第1篇 ted英語演講：人類越來越聰明，而閱讀的內(nèi)容越來越蠢
people are getting smarter, contents are getting dumber
演講者是《the escapist 雜志》的總經(jīng)理，亞歷山大·馬克利斯(ale_ander macris)
today, we’re gonna talk about the content we consume and what that consumption is doing to our minds.
今天我們要來談談我們消費的內(nèi)容，以及這種消費對我們思維的影響。
but before i started to talk about content i wanna talk about something else we consume.
但在講內(nèi)容之前，我想先談談我們消費的另一種東西。
i wanna talk about food.
我想談談食物。
when we consume food, we e_perience its taste and we benefit from its nutritional value.
當我們吃食物的時候，我們能體驗到它的味道，并從它的營養(yǎng)價值中獲益。
taste is subjective. for person to person it can vary.
味道是主觀的。不同的人有不同的感受。
nutrition is universal and objective.
而營養(yǎng)是普世的、客觀的。
those of us don’t like our broccoli might say that food and taste and nutrition don’t go well together.
我們當中那些不喜歡西蘭花的人可能會說：食物、味道、營養(yǎng)不可兼得。
others, strange people, like healthy food.
另一些比較古怪的人則喜歡吃健康食品。
at minimum we can agree that food can be tasty without being nutritious and vice versa.
不過我們至少能達成一個共識：食物可以好吃但沒有營養(yǎng)，反之亦然。
now one time the american diet consisted primarily of nutritious food such as organic vegetables, whole grain, grass-fed beef.
曾幾何時，美國人飲食的主要成分都是有營養(yǎng)的食物，比如有機蔬菜、全麥、用草喂養(yǎng)的牛的肉。
but as food production became market-driven, food companies found that making food tastier is cheaper than making food nutritious, that consumers actually prefer tastier food rather than healthier food.
但是隨著食品制造業(yè)變得市場導向，食品公司們發(fā)現(xiàn)制作更好吃的食物比制作有營養(yǎng)的食物更劃算，而且消費者實際上也更喜歡那些更好吃的食物，而不是更健康的食物。
overtime, nutritious food was supplanted by ine_pensive cheap food that was available to everybody didn’t have a lot of nutrition, while healthy nutritious food was limited to the dietary elite, the people that shop at whole foods.
隨著時間推移，那些有營養(yǎng)的食物被廉價的食物取代了，那些營養(yǎng)不足的人很容易就能獲得這些廉價的食物;而只有那些飲食精英才能獲得健康的、有營養(yǎng)的食物，也就是那些在全食超市購物的人。
the gradual erosion of the nutritional value of our food was ignored by almost everybody until the obesity epidemic transformed our love handles into passion bannisters.
而幾乎所有人都忽略了這種對食物營養(yǎng)價值的侵蝕，直到肥胖癥大面積爆發(fā)，并把我們的人魚線全都變成了游泳圈。
and now we’re the fattest country in the developed world.
結(jié)果現(xiàn)在我們是發(fā)達國家中最胖的。
i believe when we consume content it’s a lot like eating food.
我覺得，我們對內(nèi)容的消費和對食品的消費是非常相似的。
like food, content has a taste to it.
就如同食物一樣，內(nèi)容也有自己的味道。
when you e_periencce the avengers, it tastes differently than the dark knight.
當你看《復仇者聯(lián)盟》的時候，它的感覺和《黑暗騎士》是不一樣的。
which you prefer is just a matter of taste.
不管你喜歡哪個，都只是個口味問題。
never before has the content menu offered so many varied e_cellent tastes.
在內(nèi)容領(lǐng)域，我們還從未有過這么豐富的口味可供選擇。
if you enjoy consuming content, the world is an amazing place.
如果你喜歡消費內(nèi)容，那這個世界真是太美妙了。
but content also has a nutritional value.
不過，內(nèi)容也是有營養(yǎng)價值的。
just as food feeds our bodies, content feeds our minds.
正如同食物供養(yǎng)著我們的身體，內(nèi)容供養(yǎng)著我們的思維。
and as with food, the nutritional effective content is objective and universal.
而且和食物一樣，內(nèi)容的營養(yǎng)價值也是客觀而普世的。
i’ve summarized the findings from over 40 studies on how content consumption affects us.
我總結(jié)了40多項研究的發(fā)現(xiàn)，它們都是研究內(nèi)容消費是如何影響我們的。
nutritious contents increase our knowledge. it e_panse our vocabularies. it improves reflection, critical thinking, problem-solving, visual acuity, imagination.
有營養(yǎng)的內(nèi)容能夠讓我們增長知識。它能擴充我們的詞匯量。它能提升我們深入思考的能力、批判性思維的能力、解決問題的能力、視覺敏銳度以及想象力。
unhealthy content shortens our attention span. it damages our concentration. it weakens our problem-solving skills and increase impulsivity. and like simple sugars, it leaves you addicted and wanting more.
不健康的內(nèi)容會縮短我們的注意力時長。它還會損害我們集中精神的能力。它會削弱我們解決問題的，還會讓我們更沖動。而且，就像單糖一樣，它還會讓你上癮、讓你欲罷不能。
we already know that the american diet of food rapidly changed in the 20th century in a way that made it tasty but less nutritious.
我們都知道，美國人的飲食在20世紀經(jīng)歷了急速的變化，越來越好吃但是越來越?jīng)]有營養(yǎng)。
the american mind has also changed rapidly.
而美國人的思維也同樣經(jīng)歷的急速的變化。
did these changes leave our mental diet a healthy balanced on? or have we began to feed our minds as badly as we feed our bodies, consuming nothing but junk all day?
這些改變有沒有讓我們的思維食譜更健康、更均衡呢?還是說，我們喂養(yǎng)自己思維的方式變得和我們喂養(yǎng)身體的方式一樣糟、每天只吃垃圾食品?
if our mental menu is nutritious, we should see people get smarter and sharper. if our mental menu is unwholesome, we should e_pect to see a spreading epidemic of stupidity that would parallel the epidemic of obesity.
如果我們的思維食譜是有營養(yǎng)的，那么我們應該會看到人們變得更聰明、更敏銳。如果我們的思維食譜不那么健康，那么我們應該可以想見：愚蠢會像肥胖癥一樣變成一個嚴重的流行疾病。
let’s start by e_amining our reading habits.
我們首先來看看我們的閱讀習慣吧。
reading, it turns out it’s the most nutritious way you can consume content.
我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，閱讀是所有內(nèi)容消費方式中最有營養(yǎng)的。
the better you are at reading, the better you are at thinking.
你的閱讀能力越強，你的思考能力就越強。
and how do you get better at reading? by reading.
而你要怎么提高閱讀能力呢?答案是：靠閱讀。
educators call this principle the matthew effect.
教育家們把這個原則稱為馬修效應。
in a series of studies, researchers cunningham and standage have demonstrated repeatedly that a high volume of reading increases knowledge, broadens vocabulary and reduces the cognitive decline of aging.
通過一系列的研究，卡寧漢和斯坦迪奇兩位研究者反復地發(fā)現(xiàn)：通過大量閱讀，你能夠增長知識、擴充詞匯量，并減緩由衰老造成的認知能力下降。
and all of these studies were controlled for general intelligence and verbal abilities.
而且所有這些研究都覆蓋了所有智力水平和所有詞匯能力等級。
so in other words, it’s not that smart people reading although they do, but that reading makes you smarter.
