英语演讲稿汇编15篇
演讲稿可以提高演讲人的自信心，有助发言人更好地展现自己。在我们平凡的日常里，演讲稿在演讲中起到的作用越来越大，相信许多人会觉得演讲稿很难写吧，以下是小编为大家收集的英语演讲稿，欢迎大家借鉴与参考，希望对大家有所帮助。
英语演讲稿1
ladies and gentlemen:
i am honored to be standing here to deliver a speech entitled “friendship”.
the hero's mother in the movie forrest gump says, “life is a box of chocolates”. i would say that life, with friendship, true friendship particularly, is sweet as honey. it is moonlight cast on the tranquility of a lake on a mid-fall night, enchanting to the soul. it is morning dew on rose petals, pleasant and pleasing to the sense of sight. it is cosy fire on a bitterly cold winter night, warming the heart.
but as helen foster snow remarks, “friendship is no common weed that grows along the way. it#39;s highly cultivated and watered day by day.” like an infant, it needs constant care; like a young tree, it can not be left to the tender mercies of severe weather. true friendship consists more in “a friend in need” to give to than “a friend in need” to take from. a true friend is a person who can be turned to, who is ready to lend a listening ear, who is willing to share feelings.
friendship should be mutual, otherwise it will be subject to withering like plant in drought. like genuine love, true friendship has to be a two way experience. be it the former or the latter, if one expects to be solely on the receiving end, then s/he will be too optimistic about it: it is hoping against hope that it will last. love or friendship of this kind is dangerous, as it is contaminated by the dark matter in human nature – selfishness.
not infrequently does friendship need to be cared and tended, fostered and nourished, so that it will “stand at every crossroad, so good and strong and true”.
thank you!
译文
女士们，先生们：
在此，我很荣幸地为你们做一次名为“友谊”的演讲。
在电影《阿甘正传》中，这位主人公的母亲曾说过：“生活就像一盒巧克力。”我想说，拥有友谊，特别是真挚友谊的生活就像蜜一样甜。友谊像似水的月光，泻在中秋之夜宁静的河水上，令人陶醉。友谊如挂在玫瑰花瓣上那晨曦的露水，赏心悦目。友谊又如寒冷的冬夜中炽热的'火焰，温暖了你的心灵。
但是，正如helen foster snow所说：“友谊不是那撒在路边的种子。它需要每天的精心呵护与浇灌。”友谊似一个婴儿，它需精心照料；友谊似一棵树，它不能被遗弃在没有丝毫怜悯与同情的严酷的环境中。真挚的友谊更多是在于对挚友的付出而不是索取。一个愿意帮助你，一个随时准备聆听你述说，一个愿意和你分享感受的人才是真正的朋友。
友谊应当是双向的，否则它就会像遇干旱而即将毁灭的植株。就像真诚的爱，真挚的友谊必须是一种双向的经历。但无论是前者还是后者，如果一个人指望只获取而不付出，那么她/他对此也未免太乐观，而希望这样的友谊会长久也只是空想。这样的爱情或友谊是危险的，因为它已被人性的阴暗面—自私所玷污。
只有精心的呵护与照料，养育和栽培，才能让友谊“站在每个十字路口时，都是那么美好、那么坚强、那么真挚。”
谢谢！
英语演讲稿2
I like spring germination, growth under the care of the earth. I like thegenerous peak green, I like the spirit striving to make progress.I like to step into the cool summer pavilion. Such as the sea around thelotus, lotus leaf like a group of conscientious escorts, flutters the body forlotus low sing a wonderful song after another.I like the autumn fruit trees. On the /panches, in the countless leaves,can always find many big sweet fruit.I like snow in winter, so pure, so clean. Gently float down, floating onthe heart, want to stretch out his hand to touch, all of a sudden it melted.I also like flowers, in either. I like the fresh lily, tulip, whichfragrant gorgeous peony and coloured lanqiu chrysanthemum. I also like to driveon the side of the road not well-known small wildflowers, pale pink, sky blue,yellow, lavender, I think they are beautiful too.I like reading books, to enjoy the beauty in the book. Whenever reading, asif really came to the world in the book, and the hero laughing, sad together, toexplore together in the book to the other world.I also like to draw, when see the beautiful scenery, use the /push torecord the beautiful scenery, the picture has become my memories.I like to write to teach little /pothers and sisters, holding a seriouslyto teach them with your hands in mine. When they laughed and said: "I'll write!"Then pretend to be a serious said: "you see I write?" I like/love to writewords, they even crooked, but could see that they are written in the heart.I love life, I love in the life is filled with so much love!
