美国藤校演讲与辩论赛中国选拔赛
Super hero 大英雄 Dr.Marilyn spoke at our staff meeting. 玛丽琳波斯在我们员工会议上讲话。 She took us through exercises as she worked to get our minds and spirits adjusted to a more positive direction. 她想通过练习把我们的思想和精神调整到更积极的方向。 Close your eyes and think back to time when you were small. 合上眼睛，回想一下小的时候， What did y...
The magical mustard seed 神奇的芥籽 A woman’s only son died. In her grief, she went to the holy man and asked, 一个女人的独生子死了。她非常伤心地找到神父问: What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life? 有什么样的祷告或者魔咒可以让我的儿子死而复生呢? Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her...
Turn your face to the sun 面朝太阳 Beloved, 亲爱的: There are days when nothing seems right, when every shell you pick up on the winding shore is broken,when the silken treasure slips through your fingers too quickly, and when comforts are empty and the world is noisy. 总有这样的日子:一切似乎都不正常，你在弯弯曲曲的海滩上捡到的贝壳都是残缺不全的，珍贵的宝物从...
Last will and testament of Charles Lounsberry 查尔斯隆斯伯里的遗嘱 In the pocket of an old ragged coat belonging to an elderly man in Chicago, a will was found, after his death. 在芝加哥一位辞世老人大衣的口袋里，人们发现了一份遗嘱。 It went like this: 遗嘱中写道: I, Charles Lounsberry, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, do hereby make and publis...
Your mind is your source of power 思想是力量之源 Your mind has the fantastic ability to transform your most intimate desires and wants into their physical counterparts and create brand new realities of your current life. 你的思想有一种奇特的力量，它能将你最私人的想法和需要转化为相应的实际行动并且为你当前的生活增添全新的内容。 It is an amazing wonder what your mi...
The mendicant 乞丐 When I think how long I have lived 每当我想起自己年高寿长 I am struck by life’s injustice: 命运的不公让我愕然； Others have lived much less 他人的生命何其短暂 Some have been given less than an hour of life. 一些人在出生短短时间后便告别尘寰。 I recall my childhood 我想起了我的童年 And the various stages of my growth. ...
Count unexpected laughter, 数数未曾期待的笑声， Count undeserved grace, 数数不期而至的礼遇， Count Passion and Love and Dreams yet to be born, 数数你拥有的激情和爱，还有将要萌生的梦想。 And bow your head and say thank you, 然后，低下头，说声谢谢吧。 Now count the lives who still need your light, 现在，数数需要你给予光明的生命， The hungry, the ...
A very special meal 一顿特殊的午餐 Once there was a very poor and devoted woman who always prayed to the Glory of God, asking very little, if anything for herself. 从前有一个很贫穷，很虔诚的妇人，她常常向圣明的上帝祷告，但却基本上不为自己祈祷什么—即使偶尔有一次，也索取很少。 But one thought, one desire continued to recur and finally she asked, petitioning the Lo...
But, the lady had special powers to make them disappear. 但是，这位女士有特异功能，能让它们都消失。 Disappear? Where did they go? Nobody knows, son. Apparently neither did she. 消失？那他们去哪了？儿子，没人知道。显然那位女士自己也不知道。 And also there were scary creatures in that forest. There were trolls. 森林里还有一些可怕的生物。那里有巨魔。 Trolls? ...
Because even though the America was a diverse land of opportunity, the monster wanted to build a big giant wall. 因为尽管美国是个机会无穷的地方，这只怪物想要盖一座巨大的城墙。 A wall? A wall to keep out boys and girls from far away lands like Mexico. Even Mexico? Especially Mexico. For the monster didn’t care for anybody who wasn’t like him. 一个城墙？...
Son, it’s time for bed. 儿子，该上床睡觉了。 But dad, I’m having such a good game. 但是爸爸，我正玩的开心呢。 James, it’s far too late for boys of your age to be up. It’s 12:37 at night. James，已经半夜12:37了，你不该那么晚还没睡。 But I’m not even sleepy! Can’t I have a story first? 可是我一点都不困啊！不可以先讲个故...
The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, 巴勒斯坦诗人Mourid Barghouti曾经写到：如果你想剥夺一群人的权利， the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, “secondly.” 最简单的办法就是讲述一个关于他们的故事，并且从“第二点”开始讲起。 Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans,...
Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes: 当然了，非洲大陆充满了灾难： There are immense ones, such as the horrific rapes in Congo and depressing ones, 有的灾难，比如刚果猖獗的强奸，是无比巨大的； such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria. 而有的现实，比如尼日利亚5千人申请一个工作职位，则更让人无比的压抑。 But the...
Then one Saturday, we went to his village to visit, 后来的一个星期六，我们去Fide的村庄拜访， and his mother showed us a beautifully patterned basket made of dyed raffia that his brother had made. 她的母亲向我们展示了一个精美别致的草篮–是Fide的哥哥用染过色的酒椰叶编织的。 I was startled. It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually ma...
Every time I am home I am confronted with the usual sources of irritation for most Nigerians: our failed infrastructure, our failed government, 我每次回家的时候，都会面临那些令众多尼日利亚人头疼的事情：失败的基础设施，失败的政府。 but also by the incredible resilience of people who thrive despite the government, rather than because of it. 但与此同时，我也看到了人们...
I remember walking around on my first day in Guadalajara, 我还记得当我到达瓜达拉哈拉的第一天， watching the people going to work, rolling up tortillas in the marketplace, smoking, laughing. 看着人们前往工作，在市集上吃着墨西哥卷、抽着烟、大笑着。 I remember first feeling slight surprise. And then, I was overwhelmed with shame. 我记得我刚看到这一切时是何等的惊...
Now, I’ve laughed every time I’ve read this. And one must admire the imagination of John Lok. 我每次读到这一段的时候，都不禁大笑起来。John Locke的想象力真的是让人敬佩。 But what is important about his writing is that it represents the beginning of a tradition of telling African stories in the West: 但关于他这段作品极其重要的一点是，它昭示着西方社会讲述...
What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children. 这一切所表明的，正是在一个个的故事面前我们是何等的脆弱，何等的易受影响，尤其当我们还是孩子的时候。 Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, 因为我当时读的所有书中只有外国人物， I had become convinced that books...
When I learned, some years ago, that writers were expected to have had really unhappy childhoods to be successful, 当我多年前听说作家们必须有极其不幸的童年才能取得成功的时候， I began to think about how I could invent horrible things my parents had done to me. 我开始思考如何捏造一些我父母对我做过的恶行。 But the truth is that I had a very happy childhood, full o...
Shortly after he published my first novel, I went to a TV station in Lagos to do an interview, 在他发布了我的第一部小说的不久后，我前往拉各斯的一家电视台接受访问， and a woman who worked there as a messenger came up to me and said, “I really liked your novel. 期间一位在那里做通信员的女士走向我，并且说道：“我真的非常喜欢你的小说。 I didn’t like the en...