TED演讲：用"云"建立一所学校(6)

 　　But I was curious to know, what else would they do if they could do this much?  但我好奇地是，他们既已达到如此水平还能干些别的什么？

　　I started experimenting with other subjects, among them, for example, pronunciation.  我开始在他们中间用别的课题作实验，例如，发音。

　　There's one community of children in southern India whose English pronunciation is really bad,  在南印度，有一个社区的孩子们英语发音非常糟糕，

　　and they needed good pronunciation because that would improve their jobs.  而他们需要更好的发音来找到更好地工作。

　　I gave them a speech-to-text engine in a computer, and I said, "Keep talking into it until it types what you say."  我给了他们一台带有语音转换文字工具的电脑，我说，“一直对着它讲话直到你讲的东西被打出来。”

　　They did that, and watch a little bit of this. 他们照做了，并看了一会儿。

　　Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. 很高兴见到你。很高兴见到你。

　　The reason I ended with the face of this young lady over there is because I suspect many of you know her.  视频结尾给了这个年轻女孩的脸一个特写，因为我猜你们当中有许多人可能知道她。

　　She has now joined a call center in Hyderabad and may have tortured you about your credit card bills in a very clear English accent. 她如今在海得拉巴的一个呼叫中心工作，也许曾为了你的信用卡账单骚扰过你，用她那纯正的英式口音。

　　So then people said, well, how far will it go? Where does it stop?  那么有人会说，还能到什么程度？到什么程度为止？

　　I decided¹ I would destroy my own argument by creating an absurd² proposition³.  我为此想出来一个可笑的计划，用来打败我自己之前的论证。

　　I made a hypothesis⁴, a ridiculous hypothesis.  我做了一个假设，一个荒唐的假设。

　　Tamil is a south Indian language, and I said, can Tamil-speaking children in a south Indian village learn the biotechnology of DNA⁵ replication in English from a streetside computer?  泰米尔语是南印度的一种语言，我想，在南印度村庄里说泰米尔语的孩子可能通过一台街边的电脑学会用英语表述的关于DNA复制的生物技术科学吗？

　　And I said, I'll measure them. They'll get a zero.  我想，考他们这个，他们肯定得零分。

　　I'll spend a couple of months, I'll leave it for a couple of months, I'll go back, they'll get another zero.  我要花上几个月，离开几个月，然后回来，再考下他们，应该还是零分。

　　I'll go back to the lab and say, we need teachers.  接着我会回到实验室并说，我们需要老师。

　　I found a village. It was called Kallikuppam in southern India.  我找到了一个村子。它叫Kallikuppam，位于南印度。

　　I put in Hole in the Wall computers there, downloaded all kinds of stuff from the Internet about DNA replication, most of which I didn't understand. 我在墙洞里装上了电脑，从网上下载了各种关于DNA复制的东西，绝大部分我都不懂。

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 absurd   

adj.荒谬的，荒诞的，荒唐可笑的，不合理的

参考例句：

• It is ridiculously absurd to believe that the number 13 is unlucky.相信数字13是个不吉祥的数字是荒唐可笑的。
• It was absurd of you to do such a thing.你做那样的事是愚蠢的。

3 proposition   

n.建议，命题，主张；vt.向...提议，向...调情

参考例句：

• The two teams prepared to debate the given proposition.两个队准备就所给定的命题展开辩论。
• It is clearly illogical to maintain such a proposition.坚持这种主张显然是没有道理的。

4 hypothesis   

n.假说，假设，(无根据的)猜测，揣测

参考例句：

• We have proved the hypothesis.我们已经证明了这种假设。
• The results confirmed his hypothesis on the use of modal verbs.结果证实了他的关于情态动词用法的假设。

5 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。