TED演讲:书呆子教你如何在线学习(6)

 And then, in 2006, I met that guy. His name is Ze Frank. 然后，在2006年，我遇见了这个家伙。他叫泽·弗兰克。

I didn't actually meet him, just on the Internet. 其实我们没有真正见面，只是在网上。

Ze Frank was running, at the time, a show called "The Show with Ze Frank," and I discovered the show, 当时他在做一个名叫“泽·弗兰克秀”的节目，我发现了这个节目，

and that was my way back into being a community learner again. Here's Ze talking about Las Vegas: 从此我便回归了学习社团。下面是泽·弗兰克在介绍拉斯维加斯：

Las Vegas was built in the middle of a huge, hot desert. 拉斯维加斯建于一片广阔炎热的沙漠中心。

Almost everything here was brought from somewhere else -- the sort of rocks, the trees, the waterfalls. 这里的一切几乎都是从别处运来的--像这些岩石，树木，瀑布。

These fish are almost as out of place as my pig that flew. 这些鱼出现在这儿，就像猪会飞一样奇怪。

Contrasted to the scorching¹ desert that surrounds this place, so are these people. 这一切与周围酷热的沙漠形成了鲜明的对比，这里的人也一样。

Things from all over the world have been rebuilt here, away from their histories, 世界各地的景观在这里重建，失去了历史的沉淀，

and away from the people that experience them differently. 人们对它们的感受变得单一。

Sometimes improvements were made -- even the Sphinx got a nose job. 有时景观还会被改进--比如斯芬克斯（狮身人面像）竟然隆鼻了。

Here, there's no reason to feel like you're missing anything. 这里应有尽有，你不会感觉失落。

This New York means the same to me as it does to everyone else. 这里的纽约在你我眼里都是一样的。

Everything is out of context², and that means context allows for everything: Self Parking, Events Center, Shark Reef³. 一切都脱离了原有的环境，意味着这里的环境可以包容一切：自助停车，活动中心，鲨鱼礁。

This fabrication⁴ of place could be one of the world's greatest achievements, because no one belongs here; everyone does.  拉斯维加斯的建造，也许是世界上最伟大的成就之一，因为无人属于这里，而人人都属于这里。

As I walked around this morning, I noticed most of the buildings were huge mirrors reflecting the sun back into the desert. 今早我四处闲逛的时候，我注意到大多数建筑物就像巨大的镜子一样将阳光反射到沙漠里。

But unlike most mirrors, which present you with an outside view of yourself embedded⁵ in a place, these mirrors come back empty. 但它们又与镜子不同，因为镜子会反映出你和你周围的景象，而这些建筑反映的只是一片虚无。

Makes me nostalgic for the days when you could see the pixels in online video. 让我回想起那些旧时光，当时的在线视频居然还能看出像素点。

1 scorching   

adj. 灼热的

参考例句：

• a scorching, pitiless sun 灼热的骄阳
• a scorching critique of the government's economic policy 对政府经济政策的严厉批评

2 context   

n.背景，环境，上下文，语境

参考例句：

• You can always tell the meaning of a word from its context.你常可以从上下文中猜出词义来。
• This sentence does not seem to connect with the context.这个句子似乎与上下文脱节。

3 reef   

n.礁，礁石，暗礁

参考例句：

• The ship and its crew were lost on the reef.那条船及船员都触礁遇难了。
• The ship was wrecked on a coral reef.这条船在珊瑚暗礁上撞毁了。

4 fabrication   

n.制作，构成；捏造

参考例句：

• His story was a complete fabrication. 他的故事纯属虚构。
• This is a sheer fabrication. 这完全是凭空捏造。

5 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。