正在进行安全检测...
发布时间：1714728394 来源：文档文库
小
中
大
字号：
TED英语演讲稿：不幸也许是个机会
第 1 页 共 7 页
TED英语演讲稿：不幸也许是个机会
简介：残奥会短跑冠军Aimee Mullins天生没有腓骨，从小就要学习靠义肢走路和奔跑。如今，她不仅是短跑选手、演员、模特，还是一位稳健的演讲者。她不喜欢字典中 disabled这个词，因为负面词汇足以毁掉一个人。但是，坦然面对不幸，你会发现等待你的是更多的机会。
Id like to share with you a discovery that I made a few months ago while writing an article for Italian Wired. I always keep my thesaurus handy whenever Im writing anything, but Id already finished editing the piece, and I realized that I had never once in my life looked up the word disabled to see what Id find.
Let me read you the entry. Disabled, adjective: crippled, helpless, useless, wrecked, stalled, maimed, wounded, mangled, lame, mutilated, run-down, worn-out, weakened, impotent, castrated, paralyzed, handicapped, senile, decrepit, laid-up, done-up, done-for, done-in cracked-up, counted-out; see also hurt, useless and weak. Antonyms, healthy, strong, capable. I was reading this list out loud to a friend and at first was laughing, it was so ludicrous, but Id just gotten past mangled, and my voice broke, and I had to stop and collect myself from the emotional shock and impact that the assault from these words unleashed.
You know, of course, this is my raggedy old thesaurus so Im thinking this must be an ancient print date, right? But, in fact, the print date was the early 1980s, when I would have been starting primary school and forming an understanding of myself outside the family unit and as related to the other kids and the world around me. And, needless to say, thank God I wasnt using a thesaurus back then. I mean, from this entry, it would seem that I was born into a world that perceived someone like me to have nothing positive whatsoever going for them, when in fact, today Im celebrated for the opportunities and adventures my life has procured.
So, I immediately went to look up the 2021 online edition, expecting to find a revision worth noting. Heres the updated version of this entry. Unfortunately, its not much better. I find the last two words under Near Antonyms, particularly unsettling: 编号： 2021年3月10日
页码：第1页 共7页
TED英语演讲稿：不幸也许是个机会
whole and wholesome.
第 2 页 共 7 页
So, its not just about the words. Its what we believe about people when we name them with these words. Its about the values behind the words, and how we construct those values. Our language affects our thinking and how we view the world and how we view other people. In fact, many ancient societies, including the Greeks and the Romans, believed that to utter a curse verbally was so powerful, because to say the thing out loud brought it into existence. So, what reality do we want to call into existence: a person who is limited, or a person whos empowered? By casually doing something as simple as naming a person, a child, we might be putting lids and casting shadows on their power. Wouldnt we want to open doors for them instead? One such person who opened doors for me was my childhood doctor at the A.I. duPont Institute in Wilmington, Delaware. His name was Dr. Pizzutillo, an Italian American, whose name, apparently, was too difficult for most Americans to pronounce, so he went by Dr. P. And Dr. P always wore really colorful bow ties and had the very perfect disposition to work with children.
I loved almost everything about my time spent at this hospital, with the exception of my physical therapy sessions. I had to do what seemed like innumerable repetitions of exercises with these thick, elastic bands -- different colors, you know -- to help build up my leg muscles, and I hated these bands more than anything -- I hated them, had names 