英语演讲稿3
good morning, everyone ! before we start our speech, let me ask you a question. what do you believe in? of course, different people may have different answers. some may choose hard word; some may believe money is everything; others may think that nothing is more important than power. but in my opinion, honesty is the best policy. this is also the topic of our speech today.
honesty is a good virtue, it means speaking the truth and being fair and upright in act. those who lie and cheat are dishonest. those who get good grades , not by hard work, but by other means are also dishonest.
honesty is the most important. no matter what you do, if you are honest, you will be trusted and respected, but if you lie and cheat, you will be looked down upon by people around. once you lie, even if you speak the truth, people will never believe you. there is a story that the wolf is coming in our china. we should always remember this lesson, and never make the same mistake again.
since honesty is so important, we should try our best to get it , we should speak the truth all the time. we should never make such an excuse as "a little dishonest is only a trifle thing." we should get rid of the seed of dishonesty once it is sowed in our minds.
so, let's to be an honest man. it can make us have much more chances and ways to succeed, and it also makes us happy and gains fame and a lot of praise.
that's all for today! thank you for your listening!
英语演讲稿4
the teacher-student relationship
a good teacher-student relationship will make learning enjoyable and interesting for the students and teaching worthwhile for a set up a good teacher-student relationship , a teccher’s behaviour is especially important teacher should motivate the students so that they would like to learn . a good teacher should be patient , friendly and strict. remember not to encourage students by pushing or punishing them g too friendly may cause students to become lazy and stop working hard. on the other hand , being too strict may frighten students. so a teacher should aviod going to extremes in treating his or her students the demand for the teachers who should take resposibilities for his or her job should encourage students to think independently and learn to study by themselves and also make his lessons lively and interesting. however, as for the students , they should always show respect for their teachers and their work ents should be eager to learn and willing to put their heart into their study. it’s significant for students to listen to their teccher attentively in class and it’s more important to learn to come up to questions and work out problems in new ways.
in conclusion , a good teacher-student relationship can be mutually beneficial students gain knowledge eagerly and enjoyably and the teacher gains satisfaction from his or her job.
thank you .
英语演讲稿5
Everyone has a mother. Mother brings us to the world. They give us life and love. When we are little, they take good care of us. They give much but give themselves little. They prefer to give us the best rather than let us feel hungry.
When we are ill, they take us to the hospital and look after us day and night. When we smile, they smile. When we cry, they cry. Once I hear a story about mother.
The story happened at the earthquake in 20xx. When people found a mother, they were surprised to find that there was a baby in her arms and there was a mobile phone near the baby. In the mobile phone there was a text message, saying" My lovely baby, I love you forever." The mother used her body to save her child. How great the mother is! Mothers will do everything for their children.
So we should love our mothers and take good care of them when they need us. We shouldn't be angry with our mothers when they punish us, because what they do is for our good.
英语演讲稿6
Good afternoon，ladies and gentlemen! I’m very honored to stand here and give you a short speech! my topic is Opportunities and Challenges. First, I would like to know, what does your destiny offer you? Happiness, wisdom, a strong body or something else. If I had asked this question to president Nixon, he would probably had said,”Our destiny offers not the cup of despair, but the chalice of opportunity.” Needless to say, one of the biggest opportunities given to China is the 20xx Olympic Games. Till now, we have used two sevenths of the preparation time. How much changes have you seen? New roads, new subway lines, public-exercising equipments with beautiful colors, large blocks of grass fields, and also lots of modern gyms which are under construction. Other than those, there are even more good effects brought to us by the Olympic Games that cannot be seen directly. For example, more and more people will get to know China. I’m sure the mysterious Chinese culture will attract them strongly. And the games will also do good to the economy and environment, for it is gaining the attention of foreign investors and the awareness of environmental protection is being strengthened. What is more, Olympic Games give a unique opportunity to inspire and educate a new generation of Chinese youth with the Olympic values and the Olympic spirit. Now that we have seen so many advances, could you even imagine us losing the holding rights? I’ve already said a lot about the Olympics and China. But I think everyone should use some time to think of this question, ”Does the Olympic Games have any special meaning to you?” For us, I mean the Chinese youth, 20xx Olympic Games is a tremendous gift. Because what we are waiting for is to do something significant as repaying the love given to us .The society is just like a ship, and in our dreams the captain is waving his hand and saying ”Hey! Come here and take the helm! ”How charming his voice is, but we have never heard of it in our true life. This morning, however, when we wake up, we will see the Olympic Games waving its hand. After chewing, most of us will have at least one plan about what to do for the Olympic Games. And mine is to be a “comforter” ----that is someone who will give comfort to others. At the end of my speech, I hope all the preparation will go well, and everyone will show their ability to the world. Let us seize opportunities and give a big smile to challenges.
