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1、-范文最新推荐- Building Bridges for the Futur 21 building bridges for the futureim studying in a city thats 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
2、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, xian, nanjing and many other cities, and they built the great wall, which snakes across half our country. they built walls to protect against
3、 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 c
4、ity. 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?were already in the eastern suburb
5、s, 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, b
6、ut 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 physica
7、l 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 borro
8、w it, saying, you cant borrow this book, youre 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 link
9、ing them to libraries at other universities, so my experience wouldnt 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
10、 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 chinas tangible and intangible walls and forces us to examine their role in the modern world.2,112 objectively speaking people in
11、 this world can be divided into two categories: those always working and those always making comments. the working ones never have time to idle away. some may run a hotel, or do some business; some may open a factory or set up a school; others may be absorbed in scientific research, or devoted to mi
12、litary affairs or political issues. right or wrong, successful or failed, they are always fully committed to their careers. facing all kinds of risks(not because they neglect them, but mainly because they have the courage), and shouldering the responsibilities, they march forward, bravely and cautio
13、usly. they are risking their luck and their lives as well. they have neither time nor energy to comment on others. while attentively planning the future, they devote themselves wholly in hard work, leaving the embroidered stories and malicious gossips flying in the air. the commenting ones, however,
14、 usually work less, and even if they want to work sometimes, they simply are not capable enough. they are no better than anyone, but show admiration to nobody either. they blame either the heaven, or the earth, but never themselves. they dare not to take any risks, but they are also afraid of any ha
15、rd work. they are gossip-mongers, making stories and spreading rumors, making you feel annoyed and upset. its not because that you have hurt them, or disturbed them, or hindered them, but because you are working. if only you are working, he is there commenting. everything is hard at the beginning. y
16、ou have just started a new cause, needing encouragement and support, yet he is there pouring a jar of cold water or blowing a gust of chilly wind, making you worried or perplexed. but once you have succeeded, he is there again sharing your success without feeling a little ashamed of the discourageme
17、nt he had given you. many people dont like using their mind but enjoy echoing the views of others. they often take it for granted that the working ones are wrong while the commenting ones are definitely right. however in all fairness, how can it be true? not working itself is already wrong, and it i
18、s a blunder to hurt the hard working people. from ancient time to the present, many great men have been commented on endlessly. take the cases of confucius, emperor qinshihuang, empress wu zetian, gengis khan, dr. sun yet-sun, chairman mao, deng xiaoping, etc. both positive and negative criticism ha
19、ve been made about them. they not only enjoyed compliments but also suffered slanders from all over the world. when commenting on whats right and whats wrong, the commenting ones themselves dont really know what is wrong and what is right. they are simply demanding perfection. when criticizing the o
20、thers inability, they themselves are actually unable to do anything, but simply pretending that they know better. this can well be compared with the actors and spectators. a new program is always followed by large amounts of criticism from the spectators. but if a spectator is given a chance to perf
21、orm, a disaster will surely happen. diners are always commenting on the skills of the chefs while readers are always criticizing the writers. another case in point is the forty-chapter sequel of a dream of the red mansions , which were written by gao e who did a nearly perfect job. nevertheless ther
22、e are always such people who claim to be the experts on the novel, criticizing the latter forty chapters as a wretched sequel to a fine work. what if we ask them to write the sequel? im afraid they can only make it worse. its easier said than done. ann richards: 1988 democratic national convention k
23、eynote addressthank you. thank you. thank you, very much.good evening, ladies and gentlemen. buenas noches, mis amigos.im delighted to be here with you this evening, because after listening to george bush all these years, i figured you needed to know what a real texas accent sounds like.twelve years
24、 ago barbara jordan, another texas woman, barbara made the keynote address to this convention, and two women in a hundred and sixty years is about par for the course.but, if you give us a chance, we can perform. after all, ginger rogers did everything that fred astaire did. she just did it backwards
25、 and in high heels.i want to announce to this nation that in a little more than 100 days, the reagan-meese-deaver-nofziger-poindexter-north-weinberger-watt-gorsuch-lavelle-stockman-haig-bork-noriega-george bush era will be over!you know, tonight i feel a little like i did when i played basketball in
26、 the 8th grade. i thought i looked real cute in my uniform. and then i heard a boy yell from the bleachers, “make that basket, birdlegs!”and my greatest fear is that same guy is somewhere out there in the audience tonight, and hes going to cut me down to size. because where i grew up there really wa
27、snt much tolerance for self-importance, people who put on airs.i was born during the depression in a little community just outside waco, and i grew up listening to franklin roosevelt on the radio. well, it was back then that i came to understand the small truths and the hardships that bind neighbors
