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JDVance_2016S-_被遗忘的美国工人阶级_
I remember the very first time I went to a nice restaurant, a really nice restaurant. 我还记得第一次走进一家很棒的餐厅, 非常高档。
It was for a law firm recruitment dinner, and I remember beforehand the waitress walked around and asked whether we wanted some wine, so I said, "Sure, I'll take some white wine ." 孩子们觉得自己的选择毫无意义。 正式开始前,服务生四处游走, 询问客人是否需要来点葡萄酒, 跟早几代人的处境没什么区别。
recruitment:n.补充;征募新兵; beforehand:adv.事先;预先;adj.提前的;预先准备好的; waitress:n.女服务员;女侍者;vi.做女服务生; white wine:白葡萄酒;
And she immediately said, "Would you like sauvignon blanc or chardonnay ?" 她马上问我, “您是想要白苏维翁还是霞多丽？”
sauvignon:n.索维农葡萄(产于法国的紫色甜葡萄); blanc:n.白; chardonnay:n.夏敦埃酒(一种类似夏布利酒的无甜味白葡萄酒);
And I remember thinking, "Come on, lady, stop with the fancy French words and just give me some white wine." 我当时想, “天哪,姐们儿,别整这些高大上的法语词了行吗, 给我一杯白葡萄酒就好了。”
fancy:n.幻想; adj.想象的; v.想象;
But I used my powers of deduction and recognized that chardonnay and sauvignon blanc were two separate types of white wine, and so I told her that I would take the chardonnay, because frankly that was the easiest one to pronounce for me. 但我发挥了自己杰出的推理能力 猜测霞多丽和白苏维翁 应该是两种不同的白葡萄酒, 于是我要了霞多丽, 因为这个词更好发音。
deduction:n.扣除,减除;推论;减除额; recognized:v.认识;认出;辨别出;承认;意识到;(recognize的过去分词和过去式) pronounce:v.发音;读(音);正式宣布(或公布,授予等);
So I had a lot of experiences like that during my first couple of years as a law student at Yale, because, despite all outward appearances , I'm a cultural outsider . 这样的经历还有很多, 尤其是在我在耶鲁大学念法律的头几年, 因为我不是他们圈子里的人,尽管看起来挺像,
despite:prep.尽管,不管;n.轻视;憎恨;侮辱; outward:n.外表; adj.表面的; v.同"outwards.outwardandhomeward"; appearances:n.露面;外观;出现;表面的迹象[征兆];(appearance的复数) cultural:adj.与文化有关的;文化的;与艺术、文学、音乐等有关的; outsider:n.外人;无取胜希望者;
I didn't come from the elites . 而是延续了好几代人。
elites:n.精英(elite的复数);
I didn't come from the Northeast or from San Francisco. 不是东北那一带的人,也不是旧金山人。
Northeast:adj.东北的;来自东北的;n.东北;adv.向东北;来自东北;
I came from a southern Ohio steel town, and it's a town that's really struggling in a lot of ways, ways that are indicative of the broader struggles of America's working class . 我的老家是俄亥俄州南部一个钢铁小镇, 它一直在挣扎求生, 那种挣扎彷徨,就像美国工人阶级 如今的处境一般。
indicative:adj.象征的;指示的;表示…的;n.陈述语气;陈述语气的动词形式; working class:adj.工人阶级的;劳动阶级的;
Heroin has moved in, killing a lot of people, people I know. 海洛因泛滥, 很多人因此丧生,其中有我的熟人。
Heroin:n.[药][毒物]海洛因,吗啡;
Family violence , domestic violence , and divorce have torn apart families. 家庭暴力和离婚导致许多家庭支离破碎。
violence:n.暴力;侵犯;激烈;歪曲; domestic:n.佣人;家佣;家庭纠纷;家庭矛盾;adj.本国的;国内的;家用的;家庭的; divorce:n.离婚;分离;v.与某人离婚;使分离;
And there's a very unique sense of pessimism that's moved in. 有一种特别悲观的情绪蔓延开来。
unique:adj.独特的,稀罕的;[数]唯一的;n.独一无二的人或物; pessimism:n.悲观,悲观情绪;厌世主义;
Think about rising mortality rates in these communities and recognize that for a lot of these folks, the problems that they're seeing are actually causing rising death rates in their own communities, so there's a very real sense of struggle. 死亡率不断升高, 很多人都意识到这一点, 而他们亲眼见到的问题 正是导致社区死亡率升高的原因, 这种挣扎彷徨的感受是如此真切。
mortality:n.死亡数,死亡率;必死性,必死的命运; communities:n.社区;社会;团体;共有(community的复数)
