TED演讲：用"云"建立一所学校(8)

 　　So I tested them. I got an educational impossibility, zero to 30 percent in two months in the tropical¹ heat with a computer under the tree in a language they didn't know doing something that's a decade² ahead of their time.  跟着我测试了他们。我做了件教育上不可能的事，从零到三十，花了两个月在这热带高温下，用树下的一台设置成他们不会的语言的电脑，做着超前他们那个时代十年的事情。

　　Absurd³. But I had to follow the Victorian norm⁴.  太荒唐了。但我不得不遵循维多利亚时代的标准。

　　Thirty percent is a fail. How do I get them to pass?  三十分仍然是失败的。我怎样能让他们及格呢？

　　I have to get them 20 more marks. I couldn't find a teacher.  我得让他们多拿20分。我找不到老师。

　　What I did find was a friend that they had, a 22-year-old girl who was an accountant⁵ and she played with them all the time. 我找到了他们的一个朋友，一个22岁当会计的姑娘，她一直陪他们玩。

　　So I asked this girl, "Can you help them?" 我问这个姑娘：“你可以帮他们吗？”

　　So she says, "Absolutely not. I didn't have science in school. I have no idea what they're doing under that tree all day long. I can't help you." 她说：“当然不可以。我在学校没学过自然科学。我不知道他们整天在那棵树下干什么。我帮不了你。”

　　I said, "I'll tell you what. Use the method of the grandmother." 我说：“我来教你。用祖母的办法。”

　　So she says, "What's that?" 她问：“那是什么？”

　　"Stand behind them. Whenever they do anything, you just say,  “站在他们身后。不管什么时候他们做了什么，你只要说，

　　'Well, wow, I mean, how did you do that? What's the next page? Gosh, when I was your age, I could have never done that.' You know what grannies do." ‘好吧，哇欧，我是说，你们怎么做到的？下一页是什么？天啊，我像你们这么大的时候可做不到这些。’你知道祖母会怎么做。”

　　So she did that for two more months.  于是她照做了两个月。

　　The scores jumped to 50 percent. Kallikuppam had caught up with my control school in New Delhi, a rich private school with a trained biotechnology teacher.  分数窜升到了50。Kallikuppam追上了我在新德里的对比学校，一个有训练有素的生物老师的昂贵的私立学校。

　　When I saw that graph⁶ I knew there is a way to level the playing field. 看到这张图表时我意识到这是创造公平竞争环境的一种途径。

　　Here's Kallikuppam. 这是Kallikuppam。

　　Neurons...communication. 神经元……沟通。

1 tropical   

adj.热带的，热带的，炎热的

参考例句：

• You must grow these tropical flowers in a glasshouse.你必须把这些热带花卉种在温室里。
• This disease is widespread in tropical areas.这种疾病在热带地区蔓延很广。

2 decade   

n.十年，十年期

参考例句：

• Prices have risen steadily during the past decade.过去的十年间，物价一直在上涨。
• The century has rounded into its ninth decade.本世纪已进入了90年代。

3 absurd   

adj.荒谬的，荒诞的，荒唐可笑的，不合理的

参考例句：

• It is ridiculously absurd to believe that the number 13 is unlucky.相信数字13是个不吉祥的数字是荒唐可笑的。
• It was absurd of you to do such a thing.你做那样的事是愚蠢的。

4 norm   

n.标准，规范，平均数

参考例句：

• Of his age,the child is above the norm in arithmetic.在他那个年龄，这个孩子的算术能力是超过标准的。
• These events were aberrations from the norm.这些事件不合常规。

5 accountant   

n.会计员，会计师

参考例句：

• I'm an accountant at a foreign bank.我在一家外资银行做会计。
• He was satisfied with his earnings as an accountant.他对自己会计师的收入很满意。

6 graph   

n.图表，图解，曲线图

参考例句：

• Such a graph is defined to be a contact network.我们把这样的图定义为一个接触网络。
• Our soundings are displayed in the form of a graph.我们的调查结果已用图表列出。