公众人物毕业演讲 第303期:亚马逊创始人贝佐斯普林斯顿大学毕业演讲(2)

 I have a vivid memory of what happened next, and it was not what I expected.

我清晰地记得接下来发生了什么，而那是我意料之外的。

I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills.

我本期待着小聪明和算术技巧能赢得掌声。

"Jeff, you're so smart. You had to have made some tricky¹ estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division."

“Jeff，你太聪明了！你可以做这样复杂的估算，算出每年的分钟然后做除法。”

That's not what happened.

但那并没有发生。

Instead, my grandmother burst into tears.

相反，我的祖母哭泣起来。

I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do.

我坐在后座，不知道怎么办。

While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway.

在祖母哭泣的时候，我的祖父一直在默默开车，然后把车停在了路边。

He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow.

走下车来，打开了我的车门，等着我跟他下车。

Was I in trouble?

我惹麻烦了吗？

My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man.

我的祖父是一个智慧而安静的人。

He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time?

他从来没有对我说过严厉的话，难道这会是第一次？

Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother.

还是他会让我回到车上跟祖母道歉？

I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge² what the consequences might be.

我以前从未遇到过这种状况，因而也无从知晓会有什么后果发生。

We stopped beside the trailer.

我们在房车旁停下来。

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."

祖父注视着我，沉默片刻，然后轻轻地、平静地说：“杰夫，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.

今天我想对你们说的是，天赋和选择不同。

Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice.

聪明是一种天赋，而善良是一种选择。

Gifts are easy - they're given after all.

天赋得来很容易—毕竟它们与生俱来。

Choices can be hard.

而选择则颇为不易。

You can seduce³ yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably be to the detriment⁴ of your choices.

如果一不小心，你可能被天赋所诱惑，这可能会损害到你做出的选择。

This is a group with many gifts.

在座各位都拥有许多天赋。

I'm sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain.

我确信你们的天赋之一就是拥有精明能干的头脑。

I'm confident that's the case because admission is competitive and if there weren't some signs that you're clever, the dean of admission wouldn't have let you in.

之所以如此确信，是因为入学竞争十分激烈，如果你们不能表现出聪明智慧，便没有资格进入这所学校。

1 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

2 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

3 seduce   

vt.勾引，诱奸，诱惑，引诱

参考例句：

• She has set out to seduce Stephen.她已经开始勾引斯蒂芬了。
• Clever advertising would seduce more people into smoking.巧妙策划的广告会引诱更多的人吸烟。

4 detriment   

n.损害；损害物，造成损害的根源

参考例句：

• Smoking is a detriment to one's health.吸烟危害健康。
• His lack of education is a serious detriment to his career.他的未受教育对他的事业是一种严重的妨碍。