演讲原文

Harvard was a phenomenal experience for me. Academic life was fascinating. I used to sit in on lots of classes I hadn't even signed up for. And dorm life was terrific. I lived up at Radcliffe, in Currier House. There were always lots of people in my dorm room late at night discussing things, because everyone knew I didn't worry about getting up in the morning. That's how I came to be the leader of the anti-social group. We clung to each other as a way of validating our rejection of all those social people.
对我来说，哈佛的求学经历是一段非凡的经历。校园生活很有趣，我常去旁听许多我没选修的课。在哈佛的宿舍生活也很不错，我当时住在雷迪夫的科里尔公寓。每天我的寝室里总有很多人一直待到半夜，讨论着各种事情。因为每个人都知道我从不考虑第二天早起。这使得我变成了校园里那些不安分学生的头头，我们互相粘在一起，做出一种拒绝所有正常学生的姿态。
Radcliffe was a great place to live. There were more women up there, and most of the guys were math-science types. That combination offered me the best odds, if you know what I mean. That's where I learned the sad lesson that improving your odds doesn't guarantee success.
雷迪夫是个生活的好地方。那里的女生比男生多，而且大多数男生都是理工科的。那种状况为我创造了最好的机会，如果你们明白我的意思。也正是在这里我学到了人生中令人悲伤的教训：机会大，并不等于你就会成功。
One of my biggest memories of Harvard came in January 1975, when I made a call from Currier House to a company in Albuquerque in New Mexico that had begun making the world's first personal computers. I offered to sell them software.
我在哈佛最深刻的回忆发生在1975年1月。那时，我从科里尔公寓给位于美国新墨西哥州阿尔伯克基的一家公司打了一个电话，那家公司已经在着手制造世界上第一台个人电脑。我提出想向他们出售软件。
I worried that they would realize I was just a student in a dorm and hang up on me. Instead they said: "We're not quite ready, come see us in a month," which was a good thing, because we hadn't written the software yet.
我很担心他们会发觉我是一个住在宿舍的学生从而挂断电话。但是他们却说：“我们还没准备好，一个月后你再来找我们吧。”那是个好消息，因为那时我们根本没有写出软件。

热词空间

phenomenal
adj. 不寻常的
eg. They are disappearing at a phenomenal rate all across the world.
在全球范围内，他们正在以惊人的速度消亡着。

clung
vi. 粘着
eg. The two friends cling together wherever they go.
这两个朋友不论走到哪里都形影不离。

validate
vt. 证实
eg. Do these results validate his theory?
这些结果可以证实他的理论吗?

rejection
n. 抛弃；拒绝
eg. Her rejection dashed and humiliated him.
她的拒绝使他难堪和丢脸。

odds
n. 几率；胜算
eg. How can you improve your odds of success?
如何才能提高你成功的几率呢？

guarantee
vt. 保证；担保
eg. Unity is the guarantee of victory.
团结是胜利的保证。