05 Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish (A)求知若饥，虚心若愚 (A)

Thank you.

I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college, and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today, I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife—except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking,“We've got an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said,“Of course.” My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college. This was the start in my life.

And 17years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

谢谢大家。

今天，很荣幸见证各位从世界上最好的学校之一毕业。我大学没毕业。说实话，这是我离大学毕业最近的一刻。今天，我想给大家讲三个我自己的故事，不谈大道理，只讲三个故事。

第一个故事，关于串起人生中的点点滴滴。我在里德学院待了6个月就休学了。但之后仍作为旁听生混了18个月后才最终离开。那么，我为什么休学呢？

这得从我出生之前讲起。我的亲生母亲当时是一位在读研究生，一名年轻的未婚妈妈，于是她决定把我送给别人收养。她坚持认为我应该被一对念过大学的夫妇收养，所以在我出生时，她就做好了让一位律师和他太太收养我的所有准备。但在最后一刻，这对夫妇反悔了，他们想收养一个女孩。

所以在收养名单上的另一对夫妻——我的养父母——在一天半夜里接到一个电话，问他们“有一位不请自来的男婴，你们想要收养他吗？”而他们的回答是“当然要”。然而后来，我的生母发现，我的养母并未大学毕业，我的养父甚至连高中都没毕业。她拒绝在最后的收养文件上签名。直到几个月后，我的养父母保证将来一定会送我上大学，她的态度才有所转变。这便是我人生的开始。

17年后，我上大学了。但因年幼无知，我选了一所几乎跟斯坦福一样昂贵的大学，我的父母都是工人阶级，他们倾其所有资助我的学业。6个月后，我看不出念大学的价值何在。那时候，我不知道这辈子要干什么，也不知道念大学能对我有什么帮助，而且我为了念大学，花光了我父母这辈子的所有积蓄。

所以我决定退学，相信船到桥头自然直。当时这个决定看来相当可怕，可是现在看来，那是我这辈子做过最好的决定之一。从我退学那一刻起，我再也不用上我没兴趣的必修课，而是可以去听那些我感兴趣的课。

单词解析 Word Analysis

commencement [kə'mensmənt] n． 开始；毕业典礼

例 Seeds begin to burgeon at the commencement of spring.

春天来临时种子开始发芽。

university ['juːnɪ'vɜːsəti] n． 大学

例 John is one of his alumni in the university.

约翰是他大学时的校友之一。

biological['baɪə'lɒdʒɪkl] adj．生物的；生物学的

例 The school has a large biological laboratory.

这所学校有一个很大的生物实验室。

unwed[ʌn'wed] adj．未婚的

例 The unwed mother is distraught.

这名未婚妈妈精神错乱。

adopt [ə'dɒpt] v． 采用；收养；接受

例 They adopt new techniques in raising sheep.

他们采用新的养羊技术。

sign [saɪn] n． 手势；招牌；符号；迹象；正负号 v． 签；签名；做手势；做标记

例 I talked with him by signs.

我和他用手势交谈。

relent [rɪ'lent] v． 变宽厚；变温和；动怜悯之心；缓和；（坏天气）变好

例 At first she threatened to dismiss us all, but later she relented.

起初她威胁要解雇我们所有的人，但是后来她态度软化了。

naively[naɪ'iːvli] adv．天真地

例 They naively assume things can only get better.

他们天真地以为情况只会变好。

tuition [tju'ɪʃn] n． 学费；教诲；教学

例 The money is sufficient to cover the tuition.

这笔钱够付学费。

drop [drɒp] v． 落下；跌倒；下降；放弃；漏掉；断绝关系 n． 滴；微量；减少；滴状物

例 She dropped to safety from the burning building.

她从失火的建筑物上坠落到安全的地方。

语法知识点 Grammar Points

① Truth be told, I never graduated from college, and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

这个句子中有一个结构“graduate from”，表示“从……毕业”。

例 She graduated from an American college.

她从一所美国的学院毕业。

② I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months...

这个句子中有一个结构“drop out of”，表示“从……退学，退出，退去”。

例 Some delegates walked out in a show of protest.

有几位代表退出会场以示抗议。

③ ...except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

这个句子中有一个结构“pop out”，表示“突然出现，突出”。

例 His eyes almost popped out in surprise.

他惊讶得眼睛快掉出来了。

经典名句 Famous Classics

1. Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.

领导力不是通过言语，而是通过态度及行动。

2. Nothing, I am sure, calls forth the faculties so much as the being obliged to struggle with the world.

我确定，比起被迫与世界挣扎，没有什么更能唤醒我们的能力。

3. The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others.

对自己有信心的人，也可以获得别人对他的信心。

4. Only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.

只有自尊才能强迫他人尊敬你。

5. To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do rather than what they say.

想知道别人真正的想法，注意他们做什么而不是说什么。

读书笔记

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