英语达人||第18届“21世纪杯”英语演讲比赛冠亚军演讲稿分享，折服于学霸们的水平 ...

天主教辅仁大学选手

吴柏德

第18届中国日报社“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛冠军，同时获得麦格希演讲艺术之星，荣获最具自信演说奖，及海西文化大使。

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演讲稿：

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I was seventeen, almost a senior in high school. I was riding my bike to school. I had taken a special route to pick up a gift, but that day, "the road less traveled by" led to disaster. Crossing a road, a drunk driver ran a red light, slammed into me, and shattered my left knee.

It made all the difference.
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I was forced to postpone college, plunged into painful therapy. but eventually, I also learned much about life and myself. I found the strength to withstand adversity, learned compassion, and above all, I learned that the road not taken is not just about regrets or choices but also about the perpetual now and the always-coming future.

When I first studied Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” in middle school, I was unable to grasp its ambiguity. I always thought that Frost’s persona chooses “a road less traveled by” and lives life being subversive and irreverent. I was wrong. In the poem, both of the two roads that “diverged in a yellow wood” are actually “about the same.” But there has to be a choice, and sometimes, they it can be involuntary (as I learned the hard way).  This makes me extremely thankful and resolute when I can make conscious choices and plan for the future, and so I know now that Frost's poem is also about "the road not yet taken."

For everyone, this means something slightly different. For me, it means constant vigilance, learning, and love. Our journey is hard, complex, and it often presents unexpected twists, but reflecting on the roads not taken and not yet taken each day gives us a little more strength and confidence. Life cannot and will not me perfect, and the truth is it will end. But as Willa Cather would say, “The end is nothing, the road is all.” The road not taken in the past, and the road not yet taken that lies ahead.
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But , about the present? It joints the past and the future. What then, is “the road not taken” in the perpetual now? Personally, I find an answer in these lines from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses”:

) ^* ?) B( N& p& }9 [who’ much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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! n! l0 e0 ?7 t3 O" r$ ?. U$ dThank you.

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清华大学外文系
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沈悠

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第18届中国日报社“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛亚军，同时获得中国日报社21世纪报最具潜力奖和雅思明日之星。
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演讲稿：

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Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Today my topic is The Road Not Taken in Life.

' r' ^' L0 _5 ?- p“Why are you doing this? Don’t you know it’s a total waste of time?” That’s what my mom yelled at the ten-year-old me, when she found out that I had signed up for an English story-telling competition.

I bowed my head; yes, she was right. By then I was entering Grade Six, faced with the biggest challenge yet to come—the examination to enter my dream junior high school. For that, I had given up my beloved piano lesson, my favorite cartoon program and even the playful weekend family reunion with my cousins. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if my very-strict-university-teacher mother got furious at me when I chose to do anything besides study at that crucial moment.
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But that’s not all to it. Now please take a good look at the twenty-year-old me, and imagine what I was like when I was ten. Here are the key words: nervous, timid, shy, tongue-tied when facing strangers, and essentially a bookworm. These signs looked fatal to my mother, and possibly to you, too; she thought that I could be anything but a good public speaker.

  S7 h: ~! {' T4 BWell, I myself actually said no to my English teacher at first, because I had never done anything like that before and I was afraid. But he told me since I liked reading so much, why not try to tell a story I love to everyone? He also promised me that the judges were not frightening at all; just think of them as carrots and cabbages in a vegetable patch.
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9 S1 R* ^0 Q+ ]# uThe ten-year-old me was persuaded by my teacher’s words. The feeling of telling my beloved stories to someone else ignited a spark of anticipation in my little chest. So I chose to endure my mother’s ranting for an entire hour, then raised my head bravely and pleaded: “Mom, please. I just want to try.”

My mother looked as if she was on the verge of another outburst—but she only sighed. I took that as her permission, and started working with my teacher day and night to find a story, to illustrate the details, and to practice my facial expressions and gestures in front of the mirror. On the day of the competition, I went on the stage for the very first time in my life; I could feel the nervousness threatening to bring me down, and I felt cheated by my teacher: it was impossible to picture the judges as mere carrots and cabbages. But I went on. Although I only got the third prize at that time, on that stage I stayed ever since, even to this very moment.

( h- i% L" X7 Z9 `I should thank my teacher and my mother for letting me take a road that I have never taken before. Little did I know then that this road would one day lead the shy little ten-year-old me into a wonderland; it led me to meet all of you here today. I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that it isn’t so terrifying to venture into the unknown at all; all you need is a little courage and a strong determination. See where my road has led me, and bravely take your first step.

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