第一篇：TED演讲稿大全

ted精彩演讲：坠机让我学到的三件事 imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft.imagine a plane full of smoke.imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack.it sounds scary.想像一个大爆炸，当你在三千多英尺的高空；想像机舱内布满黑烟，想像引擎发出喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦的声响，听起来很可怕。well i had a unique seat that day.i was sitting in 1d.i was the only one who can talk to the flight attendants.so i looked at them right away, and they said, no problem.we probably hit some birds.the pilot had already turned the plane around, and we werent that far.you could see manhattan.那天我的位置很特別，我坐在1d，我是唯一可以和空服员说话的人，于是我立刻看着他们，他们说，“没问题，我们可能撞上鸟了。” 机长已经把机头转向，我们离目的地很近，已经可以看到曼哈顿了。two minutes later, 3 things happened at the same time.the pilot lines up the plane with the hudson river.thats usually not the route.he turns off the engines.now imagine being in a plane with no sound.and then he says 3 words-the most unemotional 3 words ive ever heard.he says, brace for impact.两分钟以后，三件事情同时发生：机长把飞机对齐哈德逊河，一般的航道可不是这样。他关上引擎。想像坐在一架没有声音的飞机上。然后他说了几个字，我听过最不带情绪的几个字，他说，“即将迫降，小心冲击。” i didnt have to talk to the flight attendant anymore.i could see in her eyes, it was terror.life was over.我不用再问空服员什么了。我可以在她眼神里看到恐惧，人生结束了。now i want to share with you 3 things i learned about myself that day.现在我想和你们分享那天我所学到的三件事。i leant that it all changes in an instant.we have this bucket list, we have these things we want to do in life, and i thought about all the people i wanted to reach out to that i didnt, all the fences i wanted to mend, all the experiences i wanted to have and i never did.as i thought about that later on, i came up with a saying, which is, collect bad wines.because if the wine is ready and the person is there, im opening it.i no longer want to postpone anything in life.and that urgency, that purpose, has really changed my life.在那一瞬间内，一切都改变了。我们的人生目标清单，那些我们想做的事，所有那些我想联络却没有联络的人，那些我想修补的围墙，人际关系，所有我想经历却没有经历的事。之后我回想那些事，我想到一句话，那就是，“我收藏的酒都很差。” 因为如果酒已成熟，分享对象也有，我早就把把酒打开了。我不想再把生命中的任何事延后，这种紧迫感、目标性改变了我的生命。the second thing i learnt that dayi thought about, wow, i really feel one real regret, ive lived a good life.in my own humanity and mistaked, ive tired to get better at everything i tried.but in my humanity, i also allow my ego to get in.and i regretted the time i wasted on things that did not matter with people that matter.and i thought about my relationship with my wife, my friends, with people.and after, as i reflected on that, i decided to eliminate negative energy from my life.its not perfect, but its a lot better.ive not had a fight with my wife in 2 years.it feels great.i no longer try to be right;i choose to be happy.那天我学到的第二件事是，正当我们通过乔治华盛顿大桥，那也没过多久，我想，哇，我有一件真正后悔的事。虽然我有人性缺点，也犯了些错，但我生活得其实不错。我试着把每件事做得更好。但因为人性，我难免有些自我中心，我后悔竟然花了许多时间，和生命中重要的人讨论那些不重要的事。我想到我和妻子、朋友及人们的关系，之后，回想这件事时，我决定除掉我人生中的负面情绪。还没完全做到，但确实好多了。过去两年我从未和妻子吵架，感觉很好，我不再尝试争论对错，我选择快乐。that sadness really framed in one thought, which is, i only wish for one thing.i only wish i could see my kids grow up.我所学到的第三件事是，当你脑中的始终开始倒数“15，14，13”，看到水开始涌入，心想，“拜托爆炸吧！” 我不希望这东西碎成20片，就像纪录片中看到的那样。当我们逐渐下沉，我突然感觉到，哇，死亡并不可怕，就像是我们一生一直在为此做准备，但很令人悲伤。我不想就这样离开，我热爱我的生命。这个悲伤的主要来源是，我只期待一件事，我只希望能看到孩子长大。

about a month later, i was at a performance by my daugterand please dont-but imagine, and how would you change? what would you get done that youre waiting to get done because you think youll be here forever? how would you change your relationtships and the negative energy in them? and more than anything, are you being the best parent you can? 我鼓励今天要坐飞机的各位，想像如果你坐的飞机出了同样的事，最好不要－但想像一下，你会如何改变？有什么是你想做却没做的，因为你觉得你有其它机会做它？你会如何改变你的人际关系，不再如此负面？最重要的是，你是否尽力成为一个好父母？ thank you.篇二：你不必沉迷英语 ted演讲稿

我知道你们在想什么，你们觉得我迷路了，马上就会有人走上台温和地把我带回我的座位上。（掌声）。我在迪拜总会遇上这种事。“来这里度假的吗，亲爱的？”（笑声）“来探望孩子的吗？这次要待多久呢？

