Unit 1

The Story of Steve Jobs

This is the text of the Commencement Address by Steve Jobs, 本文是苹果计算机公司和皮克斯动画CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, at 工作室的首席执行官史蒂夫乔布斯于Stanford University, delivered on June 12, 2005.

2005年6月12日在斯坦福大学毕业典

1 I am honored to be with you today at your commencement 礼上的演讲稿。

from one of the finest universities in the world. I never 1 今天，我很荣幸能来到这graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest 所世界顶尖大学参加你们的毕业典I've ever gotten to a college graduation. I dropped out 礼。我大学没有毕业。说实话，现在of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed 是我最接近大学毕业的时刻。我在里around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I 德学院读了6个月就退学了，但是作really quit. So why did I drop out

为旁听生又在那里待了18个月左右，

2 It started before I was born. My biological mother was 然后才真正离开学校。那么我为什么a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided 要退学呢

to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I 2 这要从我还没有出生的should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was 时候说起。我的生母是个年轻未婚的all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his 研究生，因此她决定把我送给别人收wife except that when I popped out they decided at the last 养。她觉得我必须由有大学学历的人minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who 收养。于是，她安排好了一切，只要were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the 我一出生，就把我交给一位律师和他night asking, \have an unexpected baby boy; do you want 的妻子收养。但是我出生之后，他们him\在最后一刻决定他们还是想要一个女found out that my mother had never graduated from college 孩。当时我父母还在候补名单上，一and that my father had never graduated from high school. 天半夜他们接到一个电话，问他们：She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only “有个新生儿，是意外怀上的，是个relented a few months later when my parents promised that 男孩，你们要吗”他们回答：“当然I would someday go to college. This was the start in my 要。”但是，我的生母随后发现我母life.

亲大学没有毕业，我父亲甚至连高中也没毕业，因此拒绝在最后几份领养

3 And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively 文件上签字。直到几个月后，我父母chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, 承诺将来一定让我上大学，她才同意and all of my working-class parents' savings were being 了。这就是我生命的开始。

spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't 3 17年后，我确实上了大学。see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with 但是出于无知，我选了一所几乎与斯my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure 坦福一样昂贵的学校，因此，工薪阶it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents 层的父母把所有积蓄都花在了我的学had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and 费上。6个月过去了，我看不到其中的trusted that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary 价值所在。我不知道我的人生定位，at the time, but looking back it was one of the best 也不知道大学将如何帮我找到答案，decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could 而我正在这里耗尽父母一生的积蓄。stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, 所以我决定退学，并相信一切都会顺and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more 利。这在当时看来非常可怕，但现在interesting. It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm 回头看看，那是我做过的最棒的决定

room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned 之一。从退学的那一刻起，我就不用coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, 再上那些不感兴趣的必修课，而开始and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night 去学那些看上去更有意思的课程。但to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. 一切也不全是这么美妙。我没有自己I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following 的宿舍，只有在朋友的房间里打地铺；my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later 我拣可乐瓶子，把退来的5美分押金on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time 攒起来去买吃的；而到了每个周日晚offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the 上，我都会步行7英里，穿过城镇去country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label 克利须那觉悟会的庙宇饱餐一顿。我on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.

喜欢这样。我依照好奇心和直觉做事，

4 Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the 大多事后证明是非常值得的。让我给normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to 你们举个例子：当当时里德学院开设learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sanserif 可能在全国是最好的书法课程。园里typefaces, about varying the amount of space between 的每一张海报、每一个抽屉的每张标different letter combinations, about what makes great 签上都有漂亮的书法。

typography great. It was beautiful, historical, 4 因为我已经辍学，不用参artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, 加正规的课程，所以我决定去上这门and I found it fascinating.

课，学习书法。我了解了衬线和无衬

5 None of this had even a hope of any practical application 线字体，学会了如何在不同的字母组in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing 合间改变间距，知道了如何让大字体the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And 显得很漂亮。这种科学所无法捕捉的、we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer 美妙的、充满历史感的微妙艺术，让with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on 我心醉神迷。

that single course in college, the Mac would have never 5 这一切在我的生活中是had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And 否实用，我不抱希望。直到10年后，since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no 当我们在设计第一台麦金托什电脑personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped 时，我想起了这些东西。于是，我们out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy 把所有这些都设计进了Mac机。这是class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful 第一类拥有漂亮字体排版的电脑。如typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to 果我没有在大学旁听那门课程，Mac就connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. 不会有多种字体以及间距分配合理的But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years 字型，很可能现在的微软PC也不会有later.

这些字型——你们要知道，Windows也只是抄袭Mac，并非独创。如果我从未

6 Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you 退学，我就绝不会旁听那门书法课，can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to 而个人电脑可能也不会有现在这样美trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. 妙的字体排版。在大学的时候，我当You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, 然不可能把这些点点滴滴都串起来展karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and 望未来。但在十年后再回首，一切都it has made all the difference in my life.

变得非常、非常清晰。

6 同样，你们现在也无法预见这类琐碎的经历之间能有什么联系，只有在回首往事时才能发现。你们要相信，这些片断会在未来以某种

方式连接起来。你们必须相信一些东西——勇气、命运、人生、因缘等等。这个方法从未让我失望，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

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.