【英语语言学习】为什么我不用手机

So I was definitely quite a loner but I did look up to some people in my life and while a lot of teens had modern like pop stars or actresses and actors they looked up to which I totally respected and I have some too, who I looked up to is a little different. And I couldn’t always relate with them. So for example, my family has the privilege of helping¹ out with the Ravi Shankar archives. And so Ravi Shankar was a musician who brought the whole Indian culture and music from the East to the West in the ‘60s and ‘70s and really helped generate² the hippie movement, and he worked for George Harrison.

And we had the privilege as a kid that I would travel to California and each summer I would learn from him and learn how his love and passion for what he was doing and bringing it and introducing it to people who had never seen any of this stuff before with something that he loved so much. And that really inspired me and one time we went and visited his family in India. I just was so shocked by the poverty there. That was the first time I’d ever experienced something like that and I was around eight years old there. So it was a huge shock.

And another time we went and visited some family in the Philippines, and I saw houses like this which you don’t see regularly where I come from in Canada. And I was just so taken aback. I didn’t fit in. I knew there were problems in the world, and I wanted to find a way to fix it simply. But I never thought I could actually accomplish any of that because I was just a regular teen who nobody really seemed to like except for a couple of outcast friends I also had.

So the two things my parents noticed that I loved to do was to tinker and to talk. And so I was enrolled³ in something that a lot of popular kids in high school do, just kidding, which is the science fair. So this is me in grade six. I looked like Harry⁴ Potter. I was very proud of this photo, by the way, I was comparing laundry detergents⁵. So I started making projects and I started to get into the area of energy harvesting. I got the inspiration⁶ for my project when one of my friends in the Philippines told me that she failed to grade in school because she couldn’t afford electricity. So she didn’t have any light to study with at night. And this brought me back to my childhood days where I had a problem that in the beginning was for myself, I had to find a way to entertain myself, so I’d make my own inventions of my own toys.

But here was a problem that my friend had and I was like, oh, why can’t I invent a way to maybe help her out. So for that I made something that you may know me as the Flashlight girl for which is a flashlight that runs off the heat of the human hand. And that brought me to a whole new journey where I suddenly learned to be confident in who I was, because at first, to be honest, I didn’t think anyone would ever be interested in my project and to go to places like the Google Science Fair, it was absolutely amazing to see that people were really inspired in what I was doing. This year I presented my latest adventure which is called eDrink and it’s a coffee mug that utilizes⁷ the excess heat of your hot drink while you’re waiting for it to cool down and converts⁸ it into electricity, so you can eventually charge your phone or iPod from it.

Just because you’re in college and that you’re a university student, that does not mean that’s the only thing you are, that does not mean that like oh you know, I’m in university, you leave it at that, you’re not doing anything else. You can pursue whatever you want to do. You can start when you’re in high school. When I was in middle school I started making something – you can do whatever you want and you can — anything you dream of is possible but you have to start and work on it even if it’s just 20 minutes a day. That’s what I really wanted to emphasize today is that you have more opportunity and time to create when you have less. When you’re given less to start off with, your brain is designed to come up with different ways to solve your problems and to solve other people’s problems and issues.

And I think that’s so important to emphasize especially in today’s society where access — and like buying this and getting that, oh, that’s the latest fashion, so I should be wearing that and I should throw out everything else that I have is kind of the trend. And I really think in a way this kind of sounds slightly controversial but I truly believe that disconnecting helps you connect and create more. You don’t think about it but you will pick up your phone, you will check it like a couple seconds or a minute ever so often. And you think oh, I’m just briefly⁹ checking my phone. But if you add up every single minute, every single second you spend on your phone per day, it’s pretty terrifying. Really minimizing¹⁰ your distractions¹¹, so you can use your time most effectively is really important.

If there’s one thing I can leave you with today, for all of you who possess phones or even other devices, small electronic devices, it is that the next time you pick up your phone, think of all the possibilities off your phone and not on it.

Thank you.

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 generate   

vt.生成，产生（光、热、电等）导致

参考例句：

• We need someone to generate new ideas.我们需要有人出新主意。
• This book will continue to generate excitement for a long time.这本书将在很长一段时间里继续使人们为之激动。

3 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

5 detergents   

n.洗涤剂( detergent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Such detergents do not yellow the wool as alkali tends to do. 这种洗涤剂不会象碱那样使羊毛发黄。 来自辞典例句
• Development of detergents has required optimization of the surfactants structure. 发展洗涤剂时，要求使用最恰当的表面活性剂结构。 来自辞典例句

6 inspiration   

n.灵感，鼓励者，吸气

参考例句：

• These events provided the inspiration for his first novel.这些事件给了他创作第一部小说的灵感。
• What an inspiration she was to all around her!她对于她周围所有的人是一种多么大的鼓舞！

7 utilizes   

v.利用，使用( utilize的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• One highly successful approach utilizes a triplet aspheric lens array. 一种很成功的方法是利用一个三合非球面透镜阵列。 来自辞典例句
• The first utilizes a blend of finely ground ceramic powders. 第一种用的是一种磨细的陶瓷粉末混合物。 来自辞典例句

8 converts   

v.（使）转变( convert的第三人称单数 )；（使）转化；皈依；改变（信仰）

参考例句：

• The microphone converts acoustic waves to electrical singals for transmission. 麦克风将声波转化成电信号进行传播。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These individuals' desire for wilderness preservation converts wilderness areas into public goods. 这些保护荒野的人们的愿望是把荒野区域转变成公有物。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

9 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

10 minimizing   

极小化，求最小参数值

参考例句：

• It was a new production technique aimed at minimizing wastage. 这是一项旨在使损耗减至最低的新生产技术。
• The filters should be cemented together, thus minimizing the surface reflection losses. 为了尽量减少表面的反射损失，应该把这些滤色镜胶合在一起。

11 distractions   

n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 )；娱乐，消遣；心烦意乱；精神错乱

参考例句：

• I find it hard to work at home because there are too many distractions. 我发觉在家里工作很难，因为使人分心的事太多。
• There are too many distractions here to work properly. 这里叫人分心的事太多，使人无法好好工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》