恩，事实上，我希望能再待久一点。我在波斯湾这边生活和教书已经超过30年了。（掌声）这段时间里，我看到了很多变化。现在这份数据是挺吓人的，而我今天要和你们说的是有关语言的消失和英语的全球化。我想和你们谈谈我的朋友，她在阿布达比教成人英语。在一个晴朗的日子里，她决定带她的学生到花园去教他们一些大自然的词汇。但最后却变成是她在学习所有当地植物在阿拉伯语中是怎么说的。还有这些植物是如何被用作药材，化妆品，烹饪，香草。这些学生是怎么得到这些知识的呢？当然是从他们的祖父母，甚至曾祖父母那里得来的。不需要我来告诉你们能够跨代沟通是多么重要。but sadly, today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate.a language dies every 14 days.now, at the same time, english is the undisputed global language.could there be a connection? well i dont know.but i do know that ive seen a lot of changes.when i first came out to the gulf, i came to kuwait in the days when it was still a hardship post.actually, not that long ago.that is a little bit too early.but nevertheless, i was recruited by the british council along with about 25 other teachers.and we were the first non-muslims to teach in the state schools there in kuwait.we were brought to teach english because the government wanted to modernize the country and empower the citizens through education.and of course, the u.k.benefited from some of that lovely oil wealth.但遗憾的是，今天很多语言正在以前所未有的速度消失。每14天就有一种语言消失，而与此同时，英语却无庸置疑地成为全球性的语言。这其中有关联吗？我不知道。但我知道的是，我见证过许多改变。初次来到海湾地区时，我去了科威特。当时教英文仍然是个困难的工作。其实，没有那么久啦，这有点太久以前了。总之，我和其他25位老师一起被英国文化协会聘用。我们是第一批非穆斯林的老师，在科威特的国立学校任教。我们被派到那里教英语，是因为当地政府希望国家可以现代化并透过教育提升公民的水平。当然，英国也能得到些好处，产油国可是很有钱的。okay.now this is the major change that ive seen--how teaching english has morphed from being a mutually english-speaking nation on earth.and why not? after all, the best education--according to the latest world university rankings--is to be found in the universities of the u.k.and the u.s.so everybody wants to have an english education, naturally.but if youre not a native speaker, you have to pass a test.言归正传，我见过最大的改变，就是英语教学的蜕变如何从一个互惠互利的行为变成今天这种大规模的国际产业。英语不再是学校课程里的外语学科，也不再只是英国的专利。英语（教学）已经成为所有英语系国家追逐的潮流。何乐而不为呢？毕竟，最好的教育来自于最好的大学，而根据最新的世界大学排名，那些名列前茅的都是英国和美国的大学。所以自然每个人都想接受英语教育，但如果你不是以英文为母语，你就要通过考试。now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability well, i dont think so.we english teachers reject them all the time.we put a stop sign, and we stop them in their tracks.they cant pursue their dream any longer, till they get english.now let me put it this way, if i met a dutch speaker who had the cure for cancer, would i stop him from entering my british university? i dont think so.but indeed, that is exactly what we do.we english teachers are the gatekeepers.and you have to satisfy us first that your english is good enough.now it can be dangerous to give too much power to a narrow segment of society.maybe the barrier would be too universal.但仅凭语言能力就拒绝学生这样对吗？譬如如果你碰到一位天才计算机科学家，但他会需要有和律师一样的语言能力吗？我不这么认为。但身为英语老师的我们，却总是拒绝他们。我们处处设限，将学生挡在路上，使他们无法再追求自己的梦想，直到他们通过考试。现在容我换一个方式说，如果我遇到了一位只会说荷兰话的人，而这个人能治愈癌症，我会阻止他进入我的英国大学吗？我想不会。但事实上，我们的确在做这种事。我们这些英语老师就是把关的。你必须先让我们满意，使我们认定你的英文够好。但这可能是危险的。把太多的权力交由这么小的一群人把持，也许会令这种障碍太过普及。okay.but, i hear you say, what about the research? its all in english.so the books are in english, the journals are done in english, but that is a self-fulfilling.it feeds the english requirement.and so it goes on.i ask you, what happened to translation? if you think about the islamic golden age, there was lots of translation then.they translated from latin and greek into arabic, into persian, and then it was translated on into the germanic languages of europe and the romance languages.and so light shone upon the dark ages of europe.now dont get me wrong;i am not against teaching english, all you english teachers out there.i love it that we have a global language.we need one today more than ever.but i am against using it as a barrier.do we really want to end up with 600 languages and the main one being english, or chinese? we need more than that.where do we draw the line? this system equates intelligence with a knowledge of english which is quite.于是，我听到你们问但是研究呢?研究报告都要用英文。”的确，研究论著和期刊都要用英文发表，但这只是一种理所当然的现象。有英语要求，自然就有英语供给，然后就这么循环下去。我倒想问问大家，为什么不用翻译呢？想想伊斯兰的黄金时代，当时翻译盛行，人们把拉丁文和希腊文翻译成阿拉伯文或波斯文，然后再由拉伯文或波斯文翻译为欧洲的日耳曼语言以及罗曼语言。于是文明照亮了欧洲的黑暗时代。但不要误会我的意思，我不是反对英语教学或是在座所有的英语老师。我很高兴我们有一个全球性的语言，这在今日尤为重要。但我反对用英语设立障碍。难道我们真希望世界上只剩下600种语言，其中又以英文或中文为主流吗？我们需要的不只如此。那么我们该如何拿捏呢？这个体制把智能和英语能力画上等号这是相当武断的。

and i want to remind you that the giants upon whose shoulders todays stand did not have to have english, they didnt have to pass an english test.case in point, einstein.he, by the way, was considered remedial at school because he was, in fact, dyslexic.but fortunately for the world, he did not have to pass an english test.because they didnt start until 1964 with toefl, the american test of english.now its exploded.there are lots and lots of tests of english.and millions and millions of students take these tests every year.now you might think, you and me, those fees arent bad, theyre okay, but they are prohibitive to so many millions of poor people.so immediately, were rejecting them.我想要提醒你们，扶持当代知识分子的这些“巨人肩膀不必非得具有英文能力，他们不需要通过英语考试。爱因斯坦就是典型的例子。顺便说一下，他在学校还曾被认为需要课外补习，因为他其实有阅读障碍。但对整个世界来说,很幸运的当时他不需要通过英语考试，因为他们直到1964年才开始使用托福。现在英语测验太泛滥了，有太多太多的英语测验，以及成千上万的学生每年都在参加这些考试。现在你会认为，你和我都这么想，这些费用不贵，价钱满合理的。但是对数百万的穷人来说，这些费用高不可攀。所以，当下我们又拒绝了他们。it brings to mind a headline i saw recently: education: the great pide.now i get it, i understand why people would focus on english.they want to give their children the best chance in life.and to do that, they need a western education.because, of course, the best jobs go to people out of the western universities, that i put on earlier.its a circular thing.这使我想起最近看到的一个新闻标题：“教育：大鸿沟”现在我懂了。我了解为什么大家都重视英语，因为他们希望给孩子最好的人生机会。为了达成这目的，他们需要西方教育。毕竟，不可否认，最好的工作都留给那些西方大学毕业出来的人。就像我之前说的，这是一种循环。

okay.let me tell you a story about two scientists, two english scientists.they were doing an experiment to do with genetics and the forelimbs and the hind limbs of animals.but they couldnt get the results they wanted.they really didnt know what to do, until along came a german scientist who realized that they were using two words for forelimb and hind limb, whereas genetics does not differentiate and neither does german.so bingo, problem solved.if you cant think a thought, you are stuck.but if another language can think that thought, then, by cooperating, we can achieve and learn so much more.好，我跟你们说一个关于两位科学家的故事：有两位英国科学家在做一项实验，是关于遗传学的，以及动物的前、后肢。但他们无法得到他们想要的结果。他们真的不知道该怎么办，直到来了一位德国的科学家。他发现在英文里前肢和后肢是不同的二个字，但在遗传学上没有区别。在德语也是同一个字。所以，叮！问题解决了。如果你不能想到一个念头，你会卡在那里。但如果另一个语言能想到那念头，然后通过合作我们可以达成目的，也学到更多。

我的女儿从科威特来到英格兰，她在阿拉伯的学校学习科学和数学。那是所阿拉伯中学。在学校里，她得把这些知识翻译成英文，而她在班上却能在这些学科上拿到最好的成绩。这告诉我们，当外籍学生来找我们，我们可能无法针对他们所知道的给予赞赏，因为那是来自于他们母语的知识。当一个语言消失时，我们不知道还有什么也会一并失去。this is--i dont know if you saw it on cnn recently--they gave the heroes award to a young kenyan shepherd boy who couldnt study at night in his village like all the village children,篇三：世上最好的演讲：ted演讲吸引人的秘密 why ted talks are better than the last speech you sat through 世上最好的演讲：ted演讲吸引人的秘密 think about the last time you heard someone give a speech, or any formal presentation.maybe it was so long that you were either overwhelmed with data, or you just tuned the speaker out.if powerpoint was involved, each slide was probably loaded with at least 40 words or figures, and odds are that you dont remember more than a tiny bit of what they were supposed to show.回想一下你上次聆听某人发表演讲或任何正式陈述的情形。它也许太长了，以至于你被各种数据搞得头昏脑胀，甚或干脆不理会演讲者。如果演讲者使用了ppt文档，那么每张幻灯片很可能塞入了至少40个单词或数字，但你现在或许只记得一丁点内容。pretty uninspiring, huh? talk like ted: 9 public-speaking secrets of the worlds best mindsexamines why in prose thats as lively and appealing as, well, a ted talk.timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary in march of those now-legendary ted conferences, the book draws on current brain science to explain what wins over, and fires up, an audience--and what doesnt.author carmine gallo also studied more than 500 of the most popular ted speeches(there have been about 1,500 so far)and interviewed scores of the people who gave them.相当平淡，是吧？《像ted那样演讲：全球顶级人才九大演讲秘诀》(talk like ted: 9 public-speaking secrets of the worlds best minds)一书以流畅的文笔审视了为什么ted演讲如此生动，如此引人入胜。出版方有意安排在今年3月份发行此书，以庆贺如今已成为经典的ted大会成立30周年。这部著作借鉴

