For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities. This is proof that dreams dream big and dreams do come true, and ladies, don’t let anybody tell you, you are ever past your prime. Never give up.
“Not know where to put oneself（不知道该把自己放在哪里）” 用来形容 “某人非常不自在或尴尬”，有时也表示 “局促不安”。
我们用合成名词 “might-have-been” 指 “一个在过去本来可能发生，但最终没有实现或发生的事情”，这既可以是一个未了的心愿，也可能是一件原本可能发生的坏事。它与表示推测的语法结构 “might have been” 有关，不过作名词使用时，三个词的中间有连字符。
You don’t need all of the answers on your graduation day. What you need today is to have confidence and trust in what you decide is your moonshot. Confidence that you will do what is hard and trust that you can achieve what is great. Confidence and trust that you will be a part of something larger than any one person.
“Low-hanging fruit” 的字面意思是 “挂在低处的果实”，实际用来比喻 “最容易得到的事物” 或 “最简单的、最容易达成的目标”。
You begin to know yourself – your capabilities, your gaps, what motivates you – well enough to commit to efforts that can take a long time to realize. Years. Decades, if necessary. You even become willing to work for goals that will not be achieved in your lifetime.
“Know something back to front” 的意思是 “对某件事情了如指掌，或对某个话题有深入的了解”。
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” Two hundred and twenty-one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy.
So I invite you to go forth from here with your Stanford degree in hand with the conviction to carry on their legacy, to improve on it, to create your own legacy of greatness, to live your convictions not just at the keyboard but on the streets, in the arena and in the polling place, to arrive each morning determined to hate hate, to become colorblind, to take a chance, to love your mother, Mother Earth.
当我们说 “get the hang of something”，意思就是 “学会了做某件事情的要领，明白怎么做这件事情”。
John Hope Franklin once said, “Good history is a good foundation for a better present and future.” The best history doesn’t just sit behind a glass case; it helps us to understand what’s outside the case. The best history helps us recognize the mistakes that we’ve made and the dark corners of the human spirit that we need to guard against.
当我们想表示 “弄不明白某件事情” 时，可以使用表达 “can’t make head nor tail of something”。这个表达用来强调某人搞不清楚某件事情或状况，“摸不着头脑，一头雾水”。
A nation reveals itself not only by the people it produces, but by those it remembers. We do so not just by hoisting a flag, but by lifting up our neighbors. Not just by pausing in silence, but by practicing in our own lives the ideals of opportunity and liberty and equality that they fought for.
如果你 “take a leaf out of someone’s book（从某人的书中取出一页）”，意思就是你 “效仿某人的成功案例，以某人为榜样”。
“Live wire” 的字面意思是 “通电的电线”，实际可以用来比喻 “精力充沛、活力四射的人”。
Equal pay for equal work should be a fundamental principle of our economy. It’s the idea that whether you’re a high school teacher, a business executive, or a professional soccer player or tennis player, your work should be equally valued and rewarded, whether you are a man or a woman.
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear.
“knowledge is power” 用来比喻 “多掌握知识、接受更多教育，能够增加某人成功的概率”，即所谓的 “知识就是力量”。
People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one. Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril.
如果某人 “不惜一切地帮助你，即使把最后一点家当都给你也在所不惜”，就可以用短语 “give the shirt off their back” 来描述这个人的行为，意思是 “倾囊相助，尽力帮忙”。