英语演讲稿7
I'm sure everybody is interested in dream, so I will share a story with you.
When we talk about dreams,we are so e*cited.We all have our own dreams,some want to be teachers,others want to be doctors,others want to be scientists.However,not all dreams can come true,as people always give them up for some reason.
A dream is to a man what wings are to a bird. With a dream in the deep heart`s core, a man is spontaneously driven to hitch his wagon to a star. A dream is an ine*haustible source of energy that keeps our enthusiasm burning, and kindles our desire to enhance our spiritual cultivation, refine our character, and upgrade our quality of life. A life without a dream is like a bird with broken wings, confined to a cage and oblivious of what lies beyond the range of its vision. On the contrary, a man with a dream is like a warrior armed with ambition, foresight and gallantry, daring to step into an unknown domain to make a journey of adventure. It is dream that adds fullness, variety, and spice to our life and makes it worth living.
I would like to take Liu iang as an e*ample.Liu,as the first chinese man to win an Olympic track and field medal,dreamed of defending his Olympic title on home soil.To achieve this dream,he was bathed with sweat on the training ground every day.What’s more,now and then he suffered injuries.However,neither the injury nor the pressure has prevented him from striving to achieve the goal.Eventually,he kept or even renewed his record in the men’s 110-meter hurdle with his perseverance.
It is true that barriers may sometimes stand in the way of your dreams,but remember success is hiding behind them.Instead of making dozens of e*cuses for your failure,just think about Liu *iang’s story,hold on your dreams and never give up.
If you do not want your dreams to come to naught,then hold fast to your dreams and never give up.Just as the saying goes,”Do not,for one repulse,forgo the purpose that you resolved to effect.”
If you can do the following points,your dreams will come true one day.First,plant your dream in a fertilized soil.Second,water it with your diligence and give it the best food----knowledge.Third,remove the seeds of unhappiness for they can destory your dream.The most important is let the seed of your dream enjoy the beautiful sunshine,so what it can grow well.And however hard the situation is,o not give it up and always give it your best care.Then you will get a good harvest in the end.
Dreams are what we pursue for a lifetime,with many dreams,we have motivation to fight for our life.The opposite side of dream is reality.We have to face reality everyday,reality is what we perceive in our life.Reality always frustrates us to be successful.We need to balance them.
英语演讲稿8
Apple
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. It shows that apple has a lot of health benifits, but it is benificial in more ways than that.
Apple is sweet and juicy. It ease my thirst in summer.Apple is healthy.There is plenty of vitamine and other nutritions in apple.And what’s more important is that apple is accesible for everyone. We can buy some in markets and they won’t cost much.
I eat an apple everyday and that helps me stay healthy. I love apple.
英语演讲稿9
The importance of health
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen!
My name’is XXX . I’m from XXPrimary School. Today I’m very glad to be here to share my ideas of “The importance of health” with you.
Which is more important, health or wealth? It is a hot topic among people. I can hardly answer this question. There are many people who think that wealth is better than health. If you have wealth, you can also have health. You can get what you want. The life will be better and better. If you’re ill, you can find the best doctors and nurses.
I used to think so until one day my father was gone. My father died five years ago because he had cancer. That’s a terrible illness. He was only 49 years old. My father was a teacher, too. He always told me that if you did one thing, you had to do best with all of your abilities. He often worked from morning to night. However, he couldn’t be far away from the illness. His health began to deteriorate. At last of his life, he only said one sentence: “Life is too short.” Yes. Life is too short. In the short life, we all want to do best. But if we don’t have health, we can do nothing. Health is worth all the money in the world. If you have the most money but your health is poor, you will not be able to do what you want to do. Instead, take care of your body and be happy with what you do have. No matter we are rich or not, we can not ignore the importance of health.
