how disappointed her keen listeners were when they learned this! it is the singer herself who spoiled her beautiful image in the eyes of others.
now, i'm coming to another true story. it's about a poor, ordinary looking old woman. she was a widow without any children, living barely from hand to mouth by picking odds and ends from rubbish heaps. however,she took in more than ten homeless orphans successively and managed to bring them up. every day she labored from morning till night. in order to earn as much money as possible to raise the children and to keep them in school,she even went to a hospital regularly to sell her blood. she got so weak for the loss of blood that she sometimes fell in a faint on her way home.
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responsibility is a badge of honour for youth
(96年“21世纪杯全国大学生英语演讲比赛”二等奖获得者,北京外国语大学 徐义成)
facing this audience on the stage, i have the exciting feeling of participating in the march of history, for what we are facing today is more than a mere competition or contest. it is an assembly of some of china's most talented and motivated people, representatives of a younger generation that are preparing themselves for the coming of a new century.
i'm grateful that i've been given this opportunity, at such a historic moment, to stand here as a spokesman of my generation and to take a serious look back at the past 15 years, a crucial period for every one of us and for this nation as well.
though it is only within my power to tell about my personal experience, and only a tiny fragment of it at that, it still represents, i believe, the root of a spirit which has been essential to me and to all the people bre