2014年5月23日下午1点整，大家期待多时的主题为“My School in my dream”的周恩来英语演讲比赛在5116阶梯教室准时开始了。首先两位歌手带来了一首Lucky，用他们美妙的和声将现场的气氛活跃了起来。

本次周恩来英语演讲比赛总共有八位来自高三年级的同学参加。他们是根据往届的惯例，从高三年级四百多人中按照英语成绩遴选出来的英语学习的佼佼者。四男四女中有来自大预班的章旦蕾、孙书钰、潘凝、郑听雨、王政杰、王歆赜、倪侃同学，还有不顾高三繁忙学习生活，依然坚持对英语热爱前来参加比赛的高考班缪健翔同学。

在主持人介绍完本次比赛的两位外教评委和六位英语老师评委之后，就是由每位参赛选手的伙伴们介绍参赛选手的环节。这个环节成为了本次比赛的亮点和感人的地方之一。参赛选手的伙伴中有的幽默风趣，有的严肃认真，但都用了自己独特的方式向大家介绍了选手的性格与实力，并为他们加油鼓劲。本环节让大家了解到本次比赛中决出谁是胜者并不重要，重要的是同学之间的情谊，是每位选手以及其他同学对于学校的感情，并在无形之中体现出了本次比赛的主题。

每位同学还有属于他们自己的口号。从标语中可以体现出八位选手的多样性。有选手从个性出发，有的选手则是顺着自己伙伴的介绍提炼出了自己的口号，有的同学则是通过口号表达了对学校的感情，再一次活跃了现场的气氛。

“热身”完毕后，选手们开始了高手之间的角逐。比赛包含两部分，一部分是事先准备好的演讲，另一部分是对于评委提出的问题的即兴回答。对于本次比赛的主题“My School in my dream”，每位选手都有自己的阐释。有的同学认为自己的母校杭外——一个如天堂一般的地方，依然是自己梦中的学校；有的同学的梦想是学校应该走出亚洲走向世界；有的同学更是独出心裁，选择一所虚拟的MOOC学院来入手。他们都获得了精彩的效果，也给同学们带来了对学校和自己梦想深刻的思考。即兴的部分也体现出选手的水平。评委的问题有的来自于同学的讲稿本身，有的则是直接根据主题提问。台上选手的应答自如，让所有人都为之惊叹。

最后，来自大预班的倪侃同学和潘凝同学从众多选手中脱颖而出，成为本届周恩来英语演讲比赛的获胜者。

周恩来英语演讲比赛为本次外文节画上了一个完美的句号。相信这次比赛会成为2014届高三以及其他老师同学的美好回忆。

（高三大预班 陈瑶报道 王泽远摄影）

倪侃演讲稿：

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon.

Early this morning, I was taking photos with some of my friends, in the brilliant sunlight, throughout the campus. And I fortuitously encountered some groups of my peers, who were doing exactly the same thing. This might be a fashion, but I consider there is a further reason behind this. That is because our sojourn here is fleeting, fleeting indeed that we would have to create something everlasting to keep our trace from fading away. Some six years have seen our tracks here in this school of endless possibilities, yet our portion is so trifling considering the glamorous history and rosy future of this wondrous place, HFLS.

I often hear of my alumni speaking of the fact that they have found it hard to adapt to their new environment after their graduation. Probably it’s because the new environment and the new people are so different from us, or, we different from them. It is quite intriguing when you change a perspective to look at the distinction among people. From the lunatics’ point of view, the normal people are mad. So, it is just that we define what most people are as the standard. But we are far more courageous and cunning than most lunatics, for we tend to classify ourselves as elites instead, and elites are, indeed, yet another group of minorities. Where is this superiority from? Each and every one of us here could come up with a few reasons. But despite the fact that these reasons share similarities, I observe there are irreconcilable divergences worthy of contemplation.

I like the verses by Alfred Tennyson, “I am part of all that I’ve met/ Yet all experience is an arch/ Where-through gleams the untraveled world/ Whose margin fades/ Forever and forever when I move”. For me, the experience here is more than a thousand travels. It shapes me and makes me who I am. It nourishes the very essence of my soul, it helps me grow up and stay young. In the past it did and in the future it will, always. I believe this is true for everyone here. Our personal identities define who we are, but I’m afraid it’s inappropriate to apply it to all the others, for life is unique itself, and as Chinese poet Hu Shi put it, “You cannot dream my dream”. We are different, and this is exactly why our school motto tells us to be “magnanimous”, to be tolerant in face of differences, which is especially educational in this world of globalization, where you are likely to meet people from disparate cultural background every day.

School is, in a sense, a cradle of dreams, sometimes simultaneously a greenhouse, for it is where almost all the dreams are rooted, and seldom a place for us to be frustrated by the ruthless blaster of reality. It entails a purer state of mind, the mind of the children, where every word is a note and every resolution a melody from the distant beacon of hope. And HFLS is worthy of the name of the Pharos, shedding soft yet undying light upon the untraveled world for generations and generations. And also my alumni, who are recruited by the most prestigious universities in China, would choose HFLSer to be their identity and title, rather than PKUers or THUers.