I had a very front-row seat to that struggle. 而我正是这种感受的亲历者。
My family has been part of that struggle for a very long time. 我的家庭长期以来一直经历着这种彷徨挣扎。
I come from a family that doesn't have a whole lot of money. 我生于一个不甚富裕的家庭。
The addiction that plagued my community also plagued my family, and even, sadly, my own mom. 而在我们社区蔓延的毒品问题 同样伤害到了我的家庭,很不幸,是我的母亲。
addiction:n.瘾;嗜好;入迷; plagued:v.困扰(plague的过去分词);折磨; community:n.社区;[生态]群落;共同体;团体;
There were a lot of problems that I saw in my own family, problems caused sometimes by a lack of money, problems caused sometimes by a lack of access to resources and social capital that really affected my life. 我亲眼见到了家里的很多问题, 这些问题的起因,有的是因为缺钱, 有的是因为缺乏社会资源和人脉, 而这对我的影响很大。
resources:n.[计][环境]资源; v.向…提供资金(resource的第三人称单数);
If you had looked at my life when I was 14 years old and said, "Well, what's going to happen to this kid?" 如果你见过我14岁时过得怎么样, 并问到,“这孩子将来会怎么样？”
you would have concluded that I would have struggled with what academics call upward mobility . 你也许会认为我会挣扎着往上爬, 学术界管这叫“向上流动”。
concluded:v.断定:得出结论:终止:达成:缔结(协定)(conclude的过去分词和过去式) struggled:v.奋斗;努力;争取;艰难地行进;抗争;(struggle的过去式和过去分词) academics:n.学术水平;学术知识;专业学者; upward:adj.向上的;上升的;adv.向上; mobility:n.移动性;机动性;[电子]迁移率;
So upward mobility is an abstract term, but it strikes at something that's very core at the heart of the American Dream . 向上流动是一个抽象的术语, 但它触及到了美国梦 最核心的部分。
abstract:n.摘要; adj.抽象的; vt.摘要; vi.做摘要; core:n.核心;要点;果心;[计]磁心;vt.挖...的核; American Dream:n.美国梦(美国人传统的价值观和社会标准,如民主、权利平等和财富);
It's the sense, and it measures whether kids like me who grow up in poor communities are going to live a better life, whether they're going to have a chance to live a materially better existence, or whether they're going to stay in the circumstances where they came from. 它是一个标准, 能衡量那些像我一样 家境贫寒的孩子,能不能过上好日子, 是不是有机会过上衣食无忧的生活, 还是说会继续贫穷下去。
materially:adv.实质地;物质上;极大地; circumstances:n.情况;环境;情形;(circumstance的复数)
And one of the things we've learned, unfortunately , is that upward mobility isn't as high as we'd like it to be in this country, and interestingly , it's very geographically distributed . 但不幸的是,我们了解到, 在美国,向上流动并没有我们想象的那么容易, 而且有趣的是,它跟地域有很大的关系。
unfortunately:adv.不幸地; interestingly:adv.有趣地; geographically:adv.在地理上;地理学上; distributed:adj.分布的;分散的;v.分发;分配;使分布(distribute的过去分词和过去式)
So take Utah , for instance . 就拿犹他州来说,
Utah:n.美国犹他州; instance:n.实例;情况;建议;v.举...为例;
In Utah a poor kid is actually doing OK, very likely to live their share and their part in the American Dream. 在犹他州,一个穷孩子可能会过得还好, 很有可能在美国梦中找到自己的位置。
But if you think of where I'm from, in the South, in Appalachia, in southern Ohio, it's very unlikely that kids like that will rise. 但如果在我的家乡, 南部的一些州,阿巴拉契亚地区,俄亥俄州南部, 穷孩子可能就没什么出路。
unlikely:adj.不大可能发生的;非心目中的;非想象的;难以相信的;
The American Dream in those parts of the country is in a very real sense just a dream. 从某种意义上来说,美国梦在这些地方 可能真的就只是个梦。
So why is that happening? 为什么会这样呢？
So one reason is obviously economic or structural . 一个原因显然是跟经济或结构有关。
economic:adj.经济的,经济上的;经济学的; structural:adj.结构的;建筑的;
So you think of these areas. 看看这些地区。
