My definition of success 成功之我所见——The 5th "21st Century Cup" National English Speaking Competition

　　The 5th "21st Century Cup" National English Speaking Competition fell into the first spring of this new century. Guangzhou, as the forefront of China's open and reform policy, was chosen to hold this big event. This choice of place is not at random as Guangzhou is widely regarded as the right place to present the new image of China youth in the new era when there is an increasing need of mutual understanding between China and the outside world.

　　10:30pm, contestants' place, the night before the competitionLuo Xin from Qinghua University: My teacher arrived later by plane.

　　Question: So you came here by train?Luo Xin: Yes, by train. Of course, I think everyone who come here should be comfident of himself. And I think it's no use preparing in the last minute. We'd better relax ourselves, and this will make us more relieved. We may have better performance in this way.

　　A teacher from Macao: You need to be very self-relaxed and try to be very confident.

　　A contestant from Xi'an Jiaotong University: This is some staff about the speech, and I just have a look at it and maybe it'll do good to me to prepare for speech tomorrow.

　　A contestant from Beijing University: So I asked him to help me with my tie. I think it's very hand-some.

　　A contestant from Qing-hua University: And I gave him…I did give him some advice on appearance.

　　8:00am, competition siteA contestant from Hong Kong: I also believe, ladies and gentlemen, that success is not an extremestory. Success is not attached to certain classes and individuals. Each individual, regardless of his gender, class, or even economic background, has an equal right of success. The reason for this is that each person has the right to develop his own ideals and pursue those ideal.

　　A contestant from Qing hua University: An interesting interpretation that given by a recent survey among high-school students refers to a question: Who is your best model of success? Some students say that the ideal model should be a combination of Pavel Korchagin, Bill Gates, Muhammed Gandhi, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiao-ping. Actually, it is really difficult to define this word, for every person has a different idea about success.

　　A contestant from beijing University: The defintion of success can differ greatly due to the values we adopt…Between Pave Korchagin, the Ukrainian communist in 1919 and Bill Gates, a computer giaht in the 1990's who is more successful?

　　A middle-school student:…international need…fluent in different languages…good communicative skills…being a good and competitive student.

　　College students: We are from Guangdong University of Foreign studies.

　　Although I can not be one of them, I'm very happy to see our Chinese university students have made so great progress.

　　A contestant from Shanghai International Studies University: The concept but relative, because the nature of difficulty is also relative.

　　The competition came to a successful close at 6:00 o'clock that afternoon. Facing challenge of the new century, China youth will never stop pursuing a much brighter future full of confidedce.

　　成功之我见

　　——记第五届“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛

　　第五届“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛在二十一世纪的第一个春天拉开帷幕。比赛地点选择在中国开放的前沿阵地广州决不是偶然。它展示着中国需要走向世界，世界需要了解中国的今天新世纪大学生的风采。

　　比赛前夜十点三十分，选手住地

　　清华选手罗新：我的老师后来坐飞机来的。问：你是坐火车来的吗？罗新：是的。我认为每一个来这儿的人都应该很自信。最后一刻再做准备意义不大。我们将休息，这样才能更放松，明天才能表现得更好。

　　澳门选手老师：你要表现得自然，自信。

　　西安交大选手：这些就是我明天要演讲的稿子。我再多准备一些，会对明天有表现有帮助。

　　北大选手：是他帮我系的领带，我觉得这样很帅。

　　清华选手：我也给他一些穿着上的建议。

　　第二天8：00，演讲比赛现场

　　香港选手：女士们，先生们，我也相信成功不能有偏见，成功并不是仅与某些个人，某些阶段相关联。无论性别，阶层，经济状况，都有权利获得成功。因为每个人都有自己的理想，也有权利追求自己的理想。

　　清华大学选手：有一例子是在高中生的问卷调查中得来的。其中一个问题是：谁是你心目中成功的偶像？他们说理想的成功典范应该是比尔·盖茨，甘地，毛泽东和邓小平的结合。而实际上，的确很难给成功下定义。因为不同人对成功有不同的理解。

　　北大选手：由于我们价值观的不同，对成功的定义会有很大的不同……1919年共产党入保尔·克察金和九十年代的计算机世界巨头比尔·盖茨，又能说谁更成功呢？

　　中学生：……国际化要求……精通各国语言……素质好，学习好。

　　大学生：我们是广东外语外贸大学的学生。我虽然没有成为他们中的一员，但我为年轻的中国大学生取得的巨大进步感到振奋。

　　上海外国语大学选手：成功的概念是永恒不变的，而是相对的。因为困难的本质也是相对的。

　　下午六点，颁奖演讲比赛圆满结束。面对新世纪的挑战，中国青年充满自信的追求永无止境。