There are students in China, whose solitary goal during the entire high school life is to attend a descent university. And after they fortunately make it, good gracious, their youthful life seems to terminate. There is no longer a mountain to climb, and life is nothing but lingering.        Such a life is lamentable, but is continuously happening in this nation. I do not mean to be cynical, but they deserve a better student career, a period of their life, of which when they think feelings and emotions crowd into their minds, like a flowing well-spring of memories that never ends. And I sincerely hope that HFLS could remain a paradise laden with such well-springs untouched and unspoiled.

I, too, have erroneously taken such detours. There are times when I plunge myself entirely into what I’m instructed to do, disregarding everything else potentially more important and meaningful. It was I myself who chose to be enmeshed.

What I really want to say is that we all have a choice. It is a coward’s deed to speak of being stumbled by reality in a place where ideals and dreams flourish. Leave reality aside, for we have this chance as a student only once. It is not an escape from tomorrow, but an act to face the present.

At the same time, we ought to realize that our journey never comes to an end, for life itself is a school. The farewell today marks the prelude to a brand new world ahead, and heralds the finale for the old days behind. We ought never to cease to forsake the innocence as a student. Always should we stick to the very primary dream, and the one and only destiny we believe in.

Therefore I call upon everyone present today, students and staff, temporarily or permanently HFLSers, to reconsider the role that our school plays in our life. And re-collect the feeling of being a real student in the face of all difficulties, wandering, and miseries.

I’d like to end up my speech with what Betrand Russell wrote in his What I have Lived for. “And this is my life. I have found it worth living. And I would gladly live it again if the chance were offered to me”.

Keep high HFLS on, and never forsake your dream.

潘凝演讲稿：

Good afternoon esteemed judges, teachers, and my fellow students. It’s my honor to join you today to talk about “my school in my dream”.

Last December, when I was in the interview at Tsinghua University, one of the interviewers asked me this question: What do you like and dislike about your high school? So I started praising our school on things like the diversity of our campus life, the inspiration from senior graduates and so on. As for what I dislike, I talked about the sense of superiority among students as well as the polarization between active students and the not-so-active ones. This question inspired me to think more about my ideal school.

I believe that everyone here has a picture of an ideal school in his or her mind, and I suppose our ideal schools have lots of characteristics in common. Freedom, diversity, tolerance, these are the key words that come to mind when we think of providing a care-free environment for creativity. Rigor, discipline, diligence, these are the elements we want in order to guarantee an orderly academic atmosphere. However, it’s worth noting that when we are imagining such ideals, we are free from the complex implications we have to face in reality, and we desire our school to be a flawless combination of all the attractive features we can ever come up with.

But it’s not that simple. For instance, in order to promote creativity, schools are expected to provide the students with more freedom, but at the same time, guidance and discipline are certainly needed. In our school, we are under much less pressure than most of our peers. But the side effect is the polarization among students. For those who are less capable of self-discipline, too much freedom might not be beneficial. This reveals an implicit conflict between those seemingly attractive notions we admire.

So it is obvious that we cannot reach an ideal school by simply adding up all the desirable features. The true spirit of pursuing an ideal school is not to demand everything you want and end up in a mess, but rather, to compromise wisely at some point, and balance carefully between pros and cons of every principle we hold. In some cases, we should sacrifice one goal for another; more often, we can combine several goals as an organic whole in an ingenious system. And that is also why there are numerous outstanding schools and universities in the world, each with its own distinctive principles and values.

For me, there is one indispensable criterion for an ideal school. The original goal of education is to help socialize the young, and until today we still see the desperate need to implement civic and citizenship education. The core of education has always been the cultivation of wisdom and personality. Therefore, my number one criterion for an ideal school would be “cultivation of respectable human beings”.

And there are various kinds of schools that meet this criterion. Back to the Axial Age, in the classical Greece, Plato’s Academy aimed at comprehensive education; in ancient China, Confucius’s private school sought to foster wisdom and benevolence in students. In modern times, countless schools of varying types are thriving. Some particularly unique schools like Deep Springs College in California are also pursuing ideal education in their own ways. All of these schools can be regarded as ideal, despite their noticeable differences.  For me, there is no fixed pattern of an ideal school. On the basis of my number one criterion, I want to embrace diversity.

Our school is a rather unique one in China. She encompasses so many features I love and am grateful for. Despite some limitations of her, we all see her efforts in every step to cultivate well-bred citizens. So, as long as we all have the awareness to introspect with honest eyes and endeavor with brave hands, I will say that my school is the school in my dream.

To conclude, I want to sincerely thank this school for playing an important and pivotal role in my life. And I want to wish her a happy 50th birthday in advance.

Thank you.