所以，換句話說，事情的核心并不是聰明人讀書更多(雖然他們的確讀得更多)，而是讀書能讓你變得更聰明。
no other type of content consumption has been shown to provide these benefits.
我們還沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)其他的內(nèi)容消費方式能有這樣的益處。
when you wanna strengthen your muscles, the best way to do it is to lift heavy weights, so i’ve been told.
如果你想鍛煉自己的肌肉，最好的辦法就是用偏大的重量來進行負重訓練(至少我是這么聽說的)。
when you wanna strengthen your mind, the best way to do it is to read challenging literature.
如果你想鍛煉自己的思維，最好的辦法就是閱讀有挑戰(zhàn)性的文學作品。
so how challenging is our literature today compared to the past?
那么，我們?nèi)缃竦奈膶W作品和以前的那些相比，有多么具有挑戰(zhàn)性呢?
i e_plored a corpus of best-selling books for the 300 years period from 1710 to 20__ and assessed sentence length, paragraph length and reading grade.
我研究了從1720__年到20__年這320__年間的暢銷書語料庫，評估了它們的句子長度、段落長度和閱讀等級。
sentence length has been steadily declining for decades from an average of 40 words per sentence to an average of 14.
句子長度一直在穩(wěn)步下降，從曾經(jīng)的平均40個單詞下降到了平均14個單詞。
it’s now as abrupt as our spoken speech. it can’t decrease much further unless we start speaking in tweets.
現(xiàn)在它們已經(jīng)變得和口語一樣直白。再就沒法下降了，除非我們都開始用推特體講話。
paragraph length held steady from the beginning of the 18th century until the middle of the 20th century when it suddenly began to plummet at an accelerating rate. this is when the era of tv began.
段落長度從18世紀到20世紀是一直持平的，但從20世紀開始就加速下滑，而這個時間點正是電視誕生的時候。
books written before 1950 had an average paragraph length of over a hundred words. books written after 1950 had an average paragraph length of 71 words.
1950年以前寫的書的平均段落長度超過100個單詞。1950年以后寫的書的段落長度平均是71個單詞。
and if you look at just books written after 20__, the average paragraph has dropped to 58 words.
而如果你只看20__年以后寫的書，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)平均段落長度已經(jīng)下降到58個單詞。
consequently the reading grade of best-selling books has also plummeted dramatically over time.
結(jié)果就是，暢銷書的閱讀等級也隨著時間推移而大幅下降。
the reading grade started at 14.5 for bestsellers in the 1700s and then declined ine_orably. by 20__ it was down to grade 4.5.
1720__年代暢銷書的閱讀等級是14.5，自那以后它就在無情地下跌。到20__年的時候，已經(jīng)降到了4.5。
now remember. this has nothing to do with taste. the data is not talking about the aesthetic taste of consuming book. there are enjoyable books written at every reading grade at every genre.
而且，請注意，這和口味沒有關(guān)系。這些數(shù)據(jù)并沒有談及讀書的美學品味。每個等級、每個門類的書里都有引人入勝的好書。
when we consider reading grade we’re only talking about nutritional value. and from that point of view, what we’ve seen is that bestsellers were once books that challenged the college-educated mind and they are now books that are easy for 5th graders.
當我們談論閱讀等級的時候，我們僅僅是在談論它的營養(yǎng)價值。從這一點來看，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，暢銷書曾經(jīng)是能夠為大學等級的讀者帶來挑戰(zhàn)的東西，而現(xiàn)在連5年級的學生都能夠輕易讀懂暢銷書。
also note that the reading grade of the works clusters tightly as we get around 1940. and the 1940s is when researchers began to develop and promote what they termed readability scores.
還需要注意的是，這些書的閱讀等級在1940年左右的時候發(fā)生扎堆。而1940年代正好是研究者們開始研發(fā)并推廣所謂的“可讀性分數(shù)”的時候。
a readability score is a measure of the degree to which material can be understood by readers. so this flesch-kincaid reading grade is a readability score.
可讀性分數(shù)被用來衡量讀者能在多大程度上理解一段材料。這個“fk閱讀等級”就是一個可讀性分數(shù)。
once publishers were able to measure readability, they could target the works they published at whatever reading level would reach the greatest number of people.
一旦出版商能夠測量可讀性，他們就能確定在什么閱讀等級出書能夠觸及最大數(shù)量的人。
at the time when the average american could read at the 8th grade level but enjoyed reading at the 6th grade level, that is for recreation. people liked to read te_ts that are two grades beneath their actual reading level.
當普通美國人可以閱讀8級的書，但卻更喜歡讀6級的書時，那其實是在為娛樂而讀。人們普遍喜歡讀低于他們實際閱讀水平兩級的書。
unfortunately, research by professor lev vygotsky found that reading is most nutritious when it’s slightly above your current reading level. reading books that are at your present level or below does not improve comprehension.
不幸的是，列夫·威高茨基教授的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，那些稍高于你當前閱讀水平的書才是最有營養(yǎng)的。閱讀那些與你當前水平持平、或者低于你當前水平的書，并不會提高你的理解能力。
if you wanna increase your vocabulary and knowledge you have to encounter new words and new facts.
如果你想要增長你的詞匯量與知識，你必須去面對新的詞匯與新的事實。
and this is unfortunate because it means there’s a negative correlation between taste and nutrition.
這是很悲劇的，因為這說明口味與營養(yǎng)之間是呈負相關(guān)的。
the books you enjoy are not gonna be the books that are best for you.
那些你讀起來覺得愉悅的書，并不會是對你好的書。
so as publishers started to use the readability scores to guide their publishing it was inevitable they were going to start making the material tastier but less nutritious because that’s what we the consumers wanted.
所以，當出版商開始用可讀性分數(shù)來指導出版工作，他們就不可避免地在讓書變得更可口卻更沒有營養(yǎng)，因為這就是消費者想要的。
and this is similar to what happened when farmers substituted corn for grass in the livestock. the beef tasted better but it became less nutritious.
這就像是農(nóng)民用玉米代替草料來喂養(yǎng)牲畜，牛肉的口感變好了，但卻變得更沒有營養(yǎng)了。
the publishers of newspapers and magazines hired readability consultants to purposefully simplify their written content. and as a result, in the past 60 years, the reading level of newspapers and magazines has dropped by 2 to 4 grades.
報紙與雜志的出版商更是專門聘請了可讀性顧問來簡化他們的內(nèi)容。結(jié)果就是，在過去的60年里，報紙與雜志的可讀性下降了2到4級。
decreasing the reading grade of the works allow the newspaper-magazine publishers to greatly increase the audience but it also reduced the nutritional value of reading.
降低材料的閱讀等級讓報紙與雜志的出版商能夠大副提升讀者數(shù)，但同時也降低了這些閱讀材料的營養(yǎng)價值。
now it’s not surprising that market forces are going to cater towards taste rather than nutrition.
所以我們也就能理解為什么市場的力量會偏向于口味，而不是營養(yǎng)。
what’s especially troubling is that our te_tbooks have also been dumbed down.
而真正讓人擔憂的是，我們的教科書也變得越來越蠢了。
the average 8th grader is now reading from the te_tbooks at the 5th grade reading level.
普通8年級的學生現(xiàn)在正在讀著實際只有5年級水平的教科書。
the literature te_t that was required of 12th graders is nowadays simpler than the average 8th grade reading book before world war ii.