当代脑科学解释了什么样的演讲能够说服听众、鼓舞听众，什么样的演讲无法产生这种效果。

much of what he found out is surprising.consider, for instance, the fact that each ted talk is limited to 18 minutes.that might sound too short to convey much.yet ted curator chris anderson imposed the time limit, he told gallo, because its long enough to be serious and short enough to hold peoples attention...by forcing speakers who are used to going on for 45 minutes to bring it down to 18, you get them to think about what they really want to say.its also the perfect length if you want your message to go viral, anderson says.他挖出了不少令人吃惊的演讲策略。例如，每场ted演讲都被限制在18分钟以内。听起来太过短暂，似乎无法传达足够多讯息。然而，ted大会策办人克里斯?安德森决议推行这项时间限制规则，因为“这个时间长度足够庄重，同时又足够短，能够吸引人们的注意力。通过迫使那些习惯于滔滔不绝讲上45分钟的嘉宾把演讲时间压缩至18分钟，你就可以让他们认真思考他们真正想说的话，”他对加洛说。此外，安德森说，如果你希望你的讯息像病毒般扩散，这也是一个完美的时间长度。recent neuroscience shows why the time limit works so well: people listening to a presentation are storing data for retrieval in the future, and too much information leads to cognitive overload, which gives rise to elevated levels of anxiety--meaning that, if you go on and on, your audience will start to resist you.even worse, they wont recall a single point you were trying to make.最近的神经科学研究说明了为什么这项时间限制产生如此好的效果：聆听陈述的人们往往会存储相关数据，以备未来检索之用，而太多的信息会导致“认知超负荷”，进而推升听众的焦虑度。它意味着，如果你说个没完没了，听众就会开始抗拒你。更糟糕的是，他们不会记得你努力希望传递的信息点，甚至可能一个都记不住。

如何把一个复杂的陈述压缩至18分钟左右？加洛就这个问题提供了一些小建议，其中包括他所称的“三的法则”。具体说就是，把大量观点高度浓缩为三大要点。ted大会上的许多演讲高手就是这样做的。他还指出，即使一篇演讲无法提炼到这样的程度，单是这番努力也一定能改善演讲的效果：“仅仅通过这番提炼，你就可以大大增强陈述的创造性和影响力。” then theres powerpoint.ted represents the end of powerpoint as we know it, writes gallo.he hastens to add that theres nothing wrong with powerpoint as a tool, but that most speakers unwittingly make it work against them by cluttering up their slides with way too many words(40, on average)and numbers.另一个建议与ppt文档有关。“ted大会象征着我们所知的ppt文档正走向终结，”加洛写道。他随后又马上补充说，作为工具的powerpoint本身并没有什么错，但大多数演讲者为他们的幻灯片塞进了太多的单词（平均40个）和数字，让这种工具不经意间带来了消极影响。the remedy for that, based on the most riveting ted talks: if you must use slides, fill them with a lot more images.once again, research backs this up, with something academics call the picture superiority effect: three days after hearing or reading a set of facts, most people will remember about 10% of the information.add a photo or a drawing, and recall jumps to 65%.最吸引人的ted演讲为我们提供了一个补救策略：如果你必须使用幻灯片，务必记得要大量运用图像资源。这种做法同样有科学依据，它就是研究人员所称的“图优效应”(picture superiority effect)：听到或读到一组事实三天后，大多数人会记得大约10%的信息。而添加一张照片或图片后，记忆率将跃升至65%。one study, by molecular biologist john medina at the university of washington school of medicine, found that not only could people recall more than 2,500 pictures with at least 90% accuracy several days later, but accuracy a whole year afterward was still at about 63%.华盛顿大学医学院(university of washington school of medicine)分子生物学家约翰?梅迪纳主持的研究发现，几天后，人们能够回想起超过2,500张图片，准确率至少达到90%；一年后的准确率依然保持在63%左右。that result demolishes print and speech, both of which were tested on the same group of subjects, medinas study indicated, which is something worth bearing in mind for anybody hoping that his or her ideas will be remembered.梅迪纳的研究表明，这个结果“完胜”印刷品和演讲的记忆效果（由同一组受试者测试）。任何一位希望自己的思想被听众铭记在心的演讲者或许都应该记住这一点。篇四：ted演讲稿

我是个说书之人。在这里，我想和大家分享一些我本人的故事。一些关于所谓的“单一故事的危险性”的经历。我成长在尼日利亚东部的一所大学校园里。我母亲常说我从两岁起就开始读书。不过我认为“四岁起”比较接近事实。所以我从小就开始读书，读的是英国和美国的儿童书籍。

我也是从小就开始写作，当我在七岁那年，开始强迫我可怜的母亲阅读我用铅笔写好的故事，外加上蜡笔描绘的插图时，我所写的故事正如我所读的故事那般，我故事里的人物们都是白皮肤、蓝眼睛的。常在雪中嬉戏，吃着苹果。而且他们经常讨论天气，讨论太阳出来时，一切都多么美好。我一直写着这样故事，虽然说我当时住在尼日利亚，并且从来没有出过国。虽然说我们从来没见过雪，虽然说我们实际上只能吃到芒果；虽然说我们从不讨论天气，因为根本没这个必要。

我故事里的人物们也常喝姜汁啤酒，因为我所读的那些英国书中的人物们常喝姜汁啤酒。虽然说我当时完全不知道姜汁啤酒是什么东西。时隔多年，我一直都怀揣着一个深切的渴望，想尝尝姜汁啤酒的味道。不过这要另当别论了。这一切所表明的，正是在一个个的故事面前，我们是何等的脆弱，何等的易受影响，尤其当我们还是孩子的时候，因为我当时读的所有书中只有外国人物，我因而坚信：书要想被称为书，就必须有外国人在里面，就必须是关于我无法亲身体验的事情，而这一切都在我接触了非洲书籍之后发生了改变。当时非洲书并不多，而且他们也不像国外书籍那样好找。不过因为！和！之类的作家，我思维中对于文学的概念，产生了质的改变。我意识到像我这样的人---有着巧克力般的肤色和永远无法梳成马尾辫的卷曲头发的女孩们，也可以出现在文学作品中。

我开始撰写我所熟知的事物，但这并不是说我不喜爱那些美国和英国书籍，恰恰相反，那些书籍激发了我的想象力，为我开启了新的世界。但随之而来的后果就是，我不知道原来像我这样的人，也是可以存在于文学作品中的，而与非洲作家的结缘，则是将我从对于书籍的单一故事中拯救了出来。

