TED演讲:在危机中前行(1)

 The conventional wisdom about our world today is that this is a time of terrible decline. 关于当今世界的传统观点认为：这是一个急剧衰退的时代

And that's not surprising, given the bad news all around us, 而这也并不令人奇怪，考虑到我们身边无处不在的坏消息

from ISIS to inequality, political dysfunction, climate change, Brexit, and on and on. 从伊斯兰国到不平等，政治机能失调、气候变化、英国脱欧等等

But here's the thing, and this may sound a little weird¹. 但我是这么想的，而我的想法可能听起来有些奇怪

I actually don't buy this gloomy narrative², and I don't think you should either.  我对那些沮丧的观点并不买帐，并且我希望你们也一样

Look, it's not that I don't see the problems. 并不是说我没有看到那些问题

I read the same headlines that you do. 我也跟你们看一样的头条

What I dispute is the conclusion that so many people draw from them, namely that we're all screwed 我所质疑的是很多人从这些头条中得出的结论，即我们把一切都搞砸了

because the problems are unsolvable and our governments are useless. Now, why do I say this? 因为这些问题都无解，而我们的政府又没有用。那么我为什么要说些呢？

It's not like I'm particularly optimistic by nature. 并不是说我生性特别的乐观。

But something about the media's constant doom-mongering 而是媒体的那种不断地执拗于问题 

with its fixation on problems and not on answers has always really bugged³ me. 而不是解决之道的悲观论调一直困扰着我

So a few years ago I decided⁴, well, I'm a journalist, 因此几年前我决定，嗯，既然我是一名记者

I should see if I can do any better by going around the world and actually asking folks 那么我应该看看是否可以通过周游世界并问问各地的人们

if and how they've tackled their big economic and political challenges. 他们是否并且是如何解决他们所面临的大的经济和政治挑战的

And what I found astonished me. 而我的发现震惊了我

It turns out that there are remarkable⁵ signs of progress out there, often in the most unexpected places, 原来已经有了很多显着的进步的迹象，并且经常是在那些出人意料的地方

and they've convinced me that our great global challenges may not be so unsolvable after all. 而这也使我确信我们面临的那些重大全球挑战，也许并不是那么的完全无解。

1 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

2 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

3 bugged   

vt.在…装窃听器（bug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The police have bugged his office. 警察在他的办公室装了窃听器。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had bugged off before I had a chance to get a word in. 我还没来得及讲话，他已经走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。