永不放弃梦想――奥巴马在亚利桑那州立大学毕

Classics 名篇名人32 . New Oriental English ◎By Barack Obama 译/ 辛献云And I want to say to you today, graduates, Class of 2009, that despite having achieved a remarkable milestone in your life, despite the fact that you and your families are so rightfully proud, you too cannot rest on your laurels. You can’t rest. For we gather here tonight in times of extraordinary diffculty, for the nation and for the world. For many of you, these challenges are also felt in more personal terms. Perhaps you’re still looking for a job—or struggling to fgure out what career path makes sense in this disrupted economy. Now, in the face of these challenges, it may be tempting to fall back on the formulas for success that have been pedaled1) so frequently in recent years. It goes something like this: You’re taught to chase after all the usual brass rings 2) ; you try to be on this “who’s who”list or that top 100 list; you chase after the big money and you fgure out how big your corner offce 3) is; you worry about whether you have a fancy enough title or a fancy enough car. That’s the message that’s sent each and every day, or has been in our culture for far too long—that through material possessions, through a ruthless competition pursued only on your own behalf—that’s how you will measure success. Now, you can take that road—and it may work for some. But at this critical juncture in our nation’s history, 今天，我想告诉你们，2009届的毕业生们，虽然你们取得了生命中一个重要的里程碑，虽然你和你们的家人都理所应当为此感到自豪，你们却不能依赖过去的荣誉。你们不能停滞不前。因为今晚我们聚集在这里，面对的是一个困难重重的时期，不管是对美国还是整个世界来说，都是如此。对于你们许多人来说，这些挑战也和你们的切身利益有关。也许你还在找工作，也许你还在苦苦思考在这个经济破败的时期，从事什么职业才比较有意义。现在，面对这些挑战，很容易落入最近几年很是流行的成功秘诀的俗套。这个套路大概是这样的：你受的教育告诉你要追逐一切功名利禄；你想方设法要进入“名人录”或者“100强”；你一门心思要赚大钱，想象着自己的高级办公室该有多大；你担心自己没有一个响亮的头衔，没有一辆炫目的轿车。这就是我们日复一日收到的信息，也是在我们的文化中早已根深蒂固的信息——通过物质财富的占有，通过仅仅为了一己之私而进行的无情竞争——这些就是你衡量成功与否的标准。当然，你可以走这条路——而且对有些人来说也确实