我来自一个传统的尼日利亚中产家庭，我的父亲是一名教授，我的母亲是一名大学管理员。因此我们和很多其他家庭一样，都会从附近的村庄中雇佣一些帮手来打理家事。在我八岁那一年，我们家招来了一位新的男仆。他的名字叫做fide.我父亲只告诉我们说，他是来自一个非常穷苦的家庭，我母亲会时不时的将山芋、大米，还有我们穿旧的衣服送到他的家里。每当我剩下晚饭的时候，我的母亲就会说：吃净你的食物！难道你不知道吗？像fide家这样的人可是一无所有。因此我对他们家人充满了怜悯。

后来的一个星期六，我们去fide的村庄拜访，他的母亲向我们展示了一个精美别致的草篮----用fide的哥哥用染过色的酒椰叶编制的。我当时完全被震惊了。我从来没有想过fide的家人居然有亲手制造东西的才能。在那之前，我对fide家唯一的了解就是他们是何等的穷困，正因为如此，他们在我脑中的印象只是一个字------“穷”。他们的贫穷是我赐予他们的单一故事。

多年以后，在我离开尼日利亚前往美国读大学的时候，我又想到了这件事。我那时19岁，我的美国室友当时完全对我感到十分惊讶了。他问我是从哪里学的讲一口如此流利的英语，而当我告知她尼日利亚刚巧是以英语作为官方语言的时候，她的脸上则是写满了茫然。她问我是否可以给她听听她所谓的“部落音乐”，可想而知，当我拿出玛丽亚凯莉的磁带时，她是何等的失望，她断定我不知道如何使用电炉。

我猛然意识到“在他见到我之前，她就已经对我充满了怜悯之心。她对我这个非洲人的预设心态是一种充满施恩与好意的怜悯之情。我那位室友的脑中有一个关于非洲的单一故事。一个充满了灾难的单一故事。在这个单一的故事中，非洲人是完全没有可能在任何方面和她有所相似的；没有可能接收到比怜悯更复杂的感情；没有可能以一个平等的人类的身份与她

沟通。

我不得不强调，在我前往美国之前，我从来没有有意识的把自己当做个非洲人。但在美国的时候，每当人们提到”非洲“时，大家都会转向我，虽然我对纳米比亚之类的地方一无所知。但我渐渐的开始接受这个新的身份，现在很多时候我都是把自己当做一个非洲人来看待。不过当人们把非洲当做一个国家来讨论的时候，我还是觉得挺反感的。最近的一次例子就发生在两天前，我从拉各斯搭乘航班，旅程原本相当愉快，直到广播里开始介绍在”印度、非洲以及其他国家”所进行的慈善事业。

当我以一名非洲人的身份在美国读过几年之后，我开始理解我那位室友当时对我的反应。如果我不是在尼日利亚长大，如果我对非洲的一切认识都是来自于大众流行的影像，我相信我眼中的非洲也同样是充满了美丽的地貌、美丽的动物，以及一群难以理解的人们进行着毫无意义的战争、死于艾滋和贫穷、无法为自己辩护，并且等待着一位慈悲的、白种的外国人的救赎，我看待非洲的方式将会和我儿时看待fide一家的方式是一样的。

我认为关于非洲的这个单一故事从根本上来自于西方的文学。这是来自伦敦商人john locke的一段话。他在1561年的时候，曾游历非洲西部，并且为他的航行做了翻很有趣的记录。他先是把黑色的非洲人称为“没有房子的野兽”，随后又写道：“他们也是一群无头脑的人，他们的嘴和眼睛都长在了他们的胸口上。”

我每次读到这一段的时候，都不禁大笑起来。他的想象力真的是让人敬佩。但关于他的作品极其重要的一点是它昭示着西方社会讲述非洲故事的一个传统，在这个传统中，撒哈拉以南的非洲充满了消极、差异以及黑暗，是伟大的诗人rudyard kipling笔下所形容的“半恶魔、半孩童”的奇异人种。

正因为如此，我开始意识到我的那位美国室友一定在她的成长过程中，看到并且听过关于这个单一故事的不同版本，就如同之前一位曾经批判我的小说缺乏“真实的非洲感”的教授一样。话说我倒是甘愿承认我的小说有几处写的不好的地方，有几处败笔，但我很难想象我的小说既然会缺乏“真实的非洲感”。事实上，我甚至不知道真实的非洲感到底是个什么东西。那位教授跟我说我书中的人物都和他太相近了，都是受过教育的中产人物。我的人物会开车，他们没有受到饥饿的困扰。正因此，他们缺乏了真实的非洲感。

我在这里不得不指出，我本人也常常被单一的故事蒙蔽双眼。几年前，我从美国探访墨西哥，当时美国的政治气候比较紧张。关于移民的辩论一直在进行着。而在美国，“移民”和“墨西哥人”常常被当做同义词来使用。关于墨西哥人的故事是源源不绝，讲的都是欺诈医疗系统、偷渡边境、在边境被捕之类的事情。

我还记得当我到达瓜达拉哈拉的第一天，看着人们前往工作，在市集上吃着墨西哥卷、抽着烟、大笑着，我记得我刚看到这一切时是何等的惊讶，但随后我的心中便充满了羞耻感。我意识到我当时完全被沉浸在媒体上关于墨西哥人的报道，以致于他们在我的脑中幻化成一个单一的个体---卑贱的移民。我完全相信了关于墨西哥人的单一故事，对此我感到无比的羞愧。这就是创造单一故事的过程，将一群人一遍又一遍地呈现为一个事物，并且只是一个事物，时间久了，他们就变成了那个事物。

而说到单一的故事，就自然而然地要讲到权力这个问题。每当我想到这个世界的权力结构的时候，我都会想起一个伊傅语中的单词，叫做“nkali”,它是一个名词，可以在大意上被翻译成”比另一个人强大。”就如同我们的经济和政治界一样，我们所讲的故事也是建立在它的原则上的。这些故事是怎样被讲述的、由谁来讲述、何时被讲述、有多少故事被讲述，这一切都取决于权力。篇五：ted演讲的十条黄金法则

如何登上ted演讲舞台——ted演讲的十条黄金法则、导读：如果你喜欢ted，甚至梦想，有一天自己也站在ted的舞台上做一个演讲，本文将介绍著名的ted演讲十个黄金法则，请往下看吧~~ 如果你喜欢ted，观看了ted的演讲视频，感到激动不已，甚至梦想，有一天自己也站在ted的舞台上做一个演讲，分享你的精彩创意想法和精彩故事！这太好了，这种热情的向往，是通往ted讲台之路的最大动力。除此之外还需要了解一些演讲技巧。these 10 tips are the heart of a great ted talk.1.dream big.strive to create the best talk you have ever given.reveal something never seen before.do something the audience will remember forever.share an idea that could change the world.给自己一个高目标，要把这个演讲做成你最成功的一个演讲。你可以向观众展示某些未曾公开展示的东西或做出能够让观众留下深刻印象的事情。分享一个有可能改变世界的想法。2.show us the real you.share your passions, your dreams...and also your fears.be vulnerable.speak of failure as well as success.展示一个最真实的你。分享你的激情、梦想，乃至恐惧。不要把自己当成是完美无缺的，你可以讲成功的故事，也可以讲失败的故事。4.connect with peoples emotions.make us laugh!make us cry!要说得动人一点，使得观众听了会发出由衷的微笑或感动到禁不住要哭泣。5.dont flaunt your ego.dont boast.it’s the surest way to switch everyone off.不要自吹自擂。那样做的话，最容易吓跑观众。

