Kelly 自言自语：我在文中表黑体得段落，做了自己的一些见解和说明。这些段落最好背得烂熟为好。
Part 3
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
Now I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known heartbreak, hardship or heartache.
Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment. 这一段里的这些词汇的运用都是值得我们学习的。
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure.
You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success.
Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far removed from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.
So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.
An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.
The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun.
That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.
I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
在你们这个年纪，我最怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。
在你们这般年纪，我在大学里的时候，花了很多时间在咖啡馆写故事，几乎不去上课。虽然在大学里缺少学习的动力，但是我掌握了不挂科的技巧。数十年来，我，还有我的同侪们都是那样通过的考试。
现在的我不会理所当然地认为，因为你们年轻，有才华并且受过良好教育，便不曾心痛过。
天分和智慧无法使人预料，要怎样对抗反复无常的命运；我也从来没有想过在座的任何人能够受到命运的眷顾从未遭受苦难风平浪静、心满意足地度过前半生。
但事实上，你从哈佛毕业已然暗示了你并未熟知失败。
可能你被你同对成功的渴望一样强烈的，对失败的害怕而驱使着。
事实上，尽管你飞得那么高，可是你对于失败的概念的理解与一般人对成功的理解其实相差不远。
根本上来说，我们都必须去让自己知道何为失败，而且如果你任由它去，这个世界便会给你设定标准。
所以从任何一个传统角度来看，我可以这么说，距离毕业典礼仅仅七年，我便遭受了极大的失败。
[图文：你掌控着自己的生活。你的意志极其强大。]
刚经历一段短暂的婚姻，而我又失了业，变成了单亲妈妈，除了还有个家，我基本上可以算是当代伦敦最贫困的人了。
父母对我的忧虑，和我对自己的担忧通通变为了现实，不管从哪个角度来说，我都算遭遇了迄今为止最大的失败。
现在，我不会站在这里说失败是快乐的。
那段时期，我的生活一片黑暗，我从未意识到除了童话故事中的绝望以外，现实中的压力能有这么可怕。
我已经记不起用了多久才走出那段黑暗的隧道，只知道很长一段时间，隧道尽头出现的任何一丝光亮，对我来说都不是一种现实，而是一丝希望。
knack
/næk/
n. 诀窍；本领；熟练技术；巧妙手法
peers
/'piəz/
v. 凝视；窥视（动词peer的第三人称单数形式）；n. 平辈；同等社会地位的人
Inoculated: 使预防
caprice 人性 反覆无常
unruffled平静的 无风浪的
ultimately最终，最后
constitute组成
criteria标准，条件
conventional传统的，普通的
mere仅仅
epic诗人，史诗的，壮丽的
scale等级，攀登 规模
implode 向心爆炸
Part 4
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure?
Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.
I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I believed I truly belonged. 这一句是非常经典的过去时态的虚拟句式，也就是我们经常会表达的，如果我成为了A或者做了A，可能我就不会成为B或做了B了。就是这件事是没有发生的，所以是虚拟的。虚拟句式是有水平的文章中一定会出现的。时态的使用，以及倒装的使用，大家可以继续深入学习。
I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea.
And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on
which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable.
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.
Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.
I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.
You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.
Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.
So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.
Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.
Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes。Enable这个词大家去观察，几乎是每篇文章都会出现的。
enable
“使能够”，有两个搭配：1 enable sth. 例：The conference will enable greater（进一步） international cooperation.这个会议可以进一步增进国际间的合作。2 enable sb. to do sth,例：A rabbit’s large ears enable it to hear the slightest sound.兔子非常大的耳朵可以听到最轻微的声音。This dictionary can enable you to understand English words.字典能够使你了解英语单词。
那么为什么我要谈论失败的好处呢？
因为失败意味着剥离掉那些不必要的东西。
我因此不再伪装自己、远离自我，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。
如果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。
我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。
所以困境的谷底，成为我重建生活的坚实基础。
你们可能永远没有达到我经历的那种失败程度，但有些失败，在生活中是不可避免的。
生活不可能没有一点失败，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。
无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生失败使我的内心产生一种安全感，这是我从考试中没有得到过的。
失败让我看清自己，这也是我通过其他方式无法体会的。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。
从挫折中获得智慧、变得坚强，意味着你比以往任何时候都更有能力生存。
只有在逆境来临的时候，你才会真正认识你自己，了解身边的人。
这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛苦换来的，但比我以前得到的任何资格证书都有用。
如果给我一部时间机器，我会告诉21岁的自己，人的幸福在于知道生活不是一份漂亮的成绩单，你的资历、简历，都不是你的生活，虽然你会碰到很多与我同龄或更老一点的人今天依然还在混淆两者。
生活是艰辛的，复杂的，超出任何人的控制能力，而谦恭地了解这一点，将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。
图片文字解释：
Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.困境的谷底，成为了我重建生活坚实的基石。
inessential /ˌɪnɪˈsenʃl/ n. 无关紧要的东西； adj. 非必要的；无关紧要的
arena /əˈriːnə/
n. 竞技场；表演场地；活动场所
inevitable /ɪnˈevɪtəbl/ n. 必然发生的事；
adj. 不可避免的，必然的
setbacks /'setbæks/ 挫折
qualification /ˌkwɑːlɪfɪˈkeɪʃn/
n. 资格证明；合格证书；资格；限制性条件
CV /ˌsiː ˈviː/ n. 真直径；卡值；连续变动
adj. 心血管的；
abbr. 履历（=curriculum vitae
vicissitudes /və'sɪsəˌtjuːdz/
n. (人生的)盛衰；变迁
ba default 缺席，不到场;默认情况下
other than prep.不同于;conj.除了
in which case 无论怎样
