的对象，例如父母、长辈 、老师、教练或辅导员——让他们帮助你向目标前进。

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given
up on you, don’t ever give up on yourself, because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
你要记住，哪怕你表现不好、哪怕你失去信心、哪怕你觉得身边的人都已经放弃了你 ——永远不要自
己放弃自己。因为当你放弃自己的时候，你也放弃了自己的国家。

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going,
who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
美国不是一个人们遭遇困难就轻易放弃的国度，在这个国家，人们坚持到底、人们加倍努力 ，为了他
们所热爱的国度，每一个人都尽着自己最大的努力，不会给自己留任何余地。

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 who overcame a Depression and
won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years
ago who founded Google and Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
250年前，有一群和你们一样的学生，他们之后奋起努力、用一场革命最终 造就了这个国家;75年前，
有一群和你们一样的学生，他们之后战胜了大萧条、赢得 了二战;就在2 0年前，和你们一样的学生们，他
们后来创立了Google、Twitter和Facebook，改 变了我们人与人之间沟通的方式。

So today, I want to ask all of you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve?
What discoveries will you make? What will a President who comes here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about what
all of you did for this country?
因此，今 天我想要问你们，你们会做出什么样的贡献?你们将解决什么样的难题?你们能发现什么样的事
物?二十 、五十或百年之后，假如那时的美国总统也来做一次开学演讲的话，他会怎样描述你们对这个国
家所做的 一切?

Now, your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you
need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the 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 get
serious this year. I expect you to put your best 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.
你们的家长、你们的老师和我，每一个 人都在尽最大的努力，确保你们都能得到应有的教育来回答这
些问题。例如我正在努力为你们提供更安全 的教室、更多的书籍、更先进的设施与计算机。但你们也要担
起自己的责任。因此我要求你们在今年能够 认真起来，我要求你们尽心地去做自己着手的每一件事，我要
求你们每一个人都有所成就。请不要让我们 失望——不要让你的家人、你的国家和你自己失望。你们要成
为我们骄傲，我知道，你们一定可以做到。

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God bless America. Thank you
谢谢大家，上帝保佑你们，上帝保佑美国。