They're beset by these terrible economic trends , built around industries like coal and steel that make it harder for folks to get ahead. 它们的经济趋势很不好, 当年依靠煤炭和钢铁起家, 这些产业如今已经没落。
beset:vt.困扰;镶嵌;围绕; trends:n.趋势;倾向;动态;动向;(trend的第三人称单数和复数)
That's certainly one problem. 这肯定是原因之一。
There's also the problem of brain drain , where the really talented people, because they can't find high-skilled work at home, end up moving elsewhere , so they don't build a business or non-profit where they're from, they end up going elsewhere and taking their talents with them. 还有一个问题就是人才流失,很多有才华的人, 因为在家乡找不到有技术含量的工作, 只能远走他乡, 他们无法在老家创业或造福社会, 就只能带着自己的才华远赴他乡。
brain drain:人才外流;智囊流失; elsewhere:adv.在别处;到别处; non-profit:adj.非营利的;
There are failing schools in a lot of these communities, failing to give kids the educational leg up that really makes it possible for kids to have opportunities later in life. 这些地区有很多衰败的学校, 无法给予孩子们更好的教育, 因此无法帮助他们在未来占得先机。
educational:adj.教育的;有关教育的;有教育意义的
These things are all important. 这些事都很重要。
I don't mean to discount these structural barriers . 我并不是说要忽视（之前提到的）结构壁垒。
discount:n.折扣;vt.低估;打折扣;打折出售 barriers:n.障碍;栅栏;篱笆墙(barrier的复数形式);
But when I look back at my life and my community, something else was going on, something else mattered. 但是当我回首人生,回想我们社区的时候, 发现还有一些其他的事情也与之有关。
It's difficult to quantify , but it was no less real. 这些事情很难量化,但是却真实存在。
quantify:vt.量化;为…定量;确定数量;vi.量化;定量;
So for starters , there was a very real sense of hopelessness in the community that I grew up in. 首先,在我成长的社区, 你能真切感受到那种无望的氛围。
starters:n.(主菜之前的)开胃小吃;参赛者;发令员;(starter的复数) hopelessness:n.绝望,无望;不抱希望;
There was a sense that kids had that their choices didn't matter. 孩子们觉得自己的选择毫无意义。
No matter what happened, no matter how hard they worked, no matter how hard they tried to get ahead, nothing good would happen. 无论他们如何努力, 如何努力向前, 结果都是一样。
No matter what:不管什么…;
So that's a tough feeling to grow up around. 这种消极的情绪四处蔓延。
That's a tough mindset to penetrate , and it leads sometimes to very conspiratorial places. 命定论甚嚣尘上, 甚至有点阴谋论的感觉。
mindset:n.心态;倾向;习惯;精神状态; penetrate:v.渗透;进入;穿过;看透; conspiratorial:adj.阴谋的;阴谋者的;
So let's just take one political issue that's pretty hot, affirmative action . 以非常热门的一个政治话题为例, 平权法案。
issue:n.重要议题;争论的问题;v.宣布;公布;发出;发行; affirmative action:n.积极区别对待政策(对因种族、性别等原因遭歧视的群体在就业等方面给予特别照顾);
So depending on your politics , you might think that affirmative action is either a wise or an unwise way to promote diversity in the workplace or the classroom. 根据政治观点（不同）,你也许会认为平权法案 在推动工作场所或者学校的多样性上 是明智的或者不明智的。
politics:n.政治;钩心斗角;政治观点;v.(贬)从事政治活动;(politic的第三人称单数) unwise:adj.不明智的;愚蠢的;轻率的; promote:v.促进;推动;促销;提升;晋升; diversity:n.差异(性):多样性:多样化: workplace:n.工作场所;车间;
But if you grow up in an area like this, you see affirmative action as a tool to hold people like you back. 但如果你成长于这样的社区, 你可能会把平权法案看作是一种限制。
That's especially true if you're a member of the white working class. 尤其当你是白人工人阶级的一员时。
especially:adv.尤其;特别;格外;十分;
You see it as something that isn't just about good or bad policy . 在你眼里,它不再简单的是一个好政策或者坏政策。
policy:n.政策,方针;保险单;
