TED演讲:和老年痴呆症说再见(1)

 　　How many people here would like to live to be at least 80 years old? Yeah. 在座有多少人希望能活到八十岁以上？好。

　　I think we all have this hopeful expectation of living into old age. 我想我们每个人都渴望能够长寿。

　　Let's project out into the future, to your future "you's," and let's imagine that we're all 85. 让我们穿越到未来，未来的你们假设都已85岁。

　　Now, everyone look at two people. One of you probably has Alzheimer's disease. 我们随便挑选两个人，其中一人就可能患有老年痴呆症。

　　Alright, alright. And maybe you're thinking, "Well, it won't be me." Then, OK. 好吧，好吧。也许你会想：“反正不会是我”。那么好的。

　　You are a caregiver. So -- so in some way, this terrifying disease is likely to affect us all. 你是另一位的照顾人。所以……所以某种意义上来说，这个可怕的疾病可能会影响我们每一个人。

　　Part of the fear around Alzheimer's stems from the sense that there's nothing we can do about it. 对于老年痴呆的恐惧部分源于我们对此的无能为力。

　　Despite decades of research, we still have no disease-modifying treatment and no cure. 尽管几十年的研究下来，我们依然没有改善病情的方法。

　　So if we're lucky enough to live long enough, Alzheimer's appears to be our brain's destiny. 如果我们有幸长命百岁，老年痴呆似乎是我们大脑的宿命。

　　But maybe it doesn't have to be. What if I told you we could change these statistics, 情况也许没有这么糟。如果我告诉你，我们可以改变现状，

　　literally¹ change our brain's destiny, without relying on a cure or advancements² in medicine? 就是改变我们大脑的命运，不依赖于任何疗法或是药物的发展呢？

1 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

2 advancements   

n.（级别的）晋升( advancement的名词复数 )；前进；进展；促进

参考例句：

• Today, the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements. 当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Great advancements in drought prediction have been made in recent years. 近年来，人们对干旱灾害的预报研究取得了长足的进步。 来自互联网