中国留学生哈佛演讲

 美国东部时间2016年5月26日是哈佛的第365个毕业日，在这次的毕业典礼上，来自中国湖南的生物系博士生毕业生何江作为代表做了毕业典礼演讲。每年哈佛毕业典礼都会有三位学生做演讲，而今年，著名导演史蒂芬·斯皮尔伯格作为今年的特邀嘉宾登台演讲。

何江是中国大陆首位登上该演讲台的学生。作为一名从湖南农村长大的生物学博士生，何江用他的亲身经历——被蜘蛛咬伤的往事讲起，说明知识传播、知识分布资源平衡的重要性。在演讲过程中，他面带微笑、镇定自若，向世界展示了中国学子的风采。

 中国留学生首次在哈佛毕业演讲

以下为演讲全文：

When I was in middle school, a poisonous spider bit my right hand. I ran to my mom for help, but instead of taking to a doctor, my Mom set my hand on fire. After rubbing my hand with several mares of cotton then soaked in wine,she put a chopstick into my mouth and ignited the cotton.

在我上中学的时候，一只有毒蜘蛛咬伤了我的右手，我去找母亲帮忙，但是她没有找医生，却把我的手放在火上面。她用酒浸过的棉纱绕着我的手缠了好几层之后，在我的嘴里放了一根筷子，然后点燃了棉纱。

【语言点解析】

Poisonous表示有毒的；恶毒的；讨厌的。例句：A lot of poisonous waste water comes from that chemical factory. 那个化工厂排出大量有毒的废水。

Heat quickly penetrated¹ the cotton and began to roast my hand. The searing pain made me want to scream but the chopstick prevented it. All I could do was watch my hand bone, one minute, then two minutes, until my mom put off the fire.

棉纱上的温度很快上来了，我的手也开始发烫。这股灼痛让我想要大叫，不过我嘴里含着的筷子让我叫不出来。我唯一能做的就是看着我的手骨，一分钟过去了，两分钟过去了，直到母亲熄灭火。

You see the Public China I grew up in was a rural village, and at that time, pre industrial. When I was born, my village had no cars, no telephones, no electricity, not even running water and we certainly didn’t had access to the modern medical resources.

所以你看到，我是在中国的一个小山村里成长的，在那个时候，并不发达。在我出生的那个年代，我们村没车、没电话、也没电，甚至都没有自来水！且理所当然地，我没有接触现代医疗资源的办法。

There was no doctor my mother could bring me to see about this spider bite. For those who study Biology, you may have brought the science behind my mom’s cure: heat deactivates² proteins and the spider venom³ is full of protein. It’s cool how could this folk remedy incorporate with the base of biochemistry, isn’t it?

当我被蜘蛛咬伤时，并没有医生可以来治疗我。对于学生物学的人来说，你也许能找到我母亲治愈背后所包含的科学原理：热量能够让蛋白质失活，而蜘蛛的毒液都是蛋白质组成的。将这个土方子和生物化学基础联系起来很神奇，不是吗？

【语言点解析】

Folk remedy表示偏方。例句：The active component⁴, willow⁵ bark, was used as a folk remedy as long ago as the 5th century BC. 它来自早在公元前五世纪就被用于民间配方的柳树皮，是这种树皮的一种有效成分。

But I am a Ph.D student in Biochemistry study at Harvard, I now know a better, less painful and less risky⁶ treatment existed. So, I can’t help but ask myself, why I did’t receive one at that time?

不过我现在是一个在哈佛学习生物化学的博士生，我现在知道了一个更好的、不那么痛、危险系数更小的治疗方法。所以，我忍不住问我自己，为什么那个时候我不能接受更好的治疗吗？

Fifteen years have passed since that incident, I am happy to report that my hand is fine. But this question lingers and I continued to be troubled by the unequal distribution of scientific knowledge throughout the world.

距离那个事故发生已经十五年了，我很高兴地告诉你们：我的手现在恢复地很好。不过这个问题在我心里萦绕了很久，我也时常会被科学知识分布的不均衡问题所困扰。

【语言点解析】

Linger表示：徘徊；苟延残喘；缓慢度过。例句：The girl lingered by the lake until it was dark. 女孩在湖畔一直徘徊到天黑。

We have learn to edit the human geneal and uncover many secrets of how cancer progressing. We can manipulate neuron activity literally⁷ with the switch of light. Each year with more advances in Biomedical research, exciting transformative accomplishment⁸.

