纽约时报中文网举办了一项征文活动，邀请申请美国大学课程、并成功拿到Offer的中国读者分享帮助他们拿到入学资格的申请文书。中文网编辑部从投稿中挑选出了部分文稿，希望与读者分享这些优秀的中国留学生的经验。

I Observe the World Through Science and Arts

科学与人文让我看到世界的美

The aircraft turbulence stops. As the plane moves above the grim clouds, a bright beam of sunlight slips through the window. Outside the window is a brand new world: the once suffocating sky has opened. The sun, nature’s omnipotent artist, reluctantly bids farewell, turning the azure into tangerine. Stormy clouds boil underneath, with the size of a boundless ocean and the fury of the Yellow River… 

机身的颠簸停止了。当飞机越过云层，一束阳光从窗户中溜了进来。放眼望去，外面仿佛一个崭新的世界：原本压抑的天空打开了。落日就像大自然全能的艺术家，不情愿地向人们说着再见，利用最后一丝余晖将那抹天蓝染成了橘红色。脚下，乌云在沸腾，阔如大海，怒似黄河……

"Hey Tony, what are you doing?" My friend asks.

“哎，你干什么呢?”我的朋友问我。

"The sky… it's like God’s masterpiece. How can it be so beautiful?" I mumble as my soul returns to reality. 

“这天空，就像上天的杰作。怎么会这么美……”我小声嘟囔着，还沉浸在窗外的美景之中。

"Come on. You’re already in high school. Leave the sky for kids to marvel at."

“拜托，你已经是高中生了。这种小孩子的事儿你也做。”

Embarrassed, I try to defend myself, but a voice of doubt stifles my words: What is the point of staring outside? 

我有些尴尬，试图为自己辩护，却因为自己心中的质疑开不了口。是啊，盯着窗外看到底有什么用呢？

I have always been attracted to nature's beauty. It makes me think. I still remember my childhood hobby of looking at the night sky and the star lights that spent years, or even centuries, to arrive at our planet. Those same lights enabled me to travel through time and visualize my dream of being a scientist, artist and innovator: 

我总是被大自然的美所吸引。它的美让我思考。我还记得小时候在夜空下看星星的爱好。望着那来自几千年前的点点星光，我仿佛穿越了时空，看到了我想成为一名科学家、艺术家和创新者的梦想:

As a luminescent star trail poured into my eyes, I found myself looking through the eyes of Galileo, awed by the infinite opportunities of the universe. Tracing the outline of a quartet of celestial lights, I saw Pachelbel sitting high, appreciating his greatest masterpiece — Canon in D. Suddenly, a bright comet raced past, leading me into a small garage, where Steve Jobs changed the world by turning pure science into a real work of art. 

当一缕银色的星光流入眼中，我仿佛看见伽利略当年所看到的天空，同他一样感受到了对宇宙无限可能的敬畏。当那一点点光芒融汇在一起，我仿佛看见巴哈贝尔端坐于天际，欣赏着他最伟大的杰作——D调卡农。突然，一颗彗星划过天空，带我进入了那个实现梦想的车库。就在那里，乔布斯将科学与艺术完美地融合在了一起。

Human history recorded in those ancient lights flashed before my eyes, unfolding, dissolving. It seemed to me that life was both transient and everlasting. Just as the lights of dead stars were still decorating the night sky above us, so the accomplishments of those ephemeral lives were still affecting the way we lived every day. As a child, I naively hoped that in the future, when people look up at the sky, they would also see my story as an innovator standing at the crossroad of science and arts. That is still my dream.

这些古老的光记录着人类的历史，如电影般在我眼前展开，又逝去。生命对我来说仿佛既短暂，又永恒。那些星星可能已经死去，但它们的光芒仍然装饰着这片天空，就好像那些短暂的生命仍因他们的成就而影响着我们生活的方方面面。小时候，我很天真地希望，有一天，当人们抬起头时，他们也会读到我的故事，在那颗明星中看到一名站在科学与人文艺术交汇处的创新者。这仍是我的梦想。

Nature gives me two eyes. Through one eye, I observe the world of science; through the other eye, I appreciate the world of arts. On seeing the perfect shape of snowflakes melting in my hand, I run home to search for the formation of snow crystals. Noticing the gradual change in the color of the dusk sky, I begin to delve deeper into the scattering of lights. The sun’s daily movements inspire me to think about the rise and fall of empires and lives. The tender light of the moon that has always guarded human civilization promotes my curiosity about our ancestors’ philosophies of human existence. Viewing nature through the lens of science and arts, I truly enjoy the beauty of this three-dimensional world.

上天赋予了我两只眼睛。我用一只来观察科学的世界，另一只来欣赏人文艺术的美。当看到那完美的六边形雪花在我手中融化时，我会立刻跑回家研究冰晶的形成。观察到黄昏时天空渐变的颜色，我会更深入地去探索光的散射。每天的日出日落让我联想到帝国的兴衰和人生的起起落落。那一直守护着人类文化的柔和的月光激励我去探索古代哲学家对于人类存在的思考。通过科学和人文艺术这两种角度来看待自然，我领略到了这个三维世界真正的美。

The plane turns right and my eyes regain focus on the sky outside. Darkness falls. Clouds dissolve. 

随着飞机右转，我的眼神重新聚焦在窗外。夜幕开始降临，乌云已经散去。

Below the overarching sky, the planet of human lives rotates, now illuminated by clusters of man-made sparks. In the distant horizon where nature and human civilization meet, the boundary between science and arts vanishes.

苍穹之下，这颗承载着几十亿生命的行星在转动。此时，一簇簇人造的火花已将它点亮。在那遥远的天际，自然与人类文明相遇，而科学与人文艺术间的界限也变得模糊。