You see it as something that's actively conspiring , where people with political and financial power are working against you. 你会把它看成是 那些握有政治或财政大权的人 来压迫你的工具。
conspiring:v.密谋;图谋;阴谋;(conspire的现在分词) financial:adj.金融的;财政的,财务的;
And there are a lot of ways that you see that conspiracy against you -- perceived , real, but it's there, and it warps expectations . 你可以从不同角度来看待这种针对你的阴谋论—— 可察觉的,真实的,但它确实存在, 而且会扭曲你的期望。
conspiracy:n.阴谋;共谋;阴谋集团; perceived:v.注意到;意识到;将…视为;认为;(perceive的过去式和过去分词) warps:n.[纺]经纱(warp的复数); v.弄歪; expectations:n.预料;预期;期待;希望;指望;(expectation的复数)
So if you think about what do you do when you grow up in that world, you can respond in a couple of ways. 想象一下,成长在那样的环境中,你该怎么办, 可能应对方法有很多种。
respond:vi.回答;作出反应;承担责任;n.应答;唱和;
One, you can say, "I'm not going to work hard, because no matter how hard I work, it's not going to matter." 第一种,你可以说,“我才不会努力奋斗, 因为无论怎样努力,结果都一样。”
Another thing you might do is say, "Well, I'm not going to go after the traditional markers of success, like a university education or a prestigious job, because the people who care about those things are unlike me. 而另一种方式就是, “好吧,我不会追求传统意义上的成功, 比如上大学,或者找份体面的工作, 因为重视这些事的人跟我不是一类人,
traditional:传统的,惯例的, markers:n.(表示方位的)标记,记号;标识;表示;记号笔;(marker的复数) prestigious:adj.有名望的;享有声望的;
They're never going to let me in." 他们不会接纳我。”
When I got admitted to Yale, a family member asked me if I had pretended to be a liberal to get by the admissions committee . 当我被耶鲁大学录取后,一个亲戚问我, 我是不是假装成民主党成员,来获得招生委员会的认可。
liberal:adj.宽宏大度的; n.理解且尊重他人意见的人; admissions:n.许可;承认;入会费;入场券(admission的复数形式); committee:n.委员会;
Seriously. 真事儿。
And it's obviously not the case that there was a liberal box to check on the application , but it speaks to a very real insecurity in these places that you have to pretend to be somebody you're not to get past these various social barriers. 入学申请表上当然没有“民主党成员”这个选项 让你勾选, 但这件事道出了一个事实,就是我们那里非常缺乏安全感, 你需要伪装成另一种人, 才能越过重重社会壁垒。
application:n.应用;申请;应用程序;敷用; insecurity:n.不安全;不牢靠;无把握;心神不定;
It's a very significant problem. 这是一个非常重要的问题。
significant:adj.重大的;有效的;有意义的;值得注意的;意味深长的;n.象征;有意义的事物;
Even if you don't give in to that hopelessness, even if you think, let's say, that your choices matter and you want to make the good choices, you want to do better for yourself and for your family, 即便你没有感到无望, 即使你坚定的认为, 你的选择是有意义的,你想做出好的选择, 你想为了自己和家庭努力奋斗,
it's sometimes hard to even know what those choices are when you grow up in a community like I did. 但生长在我那样的社区, 你甚至都不知道有哪些路可以选。
I didn't know, for example, that you had to go to law school to be a lawyer. 像我小时候, 不知道想成为律师,要先上法学院。
I didn't know that elite universities, as research consistently tells us, are cheaper for low-income kids because these universities have bigger endowments , can offer more generous financial aid . 不知道一流的大学——像研究结果不断表明的那样—— 对于贫困的孩子收费要低, 因为好大学得到的捐款更多, 可以给学生更多资助。
consistently:adv.一贯地;一致地;坚实地; endowments:n.禀赋;才能(endowment的复数); generous:adj.慷慨的,大方的;宽宏大量的;有雅量的; financial aid:n.(高等院校的)助学金;
