第三届全国英语演讲比赛冠军作品.doc

1、第三届全国英语演讲比赛冠军作品Crossing the SeaBy Liang Limin(梁励敏 北京外国语大学)(获得第三届全国英语演讲比赛冠军)专家点评:引用文学大师的诗句作为开场白，与结束语首尾呼应，颇有感染力。东西方文化的融合表现得十分鲜明，意味深长，是篇优秀的演讲。Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The title of my speech today is Crossing the Sea . An English poet by the name of Rudyard Kipling once wrote in this poem We and They :All the people like us are Weand everyone else is TheyWe live over the seaWhile They live over the wayWe eat pork and beef with cow horn-handled knivesThey who gobble their rice off a leaf

2、Are horrified out of their lives.When these lines first caught my eyes, I was shocked-how could two people remain so isolated and ignorant of each other in the past? Todays society, of course, is an entirely different picture. Those people who used to eat with gobble their rice might be as well have taken to fish and chips.Indeed, just take China as example; Our modern life has been influenced by Western style of living in so many ways that its no longer surprising to see teenagers going crazy a

3、bout rock-and-roll, whole families dining out at McDonalds and even rather elderly people dressed in Apple Jeans.However, these are only some expressions of the cultural changes taking place in our society today. What is really going on is a subtle but significant restructuring of the nations mentality. Just look around.How many college graduates are ready to pete aggressively for every job opportunity, whereas not long ago they were asked just to sit idle and wait for whatever was to be assigne

4、d to them by the government?How many young people are now eager to seek for an independent life whereas only two decades ago they would rely totally on their parents to arrange for their future? Ask anyone who participates in todays speech contest. Who has not e with a will to fight and who has not e determined to achieve self-fulfillment in winning the game? And Im quite cerrtain that if Confucius had lived to see todays China, he would have been horrified to see young lovers kissing each other

5、 in public places in an unreserved expression of their passion.It is therefore evident that we as descendants of an ancient Eastern civilization are already living under strong influence of the Western culture. But it is not only in China that we find the incorporation of the two cultures.Take the United States as an example: During the 1980s, in face of the overwhelming petition from Japan, many American panies such as the Ford began to adopt a teamwork management from their rivals, the essence

6、 of which, lay at the very core of Eastern culture.Take the Chinese acupuncture as another example: This traditional treatment of diseases is finally finding its way to the West and hence the underlying notion that illness is resulted from the imbalance between yin and yang within the body-an idea which would strike any Westerner as incredible in the past!Ladies and Gentlemen, we live in a great epoch when the global integration of economy and the information revolution have brought cultures of

7、the world closer than ever before. We live in a particular era when countries, East and West, find themselves in need of readjusting their traditional values. We live, at the same time, at a critical juncture of our evolution because such problems as ethnic conflicts and regional unrest are increasingly posing a threat to the peace and happiness of the whole humancope with such an era and to embrace an even brighter future, we need to learn to live more harmoniously in a world munity which is be

8、ing smaller and smaller. My dear fellow students, our mand of the English language render sit possible for us to gain an insight into Western culture while retaining our own cultural identity.Therefore, it is our sacred responsibility to promote the cultural exchanges and hence the mutual understanding between China and the rest of the world.It is my happiest dream that new generation of Chinese will not only grow up drinking Coca cola and watching Hollywood, but also be blessed with the far-rea

9、ching benefits of multiple cultures; benefits that our forefathers had never, ever dreamed of.To end my speech, I would like to quote Rudyard Kipling again:All the people like us are WeAnd everyone else is TheyBut once you cross over the seaYou will end by looking on WeAs only a sort of They.Thank you.译文:穿越海洋女士们、先生们，晚上好。今天，我演讲的题目是:穿越海洋。英国诗人罗得雅德吉卜林曾写过一首诗，名叫我们与他们，其中写道:像我们的人是我们其余的人是他们我们生活在海这边他们生活在路那边我们用牛角柄的刀叉吃猪牛肉吞吃粽叶包饭的他们吓得要死。第一次读到这首诗，我很震惊过去两个民族何以如此疏离、彼此陌生?当然今日的社会呈现出完全不同的情景:那些过去吃米饭的人们也开始喜欢吃鱼和薯条。的确如此，就拿中国来说，西方的生活方式已经广泛地影响了我们的现代生活，以致对于年轻人对摇滚乐着迷，全家去吃麦当劳，老年人穿苹果牌牛仔裤，大家都已习以为常。然而，这不过是我们当今社会中所发生的文化变迁的表面现象而已，真正发生的却是我们的民族心理开始了微妙而又有重大意义的重建，大家只要看看周围就会清楚。不久以前，大学生还只是束手空坐，等待政府给他们分配工作;如今，又有多少大学生正在做充分准备，为争取任何工作机会而激烈角逐?20年前年轻人还完全依靠父母为他们安排未来，今天又有多少年轻人在急切地寻求一种独立的生活?试问今天参加演讲比赛的诸

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