remember, a scene worth our effort to protect it and fight for it.
Thank you very much.
第九届“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛冠军——洪晔
洪晔 南京大学
1984年5月出生于南京。2002年被保送进入南京大学英语系学习。初中时，因语音语调的出类拔萃多次在班级、年级的英语朗诵比赛中获胜。2004年4月，在第九届“21世纪·外教社杯”全国英语演讲比赛中获得了“特等奖”以及“外教社最具创意奖”和“最具潜力奖”，于同年5月代表中国前往英国伦敦参加了国际演讲比赛。回校后被授予“五四奖章”。
The Doors that Are Open to Us
Good morning ladies and gentlemen:
The title of my speech today is \
The other day my aunt paid me a visit. She was overjoyed. \examination!\she said. Don't be surprised! My aunt is indeed a student; to be exact, a college
student at the age of 45.
Last year, she put aside her private business and signed up for a one-year, full-time management course in a college. \was the wisest decision I have ever made,\she said proudly like a teenage girl. To her, college is always a right place to pick up new ideas, and new ideas always make her feel young.
\help but recall her first college experience in 1978 when college doors began to be re-opened after the Cultural Revolution. She was assigned to study engineering despite her desire to study Chinese literature, and a few years later, the government sent her to work in a TV factory.
I was shocked when she first told me how she (had) had no choice in her major and job. Look at us today! So many doors are open to us! I believe there have never been such abundant opportunities for self-development as we have today. And my aunt told me that we should reach our goals by grasping all these opportunities.
The first door I see is the opportunity to study different kinds of subjects that interest us. My aunt said she was happy to study management, but she was also happy that she could attend lectures on ancient Chinese poetry and on Shakespearean drama. As for myself, I am an English major, but I may also go to lectures on history. To me, if college education in the past emphasized specialization, now, it emphasizes free and well-rounded development of each individual. So all the fine achievements of human civilization are open to us.
The second door is the door to the outside world. Learning goes beyond classrooms and national boundaries. My aunt remembers her previous college days as monotonous and even calls her generation \our neighbors and we be open-minded to learn with and from each other. I have many fellow international classmates, and I am applying to an exchange program with a university abroad. As for my aunt, she is planning to get an MBA degree in the United Kingdom where her daughter, my cousin, is now doing her master's degree in biochemistry. We are now taking the opportunity to study overseas, and when we come back, we'll put to use what we have learnt abroad.
The third door is the door to lifelong learning. As new ideas appear all the time, we always need to acquire new knowledge, regardless of our age. Naturally, my aunt herself is the best example. Many of my aunt's contemporaries say that she is amazingly up-to-date for a middle-aged woman. She simply responds, \doesn't matter. What matters is your attitude. You may think it's strange that I am still going to college, but I don't think I'm too old to learn.\Since the government removed the age limit for college admissions in 2001, there are already some untraditional students, sitting with us in the same classrooms. Like these people, my aunt is old but she is very young in spirit. With her incredible energy and determination, she embodies both tradition and modernity.
The doors open to us also pose challenges. For instance, we are faced with the challenge of a
balanced learning, the challenge of preserving our fine tradition while learning from the West, and the challenge of learning continuously while carrying heavy responsibilities to our work and family. So, each door is a test of our courage, ability and judgment, but with the support of my teachers, parents, friends and my aunt, I believe I can meet the challenge head on. When I reach my aunt's age, I can be proud to say that I have walked through dozens of doors and will, in the remainder of my life, walk through many more. Possibly I will go back to college, too.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
第十届“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛冠军——夏鹏
夏鹏 南京大学
夏鹏 原系贵州省平坝县黎阳厂子校学生,小学五年级开始进入贵阳百年英语学校系统学习英语,2003年,夏鹏以600分的高分考入南京大学法学院,后转入英语系。2004年获得CCTV全国英语演讲比赛第二名,同年获得代表国内最高水平的第十届“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛冠军,同时获得比赛“最具潜力奖”,并代表中国参加2005年国际英语演讲比赛，荣获获得冠军和“最受观众欢迎奖”。 From Walls to Bridges
I'm studying in a city famous for its walls. All visitors to my city are amazed by the imposing sight of the city walls, silhouetted by the setting sun with gold and shining lines. With old, cracked bricks patched with lichen, the walls are weather-beaten guards, standing still for centuries in protecting the city.
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 through half of our country. They built walls to ward off enemies and evil spirits. This tradition has been maintained to this day as we still have many parks and schools walled off from the public. I grew up at the foot of the city walls, and I've loved them since my childhood. For a long time, walls were one of the most natural things in the world.
My perception, however, changed after a hiking trip to the Eastern Suburbs, a scenic area of my city. My classmates and I were walking with some international students. As we walked out of the city, we found ourselves flanked by taller and taller trees, which formed a huge canopy above our heads. Suddenly an international student asked me, \is the entrance to the Eastern Suburbs?\
\
He seemed taken aback, \heated debate. At one point, he likened our walled cities to \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 international student. For instance, he told me that universities like Oxford and Cambridge were not surrounded by walls; the campuses were just part of the cities. I have to admit that we do have many walls in China, and as we are developing our country, we must carefully examine them, whether they are physical or intangible. We will keep some walls but tear down those that impede China's development.
Let me give you an 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 turned down my request with a cold shoulder, saying, \spend 200 yuan buying a copy; meanwhile, the copy in law school was gathering dust on the shelf.
At the beginning of this semester, I heard that my university has started not only to unify its libraries but also link them up with libraries of other universities, so my experience will not be repeated. Barriers will be replaced by bridges. Through an inter-library loan system, we will have access to books from any library. With globalization, with China integrated into the world, I believe many of these intangible walls will be knocked down.
I know 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 roles in the modern world.
And how about the ancient walls in my city and other cities? Should we tear them down? Just the opposite. My city, like Beijing and other cities, is actually making a great effort to preserve the walls. These walls attract not only historians and archeologists but also many schoolchildren trying to study our history and cultural heritage. Walls have turned into 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 change 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.