A Battle between Dreams and Reality
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen:
When I was in the primary school, I have a dream.I want to invent a device(装置) which could bring you from one place to another in no time at all.When I was in the secondary school, my dream was to study in my ideal university.And when eventually I got into the university, my dream was to graduate.
How pathetic! When we grow up, we dream le and become more realistic.Why? Why do we have to change our dreams, so, so in order to let it be \"fulfilled\"? Why do we have to surrender to the so-called \"reality\"? What IS the reality actually?
Ladies and gentlemen, the reality is not real.It is a barrier（障碍） keeping us from all the poible fantasies.Flying, for example, had been a dream to mankind for thousands of years.A hundred years ago, \"man could not fly\" was still regarded as the \"reality\".Now if that was really the reality, what did the Wright brothers do? How did some of you get to Macau? Only when we believe that the reality is not real can we soar with our dreams.
People say that our future is a battle between the reality and our dreams.And if, unfortunately, Mr.Reality wins this war, then I see no future of mankind at all.AIDS will never be curable as this IS the reality; People living in the undeveloped countries will suffer from starvation forever as
this IS the reality; Disputes among different countries would never be settled as this misunderstandings and intolerance IS the reality.
Ladies and gentlemen, how many of you have a dream of being able to make a lot of money? Please raise your hands.Oh, quite a number of you! Actually, ladies and gentlemen, this is not a dream, but a task.Every one of us has to make a living, right? Anyway I hope your task will be accomplished.How many of you think that you have already fulfilled your dream and that you don\'t dream anymore? Dear adjudicators, what do you think? C.S.Lewis once said, \"You are never too old to dream a new dream.\" So for our future, please dream and be unrealistic.
Now that I am a university student, my goal is to graduate with excellences.But at the same time, I have a dream deeply rooted in our future.One day, people living in the areas now sweltering with the horror of wars will be able to sit with their families and enjoy their every moment.One day, people from the rich countries are willing to share what they have with those from the poor countries and those from the poor countries will eventually be able to make their own happy living themselves.One day, different cultures in this age of globalization will coexist（并存） with tolerance and the unfriendly confrontations among them will be eliminated（消除）.One day, the globe will share the dream with me and we will all contribute to making our dream come true.One day, our dream will defeat the reality! Thank you very much.
第九届“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛季军——钟雨柔 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.At present, my fellow students and I have before us great personal and educational opportunities.At the same time, we are running into a variety of challenges.
Today\'s college education provides us with opportunities for bringing out the creativity and talent that we have within us.This is nurtured both by our learned profeors, and by the growing dimension of knowledge sources, such as the World Wide Web and multimedia sources.Our educational experience is being transformed both within and beyond the traditional claroom.However, challenges still exist.
At the end of every semester, students in my university are required to fill out a questionnaire as a review of the previous semester.The questions usually cover a broad range of college life, from curriculum adjustment to canteen service.And almost every time, the questionnaire includes one eential question, that is: As a college student, what are your major challenges? And almost every answer includes two aspects: studying and profeional.These two challenges will remain our preoccupations as long as we live in such a competitive world.
A series of challenges in our studies start from almost the beginning of our freshman year.We may wonder whether we\'ve chosen the right major.We may wonder if the extracurricular activities add credits to our studies.We may work our heads off to get a glorious A, because B is already
mediocre and C is almost unacceptable.Later on we may be competing with our hardworking, intelligent peers, including our best friends to get into an ideal graduate school.All of these sound so familiar and they have somehow made our college education so goal-obseed that we sometimes fail to fully enjoy our educational experience.
Apart from challenges in learning, there are also profeional challenges.The competitive world today has also brought about the \"Knowledge Economy,\" which requires the effective use of knowledge for economic and social development, and also requires skilled and multi-oriented students with a marketable vocational sense.Therefore, sophisticated calculations upon the value of a university degree are being made.Graduate employability statistics are being scrutinized.Programs like resume writing and interview skills are seen as a must.Again as I\'ve said above, when profeional concern dominates our college education, we may lose the eence of our educational experience.
Indeed, facing these two challenges, how can students manage to be what the employers seek and at the same time to enjoy a valuable, insightful and rewarding educational experience?
For me, the solution to the problem lies in what can be called an \"Educational Synthesis\".I remember attending a lecture by Profeor Tu Weiming, director of Harvard Yenching Institute.In his lecture, Profeor Tu argued that the ideal state of college education is to arrive at a
synthesis, a combination of specific knowledge, humanistic insight and sense of social responsibility.
Admittedly, there is much to do to bridge the gap between our educational experience in college and the social employment in society.\"Educational synthesis\" can help us narrow the gap.Fortunately, today\'s college education provides us with such a diverse world.From this diverse world we may choose what we want to form our own educational synthesis.
Ladies and gentlemen, as Charles Dickens once commented upon the time of the French Revolution, \"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.\" And I\'m afraid so it is with our time.
I believe, once we achieve our own educational synthesis, we will be able to transform our challenges into opportunities.We will be able to see the best time of our life.And more importantly, we will be able to see the best time of our nation.Thank you.
