TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(6)

 　　So a couple of years ago, I thought I would take some time out and speak to that gigantic database and ask it, 所以几年以后，我认为我可以抽出些时间来跟那个庞大的数据库聊聊，问问它，

　　why do some people prefer one country more than another? 为什么有些人相比于另一个国家，更喜欢一个国家？

　　And the answer that the database gave me completely staggered me. It was 6.8. 数据库给我的答案完全出乎我的意料。答案是6.8。

　　I haven't got time to explain in detail. 我没时间解释详情。

　　Basically what it told me was... the kinds of countries we prefer are good countries. 基本上它告诉我的是--我们喜欢的国家是好国家。

　　We don't admire countries primarily because they're rich, because they're powerful, 我们不会因为有些国家富有而爱慕它们，或因为它们有权势，

　　because they're successful, because they're modern, because they're technologically¹ advanced. 因为它们成功，因为他们现代化，因为他们有先进的科技。

　　We primarily admire countries that are good. What do we mean by good? 我们爱慕一个国家因为它们好。“好”是什么意思？

　　We mean countries that seem to contribute something to the world in which we live, 我们指的是那些国家对我们所居住的世界作出了贡献，

　　countries that actually make the world safer or better or richer or fairer. 那些让世界更安全或更好或富有或更公平的国家。

　　Those are the countries we like. This is a discovery of significant importance 这些是我们喜欢的国家。这是一个有重大意义的发现，

　　you see where I'm going -- because it squares the circle. 你知道我要说什么了--因为它解释了一切。

　　I can now say, and often do, to any government, in order to do well, you need to do good. 我现在可以说，而且经常说，对任何政府，想要做得好，就要做好事。

　　If you want to sell more products, if you want to get more investment, 如果你想卖更多产品，如果你想得到更多投资，

　　if you want to become more competitive, then you need to start behaving, 如果你想变得更有竞争力，那你就得开始好好表现，

　　because that's why people will respect you and do business with you, 这样人们才会尊重你，与你展开商务往来，

　　and therefore, the more you collaborate², the more competitive you become. 因此，你合作得越多，你就越有竞争力。

　　This is quite an important discovery, and as soon as I discovered this, I felt another index coming on. 这是一个相当重要的发现。我一发现这一点，我感到另一个指数的必要性。

　　I swear that as I get older, my ideas become simpler and more and more childish. 我发誓我年龄越大，我的想法就越简单，也会越孩子气。

　　This one is called the Good Country Index, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. 这个指数叫好国家指数。它所做的完全是它的字面意思。

　　It measures, or at least it tries to measure, 它衡量，起码试图衡量，

　　exactly how much each country on Earth contributes not to its own population but to the rest of humanity. 地球上每个国家到底贡献了多少，不是对它本身的国民而是其余的人类。

　　Bizarrely, nobody had ever thought of measuring this before. 奇怪的是，从来没有人想过要来衡量这个。

　　So my colleague Dr. Robert Govers and I have spent the best part of the last two years, 我的同事Robert Govers博士和我花了过去两年的大部分时间，

　　with the help of a large number of very serious and clever people, 在许多非常认真而聪明的人们的帮助下，

　　cramming³ together all the reliable data in the world we could find about what countries give to the world. 搜集了世界上所有我们能找到的或国家愿意向世界提供的数据。

1 technologically   

ad.技术上地

参考例句：

• Shanghai is a technologically advanced city. 上海是中国的一个技术先进的城市。
• Many senior managers are technologically illiterate. 许多高级经理都对技术知之甚少。

2 collaborate   

vi.协作，合作；协调

参考例句：

• The work gets done more quickly when we collaborate.我们一旦合作，工作做起来就更快了。
• I would ask you to collaborate with us in this work.我们愿意请你们在这项工作中和我们合作。

3 cramming   

n.塞满，填鸭式的用功v.塞入( cram的现在分词 )；填塞；塞满；（为考试而）死记硬背功课

参考例句：

• Being hungry for the whole morning, I couldn't help cramming myself. 我饿了一上午，禁不住狼吞虎咽了起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She's cramming for her history exam. 她考历史之前临时抱佛脚。 来自《简明英汉词典》