I remember I learned this when I got the financial aid letter from Yale for myself, tens of thousands of dollars in need-based aid, which is a term I had never heard before. 直到我收到耶鲁大学的助学津贴信, 我才知道有这么回事, 那是上万美元的按需资助, 我以前连听都没听过。
But I turned to my aunt when I got that letter and said, "You know, I think this just means that for the first time in my life, being poor has paid really well." 我拿着信对我阿姨说, “这是我有生以来第一次, 因为穷得到的实惠。”
So I didn't have access to that information because the social networks around me didn't have access to that information. 我之前不了解这方面的信息, 是因为我周围的圈子都不知道这些信息。
I learned from my community how to shoot a gun, how to shoot it well. 我从社区学到的是如何开枪,如何打得准。
I learned how to make a damn good biscuit recipe . 我学到的是如何做好吃的饼干。
damn:v.谴责;该死;n.诅咒;adj.可恶的; recipe:n.食谱;方法;诀窍;烹饪法;
The trick, by the way , is frozen butter, not warm butter. 顺便提一句,诀窍就是,用冰冻的黄油,不要用加热的。
by the way:顺便说一下;
But I didn't learn how to get ahead. 但我不知道如何出人头地。
I didn't learn how to make the good decisions about education and opportunity that you need to make to actually have a chance in this 21st century knowledge economy . 不知道在关键时刻如何抉择, 比如选择大学,面临机遇, 怎样才能做出对的选择, 从而在21世纪这个知识经济时代赢得一席之地。
knowledge economy:知识经济;
Economists call the value that we gain from our informal networks, from our friends and colleagues and family "social capital." 经济学家将我们从人脉圈子中获取的价值, 比如朋友、同事和家人,叫做“社会资本”。
informal:adj.非正式的;不拘礼节的;通俗的;日常使用的; colleagues:n.同事;同行(colleague的复数);
The social capital that I had wasn't built for 21st century America, and it showed. 而我过去的社会资本根本不适用于21世纪的美国, 事实也证明了这一点。
There's something else that's really important that's going on that our community doesn't like to talk about, but it's very real. 还有一些非常重要的事情 我们的社区不愿意谈起, 但它们又真实存在。
Working-class kids are much more likely to face what's called adverse childhood experiences, which is just a fancy word for childhood trauma : getting hit or yelled at, put down by a parent repeatedly , watching someone hit or beat your parent, watching someone do drugs or abuse alcohol . 工人阶级的孩子更多的 要面临所谓的“不利的童年经历”, 其实这就是对童年创伤一种比较委婉的说法: 被家长不停打骂和惩罚, 目睹他人殴打自己的父母, 目睹别人吸毒或者酗酒。
Working-class:adj.工人阶级的;劳动阶级的; adverse:adj.不利的;相反的;敌对的(名词adverseness,副词adversely); childhood:n.童年;幼年;孩童时期 trauma:n.[外科]创伤(由心理创伤造成精神上的异常);外伤; repeatedly:adv.反复地;再三地;屡次地; abuse:n.滥用;虐待;辱骂;弊端;恶习,陋习;v.滥用;虐待;辱骂; alcohol:n.酒精;乙醇;含酒精饮料;
These are all instances of childhood trauma, and they're pretty commonplace in my family. 这都是童年创伤的例子, 在我家这些现象很常见。
instances:n.相依物体,例子; v.举例说明(instance的第三人称单数形式); commonplace:n.老生常谈;司空见惯的事;普通的东西;adj.平凡的;陈腐的;
Importantly, they're not just commonplace in my family right now. 重要的是,这种情况不是现在才有。
They're also multigenerational. 而是延续了好几代人。
So my grandparents, the very first time that they had kids, they expected that they were going to raise them in a way that was uniquely good. 我的外公外婆, 在他们刚有了孩子的时候, 他们原本也期望用好的方法 将孩子养育成人。
uniquely:adv.独特地;珍奇地;
They were middle class , they were able to earn a good wage in a steel mill . 他们曾属于中产阶级, 在炼钢厂有不错的薪水。
middle class:adj.中产阶级的;中层社会的; wage:v.发动;n.(通常指按周领的)工资; mill:n.磨坊;工厂;磨粉机;面粉厂;v.磨成粉;
But what ended up happening is that they exposed their kids to a lot of the childhood trauma that had gone back many generations. 但结果却是 他们给孩子们带来了许多童年创伤, 跟早几代人的处境没什么区别。
