But it actually was the best thing that ever happened to me. I decided1 that if no one would give me a chance, I'd have to take a chance, and if no one would give me an opportunity, I would have to create my own opportunity. So I came up with this plan to become a reporter. I figured if I went places where there weren't many Americans, I wouldn't have much competition. So I decided to start going to wars, which my mom was thrilled about. It was a very simple plan, but it was moronic2, but it actually worked. I made a fake press pass on a Macintosh computer--actually, I didn't even make it to be honest, a friend of mine made it because I'm computer illiterate--and I got a home video camera that I borrowed and I just decided to go to wars. I snuck into Burma and hooked up with some students fighting the Burmese government and moved into Somalia in the early days of the famine. And I spent really the next two years going from one war-torn country to another: Bosnia, South Africa for Mandela's election. I was in Rwanda for the genocide, which makes ultimately doing The Mole3 a natural step, as you can see where I'm going.
但这次失败却成了我人生中最有价值的经历。我下定决心，如果没人给我机会，我就自己寻找机会；如果没人给我机会，我就自己创造机会。所以我决定去做一名记者。我想，如果去没有很多美国人的地方，竞争也许不会那么激烈。因此，我决定去做战地报道，这个决定让母亲震惊。这是一个简单而又弱智的想法，但确实起作用了。我用苹果公司生产的麦金托什电脑做了一张假新闻许可证，说实话，那还不是我做的，而是我的一个朋友做的，因为我对电脑一窍不通。然后，我借了一台家用摄像机，准备奔赴战场做战地报道。我偷偷溜进缅甸境内，与一些反缅甸政府的学生取得联系，然后又潜入索马里，那时索马里刚陷入饥荒。接下来的两年里，我奔走于一个个被战争摧毁的国家之间，到过波士尼亚，见过南非总统曼德拉的竞选以及卢旺达的种族大屠杀，这些经历最终为我主持的节目《潜伏》做好了铺垫。
I may have gone to school at Yale, but I always think that in many ways I was educated on the streets of Johannesburg, in Kigali, in Sarajevo, in Port-Au-Prince. And I've learned when you go to the edges of the world, where the boundaries aren't clear, where the dark parts of the human heart are open for all to see, you learn things about yourself and you learn things about your fellow human beings and what we're all capable of. We're capable, really, of anything, great acts of
compassion4 and dignity, as we saw in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We're also capable of great acts of
cowardice5 and
brutality6 and stupidity, which we also saw in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
我在耶鲁上过学，但我始终认为我所接受的教育在很大程度上来自约翰内斯堡、基加利（卢旺达的首都）、萨拉热窝（位于南斯拉夫中部）以及太子港（海地首都）的街头。我学到了一点，当你身处世界的边缘时，当你身处那些界限不太分明、人类心灵中的黑暗暴露无遗的地方时，你会更加了解自己、了解人类以及自己能够做些什么。真的，我们能做出任何事情。我们可以做出极富同情心和尊严的伟大举动，我们也可以做出懦弱、残忍和愚蠢的事情。这从卡特里娜飓风来袭时就可以看出。
重点讲解：
1. sth. happen to sb.
某事发生在某人身上；某人遭到；遇到某事；
eg. If we had been
spotted7 at that point, I don't know what would have happened to us.
如果当时我们被发现了，我不知道会有什么后果。
eg. How could this happen to me!
我怎么会遇到这种事啊！
2. come up with
想出，提出（计划、想法等）；
eg. Several of the members have come up with suggestions of their own.
有几位成员提出了自己的建议。
eg. Edwards's always chasing after rainbows and never come up with a really practical idea.
爱德华总是想入非非，从来提不出真正实际的意见。
3. to be honest
老实说；说实在的；
eg. To be honest the house is not quite our style.
说实话，这所房子不太适合我们。
eg. I'd rather get it out the way, to be honest.
老实说，我情愿把它处理掉。
4. hook up with
和…搭档，和…联手；
eg. Anthrax have hooked up with Public Enemy for a metal/rap version of 'Bring On The Noise'.
炭疽乐队和公敌乐队联手合作了重金属加说唱版的歌曲《带来噪音》。
eg. Seeing as how we got on so well together, it just seemed natural that we should hook up.
既然处得这么好，似乎我们理所当然应该搭档。
5. in the wake of
随着…而来；作为…的结果；
eg. The governor has enjoyed a huge surge in the polls in the wake of last week's convention.
上周的大会过后，民意调查显示州长支持率大幅上升。
去年春天开始的罢工一结束，这家公司就进入了破产程序。
名人简介：
安德森·库珀1995年进入ABC新闻台成为一名记者，于1999-2000年期间，在World News Now作联合主持（co-anchor）。2001年，安德森加盟了CNN电视台，并于2001-2002年间主持The Mole。2002年在American Morning作新闻主播。2003年成为知名新闻节目Anderson Cooper 360的制作人。2005年联合主持News Night。2007年开始，做60 minutes的通讯记者。库珀还是一位自由作家，撰写过很多文章，并通过多种渠道发表，包括在Details杂志上。2006年5月，库珀通过Harper Collins出版社出版了传记Dispatches from the Edge，详细介绍了他前些年在斯里兰卡、非洲、伊拉克和路易斯安那州的生活和工作。这本书的部分所得捐赠给慈善机构，并且在2006年纽约时报畅销书排行榜夺得榜首。
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