Ladies and Gentlemen, before finishing my speech, I would like to say: Please take care of your body and enjoy the life every day.
That’s all. Thank you for listening. Thank you very much.
英语演讲稿10
Ladies and Gentlemen：
Good afternoon!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.Do you know what is youth?How do you master your 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!
英语演讲稿11
No writer who knows the great writers who did not receive the Prize can accept it other than with hum ility. There is no need to list these writers. Everyone here may make his own list according to his knowledge and his conscience.
It would be impossible for me to ask the Ambassador of my country to read a speech in which a writer said all of the things which are in his heart. Things may not be immediately discernible in what a man writes, and in this sometimes he is fortunate; but eventually they are quite clear and by these and the degree of alchemy that he possesses he will endure or be forgotten.
Writing at its best is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness, but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone, and if he is a good enough writer, he must face eternity or the lack of it each day.
For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with good luck, he will succeed.
How simple the writing of literature would be if it were only necessary write in another way what has been well to written. It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.
I have spoken too long for a writer. A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it.
翻译：
没有一个作家，当他知道在他以前不少伟大的作家并没有获得此奖项的时候，能够心安理得地领奖而不感到受之有愧。这里无须一一列举这些作家的名字。在座的每一位都可以根据学识和良心列出自己的名单。
要求我国的大使在这儿宣读一篇演说，把一个作家心中所有的感受说出来那是不可能的。一个人作品中的一些东西可能不会马上被人理解，在这点上，他有时是幸运的；但是这一切终究会十分清晰起来，根据它们以及作家所具备的点石成金的'本领之大小，他将青史留名或被人遗忘。
很多时候，写作是一种孤寂的生活。作家组织固然可以排遣他们的孤独，但是我怀疑它们是否能够促进作家的创作。一个在稠人广众之中成长起来的作家，虽然可以免除孤苦寂寥之虑，但他的作品往往流于平庸。而一个在孤寂中工作的作家，如果他又确实不同凡响，那他就必须面对永恒或者面对缺乏永恒的每一夭。
对于一个真正的作家来说，每一本书都应该成为他继续努力获得更高成就的新起点。他应该不断尝试去做那些从来没有人做过的或者他人做过却失败了的事。这样他就可能有幸获得成功。
如果仅仅是将已经写好的作品换另一种方法来重新诠释，那么文学创作就显得太轻而易举了。过去有过太伟大的作家以至于现在一个普通作家常被他们逼人的光样驱赶到远离他可能到达的地方，陷于孤立无援的境地。
作为一个作家，我已经讲得太多了。作家应该把他要说的话写下来，而不是说出来。
英语演讲稿12
If you could choose what kind of world to live in，what kind of world wouldyou choose？If you could decide what would happen tomorrow，with what kinds ofthings would you fill it？
If you had the power to decide what types of opportunities would come yourway，what opportunities would you select？If you knew that your experienceswould match your expectations，what would your expectations be？
In fact，you do have the power to choose your own way。 You do have theability to decide what kinds of events，experiences，opportunities andcircumstances come your way。
The world you experience is the world that your dreams，your thoughts，yourexpectations and your actions most closely resonate_。 The world you see and livein is the world you most sincerely expect to see。
The universe is filled with endless possibilities，and those possibilitieskeep growing with every minute。 The way you live determines which of thosepossibilities will come into your life。
With your thoughts，your actions，your values，your dreams andexpectations，you choose what kind of world you live in。 The way you live isclosely mirrored in the world you see。
如果你可以选择在什么样的世界里生活，那么你将会选择怎样的世界呢？如果你可以决定明日之事，你将会怎样充实它呢？
倘若你有力量决定自己的机遇，你会怎样选择呢？倘若你知道你的经历会如你所愿，那么你会如何期待呢？
事实上，你有能力选择你要走的路。是你自己决定你将要做的事、英语短文你将获得的经历、你将得到的机会和你将置身其中的环境。
你体验的这个世界和你的梦想、思维、期待甚至行为产生共鸣。你看到的世界和你时下生活的这个世界就是你真心期待见到的世界。
这个宇宙充满了无限的可能，这些可能每一分钟都在增加。你的生活方式决定了何种可能性会来到你的世界。
你所选择生活的.世界取决于你的想法，你的作为，你秉持的价值理念，你的梦想还有对未来的期待。你有什么样的世界观就会有什么样的生活方式。
英语演讲稿13
Sport is something that everyone can enjoy. It can be played by individuals and as a team.
there are many type of sport, the most common ones are basketball, tennis, table tennis, netball, swimming and a lot of others that i can't possibly name.
i bet no one on this world can name all of them
The reason why sport is so popular for all age groups is because Sport help us to a healthier and fitter body and life.
