两个特等奖！省锡中学子展示英语口语风采

近日，省锡中高一（8）班王明昊同学在2022年“领航杯”江苏省第二十一届中学生英语口语电视比赛获高中组特等奖。

此项赛事由江苏省教育厅主办、江苏省电化教育馆（江苏省教育信息化中心）承办、译林出版社协办，是江苏省教育厅批准的全省中小学生竞赛活动之一。本届比赛全省共有1万多名中学生参加，经层层选拔，共有104名选手脱颖而出，参加省级比赛。经过两天的激烈角逐，初中组评出特等奖12名、一等奖20名、二等奖15名；高中组评出特等奖12名、一等奖20名、二等奖17名。      

获奖感言

Taking Uncertainty in Stride

If I had learned anything on my journey to the stage of the provincial speech contest, it’s that security is an insipid thing, and that uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life.

Preparing for my impromptu speech, my modus operandi wasn’t all that complicated. It only involves hunting down every single topic in the whole wide world — something quite similar to our ancient sage’s advice: “know yourself and know the enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat.”

And thus began my Herculean task. I made a pig of myself scanning through all the reference books. Before I knew it, I had a whole repertoire of textbook political rhetoric up my sleeves: from social phenomena to the government’s policies, you name it. With my miscellany of much-talked-about topics that I had prepared, I felt like a veteran of a hundred battles, full of wise saws and modern instances. As far as I’m concerned, the competition is in the bag.

But when I strutted onto the stage, it was a whole different story. The screen flashed as I was randomly given a topic. It ran thus: “Imagine this: your neighbour came to you this morning with some unexpected news…”

I gulped.

For a few seconds, my mind went quite blank as I clenched my fist, at a total loss of what to say. Palms sweaty. Heart racing. Butterflies in my stomach. I strained my eyes, racking my brains searching for any topic that would match. Nothing. My heart sunk like a lead balloon. All my preparation has gone down the drains: story-telling certainly wasn’t anything I had anticipated. And yet there it was, staring at me in the face…

My ears ringed and buzzed, but still I knew I couldn’t let fear hold me down. My only hope was to improvise. I plucked up the courage to begin my narration, which gradually rose to a crescendo. I somehow managed to hang on, save a few stumbles along the way. When I brought my speech to a nice conclusion, I knew that I had pulled off an amazing victory.

Lying in bed that night, it suddenly dawned on me: all this time, I had been wrestling with the question of “how do I predict”, and all my hard work boils down to my insecurity – deep down, I wasn’t all comfortable with uncertainty. I had always been trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and definite.

There it is: the fallacy of my argument. The art of impromptu speaking never was about predicting what to say. It has always been embracing the possibilities. Besides, one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to preparing for a topic.

So is it with our life. The fascinating beauty of living does not reside in certainty. It resides in the infinite possibilities of uncertainty. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.

We think that we know what life has to offer, but life never fails to surprise us. Life isn’t always on your agenda. Oft it takes you by surprise at every turn of events, sneaking up on you out of the blue. It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share. And that is the most challenging, as well as the most beautiful: to know how to anchor yourself when you're swimming in a sea of uncertainty.

So do your best and give it all you have. That is now how I look at it – keep going, come what may. All it really takes is a leap of faith.

Written by Michael in Senior1, Class8

日前，无锡市教育局公布无锡市第二十五届学生英语口语大赛结果，省锡中获高中组特等奖，获奖同学分别是：

高一（20）班  张翔

高一（19）班  胡心言

高一（8）班  卢怡安

高一（7）班  韩晓航

高一（6）班  朱程诣

高一（2）班  刘薇薇

受疫情影响，此次比赛推迟至开学初举行。参赛的6名同学克服重重困难，顶住压力，在课余时间抓紧排练。在2023年2月16日上午，第一个登上舞台，以流畅的语言表达和生动的舞台表现演绎了《小王子》片段，给各位评委留下深刻印象。在问答环节，6名选手以稳定的临场发挥，扎实的语言基本功，充分展现了省锡中学生英语口语表达的风采。

获奖感言：

在这次口语大赛中，我很荣幸与其他几位同学一起代表省锡中参加。在长达几个月的备赛过程中，我们反复讨论练习，汇聚集体智慧，优化配音时的语言表达和肢体动作，提升表演水平。尽管比赛在疫情下推迟，我们始终保持高度热情，不气馁不焦躁，认真准备，最终在决赛的舞台上第一个登场亮相。大家沉着冷静，表现非常出色，给我们这段经历画上了完满的句号。——获奖学生代表  高一（20）班  张翔