Thirty college students across the country attended the Tenth 21st Century Cup National English Speaking Contest in Beijing on April 10. Eventually, Xia Peng, from Nanjing University was named the champion. The second and third places went to Zhang Jing, a sophomore from China Foreign Affairs University, and Zhang A Xu, from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, respectively. More than 1000 college students in Beijing are lucky birds to listen to the speeches on the spot in Friendship Hotel.
Just make to it the finals, they had to get past 60 others speaking on “The impact of globalization on traditional Chinese values”. That was at the semi-final on April 8-9. What will Chinese college students think about the impact? Each contestant had his own take on the subject. Xia summed up globalization by saying: “It’s just controversial and hard to say whether it is good or bad.” Xia took the old wall of his city, Nanjing, as a metaphor. He spoke about the conflict over whether to protect the old walls or tear them down to represent the conflict of ideas. He suggested that people protect the wall as a valuable relic while tearing down the “intangible walls” of their minds that prevent communication. While some other students are more focusing on the impact of globalization on family relations, attitudes towards love, and job-hunting.
Over the past 10 years, the national English speaking competition has given contestants a chance to speak on a variety of topics closely related to their lives. Chinese students become more open-minded and receive various ideas and thinking over the decade. Diversity becomes more obvious on campus, students have more opportunities to express and show themselves. It’s not an easy task for the contestants to win through the fierce competition. Owning to their passion, hard work and persistence, they finally succeeded in the contest.
Liu Xin, the first champion of the national contest, is now an anchorperson of CCTV-9. Recalling the passion of study on campus, she said: “When you want to express your idea by a foreign language without finding a right way, you’re really upset. Then you have to encourage yourself, and after a long term of bitterness, suddenly you find you get the right way with joy.” With the champion title in 21st Century Cup, Liu attended the International Public Speaking competition in London in May 1996 afterward and got the first prize historically.
The winner in 2003 surprised the audience, since she came from accounting major instead of English major. Gu Qiubei, then 22 years old, was a senior in Shanghai Foreign Studies University. While being asked whether she had some good methods to learn English, she said: “Learn English with passion and enthusiasm.” Attracted by the greatness of English language, Gu even changed her major from accounting to English in her postgraduate study. The most important issue in English learning process she pointed out is personal interests. Only people interested in English benefit a lot from the learning methods and those with passion will finally achieve their dreams.
When chief of global media giant Viacom Sumner Redstone gave a speech in Tsinghua University on his autobiography A Passion to Win, he was asked what made him to restart his career at the age of 60, the 81-year-old media tycoon said: “Firstly, there’s a self-driving force in my deep heart, which keeps my passion to succeed and surpass others; secondly, I don’t think I’m too old to leave work, actually I love my work very much.”
Some of the contestants have achieved their dreams as Redstone; still others are on the way to their dream. With a passion to win, you will overcome obstacles and succeed at the end.
I’m studying in a city that’s famous for its walls. People who visit my city are amazed at the imposing sight of its walls, especially when silhouetted against the setting sun with gold, shining streaks. The old, cracked bricks are covered with lichens and the walls are weather-beaten guards standing still for centuries.
Our ancestors liked to build walls. They built walls in Beijing, Xi’an, Nanjing and many other cities, and they built the Great Wall, which snakes across half our country. They built walls to protect against enemies and evil spirits. This tradition has survived to this day: we still have many parks and schools walled off from the public.
For a long time, walls were one of the most natural things in the world to me.
My perceptions, however, changed after I made a hiking trip to the eastern suburbs of my city. My classmates and I were walking with some foreign students. As we walked out of the city, we found ourselves flanked by tall trees, which formed a wide canopy above our heads. Suddenly one foreign student asked me, “Where is the entrance to the eastern suburbs?”
“We’re already in the eastern suburbs,” I replied. He seemed taken aback, “I thought you Chinese had walls for everything.” His remark set off a heated debate. At one point, he likened our walled cities to “jails”, while I insisted that the eastern suburbs were one of the many places in China that had no walls.