Everyone wants to stay health and fit, so they won't be sick very often. Sport always help our body function properly and build muscles.
i believe many people love sport. those who doesn;t like sport, may i suggest you to try one of two.
it is a chance to exercise and be health and fit.During sport, you can make new friends and feel the team spirt.
SO come on and have fun!
Hello guys, nice to here to share my short-term goal with you.
You know that almost every boy is in want of a robust body with sturdy muscles, of course I am one of them. In order for this, I will do 7500 push-ups in the next 3 months.
For me, as a boy, doing push-ups is an effective method to build muscle, which not only contributes to my blood circulation, but also conduces to the refreshment of my mind. Especially at present, in winter, indoors sports are increasingly accepted by people. So it is wise to take this method into consideration to build muscle and refresh my brain.
Now you see how relevant it is to me, and I will show you how measurable it is. I will do 50 push-ups every night, including weekends. To tell the truth, I am not the kind of guy who is of perseverance. But I will try my best to carry out my plan. If I forget it someday, I will catch up the next day. In this way, 150 days later, 7500 push-ups will be finished. That is to say, I will accomplish my plan in 3 months. According to this, my goal is an achievable one, right?
英语演讲稿14
As we all know, healthy is very important to everybody.But do you really know how to stay healthy?
Here are some useful tips. First, we should do exercise if we have time.For example, we can go to swim in the summer holiday. Or we can take a walk after supper.Doing exercise makes us healthy and strong. Second, we should take more vegetables and fruit and less candies. Stop eating junk food and drinking beers. Last but not least, we should go to bed early and wake up early. We should have enough sleep, or we will get sleepy in the day time. If we pay more attention to the tips above, we will have healthier body.
I wish everybody has a strong and healthy body.
英语演讲稿15
My subject today is learning. And in that spirit, I want to spring on you all a pop quiz. Ready? When does learning begin? Now as you ponder that question, maybe you're thinking about the first day of preschool or kindergarten, the first time that kids are in a classroom with a teacher. Or maybe you've called to mind the toddler phase when children are learning how to walk and talk and use a fork. Maybe you've encountered the Zero-to-Three movement, which asserts that the most important years for learning are the earliest ones. And so your answer to my question would be: Learning begins at birth.
Well today I want to present to you an idea that may be surprising and may even seem implausible, but which is supported by the latest evidence from psychology and biology. And that is that some of the most important learning we ever do happens before we're born, while we're still in the womb. Now I'm a science reporter. I write books and magazine articles. And I'm also a mother. And those two roles came together for me in a book that I wrote called "Origins." "Origins" is a report from the front lines of an exciting new field called fetal origins. Fetal origins is a scientific discipline that emerged just about two decades ago, and it's based on the theory that our health and well-being throughout our lives is crucially affected by the nine months we spend in the womb. Now this theory was of more than just intellectual interest to me. I was myself pregnant while I was doing the research for the book. And one of the most fascinating insights I took from this work is that we're all learning about the world even before we enter it.
When we hold our babies for the first time, we might imagine that they're clean slates, unmarked by life, when in fact, they've already been shaped by us and by the particular world we live in. Today I want to share with you some of the amazing things that scientists are discovering about what fetuses learn while they're still in their mothers' bellies.
First of all, they learn the sound of their mothers' voices. Because sounds from the outside world have to travel through the mother's abdominal tissue and through the amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus, the voices fetuses hear, starting around the fourth month of gestation, are muted and muffled. One researcher says that they probably sound a lot like the the voice of Charlie Brown's teacher in the old "Peanuts" cartoon. But the pregnant woman's own voice reverberates through her body, reaching the fetus much more readily. And because the fetus is with her all the time, it hears her voice a lot. Once the baby's born, it recognizes her voice and it prefers listening to her voice over anyone else's.