現(xiàn)在20__年級被要求讀的文學作品，比二戰(zhàn)前8年級讀的書還要簡單。
despite the fact that books are easier to read than ever, the average american today reads less than ever.
而且，雖然現(xiàn)在的書比以往的都更容易讀，但普通美國人讀書的量也變得前所未有的低。
60% of 18 to 24 year olds used to read literature in 1982. by 20__, this had dropped to 43%.
1982年的時候，18歲到24歲的人中有60%會讀文學作品。到了20__年，已經(jīng)下降到了43%。
the percentage of adults who read for pleasure is decreasing by 7 percent every year.
成年人把讀書作為娛樂活動的比例每年都下降7%。
and the average annual spending has dropped from 33 dollars to 28 dollars in the last 20 years.
過去20__年人們用在書上的平均年消費額從33美元下降到了28美元。
it’s accepted that the declining popularity of written media has been caused by the rise of screen media.
人們普遍接受的是，紙媒的流行程度日趨下降是因為屏幕媒體變得越來越流行。
so it’s a dietary shift. it means that not only are americans reading simpler books, flipping through simpler magazines and learning from simpler te_tbooks, they’re doing less all of the above.
所以，我們的飲食方式正在改變。這意味著，美國人不光只能讀懂更簡單的書、只能翻更簡單的雜志、只能看更簡單的教科書，而且他們還看得越來越少了。
and these changes have occurred simultaneously with measurable decreases in our nation’s verbal skills.
與這種現(xiàn)象同時發(fā)生的還有整個國家語言能力那客觀的下降。
this is what the mean verbal sat scores look like after you correct for the fact that the test makers have been adjusting the scores upward to hide the decline.
上面這是sat語言能力分數(shù)的平均值，我們在其中剔除了出卷人為了掩蓋下降而對分數(shù)做出的調(diào)整。
there was a 50 point drop between 1962 and 1979. and 1962 tv reached 90% market penetration and te_tbooks got simplified.
從1962年到1979年，分數(shù)下降了50分。而1962年電視的市場滲透率達到了90%，并且教科書被簡化了。
there has been another 10-point drop since 20__ when internet access went mainstream.
20__年互聯(lián)網(wǎng)主流化的時候，又下降了10分。
here’s a comparison of the reading ability of adults in 1949 and 20__, the world before tv and after tv.
這里有一張1949年月20__年成人閱讀能力的對比，分別代表電視出現(xiàn)之前與之后的世界。
the number of us adults capable of reading at the 10th grade level dropped from 54% to 20%.
美國成年人中能讀10級材料的人，從54%下降到了20%。
the number of reading at even the 6th level dropped from 83% to 52%.
就連能讀6級材料的人也從83%下降到了52%。
in other words, more americans could read at the 10th grade in 1949 than can even read at the 6th grade level today.
換句話說，1949年能讀10級材料的美國人比現(xiàn)在能讀6級材料的還多。
and this is despite the fact that in 1949 the average american had 8 and a half years of education and now the average adult has 12 and a half years of education.
而且這還沒說1949年的時候美國人平均只接受8年半的教育，現(xiàn)在則平均是20__年半。
so 4 and a half e_tra years of education to do worse.
都受了4年半的教育，卻越來越差了。
so far i focused on printed material because it’s the leafy green vegetables of the content diet.
到目前為止，我都在講紙質(zhì)的印刷材料，因為它們是內(nèi)容中的綠葉蔬菜。
what about screen media? how are they doing?
那屏幕媒體又如何呢?它們的現(xiàn)狀又是怎樣?
well, printed media has obviously declined in popularity. screen media is doing a little more better.
嗯，紙媒的流行度顯然是下降了。屏幕媒體的狀況要稍微好一點。
watching television is now the developed world’s favorite activity taking up more free time than anything else.
看電視是現(xiàn)在發(fā)達國家最流行的消遣方式，它占據(jù)的時間比任何其他事情都多。
the only thing we do more than watching tv is sleep.
唯一一項我們花時間比看電視多的事情，是睡覺。
american aged 15 to 24 spend 2 hours a day watching tv and seven minutes reading for pleasure.
15到24歲的美國人每天花2小時看電視，而用閱讀作為消遣的時間只有7分鐘。
if books are the leafy green vegetables in the diet, tvs and computers are the daily bread.
如果說書是飲食中的綠葉蔬菜。那電視和電腦就是我們每天吃的面包。
now, the good news is that screen media has been shown to increase visual spatial intelligence.
好消息是，有證據(jù)表明屏幕媒體可以提高我們的視覺與空間智力。
video games have also been shown to improve hand-eye coordination, thank you, 5-year-old who beat me on _bo_, and divided attention which makes us better at tracking multiple objects at once.
電子游戲被證明能夠提高手眼協(xié)調(diào)能力，感謝某位在_bo_游戲機上打敗我的5歲人士證明了這一點，同時它還能鍛煉我們一心多用的能力，這讓我們能在同一時間內(nèi)更好地關(guān)注多件事情。
the internet has been shown to increase transactive memory which is sort of a meta memory of where to find information like i no longer remember my birthday so i google it.
互聯(lián)網(wǎng)還被證明能夠提高交互式記憶的能力，這是一種關(guān)于“信息在哪”的宏觀記憶，比如，我不記得自己的生日了，于是就去谷歌上面搜。
in particular, the increase in visual spatial intelligence has been profound and you can see the increased scores on the raven progressive matrices.
值得強調(diào)的是，視覺與空間智力的提升是很顯著的，你可以從酷貓寫作推理測試的分數(shù)上看出。
these are non-verbal iq tests which provide a measure of visual intelligence. and screen media are like vitamins for visual ability. tasty tasty vitamins.
只是一種針對非語言類智力的測試，它能衡量一個人的視覺智力。而屏幕媒體就像是視覺智力的維生素。而且是好吃的維生素。
the bad news is that all types of screen media come at a substantial cost.
壞消息是，所有類型的屏幕媒體都伴隨著高昂的代價。
professor patricia greenfield summarizes the findings as damages to our deep cognitive processes.
派翠西亞·格林菲爾德教授將這些發(fā)現(xiàn)總結(jié)為“對深度認知過程的損害”。
a study by the american academy of pediatrics found that for every hour a child spent watching television there was a 9% increase in their attention problems.
美國兒科學會的一項研究表明：一個小孩每多看1小時的電視，他患有注意力障礙的可能性就增加9%。
children between age 11 and 15 spent 53 hours a week in front of the screen.
11到15歲的小孩平均每周有53小時的時間是呆在屏幕前的。
a 20__ study published in brain and cognition has found that the more we watch television during our middle years, aged 20 to 60, the greater our risk of alzheimer’s.
一項于20__年發(fā)表在《大腦與認知》上的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)：中年人(20到60歲)看電視的時間越長，他們患老年癡呆癥的風險也就越大。
a 20__ study in southern medical journal found that watching lots of soap operas and talk shows was associated with clinically significant impairment of attention, memory and psychomotor speed in older people like your professors.
一項于20__年發(fā)表在《南方醫(yī)學雜志》上的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)：看太多肥皂劇和脫口秀可以對你們的教授這樣的老年人造成嚴重的注意力障礙、記憶障礙和精神運動障礙，這些都是有臨床依據(jù)的。
a large part of television effect on our mind is caused by what pavlov calls the orienting response. this is the instinctive response we get to sensitivity of change, vision, sound.