台上不能推销！除非事先有通知，否则不可谈论你的公司或组织。更别指望在台上展示你的产品。

要给其他演讲嘉宾一定的回应，可以赞可以弹。意见之对立才会擦出思维之火火嘛。激情的参与本身的力量就是这么强大的。8.if possible, dont read your talk.notes are fine.but if the choice is between reading or rambling, then read!除非万不得已，否则不要照着讲稿阅读。当然可以看自己写的小纸片。但假如不看讲稿你会表述得含糊不清的话，那还是看着稿子讲吧。9.you must end your talk on time.doing otherwise is to steal time from the people that follow you.we won’t allow it.必须在规定的时间内说完。因为超时就意味着剥夺了其他人的时间。这是不允许的。10.rehearse your talk in front of a trusted friend...for timing, for clarity, for impact.为了保证演讲准时、清晰、高质量，我们希望你提前跟朋友一起做试讲。关于ted ted于1984年由理查德·温曼和哈里·马克思共同创办，从1990年开始每年在美国加州的蒙特利举办一次，而如今，在世界的其他城市也会每半年举办一次。

它邀请世界上的思想领袖与实干家来分享他们最热衷从事的事业。“ted”由“科技”、“娱乐”以及“设计”三个英文单词首字母组成，这三个广泛的领域共同塑造着我们的未来。事实上，这场盛会涉及的领域还在不断扩展，展现着涉及几乎各个领域的各种见解。参加者们称它为 “超级大脑spa”和“四日游未来”。

大会观众往往是企业的ceo、科学家、创造者、慈善家等等，他们几乎和演讲嘉宾一样优秀。比尔·克林顿、比尔·盖茨、维基百科创始人吉米·威尔斯、dna结构的发现者詹姆斯·华森、google创办人、英国动物学家珍妮·古道尔、美国建筑大师弗兰克·盖里、歌手保罗·西蒙、维珍品牌创始人理查德·布兰森爵士、国际设计大师菲利普·斯达克以及u2乐队主唱bono都曾经担任过演讲嘉宾。

大凡有机会来到ted大会现场作演讲的均有非同寻常的经历，他们要么是某一领域的佼佼者，要么是某一新兴领域的开创人，要么是做出了某些足以给社会带来改观的创举。比如人类基因组研究领域的领军人物craig venter，“给每位孩子一百美元笔记本电脑”项目的创建人 nicholas negroponte，只身滑到北极的第一人 ben saunders，当代杰出的语言学家

steven pinker„„至于像 al gore 那样的明星就更是ted大会之常客了。每一个ted 演讲的时间通常都是18分钟以内，但是，由于演讲者对于自己所从事的事业有一种深深的热爱，他们的演讲也往往最能打动听者的心，并引起人们的思考与进一步探索。

第二篇：TED演讲稿

So I'm here to tell you that we have a problem with boys, and it's a serious problem with boys.Their culture isn't working in schools, and I'm going to share with you ways that we can think about overcoming that problem.First, I want to start by saying, this is a boy, and this is a girl, and this is probably stereotypically what you think of as a boy and a girl.If I essentialize gender for you today, then you can dismiss what I have to say.So I'm not going to do that.I'm not interested in doing that.This is a different kind of boy and a different kind of girl.So the point here is that not all boys exist within these rigid boundaries of what we think of as boys and girls, and not all girls exist within those rigid boundaries of what we think of as girls.But, in fact, most boys tend to be a certain way, and most girls tend to be a certain way.And the point is that, for boys, the way that they exist and the culture that they embrace isn't working well in schools now.1:08How do we know that? The Hundred Girls Project tells us some really nice statistics.For example, for every 100 girls that are suspended from school, there are 250 boys that are suspended from school.For every 100 girls who are expelled from school, there are 335 boys who are expelled from school.For every 100 girls in special education, there are 217 boys.For every 100 girls with a learning disability,there are 276 boys.For every 100 girls with an emotional disturbance diagnosed, we have 324 boys.And by the way, all of these numbers are significantly higher if you happen to be black, if you happen to be poor, if you happen to exist in an overcrowded school.And if you are a boy, you're four times as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD--Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.2:02Now there is another side to this.And it is important that we recognize that women still need help in school, that salaries are still significantly lower, even when controlled for job types, and that girls have continued to struggle in math and science for years.That's all true.Nothing about that prevents us from paying attention to the literacy needs of our boys between ages three and 13.And so we should.In fact, what we ought to do is take a page from their playbook, because the initiatives and programs that have been set in place for women in science and engineering and mathematics are fantastic.They've done a lot of good for girls in these situations, and we ought to be thinking about how we can make that happen for boys too in their younger years.2:50Even in their older years, what we find is that there's still a problem.When we look at the universities,60 percent of baccalaureate degrees are going to women now, which is

