honorable judges, dear friends:
do you know a'ba? do you know jiu zhai? a'ba is very famous for jiu zhai and huang long. i'm suo yangjin, a tibet girl from markang a'ba tibet and qiang autonomous prefectur. welcome to markang my hometown!
it's a great honour to make a talk here; my topic is "why education is essential?"
there is a nation in the world. after the second world war, the government paid its great attention to the education. so, the national economy has developed a lot. in a short time, its science and technology, culture and education have been ahead of the other countries in the world. which country is it? do you know? right, it's japan. as we know, while japan was invading the other countries, it greatly suffered from the war itself in the second world war. but, japan did not sink as people thought; it quickly went out of the difficulties caused by the war. why did japan develop so quickly? what's the secret? right, that's education. so, we say, education is really important to a nation.
now, i'll tell you a real story. once, there was a married couple, they were pleased to have a son. but unfortunately, the child was retarded. while he was growing up gradually, the defect was more and more clear. but the couple did not lose heart, they decided to teach the child to play the piano. they believed" where there is a will, there is a way." day after day, year after year, after more than ten years, the child could play some well-known melodies fluently. per－haps, some one will say, " can he really play the piano? i can't believe that." then, let me tell you another story about fang zhongyong. in ancient china, there was a boy named
fang zhongyong, who never read any books. one day, he suddenly asked his father for books. his father was very surprised and borrowed some from the r reading, zhongyong writed a poem about respecting parents and getting on well with the neighbours and so on. from then on, as soon as he saw something, he could write a poem about it. the people in his village were all surprised. gradually, he was well-known and often invited to write some poems for money. his father thought that's very profitable, so he took zhongyong here and there to earn money and zhong yong didn't go on with his study. as we all know, at last, zhongyong became as simple as the others. he couldn't write poems any have to admire the couple for their will, confi－dence and courage, while we also feel sorry for zhongyong. at this time, there is a problem: for a person, which is more important, gift or training? training, i think, is more important. and as one of the most important courses in training, ed－ucation cannot be neglected.
the purpose of education is to make people get knowledge and have abilities. as we know, nowadays, our time is a knowledge time, an it time, and it is also a time that is full of competitions. in the rapid developing society, our knowl－edge, our character, our value, our ideas, our behaviour and so on should all fit in with the needs of the society. and all these depend on education. of course it's impossible to fit ourselves on the society from birth. we need to learn and practise step by step.
as the ancient people said, "we know nearly nothing from birth. who hasn't got any doubts yet?" one of the ways to resolve the doubts is to ask the teachers.
just as we know, everyone has great potential, but one can't become useful without being educated. i believe all of us know the story about the wolf-child. he had the same character just as the other persons when he was born. but he wasn't educated as a normal person, so he couldn't show his natural characters. he was almost like an animal. thus it can be seen that education can make us develop our abilities and make our life wonderful.
we all remember forever, in 1840, the most insulting and miserable page in chinese history began with the opium war. at that time, we lost our rights, our lands… the history tells us, "if we are backward, we'll be insulted." and it also taught us a lesson that we should pay great attention to our education. "education is the project of vital and lasting importance." "science and education can strengthen a nation." after liberation, especially after the reform, we have achieved great successes in the aspect of politics, economy, culture and so on, which depend on the development of edu－cation.
from all of the facts above, we can see, education is essential. if all of us know well about this, if all of us act it out, our future will be more beautiful.
thank you all!
译文：
为什么教育是必不可少的
索阳金
尊敬的各位评委、亲爱的各位朋友：
你们好！
你们知道阿坝吗? 到过美丽的九寨沟吗？我叫索阳金，就是一个来自阿坝藏族羌族自治州的藏族女孩，欢迎在座各位来我的家乡阿坝，来我的家乡九寨，领略奇异的民族风情。
今天，很荣幸能够站在这儿，我演讲的题目是：为什么教育是必不可少的。
曾有这样一个国家，二战结束后，其政府极力提倡教育，从而使它的国民经济得到大大提高。在很短的时间内，国家的科学技术、文化教育都已迈入世界领先地位。这个国家就是日本。众所周知，二战中，当日本野蛮侵略其它国家时，也给它自己带来了深深的创伤，但是日本并不像人们想象的那样沉沦下去，而是很快走出了二战带来的困境。为什么日本能够发展得如此迅猛，有什么秘诀吗?有，那就是教育。由此可见，教育是十分重要的。
现在，让我们一起来听一个小故事吧!从前有一对夫妇生了一个孩子，但不幸的是，这个孩子先天智力就有缺陷，随着年龄的长大，这种缺陷越来越明显。但这对夫妇并没有对他失去信心，在“有志者事竟成”这种信念的推动下，他们决定教这个孩子弹钢琴。日复一日，年复一年，十几年过去了，奇迹也发生了，这个孩子竟能够流利地弹奏许多名家的曲子。也许，有人要说：“嗯，我才不相信呢！”但事实确实如此。来，再听听方仲永的故事吧。在我国古代，有一个男孩叫方仲永，从未上过私塾念书。
一天，他突然向他的父亲要书看，他的父亲感到十分惊奇，于是从邻居那儿借了一些书来。一口气读完书后，仲永竟写了一首关于孝敬父母和如何与邻里乡亲交往的诗。从那以后，仲永便能指物赋诗，村里的人们都十分惊诧。不久，仲永便成了村里有名的神童，常有人花钱请他做诗，而他的父亲呢，更觉得这是一个不错的买卖，便带着他四处写诗赚钱。这个故事的结局，我想大家也是知道的：方仲永由于没有充足的时间去接受教育，变得和其他人一样的普通，再也写不出优美的诗句了。
我们由衷地钦佩那对夫妇的毅力、信心和勇气，也为仲永而深感遗憾。同时一个问题摆在我们面前，对于一个人的成长来说，什么是更重要的，是先天智力还是后天培养?后天培养，我认为这是更重要的，而教育作为后天培养中最重要的手段更是不容忽视！
教育的目的是让人们获得知识、培养他们的能力。要知道，现在的时代是知识的时代，是信息的时代，同样也是个充满竞争的时代。在这高速发展的社会里，我们的知识、性格、智力、行为、情感等等，都必须适应这个社会的需求，而这所有的一切都是通过教育获得的。因为，我们不能天生就能适应这个社会，而是需要后天不断的训练。
古人云：“人非生而知之者,孰能无惑。”谁都有过疑问，而请教他人就是解决疑难的方法之一。
每个人都有着巨大的潜力，但是如果不受教育就不能成为有用的人。我相信在座各位都知道关于“狼孩”的故事。他刚出生时有着和人类一样的天性，但他没有像常人那样接受正规的教育，因此不能发掘出他的天性，只能像动物那样。由此可见，教育能使我们发掘潜力，能使我们的生活更加丰富多彩。
也许大家永远都不会忘记，1840年我国历史上最为屈辱的一页随着鸦片战争的枪声翻开了，综合国力日益下降，人才大量流失，我们失去了领土，失去了主权……历史告诉我们“落后就要挨打”，它也警示我们，再也不能忽视教育了。“百年大计，教育为本”，“科教兴国”，解放后，特别是改革开放以后，我国在政治、经济、文化等方面都取得了辉煌的成绩，这都与我国政府大力发展教育是分不开的。
无论是对国家，还是个人，教育都是必不可少的，如果我们每个人都能清楚地认识到这一点并付诸实际，我们的未来将会更加美好！
谢谢！