電視對我們思維的很多影響，都是巴甫洛夫所說的“定向反應”。這是我們對影響、聲音與變化的本能反應。
our brains get turned on by stimuli which triggers dopamine release whenever are....
當有東西促使我們的大腦分泌多巴胺的時候，我們的大腦就會被激發(fā)……
sorry.
抱歉。
in the last 2 decades, researchers have begun to e_amine how the shots-cuts edits and effects of television activate the orienting response.
在過去的20__年里，研究者們開始研究電影鏡頭的剪輯以及電視對定向反應的影響。
a study of eeg activity in the processing of television published in communications research found that the more you have the shots quickly edited the more effect television has on your nervous system.
《溝通研究》發(fā)布過一項關(guān)于看電視時人的腦電圖的研究，它表明：鏡頭的剪輯越快，電視對你神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)的影響就越強。
so the average length of shots in our screen media is a benchmark for how healthy it is. to watch shorter cuts make the content more arousing, more addictive and more damaging to our attention span.
所以，屏幕媒體上鏡頭的長度就是這個媒體健康程度的標尺。更短的鏡頭剪輯能讓內(nèi)容更刺激、更生動，同時也讓它對我們的注意力時長造成更大的傷害。
and unfortunately that’s the direction the screen media’s moved in.
不幸的是，屏幕媒體正在往這個方向走。
in 1972, the average shot length of a us film was 8.6 seconds. now it’s down to 2.5 seconds.
在1972年，美國電影鏡頭的平均時長是8.6秒。現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)降到了2.5秒。
film makers call this mtv editing because everything looks like a music video now.
電影制作方把這稱為mtv式剪輯，因為現(xiàn)在所有東西看起來都像音樂錄影帶。
children’s shows are particularly fast cut. a longitudinal study of sesame street found that the average shot length have, over the last 26 years, even dumbed down sesame street.
兒童節(jié)目被剪輯得尤其快。有一項關(guān)于《芝麻街》的長度研究發(fā)現(xiàn)：在過去20__年里，這個節(jié)目的平均鏡頭長度一直在下降，讓《芝麻街》變得更蠢了。
these trends are a function of the decreased attention span of the modern mind as well as contributing factors to its further reduction.
這個趨勢解釋了為什么現(xiàn)代人的注意力時長越來越短，也為它的繼續(xù)下降奠定了基礎(chǔ)。
attention deficient viewers seek out shorter hyperkinetic content which in turn leads to their minds becoming even more attention deficient.
那些注意力不能集中的觀眾會尋找更動感的內(nèi)容，而這些內(nèi)容反過來又讓他們的注意力越來越低下。
this is a vicious cycle that becomes a chiche.
這個萬惡的循環(huán)現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)成了老生常談。
how many of you found the blockbuster from the old days to be too slow-paced, boring and long?
你們當中有多少人覺得以前的熱門電影又慢、又長、又無聊?
in fact, even 18 minutes is probably too long for a talk in today’s attention deficient world. so we’re gonna have a halftime show.
實際上，在這樣一個注意力不集中的世界里，即使是18分鐘對于一個演講來說可能都太長了。所以我們不得不放一點中場休息節(jié)目。
you have to imagine this music playing during this part of the presentation because when we listen to music it triggers a comple_ neural process.
現(xiàn)在，在演講的這個環(huán)節(jié)，你必須想想一下音樂播放出來的效果，因為聽音樂會促使我們的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)發(fā)生一些列復雜的活動。
a controversial 1993 study published in nature found that listening to mozart increases your spatial task performance.
1993年《自然》雜志上發(fā)表了別受爭議的研究，它發(fā)現(xiàn)聽莫扎特的音樂能提高你完成與空間相關(guān)的任務的能力。
follow-on studies have found similar effects from other music with similarly comple_ structure such as bach, yanni.
后續(xù)的一些研究也發(fā)現(xiàn)那些擁有同樣復雜結(jié)構(gòu)的音樂，比如巴赫、雅尼，也擁有相似的能力。
a 20__ study found that cognitive recall was increased when listening to unfamiliar classical music.
20__年的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)：在聽不熟悉的古典音樂的時候，認知記憶會得到提升。
a 20__ study found that listening to classical music could improve performance of stressful tasks like ted talks by calming the sympathetic nervous system.
20__年的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，聽古典音樂能夠提高你處理壓力任務——比如ted演講——的能力，因為它能讓你的交感神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)冷靜下來。
loud fast music induces stress on the sympathetic nervous system.
音量大、速度快的音樂則會對你的交感神經(jīng)造成壓力。
so these findings are correct.
這些發(fā)現(xiàn)是正確的。
and these are less clear.
而以下這些就比較模糊了。
the most nutritious music would be sedating, comple_ and unfamiliar, while the least nutritious music would be loud, simplistic and sound familiar.
最有營養(yǎng)的音樂應該是使人鎮(zhèn)靜的、復雜的、陌生的;而最沒有營養(yǎng)的音樂應該是吵鬧的、簡單的、聽起來耳熟的。
so what direction is pop music been heading in the last 50 years?
所以，過去這50年流行音樂是在往哪個方向發(fā)展呢?
well, analysts at the spanish national research council actually evaluated 465,000 pop songs from 1955 to 20__ to evaluate loudness, harmonic, comple_ity and timbrel diversity.
西班牙國家研究委員會評估了1955年到20__年間465000首流行歌曲，測量了它們的音量、和諧度、復雜度以及旋律多樣性。
since 1950s, music has tended towards increased inherent loudness. there’s been a reduction in the diversity of chords but given song a reduction in the number of musical pathways between each chord and the timbers of different instruments has gotten more homogeneous every year.
從1950年代開始，音樂本身的音量就一直在加大。和鉉多樣性也在下降，而且不同樂器、不同旋律之間的差別每年都在變得越來越平均。
since 1955, pop music uses fewer and fewer tones from the available palette.
從1955年開始，流行音樂里使用的音調(diào)越來越少。
so overall in the last 50 years, pop music has become louder, more simplistic and more similar.
所以總體來說，在過去50年了，流行音樂變得越來越吵、越來越簡單、越來越趨同。
it’s probably becoming less nutritious.
而且也可能在變得越來越?jīng)]有營養(yǎng)。
and this again is not a measure of taste. in fact we should probably not even discuss my taste in music or my jazz album.
再強調(diào)一次，這和品位無關(guān)。事實上我們最好不要在這談論我的音樂品味，或是我的爵士樂專輯。
let’s just say that from an objective review of the cognitive benefits of music you are much better off with mozart.
我們只是說，如果客觀地看音樂對認知能力的益處，你最好還是聽莫扎特。
so we have answered our starting question.
所以我們已經(jīng)回答了一開始的問題。
just as the nutritional value of food decline from healthy to unhealthy, so too has the nutritional value of our content decline dramatically.
正如食物的營養(yǎng)價值從健康變得越來越不健康，內(nèi)容的營養(yǎng)價值也在急劇下滑。
instead of a balanced diet that mi_es great tasting content with nutritious fare, we instead feed our minds with the equivalent of deep fried doughnuts.
我們手頭上的并不是一頓兼具口味與營養(yǎng)的均衡大餐，而是想油炸甜甜圈一樣的東西。
if we care, of course i did, bad few.
如果我們真的關(guān)心的話，當讓，我自己是關(guān)心的，只是有些小毛病。
if we care of our mind as much as we care about the health of our bodies, we need to begin to balance our content diet as urgently as we need to balance our food diet.
