TED英文演讲稿3篇(2)

　　So if we think of our fears as more than just fears but as stories, we should think of ourselves as the authors of those stories. But just as importantly, we need to think of ourselves as the readers of our fears, and how we choose to read our fears can have a profound effect on our lives.

　　所以我们认为我们的恐惧不仅仅是恐惧 还是故事，我们应该把自己当作 这些故事的作者。 但是同样重要的是，我们需要想象我们自己 是我们恐惧的解读者，我们选择如何 去解读这些恐惧会对我们的生活产生深远的影响。

　　Now, some of us naturally read our fears more closely than others. I read about a study recently of successful entrepreneurs, and the author found that these people shared a habit that he called "productive paranoia," which meant that these people, instead of dismissing their fears, these people read them closely, they studied them, and then they translated that fear into preparation and action.

　　现在，我们中有些人比其他人更自然的解读自己的恐惧。 最近我看过一个关于成功的企业家的研究， 作者发现这些人都有个习惯 叫做“未雨绸缪“， 意思是，这些人，不回避自己的恐惧， 而是认真解读并研究恐惧， 然后把恐惧转换成准备和行动。

　　So that way, if their worst fears came true, their businesses were ready.

　　这样，如果最坏的事情发生了， 他们的企业也有所准备。

　　And sometimes, of course, our worst fears do come true. That's one of the things that is so extraordinary about fear. Once in a while, our fears can predict the future.

　　当然，很多时候，最坏的事情确实发生了。 这是恐惧非凡的一面。 曾几何时，我们的恐惧预测将来。

　　But we can't possibly prepare for all of the fears that our imaginations concoct. So how can we tell the difference between the fears worth listening to and all the others? I think the end of the story of the whaleship Essex offers an illuminating, if tragic, example.

　　但是我们不可能为我们想象力构建的所有 恐惧来做准备。 所以，如何区分值得听从的恐惧 和不值得的呢? 我想捕鲸船ESSEX的故事结局 提供了一个有启发性，同时又悲惨的例子。

　　After much deliberation, the men finally made a decision. Terrified of cannibals, they decided to forgo the closest islands and instead embarked on the longer and much more difficult route to South America.

　　经过数次权衡，他们最终做出了决定。 由于害怕食人族，他们决定放弃最近的群岛 而是开始更长 更艰难的南美洲之旅。

　　After more than two months at sea, the men ran out of food as they knew they might, and they were still quite far from land. When the last of the survivors were finally picked up by two passing ships, less than half of the men were left alive, and some of them had resorted to their own form of cannibalism.

　　在海上呆了两个多月后，他们 的食物如预料之中消耗殆尽， 而且他们仍然离陆地那么远。 当最后的幸存者最终被过往船只救起时， 只有一小半的人还活着， 实际上他们中的一些人自己变成了食人族。

　　Herman Melville, who used this story as research for "Moby Dick," wrote years later, and from dry land, quote, "All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex might in all human probability have been avoided had they, immediately after leaving the wreck, steered straight for Tahiti.

　　赫尔曼·梅尔维尔(Herman Melville)将这个故事作为 《白鲸记》的素材，在数年后写到： ESSEX船上遇难者的悲惨结局 或许是可以通过人为的努力避免的， 如果他们当机立断地离开沉船， 直奔塔西提群岛。

　　But," as Melville put it, "they dreaded cannibals." So the question is, why did these men dread cannibals so much more than the extreme likelihood of starvation?

　　“但是”，梅尔维尔说道：“他们害怕食人族” 问题是，为什么这些人对于食人族的恐惧 超过了更有可能的饥饿威胁呢?

　　Why were they swayed by one story so much more than the other? Looked at from this angle, theirs becomes a story about reading. The novelist Vladimir Nabokov said that the best reader has a combination of two very different temperaments, the artistic and the scientific.

　　为什么他们会被一个故事 影响如此之大呢? 从另一个角度来看， 这是一个关于解读的故事。 小说家弗拉基米尔·纳博科夫(Vladimir Nabokov)说 最好的读者能把两种截然不同的性格结合起来， 一个是艺术气质，一个是科学精神。

　　A good reader has an artist's passion, a willingness to get caught up in the story, but just as importantly, the readers also needs the coolness of judgment of a scientist, which acts to temper and complicate the reader's intuitive reactions to the story. As we've seen, the men of the Essex had no trouble with the artistic part.

　　好的读者有艺术家的热情， 愿意融入故事当中， 但是同样重要的是，这些读者还要 有科学家的冷静判断， 这能帮助他们稳定情绪并分析 其对故事的直觉反应。 我们可以看出来，ESSEX上的人在艺术部分一点问题都没有。

　　They dreamed up a variety of horrifying scenarios. The problem was that they listened to the wrong story. Of all the narratives their fears wrote, they responded only to the most lurid, the most vivid, the one that was easiest for their imaginations to picture: cannibals.

　　他们梦想到一系列恐怖的场景。 问题在于他们听从了一个错误的故事。 所有他们恐惧中 他们只对其中最耸人听闻，最生动的故事， 也是他们想象中最早出现的场景： 食人族。

　　But perhaps if they'd been able to read their fears more like a scientist, with more coolness of judgment, they would have listened instead to the less violent but the more likely tale, the story of starvation, and headed for Tahiti, just as Melville's sad commentary suggests.