我们曾学习过如何编辑人类基因谱，揭示了许多关于癌症的秘密。我们能够轻松地操控神经元的活动。生物医药研究每年都会有很多进步和令人振奋的变革、成就。

Yet despite the knowledge we had on that, we haven’t be so successful deploying⁹ it to where need it most. According to the World Bank, 12% of world population lives on less than 2 dollars a day.

虽然我们取得了很多成就，但是我们却不能将这些成就传递到最需要它的地方。据世界银行统计数据表明，世界人口的12%一天的生活费不到2美元。

Malnutrition¹⁰ kills more than 3 millions children annually¹¹. Three hundred million people are afflicted¹² by Malaria¹³ globally. All over the world, we constantly see the problem of poverty, illness and lack of resources impeding¹⁴ the flow scientific information.

每年都有三百万的儿童死于营养不良。全球有三亿的人收到疟疾的影响。在全世界，我们能看到无数的贫困问题，病痛问题以及资源匮乏导致科学信息不流通的问题。

Life-saving knowledge took for granted in our modern world is over-unavailable in the underdeveloped regions. And so, in far to many places, people are still essentially¹⁵ trying to cure a spider bite with fire.

救生知识在现代化的世界是理所当然的，不过在经济欠发达地区却是高不可及的。所以，在许许多多地方，人们还是用火来治疗蜘蛛的咬伤。

【语言点解析】

 Take it for granted表示：认为理所当然；视为当然；理所当然；想当然。例句：It's something we all take for granted: our ability to look at an object, near or far, and bring it instantly into focus.  这是一个我们习以为常的事情：不管物体是远是近，我们的眼睛总能在看到物体的时候迅速完成对焦。

While studying at Harvard, I saw how scientific knowledge can help others in simple, in profound ways. The burst through pandemic in 2000 took my village like a spell cast by demons¹⁶.

在哈佛学习期间，我知道了科学知识是如何用简单的又深刻的方式帮助到其他人的。2000年的一次流感使我的家乡像被恶魔下了诅咒一般。

Our folk medicine didn’t even have half-mattress offer. What’s more, farmers did not know the difference between the common cold and flu. They did not understand that the flu is much more lethal¹⁷ than common cold. Most of all are also unaware¹⁸ that the virus are transmitted  by animal species.

我们的民间治疗根本找不到解决办法。更严重的是，农民们不知道普通的感冒和流感之间的区别。他们不明白流感比普通的感冒要致命地多。他们中的大多数人都对病毒在动物种类间的传播没有概念。

【语言点解析】

Transmit表示传输、传送；短语transmitted ray表示透射光。例句：He has transmitted the report to us. 他已经把报告传送给我们。

So when I realize that simple hygiene¹⁹ practices like separate different animal species could help contain this kind of disease and that I could help this kind of knowledge available to my village.

所以我意识到简单的卫生治疗方法例如将动物隔离可以治疗这种病时，我可以用这种方式让我的家乡更快接受这种科学知识。

That was my first "aha" moment as a bioscientist. But it was more than that: it was also a vital inflection point of my own ethical²⁰ development, my own self-understanding as a member of global community.

那是我作为生物科学家的第一次惊叹。不过也不仅仅就此而已：这也是我自身理念提升的至关重要的一个转折，也是关于我作为地球上一员的自我理解的转折。

Harvard dares us to dream big, to aspire²¹, to change the world. Here on this Commencement Day, we are appropriate the thinking of grand destination that wait us .

哈佛鼓励我们有大梦想，去激励我们改变这个世界。在这个毕业日，我们也可以想象等待我们的伟大宏图。

As for me, I am also thinking of the farmers in my village. My experience here reminds me how important it is for researchers to communicate our knowledges, to those who need it. Because by using the science we already have, we can proper my village and thousands like it into the world you and I take for granted every day and that’s an impact every one of us can made.

