名校励志英语演讲 第20期:失败的额外收益和想象力的重要性

[00:01.04]One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, 想象力使我随后写书有了很多的想法， [00:05.18]though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. 但对我印象最深远的经历发生在写《哈利·波特》之前。 [00:09.24]This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. 这种影响源于我早期的工作经历。 [00:14.08]Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, 在刚二十几岁的时候，为了付房租，我在伦敦大赦国际总部的调查部门工作， [00:17.37]I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London. 但我可以在午餐时间偷偷溜出去写小说。 [00:27.56]There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men, 在那儿，我在狭小的办公室里看着从集权主义政体偷运出来的信件。写这些信件的人， [00:35.25]and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. 为了让外界知道他们那里所发生的事情，冒着被监禁的危险，用潦草的字迹匆匆写下他们的遭遇，然后再将信件寄给我们。 [00:40.57]I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. 我看过那些由绝望的家人和朋友寄来的无迹可寻的人的照片。 [00:48.36]I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. 我读过被严刑拷打的受害者的证词并看了他们遍体鳞伤的图片。 [00:54.05]I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes. 我打开过目击者的手记，上面描述了对于绑架案和强奸案的审判和处决。 [01:03.48]Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, 我的很多同事以前都是政治犯，因为他们敢于批判政府， [01:09.36]or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government. 有自己的想法，所以被赶出家门，或被放逐海外。 [01:15.34]Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, 来我们办公室的的访客，包括那些前来提供信息的， [01:19.58]or to try and find out what had happened to those who they had left behind. 或想方设法知道那些留下的同志发生了什么事的人。 [01:25.17]I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, 我永远不会忘记那个非籍酷刑受害者， [01:32.05]who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. 一个当时还没我大的年轻男子，他因在故乡的经历而精神错乱。 [01:37.21]He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. 在摄像机前讲述被残暴地摧残的经历时，他的身体止不住地颤抖。

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