TED英语演讲稿.docx

1、TED英语演讲稿01. Remember to say thank youHi. Im here to talk to you about the importance of praise, admiration and thank you, and having it be specific and genuine.And the way I got interested in this was, I noticed in myself, when I was growing up, and until about a few years ago, that I would want to

2、say thank you to someone, I would want to praise them, I would want to take in their praise of me and Id just stop it. And I asked myself, why? I felt shy, I felt embarrassed. And then my question became, am I the only one who does this? So, I decided to investigate.Im fortunate enough to work in th

3、e rehab facility, so I get to see people who are facing life and death with addiction. And sometimes it comes down to something as simple as, their core wound is their father died without ever saying hes proud of them. But then, they hear from all the family and friends that the father told everybod

4、y else that he was proud of him, but he never told the son. Its because he didnt know that his son needed to hear it.So my question is, why dont we ask for the things that we need? I know a gentleman, married for 25 years, whos longing to hear his wife say, Thank you for being the breadwinner, so I

5、can stay home with the kids, but wont ask. I know a woman whos good at this. She, once a week, meets with her husband and says, Id really like you to thank me for all these things I did in the house and with the kids. And he goes, Oh, this is great, this is great. And praise really does have to be g

6、enuine, but she takes responsibility for that. And a friend of mine, April, who Ive had since kindergarten, she thanks her children for doing their chores. And she said, Why wouldnt I thank it, even though theyre supposed to do it?So, the question is, why was I blocking it? Why were other people blo

7、cking it? Why can I say, Ill take my steak medium rare, I need size six shoes, but I wont say, Would you praise me this way? And its because Im giving you critical data about me. Im telling you where Im insecure. Im telling you where I need your help. And Im treating you, my inner circle, like youre

8、 the enemy. Because what can you do with that data? You could neglect me. You could abuse it. Or you could actually meet my need.And I took my bike into the bike store- I love this - same bike, and theyd do something called truing the wheels. The guy said, You know, when you true the wheels, its goi

9、ng to make the bike so much better. I get the same bike back, and theyve taken all the little warps out of those same wheels Ive had for two and a half years, and my bike is like new. So, Im going to challenge all of you. I want you to true your wheels: be honest about the praise that you need to he

10、ar. What do you need to hear? Go home to your wife - go ask her, what does she need? Go home to your husband - what does he need? Go home and ask those questions, and then help the people around you.And its simple. And why should we care about this? We talk about world peace. How can we have world p

11、eace with different cultures, different languages? I think it starts household by household, under the same roof. So, lets make it right in our own backyard. And I want to thank all of you in the audience for being great husbands, great mothers, friends, daughters, sons. And maybe somebodys never sa

12、id that to you, but youve done a really, really good job. And thank you for being here, just showing up and changing the world with your ideas.02. The benefits of a bilingual brainHablas espaol? Parlez-vous franais? ni hui shuo zhong wen ma? If you answered “si”,”oui” or ”hui” and you are watching t

13、his in English, chances are you belong to the world bilingual and multilingual majority. And besides having an easier time traveling, or watching movies without subtitles, knowing two or more languages means that your brain may actually look and work differently than those of your monolingual friend

14、s. So what does it really mean to know a language?Language ability is typically measured in two active parts, speaking and writing, and two passive parts, listening and reading. While a balanced bilingual has near equal abilities across the board in two languages, most bilinguals around the world kn

15、ow and use their languages in vary proportions. And depending on their situation and how they acquired each language, they can be classified into three general types.For example, lets take Gabriella, whose family immigrates to the US from Peru when she was two-years old. As a compound bilingual, Gab

16、riella develops two linguistic codes simultaneously, with a single set of concepts, learning both English and Spanish as she begins to process the world around her. Her teenage brother, on the other hand, might be a coordinate bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school,

17、 while continuing to speak Spanish at home and with friends.Finally, Gabriellas parents are likely to be subordinate bilinguals who learned a secondary language by filtering it through their primary language.Because all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language regardless o

18、f accent and pronunciation, the difference may not be apparent to be a casual observer. But recent advances in imaging technology have given neurolinguists a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain.Its well known that the brains left hemisphere is more domin

19、ant and analytical in logical processes, while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones, though this is a matter of degree, not an absolute split.The fact that language involves both types of functions while lateralization develops gradually with age, has lead to the critical

20、 period hypothesis. According to this theory, children learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains let them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults, language is lateralized to one hemisphere, usually the left.If this is true, learning a la

21、nguage in childhood may give you a more holistic grasp of its social and emotional contexts. Conversely, recent research showed that people who learned a second language in adulthood exhibit less emotional bias and a more rational approach when confronting problems in the second language than their

22、native one.But regardless of when you acquire additional languages, being multilingual gives your brain some remarkable advantages. Some of these are even visible, such higher density of the gray matter that contains most of your brains neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when

23、 engaging a second language. The heightened workout a bilingual brain receives throughout its life can also help delay the onset of diseases, like Alzheimers and Dementia by as much as 5 years.The idea of major cognitive benefits to bilingualism may seem intuitive now, but it would have surprised ea

24、rlier experts. Before the 1960s, bilingualism was considered a handicap that slowed the childs development by forcing them to spend them too much energy distinguishing between languages, a view based largely on flawed studies.And while a more recent study did show that reaction times and errors incr

25、ease for some bilingual students in cross-language tests, it also showed that the effort and attention needed to switch between languages triggered more activity in, and potentially strengthened, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This is the part of brain that plays a large role in executive funct

26、ion, problem solving, switching between tasks, and focusing while filtering out irrelevant information.So, while bilingual may not necessarily make you smarter, it does make your brain more healthy, complex and actively engaged, and even if you didnt have the good fortune of learning a second langua

27、ge like a child, its never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from, ”Hello,” to “Hola”, ”Bonjour” or “ninhaos” because when it comes to our brains a little exercise can go a long way.03. Feats of memory anyone can doId like to invite you to close your eyes.Imagine yourself

28、standing outside the front door of your home. Id like you to notice the color of the door, the material that its made out of. Now visualize a pack of overweight nudists on bicycles.They are competing in a naked bicycle race, and they are headed straight for your front door. I need you to actually se

29、e this. They are pedaling really hard, theyre sweaty, theyre bouncing around a lot. And they crash straight into the front door of your home. Bicycles fly everywhere, wheels roll past you, spokes end up in awkward places. Step over the threshold of your door into your foyer, your hallway, whatevers

30、on the other side, and appreciate the quality of the light. The light is shining down on Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster is waving at you from his perch on top of a tan horse. Its a talking horse. You can practically feel his blue fur tickling your nose. You can smell the oatmeal raisin cookie that h

31、es about to shovel into his mouth. Walk past him. Walk past him into your living room. In your living room, in full imaginative broadband, picture Britney Spears. She is scantily clad, shes dancing on your coffee table, and shes singing Hit Me Baby One More Time. And then, follow me into your kitche

32、n. In your kitchen, the floor has been paved over with a yellow brick road, and out of your oven are coming towards you Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion from The Wizard of Oz, hand-in-hand, skipping straight towards you.Okay. Open your eyes.I want to tell you about a very bizarre contest that is held every spring in New York City. Its called the United States Memory Championship. And I had gone to cover this contest a few years back as a science journalist, expecting, I guess, that this was going to be like the Superbowl of savants. This w