TED演讲:20岁光阴不再来(2)

That's what psychologists call an "Aha!" moment.

这就是心理学家们所说的“原来如此！”瞬间。

That was the moment I realized, 30 is not the new 20.

在那一瞬间，我明白了三十岁并不是新的二十岁。

Yes, people settle down later than they used to, but that didn't make Alex's 20s a developmental downtime.

没错，人们比以前更晚安顿下来，但这并不说明Alex的二十几岁这个时间段是她的发展低谷。

That made Alex's 20s a developmental sweet spot, and we were sitting there, blowing it.

这使Alex的二十几岁一个发展的良好时期，而我们就坐在那儿荒废它。

That was when I realized that this sort of benign¹ neglect was a real problem, and it had real consequences,

这时我才明白这种“善意的疏忽”是一个非常现实的问题，而且它有严重的后果，

not just for Alex and her love life but for the careers and the families and the futures² of twentysomethings everywhere.

不仅是对于Alex和她的爱情生活，也对于各地的二十几岁的人的家庭与未来。

There are 50 million twentysomethings in the United States right now.

现在美国有大约5千万二十几岁的人。

We're talking about 15 percent of the population,

这大概是总人口的15%，

or 100 percent if you consider that no one's getting through adulthood³ without going through their 20s first.

或者说100%，如果你考虑到没人能在不经历二十几岁这个阶段的情况下经过成人期。

Raise your hand if you're in your 20s.

如果你是二十几岁的话举一下手。

I really want to see some twentysomethings here. Oh, yay! You are all awesome⁴.

我非常想在这儿看到一些二十几岁的人。太好了！你们都棒极了。

If you work with twentysomethings, you love a twentysomething,

如果你和二十几岁的人工作，如果你爱一个二十几岁的人，

you're losing sleep over twentysomethings, I want to see... Okay. Awesome, twentysomethings really matter.

如果你因为二十几岁的人而失眠，我就想看到...好的。棒极了，二十几岁的人非常重要。

So, I specialize in twentysomethings because I believe that every single one of those 50 million twentysomethings

我专门研究二十几岁的人，因为我相信这5千万个二十几岁的人中每一个

deserves to know what psychologists, sociologists, neurologists and fertility specialists already know:

都应该知道每一个心理学家，社会学家，神经学家以及生育专家都知道的：

that claiming your 20s is one of the simplest,

那就是把握你的二十岁这一个阶段是最简单的，

yet most transformative, things you can do for work, for love, for your happiness, maybe even for the world.

但又是最有影响力的你能为你的职业、爱情、幸福，甚至是全世界做的事。

1 benign   

adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的

参考例句：

• The benign weather brought North America a bumper crop.温和的气候给北美带来大丰收。
• Martha is a benign old lady.玛莎是个仁慈的老妇人。

2 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

3 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

4 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.