英语演讲稿-清华大学 曹丰

第十一届“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛冠军—曹丰Our Future: A Battle between Dreams and RealityGood afternoon, ladies and gentlemen:When I was in the primary school, I have a dream. I want to invent a device 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 less 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 keeping us from all the possible 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 seeno 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; 4)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 inthis age of globalization will coexist with tolerance and the unfriendly confrontations among them will be 7)eliminated. 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.第十四届“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛冠军—金璐What would you do if you had only one day left to live?“What would you do if you had only one day left to live?”I asked this question to my young students when teaching English this winter. What were their answers?“I would watch television!” the first answer. “I would play with the computer!” the second one. “I would play with computer TOO.” The girl finished her sentence perfectly with a serious smile. Indeed how cute and innocent that smile was, but how seriously my heart was hurt. I was too frightened to listen to more answers like that.Ten years ago, at their age, I had a different answer: I would spend the last day of my life gazing at the face of my dear grandmother until I inscribed every detail of it onto my mind.When grandmother was getting old and weak, my family bought hera telephone so I could save time and the trouble of traveling to her home by making phone calls instead. Later we bought her a television so she could watch modern dramas by herself. Then grandma must have been, we assumed, very contented and happy. But I never really knew how grandma felt. She silently passed away without a word one night. When I heard about her death, a chilling pain pierced my empty heart. The pain grew even sharper as I tried to remember in detail exactly how grandma looked and I failed completely! How could I remember? I had not visited her for ages—it seemed like a century! My memories of her dissolved into thin air and leaked away like water.Even though I have a telephone, can she hear me now?Even though I might be on television, can she see me now?Even though I have modern telecommunications, can she still communicate with me now?With all these “tele”s, I was powerless.Don’t people just love the word of “tele”, which means far away. Indeed this is how modern technology has changed our world. But please don’t forget this other word with “tele”: telepathy: which refers to human beings’ inborn ability to connect to our loved ones. Our minds are supposed to read each other’s minds; our hearts are supposed to feel each other’s hearts — and fulfill these without anyforms of tool!But the moment I desperately struggled to remember grandmother’s face, the telepathy between her and me had shut down forever. With the help of modern technology, I killed our telepathy.This shall never happen again! The “tele”s are great inventions. But “telepathy” gives them the warmth of a human face. Let’s harness the power of television to excite our kids to develop their telepathy with nature… so that they can read the secret language of flowers. Let’s make the telephone lines provoke us to preserve our tele pathy with each other, so we can connect in a warm and feeling way. Let technology keep our “telepathy” ALIVE! We need to wake up and make this happen.I told my grandma’s story to those young kids that day. They got very quiet. They asked me for a second chance to answer the question. They had come to a new understanding – that very moment they had made to me and to our future together, a dear promise. Thank you very much！。