exposed:adj.无遮蔽的; v.暴露; (expose的过去分词和过去式)
My mom was 12 when she saw my grandma set my grandfather on fire. 我母亲12岁那年,看见我外婆在我外公身上点火,
His crime was that he came home drunk after she told him, "If you come home drunk, I'm gonna kill you." 就因为他喝得醉醺醺地回家, 而外婆事先警告过他, “如果你喝醉酒回家,我就要杀了你。”
And she tried to do it. 结果,她真的试着这么做了。
Think about the way that that affects a child's mind. 想想这样的事会对孩子的心灵产生怎样的影响。
And we think of these things as especially rare, but a study by the Wisconsin Children's Trust Fund found that 40 percent of low-income kids face multiple instances of childhood trauma, compared to only 29 percent for upper-income kids. 我们可能会认为这只是个别现象, 但威斯康辛儿童信托基金的研究表明, 低收入家庭的孩子遭受多种童年创伤的几率为40%, 而高收入家庭的孩子为29%。
Wisconsin:n.威斯康星州(美国州名); Trust Fund:n.信托基金; multiple:adj.数量多的;多种多样的;n.倍数; compared:adj.比较的,对照的; v.相比; (compare的过去式和过去分词)
And think about what that really means. 想想这意味着什么。
If you're a low-income kid, almost half of you face multiple instances of childhood trauma. 如果你们都生在低收入家庭, 你们中间差不多会有一半的人会遭遇多种童年创伤。
This is not an isolated problem. 这不是一个孤立的问题。
isolated:adj.偏远的; v.隔离,孤立,脱离;
This is a very significant issue. 非常值得我们注意。
We know what happens to the kids who experience that life. 我们都清楚,这样的孩子会经历怎样的人生。
They're more likely to do drugs, more likely to go to jail , more likely to drop out of high school, and most importantly , they're more likely to do to their children what their parents did to them. 他们很可能会吸毒,会进监狱, 会从高中辍学, 最重要的是, 他们很可能会在自己的孩子身上 重复父母对自己的所作所为。
jail:n.监狱;监牢;拘留所;v.监禁;下狱; and most importantly:最主要的是…;
This trauma, this chaos in the home, is our culture's very worst gift to our children, and it's a gift that keeps on giving. 这种伤害,这种家庭的混乱, 是我们的文化给孩子最糟糕的礼物, 而这种礼物还在不停地被送出。
chaos:n.混沌,混乱;
So you combine all that, the hopelessness, the despair , the cynicism about the future, the childhood trauma, the low social capital, and you begin to understand why me, at the age of 14, was ready to become just another statistic , another kid who failed to beat the odds . 把这些都加在一起, 无望,绝望, 对未来的怀疑, 童年的创伤, 低社会资本, 你就会了解,为什么我 在14岁那年, 几乎就要成为又一个例子, 被这些壁垒困死的又一个孩子。
despair:v.绝望;失去希望;丧失信心;n.绝望; cynicism:n.玩世不恭,愤世嫉俗;犬儒主义;冷嘲热讽; statistic:n.统计学;统计数字;统计资料;(一项)统计数据;adj.统计(上)的; odds:n.几率;胜算;不平等;差别;
But something unexpected happened. 但意料之外的事情发生了。
unexpected:adj.意外的,想不到的;
I did beat the odds. 我冲破了这些壁垒。
Things turned up for me. 事情出现了转机。
I graduated from high school, from college, I went to law school, and I have a pretty good job now. 我念完高中,上了大学,进入法学院, 找到了一份不错的工作。
So what happened? 究竟发生了什么呢？
Well, one thing that happened is that my grandparents, the same grandparents of setting someone on fire fame, they really shaped up by the time I came around. 首先是我的外公外婆, 就是尝试在人身上点火的外公外婆, 在我出生之后,改过自新了。
They provided me a stable home, a stable family. 他们给了我一个稳定的家, 稳定的家庭。
provided:conj.假如; v.提供; (provide的过去分词和过去式) stable:n.马厩;牛棚;adj.稳定的;牢固的;坚定的;vi.被关在马厩;赶入马房;
They made sure that when my parents weren't able to do the things that kids need, they stepped in and filled that role. 他们竭尽全力, 在我的父母无法尽到责任时, 他们能及时出现,顶替父母的角色。
