○  优秀大学生英语演讲稿：Crossing the Sea  ○

　　Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The title of my speech today is "Crossing the Sea".

　　An English poet by the name of Rudyard Kipling once wrote in his poem "We and They":

　　"All the people like us are We

　　And everyone else is They

　　We live over the sea

　　While They live over the way

　　We eat pork and beef with cowhorn-handled knives

　　They who gobble their rice off a leaf

　　Are horrified out of their lives."

　　When these lines first caught my eyes, I was shocked-how could two peoples remain so isolated and ignorant of each other in the past? Today's society, of course, is an entirely different picture. Those people who used to eat with cowhorn-handled knives might be very skillful in using chopsticks, and those people who used to gobble their rice might be as well have taken to fish and chips.

　　Indeed, just take China as an example: Our modern life has been influenced by Western style of living in so many ways that it's no longer surprising to see teenagers going crazy about rock-and-roll, whole families dining out at McDonald's and even rather elderly people dressed in Apple Jeans.

　　However, these are only some expressions of the cultural changes taking place in our society today. What is really going on is a subtle but significant restructuring of the nation's mentality. Just look around.

　　How many college graduates are ready to compete aggressively for every job opportunity, whereas not long ago they were asked just to sit idle and wait for whatever was to be assigned to them by the government?

　　How many young people are now eager to seek for an independent life whereas only two decades ago they would rely totally on their parents to arrange for their future? Ask anyone who participates in today's speech contest. Who has not come with a will to fight and who has not come determined to achie

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