奥巴马在开学第一课上的演讲词(中英文对照)(8)

Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

你们中有一些人可能没有那些有利条件。或许你们生活中没有成年人为你们提供你们所需要的支持。或许你们家中有人失业，经济非常拮据。或许你们生活在使你们感觉不安全的社区，或有朋友逼迫你们去做你们知道不对的事情。

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

但归根结底，你的生活状况 —— 你的长相、出身、经济条件、家庭氛围 —— 都不是疏忽学业和态度恶劣的借口，这些不是你去跟老师顶嘴、逃课、或是辍学的借口，这些不是你不好好读书的借口。

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end

up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

你的未来，并不取决于你现在的生活有多好或多坏。没有人为你编排好你的命运，在美国，你的命运由你自己书写，你的未来由你自己掌握。

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across

America.

而在这片土地上的每个地方，千千万万和你一样的年轻人正是这样在书写着自己的命运

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t

speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now