如果我們像關(guān)心自己的身體一樣關(guān)心自己的思維，那我們就急需將我們的內(nèi)容飲食平衡起來，就像我們急需平衡自己的食物一樣。
we don’t need to give up video games. we don’t need to quit watching csi. we can even keep listening to beyonce.
我們并不需要放棄電子游戲。我們也沒有必要不看csi。我們也可以繼續(xù)聽碧昂斯。
but it wouldn’t hurt us to read something really hard like edward gibbon’s decline and fall of the roman empire reading grade 17.4 or to watch something slow and methodical like the godfather.
但偶爾讀一讀像愛德華·吉本的《羅馬帝國衰亡史》這樣的艱深作品也沒有壞處，這本書的閱讀等級是17.4;或者你也可以看一看像《教父》這樣緩慢而有旋律的作品。
or you can listen to something sonorous and melodic like mozart.
或者你也可以聽聽莫扎特這種鏗鏘而有韻律的音樂。
just don’t do all 3 at once because multitasking is the information superhighway to hell.
只是不要同時做這3件事就好，因為一心多用是獲取信息的死亡高速路。
thank you.
謝謝大家。
《人類越來越聰明，而我們閱讀的內(nèi)容卻越來越蠢》觀后感
閱讀是一種享受，閱讀是一種升華，閱讀是一種成長。
在每當我讀文章時，總會被文章的內(nèi)容所吸引。被這所謂的文字所束縛，不能逃脫它的“魔掌”。不知這些作者哪來的“神力”，讓人感覺每一字都像是被灌輸了生命。每讀一句，眼前就清晰的展現(xiàn)出一幅畫面。讓我在其中翱翔，感受到生命的美好。
在閱讀中，我感受到杜甫的“會當凌絕頂，一覽眾山小”寬闊的胸襟。和文天祥的“人生自古誰無死，留取丹心照汗青?！睙o私的奉獻。還有李白的“長風破浪會有時，直掛云帆濟滄海?！眻?zhí)著的理想。
多少次，朱自清的《背影》讓我潸然淚下。多少次，海倫凱勒的《假如給我三天光明》讓我肅然起敬。多少次，儒勒。凡爾納的《海底兩萬里》讓我大開眼界。記憶中已記不清還有多少個多少次……
每當夜晚難眠時，我都會拿出一本書，細細的體味。方才安穩(wěn)的入睡。每當我孤獨無聊時，我都會拿出一本書，慢慢的翻閱。與書為友，才不會感到郁悶。每當我無計可施時，我都會拿出一本書，靜靜的尋覓。才知道怎樣去做好這件事。
閱讀，我將對你立下海誓山盟：無論貧窮富足、無論環(huán)境好壞、無論生病健康，我都是你最忠實的摰友。
第2篇 ted英語演講：我的閱讀世界年
演說題目：我的閱讀世界年!
演說者：ann morgan
it's often said that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at what's on their bookshelves. what do my bookshelves say about me? well, when i asked myself this question a few years ago, i made an alarming discovery. i'd always thought of myself as a fairly cultured, cosmopolitan sort of person. but my bookshelves told a rather different story. pretty much all the titles on them were by british or north american authors, and there was almost nothing in translation. discovering this massive, cultural blind spot in my reading came as quite a shock.
and when i thought about it, it seemed like a real shame. i knew there had to be lots of amazing stories out there by writers working in languages other than english. and it seemed really sad to think that my reading habits meant i would probably never encounter them. so, i decided to prescribe myself an intensive course of global reading. 20__ was set to be a very international year for the uk; it was the year of the london olympics. and so i decided to use it as my time frame to try to read a novel, short story collection or memoir from every country in the world. and so i did. and it was very e_citing and i learned some remarkable things and made some wonderful connections that i want to share with you today.
but it started with some practical problems. after i'd worked out which of the many different lists of countries in the world to use for my project, i ended up going with the list of un-recognized nations, to which i added taiwan, which gave me a total of 196 countries. and after i'd worked out how to fit reading and blogging about, roughly, four books a week around working five days a week,
i then had to face up to the fact that i might even not be able to get books in english from every country. only around 4.5 percent of the literary works published each year in the uk are translations, and the figures are similar for much of the english-speaking world. although, the proportion of translated books published in many other countries is a lot higher. 4.5 percent is tiny enough to start with, but what that figure doesn't tell you is that many of those books will come from countries with strong publishing networks and lots of industry professionals primed to go out and sell those titles to english-language publishers. so, for e_ample, although well over 100 books are translated from french and published in the uk each year, most of them will come from countries like france or switzerland. french-speaking africa, on the other hand, will rarely ever get a look-in.
the upshot is that there are actually quite a lot of nations that may have little or even no commercially available literature in english. their books remain invisible to readers of the world's most published language. but when it came to reading the world, the biggest challenge of all for me was that fact that i didn't know where to start. having spent my life reading almost e_clusively british and north american books, i had no idea how to go about sourcing and finding stories and choosing them from much of the rest of the world. i couldn't tell you how to source a story from swaziland. i wouldn't know a good novel from namibia. there was no hiding it -- i was a clueless literary _enophobe. so how on earth was i going to read the world?
i was going to have to ask for help. so in october 20__, i registered my blog, ayearofreadingtheworld.com, and i posted a short appeal online. i e_plained who i was, how narrow my reading had been, and i asked anyone who cared to to leave a message suggesting what i might read from other parts of the planet. now, i had no idea whether anyone would be interested, but within a few hours of me posting that appeal online, people started to get in touch. at first, it was friends and colleagues. then it was friends of friends. and pretty soon, it was strangers.
four days after i put that appeal online, i got a message from a woman called rafidah in kuala lumpur. she said she loved the sound of my project, could she go to her local english-language bookshop and choose my malaysian book and post it to me? i accepted enthusiastically, and a few weeks later, a package arrived containing not one, but two books -- rafidah's choice from malaysia, and a book from singapore that she had also picked out for me. now, at the time, i was amazed that a stranger more than 6,000 miles away would go to such lengths to help someone she would probably never meet.
but rafidah's kindness proved to be the pattern for that year. time and again, people went out of their way to help me. some took on research on my behalf, and others made detours on holidays and business trips to go to bookshops for me. it turns out, if you want to read the world, if you want to encounter it with an open mind, the world will help you. when it came to countries with little or no commercially available literature in english, people went further still.
books often came from surprising sources. my panamanian read, for e_ample, came through a conversation i had with the panama canal on twitter. yes, the panama canal has a twitter account. and when i tweeted at it about my project, it suggested that i might like to try and get hold of the work of the panamanian author juan david morgan. i found morgan's website and i sent him a message, asking if any of his spanish-language novels had been translated into english. and he said that nothing had been published, but he did have an unpublished translation of his novel 'the golden horse.' he emailed this to me, allowing me to become one of the first people ever to read that book in english.
morgan was by no means the only wordsmith to share his work with me in this way. from sweden to palau, writers and translators sent me self-published books and unpublished manuscripts of books that hadn't been picked up by anglophone publishers or that were no longer available, giving me privileged glimpses of some remarkable imaginary worlds. i read, for e_ample, about the southern african king ngungunhane, who led the resistance against the portuguese in the 19th century; and about marriage rituals in a remote village on the shores of the caspian sea in turkmenistan. i met kuwait's answer to bridget jones.
and i read about an orgy in a tree in angola.