　　也许，如果他们能像科学家那样 稍微冷静一点解读这个故事， 如果他们能听从不太惊悚但是更可能发生的 半路饿死的故事，他们可能就会直奔塔西提群岛， 如梅尔维尔充满惋惜的评论所建议的那样。

　　And maybe if we all tried to read our fears, we too would be less often swayed by the most salacious among them.

　　也许如果我们都试着解读自己的恐惧， 我们就能少被 其中的一些幻象所迷惑。

　　Maybe then we'd spend less time worrying about serial killers and plane crashes, and more time concerned with the subtler and slower disasters we face: the silent buildup of plaque in our arteries, the gradual changes in our climate.

　　我们也就能少花一点时间在 为系列杀手或者飞机失事方面的担忧， 而是更多的关心那些悄然而至 的灾难： 动脉血小板的逐渐堆积， 气候的逐渐变迁。

　　Just as the most nuanced stories in literature are often the richest, so too might our subtlest fears be the truest. Read in the right way, our fears are an amazing gift of the imagination, a kind of everyday clairvoyance, a way of glimpsing what might be the future when there's still time to influence how that future will play out.

　　如同文学中最精妙的故事通常是最丰富的故事， 我们最细微的恐惧才是最真实的恐惧。 用正确的方法的解读，我们的恐惧就是我们想象力 赐给我们的礼物，借此一双慧眼， 让我们能管窥未来 甚至影响未来。

　　Properly read, our fears can offer us something as precious as our favorite works of literature: a little wisdom, a bit of insight and a version of that most elusive thing -- the truth. Thank you.

　　如果能得到正确的解读，我们的恐惧能 和我们最喜欢的文学作品一样给我们珍贵的东西： 一点点智慧，一点点洞悉 以及对最玄妙东西—— 真相的诠释。 谢谢。

　　(Applause)

　　(掌声)

　　TED英文演讲稿篇2

　　犯错的价值

　　每个人都会避免犯错，但或许避免犯错本身就是一种错误?请看以下这篇“犯错家“凯瑟琳舒尔茨告诉我们，或许我们不只该承认错误，更应该大力拥抱人性中“我错故我在“的本质。

　　So it's 1995, I'm in college, and a friend and I go on a road trip from Providence, Rhode Island to Portland, Oregon.

　　当时是95年 我在上大学 我和一个朋友开车去玩 从罗得岛的普罗旺斯区出发 到奥勒冈州的波特兰市

　　And you know, we're young and unemployed, so we do the whole thing on back roads through state parks and national forests -- basically the longest route we can possibly take.

　　我们年轻、无业 ，于是整个旅程都在乡间小道 经过州立公园 和国家保护森林 我们尽可能绕着最长的路径

　　And somewhere in the middle of South Dakota, I turn to my friend and I ask her a question that's been bothering me for 2,000 miles.

　　在南达科塔州之中某处 我转向我的朋友 问她一个 两千英里路途上 一直烦恼我的问题

　　"What's up with the Chinese character I keep seeing by the side of the road?"

　　"路边那个一直出现的中文字到底是什么?"

　　My friend looks at me totally blankly.

　　我的朋友露出疑惑的神情

　　There's actually a gentleman in the front row who's doing a perfect imitation of her look.

　　正如现在坐在第一排的这三位男士 所露出的神情一样

　　(Laughter) And I'm like, "You know, all the signs we keep seeing with the Chinese character on them."

　　(笑声) 我说"你知道的 我们一直看到的那个路牌 写着中文的那个啊"

　　She just stares at me for a few moments, and then she cracks up, because she figures out what I'm talking about.

　　她瞪着我的脸一阵子 突然笑开了 因为她总算知道我所指为何

　　And what I'm talking about is this.

　　我说的是这个

　　(Laughter) Right, the famous Chinese character for picnic area.

　　(笑声) 没错，这就是代表野餐区的那个中文字

　　(Laughter) I've spent the last five years of my life thinking about situations exactly like this -- why we sometimes misunderstand the signs around us,

　　(笑声) 过去的五年 我一直在思考 刚刚我所描述的状况 为什么我们会对身边的征兆 产生误解

　　and how we behave when that happens, and what all of this can tell us about human nature.

　　当误解发生时我们作何反应 以及这一切所告诉我们的人性

　　In other words, as you heard Chris say, I've spent the last five years thinking about being wrong.

　　换句话说，就像 Chris 刚才说的 过去五年的时间 我都在思考错误的价值

　　This might strike you as a strange career move, but it actually has one great advantage: no job competition.

　　你可能觉得这是个奇异的专业 但有一项好处是不容置疑的： 没有竞争者。

　　(Laughter) In fact, most of us do everything we can to avoid thinking about being wrong, or at least to avoid thinking about the possibility that we ourselves are wrong.

　　(笑声) 事实上，我们大部分的人 都尽力不思考错误的价值 或至少避免想到我们有可能犯错。

　　We get it in the abstract.

　　我们都知道这个模糊的概念。