If I were a freshman again (2) - 律師

Students come into my office every day who want to get out of work or to
drop a subject, or to cut a class exercise for no better reason than that
they find the duty difficult or the instructor or the subject dull. Much
of the work of life is not pleasant. Half the things I am forced to do
during the busy days of the college year are unpleasant things and things
I dislike doing. I have been forced to learn to give these things my best
attention whether I like them or not. I wish I had learned in my freshman
year to do more such things.
每天都有學生到我的辦公室来，他們想不做作業、不修一門课、或者不參加一次課堂
活動，僅僅因為作業太難，因為老師或者課程讓人煩。生活中許多工作都會讓人煩，
我在大學裡就忙得要命，硬着頭皮做的事情有一半是讓我煩和不願做的，不管喜歡不
喜歡，我只能學習專心致志地做這些事情。真希望大一的時候我學會了多做一些這樣
的事情。

just yesterday as I was sitting at the breakfast table talking to a young
freshman, in whom I have a rather vital interest, as to next year's course,
I suggested a subject which I thought good for him to take. "Is it easy?"
was his first question, and when I answered in the negative his interest
waned. In the world in which we must in time work there are few easy roads,
few snap courses. We shall be forced to do a great many hard things. If I
were a freshman I should learn to do such things early.

就在昨天，我還在早飯桌上和一個我非常感興趣的大一學生就下一年的課程進行過討
論，我建議他修一門我認為對他有好處的課程。「那門課容易嗎？」這是他提的第一
個問题，當我回答說不容易時，他馬上就開始打退堂鼓了。在這個世界上，我們最终
都得工作，可容易走的路太少，容易讀的課程不多，我們不得不做許多難做的工作。
如果我是大一學生，我會早學會做這樣的事情。



Become A Ready Speaker 能說善道
Like a great many people, I suppose I am not now doing the work that as a
college student I planned to do. I am in no sense a fatalist, but I am
convinced that men have their work chosen for them quite as often as they
themselves choose it. If I had supposed that I should be called upon to
speak on the most unforeseen occasions and upon the most unfamiliar topics,
I should have given myself while in college the practice which I believe is
the method everyone must employ if he is to become a ready speaker. I have
learned that, sooner or later, every intelligent man is called upon publicly
to express his ideas, and no matter how abundant these thoughts may be, he
will suffer much pain and have little success unless he has had pretty
regular and persistent practice.
和許多人一樣，我想我現在做的工作並不是我獨大学時計畫做的。我絕不是個聽天由
命的人，但我相信人的工作一半是自己選擇的，一半是别人替你選擇的。如果我早知
道我會被邀請在最無法預測的場合就最不熟悉的話题發表演講，我就該在讀大學的時
候做一些練習，我相信要想成為出色的演講者就得使用這種方法。我發現每一位智者
遲早都會被要求公開發表意見，無論他的思想可能有多麼豐富，除非他訓練有素並持
之以恆，否則他會痛苦不堪、難以取勝。

I ran across an old classmate last spring, an engineer of no little repute,
whom I had not met since the day of our graduation. "How would you change
your course," I said to him, expecting that he would long for more mathematics,
"if you had it all to do over again?"
去年春天，我偶然碰到一位老同學，他是位名氣不小的工程師，畢業之後我們就没有
見過面。「你會怎樣更改你的課程，」我問他，期待他會說想學更多的数學，「如果
你有機會重上一次大學？」

"I should learn to write and I should learn to speak," he answered, "and I
should begin as a freshman. As it was I avoided every opportunity to do
either, with the idea that only ministers and lawyers have need of such
practice, and I suffer for it every day. My boy is to be an engineer, but
I am going to see that he does not make the mistake that I made. "
「我會學會寫作，學會演講，」他回答說，「而且我會從大一開始，實際上，這兩件
事我都刻意會避過，心想只有神父和律師需要這樣的訓練，而我現在每天都因此而受
罪。我兒子想成為一名工程師，我準備把關，不讓他重覆我犯過的錯誤。」

When I am called upon unexpectedly to speak, and my knees shake, and my
voice falters, and the word that I long for comes with difficulty, or fails
to come at all, I agree with my classmate, and I feel sure that if I were a
freshman again I should learn to speak correctly and without notes.
當我突如其来接到演講邀請、双膝發抖、聲音發顫、想用的詞半天才出来或者乾脆不
出来的時候，我同意我同學的看法，並且我敢肯定如果我能再次成為大一學生，我會
學會出口成章並且不用帶演講稿。


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