TED演讲：温和的成功哲学(1)

 　　For me they normally happen, these career crises, often, actually, on a Sunday evening, just as the sun is starting to set, 我经常对事业感到恐慌，周日下午，晚霞洒满天空，

　　and the gap between my hopes for myself and the reality of my life starts to diverge¹ so painfully that I normally end up weeping into a pillow. 理想和现实的差距是这样残酷，令我沮丧的只想抱头痛哭。

　　I'm mentioning all this -- I'm mentioning all this because I think this is not merely a personal problem; 我提出这件事是因为我认为不只有我这么感觉，

　　you may think I'm wrong in this, but I think we live in an age when our lives are regularly punctuated² by career crises, 你可能不这么认为，但我感觉我们活在一个充满事业恐慌的时代，

　　by moments when what we thought we knew -- about our lives, about our careers 就在我们认为我们已经理解我们的人生和事业时，

　　comes into contact with a threatening sort of reality. 真实便来恐吓我们。

　　It's perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living. 现在或许比以前更容易过上好生活。

　　It's perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety. 但却比以前更难保持冷静，或不为事业感到焦虑。

　　I want to look now, if I may, at some of the reasons why we might be feeling anxiety about our careers. 今天我想要检视我们对事业感到焦虑的一些原因。

　　Why we might be victims of these career crises, as we're weeping softly into our pillows. 为何我们会变成事业焦虑的囚徒，不时抱头痛哭。

　　One of the reasons why we might be suffering is that we are surrounded by snobs⁴. 折磨人的因素之一是我们身边的那些势利鬼。

　　Now in a way, I've got some bad news, particularly to anybody who's come to Oxford⁵ from abroad. 对那些来访牛津大学的外国友人我有一个坏消息。

　　There's a real problem with snobbery⁶, 这里的人都很势利，

　　because sometimes people from outside the U.K. imagine that snobbery is a distinctively⁷ U.K. phenomenon, fixated on country houses and titles. 有时候英国以外的人会想象势利是英国人特有的个性，来自那些乡间别墅和头衔爵位。

　　The bad news is that's not true. Snobbery is a global phenomenon; we are a global organization, this is a global phenomenon. 坏消息是，并不只是这样。势利是一个全球性的问题，我们是个全球性的组织，这是个全球性的问题。

　　What is a snob³? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you, 势利是什么？势利是以一小部分的你

　　and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are. That is snobbery. 来判别你的全部价值。那就是势利。

1 diverge   

v.分叉，分歧，离题，使...岔开，使转向

参考例句：

• This is where our opinions diverge from each other.这就是我们意见产生分歧之处。
• Don't diverge in your speech.发言不要离题。

2 punctuated   

v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物

参考例句：

• Her speech was punctuated by bursts of applause. 她的讲演不时被阵阵掌声打断。
• The audience punctuated his speech by outbursts of applause. 听众不时以阵阵掌声打断他的讲话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 snob   

n.势利小人，自以为高雅、有学问的人

参考例句：

• Going to a private school had made her a snob.上私立学校后，她变得很势利。
• If you think that way, you are a snob already.如果你那样想的话，你已经是势利小人了。

4 snobs   

（谄上傲下的）势利小人( snob的名词复数 )； 自高自大者，自命不凡者

参考例句：

• She dislikes snobs intensely. 她极其厌恶势利小人。
• Most of the people who worshipped her, who read every tidbit about her in the gossip press and hung up pictures of her in their rooms, were not social snobs. 崇敬她大多数的人不会放过每一篇报导她的八卦新闻，甚至在他们的房间中悬挂黛妃的画像，这些人并非都是傲慢成性。

5 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

6 snobbery   

n. 充绅士气派, 俗不可耐的性格

参考例句：

• Jocelyn accused Dexter of snobbery. 乔斯琳指责德克斯特势力。
• Snobbery is not so common in English today as it was said fifty years ago. 如今＂Snobbery＂在英语中已不象50年前那么普遍使用。

7 distinctively   

adv.特殊地，区别地

参考例句：

• "Public risks" is a recent term for distinctively high-tech hazards. “公共风险”是个特殊的高技术危害个人的一个最新术语。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• His language was natural, unaffected, distinctively vivid, humorous and strongly charming. 语言既朴实无华，又鲜明生动，幽默而富有艺术魅力。