演讲文本

Well, thank you, President Mellow, distinguished faculty, friends and above all else the Graduating Class of 2013.

啊……谢谢，麦罗校长，各位尊敬的老师，朋友以及2013年的毕业生们。

It is a great honor for me to share in your accomplishment and pride today.

我很荣幸能在今天分享你们的成就和荣耀。

But I must admit that I approached this address with some trepidation.

但是我必须承认，来进行这次演讲我心中带有一些惶恐。

I suppose that more commencement speeches have been delivered more seriously, listened to more attentively, and forgotten more promptly than any other form of human communication.

我想，曾经有过更多更认真的毕业典礼发言，有过更加认真的听众，但是相比其他任何沟通形式，仍以更快的速度被遗忘。

So I will try to be brief and practical.

所以，我会尽量简短而实用。

My advice is grounded in my own experience.

我的全部建议都是来自我自己的经历。

And my experience, in many respects, is not that different from many of yours.

而我的经历，从很多方面来看，和你们当中的很多并没有什么不同。

I grew up with the idea that college was more an aspiration than an expectation.

在我成长的过程中，我始终认为大学更多是一个奠定志向而不是实现期望的地方。

I saw my parents struggle most of their lives and the daily battle to keep afloat sometimes even drained what hopes and dreams they had for me.

我见证我父母大半生的奋斗，每天仅为了维持生计而努力工作，有时这些甚至会打消他们对我的期望和梦想。

They didn't go to college and neither did my only, older sibling.

他们都没有上过大学，我唯一的兄长也没有读过大学。

My father sorted mail for the post office.

我的父亲在邮局整理邮件。

He worked nights because it paid 10% more than a day shift.

他选择夜班工作只是因为报酬比白班多了10%。

My mother was a receptionist at a burglar alarm company — one of the few growth industries in our neighborhood.

我的母亲是一个防盗警报公司的接待员——这也是我所在社区为数不多的增长行业之一。

I grew up in the Linden Houses, which, as some of you know, is a housing project in East New York.

我在林登小区长大，你们当中的很多都知道，这是纽约东区的一个住宅项目。

It was and is a tough neighborhood, though it produced some accomplished people who, despite or maybe because of their background, did well.

它一直都是一个贫穷的社区，但是也孕育了一些有成就的人，有些是因为克服了这一背景而成功，而有些或许是因为这一背景而成功。

I attended Thomas Jefferson high school, which has since shut down as a high school and operates different training programs for various skills.

我在托马斯·杰斐逊高中毕业，学校在之后关闭了高中部，仅仅提供多种技能培训项目。

人物简介

1954年，贝兰克梵出生在纽约布鲁克斯区，父亲是一名普通的邮件分拣员，住在布鲁克林的廉租房区长大，那是纽约市最糟糕的廉租房区之一。曾经贫困杂乱的成长环境和贝兰克梵今天在华尔街顶级金融巨头高盛的工作环境相比，实在是相去甚远，让人不敢想象，让人感到不可思议，然后就是这样让人不敢想象的距离被贝兰克梵成功的跨越了。

重点讲解

1.post office 邮局

例句:The post office got behind in delivering Christmas mail.

邮局没有及时发送圣诞节邮件。

2.burglar alarm 防窃报警器

例句:This “burglar alarm,” scientists speculate, is meant to attract the attention of an even bigger creature that might be able to eat the predator and free the jellyfish.

科学家推断，这种“防盗报警器”是为了引起更大生物的注意，有可能能够吃掉它的敌人，从而将它解救出来。

3.growth industry 成长行业

例句:That’s probably why investors around the globe are flocking to farmland as the new growth industry.

这也很可能是为什么全球投资者都对农田趋之若鹜——这是新的增长产业。

4.shut down 关闭

例句:So I have to shut down my blog.

所以，我只好把我的博客关闭起来。