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LuxNarayan_2017S-_我们从_2000_则讣闻中，学到什么？_
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| Joseph Keller used to jog around the Stanford campus , and he was struck by all the women jogging there as well. |
约瑟夫·凯勒习惯在 史丹福大学校园周围慢跑, 在那里慢跑的其他女性, 引发了他的好奇: |
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Joseph:n.连帽大氅; campus:n.(大学)校园;大学,大学生活;校园内的草地; jogging:n.慢跑锻炼;v.慢跑(尤指锻炼);(偶然地)轻击;轻碰;(jog的现在分词)
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| Why did their ponytails swing from side to side like that? |
为什么她们的马尾总是左右晃动着？ |
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ponytails:n.马尾辫;
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| Being a mathematician , he set out to understand why. |
身为一名数学家, 他决定要弄清楚原因。 |
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mathematician:n.数学家;善作数字计算的人;
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| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| Professor Keller was curious about many things: why teapots dribble or how earthworms wriggle . |
凯勒教授对许多事情都很好奇: 为什么茶水会顺着壶嘴滴下来, 或是蚯蚓如何蠕动。 |
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curious:adj.好奇的,有求知欲的;古怪的;爱挑剔的; teapots:n.茶壶;小题大做; dribble:v.连击;使滴下;运球;n.点滴;运球; earthworms:n.蚯蚓;(earthworm的复数) wriggle:v.扭动身体;蠕动;蜿蜒行进;n.扭动;蠕动;蜿蜒行进;
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| Until a few months ago, |
几个月之前, |
| I hadn't heard of Joseph Keller. |
我还不知道约瑟夫·凯勒是谁。 |
| I read about him in the New York Times, in the obituaries . |
我在纽约时报看到他的消息, 在讣闻版。 |
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obituaries:n.讣闻;讣告;(obituary的复数)
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| The Times had half a page of editorial dedicated to him, which you can imagine is premium space for a newspaper of their stature . |
纽约时报的编辑 用了半个版面来向他致敬。 你可以想像得到,对一家大报社来说, 这代表着极高的尊崇。 |
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editorial:adj.编辑的;社论的;n.社论; dedicated:adj.献身的; v.把…奉献给; (dedicate的过去分词和过去式) premium:n.额外费用;奖金;保险费;(商)溢价;adj.高价的;优质的; stature:n.身高,身材;(精神,道德等的)高度;
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| I read the obituaries almost every day. |
我几乎每天都会阅读讣闻版。 |
| My wife understandably thinks |
我的妻子晓得我这个 |
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understandably:adv.可理解地;
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| I'm rather morbid to begin my day with scrambled eggs and a "Let's see who died today." |
有点病态的习惯: 每天早晨,我会一边吃着炒蛋, 一边阅读讣闻版:「我们来看看今天有谁去世了」。 |
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morbid:adj.病态的;由病引起的;恐怖的;病变部位的; scrambled eggs:摊鸡蛋,炒鸡蛋;
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| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| But if you think about it, the front page of the newspaper is usually bad news,and cues man's failures. |
但是如果你仔细想想, 报纸的头版通常刊登坏消息, 这暗示我们某人失败了。 |
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front page:adj.(新闻等的)头版的;重要的;轰动的;vt.把…登在头版; cues:n.开端,线索;提示,关键;球杆;诱因(cue的复数形式);
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| An instance where bad news cues accomplishment is at the end of the paper, in the obituaries. |
然而有一种情况: 坏消息却暗示了某人的成就, 那就是在报纸的最后一版, 在讣闻版。 |
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instance:n.实例;情况;建议;v.举...为例; accomplishment:n.成就;完成;技艺,技能;
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| In my day job, |
我平常的工作, |
| I run a company that focuses on future insights that marketers can derive a kind of rearview-mirror analysis . |
是经营一间企管顾问公司, 我们关注未来的发展趋势, 这是一种称为「回顾分析」的技术。 |
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insights:n.洞察力;眼力;深刻见解(insight的复数); marketers:n.卖主;市场营销者(marketer的复数); derive:vt.源于;得自;vi.起源; rearview-mirror:(车辆)后视镜; analysis:n.分析;分解;验定;
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| And we began to think: |
我们开始思考: |
| What if we held a rearview mirror to obituaries from the New York Times? |
如果我们对纽约时报的讣闻版, 进行回顾分析？ |
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What if:如果…怎么办?
