TED演讲:被遗忘的美国工人阶级(4)

 So if you think about what do you do when you grow up in that world, you can respond in a couple of ways. 想象一下，成长在那样的环境中你该怎么办，可能应对方法有很多种。

One, you can say, "I'm not going to work hard, because no matter how hard I work, it's not going to matter." 第一种，你可以说，“我才不会努力奋斗，因为无论怎样努力，结果都一样。”

Another thing you might do is say, "Well, I'm not going to go after the traditional markers of success,  而另一种方式就是，“好吧，我不会追求传统意义上的成功，

like a university education or a prestigious¹ job, because the people who care about those things are unlike me. They're never going to let me in." 比如上大学或者找份体面的工作，因为重视这些事的人跟我不是一类人，他们不会接纳我。”

When I got admitted to Yale, a family member asked me if I had pretended to be a liberal to get by the admissions committee. Seriously. 当我被耶鲁大学录取后，一个亲戚问我，我是不是假装成民主党成员来获得招生委员会的认可。真事儿。

And it's obviously not the case that there was a liberal box to check on the application, 入学申请表上当然没有“民主党成员”这个选项让你勾选，

but it speaks to a very real insecurity in these places that you have to pretend to be somebody you're not to get past these various social barriers. 但这件事道出了一个事实，就是我们那里非常缺乏安全感，你需要伪装成另一种人，才能越过重重社会壁垒。

It's a very significant problem. 这是一个非常重要的问题。

Even if you don't give in to that hopelessness, even if you think, let's say, that your choices matter and you want to make the good choices, 即便你没有感到无望，即使你坚定的认为，你的选择是有意义的，你想做出好的选择，

you want to do better for yourself and for your family, 你想为了自己和家庭努力奋斗，

it's sometimes hard to even know what those choices are when you grow up in a community like I did. 但生长在我那样的社区，你甚至都不知道有哪些路可以选。

I didn't know, for example, that you had to go to law school to be a lawyer. 像我小时候，不知道想成为律师要先上法学院。

I didn't know that elite² universities, as research consistently³ tells us, 不知道一流的大学--像研究结果不断表明的那样，

are cheaper for low-income kids because these universities have bigger endowments, can offer more generous financial aid. 对于贫困的孩子收费要低，因为好大学得到的捐款更多，可以给学生更多资助。

I remember I learned this when I got the financial aid letter from Yale for myself, 直到我收到耶鲁大学的助学津贴信，我才知道有这么回事，

tens of thousands of dollars in need-based aid, which is a term I had never heard before. 那是上万美元的按需资助，我以前连听都没听过。

But I turned to my aunt when I got that letter and said, 我拿着信对我阿姨说，

"You know, I think this just means that for the first time in my life, being poor has paid really well." “这是我有生以来第一次因为穷得到的实惠。”

1 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

2 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

3 consistently   

ad.一贯地，一直

参考例句：

• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。
• The minister has consistently opposed any relaxation in the law. 部长一向反对法律上的任何放宽。