但是对于我来说，我还在想着我家乡的农民们。我的经历让我意识到，将知识传递给需要的人是多么重要。因为，运用我们所知道的知识，我们可以将知识传递到我的家乡和千万个像我家乡一样的地方带进这个我们在座每个人所习以为常的世界。

But the question is, will we make the effort , or not?

不过问题是，我们会不会尽力呢？

More than ever before, our society emphasized our science and innovation, but an equally important emphasis should on distributing the knowledge we had to those who needed.

很久之前，我们的社会就强调过科学和创新的重要性，但是同等重要的，我们应该强调将这些知识平等地传递给需要它的人的重要性。

Changing the world doesn’t mean that everyone should find the next big thing. It can be a simplest to become a better communicator and find more creative ways to pass on the knowledge we had, to people like my mom and farmers in the local communities.

改变世界并不是说每个人都应该发现下一个伟大的东西。改变世界可以是简单的方式，比如成为一个更好的传播者，发现更多有创造力的传播知识给像我的妈妈和农民这样生活在未工业化地区的人的方式。

【语言点解析】                   

 Pass on表示：传递；继续；去世。例句：He has passed me on all the materials which he had got together. 他把已搜集到的材料全交给了我。

Our society also need to recognize that the equal distribution of knowledge is a pivotal step to the human development and we will work to bring this into a reality.

我们的社会也应当明白知识的平衡分布是人类进步不可或缺的一步，这需要我们的努力来实现。

And if we do that, then perhaps a teenager in rural China with a beat by a poisonous spider will no longer burn his hand but will know to see a doctor instead.

如果我们努力了，一个在中国农村的青少年被毒蜘蛛咬了的话，就不用再火疗而是去见医生了。

Thank you !

谢谢！

1 penetrated   

adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The knife had penetrated his chest. 刀子刺入了他的胸膛。
• They penetrated into territory where no man had ever gone before. 他们已进入先前没人去过的地区。

2 deactivates   

v.解除动员( deactivate的第三人称单数 )；使无效；复员；使不活动

参考例句：

• Pulling out the alarm switch activates alarm and pushing it deactivates it. 闹钟的开和关是通过拔出和按入闹铃开关实现的。 来自互联网
• The HOLD switch deactivates the buttons on the cassette holder. HOLD开关可使卡带架上的钮键失效。 来自互联网

3 venom   

n.毒液，恶毒，痛恨

参考例句：

• The snake injects the venom immediately after biting its prey.毒蛇咬住猎物之后马上注入毒液。
• In fact,some components of the venom may benefit human health.事实上，毒液的某些成分可能有益于人类健康。

4 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

5 willow   

n.柳树

参考例句：

• The river was sparsely lined with willow trees.河边疏疏落落有几棵柳树。
• The willow's shadow falls on the lake.垂柳的影子倒映在湖面上。

6 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

7 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。

8 accomplishment   

n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能

参考例句：

• The series of paintings is quite an accomplishment.这一系列的绘画真是了不起的成就。
• Money will be crucial to the accomplishment of our objectives.要实现我们的目标，钱是至关重要的。

9 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

10 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

11 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。

12 afflicted   

使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• About 40% of the country's population is afflicted with the disease. 全国40%左右的人口患有这种疾病。
• A terrible restlessness that was like to hunger afflicted Martin Eden. 一阵可怕的、跟饥饿差不多的不安情绪折磨着马丁·伊登。

13 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

14 impeding   

a.(尤指坏事)即将发生的，临近的

参考例句：

• Fallen rock is impeding the progress of rescue workers. 坠落的石头阻滞了救援人员的救援进程。
• Is there sufficient room for the kiosk and kiosk traffic without impeding other user traffic? 该环境下是否有足够的空间来摆放信息亭？信息亭是否会妨碍交通或者行走？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

15 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

16 demons   

n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念

参考例句：

• demons torturing the sinners in Hell 地狱里折磨罪人的魔鬼
• He is plagued by demons which go back to his traumatic childhood. 他为心魔所困扰，那可追溯至他饱受创伤的童年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

18 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

19 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

20 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

21 aspire   

vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于

参考例句：

• Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
• I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。