偶像勵志英語演講24:失敗的好處和想象的重要性(6)

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.

經(jīng)歷了挫折，你變得更加智慧，更加堅強，這意味著你有獨立生存的能力。只有經(jīng)過了逆境的考驗，你才能真正了解自己，才能真正知道周圍的人所賦予你的力量。這種認識是真正的財富，雖然歷經(jīng)千辛萬苦，但這比我以前獲得的任何資格證書都有價值。

Given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

如果我有一臺時光轉換器，我會告訴21歲的自己，一個人的幸福在于知道人生不只是一份只有收益和成就的表單。資格證書和個人簡歷不是你們的生活，雖然你們將會遇到很多與我同齡或年齡比我大的人將二者混為一談。生活的艱辛和復雜，是任何人都無法完全掌控的。謙遜地了解了一這點，你才能從容面對人生的變遷。

You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

至于為什么選擇第二個主題——想象力的重要性，你們可能會認為是因為它對我重建生活所起的作用，但事實并非完全如此。雖然我堅持認為睡前故事對激發(fā)孩子的想象力有很大的價值，但我學會了在更廣泛的意義上去理解想象力。想象力不僅僅是人類特有的設想不存在的事故的能力，還是所有發(fā)明和創(chuàng)新的源泉。毋庸置疑，想象力是最富轉換性和啟發(fā)性的力量，這種力量能使我們與有著不同經(jīng)歷的人們產(chǎn)生共鳴。

重點講解：

1. emerge from

(從困境或不好的經(jīng)歷中)擺脫出來，熬出來;

eg. There is growing evidence that the economy is at last emerging from recession.

有越來越多的證據(jù)表明經(jīng)濟終于開始擺脫蕭條。

eg. The hostages emerged from their ordeal unscathed.

人質經(jīng)受磨難而平安生還。

2. last gasp

最終階段;最后時刻;

eg. He snatched a last gasp winner.

他在最后關頭一舉奪冠。

eg. The team were at their last gasp.

球隊正在做最后的拼搏。

3. empathize with

有同感;產(chǎn)生共鳴;移情;

eg. I clearly empathize with the people who live in those neighborhoods.

我非常同情生活在那些地方的人們。

eg. It is necessary to teach the young to empathize with the old.

教導年輕人瞭解老年人的感受是必要的。