ladies and gentlemen , good morning! i’m very glad to stand here and give you a short speech. today my topic is “youth”. i hope you will like it , and found the importance in your youth so that more cherish it.
first i want to ask you some questions:
1、 do you know what is youth?
2、 how do you master your youth?
youth
youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind ; it is not rosy cheeks , red lips and supple knees, it is a matter of the emotions : it is the freshness ; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life .
youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite , for adventure over the love of ease. this often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20 . nobody grows old merely by a number of years . we grow old by deserting our ideals.
years wrinkle the skin , but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul . worry , fear , self –distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust .
whether 60 of 16 , there is in every human being ‘s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living . in the center of your heart and my heart there’s a wireless station : so long as it receives messages of beauty , hope ,cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long as you are young .
when the aerials are down , and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old ,even at 20 , but as long as your aerials are up ,to catch waves of optimism , there is hope you may die young at 80.
thank you!
青春青春不是指岁月，而是指心态。粉嫩的脸，红润的唇，矫健的膝并不是青春。青春表现在意志的坚强与懦弱。想象的丰富与苍白、情感的充沛与贫乏等方面。青春是生命深处清泉的喷涌。
青春是追求。只有当勇气盖过怯弱、进取压倒苟安之时，青春才存在。果如此，则60见之长者比20岁之少年更具青春活力。仅仅岁月的流逝并不能使他们衰老。而一旦抛弃理想和信念，则垂垂老也。
岁月只能使皮肤起皱。而一旦丧失生活的激情，则连灵魂枯老，使人生枯如死水，毫无活力。
60岁长者也好，16岁少年也罢，每个人的内心深处都渴望奇迹，都如孩子一般眨着期待的双眼，期待着下一次，期待着生活的情趣，你我灵魂深处都有一座无线电中转站------只有你我年轻，则总能听到希望的呼唤，总能发出喜悦的欢呼，总能传达勇气的讯号，总能表现出青春的活力………
一旦青春的天线倒下，你的灵魂即为玩世不恭之雪、悲观厌世之冰覆盖;即使你年方20.其实你已垂垂老也。而只要你青春的天线高高耸起，就可以随时接收到乐观的电波-----即使你年过八旬，行将就木，而你却仍然拥有青春，你仍然年轻。
谢谢!
#p#
演讲的总体措词是严肃一些还是活泼一些，是有较明显的说教口气还是用平等的口吻，等等，都要根据听众对象而定。如果场下听众是同龄的学生，那么演讲的内容只要风趣一些往往就能引起共鸣。但另一方面，如果听众大多是上了年纪的教师，太多的笑料反而会被认为“不严肃”，“不尊重”，而引起反感。
用英语演讲，不要用太多 i feel, i think，老是用i，显得十分主观，狭隘。如果通篇全是 i feel, i think 的内容，会给人觉得缺乏说服力。另外，perhaps, maybe 这样的词语，虽然有“客气，谦虚”的成分，但太多会让人觉得你演讲的内容有不可靠之处。
还有，在演讲中，要少用you，多用we。用you等于把自己与听众对立起来，而用we则拉近了与听众的距离。比如：you should not smoke.听上去像教训人，而 let's not smoke听起来是一个不错的建议。
2.演讲要越短越好gettysburg addressfour score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
we are met on a great battlefield of that war. we have come to dedicate a portion of the field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. but in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. the world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
it is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. it is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, ----that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, ----that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, ----that this nation, under god, shall have a new birth of freedom, ----and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
其实，我们中学生练习写演讲稿，可以短些，从4～5分钟，500～600个词，围绕一个主题开始练习。
3.英语演讲稿的基本组成部分
从大的方面看，英语演讲词实际上是属于一种特殊的说明文或议论文，其基本组成部分是：
1)开始时对听众的称呼语
最常用的是 ladies and gentlemen，也可根据不同情况，选用 fellow students, distinguished guests, mr chairman, honorable judges(评委)等等。