That debate had no winners, but I did learn a lot from this student. For instance, he told me that some major universities like Oxford and Cambridge were not surrounded by walls. I have to admit that we do have many walls in China, and as we develop our country, we must look carefully at them and decide whether they are physical or intangible. We will keep some walls but tear down those that impede our development.
Let me give another example.
A year ago, when I was working on a term paper, I needed a book on business law and found a copy in the law school library. However, the librarian coldly rejected my request to borrow it, saying, “You can’t borrow this book, you’re not a student here.” In the end, I had to spend 200 yuan to buy a copy. Meanwhile, the copy in the law school gathered dust on the shelf.
At the beginning of this semester, I heard that my university had started to think of unifying its libraries and linking them to libraries at other universities, so my experience wouldn’t be repeated. Barriers would be replaced by bridges. An inter-library loan system would give us access to books from any library. With globalization and China integrated into the world, I believe many of these intangible walls will be knocked down.
I know that globalization is a controversial issue, and it is hard to say whether it is good or bad. But one thing is for sure: it draws our attention to China’s tangible and intangible walls and forces us to examine their role in the modern world.
And how about the ancient walls of mine and other cities? Should we tear them down? Definitely not. My city, like Beijing and other cities, is actually making a great effort to preserve the walls. These walls attract historians, archaeologists, and many schoolchildren who are trying to study our history and cultural heritage. Walls have become bridges to our past and to the rest of the world. If the ancient builders of these walls were still alive today, they would be proud to see such great changes in the role of their walls. They are now bridges that link East and West, South and North, and all countries of the world. Our cultural heritage will survive globalization.
三十全國大學生參加了21世紀第十杯全國英語演講比賽中4月10日在北京舉行。最終,夏彭,來自南京大學被任命為冠軍。第二個和第三個地方去張靜,從中國外交學院大二學生,張許,分別從香港理工大學。有超過1000名大學生在北京有幸到友誼賓館的現(xiàn)場演講。
只是讓總決賽,他們不得不過去60人在“全球化對中國傳統(tǒng)價值觀的影響”。這是在4月8日至9日半決賽。中國大學生考慮的影響?每個選手都有自己的看法。對于全球化,夏鵬總結說:“這是有爭議的,很難判斷它是好是壞?！跋睦铣菈?南京作為一個隱喻。他談到了沖突是否保護與拆毀古城墻代表思想的沖突。他建議人們保護墻作為珍貴的遺產(chǎn)而拆除的“無形的墻”思想,防止通信。雖然一些其他學生更關注全球化對家庭關系的影響,對愛的態(tài)度,找工作。
在過去的十年里,全國英語演講比賽給了選手在各種主題發(fā)言的機會與他們的生活密切相關。中國學生變得更加開放和接受各種思想和思考的十年。校園里的多元化變得更加明顯,學生有更多的機會表達和展示自己。這不是一個容易的任務,如此激烈的競爭中勝出的選手。擁有激情,努力和堅持,在比賽中他們終于成功了。
