第一篇：TED英語演講稿：墜機讓我學(xué)到的三件事[精選]

災(zāi)難到來時，我們會發(fā)現(xiàn)看似普通的日常生活是多么可貴。2009年1月15日，全美航空1549號班機迫降紐約哈德遜河，Ric Elias 就坐在第一排的位置。聽他分享在“人生最后一刻” 學(xué)到了什么。

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.想像一個大爆炸，當(dāng)你在三千多英尺的高空;想像機艙內(nèi)布滿黑煙，想像引擎發(fā)出喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦的聲響，聽起來很可怕。

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員說話的人，于是我立刻看著他們，他們說，“沒問題，我們可能撞上鳥了。” 機長已經(jīng)把機頭轉(zhuǎn)向，我們離目的地很近，已經(jīng)可以看到曼哈頓了。

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.”

兩分鐘以后，三件事情同時發(fā)生：機長把飛機對齊哈德遜河，一般的航道可不是這樣。他關(guān)上引擎。想像坐在一架沒有聲音的飛機上。然后他說了幾個字，我聽過最不帶情緒的幾個字，他說，“即將迫降，小心沖擊。”

I didn't have to talk to the flight attendant anymore.I could see in her eyes, it was terror.Life was over.我不用再問空服員什么了。我可以在她眼神里看到恐懼，人生結(jié)束了。

Now I want to share with you 3 things I learned about myself that day.現(xiàn)在我想和你們分享那天我所學(xué)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.在那一瞬間內(nèi)，一切都改變了。我們的人生目標(biāo)清單，那些我們想做的事，所有那些我想聯(lián)絡(luò)卻沒有聯(lián)絡(luò)的人，那些我想修補的圍墻，人際關(guān)系，所有我想經(jīng)歷卻沒有經(jīng)歷的事。之后我回想那些事，我想到一句話，那就是，“我收藏的酒都很差。” 因為如果酒已成熟，分享對象也有，我早就把把酒打開了。我不想再把生命中的任何事延后，這種緊迫感、目標(biāo)性改變了我的生命。

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.那天我學(xué)到的第二件事是，正當(dāng)我們通過喬治華盛頓大橋，那也沒過多久，我想，哇，我有一件真正后悔的事。雖然我有人性缺點，也犯了些錯，但我生活得其實不錯。我試著把每件事做得更好。但因為人性，我難免有些自我中心，我后悔竟然花了許多時間，和生命中重要的人討論那些不重要的事。我想到我和妻子、朋友及人們的關(guān)系，之后，回想這件事時，我決定除掉我人生中的負(fù)面情緒。還沒完全做到，但確實好多了。過去兩年我從未和妻子吵架，感覺很好，我不再嘗試爭論對錯，我選擇快樂。

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.

第二篇：TED演講 墜機讓我學(xué)到的三件事

墜機讓我學(xué)到的三件事

災(zāi)難到來時，我們會發(fā)現(xiàn)看似普通的日常生活是多么可貴。2009年1月15日，全美航空1549號班機迫降紐約哈德遜河，Ric Elias 就坐在第一排的位置。聽他分享在“人生最后一刻”學(xué)到了什么。

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。

想象一個大爆炸，當(dāng)你在三千多英尺的高空；想象機艙內(nèi)布滿黑煙，想象引擎發(fā)出喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦的聲響，聽起來很可怕。

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員說話的人，于是我立刻看著他們，他們說，“沒問題，我們可能撞上鳥了。”機長已經(jīng)把機頭轉(zhuǎn)向，我們離目的地很近，已經(jīng)可以看到曼哈頓了。

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.”

兩分鐘以后，三件事情同時發(fā)生：機長把飛機對齊哈德遜河，一般的航道可不是這樣。他關(guān)上引擎。想象坐在一架沒有聲音的飛機上。然后他說了幾個字，我聽過最不帶情緒的幾個字，他說，“即將迫降，小心沖擊。”

I didn't have to talk to the flight attendant anymore.I could see in her eyes, it was terror.Life was over。

我不用再問空服什么了。我可以在她眼神里看到恐懼，人生結(jié)束了。

Now I want to share with you 3 things I learned about myself that day。

現(xiàn)在我想和你們分享那天我所學(xué)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。

在那一瞬間內(nèi)，一切都改變了。我們的人生目標(biāo)清單，那些我們想做的事，所有那些我想聯(lián)絡(luò)卻沒有聯(lián)絡(luò)的人，那些我想修補的圍墻，人際關(guān)系，所有我想經(jīng)歷卻沒有經(jīng)歷的事。之后我回想那些事，我想到一句話，那就是，“我收藏的酒都很差。”因為如果酒已成熟，分享對象也有，我早就把把酒打開了。我不想再把生命中的任何事延后，這種緊迫感、目標(biāo)性改變了我的生命。

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 mistook, I've tried 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。

那天我學(xué)到的第二件事是，正當(dāng)我們通過喬治華盛頓大橋，那也沒過多久，我想，哇，我有一件真正后悔的事。雖然我有人性缺點，也犯了些錯，但我生活得其實不錯。我試著把每件事做得更好。但因為人性，我難免有些自我中心，我后悔竟然花了許多時間，和生命中重要的人討論那些不重要的事。我想到我和妻子、朋友及人們的關(guān)系，之后，回想這件事時，我決定除掉我人生中的負(fù)面情緒。還沒完全做到，但確實好多了。過去兩年我從未和妻子吵架，感覺很好，我不再嘗試爭論對錯，我選擇快樂。

