Kelly 自言自語：我在文中表黑體得段落，做了自己的一些見解和說明。這些段落最好背得爛熟為好。
Part 3
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
Now I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known heartbreak, hardship or heartache.
Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment. 這一段里的這些詞匯的運用都是值得我們學習的。
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure.
You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success.
Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far removed from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.
So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.
An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.
The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun.
That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.
I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
在你們這個年紀，我最怕的不是貧窮，而是失敗。
在你們這般年紀，我在大學里的時候，花了很多時間在咖啡館寫故事，幾乎不去上課。雖然在大學里缺少學習的動力，但是我掌握了不掛科的技巧。數(shù)十年來，我，還有我的同儕們都是那樣通過的考試。
現(xiàn)在的我不會理所當然地認為，因為你們年輕，有才華并且受過良好教育，便不曾心痛過。
天分和智慧無法使人預料，要怎樣對抗反復無常的命運；我也從來沒有想過在座的任何人能夠受到命運的眷顧從未遭受苦難風平浪靜、心滿意足地度過前半生。
但事實上，你從哈佛畢業(yè)已然暗示了你并未熟知失敗。
可能你被你同對成功的渴望一樣強烈的，對失敗的害怕而驅使著。
事實上，盡管你飛得那么高，可是你對于失敗的概念的理解與一般人對成功的理解其實相差不遠。
根本上來說，我們都必須去讓自己知道何為失敗，而且如果你任由它去，這個世界便會給你設定標準。
所以從任何一個傳統(tǒng)角度來看，我可以這么說，距離畢業(yè)典禮僅僅七年，我便遭受了極大的失敗。
[圖文：你掌控著自己的生活。你的意志極其強大。]
剛經(jīng)歷一段短暫的婚姻，而我又失了業(yè)，變成了單親媽媽，除了還有個家，我基本上可以算是當代倫敦最貧困的人了。
父母對我的憂慮，和我對自己的擔憂通通變?yōu)榱爽F(xiàn)實，不管從哪個角度來說，我都算遭遇了迄今為止最大的失敗。
現(xiàn)在，我不會站在這里說失敗是快樂的。
那段時期，我的生活一片黑暗，我從未意識到除了童話故事中的絕望以外，現(xiàn)實中的壓力能有這么可怕。
我已經(jīng)記不起用了多久才走出那段黑暗的隧道，只知道很長一段時間，隧道盡頭出現(xiàn)的任何一絲光亮，對我來說都不是一種現(xiàn)實，而是一絲希望。
knack
/n?k/
n. 訣竅；本領；熟練技術；巧妙手法
peers
/'pi?z/
v. 凝視；窺視（動詞peer的第三人稱單數(shù)形式）；n. 平輩；同等社會地位的人
Inoculated: 使預防
caprice 人性 反覆無常
unruffled平靜的 無風浪的
ultimately最終，最后
constitute組成
criteria標準，條件
conventional傳統(tǒng)的，普通的
mere僅僅
epic詩人，史詩的，壯麗的
scale等級，攀登 規(guī)模
implode 向心爆炸
Part 4
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure?
Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.
I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I believed I truly belonged. 這一句是非常經(jīng)典的過去時態(tài)的虛擬句式，也就是我們經(jīng)常會表達的，如果我成為了A或者做了A，可能我就不會成為B或做了B了。就是這件事是沒有發(fā)生的，所以是虛擬的。虛擬句式是有水平的文章中一定會出現(xiàn)的。時態(tài)的使用，以及倒裝的使用，大家可以繼續(xù)深入學習。
I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea.
And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on
which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable.
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.
Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.
I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.
You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.
Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.
So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.
Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.
Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes。Enable這個詞大家去觀察，幾乎是每篇文章都會出現(xiàn)的。
enable
“使能夠”，有兩個搭配：1 enable sth. 例：The conference will enable greater（進一步） international cooperation.這個會議可以進一步增進國際間的合作。2 enable sb. to do sth,例：A rabbit’s large ears enable it to hear the slightest sound.兔子非常大的耳朵可以聽到最輕微的聲音。This dictionary can enable you to understand English words.字典能夠使你了解英語單詞。
那么為什么我要談論失敗的好處呢？
因為失敗意味著剝離掉那些不必要的東西。
我因此不再偽裝自己、遠離自我，而重新開始把所有精力放在對我最重要的事情上。
如果不是沒有在其他領域成功過，我可能就不會找到，在一個我確信真正屬于的舞臺上取得成功的決心。
我獲得了自由，因為最害怕的雖然已經(jīng)發(fā)生了，但我還活著，我仍然有一個我深愛的女兒，我還有一個舊打字機和一個很大的想法。
所以困境的谷底，成為我重建生活的堅實基礎。
你們可能永遠沒有達到我經(jīng)歷的那種失敗程度，但有些失敗，在生活中是不可避免的。
生活不可能沒有一點失敗，除非你生活的萬般小心，而那也意味著你沒有真正在生活了。
無論怎樣，有些失敗還是注定地要發(fā)生失敗使我的內心產(chǎn)生一種安全感，這是我從考試中沒有得到過的。
失敗讓我看清自己，這也是我通過其他方式無法體會的。我發(fā)現(xiàn)，我比自己認為的，要有更強的意志和決心。我還發(fā)現(xiàn)，我擁有比寶石更加珍貴的朋友。
從挫折中獲得智慧、變得堅強，意味著你比以往任何時候都更有能力生存。
只有在逆境來臨的時候，你才會真正認識你自己，了解身邊的人。
這種了解是真正的財富，雖然是用痛苦換來的，但比我以前得到的任何資格證書都有用。
如果給我一部時間機器，我會告訴21歲的自己，人的幸福在于知道生活不是一份漂亮的成績單，你的資歷、簡歷，都不是你的生活，雖然你會碰到很多與我同齡或更老一點的人今天依然還在混淆兩者。
生活是艱辛的，復雜的，超出任何人的控制能力，而謙恭地了解這一點，將使你歷經(jīng)滄桑后能夠更好的生存。
圖片文字解釋：
Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.困境的谷底，成為了我重建生活堅實的基石。
inessential /??n??sen?l/ n. 無關緊要的東西； adj. 非必要的；無關緊要的
arena /??ri?n?/
n. 競技場；表演場地；活動場所
inevitable /?n?ev?t?bl/ n. 必然發(fā)生的事；
adj. 不可避免的，必然的
setbacks /'setb?ks/ 挫折
qualification /?kwɑ?l?f??ke??n/
n. 資格證明；合格證書；資格；限制性條件
CV /?si? ?vi?/ n. 真直徑；卡值；連續(xù)變動
adj. 心血管的；
abbr. 履歷（=curriculum vitae
vicissitudes /v?'s?s??tju?dz/
n. (人生的)盛衰；變遷
ba default 缺席，不到場;默認情況下
other than prep.不同于;conj.除了
in which case 無論怎樣
