Unit 1
The Story of Steve Jobs
This is the text of the Commencement Address by 本文是苹果计算机公司和皮克斯动画Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar 工作室的首席执行官史蒂夫?乔布斯Animation Studios, at Stanford University, delivered on 于2005年6月12日在斯坦福大学毕June 12, 2005.
业典礼上的演讲稿。
1 I am honored to be with you today at your 1 今天，我很荣幸能来到这所世commencement from one of the finest universities in 界顶尖大学参加你们的毕业典礼。我the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be 大学没有毕业。说实话，现在是我最told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college 接近大学毕业的时刻。我在里德学院graduation. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 读了6个月就退学了，但是作为旁听
然后才6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for 生又在那里待了18个月左右，
another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why 真正离开学校。那么我为什么要退学did I drop out?
呢？
2 It started before I was born. My biological mother 2 这要从我还没有出生的时候说was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she 起。我的生母是个年轻未婚的研究生，decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very 因此她决定把我送给别人收养。她觉strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, 得我必须由有大学学历的人收养。于so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth 是，她安排好了一切，只要我一出生，by a lawyer and his wife except that when I popped out 就把我交给一位律师和他的妻子收they decided at the last minute that they really wanted 养。但是我出生之后，他们在最后一a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a 刻决定他们还是想要一个女孩。当时call in the middle of the night asking, \have an 我父母还在候补名单上，一天半夜他unexpected baby boy; do you want him?\ They said, 们接到一个电话，问他们：“有个新生\ My biological mother later found out that 儿，是意外怀上的，是个男孩，你们my mother had never graduated from college and that 要吗？”他们回答：“当然要。”但是，my father had never graduated from high school. She 我的生母随后发现我母亲大学没有毕refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only 业，我父亲甚至连高中也没毕业，因relented a few months later when my parents promised 此拒绝在最后几份领养文件上签字。that I would someday go to college. This was the start 直到几个月后，我父母承诺将来一定in my life.
让我上大学，她才同意了。这就是我生命的开始。
3 And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively 3 17年后，我确实上了大学。但chose a college that was almost as expensive as 是出于无知，我选了一所几乎与斯坦Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings 福一样昂贵的学校，因此，工薪阶层were being spent on my college tuition. After six 的父母把所有积蓄都花在了我的学费
6个月过去了，我看不到其中的价months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea 上。
what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how 值所在。我不知道我的人生定位，也college was going to help me figure it out. And here I 不知道大学将如何帮我找到答案，而was spending all of the money my parents had saved 我正在这里耗尽父母一生的积蓄。所their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trusted 以我决定退学，并相信一切都会顺利。that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the 这在当时看来非常可怕，但现在回头time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions 看看，那是我做过的最棒的决定之一。
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I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop 从退学的那一刻起，我就不用再上那taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and 些不感兴趣的必修课，而开始去学那begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more 些看上去更有意思的课程。但一切也interesting. It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm 不全是这么美妙。我没有自己的宿舍，room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I 只有在朋友的房间里打地铺；我拣可returned coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy 乐瓶子，把退来的5美分押金攒起来food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town 去买吃的；而到了每个周日晚上，我every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the 都会步行7英里，穿过城镇去克利须Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I 那觉悟会的庙宇饱餐一顿。我喜欢这stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition 样。我依照好奇心和直觉做事，大多turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one 事后证明是非常值得的。让我给你们example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the 举个例子：当当时里德学院开设可能best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout 在全国是最好的书法课程。园里的每the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, 一张海报、每一个抽屉的每张标签上was beautifully hand calligraphed.
都有漂亮的书法。
4 Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take 4 因为我已经辍学，不用参加正the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class 规的课程，所以我决定去上这门课，to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and 学习书法。我了解了衬线和无衬线字sanserif typefaces, about varying the amount of space 体，学会了如何在不同的字母组合间between different letter combinations, about what 改变间距，知道了如何让大字体显得makes great typography great. It was beautiful, 很漂亮。这种科学所无法捕捉的、美historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't 妙的、充满历史感的微妙艺术，让我capture, and I found it fascinating.