a significant shift.And in fact, university administrators are a little uncomfortable about the idea that we may be getting close to 70 percent female population in universities.This makes university administrators very nervous, because girls don't want to go to schools that don't have boys.And so we're starting to see the establishment of men centers and men studies to think about how do we engage men in their experiences in the university.If you talk to faculty, they may say, “Ugh.Yeah, well, they're playing video games, and they're gambling online all night long, and they're playing World of Warcraft, and that's affecting their academic achievement.” Guess what? Video games are not the cause.Video games are a symptom.They were turned off a long time before they got here.3:52So let's talk about why they got turned off when they were between the ages of three and 13.There are three reasons that I believe that boys are out of sync with the culture of schools today.The first is zero tolerance.A kindergarten teacher I know, her son donated all of his toys to her, and when he did, she had to go through and pull out all the little plastic guns.You can't have plastic knives and swords and axes and all that kind of thing in a kindergarten classroom.What is it that we're afraid that this young man is going to do with this gun? I mean, really.But here he stands as testament to the fact that you can't roughhouse on the playground today.Now I'm not advocating for bullies.I'm not suggesting that we need to be allowing guns and knives into school.But when we say that an Eagle Scout in a high school classroom who has a locked parked car in the parking lot and a penknife in it has to be suspended from school, I think we may have gone a little too far with zero tolerance.4:55Another way that zero tolerance lives itself out is in the writing of boys.In a lot of classrooms todayyou're not allowed to write about anything that's violent.You're not allowed to write about anything that has to do with video games--these topics are banned.Boy comes home from school, and he says, “I hate writing.” “Why do you hate writing, son? What's wrong with writing?” “Now I have to write what she tells me to write.” “Okay, what is she telling you to write?” “Poems.I have to write poems.And little moments in my life.I don't want to write that stuff.” “All right.Well, what do you want to write? What do you want to write about?” “I want to write about video games.I want to write about leveling-up.I want to write about this really interesting world.I want to write about a tornado that comes into our houseand blows all the windows out and ruins all the furniture and kills everybody.” “All right.Okay.” You tell a teacher that, and they'll ask you, in all seriousness, “Should we send this child to the psychologist?”And the answer is no, he's just a boy.He's just a little boy.It's not okay to write these kinds of things in classrooms today.6:00So that's the first reason: zero tolerance policies and the way they're lived out.The next reason that boys' cultures are out of sync with school cultures: there are fewer male teachers.Anybody who's over 15 doesn't know what this means, because in the last 10 years, the number of elementary school classroom teachers has been cut in half.We went from 14 percent to seven percent.That means that 93 percent of the teachers that our young men get in elementary classrooms are women.Now what's the problem with this? Women are great.Yep, absolutely.But male role models for boys that say it's all right to be smart--they've got dads, they've got pastors, they've got Cub Scout leaders, but ultimately, six hours a day, five days a week they're spending in a classroom, and most of those classrooms are not places where men exist.And so they say, I guess this really isn't a place for boys.This is a place for girls.And I'm not very good at this, so I guess I'd better go play video games or get into sports, or something like that, because I obviously don't belong here.Men don't belong here, that's pretty obvious.7:06So that may be a very direct way that we see it happen.But less directly, the lack of male presence in the culture--you've got a teachers' lounge, and they're having a conversation about Joey and Johnny who beat each other up on the playground.“What are we going to do with these boys?” The answer to that question changes depending on who's sitting around that table.Are there men around that table?Are there moms who've raised boys around that table? You'll see, the conversation changes depending upon who's sitting around the table.7:36Third reason that boys are out of sync with school today: kindergarten is the old second grade, folks.We have a serious compression of the curriculum happening out there.When you're three, you better be able to write your name legibly, or else we'll consider it a developmental delay.By the time you're in first grade, you should be able to read paragraphs of text with maybe a picture, maybe not, in a book of maybe 25 to 30 pages.If you don't, we're probably going to be putting you into a Title 1 special reading program.And if you ask Title 1 teachers, they'll tell you they've got about four or five boys for every girl that's in their program, in the elementary grades.8:11The reason that this is a problem is because the message that boys are getting is “you need to do what the teacher asks you to do all the time.” The teacher's salary depends on “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top” and accountability and testing and all of this.So she has to figure out a way to get all these boys through this curriculum--and girls.This compressed curriculum is bad for all active kids.And what happens is, she says, “Please, sit down, be quiet, do what you're told, follow the rules,manage your time, focus, be a girl.” That's what she tells them.Indirectly, that's what she tells them.And so this is a very serious problem.Where is it coming from? It's coming from us.(Laughter)We want our babies to read when they are six months old.Have you seen the ads? We want to live in Lake Wobegon where every child is above average, but what this does to our children is really not healthy.It's not developmentally appropriate, and it's particularly bad for boys.9:24So what do we do? We need to meet them where they are.We need to put ourselves into boy culture.We need to change the mindset of acceptance in boys in elementary schools.More specifically, we can do some very specific things.We can design better games.Most of the educational games that are out there today are really flashcards.They're glorified drill and practice.They don't have the depth, the rich narrative that really engaging video games have, that the boys are really interested in.So we need to design better games.We need to talk to teachers and parents and school board members and politicians.We need to make sure that people see that we need more men in the classroom.We need to look carefully at our zero tolerance policies.Do they make sense? We need to think about how to uncompress this curriculum if we can, trying to bring boys back into a space that is comfortable for them.All of those conversations need to be happening.10:20There are some great examples out there of schools--the New York Times just talked about a school recently.A game designer from the New School put together a wonderful video gaming school.But it only treats a few kids, and so this isn't very scalable.We have to change the culture and the feelingsthat politicians and school board members and parents have about the way we accept and what we accept in our schools today.We need to find more money for game design.Because good games, really good games, cost money, and World of Warcraft has quite a budget.Most of the educational games do not.Where we started: my colleagues--Mike Petner, Shawn Vashaw, myself--we started by trying to look at the teachers' attitudes and find out how do they really feel about gaming, what do they say about it.And we discovered that they talk about the kids in their school, who talk about gaming, in pretty demeaning ways.They say, “Oh, yeah.They're always talking about that stuff.They're talking about their little action figures and their little achievements or merit badges, or whatever it is that they get.And they're always talking about this stuff.” And they say these things as if it's okay.But if it were your culture, think of how that might feel.It's very uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of that kind of language.They're nervous about anything that has anything to do with violence because of the zero tolerance policies.They are sure that parents and administrators will never accept anything.11:45So we really need to think about looking at teacher attitudes and finding ways to change the attitudes so that teachers are much more open and accepting of boy cultures in their classrooms.Because, ultimately, if we don't, then we're going to have boys who leave elementary school saying, “Well I guess that was just a place for girls.It wasn't for me.So I've got to do gaming, or I've got to do sports.” If we change these things, if we pay attention to these things, and we re-engage boys in their learning, they will leave the elementary schools saying, “I'm smart.”

第三篇：TED演讲稿

TED精彩演讲：坠机让我学到的三件事

Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft.Imagine a plane full of smoke.Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack, clack, clack，clack, clack.It sounds scary.想像一个大爆炸，当你在三千多英尺的高空；想像机舱内布满黑烟，想像引擎发出喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦的声响，听起来很可怕。

Well I had a unique seat that day.I was sitting in 1D.I was the only one who can talk to the flight attendants.So I looked at them right away, and they said, “No problem.We probably hit some birds.” The pilot had already turned the plane around, and we weren't that far.You could see Manhattan.那天我的位置很特別，我坐在1D，我是唯一可以和空服员说话的人，于是我立刻看着他们，他们说，“没问题，我们可能撞上鸟了。” 机长已经把机头转向，我们离目的地很近，已经可以看到曼哈顿了。

Two minutes later, 3 things happened at the same time.The pilot lines up the plane with the Hudson River.That's usually not the route.He turns off the engines.Now imagine being in a plane with no sound.And then he says 3 words-the most unemotional 3 words I've ever heard.He says, “Brace for impact.” 两分钟以后，三件事情同时发生：机长把飞机对齐哈德逊河，一般的航道可不是这样。他关上引擎。想像坐在一架没有声音的飞机上。然后他说了几个字，我听过最不带情绪的几个字，他说，“即将迫降，小心冲击。”

I didn't have to talk to the flight attendant anymore.I could see in her eyes, it was terror.Life was over.我不用再问空服员什么了。我可以在她眼神里看到恐惧，人生结束了。

Now I want to share with you 3 things I learned about myself that day.现在我想和你们分享那天我所学到的三件事。

I leant that it all changes in an instant.We have this bucket list, we have these things we want to do in life, and I thought about all the people I wanted to reach out to that I didn't, all the fences I wanted to mend, all the experiences I wanted to have and I never did.As I thought about that later on, I came up with a saying, which is, “collect bad wines”.Because if the wine is ready and the person is there, I'm opening it.I no longer want to postpone anything in life.And that urgency, that purpose, has really changed my life.在那一瞬间内，一切都改变了。我们的人生目标清单，那些我们想做的事，所有那些我想联络却没有联络的人，那些我想修补的围墙，人际关系，所有我想经历却没有经历的事。之后我回想那些事，我想到一句话，那就是，“我收藏的酒都很差。” 因为如果酒已成熟，分享对象也有，我早就把把酒打开了。我不想再把生命中的任何事延后，这种紧迫感、目标性改变了我的生命。

