TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(1)

 　　I've been thinking a lot about the world recently and how it's changed over the last 20, 30, 40 years. 最近我常常思考我们的世界以及它在过去的20，30，40年里经历了何等的转变。

　　Twenty or 30 years ago, if a chicken caught a cold and sneezed and died in a remote village in East Asia, 20或30年前，如果在东亚一个遥远村落里，一只鸡患了感冒，打个喷嚏然后死了，

　　it would have been a tragedy for the chicken and its closest relatives, 对那只鸡和它的近亲来说可能是个灾难，

　　but I don't think there was much possibility of us fearing a global pandemic and the deaths of millions. 但我想我们不太可能会因此而担心全球流行病和数百万人的死亡。

　　Twenty or 30 years ago, if a bank in North America lent too much money 20或30年前，如果北美的一家银行借出了太多钱，

　　to some people who couldn't afford to pay it back and the bank went bust¹, 给那些无力偿还的人并因此而倒闭了，

　　that was bad for the lender and bad for the borrower, 只是借贷双方运气不好而已，

　　but we didn't imagine it would bring the global economic system to its knees for nearly a decade. 但我们不会想到这会给全球经济系统带来将近10年的瘫痪期。

　　This is globalization. This is the miracle that has enabled us to transship our bodies and our minds 这就是全球化。这就是奇迹，它已经让我们的身体、我们的头脑、

　　and our words and our pictures and our ideas and our teaching and our learning around the planet ever faster and ever cheaper. 我们的语言、图像以及我们的思想、还有我们的教育和学习都围绕这个星球运转得更快、成本更低。

　　It's brought a lot of bad stuff, like the stuff that I just described, but it's also brought a lot of good stuff. 它带来很多坏事，比如我刚才举的例子。但它也带来许多好事。

　　A lot of us are not aware of the extraordinary successes of the Millennium² Development Goals, 我们当中很多人并不了解千禧年发展目标取得了非凡的成就，

　　several of which have achieved their targets long before the due date. 有几个远在截止日期之前就完成了预定目标。

　　That proves that this species of humanity is capable of achieving extraordinary progress 这证明了人类这个物种能够取得超凡的进展，

　　if it really acts together and it really tries hard. 如果我们真正地一起合作并努力的话。

　　But if I had to put it in a nutshell these days, 但如果我简明扼要地说，

　　I sort of feel that globalization has taken us by surprise, and we've been slow to respond to it. 我觉得全球化有点儿让我们措手不及，我们对它的回应太慢了。

　　If you look at the downside of globalization, it really does seem to be sometimes overwhelming. 如果你看看全球化的负面影响，有时候的确有点儿难以应付。

　　All of the grand challenges that we face today, 今天我们面对的所有重大挑战，

　　like climate change and human rights and demographics and terrorism and pandemics and narco-trafficking and human slavery and species loss, 像气候变化或人权问题还有人口问题、恐怖主义和流行病，还有毒品走私和奴隶贩卖以及物种灭绝，

　　I could go on, we're not making an awful lot of progress against an awful lot of those challenges. 我可以一直说下去，我们在这么多可怕的挑战面前并没有取得多么重大进展。

1 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

2 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。