历史英雄名人演讲 第118期:哥伦比亚女歌手夏奇拉在牛津大学的演讲:教育的民主化

 　　16.The Democratization of Education---Commencement Address by Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll at Oxford¹ University 16.教育的民主化——哥伦比亚女歌手夏奇拉在牛津大学的演讲

　　I have a fantasy about this future that I want to share with you today. 我有一个对未来的幻想，在此我想和在座的各位一起分享。

　　Let me put it this way, if civilization were a car, 让我这么说吧，如果把文明比作一辆汽车，

　　we would have been cruising at 20 miles per hour for millions of years only to hit light speed in the last hundred. 那么数百万年以来我们一直在以每小时20英里的速度平稳行驶，但在最近的一百年里，它却飞驰如光远。

　　So I wonder what made us accelerate so quickly recently and how can we continue this pace? 所以，我在想：是什么让我们的文明在最近这些年迅猛发展，我们又该如何保持这个速度呢？

　　There is only one explanation to me, and that's the democratization of education. 于我而言，答案只有一个，那就是教育的民主化。

　　I strongly believe that the best is yet to come, with universal access to education to feed our collective intelligence, 我深信最好的日子还没有到来。通过普及教育来丰富我们集体的知识宝库，

　　with our commitment to meet and organize in places like this, 通过我们的努力把大家召集到类似今天这种地方，

　　with students like you-we could be so close to create a network of intellects, 通过像你们这样的学生建立起一个人才网络、

　　an enormous think tank devoted² to sharing the best ideas and inspiring each other to keep learning, 一个巨大的思想宝库，然后通过这个知识网络和思想库来分享最好的思想，激励彼此不断学习，

　　keep informing and keep advancing our world, and finding solutions to our common issues. Wouldn't that be great? 不断增长知识，以及让我们的世界不断发展前进，并为我们共同关心的问题找到解决方法。这该有多么美好啊！

　　We have evolved so far in history, with so many technological³ advances in just the past century, 在人类历史的长河中，我们繁衍生息。在过去一个世纪中我们取得了许多科技进步，

　　so, how will we evolve in the next ten years, or twenty years, or fifty years- 那么在未来的十年、二十年、或五十年中我们又将如何发展呢?

　　now that we know that the world has shrunk and has become just one big neighborhood. 我们知道现在世界已经变小了，演化成了一个大社区。

　　You are the architects of change. So tell me, how many things that seem inconceivable today will be obvious tomorrow? 你们是这些变化的设计师。那么请告诉我，有多少在今天看来不可思议的事情会在明天成为现实？

　　How long will man live? How will society be structured? 人类将会活多久?社会将会如何构架？

　　Will we still be organized in couples, in communities with very nice governance? 我们还会实行夫妻制吗？我们还会在管理有序的社区生活吗？

　　Sadly, at the current pace of change, we won't have universal access to education in a hundred years, let alone five. That is unacceptable. 悲哀的是，按照目前发展的速度，我们再用100年也无法普及教育，更别说五年了。这个事实让人难以接受。

　　Especially, when the world has the resources to feed itself several times over, then, why are children starving? 尤其是，当这个世界有成倍的资源用来养活自己的时候，为什么还有孩子在挨饿？

　　Latin America, alone has 3 times the necessary abundance to feed its entire population. 例如，拉丁美洲，它拥有能够供给其三倍人口的充裕食物。

　　These children can't wait; they can't wait a hundred more years. 这些孩子不能再等了，他们不能再等一百年了。

　　They need us to cure a child with Leukemia or AIDS with a simple pill or with a breakthrough vaccine⁴. 他们需要我们用一粒简单的药片或一种突破性的疫苗来治好孩子的白血病或艾滋病。

　　We need to live in a world in which together we can find a solution to global warming 我们需要生活在这样一个世界里，我们可以共同寻找全冻变暖的解决方案，

　　so we don't have to worry every time a single storm begins to form on the horizon. 这样我们就不用担心随时可能有风暴发生。

　　We need to find new ways to distribute food so no child goes to bed hungry. 我们需要找到新的方法来分配食物，让孩子们不会饿着肚子睡觉。

　　And I know that education is our ticket. 而教育，我知道，就是我们的方法。

1 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

2 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

3 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

4 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。