My grandma especially did two things that really matter. 我的外婆做了2件非常重要的事。
One, she provided that peaceful home that allowed me to focus on homework and the things that kids should be focused on. 第一,她创造了和平的家庭环境,让我专心做功课, 专心做孩子应该做的事情。
provided that:如果;条件是;倘若;
But she was also this incredibly perceptive woman, despite not even having a middle school education. 而且她是一位洞察力极强的女性, 尽管连中学都没有上过。
incredibly:adv.难以置信地;非常地; perceptive:adj.感知的,知觉的;有知觉力的; middle school:n.初中;(英国为9到13岁儿童所设的)中间学校;
She recognized the message that my community had for me, that my choices didn't matter, that the deck was stacked against me. 她察觉到了社区对我产生的不良影响, 就是我们的选择毫无意义, 我们面前有重重阻碍。
deck:n.甲板;舱面;层面;一副(为52张);v.装饰;打扮;布置;用力击倒; stacked:adj.放有大量…的; v.(使)放成整齐的一叠(或一摞、一堆); (stack的过去分词和过去式)
She once told me, "JD, never be like those losers who think the deck is stacked against them. 有一次她告诉我, “JD,不要像那些没出息的人一样,觉得整个世界都在跟他们作对。
losers:n.输者,败者:(loser的复数)
You can do anything you want to." 你可以做成任何想做的事情。”
And yet she recognized that life wasn't fair. 尽管她知道生活是不公平的。
It's hard to strike that balance, to tell a kid that life isn't fair, but also recognize and enforce in them the reality that their choices matter. 要打破这种平衡非常难, 要告诉一个孩子生活不公平也非常难。 但即使这样,也要告诉孩子,他们的选择是有意义的。
enforce:v.强制执行;强迫;迫使;
But mamaw was able to strike that balance. 但是外婆能打破这种平衡。
The other thing that really helped was the United States Marine Corps . 另一个帮到我的就是美国海军陆战队。
United:adj.联合的; v.联合,团结; (unite的过去分词和过去式) Marine:adj.海的;海产的;海生的;海船的;n.(尤指美国或英国皇家)海军陆战队士兵; Corps:n.兵团;(陆军)特种部队;(从事某工作或活动的)一群人;
So we think of the Marine Corps as a military outfit , and of course it is, but for me, the US Marine Corps was a four-year crash course in character education. 我们认为海军陆战队是一个军事单位,它当然是, 但对我而言,美国海军陆战队是一次长达4年的, 性格教育课程。
military:adj.军事的;军人的;适于战争的;n.军队;军人; outfit:n.全套服装;团队;小组;分队;v.装备;配置设备;供给服装; crash course:速成课(等于cramcourse);
It taught me how to make a bed, how to do laundry , how to wake up early, how to manage my finances. 它教会我如何铺床,怎么洗衣, 怎么早起,怎么规划自己的开销。
laundry:n.洗衣店,洗衣房;要洗的衣服;洗熨;洗好的衣服;
These are things my community didn't teach me. 这些都是社区没有教我的东西。
I remember when I went to go buy a car for the very first time, 我还记得第一次去买车,
I was offered a dealer's low, low interest rate of 21.9 percent, and I was ready to sign on the dotted line . 一个经销商给了我非常非常“低”的贷款利息,21.9%, 我都准备签合同了。
dotted line:n.虚线;点线;
But I didn't take that deal, because I went and took it to my officer who told me, "Stop being an idiot , go to the local credit union , and get a better deal." 但我最后没有签, 因为我把合同拿给我的长官看, 他告诉我,“别傻了, 去找本地的信贷联盟,拿一个更好的价。”
idiot:n.笨蛋,傻瓜;白痴; credit union:n.信用合作社(向会员提供低息贷款);
And so that's what I did. 我照做了。
But without the Marine Corps, 如果没有海军陆战队,
I would have never had access to that knowledge. 我可能永远也没法了解这个知识。
I would have had a financial calamity , frankly. 我可能还会遭遇财政危机。
calamity:n.灾难;不幸事件;
The last thing I want to say is that I had a lot of good fortune in the mentors and people who have played an important role in my life. 最后我还想说,我非常幸运 能遇见很多很好的导师和人, 他们在我生命中扮演了非常重要的角色。
