马歇尔发表这个演讲三十年后，也就是三十年前，我那一届学生毕业，当然我不在其中。那时，新技术刚刚开始萌芽，它们将使得这个世界变得更小、更开放、更容易看到、距离更近。

　　The emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed opportunities for learning and communicating.

　　低成本的个人电脑的出现，使得一个强大的互联网诞生，它为学习和交流提供了巨大的机会。

　　The magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes everyone your neighbor. It also dramatically increases the number of brilliant minds we can bring in and work together on the same problem—and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering degree.

　　网络的神奇之处，不仅仅是它缩短了物理距离，使得天涯若比邻。它还极大地增加了怀有共同想法的人们聚集在一起的机会，我们可以为了解决同一个问题，一起共同工作。这就大大加快了革新的进程，发展速度简直让人震惊。

　　At the same time, for every person in the world who has access to this technology, five people don't. That means many creative minds are left out of this discussion—smart people with practical intelligence and relevant experience who don't have the technology to hone their talents or contribute their ideas to the world.

　　与此同时，世界上有条件上网的人只是全部人口的六分之一。这意味着，许多有创造性思想的人们，没有加入到我们的讨论中来。那些有着实际的智力水平和相关经验的人才，却没有技术来帮助他们，将他们的天赋或者想法与全世界分享。

　　We need as many people as possible to gain access to this technology, because these advances are triggering a revolution in what human beings can do for one another. They are making it possible not just for national governments, but for universities, corporations, smaller organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see approaches, and measure the impact of their efforts to address the hunger, poverty, and desperation George Marshall spoke of 60 years ago.

　　我们需要尽可能地让更多的人有机会使用这项技术，因为这些新技术正在引发一场革命，人类将因此可以互相帮助。这些新技术正在创造一种可能，不仅是国家政府，还包括大学、公司、小机构、甚至个人，能够发现问题所在、能够找到解决办法、能够评估他们努力的效果，去改变马歇尔六十年前就说过的问题——饥饿、贫穷和绝望。

　　give rise to

　　使发生，引起

　　eg. The jump in food price give rise to a lot of complaint.

　　食品价格的猛涨引起了许多不满。

　　collapse

　　vt. 瓦解

　　eg. Despite their efforts the project collapsed.

　　虽然经过他们努力，这个规划还是失败了。

　　staggering

　　adj. 令人震惊的

　　eg. The variety of goods that the peddlers sold was staggering.

　　小商贩们卖的商品种类繁多。

　　hone

　　vt. 锤炼，使精通

　　eg. He runs every day to hone his stamina.

　　为了增强耐力，他每天都进行跑步锻炼。

　　trigger

　　vt. 引发

　　eg. The earthquake may trigger landslides or similar local surficial movements.

　　地震会引起滑坡或类似的局部地表运动。

　　desperation

　　n. 失望，绝望

　　eg. The prisoner clawed at the cell door in desperation.

　　囚犯绝望地乱抓牢房的门。