walls and bridges夏鹏

Walls and BridgesBy Xia Peng Nanjing University夏鹏：代表中国参加世界英语最高赛事2005年国际英语演讲比赛，获得中国历史上第三个英语演讲世界冠军。第十届“21世纪.外教社杯”全国大学生英语演讲比赛冠军、“最具潜力奖”Thank you, ladies and gentlemen:My topic today is “Walls and Bridges”. Im studying in a city famous for its city walls. All visitors to my city are amazed by the imposing sight of the city walls, silhouetted by the setting sun with gold and shining lines. With old, cracked bricks patched with lichen, the walls are weather-beaten guards, standing still for centuries in protecting the city. 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 through half of our country. They built walls to ward off the enemies and evil spirits. This tradition has been maintained to this day as we still have many schools and parks walled off from the public. I grew ip at the root of the city walls, and I have loving them since my childhood. For a long time, walls were one of the most natural things in the world. My perception, however, changed after a hiking trip to the Eastern Suburbs, a scenic area of my city. My classmates and I were walking with some international students. As we walked out of the city, we found ourselves flanked by taller and taller trees, which formed a huge canopy above our heads. Suddenly an international student asked me, “Where is the entrance to the Eastern Suburbs?” “Were already in the Eastern Suburbs,” so I replied. He seemed taken aback, “I thought you Chinese have 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 was one of the many places in China that had no walls. That debate had no winners, but I did learn a lot from this international student. For instance, he told me universities like Oxford and Cambridge were not surrounded by walls; the campuses were just a part of the cities. I have to admit that we do have many walls in China, and as we are developing our coutry, we must carefully examine them, whether they are physical or intangible. We still tear down some walls, and we will keep some of them. Let me give you an 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 turned down my request with a cold shoulder, saying, “You cant borrow this book. You are not a student here.” In the end, I had to spend 200 yuan buying a copy; meanwhile the copy in law school was gathering dust on the shelf. At the beginning of this semester, I heard that my university has started not only to unify all its libraries bur also link them up with libraries of other universities, so my experience will not be repeated. Barriers will be replaced by bridges. Through an inter-library loan system, we wll have access to books from any library. With globalization, with China intergrated into the world, I believe many of these intangile walls will be knocked down. I know globalization is a controversial issue, and its hard for us to say whether it is good or bad. But one thing is for sure: it draws our attention to Chinas physical and intangible walls and forces us to examine their roles in the modern world. Then what about the walls in my city and other cities? Should we tear them down? Just the opposite. My city, like Beijing and other cities, is actually making a great effort to preserve the walls. These walls now attract not only historians and archeologists, but also schoolchildren trying to study our history and cultural heritage. The walls have turned into bridges to our past and to the rest of the world. If the ancient builders of these walls were still alive today, they should be proud to see such a great change in the roles of their walls. They are now cultural bridges that link East and West, South and North, and all the countries of the world. Our cultural heritage will survive globalization. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.Impromptu SpeechHost: Last Febuary, Chun Shu, a Chinese writer in her early twenties, appeared on the cover of Time magazine. She was referred to by the US Editor as “one of the group of post-eighties writers in China”, which also includes Guo Jingming, Zhang Yueran, and Han Han. All these writers recount their personal feelings and express their individuality in their works, and they have a large group of readers and supporters. However, there is some concern that the cynical attitude towards life that they express might have a negative effect on young readers. Do you also fear it will have such negative effects? Thanks.Xia Peng: Thank you for your question.Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.My topic of todays speech is “Make Our Voice Heard”. Today I would like to argue the impromptu speech in two sections. First, I would like to argue that why people are afraid of those literatures will set a negative effect on our lives. And second part, I will share some of my thoughts with you.Why those people are afraid of these kind of literature? Im afraid that they are afraid of that teenagers are likely to imitate others. And teenager is just a crucial point for us to shape our personality, our view of life, and our value of the world. Theyre afraid of that we follow the bad example and lead a bad life in the future. And thats why my parents, my family, and even the government would like to propose where thought those kind of literature as cynical ones.But I would like to share some of my thoughts with you. Before I read the book of Mr Guo Jingmings novel, I read another fiction called The Cather in the Rye. In that book, I also read sex, violence, murder, and rebellion. But that book was regarded as one of the masterpiece in American history and awarded the Pulizer Prize. I could not see any difference between Mr Guo Jingmings novel and The Cather in the Rye, because they expressed the attitude as our teenagers and adolescents we feel about the world.Now let me give you my three reasons why we can read this kind of a book and I am not afraid of the fears of the side effect. First, those literatures are not all bad. They have some positive points. They advocate friendship, love, loyalty, and so on. One of my roommates even cried for those books, but he is a boy. He said that it is the firstit was the first time in his life that he felt that a friendship was that precious, because the stories Mr. Guo Jingming depicted in his novel, reflect him of the old time he spent in his high school. And he bought four books of Mr. Guo Jingmings Never Flowers in Never Dream (Meng Li Hua Luo Zhi Duo Shao) and sent them to his friends. And his friends wrote a long letter to him. I think this is what we lack today, the communication between friends. But the literature seems bridge the gap.And the second reason is that we are not living in a world everything are depicted good. We are living in a world both have good and bad, evil and, and holy.(Sorry) So, to that extent, if I am confined in a world that everything depicted good, I will feel quite perplexed when I am facing the real world. Is the real world really looks like what I read in the novel? We need something positive, also we need something cynical.And the third reason is that our generation, I believe, have the sense of self-discipline. We can make our own decision. For our parents, for our families and for the government, they should resumeassume the responsibility to remind us that what is good, what is bad, what is cynical, what is optimistic, while, like others, like we, make the decision.Make our voice be heard. This is my answer and I am not afraid of the side effects of those literature. Thank you very much.Question & Answers:Judge: Thank you very much.Thank you for your speech. Can you share your experience with us? How to develop ones independent thinking and self-discipline, as you said, in order we dont need to worry about the side effect of books like this that promote cynicism?Xia Peng: Thank you