2016年英语专业四级听力 演讲 What Is Grit? 什么是决心？ Good afternoon, everyone. 大家下午好。 Today, I would like to talk about my research project concerning the key to success. 今天我想谈一谈我的研究项目，主题是成功的关键。 I would like to start my topic with my own story. 首先，我想讲讲我自己的故事。 When I was 27 years old, I left for a demanding job: 27岁的时候，我去做了一份非常有挑战性的工作： teaching seventh graders math in the New York City public schools. 去纽约的公立学校教七年级数学。 And like any teacher, I made quizzes and tests. 像其他老师一样，我设计了课堂测验和考试， I gave out homework assignments. 也会布置家庭作业， When the work came back, I calculated grades. 作业交上来，我也会给出分数。 What struck me was that IQ was not the only difference between my best and my worst students. 我吃惊地发现，智商并不是好学生和差学生的唯一区别。 Some of my strongest performers did not have super IQ scores. 有些表现很好的学生智商并没有高出常人。 Some of my smartest kids weren't doing so well. 有些非常聪明的孩子表现不是特别好。 Then I felt very interested in knowing the reason, 因此我非常想弄明白， why the students' math performance is not that closely related to their lQ scores. 为什么学生在数学上的变现并没有跟智商值密切相关呢？ I started studying kids and adults in all kinds of challenging settings, 我开始研究在各种极具挑战性的情境下，儿童和成年人的表现。 and in every study my question was, who is successful here and why? 在研究中，我会提出这样的问题：这里谁是成功的人？为什么？ My research team and I went to West Point Military Academy. 我和我的实验团队去了西点军校。 We tried to predict which students would stay in military training and which would drop out. 我们预测了哪些学生会完成军训，哪些会掉队。 We went to the National Spelling Contest, 我们去了全国拼字比赛， and tried to predict which children would advance furthest in competition. 预测哪些孩子会最终夺冠。 We worked with private companies, asking, which of these salespeople is going to keep their jobs? 我们到过一些企业，问他们哪些销售人员会被留任， And who's going to earn the most money? 谁赚的最多。 We went to many places, and finally one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. 我们去了很多地方，最后发现一个能预测成功的重要特点。 And it wasn't social intelligence. 不是社会智能。 It wasn't good looks, physical health, and it wasn't IQ. 不是姣好的长相，不是健康的身体，也不是智商。 It was grit. 是决心。 What is grit? 决心是什么？ Well,grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. 嗯，决心是为达成长期目标而努力的热情与恒心。 Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not justfor the month, 决心是不放弃对未来的憧憬，日复一日，不是一周，不是一个月， but for years, and working really hard to make future a reality. 而是年年如此，踏实努力把对未来的憧憬变成现实。 Grit is living your life like it's a marathon, not a sprint. 决心是把生活过成马拉松，而不是短跑。 A few years ago, I started studying grit in the Chicago public schools. 几年前，我开始在芝加哥的公立学校研究决心。 I asked thousands of high school juniors to take grit questionnaires, 我做了关于决心的调查问卷调查了几干名高三学生， and then waited around more than a year to see who would graduate. 又等了一年多看看谁会毕业。 It turned out that grittier kids were significantly more likely to graduate, 最后发现，比较有决心的孩子们毕业的可能性更大， even when I matched them on every characteristic I could measure, 即使比对我能测定的各种特点， things like family income, test scores and so on. 如家庭收入，考试成绩等，也是如此。 To me, the most shocking thing about grit is how little we know, 最让我吃惊的是，我们对决心知之甚少， how little science knows, about building it. 科学也对如何增强信心记载甚少。 Everyday, parents and teachers ask me, 父母们和老师们每天都会问我， "How do I build grit in kids? " 怎样让孩子们更有决心呢？ How do I keep them motivated for the long run? " 我怎么做才能让他们保持长久的动力呢？” Our data shows very clearly that there are many talented individuals, 我们的数据清楚地显示，有许多有天赋的人， who simply do not follow through on their commitment. 根本没办法坚持做好该做的事。 In fact, in our data, grit is usually unrelated to measures of talent. 数据还显示，决心通常和天赋的程度没什么关系。 So far, the best idea I've heard about building grit in kids is something called"growth mindset." 迄今为止，我所听过的增强孩子们决心的最佳方法叫作“成长心态”。 Growth mindset is the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed, that it can change with your effort. 成长心态认为，学习能力并不固定，通过努力可以改变。 Kids with grit are much more likely to persevere when they fail, 有决心的孩子遇到失败却要坚持下去的可能性更大， because they don't believe that failure is a permanent condition. 因为他们不相信自己会永远失败。 So growth mindset is a great idea for building grit. 所以成长心态是增强决心的好办法。 But we need more.不过这还不够。 And that's where I'm going to end my talk, because that's where we are. 讲完这一点我的讲话就要结束了，因为我们正面对的就是这件事。 That's the work that stands before us. 那就是在我们面前的工作。 We have to be willing to fail, to be wrong, to start over again with lessons learned. 我们必须愿意失败，愿意犯错，愿意得到失败的教训后再重新开始。 As a conclusion, we need to be gritty about getting our kids grittier. 最后，我们也要坚定决心，一定会把孩子们培养得更有决心的。 Next time, I would like to share with you my experience in building up students'grit. 下次我想跟大家分享我增强学生决心的经历。
