Unit 3 Lesson 2 Special occasions 补充材料

What Are You For? – Baccalaureate Address by President of Yale University Peter Salovey at the Yale University Commencement Friday, May 17, 2019 Graduates of the Class of 2019, family members, and friends: Good morning. It’s a privilege to be here with you today. Commencement is a time of beginnings and endings; of looking to the future with hope while saying farewell with both joy and, perhaps, nostalgia. It is a jumble of emotions for all of us – and a field-day for a psychologist! Enjoy all those feelings: it’s hard to imagine you’ll have an experience quite like this again. So, there is a wonderful Yale tradition that I would like to honor right now: So, may I ask all of the families and friends here who are today to rise and recognize the outstanding – and graduating – members of the Class of 2019? And now, may I ask the Class of 2019 to consider all those who have supported your arrival at this milestone, and to please rise and recognize them? Thank you! In September 1974, Kingman Brewster, then president of Yale, spoke to members of the Class of 1978, seated right where you are now. He told them, “Many of us have just been on a ten-year trip of moral outrage: anti-Wallace, anti-War, and anti-Watergate. We have been so sure about what we were against that we have almost forgotten how difficult it is to know what we are for and how to achieve it.” Does this sound familiar? Today, perhaps more than ever, it is easy to know what you’re against. And it’s far more difficult to say what you’re for. What we’re against is going to be different for each of us. Maybe you’re against border walls and I’m against guns; your neighbor is against trade wars and your cousin is against abortion. For some, capitalism is the problem, while others fear the specter of socialism. By this point, I bet all of you are against sitting in old buildings with no air conditioning, listening to a long speech! So, I’ll get to the point… How many of you have ever seen a Marx Brothers movie? [Right, pretty good.] So, although I’m not mistaken for Groucho Marx as often since I shaved my moustache, I…I still do…do have a weakness for his humor. And one of Groucho’s best performances, of course, is when he plays a college president. (It is a funny role!) So, in the opening scene of the movie Horse Feathers, Groucho, the new president of Huxley College, is told that the trustees have “a few suggestions” for him. Then he breaks into this song: “I don’t know what they have to say It makes no difference anyway Whatever it is, I’m against it No matter what it is or who commenced it I’m against it Your proposition may be good But let’s have one thing understood: Whatever it is, I’m against it.” I encourage you to look up the scene on YouTube – but not right now – because it’s still a very funny piece. And it’s funny because it’s ridiculous, but also because it contains a kernel of truth. And the truth applies not only to college presidents, but to a ... ...