TED演讲：用"云"建立一所学校(5)

 　　When they saw me, they said, "We want a faster processor and a better mouse." 当他们看到我时，他们说：“我们想要更快一点的处理器和更好一点的鼠标。”

　　So I said, "How on Earth do you know all this?" 我说：“你们到底是怎么知道全部这些的？”

　　And they said something very interesting to me.  然后他们告诉了我一些非常有意思的事情。

　　In an irritated¹ voice, they said, "You've given us a machine that works² only in English, so we had to teach ourselves English in order to use it."  他们带着生气的口吻说：“你给了我们一台只能用英语动起来的电脑，所以我们只能自己教自己英文才能用得了。”

　　I've...That's the first time, as a teacher, that I had heard the word "teach ourselves" said so casually³. 那是我作为教师，头一次听人如此随意地说“教自己”。

　　Here's a short glimpse⁴ from those years.  来回顾一下那几年。

　　That's the first day at the Hole in the Wall. On your right is an eight-year-old. To his left is his student. She's six.  那是有了墙洞的第一天。你们右边方向的孩子8岁。他左边的是他的学生，六岁。

　　And he's teaching⁵ her how to browse⁶.  他正在教她怎么浏览页面。

　　Then onto other parts of the country, I repeated this over and over again, getting exactly the same results that we were.  跟着在这个国家的其他地方，我一再地重复这个实验，得到的结果都是相同的。

　　An eight-year-old telling his elder sister what to do.  一个八岁的孩子在教他的姐姐如何操作。

　　And finally a girl explaining in Marathi what it is, and said, "There's a processor inside." 最后一个女孩用马拉地语解释这是什么，她说：“里面有个处理器。”

　　So I started publishing. I published everywhere.  于是我开始了宣传。我四处宣传。

　　I wrote down and measured everything, and I said, in nine months, a group of children left alone with a computer in any language will reach the same standard as an office secretary in the West.  我记录并评估每件事。我说，在九个月的时间里，一群孩子与一台设置成任何语言的计算机单独在一起，将会达到同西方办公室秘书一样的操作水准。

　　I'd seen it happen over and over and over again. 我看到这样的事一再重演。

1 irritated   

a.恼怒的

参考例句：

• His little affectations irritated her. 他的装腔作势令她不快。
• Her genteel accent irritated me. 她那矫揉造作的腔调使我感到难受。

2 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

3 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

4 glimpse   

vt.瞥见；n.一瞥，一看

参考例句：

• One glimpse at himself in the mirror was enough.让他照着镜子看自己一眼就够了。
• She catches a glimpse of a car in the distance.她一眼就瞥见了远处的汽车。

5 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

6 browse   

vi.随意翻阅，浏览；(牛、羊等)吃草

参考例句：

• I had a browse through the books on her shelf.我浏览了一下她书架上的书。
• It is a good idea to browse through it first.最好先通篇浏览一遍。