The last thing I want:我最不希望的就是; fortune:n.财富;命运;运气;v.给予财富,偶然发生 mentors:n.导师,教练(mentor复数);
From the Marines , from Ohio State, from Yale, from other places, people have really stepped in and ensured that they filled that social capital gap that it was pretty obvious , apparently , that I had. 在海军陆战队,在俄亥俄州,在耶鲁大学, 在其他地方, 大家都走近我, 帮我填满那条社会资本的鸿沟, 这条鸿沟在我身上表现得很明显。
Marines:n.海军陆战队士兵;(marine的复数) ensured:v.保证;担保;确保(ensure的过去分词和过去式) gap:n.差距;间隙;缺口;间隔;v.使豁裂;豁开; obvious:adj.明显的;显著的;平淡无奇的; apparently:adv.显然地;似乎,表面上;
That comes from good fortune, but a lot of children aren't going to have that good fortune, and I think that raises really important questions for all of us about how we're going to change that. 这是一种很大的幸运, 但是很多孩子都没有这样的好运, 这就为我们引出了非常重要的问题, 那就是该如何改变这一点。
We need to ask questions about how we're going to give low-income kids who come from a broken home access to a loving home. 我们要思考如何帮助那些低收入家庭的孩子, 让他们破碎的家庭重新充满爱。
broken home:n.破裂的家庭;父母离异(或分居)的家庭;
We need to ask questions about how we're going to teach low-income parents how to better interact with their children, with their partners. 我们要思考 如何教育低收入的父母 同自己的孩子,同自己的爱人, 更好地互动。
interact:v.互相影响;互相作用;n.幕间剧;幕间休息;
We need to ask questions about how we give social capital, mentorship to low-income kids who don't have it. 我们要思考如何为贫穷的孩子, 提供社会资本和引导。
mentorship:n.导师制,辅导教师;师徒制;
We need to think about how we teach working class children about not just hard skills, like reading, mathematics , but also soft skills, like conflict resolution and financial management . 我们要思考如何教育工人阶级的孩子, 不仅仅是硬技能, 比如阅读,数学, 还有软技能, 比如危机处理和理财。
mathematics:n.数学;数学运算; conflict:n.冲突;矛盾;争执;抵触;v.抵触; resolution:n.解决;分辨;解析;决议; management:n.管理;管理人员;管理部门;操纵;经营手段;
Now, I don't have all of the answers. 现在,我并没有所有这些问题的答案。
I don't know all of the solutions to this problem, but I do know this: in southern Ohio right now, there's a kid who is anxiously awaiting their dad, wondering whether, when he comes through the door, he'll walk calmly or stumble drunkly. 我也不知该如何彻底解决这些问题, 但我明确知道的是: 现在,在南俄亥俄州, 有孩子在焦急等待自己的父亲, 在想着,当他走进家门的时候, 是正常的,还是喝得东倒西歪的。
anxiously:adv.不安地,忧虑地; awaiting:v.等候;等待;期待;将发生在,将降临到(某人头上);(await的现在分词) calmly:adv.冷静地;平静地;安静地; stumble:v.踌躇,蹒跚;失足;犯错;n.绊倒;蹒跚而行;
There's a kid whose mom sticks a needle in her arm and passes out, and he doesn't know why she doesn't cook him dinner, and he goes to bed hungry that night. 有的孩子 看着自己的母亲往胳膊里扎针, 然后失去知觉, 他不明白为什么妈妈不给自己做饭, 只好饿着肚子爬上床。
needle:n.针;针头;指针;缝针;v.穿过;刺激;拿针缝;拿针穿;
There's a kid who has no hope for the future but desperately wants to live a better life. 有的孩子对未来不抱希望, 但又非常想过上更好的生活。
desperately:adv.拼命地;绝望地;不顾一切地;极度地;
They just want somebody to show it to them. 他们需要有人教他们怎么做。
I don't have all the answers, but I know that unless our society starts asking better questions about why I was so lucky and about how to get that luck to more of our communities and our country's children, we're going to continue to have a very significant problem. 我没有所有的答案, 但我知道,除非整个社会开始思考 为什么我如此幸运, 如何让更多的社区, 让更多的孩子得到这份幸运, 否则我们将会不断遇到非常严重的问题。
Thank you. 谢谢大家。
(Applause) （掌声）