心醉神迷。
5 None of this had even a hope of any practical 5 这一切在我的生活中是否实application in my life. But ten years later, when we 用，我不抱希望。直到10年后，当我were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all 们在设计第一台麦金托什电脑时，我came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. 想起了这些东西。于是，我们把所有It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I 这些都设计进了Mac机。这是第一类had never dropped in on that single course in college, 拥有漂亮字体排版的电脑。如果我没the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or 有在大学旁听那门课程，Mac就不会proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just 有多种字体以及间距分配合理的字
很可能现在的微软PC也不会有这copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer 型，
Windows也would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would 些字型——你们要知道，
have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and 只是抄袭Mac，并非独创。如果我从personal computers might not have the wonderful 未退学，我就绝不会旁听那门书法课，typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to 而个人电脑可能也不会有现在这样美connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. 妙的字体排版。在大学的时候，我当But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years 然不可能把这些点点滴滴都串起来展later.
望未来。但在十年后再回首，一切都变得非常、非常清晰。
6 Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; 6 同样，你们现在也无法预见这you can only connect them looking backwards. So you 类琐碎的经历之间能有什么联系，只have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in 有在回首往事时才能发现。你们要相your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, 信，这些片断会在未来以某种方式连
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destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never 接起来。你们必须相信一些东西——let me down, and it has made all the difference in my 勇气、命运、人生、因缘等等。这个life.
方法从未让我失望，也正是它改变了我的整个人生。
New Words
commencement
[C, usu. sing.] a ceremony at which students receive their academic degrees or diplomas 学位授予典礼，毕业典礼
He made a speech at the commencement. 他在毕业典礼上作了演讲。
We will get our diplomas at the commencement in May or June. 我们将会在五、六月份举行的毕业典礼上拿到毕业证书。 [C, U] beginning 开始，开端
The commencement of this year will be better. 今年将会有一个更好的开始。 Animation n. [U] 动画制作
n. [C] a film or movie in which drawings of people and animals seem to move 动画片 quit
vi/vt. to leave your job, school, etc. 离开；离校 He got his present job when he quitted/quit the army. 他退伍后找到了现在这份工作。 If I don't get a pay raise, I'll quit. 如果不给我加薪，我就不干了。
vi/vt. (informal) to stop doing sth. 停止，戒掉 Quit fooling around! 别胡闹了!
You must quit smoking. Most important of all, you should start taking exercise. 你必须戒烟；最重要的是，你该开始运动了。 biological
a. connected with the processes that take place within living things 生物的；与生命过程有关的
a child's biological parents 孩子的亲生父母
a. connected with the science of biology 生物学 The school has a large biological laboratory. 这所学校有一个很大的生物实验室。 unwed
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not married 没有结婚的，未婚的
In 1993 alone, 26,270 babies were born to unwed teens. 仅仅在1993年便有26270名婴儿为未婚少女所生。 adoption
n. [C, U] the act of adopting a child 收养，领养 He was pleased with the adoption of a little girl. 他很高兴收养了一个小女孩.
n. [U] the decision to start using sth. such as an idea, a plan or a name 采纳，采用 The adoption of this policy would relieve the unions of a tremendous burden. 采用这一政策将会减轻工会沉重的负担。 adopt
vt. to take sb. else's child into your family and become its legal parent(s) 收养，领养 vt. to formally accept a suggestion or policy by voting 正式通过，表决采纳（建议、政策等）vt. to start to use a particular method or to show a particular attitude towards sb./sth. 采用（某方法）；采取（某态度） relent
vi. to finally agree to sth. after refusing 终于答应，不再拒绝
Afterwards she relented and let the children stay up late to watch TV. 后来她让步了，让孩子们看会儿电视，晚点再睡。
The police will not relent in their fight against crime. 警方在跟犯罪分子的斗争中决不手软.
vi. to become less determined, strong, etc. 减弱，变缓和 The pressure on us to finish this task will not relent. 为完成此项任务，我们受到的压力不会减轻。 naively
ad. in a naive manner 无知地；天真地
They naively assume things can only get better. 他们天真地以为情况肯定会好转。 scary
a. causing fear or alarm 引起恐慌的 That movie was too scary. 那部电影太吓人了。 stumble
vi. 1) to move or walk in an unsteady way 跌跌撞撞地走，蹒跚而行 A drunk stumbled past us.
有个喝醉的人跌跌撞撞地从我们身边走过。 The tired old man stumbled along. 那位疲惫的老人蹒跚而行。
vi. 2) to hit one's foot against sth. while one is walking or running and almost fall 绊脚 I stumbled over a tree root. 树根绊了我一下。
He stumbled on the staircase and hurt his leg. 他在楼梯上绊了一跤，伤了腿. intuition
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