How can we know this? Newborn babies can't do much, but one thing they're really good at is sucking. Researchers take advantage of this fact by rigging up two rubber nipples, so that if a baby sucks on one, it hears a recording of its mother's voice on a pair of headphones, and if it sucks on the other nipple, it hears a recording of a female stranger's voice. Babies quickly show their preference by choosing the first one. Scientists also take advantage of the fact that babies will slow down their sucking when something interests them and resume their fast sucking when they get bored. This is how researchers discovered that, after women repeatedly read aloud a section of Dr. Seuss' "The Cat in the Hat" while they were pregnant, their newborn babies recognized that passage when they hear it outside the womb. My favorite experiment of this kind is the one that showed that the babies of women who watched a certain soap opera every day during pregnancy recognized the theme song of that show once they were born. So fetuses are even learning about the particular language that's spoken in the world that they'll be born into.
A study published last year found that from birth, from the moment of birth, babies cry in the accent of their mother's native language. French babies cry on a rising note while German babies end on a falling note, imitating the melodic contours of those languages. Now why would this kind of fetal learning be useful? It may have evolved to aid the baby's survival. From the moment of birth, the baby responds most to the voice of the person who is most likely to care for it -- its mother. It even makes its cries sound like the mother's language, which may further endear the baby to the mother, and which may give the baby a head start in the critical task of learning how to understand and speak its native language.
But it's not just sounds that fetuses are learning about in utero. It's also tastes and smells. By seven months of gestation, the fetus' taste buds are fully developed, and its olfactory receptors, which allow it to smell, are functioning. The flavors of the food a pregnant woman eats find their way into the amniotic fluid, which is continuously swallowed by the fetus. Babies seem to remember and prefer these tastes once they're out in the world. In one experiment, a group of pregnant women was asked to drink a lot of carrot juice during their third trimester of pregnancy, while another group of pregnant women drank only water. Six months later, the women's infants were offered cereal mixed with carrot juice, and their facial expressions were observed while they ate it. The offspring of the carrot juice drinking women ate more carrot-flavored cereal, and from the looks of it, they seemed to enjoy it more.
A sort of French version of this experiment was carried out in Dijon, France where researchers found that mothers who consumed food and drink flavored with licorice-flavored anise during pregnancy showed a preference for anise on their first day of life, and again, when they were tested later, on their fourth day of life. Babies whose mothers did not eat anise during pregnancy showed a reaction that translated roughly as "yuck." What this means is that fetuses are effectively being taught by their mothers about what is safe and good to eat. Fetuses are also being taught about the particular culture that they'll be joining through one of culture's most powerful expressions, which is food. They're being introduced to the characteristic flavors and spices of their culture's cuisine even before birth.
Now it turns out that fetuses are learning even bigger lessons. But before I get to that, I want to address something that you may be wondering about. The notion of fetal learning may conjure up for you attempts to enrich the fetus -- like playing Mozart through headphones placed on a pregnant belly. But actually, the nine-month-long process of molding and shaping that goes on in the womb is a lot more visceral and consequential than that. Much of what a pregnant woman encounters in her daily life -- the air she breathes, the food and drink she consumes, the chemicals she's exposed to, even the emotions she feels -- are shared in some fashion with her fetus. They make up a mix of influences as individual and idiosyncratic as the woman herself. The fetus incorporates these offerings into its own body, makes them part of its flesh and blood. And often it does something more. It treats these maternal contributions as information, as what I like to call biological postcards from the world outside.
So what a fetus is learning about in utero is not Mozart's "Magic Flute" but answers to questions much more critical to its survival. Will it be born into a world of abundance or scarcity? Will it be safe and protected, or will it face constant dangers and threats? Will it live a long, fruitful life or a short, harried one? The pregnant woman's diet and stress level in particular provide important clues to prevailing conditions like a finger lifted to the wind. The resulting tuning and tweaking of a fetus' brain and other organs are part of what give us humans our enormous flexibility, our ability to thrive in a huge variety of environments, from the country to the city, from the tundra to the desert.
To conclude, I want to tell you two stories about how mothers teach their children about the world even before they're born. In the autumn of 1944, the darkest days of World War II, German troops blockaded Western Holland, turning away all shipments of food. The opening of the Nazi's siege was followed by one of the harshest winters in decades -- so cold the water in the canals froze solid. Soon food became scarce, with many Dutch surviving on just 500 calories a day -- a quarter of what they consumed before the war. As weeks of deprivation stretched into months, some resorted to eating tulip bulbs. By the beginning of May, the nation's carefully rationed food reserve was completely exhausted. The specter of mass starvation loomed. And then on May 5th, 1945, the siege came to a sudden end when Holland was liberated by the Allies.
