英文原文

人生要有沉淀，要有定力，一个人定力不够会浮躁。人生要策划，要洗涤心灵，洒扫心灵。目标是用来超越的，而不仅仅是为了达成的。向别人学习的人，是聪明的，向自己学习的人是快乐的，既不向别人也不向自己学习的人是愚蠢的。

I believe that education has the power to transform a person’s life.

For me, education was the rabbit hole through which I escaped the underclass. I squeezed my 300-pound frame through that hole expecting others to follow and instead I find myself in a strange new land, mostly alone, and wondering at this new life.

For instance, these days for me, dramatic plays at local arts centers have replaced strip pole dancing at the local sleaze huts. I haven’t fondled a stripper in years because now I see the stripper through eyes informed by feminist theory. It’s hard to get excited when you’re pondering issues of exploitation.

I still wonder what happened to that happy-go-lucky semi-thug that used to hang out with drug dealers on dimly lit street corners. Well, I’m in the library parsing a Jane Austen novel looking for dramatic irony, while many of my old friends are dead or in jail.

I was lucky because I didn’t get caught or killed doing something stupid. When I was on the streets, I never felt I was good at anything but I wrote this poem about a girl who didn’t care about me, and it got published. I knew nothing about grammar or syntax, so I went back to school to learn that stuff and one thing led to another.

It’s odd to educate oneself away from one’s past. As an African-American male I now find myself in a foreign world. Like steam off of a concrete sidewalk I can feel my street cred evaporating away, but I don’t fight it anymore. Letting go of the survival tools I needed on the street was a necessary transaction for admittance to a better life.

I am still fighting, but in different ways. I’ve learned the benefit of research and reading, of debate and listening. My new battlefields are affirmative action, illegal immigration, and institutional racism.

I believe I am the living embodiment of the power of education to change a man. One day soon, a crop of fresh-faced college students will call me professor. I may even be the only black face in the room, the only representative of the underclass. I may feel the slight sting of isolation, but I’ll fight it off because I believe in the changes that my education has allowed me to make.

重点词汇

1.squeeze vt. 挤；紧握；勒索

He squeezed my handbag carefully but didn't find my little gun.
他仔细捏了捏我的手提袋，但没发现我放在里面的小手枪。

Gently squeeze out the extra water.
轻轻地挤干多余的水分。

2.exploitation n. 开发，开采；利用；广告推销

Therefore, understanding exactly the actual situation of groundwater exploitation in this area is crucial to plan the water use in the future.
正确认识该区的地下水资源的开采现状，对正确制定未来的用水规划有着很重要的意义。

The contamination of soil by crude oil is a growing problem as China accelerates its exploitation of oil reserves to meet rising energy demands.
随著中国加速开采其石油储备从而满足日益增加的能源需求，原油污染土壤越来越成为一个问题。

3.irony n. 讽刺；反语；具有讽刺意味的事

Suddenly see the irony of fate brings.
却突然看见宿命带来的讽刺。

His speech of defence was more like an irony or even an insult to China.
在法庭上他的辩护词更像是对中国的讽刺甚至侮辱。

4.admittance n. 进入；入场权；通道

Finally, the intrinsic circuit element parameters were determined using the admittance parameter expressions.
最后利用网络导纳参数的表达式，确定了本征电路元件参数。

5.institutional adj. 制度的；制度上的；学会的

Evaluation reform is both an important part of and the import ant institutional guarantee of new curriculum reform.
评价改革是新课程改革的重要组成部分，同时又是新课程改革重要的制度保障。