劉欣,第一屆全國比賽的冠軍,現(xiàn)在是中央電視臺國際頻道的一個新聞節(jié)目主持人?；貞浶@學習的激情,她說:“當你想表達你的想法,一個外國語言沒有找到正確的方法,你真的很心煩。然后你必須鼓勵自己,經(jīng)過長期的痛苦,突然你發(fā)現(xiàn)你得到正確的方式與歡樂?！?1世紀冠軍頭銜的杯子,劉翔參加了1996年5月在倫敦國際演講比賽之后和歷史性的。
2003年冠軍觀眾驚訝,因為她學的是會計專業(yè),而不是英語專業(yè)的學生。顧秋蓓,22歲,是上海外國語大學的一名大四學生。當被問及她一些好的學習英語的方法,她說:“學習英語的激情和熱情?！坝⒄Z這門語言的魅力所吸引,甚至將自己的專業(yè)的研究生學習會計英語。最重要的問題在英語學習過程中她指出個人利益。只有對英語感興趣的好處,從學習方法和那些有激情最終將實現(xiàn)他們的夢想。
當首席全球傳媒巨頭維亞康姆雷石東給在清華大學的演講激情贏得他的自傳中,他被問及讓他重新開始他的職業(yè)生涯在60歲時,這位81歲的媒體大亨說:“首先,有一個無人駕駛的力量在我的內心深處,讓我激情成功和超越他人,其次,我不認為我太老了離開工作,其實我非常喜歡我的工作。”
一些雷石東的選手取得了他們的夢想,還有一些人在他們的夢想。與激情,你會克服困難,最后獲得成功。
我學習在一個城市,的墻。訪問我的城市的人驚訝的看到它的墻壁,與黃金,尤其是當夕陽映襯下閃閃發(fā)光的條紋。破碎磚塊覆蓋著老、地衣和墻壁都是飽經(jīng)風霜的警衛(wèi)靜止了幾個世紀。
我們的祖先喜歡建造城墻。他們建造墻壁在北京、西安、南京和其他許多城市,他們建造了長城,蛇在我們國家的一半。他們建造墻壁抵御敵人和惡靈。這個傳統(tǒng)一直延續(xù)至今,我們還有許多公園和學校圍墻從公眾。
在很長一段時間里,墻是世界上最自然的事情之一。
然而,我的看法改變了之后,我做了一個徒步旅行的東部郊區(qū)城市。我和我的同學們正在與一些外國學生。當我們走出城市,我們發(fā)現(xiàn)自己在高大的樹木,形成一個寬在頭頂上的樹冠。突然一個外國學生問我,“東部郊區(qū)的入口在哪里?”
“我們已經(jīng)在東部郊區(qū),”我回答說。他似乎吃了一驚,“我以為你中國墻了一切?！彼脑捯l(fā)了激烈的辯論。有一次,他把我們的圍墻城市比作“監(jiān)獄”,雖然我堅持認為東部郊區(qū)是一個在中國的很多地方,沒有墻壁。
這場爭論沒有贏家,但我確實學到很多從這個學生。例如,他告訴我,一些主要大學像牛津和劍橋沒有墻包圍。我不得不承認我們在中國有很多墻,我們發(fā)展我們的國家,我們必須仔細觀察他們,并決定是否物理或無形的。我們將保留一些墻但拆除那些阻礙我們的發(fā)展。
讓我給另一個例子。
一年前,我在學期論文的時候,我需要一本關于商業(yè)法,發(fā)現(xiàn)一個副本在法學院圖書館。然而,借圖書館員冷冷地拒絕了我的請求,說,“你不能借這本書,你不是一個學生?！白詈?我不得不花200元購買一個副本。與此同時,復制在法學院聚集灰塵在貨架上。
這學期初,我聽說我的大學已經(jīng)開始認為統(tǒng)一的圖書館和連接它們在其他大學圖書館,所以我的經(jīng)驗不會重復。障礙將取而代之的是橋梁。一個電腦連線向其他圖書館調借書籍系統(tǒng)會給我們訪問從任何圖書館書籍。全球化和中國融入世界,我相信很多無形的墻將被拆除。
我知道,全球化是一個有爭議的問題,很難說是好還是壞。但有一件事是肯定的:它吸引了我們的注意中國的有形和無形的墻和迫使我們去檢查他們的角色在現(xiàn)代世界。
以及我的古城墻和其他城市呢?我們應該拆除它們嗎?絕對不會。我的城市,像北京和其他城市,實際上是讓一個偉大的努力保護墻。這些墻壁吸引歷史學家、考古學家和許多學生正在努力學習我們的歷史和文化遺產(chǎn)。墻壁已經(jīng)成為我們過去的橋梁和世界其他地區(qū)。如果還活著,這些墻壁的古老的建筑,他們會自豪地看到這樣巨大的變化在墻上的角色。他們現(xiàn)在橋梁,連接東部和西部,南部和北部,世界所有國家。我們的文化遺產(chǎn)將全球化生存。
Just make to it the finals, they had to get past 60 others speaking on “The impact of globalization on traditional Chinese values”. That was at the semi-final on April 8-9. What will Chinese college students think about the impact? Each contestant had his own take on the subject. Xia summed up globalization by saying: “It’s just controversial and hard to say whether it is good or bad.” Xia took the old wall of his city, Nanjing, as a metaphor. He spoke about the conflict over whether to protect the old walls or tear them down to represent the conflict of ideas. He suggested that people protect the wall as a valuable relic while tearing down the “intangible walls” of their minds that prevent communication. While some other students are more focusing on the impact of globalization on family relations, attitudes towards love, and job-hunting.
