米歇尔.奥巴马成都七中演讲稿(中英文双语全文(2)

米歇尔.奥巴马成都七中演讲稿(中英文双语全文),后面还链接有第一夫人在北大的演讲,是学习地道英语的极好资料,同时学生也能受到很好教育和激励。

you so much for your warm welcome.

Now, before I get started, on behalf of myself and my husband, I want to say that our

hearts go out to all those with loved ones on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. As I said

this past weekend when I spoke at Peking University, we are very much keeping all of

them in our thoughts and our prayers at this tremendously difficult time.

So now, let me start by thanking your Principal, Principal Liu, and your classmate,

Ju Chao, for that wonderful introduction. Your English, Ju Chao, is excellent, and

you should be very proud. Thank you so much. (Applause.) And I want to thank

all of the students here today, both those of you here in person and those of you

joining remotely from across the region. I’m thrilled to be visiting your wonderful

school.

Now, in preparation for this visit, before I left the U.S. I visited the Yu Ying School.

It’s a public school near the White House in Washington, D.C., and all of the students

at this school study Chinese. And I met with the sixth-grade class, kids who are 11

and 12 years old. They had recently taken a trip here to China, and they were

bursting with excitement. They were eager to tell me about everything about what

they had seen.

But they admitted that before their trip, they had all kinds of misconceptions about

China. They thought they would see palaces and temples everywhere they went, but

instead they found massive cities filled with skyscrapers. They weren’t sure that

they’d like the food here in China, but they actually loved it, and they learned how to

use chopsticks. And in the end, one of the students told me –- and this is his quote

-- he said, “Coming home was really exciting, but was at the same time sad.”

Now, meeting these students reminded me that when we live so far away from

each other, it’s easy to develop all kinds of misconceptions and stereotypes. It’s

easy to focus on our differences –- how we speak different languages and eat

different foods and observe different traditions. But as I travel the world, and I meet

young people from so many countries, I’m always struck by how much more we have

in common. And that’s been particularly true during my visit here in China.

You see, the truth is that I grew up like many of you. My mom, my dad, my

brother and I, we lived in a tiny apartment in Chicago, which is one of the largest

cities in America. My father worked at the local water plant. And we didn’t have

much money, but our little home was bursting with love. Every evening, my family

would laugh and share stories over dinner. We’d play card games and have fun for

hours. And on summer nights, I remember, when our apartment got too hot, we’d

all sleep outside on our back porch.

Family meant everything to us, including our extended family. My grandparents

lived nearby, and my elderly great aunt and uncle lived in the apartment downstairs

from us. And when their health started to decline my parents stepped in, helping my