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| Were there lessons on how you could get your obituary featured — even if you aren't around to enjoy it? |
能否从里面学到 「如何让讣闻变得更为独特」── 即使你以后也看不到自己的讣闻？ |
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obituary:adj.讣告的;死亡的;n.讣告;
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| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| Would this go better with scrambled eggs? |
这样做能让讣闻更适合搭配炒蛋吗？ |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| And so, we looked at the data. |
所以,我们檢视了数据。 |
| 2,000 editorial, non-paid obituaries over a 20-month period between 2015 and 2016. |
我们分析了总共 2000 篇 由编辑部刊登,非付费的讣闻, 范围是 2015 到 2016 年的20 个月之间。 |
| What did these 2,000 deaths — rather, lives — teach us? |
究竟这 2000 个死亡──应该说是生命── 教导了我们什么？ |
| Well, first we looked at words. |
好,首先来看讣闻的用字。 |
| This here is an obituary headline. |
这是一篇讣闻的标题。 |
| This one is of the amazing Lee Kuan Yew. |
这一位是传奇人物李光耀。 |
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Kuan:n.官窑瓷器;
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| If you remove the beginning and the end, you're left with a beautifully worded descriptor that tries to, in just a few words, capture an achievement or a lifetime. |
移除开头和结尾后的内容, 只剩短短的几句话, 一些优美的描述辞彙, 能让你捕捉到亡者的成就,或是他的一生。 |
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descriptor:n.描述符号; capture:v.俘虏;捕获;攻占;夺得;刻画,描述;n.(被)捕获;(被)俘获
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| Just looking at these is fascinating . |
看着这些词彙就够令人着迷了。 |
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fascinating:adj.极有吸引力的;迷人的;v.深深吸引;迷住;(fascinate的现在分词)
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| Here are a few famous ones, people who died in the last two years. |
这里有几位, 在这两年内过世的名人。 |
| Try and guess who they are. |
试着猜猜看他们是谁。 |
| [An Artist who Defied Genre] |
「一位顛覆形式的艺术家」 |
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Defied:adj.受蔑视的;遭违抗的;v.违抗(defy的过去式);
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| That's Prince. |
这是王子。 |
| [Titan of Boxing and the 20th Century] |
「二十世纪的拳击巨星」 |
| Oh, yes. |
是的, |
| [Muhammad Ali] |
拳王阿里。 |
| [Groundbreaking Architect] |
「开创未来的建筑师」 |
| Zaha Hadid. |
札哈．哈蒂。 |
| So we took these descriptors and did what's called natural language processing , where you feed these into a program, it throws out the superfluous words — |
因此,我们找出这些描述词, 进行所谓的自然语言处理。 也就是你将文字输入程式, 它能剔除不必要的文字, |
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descriptors:n.[计]描述符,叙述元;叙述语(descriptor的复数形式); natural language processing:n.(计算机)自然语言处理; superfluous:adj.多余的;不必要的;奢侈的;
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| '"the," "and," — the kind of words you can mime easily in " Charades ," — and leaves you with the most significant words. |
例如 「the」—并且剔除在玩「比手画脚」游戏时, 很容易以手势表示的文字,最后留下最重要的词彙。 |
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mime:n.哑剧;小丑;滑稽戏;v.摸拟表演; Charades:n.用动作等表演的字谜游戏(charade的复数); 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;
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| And we did it not just for these four, but for all 2,000 descriptors. |
我们不只分析上面这四则, 而是分析了所有 2000 则讣闻的描述词彙。 |
| And this is what it looks like. |
我们来看看结果是什么样子。 |
| Film, theatre, music, dance and of course, art, are huge. |
电影,戏剧,音乐,舞蹈。 当然「艺术」是最明显的。 |
| Over 40 percent. |
出现的频率多出 40%。 |
| You have to wonder why in so many societies we insist that our kids pursue engineering or medicine or business or law to be construed as successful. |
你不得不惊讶的是, 为什么在大多数的社会中, 我们一直认为让孩子读工程、 医学、商業或法律科系, 才是所谓的成功。 |
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pursue:v.继续;从事;追赶;纠缠; engineering:n.工程;工程学;v.密谋策划;设计制造;改变…的基因;(engineer的现在分词) construed:v.理解;领会;(construe的过去式和过去分词)
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| And while we're talking profession , the average age at which they achieved things. |
当我们关注职業时, 这些人功成名就的平均年龄。 |
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profession:n.行业,职业;业内人士;同行;
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| That number is 37. |
这个数字是37年。 |
| What that means is, you've got to wait 37 years ... |
这意味着什么？ 就是你平均必须等待 37 年…… |
| before your first significant achievement that you're remembered for —on average — 44 years later, when you die at the age of 81 —on average. |
才能获得第一个成就, 44 年后, 当你过世时才会被纪念, 平均年龄是 81 岁。 |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| Talk about having to be patient . |
这告诉我们要有耐心。 |
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patient:adj.有耐心的,能容忍的;n.病人;患者;
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| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| Of course, it varies by profession. |
当然,这会因职業而异。 |
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varies:n.多重复合;v.使不同;改变;违背(vary的三单形式);
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| If you're a sports star, you'll probably hit your stride in your 20s. |
如果你是体育明星, 你可能会在 20 多岁打破纪录。 如果你和我一样已经 40 多岁了, |
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stride:n.大步;步幅;进展;v.跨过;大踏步走过;跨坐在…;
