These were the surroundings among which I settled down, and applied myself to my education.

这些是我安顿下来的环境，并把自己运用到我的教育中。

I apply myself to decipher those hieroglyphics which the Egyptians used to inscribe in the temples of their gods and on the graves of their priests.

我致力于破译埃及人用来刻在他们的神庙和祭司坟墓上的那些象形文字。

They grow-ups advised me to put away my drawings of boa constrictor outside or inside and apply myself to instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar.

他们那些大人劝我把这些画着蟒蛇的里面或者外面的图片放在一边，把精力放在地理、历史、算术和语文上。

Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

我又专心察明智慧、狂妄和愚昧，乃知这也是捕风。

And it was during this time that I realized that I didn't need to be the smartest person in the classroom, but if I really applied myself to solve practical problems, I could make a big difference.

正是在这段时间里， 我意识到我不需要成为课堂上最聪明的人，但如果我真正投入自己去解决实际问题，我可以做出很大的改变。