穿越海洋-第三届全国英语演讲比赛冠军作品_.docVIP

穿越海洋-第三届全国英语演讲比赛冠军作品 Crossing the Sea By Liang Limin 专家点评:引用文学大师的诗句作为开场白，与结束语首尾呼应，颇有感染力。东西方文化的融合表现得十分鲜明 ，意味深长，是篇优秀的演讲。 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen An English poet by the name of Rudyard Kipling once wrote in this poem “We and They” : All the people like us are We and everyone else is They We live over the sea While They live over the way We eat pork and beef with cow horn-handled knives They who gobble their rice off a leaf Are horrified out of their lives. When these lines first caught my eyes, I was shocked--how could two people remain so isolated and ignorant of each other in the past? Todayacute;s society, of course, is an entirely different picture. Those people who used to eat with gobble their rice might be as well have taken to fish and chips. Indeed, just take China as example; Our modern life has been influenced by Western style of living in so many ways that itacute;s no longer surprising to see teenagers going crazy about rock-and-roll, whole families dining out at McDonaldacute;s and even rather elderly people dressed in Apple Jeans. However, these are only some expressions of the cultural changes taking place in our society today. What is really going on is a subtle but significant restructuring of the nationacute;s mentality. Just look around. How many college graduates are ready to compete aggressively for every job opportunity, whereas not long ago they were asked just to sit idle and wait for whatever was to be assigned to them by the government? How many young people are now eager to seek for an independent life whereas only two decades ago they would rely totally on their parents to arrange for their future? Ask anyone who participates in todayacute;s speech contest. Who has not come with a will to fight and who has not come determined to achieve self-fulfillment in winning the game? And Iacute;m quite certain that if Confucius had lived to see todayacute;s China, he would have been horrified to see young lovers kissing each oth