名人励志英语演讲 第130期:失败是一个选项 但畏惧不是(1)

 　　I grew up on a steady diet of science fiction. In high school I took a bus to school an hour each way every day. And I was always absorbed in a book, science fiction book, which took my mind to other worlds, and satisfied, in a narrative¹ form, this insatiable sense of curiosity that I had.

　　我是看科幻小说长大的。高中时，我每天坐一小时的公交车上下学。我总是沉迷于科幻小说，这些书将我带到了另外的世界，用叙述的方式满足了我无止境的好奇心。

　　And you know that curiosity also manifested itself in the fact that whenever I wasn't in school I was out in the woods, hiking and taking "samples", frogs and snakes and bugs² and pond water, and bringing it back, looking at it under the microscope. But I was, you know, I was a real science geek. But it was all about trying to understand the world, understand the limits of possibility.

　　大家知道好奇心可以通过事实表现出来。每当我不在学校，我总会在树林里游荡，寻找一些“样品”，比如青蛙、蛇、虫子或者池水，我把它们带回家放在显微镜下观察。你知道，我是一个真的科学发烧友。但我只是在试图了解这个世界，想找到潜力的极限。

　　And my, you know, love of science fiction actually seemed to be mirrored in the world around me, because what was happening, this was in the late 60's, you know, we were going to the moon, we were exploring the deep oceans. Jacques Cousteau was coming into our living rooms with his amazing specials that showed us animals and places and a wondrous³ world that we could never really have previously⁴ imagined. So, that seemed to resonate with the whole science fiction part of it.

　　你知道，我对科幻小说的热爱或许是那个时代的写照。因为所发生的事情，你知道，这是60年代末期，人类登上了月球，同时还去探索深海。雅克·库斯托的特别节目走进了我们的客厅，让我们看到了不同的动物和地方，一个我们以前想都没有想过的世界。这或许和科幻小说可以产生共鸣吧。

　　And I was an artist. I could draw. I could paint. And I found that because there weren't, you know, video games and this saturation⁵ of CG movies and all of this imagery in the media landscape, I had to create these images in my head. You know, we all did, as kids having to read a book, and through the author's description put something on the screen, the movie screen in our heads. And so, my response to this was to paint, to draw alien creatures, alien worlds, robots, spaceships, all that stuff. I was endlessly getting busted⁶ in math class, you know, doodling behind the textbook. And that was, the creativity had to find its outlet⁷ somehow.

　　我是一个艺术家。我会画画。我也会画油画。我发现，你知道，没有计算机游戏和电脑合成技术，没有媒体的那些影响，我只能自己在脑海中创造这些形象。我们像孩子们一样，读书的时候会根据作者的描述在脑海中想象出一些画面，一些电影的画面。我对此的反应是是画一些外星生物，外星球、机器人、宇宙飞船等东西。在数学课上，我总是在数学课本上，你知道的，乱画。那是发泄创造力的一种途径。

　　重点讲解：

　　1. a diet of sth.

　　大量；

　　eg. Children today are brought up on a diet of television cartoons and soap operas.

　　如今的孩子是看电视上的动画片和肥皂剧长大的。

　　eg. The radio had fed him a diet of pop songs.

　　他从广播里听到的都是千篇一律的流行歌曲。

　　2. be abosorbed in

　　极感兴趣的；专心的；全神贯注的；

　　eg. They were completely absorbed in each other.

　　两人彼此倾心。

　　eg. I get so absorbed in doing something that I am unaware⁸ of things happening round me.

　　我做事太过专心以致于对周围发生的事情丝毫未察觉。

　　3. manifest oneself in

　　使表现出来；使显露出来；

　　eg. The virus needs two weeks to manifest itself.

　　这种病毒潜伏两周时间才会发作。

　　eg. Their frustration⁹ and anger will manifest itself in crying and screaming.

　　他们用哭泣与尖叫表达自己的沮丧和愤怒。

　　4. response to

　　回复；回答；回应

　　eg. There has been no response to his remarks from the government.

　　政府尚未对他的言论作出回应。

　　eg. Your positive response will reinforce her actions.

　　你积极的回应会使她的行为更加坚定。

　　背景资料：

　　詹姆斯·卡梅隆无疑是一位成功的导演，他大胆的尝试和对梦想的坚持让他的电影备受瞩目。本篇是詹姆斯·卡梅隆在2010年的TED大会（TED是Technology, Entertainment, Design的缩写，这个会议的宗旨是“用思想的力量来改变世界”）做的演讲。詹姆斯·卡梅隆以自述的方式从回忆自己的童年爱好开始，一直追溯到自己从电影学院毕业后走上导演道路的人生经历。在演讲最后卡梅隆告诉人们：“失败是一个选项，但畏惧不是。”

1 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

2 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 wondrous   

adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地

参考例句：

• The internal structure of the Department is wondrous to behold.看一下国务院的内部结构是很有意思的。
• We were driven across this wondrous vast land of lakes and forests.我们乘车穿越这片有着湖泊及森林的广袤而神奇的土地。

4 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

5 saturation   

n.饱和(状态)；浸透

参考例句：

• The company's sales are now close to saturation in many western countries.这家公司的产品销售量在许多西方国家已接近饱和。
• Road traffic has reached saturation point.公路交通已达到饱和点。

6 busted   

adj. 破产了的，失败了的，被降级的，被逮捕的，被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You are so busted! 你被当场逮住了！
• It was money troubles that busted up their marriage. 是金钱纠纷使他们的婚姻破裂了。

7 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

8 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

9 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。