中国学生哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲The Spider's Bite(中英对照)

The Spider’s Bite

When I was in middle school, a poisonous spider bit my right hand. I ran to my mom for help—but instead of taking me to a doctor, my mom set my hand on fire.After wrapping my hand with several layers of cotton, then soaking it in wine, she put a chopstick into my mouth,and ignited the cotton.

在我上中学的时候，一只有毒蜘蛛咬伤了我的右手，我去找母亲帮忙，但是她没有找医生，却把我的手放在火上面。她用酒浸过的棉纱绕着我的手缠了好几层之后，在我的嘴里放了一根筷子，然后点燃了棉纱。

【语言点解析】

Poisonous表示有毒的；恶毒的；讨厌的。例句：A lot of poisonous waste water comes from that chemical factory. 那个化工厂排出大量有毒的废水。

Heat quickly penetrated the cotton and began to roast my hand. The searing pain made me want to scream, but the chopstick prevented it. All I could do was watch my hand burn - one minute, then two minutes –until mom put out the fire.

棉纱上的温度很快上来了，我的手也开始发烫。这股灼痛让我想要大叫，不过我嘴里含着的筷子让我叫不出来。我唯一能做的就是看着我的手骨，一分钟过去了，两分钟过去了，直到母亲熄灭火。

You see, the part of China I grew up in was a rural village, and at that time pre-industrial. When I was born, my village had no cars, no telephones, no electricity, not even running water. And we certainly didn’t have access to modern medical resources.

所以你看到，我是在中国的一个小山村里成长的，在那个时候，并不发达。在我出生的那个年代，我们村没车、没电话、也没电，甚至都没有自来水！且理所当然地，我没有接触现代医疗资源的办法。

There was no doctor my mother could bring me to see about my spider bite.For those who study biology, you may have grasped the science behind my mom’s cure: heat deactivates proteins, and a spider’s venom is simply a form of protein. It’s cool how that folk remedy actually incorporates basic biochemistry, isn’t it?

当我被蜘蛛咬伤时，并没有医生可以来治疗我。对于学生物学的人来说，你也许能找到我母亲治愈背后所包含的科学原理：热量能够让蛋白质失活，而蜘蛛的毒液都是蛋白质组成的。将这个土方子和生物化学基础联系起来很神奇，不是吗？

【语言点解析】

Folk remedy表示偏方。例句：The active component, willow bark, was used as a folk remedy as long ago as the 5th century BC. 它来自早在公元前五世纪就被用于民间配方的柳树皮，是这种树皮的一种有效成分。

But I am a PhD student in biochemistry at Harvard, I now know that better, less painful and less risky treatments existed. So I can’t help but ask myself, why I didn’t receive one at the time?

不过我现在是一个在哈佛学习生物化学的博士生，我现在知道了一个更好的、不那么痛、危险系数更小的治疗方法。所以，我忍不住问我自己，为什么那个时候我不能接受更好的治疗吗？

Fifteen years have passed since that incident. I am happy to report that my hand is fine. But this question lingers, and I continue to be troubled by the unequal distribution of scientific knowledge throughout the world.

距离那个事故发生已经十五年了，我很高兴地告诉你们：我的手现在恢复地很好。不过这个问题在我心里萦绕了很久，我也时常会被科学知识分布的不均衡问题所困扰。

【语言点解析】

Linger表示：徘徊；苟延残喘；缓慢度过。例句：The girl lingered by the lake until it was dark. 女孩在湖畔一直徘徊到天黑。

We have learned to edit the human genome and unlock many secrets of how cancer progresses. We can manipulate neuronal activity literally with the switch of a light. Each year brings more advances in biomedical research-exciting, transformative accomplishments.

我们曾学习过如何编辑人类基因谱，揭示了许多关于癌症的秘密。我们能够轻松地操控神经元的活动。生物医药研究每年都会有很多进步和令人振奋的变革、成就。

Yet, despite the knowledge we have amassed, we haven’t been so successful in deploying it to where it’s needed most. According to the World Bank, twelve percent of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day.

虽然我们取得了很多成就，但是我们却不能将这些成就传递到最需要它的地方。据世界银行统计数据表明，世界人口的12%一天的生活费不到2美元。

Malnutrition kills more than 3 million children annually. Three hundred million people are afflicted by malaria globally. All over the world, we constantly see these problems of poverty, illness, and lack of resources impeding the flow of scientific information.

每年都有三百万的儿童死于营养不良。全球有三亿的人收到疟疾的影响。在全世界，我们能看到无数的贫困问题，病痛问题以及资源匮乏导致科学信息不流通的问题。

Lifesaving knowledge we take for granted in the modern world is often unavailable in these underdeveloped regions.And in far too many places, people are still essentially trying to cure a spider bite with fire.

救生知识在现代化的世界是理所当然的，不过在经济欠发达地区却是高不可及的。所以，在许许多多地方，人们还是用火来治疗蜘蛛的咬伤。

【语言点解析】

Take it for granted表示：认为理所当然；视为当然；理所当然；想当然。例句：It's something we all take for granted: our ability to look at an object, near or far, and bring it instantly into focus. 这是一个我们习以为常的事情：不管物体是远是近，我们的眼睛总能在看到物体的时候迅速完成对焦。

While studying at Harvard, I saw how scientific knowledge can help others in simple, yet profound ways. The bird flu pandemic in the 2000s looked to my village like a spell cast by demons.

在哈佛学习期间，我知道了科学知识是如何用简单的又深刻的方式帮助到其他人的。2000年的一次流感使我的家乡像被恶魔下了诅咒一般。

Our folk medicine didn’t even have half-measures to offer. What’s more, farmers didn’t know the difference between common cold and flu; they didn’t understand that the flu was much