28、 together. those were real people with real problems and they had real dreams about getting out of the depression. i can remember summer nights when wed put down what we called the baptist pallet, and we listened to the grown-ups talk. i can still hear the sound of the dominoes clicking on the marbl
29、e slab my daddy had found for a tabletop. i can still hear the laughter of the man telling jokes you werent supposed to hear c talkin about how big that old buck deer was, laughin about mama puttin clorox in the well when the frog fell in. they talked about war and washington and what this country n
30、eeded. they talked the straight talk. and it came from people who were living their lives as best they could. and thats what were going to do tonight. were going to tell how the cow ate the cabbage.i got a letter last week from a young mother in lorena, texas, and i wanna read part of it to you. she
31、 writes,our worries go from pay day to pay day, just like millions of others. and we have two fairly decent incomes, but i worry how im going to pay the rising car insurance and food. i pray my kids dont have a growth spurt from august to december, so i dont have to buy new jeans. we buy clothes at
32、the budget stores and we have them fray and fade and stretch in the first wash. we ponder and try to figure out how were gonna pay for college and braces and tennis shoes. we dont take vacations and we dont go out to eat. please dont think me ungrateful. we have jobs and a nice place to live, and we
33、re healthy. were the people you see every day in the grocery stores, and we obey the laws and pay our taxes. we fly our flags on holidays and we plod along trying to make it better for ourselves and our children and our parents. we arent vocal any more. i think maybe were too tired. i believe that p
34、eople like us are forgotten in america.well, of course you believe youre forgotten, because you have been.this republican administration treats us as if we were pieces of a puzzle that cant fit together. theyve tried to put us into compartments and separate us from each other. their political theory
35、 is divide and conquer. theyve suggested time and time again that what is of interest to one group of americans is not of interest to any one else. weve been isolated. weve been lumped into that sad phraseology called special interests. theyve told farmers that they were selfish, that they would dri
36、ve up food prices if they asked the government to intervene on behalf of the family farm, and we watched farms go on the auction block while we bought food from foreign countries. well, thats wrong!they told working mothers its all their fault - their families are falling apart because they had to g
37、o to work to keep their kids in jeans and tennis shoes and college. and theyre wrong!they told american labor they were trying to ruin free enterprise by asking for 60 days notice of plant closings, and thats wrong. and they told the auto industry and the steel industry and the timber industry and t
38、he oil industry, companies being threatened by foreign products flooding this country, that youre protectionist if you think the government should enforce our trade laws. and that is wrong.when they belittle us for demanding clean air and clean water for trying to save the oceans and the ozone layer
39、, thats wrong.no wonder we feel isolated and confused. we want answers and their answer is that “something is wrong with you.” well nothings wrong with you. nothings wrong with you that you cant fix in november!weve been told - weve been told that the interests of the south and the southwest are not
40、 the same interests as the north and the northeast. they pit one group against the other. theyve divided this country, and in our isolation we think government isnt gonna help us, and were alone in our feelings. we feel forgotten. well, the fact is that we are not an isolated piece of their puzzle.
41、we are one nation. we are the united states of america.now, we democrats believe that america is still the county of fair play; that we can come out of a small town or a poor neighborhood and have the same chance as anyone else, and it doesnt matter whether we are black or hispanic or disabled or a
42、women sic. we believe that america is a country where small business owners must succeed, because they are the bedrock, backbone of our economy.we believe that our kids deserve good daycare and public schools. we believe our kids deserve public schools where students can learn and teachers can teach
43、. and we wanna believe that our parents will have a good retirement and that we will too. we democrats believe that social security is a pact that can not be broken.we wanna believe that we can live out our lives without the terrible fear that an illness is going to bankrupt us and our children. we
44、democrats believe that america can overcome any problem, including the dreaded disease called aids. we believe that america is still a country where there is more to life than just a constant struggle for money. and we believe that america must have leaders who show us that our struggles amount to s
45、omething and contribute to something larger, leaders who want us to be all that we can be. we want leaders like jesse jackson.jesse jackson is a leader and a teacher who can open our hearts and open our minds and stir our very souls. and he has taught us that we are as good as our capacity for carin
46、g, caring about the drug problem, caring about crime, caring about education, and caring about each other.now, in contrast, the greatest nation of the free world has had a leader for eight straight years that has pretended that he can not hear our questions over the noise of the helicopters. and we
47、know he doesnt wanna answer. but we have a lot of questions. and when we get our questions asked, or there is a leak, or an investigation the only answer we get is, i dont know, or i forgot.but you wouldnt accept that answer from your children. i wouldnt. dont tell me you dont know or you forgot. were not going to have the america that we want until we elect leaders who are gonna tell the truth; not most days but every day; leaders who dont forget what they dont want to remember. and for eight straight years george bush hasnt displayed t