The "Hunger Winter," as it came to be known, killed some 10,000 people and weakened thousands more. But there was another population that was affected -- the 40,000 fetuses in utero during the siege. Some of the effects of malnutrition during pregnancy were immediately apparent in higher rates of stillbirths, birth defects, low birth weights and infant mortality. But others wouldn't be discovered for many years. Decades after the "Hunger Winter," researchers documented that people whose mothers were pregnant during the siege have more obesity, more diabetes and more heart disease in later life than individuals who were gestated under normal conditions. These individuals' prenatal experience of starvation seems to have changed their bodies in myriad ways. They have higher blood pressure, poorer cholesterol profiles and reduced glucose tolerance -- a precursor of diabetes.
Why would undernutrition in the womb result in disease later? One explanation is that fetuses are making the best of a bad situation. When food is scarce, they divert nutrients towards the really critical organ, the brain, and away from other organs like the heart and liver. This keeps the fetus alive in the short-term, but the bill comes due later on in life when those other organs, deprived early on, become more susceptible to disease.
But that may not be all that's going on. It seems that fetuses are taking cues from the intrauterine environment and tailoring their physiology accordingly. They're preparing themselves for the kind of world they will encounter on the other side of the womb. The fetus adjusts its metabolism and other physiological processes in anticipation of the environment that awaits it. And the basis of the fetus' prediction is what its mother eats. The meals a pregnant woman consumes constitute a kind of story, a fairy tale of abundance or a grim chronicle of deprivation. This story imparts information that the fetus uses to organize its body and its systems -- an adaptation to prevailing circumstances that facilitates its future survival. Faced with severely limited resources, a smaller-sized child with reduced energy requirements will, in fact, have a better chance of living to adulthood.
The real trouble comes when pregnant women are, in a sense, unreliable narrators, when fetuses are led to expect a world of scarcity and are born instead into a world of plenty. This is what happened to the children of the Dutch "Hunger Winter." And their higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease are the result. Bodies that were built to hang onto every calorie found themselves swimming in the superfluous calories of the post-war Western diet. The world they had learned about while in utero was not the same as the world into which they were born.
Here's another story. At 8:46 a.m. on September 11th, 20xx, there were tens of thousands of people in the vicinity of the World Trade Center in New York -- commuters spilling off trains, waitresses setting tables for the morning rush, brokers already working the phones on Wall Street. 1,700 of these people were pregnant women. When the planes struck and the towers collapsed, many of these women experienced the same horrors inflicted on other survivors of the disaster -- the overwhelming chaos and confusion, the rolling clouds of potentially toxic dust and debris, the heart-pounding fear for their lives.
About a year after 9/11, researchers examined a group of women who were pregnant when they were exposed to the World Trade Center attack. In the babies of those women who developed post-traumatic stress syndrome, or PTSD, following their ordeal, researchers discovered a biological marker of susceptibility to PTSD -- an effect that was most pronounced in infants whose mothers experienced the catastrophe in their third trimester. In other words, the mothers with post-traumatic stress syndrome had passed on a vulnerability to the condition to their children while they were still in utero.
Now consider this: post-traumatic stress syndrome appears to be a reaction to stress gone very wrong, causing its victims tremendous unnecessary suffering. But there's another way of thinking about PTSD. What looks like pathology to us may actually be a useful adaptation in some circumstances. In a particularly dangerous environment, the characteristic manifestations of PTSD -- a hyper-awareness of one's surroundings, a quick-trigger response to danger -- could save someone's life. The notion that the prenatal transmission of PTSD risk is adaptive is still speculative, but I find it rather poignant. It would mean that, even before birth, mothers are warning their children that it's a wild world out there, telling them, "Be careful."
Let me be clear. Fetal origins research is not about blaming women for what happens during pregnancy. It's about discovering how best to promote the health and well-being of the next generation. That important effort must include a focus on what fetuses learn during the nine months they spend in the womb. Learning is one of life's most essential activities, and it begins much earlier than we ever imagined.
Thank you.