by the end of the semester.

学期末也会有
Many of you will end up getting Bs,

你们中会有很多人拿B
if not at the beginning,

即时不是在刚开始
by the end of the semester.

到学期末也会有
Many of you will not start out doing good work.

很多人在刚开始时不会很棒
Many of you will start out doing satisfactory work or,

很多人刚开始时只能说令人满意
truth be told, less than satisfactory work.

或者说实话甚至不太令人满意
Now look, I was an undergraduate once.

我以前也是本科生
And I know what it is to write a typical undergraduate paper.

我也知道一般的本科生论文是怎么写的
You sit down the night before and you had a couple of ideas.

交论文前一晚坐下后想出了几个点子
You thought about it maybe for a half an hour.

你想了大概半个小时
And you meant to get to it sooner,

本来是打算早点开始准备的