Over the past 10 years, the national English speaking competition has given contestants a chance to speak on a variety of topics closely related to their lives. Chinese students become more open-minded and receive various ideas and thinking over the decade. Diversity becomes more obvious on campus, students have more opportunities to express and show themselves. It’s not an easy task for the contestants to win through the fierce competition. Owning to their passion, hard work and persistence, they finally succeeded in the contest.
Liu Xin, the first champion of the national contest, is now an anchorperson of CCTV-9. Recalling the passion of study on campus, she said: “When you want to express your idea by a foreign language without finding a right way, you’re really upset. Then you have to encourage yourself, and after a long term of bitterness, suddenly you find you get the right way with joy.” With the champion title in 21st Century Cup, Liu attended the International Public Speaking competition in London in May 1996 afterward and got the first prize historically.
The winner in 2003 surprised the audience, since she came from accounting major instead of English major. Gu Qiubei, then 22 years old, was a senior in Shanghai Foreign Studies University. While being asked whether she had some good methods to learn English, she said: “Learn English with passion and enthusiasm.” Attracted by the greatness of English language, Gu even changed her major from accounting to English in her postgraduate study. The most important issue in English learning process she pointed out is personal interests. Only people interested in English benefit a lot from the learning methods and those with passion will finally achieve their dreams.
When chief of global media giant Viacom Sumner Redstone gave a speech in Tsinghua University on his autobiography A Passion to Win, he was asked what made him to restart his career at the age of 60, the 81-year-old media tycoon said: “Firstly, there’s a self-driving force in my deep heart, which keeps my passion to succeed and surpass others; secondly, I don’t think I’m too old to leave work, actually I love my work very much.”
Some of the contestants have achieved their dreams as Redstone; still others are on the way to their dream. With a passion to win, you will overcome obstacles and succeed at the end.
I’m studying in a city that’s famous for its walls. People who visit my city are amazed at the imposing sight of its walls, especially when silhouetted against the setting sun with gold, shining streaks. The old, cracked bricks are covered with lichens and the walls are weather-beaten guards standing still for centuries.
Our ancestors liked to build walls. They built walls in Beijing, Xi’an, Nanjing and many other cities, and they built the Great Wall, which snakes across half our country. They built walls to protect against enemies and evil spirits. This tradition has survived to this day: we still have many parks and schools walled off from the public.
For a long time, walls were one of the most natural things in the world to me.
My perceptions, however, changed after I made a hiking trip to the eastern suburbs of my city. My classmates and I were walking with some foreign students. As we walked out of the city, we found ourselves flanked by tall trees, which formed a wide canopy above our heads. Suddenly one foreign student asked me, “Where is the entrance to the eastern suburbs?”
“We’re already in the eastern suburbs,” I replied. He seemed taken aback, “I thought you Chinese had walls for everything.” His remark set off a heated debate. At one point, he likened our walled cities to “jails”, while I insisted that the eastern suburbs were one of the many places in China that had no walls.