but perhaps the most amazing e_ample of the lengths that people were prepared to go to to help me read the world, came towards the end of my quest, when i tried to get hold of a book from the tiny, portuguese-speaking african island nation of s?o tomé and príncipe. now, having spent several months trying everything i could think of to find a book that had been translated into english from the nation, it seemed as though the only option left to me was to see if i could get something translated for me from scratch. now, i was really dubious whether anyone was going to want to help with this, and give up their time for something like that. but, within a week of me putting a call out on twitter and facebook for portuguese speakers, i had more people than i could involve in the project, including margaret jull costa, a leader in her field, who has translated the work of nobel prize winner josé saramago. with my nine volunteers in place, i managed to find a book by a s?o toméan author that i could buy enough copies of online. here's one of them. and i sent a copy out to each of my volunteers. they all took on a couple of short stories from this collection, stuck to their word, sent their translations back to me, and within si_ weeks, i had the entire book to read.
in that case, as i found so often during my year of reading the world, my not knowing and being open about my limitations had become a big opportunity. when it came to s?o tomé and príncipe, it was a chance not only to learn something new and discover a new collection of stories, but also to bring together a group of people and facilitate a joint creative endeavor. my weakness had become the project's strength.
the books i read that year opened my eyes to many things. as those who enjoy reading will know, books have an e_traordinary power to take you out of yourself and into someone else's mindset, so that, for a while at least, you look at the world through different eyes. that can be an uncomfortable e_perience, particularly if you're reading a book from a culture that may have quite different values to your own. but it can also be really enlightening. wrestling with unfamiliar ideas can help clarify your own thinking. and it can also show up blind spots in the way you might have been looking at the world.
when i looked back at much of the english-language literature i'd grown up with, for e_ample, i began to see how narrow a lot of it was, compared to the richness that the world has to offer. and as the pages turned, something else started to happen, too. little by little, that long list of countries that i'd started the year with, changed from a rather dry, academic register of place names into living, breathing entities.
now, i don't want to suggest that it's at all possible to get a rounded picture of a country simply by reading one book. but cumulatively, the stories i read that year made me more alive than ever before to the richness, diversity and comple_ity of our remarkable planet. it was as though the world's stories and the people who'd gone to such lengths to help me read them had made it real to me. these days, when i look at my bookshelves or consider the works on my e-reader, they tell a rather different story. it's the story of the power books have to connect us across political, geographical, cultural, social, religious divides. it's the tale of the potential human beings have to work together.
and, it's testament to the e_traordinary times we live in, where, thanks to the internet, it's easier than ever before for a stranger to share a story, a worldview, a book with someone she may never meet, on the other side of the planet. i hope it's a story i'm reading for many years to come. and i hope many more people will join me. if we all read more widely, there'd be more incentive for publishers to translate more books, and we would all be richer for that.
thank you.
常說看一個人的書架 就能了解到這個人很多事情 那么我的書架是怎么展現(xiàn)我的呢? 嗯，當幾年前我問自己這個問題時 我被自己嚇了一跳 我一直覺得自己是一個有教養(yǎng)的 比較與時俱進的人 但我的書架展現(xiàn)的卻是另一回事 大部分的書 作者都是英國或北美的 基本沒什么翻譯過來的書 在我的閱讀里， 我發(fā)現(xiàn)了這個龐大的文化盲點 確實挺驚人的
當我仔細去想的時候，真的挺遺憾的 我知道在這個世界上除了英語 一定還有很多其他語言的有趣的故事 而我的閱讀習慣意味著 我估計永遠也不會去接觸這一類書 這想起來讓人有點傷心 所以我下定決心 把自己的閱讀范圍擴大到世界級的范圍 20__年對于英國來說是非常國際化的一年 這一年倫敦舉辦了奧運會 所以我決定把它當成一個時間段 去嘗試從世界上不同的國家里 選一本小說來讀，不管是短篇的還是自傳的 所以我這么做了 非常刺激 我學到很多有用的東西 也了解到很多有趣的聯(lián)系 讓我很想今天跟大家分享
但萬事開頭難 當我整理出這個世界不同國家的 列表后 我又對照了聯(lián)合國認證的國家列表 所以我增加了臺灣(中國) 所以總共有196個國家 在我算出如何在一周內(nèi) 一周五天的時間內(nèi) 讀完并記錄日志后，
我不得不面對這么一個現(xiàn)實 就是我可能無法獲取每個國家書籍的英文版 大約在英國出版的有翻譯版本的書籍 僅占全部的4.5% 對于世界上講英語的其他地區(qū)來說， 這個數(shù)字也差不多 盡管在許多其他國家 翻譯出版的書籍的比例要高很多 4.5%對剛開始來說雖然足夠 但這個數(shù)字并沒有告訴你的 是這些書中很多會來自 擁有強大出版網(wǎng)絡的國家 而且當中很多專業(yè)人士也很想把這些書 賣給英文出版社 例如，雖然每年有超過100本的法語書 會譯成英文在英國發(fā)行 但大部分是來自法國或瑞士 另一方面，在非洲講法語的地區(qū) 則幾乎沒有機會涉及到
結(jié)果就是，有很多很多國家 根本進不了英文文學的商業(yè)區(qū) 根本進不了英文文學的商業(yè)區(qū) 對世界上發(fā)行語言受眾最多的讀者來說 這些國家的書籍鮮為人知 但當談到閱讀世界這一做法時 對我來說最大的困難就是 我不知道從何入手 我這一生幾乎都在閱讀 英國和北美的書籍 我根本不知道該怎么搜索尋找 去選擇世界上大部分其他地方的作品 我沒辦法告訴你 要怎么去搜索斯威士蘭的文學作品 我不知道納米比亞有哪些好的文學作品 這些作品并沒有被藏起來—— 我在文學上就是一個外盲 那么我到底要怎么去閱讀這個世界呢?
