杰夫·贝索斯普林斯顿大学演讲(中英)

As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch(牧场)in Texas(德克萨斯). I helped fix windmills（风车）, vaccinate cattle（给牛接种疫苗）, and do other chores（杂务）. We also watched soap operas（肥皂剧）every afternoon, especially “Days of our Lives.”My grandparents belonged to a Caravan（乘拖车度假）Club, a group of Airstream trailer（车屋）owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every few summers, we’d join the caravan. We’d hitch（钩住）up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather’s car, and off we’d go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. I loved and worshipped（崇敬）my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular（特别的）trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell.童年时，夏天都是在姥爷的德克萨斯牧场里度过。

我修过风车、给牛接种疫苗，做过许多其它的事情。

每天下午我们也看肥皂剧，经常看《我们的日子》。

我的姥爷外婆参加了一个房车俱乐部。

他们都有自己的房车，一起在美国和加拿大旅游。

每隔几个夏天，我也会参加他们的旅行。

我们把房车挂在姥爷的轿车上，就这样，我们跟其它300个房车爱好者出发了。

我非常爱姥爷和外婆，总是非常期待和他们一块儿出去旅行。

在一次特殊的旅途当中，我依旧坐在后排车座上。

姥爷在开着车，外婆坐在旅客席上，一直抽着烟，但我很讨厌烟味。

At that age, I’d take any excuse to make estimates（预算）and do minor arithmetic（算术）. I’d calculate（计算）our gas mileage（每英里汽油消耗量）—figure out useless statistics（统计）on things like grocery（食品杂货店）spending. I’d been hearing an ad campaign（活动）about smoking. I can’t remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of a cigarette（香烟）takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I’d come up with a reasonable number, I poked（拨）my head into the front of the car, tapped（轻拍）my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed（公告）, “At two minutes per puff, you’ve taken nine years off your life!”在那个年龄，我总是找一切机会去进行计算和预测，我曾经计算过车的油耗量和一些没多大用处的事情，像食品杂货店的开销这样的事情。

我曾听到过一个关于吸烟的广告，具体的内容记的不是太清，但我记的广告基本内容是，每吸一口烟将从我们生命中带走几分钟的时间。

我想应该是每口两分钟，不管怎样，我决定为外婆计算一下。

我估算每天抽几根烟，每根烟需要抽几口等等。

当我确定已经计算出一个合理的数据时，我把头伸向汽车的前排，轻轻拍了一下外婆，大声的说：“以每口两分钟计算的话，你已经抽走了九年的时间了！”。

I have a vivid(生动的) memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded（夸奖）for my cleverness and arithmetic（算术）skills. “Jeff, you’re so smart. You had to have made some tricky（狡猾的）estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division（除法）.”That’s not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears（突然哭起来）. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While mygrandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh（严厉的）word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm（领域）with my grandparents and no way to gauge（估计）what the consequences（后果）might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, “Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.”我对此有很深刻的印象，我期望外婆夸奖我的聪明和算术能力，我想外婆会说：“杰夫，你是如此的聪明，你可以计算出一年有多少分钟并且也能做除法。

”但结果却不是这样的。

外婆突然哭了出来，我坐在车里不知道该怎么办。

姥爷依旧开着车，默不作声，最后他把车听到了路边，下了车，打开我这边的车门，站在那里等我下车。

我心里有点忐忑。

我的姥爷是一个睿智温和的男人，从来没有责备过我，但或许这有可能就成为了第一次，也有可能让我去给外婆道歉。

我从来没有经历过，也不知道会有什么样的后果。

当我们走到拖车的后面，姥爷停下了脚步，看着我，在一阵沉默之后，他平静而又温柔的对我说：“杰夫，总有一天你会明白善良比聪明更难。

”What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy —they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce（诱惑）yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.今天我想告诉你们的是天赋和选择的区别。

聪明是一种天赋，善良却是一种选择。

天赋是最容易得到的，因为你一出生就有了，善良却是难得的。

你如果你一不小心，你就会让天赋去驱使自己，它会蒙蔽的你双眼。

T his is a group with many gifts. I’m sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. I’m confident that’s the case because admission（准许进入）is competitive and if there weren’t some signs that you’re clever, the dean of admission wouldn’t have let you in.这里说的天赋有很多种，我相信敏捷的思维和活跃的大脑就是你们的天赋之一。

我确信这一点，是因为来这所大学的学生是经过残酷竞争的，如果你们没有这些特征的话，学校也不愿意招收你们的。