The second thing I learnt that dayI thought about, wow, I really feel one real regret, I've lived a good life.In my own humanity and mistaked, I've tired to get better at everything I tried.But in my humanity, I also allow my ego to get in.And I regretted the time I wasted on things that did not matter with people that matter.And I thought about my relationship with my wife, my friends, with people.And after, as I reflected on that, I decided to eliminate negative energy from my life.It's not perfect, but it's a lot better.I've not had a fight with my wife in 2 years.It feels great.I no longer try to be right;I choose to be happy.那天我学到的第二件事是，正当我们通过乔治华盛顿大桥，那也没过多久，我想，哇，我有一件真正后悔的事。虽然我有人性缺点，也犯了些错，但我生活得其实不错。我试着把每件事做得更好。但因为人性，我难免有些自我中心，我后悔竟然花了许多时间，和生命中重要的人讨论那些不重要的事。我想到我和妻子、朋友及人们的关系，之后，回想这件事时，我决定除掉我人生中的负面情绪。还没完全做到，但确实好多了。过去两年我从未和妻子吵架，感觉很好，我不再尝试争论对错，我选择快乐。

The third thing I learnedfirst-grade, not much artistic talent...yet.And I 'm balling, I'm crying, like a little kid.And it made all the sense in the world to me.I realized at that point by connecting those two dots, that the only thing that matters in my life is being a great dad.Above all, above all, the only goal I have in life is to be a good dad.一个月后，我参加女儿的表演，她一年级，没什么艺术天份，就算如此。我泪流满面，像个孩子，这让我的世界重新有了意义。当当时我意识到，将这两件事连接起来，其实我生命中唯一重要的事，就是成为一个好父亲，比任何事都重要，比任何事都重要，我人生中唯一的目标就是做个好父亲。

I was given the gift of a miracle, of not dying that day.I was given another gift, which was to be able to see into the future and come back and live differently.那天我经历了一个奇迹，我活下來了。我还得到另一个启示，像是看见自己的未来再回來，改变自己的人生。

I challenge you guys that are flying today, imagine the same thing happens on your planebut imagine, and how would you change? What would you get done that you're waiting to get done because you think you'll be here forever? How would you change your relationtships and the negative energy in them? And more than anything, are you being the best parent you can? 我鼓励今天要坐飞机的各位，想像如果你坐的飞机出了同样的事，最好不要－但想像一下，你会如何改变？有什么是你想做却没做的，因为你觉得你有其它机会做它？你会如何改变你的人际关系，不再如此负面？最重要的是，你是否尽力成为一个好父母？ Thank you.

第四篇：TED演讲稿

TED演讲-论生物多样性 爱德华·威尔逊

生物多样性之感 潘俞宏

I was appreciated by Edward Wilson’s on biological persity.He introduce the biological persity and wish we could build up the Encyclopedia of Life to preserve lift.That’s also my wish.We all know that many species disappear every years and Human-forced climate change alone again, if unabated could eliminate a quarter of surviving species during the next five decades.In normal, one specie would turn into a different form or disappear on the earth finally, but it may take a long time.However it become faster because of the environment pollution.What I want to say is that biological persity is a valuable wealth of all human beings and provide a good environment for the survival of mankind.It is the foundation of human society's survival and development.At the same time, people rely on the ecological system to purify air, water, etc.All nature Creatures are interdependent and mutually restricted.The vast of one specie indicates that many species are about to die, but we could do nothing.Now it’s time for us to do something, not only the Encyclopedia of Life, just all what we can do.To search for life, to understand it and finally, above all, to preserve it.