我不得不尋求幫助 在20__年10月，我注冊了我的博客 ayearofreadingtheworld.com 然后我發(fā)了一條簡短的求助 我解釋我是誰 我的閱讀面有多窄 我問有沒有人愿意 給我留言，建議我應該去讀 這個世界上其他地方的那些書 我當時不知道有沒有人會給我留言 但在我發(fā)了求助后的幾個小時內(nèi) 人們開始給我回復了 一開始，是朋友和同事 然后就是朋友的朋友 很快，就是陌生人
在我在網(wǎng)上留了那條求助之后的第四天 我收到了一條消息 它來自一位在吉隆坡叫 rafidah 的女士 她說她很喜歡我這個項目的意義 問她能不能去當?shù)氐挠⑽臅?然后幫我選馬來語書籍然后發(fā)給我? 我滿腔熱情地接受了 幾個星期后 包裹來了，里面不是一本，是兩本—— rafidah 選的一本是馬來西亞的書 還有一本也是她選的，來自新加坡的書 當時，我都驚呆了 一個遠在6000英里之外的陌生人 會如此用心去幫一個 她從未見過的陌生人
但 rafidah 的善良，成了那一年的常規(guī) 一次又一次，人們用他們的方式來幫我 有些人幫我做了研究 有些人在假期或出差的時候 專門跑一趟書店幫我找書 事實證明，如果你想閱讀這個世界 如果你想用開放的思維去與之交流 那么整個世界都會幫你 對于那些 在商業(yè)上沒什么機會 進入英文文學界的國家來說 人們會更努力地去幫我
這些書籍的來源經(jīng)常讓我出乎意料 舉個例子，我的巴拿馬閱讀，是來自 推特上我和“巴拿馬運河”這個賬號的對話 是的，巴拿馬運河在有推特賬號的 當我在推特上發(fā)布我這個項目的消息時 它建議說，我可能會想要去讀一讀 一位叫 juan david morgan 的巴拿馬作家的作品 我找到了作家的網(wǎng)站， 然后給他發(fā)了一條消息 問他，他的西語小說 有沒有被翻譯成英文的 他答復說目前還沒有出版 但他確實有一份未出版的英文譯文 一本名叫《金馬》的小說 他用郵件把譯文發(fā)給我 允許我成為第一批閱讀這本書 的英文版本的讀者之一
morgan 并不是唯一一個 愿意用這種方式和我分享他的作品的作家 從瑞典到帕勞 作家和翻譯家給我發(fā)來他們自己出版的書籍 還有未被以英文為母語的出版商挑中的 或者是不再有機會發(fā)表的 所有未出版的手稿 這讓我有機會一窺某些精彩的世界 比如說，我讀了 關(guān)于南非國王 ngungunhane 的書籍 他在19世紀領(lǐng)導反抗葡萄牙人 我也讀了土庫曼斯坦的里海岸邊 那些偏僻村莊的結(jié)婚儀式 我還讀了科威特版本的《bj單身日記》
我還讀了安哥拉一場樹上狂歡
在人們想盡辦法 幫我去閱讀這個世界的例子中 可能最讓人驚奇的 出現(xiàn)在我網(wǎng)上求助的最后時期 當時我在找一本書 它來自來自說葡萄牙語的 圣多美島和普林西比島非洲小島國 花了好幾個月，用盡所有我能想到的辦法 去找一本從別的國家翻譯成英文的書 (但都找不到) 我覺得剩下的唯一方式 就是看能不能重新去翻譯 我當時也沒什么把握 不知道是否有人愿意幫我 愿意花時間來為我做這樣的事 但，就在我在推特和臉書上發(fā)出 尋找會講葡萄牙語的人 這一消息的一周內(nèi) 我找到的人多到超乎預期 包括有 margaret jull costa， 在她領(lǐng)域的杰出人才 她翻譯了獲諾貝爾獎的文學作品 《若澤·薩拉馬戈》 然后帶著9位志愿者 我找到了一本出自圣多美島作家的書 然后在網(wǎng)上買了幾本 這是其中的一本 我給每個志愿者都發(fā)了一本 他們各自從這個系列中選幾個短故事 然后開始翻譯，然后把譯文發(fā)給我 在六周內(nèi)，我已經(jīng)擁有一本可讀的書了
類似的情況在我閱讀世界那一年經(jīng)常發(fā)生 我的不知，以及無畏自己的局限 成了一個巨大的機遇 說到圣多美島和普林西比島 不單是一個學習新知識的機會 探索新文學作品的機會 還是將人們聚集起來 團結(jié)起來創(chuàng)新努力的機會 我的局限反倒成了這個項目的優(yōu)勢
那一年我看過的書開拓了我的視野 那些享受閱讀的人就能體會 書籍有著強大能力把你帶出自我 進入別人的思想眾 所以，至少有一段時間 你能看到別人眼中的世界 這或許不會是一段好過的經(jīng)歷 尤其是你在讀一本 文化上與自己的觀念大為不同的書 但它卻可能很有啟發(fā)性 與不熟悉的想法產(chǎn)生碰撞 能幫你更好認識自己的想法 也能幫你告訴自己 在你看到這個世界的方式上有哪些盲點
當我回頭看我從小到大 讀過的大多數(shù)英文文學 相比世界上其他書籍的豐富程度 這些書籍確實太狹隘了 每翻一頁 便長一智 積少成多 我年初列出的國家列表 從一些列枯燥充滿學術(shù)的地名 變成了活生生會呼吸的實體
現(xiàn)在，我并不想建議說 單靠讀一本書就能大致了解一個國家 但積少成多，那一年我讀過的故事 它們的對這個世界展示的豐富性， 多樣化性，和復雜性 讓我更有存在感 就好像是這些世界性的故事 以及那些想辦法幫我閱讀這些書籍的人們 是他們讓我變得真實 這些天來，當我看著我的書架的時候 或者在我的電子閱讀器上思考這些作品時 它們在訴說這一個不一樣的故事 這是一個關(guān)于書籍的故事 書能將我們聯(lián)系在一起， 跨越政治，區(qū)域，文化，社會，宗教的隔閡 它是人們擁有協(xié)同工作的潛能的故事
還有，它是一個證明的故事 證明了我們現(xiàn)在的這個時代，由于有互聯(lián)網(wǎng) 讓一切變得前所未有的方便—— 讓一個陌生人來與來自地球另一半 素未謀面的另一陌生人 分享一個故事，一種世界關(guān)，一本書 我希望這是一個我閱讀這么多年所追求的故事 我也希望會有更多的人可以與我同閱 如果我們都擴寬我們的閱讀面， 那么對于出版商來說 就更有動機去翻譯更多書籍 我們就有機會更廣地閱讀了
謝謝
第3篇 ted英語演講：如何激發(fā)每個孩子成為終生閱讀者
how to inspire every child to be a lifelong reader
演講者：alvin irby
中英對照翻譯
as an elementary school teacher, my mom did everything she could to ensure i had good reading skills. this usually consisted of weekend reading lessons at our kitchen table while my friends played outside. my reading ability improved, but these forced reading lessons didn't e_actly inspire a love of reading.
作為一名小學教師，我母親竭盡所能以確保我有良好的閱讀能力。她通常在周末時在餐桌前教我閱讀，而此時我的朋友們在外玩耍。我的閱讀能力提高了，但這種強迫式的閱讀教學并沒有激發(fā)我對閱讀的熱愛。
high school changed everything. in 10th grade, my regular english class read short stories and did spelling tests. out of sheer boredom, i asked to be switched into another class. the ne_t semester,i joined advanced english.
到高中時，這一切改變了。在十年級時，我的常規(guī)英文課要求閱讀短篇故事和測試拼寫。因為感覺實在無聊，我要求轉(zhuǎn)去另一門課。在下一個學期，我加入了高階英語課。
we read two novels and wrote two book reports that semester. the drastic difference and rigor between these two english classes angered me and spurred questions like, 'where did all these white people come from?'
那學期，我們要讀兩本小說并寫兩篇讀書報告。這兩門英語課之間的巨大差異和嚴格程度讓我很生氣也引發(fā)了像這樣的問題，“這些白人是從哪來的?”
my high school was over 70 percent black and latino, but this advanced english class had white students everywhere. this personal encounter with institutionalized racism altered my relationship with reading forever. i learned that i couldn't depend on a school, a teacher or curriculum to teach me what i needed to know. and more out of like, rebellion, than being in tell ectual, i decided i would no longer allow other people to dictate when and what i read. and without realizing it, i had stumbled upon a key to helping children read. identity.
黑裔和拉丁美洲裔學生在我的高中占學生總數(shù)的70%，但這門高階英語課上遍布著白人學生這樣的制度化種族主義的個人遭遇永久地改變了我與閱讀的關(guān)系。我發(fā)現(xiàn)我不能依賴于一個學校，一位老師或課程來教我那些我需要知道的。主要因為叛逆，而非理智，我決定我再也不會讓其他人來決定我應該在何時閱讀以及閱讀什么。我已偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了一把幫助孩子閱讀的鑰匙，雖然我當時并沒有意識到這一點。那就是認同。
instead of fi_ating on skills and moving students from one reading level to another, or forcing struggling readers to memorize lists of unfamiliar words, we should be asking ourselves this question: how can we inspire children to identify as readers?
