美国知名脱口秀主持人“扣扣熊”维克森林大学毕业演讲：做你自己人生的教授！（附视频）| 名人演讲

sun918 2016-07-03

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英语演讲君按

史蒂芬·科拜尔（Stephen Tyrone Colbert，1964年5月13日）是美国喜剧演员，艾美奖获得者，美国脱口秀节目Late Show主持人。他因为他的讽刺和扑克脸式的喜剧表演风格而在美国广为人知。

在维克森林大学2015年毕业典礼演讲中，“扣扣熊”史蒂芬大讲段子，尽显搞笑功力。扣扣熊不仅调侃了该校“优良”传统：裸奔，黑了一顿共和党数量众多的总统候选人们，还当场售卖“胡话探测器”，只要89.95！一来跟普大看名人毕业演讲，提升自己的听力和口语吧！

In his commencement speech at Wake Forest University this morning, comedian Stephen Colbert offered the class of 2015 one key piece of advice: Whatever else you do, develop your own set of standards.

'It may seem counterintuitive now, but when you leave here, you may miss being graded on all your work,' Colbert warned. 'There are no objective criteria for achievement anymore. People my age will sometimes say to you, 'Hey, that work you did, that thing you said, that cause you championed? It's not good.''

Those are the moments when your own internal metric is most critical. 'Having your own standards,' the late night host advised, 'allows you to perceive success where others may see failure.'

To illustrate the point, Colbert turned to his own career. 'I have a pretty good idea of what jokes will get laughs and what jokes are iffy, but I'm going to say them anyway, because I kinda like how iffy they are,' he said.

It's that ability to function without external validation that he says let him 'keep going at times when no one laughed, or when I thought the person I was interviewing was going to throw a punch at me.'

But while he acknowledged that 'any standards worth having will be a challenge to meet, and most of the time you will fall short,' he encouraged grads to go easy on themselves. 'From now on, you fill out your own report card. So do yourself a favor. Be an easy grader. Give yourself extra credit.'

'You have the power — you are your own professor now,' he continued. 'Which I know is a little creepy, because that means you're showering with your professor. But you have tenure. They can't fire you.'

看名人演讲学地道英语

1. address 除了“ 地址，通信处 ”之意，正式场合还可以表示“演说，演讲致辞（v/n）”

栗子: Tonight’s televised presidential address

2. a huge fan of ...的粉丝，热爱..，...的拥趸/忠实粉丝

3. bring up （时常）提起，谈论到，养育

栗子: Bring it up at the meeting.

4. brunch 早午餐

文化小常识: 早午餐，即breakfast（早餐）加上lunch（午餐）的合成词，而早午餐并不是每天都有，通常只有在周日才吃，就餐时间也比平时来得长。

栗子: Tomorrow we’ll have a lie-in and then go out for brunch.

5. seductively adv. 诱惑地，富有魅力地

6. prodigy n. 奇才，天才（尤指神童），壮举

栗子: Mozart was an infant prodigy, composing music at the age of four.

7. you don't know 直译：你不知道/你不会懂，口语也常常表示“这你可说不准”

8. SAT 与ACT都被称为美国高考，是申请大学的重要凭证

9. trailblazer n. 开路的人，先驱者，开拓者

10. speaking of ... 说到某事，既然提到这事儿...（我就..）

11. give a shout out 大声喊出，为...欢呼

12. throwback 倒退，挫折，回顾，令人回忆

栗子:The car's design is a throwback to the 1960s.

13. commencement speaker 毕业演讲嘉宾

14. be vying for 竞争，争夺（vying动词原形为vie,v. 竞争，较量）

栗子:The two are vying for the support of New York voters.

15. civil duty 公民的责任与义务

16. Tell the difference between A and B

（懂得如何）分辨/区分A和B，tell除了我们常用的“说”这个词意，在口语中还常用来表达“分辨，区分”,有distinguish的意思）

栗子: It was hard to tell the difference between the two versions.

17. set of standards 一系列的标准

18. objective criteria 客观标准

19. weather v/n 除了我们所知道的“天气，气象”之意，用于动词还可以表示“平安度过，挨过”

栗子: The government has weathered its worst political crisis.

20. perceive v. 理解，意识到，察觉，感知

21. ridicule v/n. 取笑，嘲笑，嘲弄 be ridiculed for 因为...被嘲笑

22. iffy adj.可疑的，不确定的，不是特别好的

栗子: The weather looks slightly iffy.

23. throw a punch (at sb) 打一拳，被某人一拳头

24. fall short 缺乏，不足，这里指“达不到（目标）”