第五篇：ted演讲稿

Brian Cox: CERN's supercollider This is the Large Hadron Collider.It's 27 kilometers in circumference.It's the biggest scientific experiment ever attempted.Over 10,000 physicists and engineers from 85 countries around the world have come together over several decades to build this machine.What we do is we accelerate protons--so, hydrogen nuclei--around 99.999999 percent the speed of light.Right? At that speed, they go around that 27 kilometers 11,000 times a second.And we collide them with another beam of protons going in the opposite direction.We collide them inside giant detectors.They're essentially digital cameras.And this is the one that I work on, ATLAS.You get some sense of the size--you can just see these EU standard-size people underneath.(Laughter)You get some sense of the size: 44 meters wide, 22 meters in diameter, 7,000 tons.And we re-create the conditions that were present less than a billionth of a second after the universe began up to 600 million times a second inside that detector--immense numbers.And if you see those metal bits there--those are huge magnets that bend electrically charged particles, so it can measure how fast they're traveling.This is a picture about a year ago.Those magnets are in there.And, again, a EU standard-size, real person, so you get some sense of the scale.And it's in there that those mini-Big Bangs will be created, sometime in the summer this year.And actually, this morning, I got an email saying that we've just finished, today, building the last piece of ATLAS.So as of today, it's finished.I'd like to say that I planned that for TED, but I didn't.So it's been completed as of today.(Applause)Yeah, it's a wonderful achievement.So, you might be asking, “Why? Why create the conditions that were present less than a billionth of a second after the universe began?” Well, particle physicists are nothing if not ambitious.And the aim of particle physics is to understand what everything's made of, and how everything sticks together.And by everything I mean, of course, me and you, the Earth, the Sun, the 100 billion suns in our galaxy and the 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.Absolutely everything.Now you might say, “Well, OK, but why not just look at it? You know? If you want to know what I'm made of, let's look at me.” Well, we found that as you look back in time, the universe gets hotter and hotter, denser and denser, and simpler and simpler.Now, there's no real reason I'm aware of for that, but that seems to be the case.So, way back in the early times of the universe, we believe it was very simple and understandable.All this complexity, all the way to these wonderful things--human brains--are a property of an old and cold and complicated universe.Back at the start, in the first billionth of a second, we believe, or we've observed, it was very simple.It's almost like...imagine a snowflake in your hand, and you look at it, and it's an incredibly complicated, beautiful object.But as you heat it up, it'll melt into a pool of water, and you would be able to see that, actually, it was just made of H20, water.So it's in that same sense that we look back in time to understand what the universe is made of.And, as of today, it's made of these things.Just 12 particles of matter, stuck together by four forces of nature.The quarks, these pink things, are the things that make up protons and neutrons that make up the atomic nuclei in your body.The electron--the thing that goes around the atomic nucleus--held around in orbit, by the way, by the electromagnetic force that's carried by this thing, the photon.The quarks are stuck together by other things called gluons.And these guys, here, they're the weak nuclear force, probably the least familiar.But, without it, the sun wouldn't shine.And when the sun shines, you get copious quantities of these things, called neutrinos, pouring out.Actually, if you just look at your thumbnail--about a square centimeter--there are something like 60 billion neutrinos per second from the sun, passing through every square centimeter of your body.But you don't feel them, because the weak force is correctly named--very short range and very weak, so they just fly through you.And these particles have been discovered over the last century, pretty much.The first one, the electron, was discovered in 1897, and the last one, this thing called the tau neutrino, in the year 2000.Actually just--I was going to say, just up the road in Chicago.I know it's a big country, America, isn't it? Just up the road.Relative to the universe, it's just up the road.(Laughter)So, this thing was discovered in the year 2000, so it's a relatively recent picture.One of the wonderful things, actually, I find, is that we've discovered any of them, when you realize how tiny they are.You know, they're a step in size from the entire observable universe.So, 100 billion galaxies, 13.7 billion light years away--a step in size from that to Monterey, actually, is about the same as from Monterey to these things.Absolutely, exquisitely minute, and yet we've discovered pretty much the full set.So, one of my most illustrious forebears at Manchester University, Ernest Rutherford, discoverer of the atomic nucleus, once said, “All science is either physics or stamp collecting.” Now, I don't think he meant to insult the rest of science, although he was from New Zealand, so it's possible.(Laughter)But what he meant was that what we've done, really, is stamp collect there.OK, we've discovered the particles, but unless you understand the underlying reason for that pattern--you know, why it's built the way it is--really you've done stamp collecting.You haven't done science.Fortunately, we have probably one of the greatest scientific achievements of the twentieth century that underpins that pattern.It's the Newton's laws, if you want, of particle physics.It's called the standard model--beautifully simple mathematical equation.You could stick it on the front of a T-shirt, which is always the sign of elegance.This is it.(Laughter)I've been a little disingenuous, because I've expanded it out in all its gory detail.This equation, though, allows you to calculate everything--other than gravity--that happens in the universe.So, you want to know why the sky is blue, why atomic nuclei stick together--in principle, you've got a big enough computer--why DNA is the shape it is.In principle, you should be able to calculate it from that equation.But there's a problem.Can anyone see what it is? A bottle of champagne for anyone that tells me.I'll make it easier, actually, by blowing one of the lines up.Basically, each of these terms refers to some of the particles.So those Ws there refer to the Ws, and how they stick together.These carriers of the weak force, the Zs, the same.But there's an extra symbol in this equation: H.Right, H.H stands for Higgs particle.Higgs particles have not been discovered.But they're necessary: they're necessary to make that mathematics work.So all the exquisitely detailed calculations we can do with that wonderful equation wouldn't be possible without an extra bit.So it's a prediction: a prediction of a new particle.What does it do? Well, we had a long time to come up with good analogies.And back in the 1980s, when we wanted the money for the LHC from the U.K.government, Margaret Thatcher, at the time, said, “If you guys can explain, in language a politician can understand, what the hell it is that you're doing, you can have the money.I want to know what this Higgs particle does.” And we came up with this analogy, and it seemed to work.Well, what the Higgs does is, it gives mass to the fundamental particles.And the picture is that the whole universe--and that doesn't mean just space, it means me as well, and inside you--the whole universe is full of something called a Higgs field.Higgs particles, if you will.The analogy is that these people in a room are the Higgs particles.Now when a particle moves through the universe, it can interact with these Higgs particles.But imagine someone who's not very popular moves through the room.Then everyone ignores them.They can just pass through the room very quickly, essentially at the speed of light.They're massless.And imagine someone incredibly important and popular and intelligent walks into the room.They're surrounded by people, and their passage through the room is impeded.It's almost like they get heavy.They get massive.And that's exactly the way the Higgs mechanism works.The picture is that the electrons and the quarks in your body and in the universe that we see around us are heavy, in a sense, and massive, because they're surrounded by Higgs particles.They're interacting with the Higgs field.If that picture's true, then we have to discover those Higgs particles at the LHC.If it's not true--because it's quite a convoluted mechanism, although it's the simplest we've been able to think of--then whatever does the job of the Higgs particles we know have to turn up at the LHC.So, that's one of the prime reasons we built this giant machine.I'm glad you recognize Margaret Thatcher.Actually, I thought about making it more culturally relevant, but--(Laughter)anyway.So that's one thing.That's essentially a guarantee of what the LHC will find.There are many other things.You've heard many of the big problems in particle physics.One of them you heard about: dark matter, dark energy.There's another issue, which is that the forces in nature--it's quite beautiful, actually--seem, as you go back in time, they seem to change in strength.Well, they do change in strength.So, the electromagnetic force, the force that holds us together, gets stronger as you go to higher temperatures.The strong force, the strong nuclear force, which sticks nuclei together, gets weaker.And what you see is the standard model--you can calculate how these change--is the forces, the three forces, other than gravity, almost seem to come together at one point.It's almost as if there was one beautiful kind of super-force, back at the beginning of time.But they just miss.Now there's a theory called super-symmetry, which doubles the number of particles in the standard model, which, at first sight, doesn't sound like a simplification.But actually, with this theory, we find that the forces of nature do seem to unify together, back at the Big Bang--absolutely beautiful prophecy.The model wasn't built to do that, but it seems to do it.Also, those super-symmetric particles are very strong candidates for the dark matter.So a very compelling theory that's really mainstream physics.And if I was to put money on it, I would put money on--in a very unscientific way--that that these things would also crop up at the LHC.Many other things that the LHC could discover.But in the last few minutes, I just want to give you a different perspective of what I think--what particle physics really means to me--particle physics and cosmology.And that's that I think it's given us a wonderful narrative--almost a creation story, if you'd like--about the universe, from modern science over the last few decades.And I'd say that it deserves, in the spirit of Wade Davis' talk, to be at least put up there with these wonderful creation stories of the peoples of the high Andes and the frozen north.This is a creation story, I think, equally as wonderful.The story goes like this: we know that the universe began 13.7 billion years ago, in an immensely hot, dense state, much smaller than a single atom.It began to expand about a million, billion, billion, billion billionth of a second--I think I got that right--after the Big Bang.Gravity separated away from the other forces.The universe then underwent an exponential expansion called inflation.In about the first billionth of a second or so, the Higgs field kicked in, and the quarks and the gluons and the electrons that make us up got mass.The universe continued to expand and cool.After about a few minutes, there was hydrogen and helium in the universe.That's all.The universe was about 75 percent hydrogen, 25 percent helium.It still is today.It continued to expand about 300 million years.Then light began to travel through the universe.It was big enough to be transparent to light, and that's what we see in the cosmic microwave background that George Smoot described as looking at the face of God.After about 400 million years, the first stars formed, and that hydrogen, that helium, then began to cook into the heavier elements.So the elements of life--carbon, and oxygen and iron, all the elements that we need to make us up--were cooked in those first generations of stars, which then ran out of fuel, exploded, threw those elements back into the universe.They then re-collapsed into another generation of stars and planets.And on some of those planets, the oxygen, which had been created in that first generation of stars, could fuse with hydrogen to form water, liquid water on the surface.On at least one, and maybe only one of those planets, primitive life evolved, which evolved over millions of years into things that walked upright and left footprints about three and a half million years ago in the mud flats of Tanzania, and eventually left a footprint on another world.And built this civilization, this wonderful picture, that turned the darkness into light, and you can see the civilization from space.As one of my great heroes, Carl Sagan, said, these are the things--and actually, not only these, but I was looking around--these are the things, like Saturn V rockets, and Sputnik, and DNA, and literature and science--these are the things that hydrogen atoms do when given 13.7 billion years.Absolutely remarkable.And, the laws of physics.Right? So, the right laws of physics--they're beautifully balanced.If the weak force had been a little bit different, then carbon and oxygen wouldn't be stable inside the hearts of stars, and there would be none of that in the universe.And I think that's a wonderful and significant story.50 years ago, I couldn't have told that story, because we didn't know it.It makes me really feel that that civilization--which, as I say, if you believe the scientific creation story, has emerged purely as a result of the laws of physics, and a few hydrogen atoms--then I think, to me anyway, it makes me feel incredibly valuable.So that's the LHC.The LHC is certainly, when it turns on in summer, going to write the next chapter of that book.And I'm certainly looking forward with immense excitement to it being turned on.Thanks.(Applause)