TED演讲： 不要固执于英语(5)

 　　There are lots and lots of tests of English.  各种各样的英语测试。

　　And millions and millions of students take these tests every year. 每年成千上万的学生参加这样的考试。

　　Now you might think, you and me, "Those fees aren't bad, they're okay," 你会觉得，你和我都这么认为，这些考试价格还是合理的，

　　but they are prohibitive to so many millions of poor people. 但是数百万穷人却望而却步。

　　So immediately, we're rejecting them.  所以一开始我们就把他们挡在了外面。

　　It brings to mind a headline I saw recently: "Education: The Great Divide." 这让我想到我最近看见的一条新闻：“教育：大鸿沟。”

　　Now I get it, I understand why people would want to focus on English. 现在我明白了为什么人们都关注英语。

　　They want to give their children the best chance in life.  他们希望给予他们的孩子最好的人生机遇。

　　And to do that, they need a Western education.  而要达到这个目的，他们需要西方教育。

　　Because, of course, the best jobs go to people out of the Western Universities, that I put on earlier. 因为，显然最好的工作都让西方大学的毕业生拿走了，就跟我之前说的一样。

　　It's a circular thing. Okay. 这是个循环。是吧。

　　Let me tell you a story about two scientists, two English scientists. 让我们告诉你们两个科学家的故事，有关两个英国科学家。

　　They were doing an experiment to do with genetics and the forelimbs and the hind¹ limbs of animals. 他们在做一个实验，跟遗传学有关，以及研究动物的前后肢，

　　But they couldn't get the results they wanted.  但是他们无法得到他们想得到的结果。

　　They really didn't know what to do,  他们有点束手无策，

　　until along came a German scientist who realized that they were using two words for forelimb and hind limb, 直到一个德国科学家参与后，他发现他们在研究前肢和后肢时用的是两个词，

　　whereas genetics does not differentiate² and neither does German. 而遗传学上并不区分两者，德语也不区分。

　　So bingo, problem solved. 所以，瞧，问题解决了。

　　If you can't think a thought, you are stuck. 如果你想不通，就卡住了。

　　But if another language can think that thought, then, by cooperating, we can achieve and learn so much more. 但是用另外一种语言就可以想通，那么通过合作，我们可以教学相长，受益颇多。

1 hind   

adj.后面的，后部的

参考例句：

• The animal is able to stand up on its hind limbs.这种动物能够用后肢站立。
• Don't hind her in her studies.不要在学业上扯她后腿。

2 differentiate   

vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同

参考例句：

• You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。
• He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。