That debate had no winners, but I did learn a lot from this student. For instance, he told me that some major universities like Oxford and Cambridge were not surrounded by walls. I have to admit that we do have many walls in China, and as we develop our country, we must look carefully at them and decide whether they are physical or intangible. We will keep some walls but tear down those that impede our development.
Let me give another example.
A year ago, when I was working on a term paper, I needed a book on business law and found a copy in the law school library. However, the librarian coldly rejected my request to borrow it, saying, “You can’t borrow this book, you’re not a student here.” In the end, I had to spend 200 yuan to buy a copy. Meanwhile, the copy in the law school gathered dust on the shelf.
At the beginning of this semester, I heard that my university had started to think of unifying its libraries and linking them to libraries at other universities, so my experience wouldn’t be repeated. Barriers would be replaced by bridges. An inter-library loan system would give us access to books from any library. With globalization and China integrated into the world, I believe many of these intangible walls will be knocked down.
I know that globalization is a controversial issue, and it is hard to say whether it is good or bad. But one thing is for sure: it draws our attention to China’s tangible and intangible walls and forces us to examine their role in the modern world.
And how about the ancient walls of mine and other cities? Should we tear them down? Definitely not. My city, like Beijing and other cities, is actually making a great effort to preserve the walls. These walls attract historians, archaeologists, and many schoolchildren who are trying to study our history and cultural heritage. Walls have become bridges to our past and to the rest of the world. If the ancient builders of these walls were still alive today, they would be proud to see such great changes in the role of their walls. They are now bridges that link East and West, South and North, and all countries of the world. Our cultural heritage will survive globalization.
