TED演讲: 一人饰演地球村内多个角色

 　　I should tell you that when I was asked to be here, I thought to myself that well, it's TED¹. 我要告诉你们当我接到大会邀请的时候，我对自己说，这可是TED呀

　　And these TEDsters are -- you know, as innocent as that name sounds --  这些TEDsters虽然名字听起来是那么单纯而简单

　　these are the philanthropists and artists and scientists who sort of shape our world.  可都很不简单，他们是慈善家艺术家科学家，他们能够影响整个世界

　　And what could I possibly have to say that would be distinguished² enough to justify³ my participation⁴ in something like that? 那我又能说点什么才会让我显得与众不同，才能证明我的参与是有意义的呢

　　And so I thought perhaps a really civilized-sounding British accent might help things a bit. 所以我就想到一口非常纯正显得很有教养的英国口音也许能帮上忙

　　And then I thought no, no. I should just get up there and be myself  但转念一想，不，不行，我应该去到那里作回我自己

　　and just talk the way I really talk because, after all, this is the great unveiling. 我平时怎么说话，在这儿就怎么说话，因为毕竟今天是盛大的揭幕仪式

　　And so I thought I'd come up here and unveil my real voice to you.  所以我觉得我应该来到这里把我真实的声音展现给你们

　　Although many of you already know that I do speak the Queen's English because I am from Queens, New York. 虽然在座的很多人都知道我确实说一口纯正的“英国女王式”英语，因为我来自纽约的皇后区

　　But the theme of this session, of course, is invention.  但是这一节的主题是创造

　　And while I don't have any patents that I'm aware of, you will be meeting a few of my inventions today. 据我所知，我自己没有任何专利，那么你们只能来认识一下我今天现场发挥的几个发明了

　　I suppose it's fair to say that I am interested in the invention of self or selves. 我觉得老实说，我很喜欢发现另一个或者好多个新的自我

　　We're all born into certain circumstances with particular physical traits,  我们每个人都有与生俱来的身体特征

　　unique developmental experiences, geographical⁵ and historical contexts. But then what? 独特的成长经历和地理历史环境的影响。但除此之外又能怎么样呢

　　To what extent do we self-construct, do we self-invent?  我们在多大程度上尝试过重塑自我和发现自我呢

　　How do we self-identify and how mutable is that identity?  我们该如何定义自我，我们的身份又是如何可变的呢

　　Like, what if one could be anyone at any time?  比如说，一个人在任何时候都能变成另外任何一个人，这又会怎样呢

　　Well my characters, like the ones in my shows, allow me to play with the spaces between those questions. 那么在接下来的这段表演中，我要呈现给大家的各个角色，使得我能够用一种轻松的方式来探讨这些问题

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。

3 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

4 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

5 geographical   

adj.地理的；地区(性)的

参考例句：

• The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
• These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。