TED演讲:站在救灾前沿

 　　That was me in front of our house in Monson, Massachusetts last June. 那个就是我，在麻省的Monson，我们的房子前面，

　　After an EF3 tornado¹ ripped straight through our town and took parts of our roof off, 一股EF3级龙卷风袭击了这里，掀翻了我们的屋顶

　　I decided² to stay in Massachusetts instead of pursuing the master's program 我决定留在麻省，而不是去读硕士

　　I had moved my boxes home that afternoon for.  那个下午我已把经箱子搬回了家

　　So, on June 1st we weren't disaster experts, but on June 3rd we started faking it. 6月1号时我们还不是灾难专家，但从3号我们就假装是了

　　This experience changed our lives.  这段经历改变了我们的生活

　　And now we're trying to change the experience.  现在我们要努力去改变它

　　So tornadoes⁴ don't happen in Massachusetts. 龙卷风一般不会袭击麻省

　　And I was cleverly standing⁵ in the front yard when one came over the hill. 当时我正灵巧地站在前院，一个龙卷风从山丘上刮来

　　After a lamppost flew by, my family and I sprinted⁶ into the basement.  一个路灯杆在身边飞过，我和家人迅速冲进了地下室

　　Trees were thrown against the house, the windows exploded.  树木呗吹向房子,砸碎玻璃

　　When we finally got out the back door, transformers were burning in the street. 当我们终于从后门出去的时候，一些多变压器在街上燃烧

　　So I was here in Boston. 我当时就在波士顿

　　I'm a PhD student at MIT, and I happen to study atmospheric⁷ science. 我是一个MIT的博士生，我碰巧是学大气环境科学的

　　Actually it gets weirder⁸.  巧合还不止这些

　　So I was in the museum of science at the time the tornado hit, playing with the tornado display. 龙卷风来袭的时候，我在科学博物馆玩模拟龙卷风的仪器

　　So I missed her call.  所以我没接到她的电话

　　So I get the call from Caitria, I hear the news, Caitria给我打来电话,告诉了我消息,

　　and I start tracking the radar⁹ online to call the family back when another supercell was forming in their area. 于是我开始在网上观察雷达图像，当又一个漏斗云形成的时候，叫家里人回去

　　And I drove home late that night with batteries and ice.  之后我带着电池和冰块连夜开车回家

　　We live across the street from an historic church that had lost its very iconic steeple in the storm. 我家对面是一个老教堂，它标志性的尖顶被大风吹走了

　　It had become a community gathering¹⁰ place overnight.  一夜之间成了附近居民的避难所

　　The town hall and the police department had also suffered direct hits,  市政厅和警察局也遭到破坏

　　and so people wanting to help or needing information went to the church. 因此需要帮助和消息的人们去了教堂

　　We walked up to the church because we heard that they had hot meals, 我们去了教堂,因为听说他们没饭吃

　　but when we arrived we found problems.  不过到了那儿却发现些问题

　　There were a couple large, sweaty men with chainsaws standing in the center of the church, 有几个汗津津的壮汉拿着电锯，站在教堂中间

　　but nobody knew where to send them because no one knew the extent of the damage yet. 但是没人知道让他们去哪里，因为还不知道破坏有多严重

　　And as we watched, they became frustrated¹¹ and left to go find somebody to help on their own. 我们看着他们很沮丧地离开了，去找一些他们可以帮助的人

　　So we started organizing. 于是我们开始组织大家

　　Why? It had to be done. We found Pastor¹² Bob and offered to give the response some infrastructure¹³. 因为总得有人去做。我们找到了Pastor Bob，他主动去帮助修复基础设施

　　And then armed with just two laptops and one AirCard, we built a recovery machine. 之后带着两个笔记本电脑和一张AirCard (注:AirCard是一种无线网卡)，我们组建了一个重建机器

　　That was a tornado, and everyone's heading to the church to drop things off and volunteer. 那是个龙卷风，每个人都去教堂去放下些物资,志愿帮助大家

　　Everyone's donating clothing. 每个人都在捐衣服

　　We should really inventory¹⁴ the donations that are piling up here.  我们应该把这些捐来的东西储存起来

　　Yeah, and we need a hotline. Can you make a Google Voice number? 没错，我们需要一条热线。你能不能弄个谷歌电话的号码

　　Yeah, sure. And we need to tell people what not to bring. 没问题。我们还需要告诉人们不该带什么

　　I'll make a Facebook account. Can you print fliers for the neighborhoods?  我去创建一个Facebook帐户，你能把那些传单打印出来吗?

　　Yeah, but we don't even know what houses are accepting help at this point. 好。不过我们不知到现在哪些房子会接受帮助

　　We need to canvas and send out volunteers.  我们需要做个调查,然后派出志愿者

　　We need to tell people what not to bring.  我们需要告诉人们不要带什么

　　Hey, there's a news truck. I'll tell them.  看，那儿有个新闻车，我去告诉他们

　　You got my number off the news?  你是从新闻上看到我号码的?

　　We don't need any more freezers.  我们的冷柜已经够用了

　　The insurance won't cover it? You need a crew to tar³ your roof? Six packs of juice boxes arriving in one hour?  保险公司不赔偿这个? 你需要一队人去重新刷你的房顶? 六箱果汁还有一小时就到?

　　Someone get me Post-its!  谁帮我把便利贴拿来!

　　And then the rest of the community figured out that we had answers. 后来其余的邻居们发现我们心里有数

　　I can donate three water heaters, but someone needs to come pick them up. 我可以捐3个热水器，不过需要有人来把它们拿走

　　My car is in my living room.  我的车在客厅里

　　My boyscout troop would like to rebuild 12 mailboxes.  我的童子军能做12个邮箱

　　The puppy's missing, and insurance just doesn't cover the chimneys.  有只小狗不见了,保险公司不担保烟囱

　　My church group of 50 would like housing and meals for a week while we repair properties. 我50人的教堂小队能在大家重建家园时，提供一周的住所和食物

　　You sent me to that place on Washington Street yesterday, and now I'm covered in poison ivy¹⁵. 你昨天把我送到华盛顿街的那个地方，现在我浑身都是毒葛

　　So this is what filled our days.  这些充实了我们的日子

　　We had to learn how to answer questions quickly and to solve problems in about a minute or less, 我们必须学会如和快速找到方法，然后在1分钟内解决问题

　　because otherwise something more urgent would come up, and it just wouldn't get done. 否则会出现更紧急的情况，于是问题永远解决不了

1 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 tar   

n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于

参考例句：

• The roof was covered with tar.屋顶涂抹了一层沥青。
• We use tar to make roads.我们用沥青铺路。

4 tornadoes   

n.龙卷风，旋风( tornado的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Tornadoes, severe earthquakes, and plagues create wide spread havoc. 龙卷风、大地震和瘟疫成普遍的毁坏。 来自互联网
• Meteorologists are at odds over the working of tornadoes. 气象学者对龙卷风的运动方式看法不一。 来自互联网

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 sprinted   

v.短距离疾跑( sprint的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sprinted for the line. 他向终点线冲去。
• Sergeant Horne sprinted to the car. 霍恩中士全力冲向那辆汽车。 来自辞典例句

7 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

8 weirder   

怪诞的( weird的比较级 )； 神秘而可怕的； 超然的； 古怪的

参考例句：

• Actually, things got a little weirder when the tow truck driver showed up. 事实上，在拖吊车司机出现后，事情的发展更加怪异。

9 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

10 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

11 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 pastor   

n.牧师，牧人

参考例句：

• He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
• We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。

13 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

14 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

15 ivy   

n.常青藤，常春藤

参考例句：

• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
• The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。