三十全國大學生參加了21世紀第十杯全國英語演講比賽中4月10日在北京舉行。最終,夏彭,來自南京大學被任命為冠軍。第二個和第三個地方去張靜,從中國外交學院大二學生,張許,分別從香港理工大學。有超過1000名大學生在北京有幸到友誼賓館的現(xiàn)場演講。
只是讓總決賽,他們不得不過去60人在“全球化對中國傳統(tǒng)價值觀的影響”。這是在4月8日至9日半決賽。中國大學生考慮的影響?每個選手都有自己的看法。對于全球化,夏鵬總結說:“這是有爭議的,很難判斷它是好是壞?！跋睦铣菈?南京作為一個隱喻。他談到了沖突是否保護與拆毀古城墻代表思想的沖突。他建議人們保護墻作為珍貴的遺產(chǎn)而拆除的“無形的墻”思想,防止通信。雖然一些其他學生更關注全球化對家庭關系的影響,對愛的態(tài)度,找工作。
在過去的十年里,全國英語演講比賽給了選手在各種主題發(fā)言的機會與他們的生活密切相關。中國學生變得更加開放和接受各種思想和思考的十年。校園里的多元化變得更加明顯,學生有更多的機會表達和展示自己。這不是一個容易的任務,如此激烈的競爭中勝出的選手。擁有激情,努力和堅持,在比賽中他們終于成功了。
劉欣,第一屆全國比賽的冠軍,現(xiàn)在是中央電視臺國際頻道的一個新聞節(jié)目主持人?；貞浶@學習的激情,她說:“當你想表達你的想法,一個外國語言沒有找到正確的方法,你真的很心煩。然后你必須鼓勵自己,經(jīng)過長期的痛苦,突然你發(fā)現(xiàn)你得到正確的方式與歡樂?！?1世紀冠軍頭銜的杯子,劉翔參加了1996年5月在倫敦國際演講比賽之后和歷史性的。
2003年冠軍觀眾驚訝,因為她學的是會計專業(yè),而不是英語專業(yè)的學生。顧秋蓓,22歲,是上海外國語大學的一名大四學生。當被問及她一些好的學習英語的方法,她說:“學習英語的激情和熱情?！坝⒄Z這門語言的魅力所吸引,甚至將自己的專業(yè)的研究生學習會計英語。最重要的問題在英語學習過程中她指出個人利益。只有對英語感興趣的好處,從學習方法和那些有激情最終將實現(xiàn)他們的夢想。
當首席全球傳媒巨頭維亞康姆雷石東給在清華大學的演講激情贏得他的自傳中,他被問及讓他重新開始他的職業(yè)生涯在60歲時,這位81歲的媒體大亨說:“首先,有一個無人駕駛的力量在我的內心深處,讓我激情成功和超越他人,其次,我不認為我太老了離開工作,其實我非常喜歡我的工作。”
一些雷石東的選手取得了他們的夢想,還有一些人在他們的夢想。與激情,你會克服困難,最后獲得成功。
我學習在一個城市,的墻。訪問我的城市的人驚訝的看到它的墻壁,與黃金,尤其是當夕陽映襯下閃閃發(fā)光的條紋。破碎磚塊覆蓋著老、地衣和墻壁都是飽經(jīng)風霜的警衛(wèi)靜止了幾個世紀。
我們的祖先喜歡建造城墻。他們建造墻壁在北京、西安、南京和其他許多城市,他們建造了長城,蛇在我們國家的一半。他們建造墻壁抵御敵人和惡靈。這個傳統(tǒng)一直延續(xù)至今,我們還有許多公園和學校圍墻從公眾。
在很長一段時間里,墻是世界上最自然的事情之一。
然而,我的看法改變了之后,我做了一個徒步旅行的東部郊區(qū)城市。我和我的同學們正在與一些外國學生。當我們走出城市,我們發(fā)現(xiàn)自己在高大的樹木,形成一個寬在頭頂上的樹冠。突然一個外國學生問我,“東部郊區(qū)的入口在哪里?”
“我們已經(jīng)在東部郊區(qū),”我回答說。他似乎吃了一驚,“我以為你中國墻了一切?！彼脑捯l(fā)了激烈的辯論。有一次,他把我們的圍墻城市比作“監(jiān)獄”,雖然我堅持認為東部郊區(qū)是一個在中國的很多地方,沒有墻壁。
這場爭論沒有贏家,但我確實學到很多從這個學生。例如,他告訴我,一些主要大學像牛津和劍橋沒有墻包圍。我不得不承認我們在中國有很多墻,我們發(fā)展我們的國家,我們必須仔細觀察他們,并決定是否物理或無形的。我們將保留一些墻但拆除那些阻礙我們的發(fā)展。
讓我給另一個例子。
一年前,我在學期論文的時候,我需要一本關于商業(yè)法,發(fā)現(xiàn)一個副本在法學院圖書館。然而,借圖書館員冷冷地拒絕了我的請求,說,“你不能借這本書,你不是一個學生?！白詈?我不得不花200元購買一個副本。與此同時,復制在法學院聚集灰塵在貨架上。
這學期初,我聽說我的大學已經(jīng)開始認為統(tǒng)一的圖書館和連接它們在其他大學圖書館,所以我的經(jīng)驗不會重復。障礙將取而代之的是橋梁。一個電腦連線向其他圖書館調借書籍系統(tǒng)會給我們訪問從任何圖書館書籍。全球化和中國融入世界,我相信很多無形的墻將被拆除。
我知道,全球化是一個有爭議的問題,很難說是好還是壞。但有一件事是肯定的:它吸引了我們的注意中國的有形和無形的墻和迫使我們去檢查他們的角色在現(xiàn)代世界。
以及我的古城墻和其他城市呢?我們應該拆除它們嗎?絕對不會。我的城市,像北京和其他城市,實際上是讓一個偉大的努力保護墻。這些墻壁吸引歷史學家、考古學家和許多學生正在努力學習我們的歷史和文化遺產(chǎn)。墻壁已經(jīng)成為我們過去的橋梁和世界其他地區(qū)。如果還活著,這些墻壁的古老的建筑,他們會自豪地看到這樣巨大的變化在墻上的角色。他們現(xiàn)在橋梁,連接東部和西部,南部和北部,世界所有國家。我們的文化遺產(chǎn)將全球化生存。