不應只專注于技能和將學生從一個閱讀級別升到下一級，或逼迫閱讀有困難的學生去記憶不熟悉的字列，我們應當問我們自己這個問題：我們?nèi)绾螁l(fā)孩子們認同自己是閱讀者?
desean, a brilliant first-grader i taught in the bron_, he helped me understand how identity shapes learning. one day during math, i walk up to desean, and i say, 'desean, you're a great mathematician.' he looks at me and responds, 'i'm not a mathematician, i'm a math genius!'
迪翔，一位我在布朗克斯區(qū)教過的聰明的一年級學生，他幫助我懂得了認同感如何塑造學習行為。有一天在數(shù)學課上，我走向迪翔，說，”迪翔，你是個很棒的數(shù)學家?！八粗一卮鹫f，”我不是個數(shù)學家，我是個數(shù)學天才!“
ok desean, right? reading? completely different story. 'mr. irby, i can't read. i'm never going to learn toread,' he would say. i taught desean to read, but there are count less black boys who remain trapped in illiteracy. according to the us department of education, more than 85 percent of black male fourth graders are not proficientin reading.
好吧，迪翔，是吧?閱讀呢?情形完全不同。他說：“爾比先生，我不會閱讀。我永遠也學不會閱讀。'我教會了迪翔去閱讀，但有無數(shù)黑人男孩們?nèi)匀皇俏拿ぁ８鶕?jù)美國教育部統(tǒng)計，超過85%的四年級黑人學生不擅長閱讀。
85 percent! the more challenges to reading children face, the more culturally competent educators need to be. moonlighting as a stand-up comedianfor the past eight years, i understand the importance of cultural competency,which i define as the ability to translate what you want someone else to knowor be able to do into communication or e_periences that they find relevant andengaging.
85%!孩子們面對的閱讀挑戰(zhàn)越多，教育者們所需要的文化能力越高。在過去八年兼職做喜劇演員時，我了解到文化能力的重要性，我認為這種能力可以把你想要別人知道或能夠做到的，翻譯成他們認為與之有關(guān)且愿意參與的交流或體驗。
before going on stage, i assess an audience. are they white, are they latino? are they old, young, professional, conservative? then i curate and modify my jokes based on what i think would generate the most laughter. whileperforming in a church, i could tell bar jokes. but that might not result inlaughter.
在上臺之前，我會評估觀眾。他們是白人?拉丁美洲人?他們年長、年輕、專業(yè)、還是保守?然后我會策劃和修改我的笑話依據(jù)我對怎樣能引發(fā)更多笑聲的考量。我在教堂表演時可以說個酒吧笑話。但可能根本沒人會笑。
as a society, we're creating reading e_periences for children that are the equivalent of telling bar jokes in achurch. and then we wonder why so many children don't read. educator and philosopher paulo freire believed that teaching and learning should be two-way.students shouldn't be viewed as empty buckets to be filled with facts but as cocreators of knowledge.
在社會環(huán)境中，我們?yōu)楹⒆觽儎?chuàng)造閱讀體驗就像是在教堂里講酒吧笑話。然后我們納悶為什么這么多孩子不閱讀。教育家兼哲學家保羅·弗萊雷相信教和學應該是雙向的。學生們不應被看作是需要被填滿事實的空桶，而應是知識的共同創(chuàng)作者。
cookie-cutter curriculums and school policies that require students to sit statue-still or to work in complete silence -- these environments often e_clude the individual learning needs, theinterest and e_pertise of children. especially black boys.
一刀切的課程和學校政策要求學生端坐或保持安靜——這些環(huán)境通常抑制了孩子們的個體學習需求、興趣和專長。尤其是黑人男孩們。
many of the children's books promoted to black boys focus on serious topics, like slavery, civil rights and biographies.less than two percent of teachers in the united states are black males. and a majority of black boys are raised by single mothers. there are literally young black boys who have never seen a black man reading. or never had a black manencourage him to read. what cultural factors, what social cues are present thatwould lead a young black boy to conclude that reading is even something he should do?
很多給黑人男孩的兒童書籍都聚焦在諸如奴隸制、公民權(quán)利和傳記這樣的嚴肅主題。黑人男性在美國教師中占比不到2%。大多數(shù)黑人男孩由單親母親撫養(yǎng)。甚至還有黑人男孩從來沒見過一個黑人男性閱讀?；驈膩頉]有被一個黑人男性去鼓勵閱讀。有什么文化因素、社會誘因來使得一個黑人男孩覺得閱讀是一件他應該做的事?
this is why i created barbershop books.it's a literacy non profit that creates child-friendly reading spaces in barbershops. the mission is simple: to help young black boys identify as readers.lots of black boys go to the barber shop once or twice a month.
這是為什么我創(chuàng)立了理發(fā)店書籍(barbershopbooks)。這是一個掃盲的非營利組織旨在理發(fā)店里創(chuàng)造對孩子們友好的閱讀空間。使命很簡單：就是幫助年少的黑人男孩認同自己是閱讀者。很多黑人男孩每月去理發(fā)店一兩次。
some see their barbers more than they see their fathers. barbershop books connects reading toa male-centered space and involves black men and boys' early reading e_periences. this identity-based reading program uses a curated list ofchildren's books recommended by black boys. these are the books that they actually want to read.
有些孩子見到理發(fā)師的次數(shù)比見到他們父親的次數(shù)還多。理發(fā)店連接著閱讀和以男性為主導的空間并讓黑人男性參與到男孩早期閱讀體驗中。這個基于認同的閱讀計劃使用由黑人男孩推薦的兒童書籍清單。這些是他們想要去讀的書。
scholastic's 20__ kids and family report found that the number one thing children look for when choosing a book is abook that will make them laugh. so if we're serious about helping black boysand other children to read when it's not required, we need to incorporate relevant male reading models into early literacy and e_change some of thechildren's books that adults love so much for funny, silly or even gross books,like 'gross greg'.
學者出版社(scholastic)20__年的兒童與家庭報告發(fā)現(xiàn)孩子們在選書時首先會找讓他們發(fā)笑的書。所以如果我們真要幫助黑人男孩和其他孩子去主動閱讀，而不是強迫閱讀時，我們需要將相關(guān)的男性閱讀模型融入到早期識字學習中。有些兒童書籍成人們也非常喜歡那些有趣、愚蠢、甚至惡心的書，像《惡心的格雷》(grossgreg)(笑聲)
'you call them boogers. greg callsthem delicious little sugars.'
”你稱它為鼻屎。格雷稱它為美味的小糖?！?/p>
that laugh, that positive reaction or grossreaction some of you just had,black boys deserve and desperately needmore of that.
那些笑聲、正面的反應或你們有些人覺得惡心的反應，(笑聲)
dismantling the savage inequalities thatplague american education requires us to create reading e_periences thatinspire all children to say three words: i'm a reader.
黑人男孩應該有，并迫切需要更多。消除困擾著美國教育的野蠻不平等。需要我們創(chuàng)造閱讀體驗來激發(fā)所有孩子們說出這些詞：我是閱讀者。
thank you.(applause)
謝謝。(掌聲)
