TED演讲:被遗忘的美国工人阶级(2)

 I had a very front-row seat to that struggle. 而我正是这种感受的亲历者。

My family has been part of that struggle for a very long time. 我的家庭长期以来一直经历着这种彷徨挣扎。

I come from a family that doesn't have a whole lot of money. 我生于一个不甚富裕的家庭。

The addiction¹ that plagued my community also plagued my family, and even, sadly, my own mom. 而在我们社区，蔓延的毒品问题同样伤害到了我的家庭，很不幸，是我的母亲。

There were a lot of problems that I saw in my own family, problems caused sometimes by a lack of money,  我亲眼见到了家里的很多问题，这些问题的起因，有的是因为缺钱，

problems caused sometimes by a lack of access to resources and social capital that really affected² my life. 有的是因为缺乏社会资源和人脉，而这对我的影响很大。

If you had looked at my life when I was 14 years old and said, "Well, what's going to happen to this kid?" 如果你见过我14岁时过得怎么样，并问到，“这孩子将来会怎么样？”

you would have concluded that I would have struggled with what academics call upward mobility³. 你也许会认为我会挣扎着往上爬，学术界管这叫“向上流动”。

So upward mobility is an abstract term, but it strikes at something that's very core at the heart of the American Dream. 向上流动是一个抽象的术语，但它触及到了美国梦最核心的部分。

It's the sense, and it measures whether kids like me who grow up in poor communities are going to live a better life, 它是一个标准，能衡量那些像我一样家境贫寒的孩子能不能过上好日子，

whether they're going to have a chance to live a materially better existence, 是不是有机会过上衣食无忧的生活，

or whether they're going to stay in the circumstances where they came from. 还是说会继续贫穷下去。

And one of the things we've learned, unfortunately, is that upward mobility isn't as high as we'd like it to be in this country, 但不幸的是，我们了解到，在美国，向上流动并没有我们想象的那么容易，

and interestingly, it's very geographically⁴ distributed. So take Utah, for instance. 而且有趣的是，它跟地域有很大的关系。就拿犹他州来说。

In Utah a poor kid is actually doing OK, very likely to live their share and their part in the American Dream. 在犹他州，一个穷孩子可能会过得还好，很有可能在美国梦中找到自己的位置。

But if you think of where I'm from, in the South, in Appalachia, in southern Ohio, it's very unlikely that kids like that will rise. 但如果在我的家乡，南部的一些州，阿巴拉契亚地区，俄亥俄州南部，穷孩子可能就没什么出路。

The American Dream in those parts of the country is in a very real sense just a dream. 从某种意义上来说，美国梦在这些地方可能真的就只是个梦。

1 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

4 geographically   

adv.地理学上，在地理上，地理方面

参考例句：

• Geographically, the UK is on the periphery of Europe. 从地理位置上讲，英国处于欧洲边缘。 来自辞典例句
• All these events, however geographically remote, urgently affected Western financial centers. 所有这些事件，无论发生在地理上如何遥远的地方，都对西方金融中心产生紧迫的影响。 来自名作英译部分