我是看科幻小说长大的。高中时，我每天坐一小时的公交车上下学。我总是沉迷于科幻小说，这些书将我带到了另外的世界，用叙述的方式满足了我无止境的好奇心。

　　And you know that curiosity also manifested itself in the fact that whenever I wasn't in school I was out in the woods, hiking and taking "samples", frogs and snakes and bugs and pond water, and bringing it back, looking at it under the microscope. But I was, you know, I was a real science geek. But it was all about trying to understand the world, understand the limits of possibility.

　　大家知道好奇心可以通过事实表现出来。每当我不在学校，我总会在树林里游荡，寻找一些“样品”，比如青蛙、蛇、虫子或者池水，我把它们带回家放在显微镜下观察。你知道，我是一个真的科学发烧友。但我只是在试图了解这个世界，想找到潜力的极限。

　　And my, you know, love of science fiction actually seemed to be mirrored in the world around me, because what was happening, this was in the late 60's, you know, we were going to the moon, we were exploring the deep oceans. Jacques Cousteau was coming into our living rooms with his amazing specials that showed us animals and places and a wondrous world that we could never really have previously imagined. So, that seemed to resonate with the whole science fiction part of it.

　　你知道，我对科幻小说的热爱或许是那个时代的写照。因为所发生的事情，你知道，这是60年代末期，人类登上了月球，同时还去探索深海。雅克·库斯托的特别节目走进了我们的客厅，让我们看到了不同的动物和地方，一个我们以前想都没有想过的世界。这或许和科幻小说可以产生共鸣吧。

　　And I was an artist. I could draw. I could paint. And I found that because there weren't, you know, video games and this saturation of CG movies and all of this imagery in the media landscape, I had to create these images in my head. You know, we all did, as kids having to read a book, and through the author's description put something on the screen, the movie screen in our heads. And so, my response to this was to paint, to draw alien creatures, alien worlds, robots, spaceships, all that stuff. I was endlessly getting busted in math class, you know, doodling behind the textbook. And that was, the creativity had to find its outlet somehow.

　　我是一个艺术家。我会画画。我也会画油画。我发现，你知道，没有计算机游戏和电脑合成技术，没有媒体的那些影响，我只能自己在脑海中创造这些形象。我们像孩子们一样，读书的时候会根据作者的描述在脑海中想象出一些画面，一些电影的画面。我对此的反应是是画一些外星生物，外星球、机器人、宇宙飞船等东西。在数学课上，我总是在数学课本上，你知道的，乱画。那是发泄创造力的一种途径。

　　重点讲解：

　　1. a diet of sth.

　　大量；

　　eg. Children today are brought up on a diet of television cartoons and soap operas.

　　如今的孩子是看电视上的动画片和肥皂剧长大的。

　　eg. The radio had fed him a diet of pop songs.

　　他从广播里听到的都是千篇一律的流行歌曲。

　　2. be abosorbed in

　　极感兴趣的；专心的；全神贯注的；

　　eg. They were completely absorbed in each other.

　　两人彼此倾心。

　　eg. I get so absorbed in doing something that I am unaware of things happening round me.

　　我做事太过专心以致于对周围发生的事情丝毫未察觉。

　　3. manifest oneself in

　　使表现出来；使显露出来；

　　eg. The virus needs two weeks to manifest itself.

　　这种病毒潜伏两周时间才会发作。

　　eg. Their frustration and anger will manifest itself in crying and screaming.

　　他们用哭泣与尖叫表达自己的沮丧和愤怒。

　　4. response to

　　回复；回答；回应

　　eg. There has been no response to his remarks from the government.

　　政府尚未对他的言论作出回应。

　　eg. Your positive response will reinforce her actions.

　　你积极的回应会使她的行为更加坚定。

　　背景资料：

　　詹姆斯·卡梅隆无疑是一位成功的导演，他大胆的尝试和对梦想的坚持让他的电影备受瞩目。本篇是詹姆斯·卡梅隆在2010年的TED大会（TED是Technology, Entertainment, Design的缩写，这个会议的宗旨是“用思想的力量来改变世界”）做的演讲。詹姆斯·卡梅隆以自述的方式从回忆自己的童年爱好开始，一直追溯到自己从电影学院毕业后走上导演道路的人生经历。在演讲最后卡梅隆告诉人们：“失败是一个选项，但畏惧不是。”