TED英语演讲稿：Whatfearcanteachus恐惧可以教会我们什么

1、1 TED 英语演讲稿： What fear can teach us 恐惧可以教会我们什么 1819 年的某一天，在距离智利海岸 3000 英里的地方，有一 个太平洋上的最偏远的水域，20 名美国船员目睹了他们的船只进水 的场面。 they d bee n struck by a sperm whale, which had ripped a catastrophic hole in the ship s hull. as their ship bega n to sink ben eath the swells, the men huddled together in three smal

2、l whaleboats. 他们和一头抹香鲸相撞，给船体撞了 一个毁灭性的大洞。 当 船在巨浪中开始沉没时， 人们在三条救生小艇中抱作一团。 these men were 10,000 miles from home, more than 1,000 miles from the n earest scrap of land, in their small boats, they carried only rudimentary navigational equipment and limited supplies of food and water. 这些人在离家 10000 万英里的地方，

3、 离最近的陆地也超过 1000 英里。在他们的小艇中，他们只带了 落后的导航设备 和有限 的食物和饮水。 these were the men of the whaleship essex, whose story would later in spire parts of moby dick. 2 他们就是捕鲸船 essex 上的人们， 后来的他们的故事成为 白 鲸记的一部分。 eve n in today s world, their situati on would be really dire, but thi nk about how much worse it would have

4、 bee n the n. 即使在当今的世界，碰上这种情况也够杯具的，更不用说在当 时的情况有多糟糕。 no one on land had any idea that anything had gone wrong. no search party was coming to look for these men. so most of us have n ever experie need a situati on as frighte ning as the one in which these sailors found themselves, but we all know what

5、 it s like to be afraid. 岸上的人根本就还没意识到出了什么问题。 没有任何人来搜寻 他们。我们当中大部分人没有经历过 这些船员所处的可怕情景， 但 我们都知道害怕是什么感觉。 we know how fear feels, but i m not sure we spend eno ugh time thi nking about what our fears mean. 我们知道恐惧的感觉，但是我不能肯定我们会花很多时间想过 我们的恐惧到底意味着什么。 as we grow up, we re ofte n en couraged to thi nk of fear

6、as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard like baby teeth or roller skates. 3 我们长大以后，我们总是会被鼓励把恐惧 视为软弱，需要像乳 牙或轮滑鞋一样扔掉的幼稚的东西。 and i think it s no accident that we think this way. neuroscientists have actually shown that human beings are hard-wired to be optimists. 我想意外事故并非我们所想的那样。 神经系统科学家已

7、经知道 人类生来就是乐观主义者。 so maybe that s why we think of fear, sometimes, as a dan ger in and of itself. don t worry, we like to say to one ano ther. don t panic. in en glish, fear is somethi ng we conq uer. it s somethi ng we fight. 这也许就是为什么我们认为有时候恐惧，本身就是一种危险或 带来危险。 不要愁。 我们总是对别人说。 不要慌。英语中，恐 惧是我们需要征服的东西。 是我

8、们必须对抗的东西，是我们必须克 服的东西。 it s something we overcome. but what if we looked at fear in a fresh way? what if we thought of fear as an amaz ing act of the imagi nati on, someth ing that can be as profo und and in sightful as storytelli ng itself? 但是我们如果换个视角看恐惧会如何呢 ？如果我们把恐惧当做 是想象力的一个惊人成果， 是和我们讲故事一样 精妙而有见地的

9、东 西，又会如何呢？ it s easiest to see this link between fear and the 4 imagi nati on in young childre n, whose fears are ofte n extraord in arily vivid. 在小孩子当中，我们最容易看到恐惧与想象之间的联系， 他们 的恐惧经常是超级生动的。 whe n i was a child, i lived in California, which is, you know, mostly a very n ice place to live, but for me as

10、 a child, california could also be a little scary. 我小时候住在加利福尼亚， 你们都知道，是非常适合居住的位 置，但是对一个小孩来说，加利福尼亚也会有点吓人。 i remember how frighte ning it was to see the cha ndelier that hung above our dining table swing back and forth duri ng every minor earthquake, and i sometimes couldn t sleep at night, terrified

11、that the big one might strike while we were sleep ing. 我记得每次小地震的时候 当我看到我们餐桌上的吊灯 晃来晃 去的时候是多么的吓人， 我经常会彻夜难眠，担心大地震 会在我们 睡觉的时候突然袭来。 and what we say about kids who have fears like that is that they have a vivid imagi nati on. but at a certa in point, most of us lear n to leave these kinds of visi ons beh

12、ind and grow up. 我们说小孩子感受到这种恐惧 是因为他们有生动的想象力。 5 但是在某个时候，我们大多数学会了 抛弃这种想法而变得成熟。 we lear n that there are no mon sters hidi ng un der the bed, and not every earthquake brings buildi ngs dow n. but maybe it s no coin cide nee that some of our most creative minds fail to leave these kinds of fears beh ind

13、 as adults. 我们都知道床下没有魔鬼，也不是每个地震都会震垮房子。但 是我们当中最有想象力的人们 并没有因为成年而抛弃这种恐惧，这 也许并不是巧合。 the same in credible imagi nati ons that produced the origin of species, jane eyre and the remembranee of things past, also gen erated intense worries that haun ted the adult lives of charles darw in, charlotte bront and

14、 marcel proust. so the questi on is, what can the rest of us lear n about fear from visi on aries and young childre n? 同样不可思议的想象力创造了物种起源，简爱和追 忆似水年华 ， 也就是这种与生俱来的深深的担忧一直缠绕着成年的 查尔斯 达尔文，夏洛特 勃朗特和马塞尔 普罗斯特。问题就来了， 我们其他人如何能从这些梦想家和小孩子身上学会恐惧？ well let s return to the year 1819 for a moment, to the situatio n f

15、ac ing the crew of the whaleship essex. let s take a look at the fears that their imaginations were generating as they drifted in the middle of the pacific. 6 让我们暂时回到 1819 年，回到 essex 捕鲸船的水手们面对的 情况。让我们看看他们漂流在太平洋中央时 他们的想象力给他们带 来的恐惧感觉。 twen ty-four hours had now passed si nee the capsiz ing of the ship

16、. the time had come for the men to make a pla n, but they had very few opti ons. 船倾覆后已经过了 24 个小时。这时人们制定了一个计划， 但 是其实他们没什么太多的选择。 in his fascinating account of the disaster, nathaniel philbrick wrote that these men were just about as far from land as it was possible to be any where on earth. 在纳撒尼尔菲尔布里克(nathaniel philbrick)描述这场灾难的 动人