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| And if you're in your 40s like me, you can join the fun world of politics . |
你可以加入有趣的政治圈。 （笑声） |
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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)
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| (Laughter) |
政治家完成他们的第一项成就, |
| Politicians do their first and sometimes only commendable act in their mid-40s. |
可能也是唯一的一次, 大约是在45岁左右。 |
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Politicians:n.政治家;(蔑)政客;(美)政治贩;(politician的复数) commendable:adj.值得赞美的;很好的;可推荐的;
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| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| If you're wondering what "others" are, here are some examples. |
如果你想知道「其他职業」是什么, 这里有一些例子。 |
| Isn't it fascinating, the things people do and the things they're remembered for? |
这些人所做的, 和他们被纪念的事迹,是不是很令人着迷？ |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| Our curiosity was in overdrive , and we desired to analyze more than just a descriptor. |
我们的好奇心被点燃了, 我们不只想要分析描述词。 |
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curiosity:n.好奇,好奇心;珍品,古董,古玩; overdrive:v.驱使过度;虐待;工作过度;n.超速档;[机]超速传动; analyze:v.对…进行分析,分解(等于analyse);
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| So, we ingested the entire first paragraph of all 2,000 obituaries, but we did this separately for two groups of people: people that are famous and people that are not famous. |
所以,我们输入了 2000 则 讣闻的第一段全文, 但是将亡者分为两群: 知名人士,以及非知名人士。 |
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ingested:v.摄入;食入;咽下(ingest的过去分词和过去式) separately:adv.分别地;分离地;个别地;
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| Famous people — Prince, people who are not famous are people like Jocelyn Cooper, |
知名人士例如:王子、 非知名人士例如:乔斯林庫柏、嘉里牧师 |
| Reverend Curry or Lorna Kelly. |
或罗娜．凯利。 |
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Reverend:n.牧师;adj.可敬的; Curry:vt.用咖喱烧,给…加咖喱粉;梳刷;鞭打;n.咖哩粉,咖喱;咖哩饭菜;
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| I'm willing to bet you haven't heard of most of their names. |
我敢打赌,你绝对没听过 大多数这些人的名字。 |
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bet:n.打赌;赌注;预计;估计;v.下赌注(于);用…打赌;敢说;八成儿;
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| Amazing people, fantastic achievements, but they're not famous. |
这些人有着令人惊讶,稀奇古怪的成就, 但是他们并不出名。 |
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fantastic:奇异的,空想的
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| So what if we analyze these two groups separately — the famous and the non-famous? |
因此,如果我们分析一下这两群人, 知名和非知名人士, |
| What might that tell us? |
可能得到什么结果？ |
| Take a look. |
我们来看一下。 |
| Two things leap out at me. |
有两个结果让我惊讶。 |
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leap out at:向某人扑过来;
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| First: "John." |
第一个: 「约翰」。 |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| Anyone here named John should thank your parents — |
如果这里有人也叫约翰的, 应该感谢你的父母── |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| and remind your kids to cut out your obituary when you're gone. |
而且记得提醒你的孩子, 当你过世时要把讣闻剪下来。 |
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remind:v.提醒;使想起;
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| And second: "help." |
另一个结果是: 「幫助」。 |
| We uncovered , many lessons from lives well-led, and what those people immortalized in print could teach us. |
我们发现了,这些已经逝去, 在报纸上令我们缅怀的事迹, 教导我们许多事情, 教导我们如何好好活着。 |
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uncovered:adj.裸露的; v.揭开盖子; (uncover的过去式和过去分词) immortalized:adj.不灭的,永生的;v.永生化(immortalize的过去式,过去分词);
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| The exercise was a fascinating testament to the kaleidoscope that is life, and even more fascinating was the fact that the overwhelming majority of obituaries featured people famous and non-famous, who did seemingly extraordinary things. |
这次的实验就是 万花筒般生命的迷人见证。 甚至更迷人的是, 在大多数的讣闻中, 无论是知名或非知名人士, 他们所做的不平凡事迹。 |
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testament:n.[法]遗嘱;圣约;确实的证明; kaleidoscope:n.万花筒;千变万化; overwhelming:adj.势不可挡的; v.压倒; (overwhelm的现在分词) majority:n.大部分:大多数:多数票:成年人: seemingly:adv.看来似乎;表面上看来; extraordinary:adj.非凡的;特别的;离奇的;临时的;特派的;
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| They made a positive dent in the fabric of life. |
他们在不停编织的人生中, 留下了有意义的印记。 |
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positive:adj.积极的;[数]正的,[医][化学]阳性的;确定的;n.正数;[摄]正片; dent:n.凹痕;[名]登特;v.使…凹陷;破坏; fabric:n.织物;布料;(社会,机构等的)结构;
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| They helped. |
他们幫助他人。 |
| So ask yourselves as you go back to your daily lives: |
所以问问自己, 当你回到日常生活中: |
| How am I using my talents to help society? |
我如何运用我的才华,幫助这个社会？ |
| Because the most powerful lesson here is, if more people lived their lives trying to be famous in death, the world would be a much better place. |
因为在这里,最重要的一课是: 如果有更多的人, 在活着时努力过着自己的人生, 而能在过世时变得知名,这个世界将会变得更加美好。 |
| Thank you. |
谢谢大家。 |
| (Applause) |
（掌声） |