01 Heal the Children,Heal the World (A)拯救儿童，拯救世界 (A)

Thank you, thank you dear friends, from the bottom of my heart, for such a loving and spirited welcome, and thank you, Mr. President, for your kind invitation to me which I am so honored to accept. I also want to express a special thanks to you Shmuley. You and I have been working so hard to form Heal the Kids, and in all of our efforts you have been such a supportive and loving friend.

And I would also like to thank Toba Friedman, our director of operations at Heal the Kids, as well as Marilyn Piels, another central member of our Heal the Kids team. I am humbled to be lecturing in a place that has previously been filled by such notable figures as Mother Theresa, Albert Einstein, Ronald Reagan, Robert Kennedy and Malcolm X.

I suppose I should start by listing my qualifications to speak before you this evening. Friends, I do not claim to have the academic expertise of other speakers who have addressed this hall, just as they could lay little claim at being adept at the moonwalk.

But I do have a claim to having experienced more places and cultures than most people will ever see. And friends, I have encountered so much in this relatively short life of mine that I still cannot believe I am only 42. I often tell Shmuley that in soul years I'm sure that I'm at least 80—and tonight I even walk like I'm 80. So please harken to my message, because what I have to tell you tonight can bring healing to humanity and healing to our planet.

Tonight, I come before you less as an icon of pop (whatever that means anyway), and more as an icon of a generation, a generation that no longer knows what it means to be children.

All of us are products of our childhood. But I am the product of a lack of a childhood, an absence of that precious and wondrous age when we are frolic playfully without a care in the world, basking in the adoration of parents and relatives, where our biggest concern is studying for that big spelling test come monday morning.

Those of you who are familiar with the Jackson Five know that I began performing at the tender age of five and that ever since then, I haven't stopped dancing or singing. But while performing and making music undoubtedly remain as some of my greatest joys, when I was young I wanted more than anything else to be a typical little boy. I wanted to build tree houses, have water balloon fights, and play hide and seek with my friends. But fate had it otherwise and all I could do was envy the laughter and playtime that seemed to be going on all around me.

衷心地感谢你们，亲爱的朋友们，谢谢你们如此热情的欢迎。尊敬的校长，对您的盛情邀请我深感荣幸。同时，我还要特别感谢犹太教教士施慕礼，您和我为了建立“拯救儿童”慈善基金会付出了艰辛的努力，并且自始至终您都是我可靠和敬爱的朋友。

我还要感谢“拯救儿童”慈善基金会的理事，我们“拯救儿童”慈善基金会团队的另一位核心成员玛丽莲·皮尔斯。在这里演讲，我感到很惭愧。因为，曾经来这里做过演讲的都是著名人士，例如，特蕾莎修女、阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦、罗纳德·里根、罗伯特·肯尼迪和马尔科姆·艾克斯。

在开始我今晚的演讲之前，我想首先说一说，为什么我有资格在此做演讲。朋友们，我并不具有其他来此演讲的人士所具有的学术专业知识，就像很少人能声称自己擅长“太空步”一样。

但我可以说，我游历了更多的地方，也看到了比一般人更多不同的文化。朋友们，在我相对较短暂的生命里，我经历了如此之多的事情，以至于我无法相信我只有42岁。我经常跟施慕礼说，我敢肯定我的心理年龄至少有80岁，而今晚我走路的样子更像一个80岁的老人。那么，就请大家仔细倾听我的演讲，因为今晚我所讲的内容，可以救赎人性，拯救地球。

今晚，我并不是以一个流行偶像的身份站在大家面前(不管那意味着什么)，而是作为一代人的代表站在这里，这是一代不知作为一个孩子意味着什么的人。

每个人都拥有过童年，但我却没有，我没有那个宝贵的和令人惊奇的年龄阶段，那时我们本该沐浴在父母和亲戚的关爱之中，只需尽情玩耍，无须关心世界。那时我们最担心的是为星期一早上重要的拼写考试做准备。

所有熟悉杰克逊五人乐队的人都知道，我不到五岁就开始表演。而且，从那以后，我就没有停止过跳舞、唱歌。尽管表演和音乐仍然是我最大的乐趣之一，但是，在我小的时候，我还是更愿意跟其他小男孩一样，搭树屋、打水球，跟朋友一起玩捉迷藏。但是命运却事与愿违，所以我只能羡慕那些充斥在我周围的笑声和欢乐。

单词解析 Word Analysis

express [ɪk'spres] v． 表达；快递 n． 快车；快递

例 Jack can express himself clearly.

