TED演讲： 不要固执于英语(4)

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　　If you think about the Islamic Golden Age, there was lots of translation then. 如果你想想伊斯兰的黄金时代，当时有很多翻译。

　　They translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic, into Persian, 他们把拉丁文和希腊语翻译成阿拉伯语和波斯语，

　　and then it was translated on into the Germanic languages of Europe and the Romance¹ languages. 然后又翻译成欧洲的日耳曼语和罗曼语。

　　And so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe.  于是欧洲黑暗的时代被点亮了。

　　Now don't get me wrong; I am not against teaching English, all you English teachers out there. 不要误会；我不是反对教英语，或是你们在座的所有英语老师。

　　I love it that we have a global language. We need one today more than ever. 我热爱我们有一种全球性语言。我们今天比过去任何时候都需要它。

　　But I am against using it as a barrier. 但是我反对用它设立障碍。

　　Do we really want to end up with 600 languages and the main one being English, or Chinese? 我们真的只想留下600种语言，而主要语言只是英语和中文吗？

　　We need more than that. Where do we draw the line?  我们需要更多，我们在哪里划这条界线呢？

　　This system equates² intelligence with a knowledge of English, which is quite arbitrary. 这个体制把智能和英语能力划等号，这是非常武断的。

　　And I want to remind you that the giants upon whose shoulders today's intelligentsia stand 我想提醒你，而当代知识分子所站立在那些“巨人肩膀”上的伟人，

　　did not have to have English, they didn't have to pass an English test. 他们也并不都具有英语能力，他们不需要通过英语考试。

　　Case in point, Einstein.  爱因斯坦就是个典型。

　　He, by the way, was considered remedial at school because he was, in fact, dyslexic. 其实，他在学校的时候是个需要补课的学生，因为他诵读有困难。

　　But fortunately for the world, he did not have to pass an English test. 但是也是这世界的幸运，他不必通过英语考试。

　　Because they didn't start until 1964 with TOEFL, the American test of English. 因为1964年托福考试还没设立，这是一种美式英语测试。

　　Now it's exploded.  现在已经泛滥了

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