名人与演讲―比尔.盖茨

比尔・盖茨（William Henry Bill Gates）于1955年10月28日出生，是一名美国企业家、软件工程师、慈善家以及微软公司的董事长。本文是比尔・盖茨于2007年在哈佛大学学士毕业典礼上的毕业演讲（有删减），题目是《我终于拿到本科学位了》。在其演讲中无不充满着对世界的关爱及对哈佛学子们的激励、鞭策和厚望。

【演讲现场】

President Bok... parents，and especially，the graduates:

I?蒺ve been waiting more than 30 years to say this: “Dad，I always told you I’d come back and get my degree.”

I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor. I’ll be changing my job next year...and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume (简历).

I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For my part，I’m just happy that the Crimson has called me Harvard’s most successful dropout（辍学生）. I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class... I did the best of everyone who failed.

But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer（微软总经理） to drop out of business school. I?蒺m a bad influence. That’s why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation，fewer of you might be here today.

Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of intellectual talent （智力） in the world.

What for?

There is no question that the faculty（老师），the alumni（校友），the students，and the benefactors（资助者） of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world. But can we do more? Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name?

Let me make a request of the deans and the professors－the intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you...

Knowing what you know，how could you not?

And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments （专业成就） alone，but also on how well you have addressed the world?蒺s deepest inequities. On how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.

Good luck.

【难点解析】

1． I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. 我为今天在座的各位同学感到高兴，你们拿到学位的途径可比我简单多了。

分析 applaud 意为“鼓掌”，以表示欢迎或赞赏；applaud...for...意为“为……感到高兴”。如：

All the people applauded Liuxiang for his being first again. 现场所有观众都对刘翔的再次夺冠报以掌声。

2． I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class. 我想这大概使我有资格代表我这一类学生发言。

分析 句中的that指代“Harvard?蒺s most successful dropout”。

3． Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name? 哈佛的人们可以将他们的智慧，用来帮助那些甚至从来没有听到过“哈佛”这个名字的人吗？

分析 dedicate oneself/sth. to sb./sth. 意为“将（自己、时间、精力等）奉献给（崇高的事业或目的）”。如：

Mr. Yuan Longping dedicated his life to improving rice.

4． Knowingwhat you know，how could you not?知道了你们所知道的一切，你们怎么可能不采取行动呢？

分析 How could you not? 是省略句，完整的句子是：Knowing what you know，how could you not take action?

5． ...but also on how well you have addressed the world?蒺s deepest inequities...，而包括你们为改变这个世界深刻的不平等所做出的努力……。

分析 address 在本句中是动词，意为“致力于某事”。如：

The new school term has already begun and it is time we addressed ourselves to our subjects. 新学期开始了，大家要好好学习。