杰克可以清晰地表达自己。

supportive[sə'pɔːtɪv] adj．支持的；支援的

例 She is extremely supportive to me.

她特别支持我。

humble['hʌmbl] adj．谦虚的

例 She excused herself with humble words.

她用谦虚的言辞为自己辩解。

notable['nəʊtəb(ə)l] adj．显著的；著名的

例 It is difficult to find out the notable difference between these two objects.

很难找出这两个物品之间的显著差别。

qualification ['kwɒlɪfɪ'keɪʃ(ə)n] n． 资格；条件

例 They had every qualification for success.

他们具备获得成功的各种条件。

encounter [ɪn'kaʊntə] v． 遭遇；邂逅

例 She encountered an old friend on the road.

她在路上遇到了一个老朋友。

harken ['hɑːkən] v． 倾听；留心

例 Please harken to my message attentively.

请认真听我说。

frolic['frɒlɪk] adj．嬉戏的；欢乐的 v．嬉戏打闹

例 A group of penguins relax and frolic on the beach.

一群企鹅在海滩上休憩打闹。

语法知识点 Grammar Points

① Thank you, thank you dear friends, from the bottom of my heart, for such a loving and spirited welcome, and thank you, Mr. President, for your kind invitation to me which I am so honored to accept.

这个句子中有一个结构“from the bottom of my heart”，表示“真心地，由衷地”。

例 I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart for causing so much trouble.

我发自内心地为自己引起的麻烦道歉。

② Friends, I do not claim to have the academic expertise of other speakers who have addressed this hall, just as they could lay little claim at being adept at the moonwalk.

这个句子中有一个结构“be adept at”，表示“擅长”。同义词组有be good at、do well in和be skilled in。

例 Barbie was adept at smiling before the camera.

芭比擅长在镜头前微笑。

③ But I am the product of a lack of a childhood, an absence of that precious and wondrous age when we are frolic playfully without a care in the world.

这个句子中有一个结构“a lack of”，表示“缺乏；缺少”。注意lack的词性为名词。lack做动词“缺乏”讲时，直接接宾语，例如lack sth.。

例 There is a lack of fish in the river.

这条河里没什么鱼。

④ Those of you who are familiar with the Jackson Five know that I began performing at the tender age of five.

这个句子中有一个结构“be familiar with...”，表示“对……熟悉”，注意区分它和be familiar to。be familiar with主语为人；be familiar to主语为物。

例 I am familiar with this book.

This book is familiar to me.

我很熟悉这本书。

⑤ Ever since then, I haven't stopped dancing or singing.

这个句子中有一个结构“ever since”，表示“从那时到现在”。

例 I didn't believe her ever since she cheated on me.

自从她骗我以后，我再也不相信她了。

经典名句 Famous Classics

1. Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

讽刺是一面镜子，观看者通常从中看到每一个人的面容，却看不到自己。（乔纳森·斯威夫特）

2. Literature is a kind of intellectual light which, like the light of the sun, may sometimes enable us to see what we do not like.

文学是一种理智之光，它和阳光一样，有时能使我们看到我们不喜欢的东西。（塞缪尔·约翰逊）

3. When an end is lawful and obligatory, the indispensable means to it are also lawful and obligatory.

如果一个目的是正当而必须做的，则达到这个目的的必要手段也是正当而必须采取的。（亚伯拉罕·林肯）

4. Work is more that a necessary for most human beings; it is the focus of their lives, the source of their identity and creativity.

对大多数人来说，工作不仅仅是一种必需，它还是人们生活的焦点，是他们的个性和创造性的源泉。（伦纳德·塞尔斯）

5. We often hear of people breaking down from overwork, but in nine cases out of ten they are really suffering from worry or anxiety.

我们常常听人说，人们因过度工作而垮下来，但是实际上十有八九是因为饱受担忧或焦虑的折磨。（约翰·卢伯克）

读书笔记

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