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。

一個月后，我參加女兒的表演，她一年級，沒什么藝術(shù)天分，就算如此。我淚流滿面，像個孩子，這讓我的世界重新有了意義，當(dāng)時我意識到，將這兩件事連接起來，其實我生命中唯一重要的事，就是成為一個好父親，比任何事都重要，比任何事都重要，我人生中唯一的目標(biāo)就是做個好父親。

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。

那天我經(jīng)歷了一個奇跡，我活下來了。我還得到另一個啟示，像是看見自己的未來再回來，改變自己的人生。

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 relationships and the negative energy in them? And more than anything，are you being the best parent you can?

我鼓勵今天要坐飛機的各位，想象如果你坐的飛機出了同樣的事，最好不要－但想象一下，你會如何改變？有什么是你想做卻沒做的，因為你覺得你有其它機會做它？你會如何改變你的人際關(guān)系，不再如此負(fù)面？最重要的是，你是否盡力成為一個好父母？

Thank you.謝謝。

第三篇：TED演講：墜機讓我學(xué)到的三件事

TED演講：墜機讓我學(xué)到的三件事

這幾天發(fā)生的馬航失聯(lián)事件讓我們?yōu)槌丝桶踩珦?dān)憂揪心的同時也不禁感慨生命的無常，誰會知道，乘客上飛機前與家人的暫別居然是永別。我們要好好珍惜當(dāng)下，因為我們永遠(yuǎn)不知道下一秒會發(fā)生什么，就像信的歌‘死了都要愛’里唱的那樣，把每一天都當(dāng)成末日來相愛，我們也要把每天當(dāng)成是末日來生活，來對待身邊的人。離開時，要好好告別，像見最后一次；相見時，要心存感激，像第一次見面。人生無常，且行且珍惜！

災(zāi)難到來時，我們會發(fā)現(xiàn)看似普通的日常生活是多么可貴。2009年1月15日，全美航空1549號班機迫降紐約哈德遜河，Ric Elias 就坐在第一排的位置。聽他分享在“人生最后一刻” 學(xué)到了什么。

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.想像一個大爆炸，當(dāng)你在三千多英尺的高空；想像機艙內(nèi)布滿黑煙，想像引擎發(fā)出喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦的聲響，聽起來很可怕。

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員說話的人，于是我立刻看著他們，他們說，“沒問題，我們可能撞上鳥了。” 機長已經(jīng)把機頭轉(zhuǎn)向，我們離目的地很近，已經(jīng)可以看到曼哈頓了。

注釋：

1.flight attendant: 空中乘務(wù)員。attendant為服務(wù)員；侍從的意思。在托福聽力當(dāng)中有出現(xiàn)這個詞。

2.pilot: 飛行員pilot project: 試點項目

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.”

兩分鐘以后，三件事情同時發(fā)生：機長把飛機對齊哈德遜河，一般的航道可不是這樣。他關(guān)上引擎。想像坐在一架沒有聲音的飛機上。然后他說了幾個字，我聽過最不帶情緒的幾個字，他說，“即將迫降，小心沖擊。”

注釋：

1.Brace for impact: 即將迫降，小心沖擊 brace for 是準(zhǔn)備迎接困難的意思。

brace：v./n.支撐，支撐物。impact大家接觸較多的意思是影響，這里是沖擊力的意思。

I didn't have to talk to the flight attendant anymore.I could see in her eyes, it was terror.Life was over.我不用再問空服員什么了。我可以在她眼神里看到恐懼，人生結(jié)束了。

Now I want to share with you 3 things I learned about myself that day.現(xiàn)在我想和你們分享那天我所學(xué)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.在那一瞬間內(nèi)，一切都改變了。我們的人生目標(biāo)清單，那些我們想做的事，所有那些我想聯(lián)絡(luò)卻沒有聯(lián)絡(luò)的人，那些我想修補的圍墻，人際關(guān)系，所有我想經(jīng)歷卻沒有經(jīng)歷的事。之后我回想那些事，我想到一句話，那就是，“我收藏的酒都很差。” 因為如果酒已成熟，分享對象也有，我早就把把酒打開了。我不想再把生命中的任何事延后，這種緊迫感、目標(biāo)性改變了我的生命。

注釋：

1.bucket list: 遺愿清單 kick the bucket: 翹辮子。這個詞組其實是說人上吊的時候如

果想死的話是把下面的物體如桶踢掉，因此這個意思是翹辮子的意思。所以bucket list是從這個來的，表示遺愿清單。

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 mistake, I've tried 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

eliminatenegative 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.那天我學(xué)到的第二件事是，正當(dāng)我們通過喬治華盛頓大橋，那也沒過多久，我想，哇，我有一件真正后悔的事。雖然我有人性缺點，也犯了些錯，但我生活得其實不錯。我試著把每件事做得更好。但因為人性，我難免有些自我中心，我后悔竟然花了許多時間，和生命中重要的人討論那些不重要的事。我想到我和妻子、朋友及人們的關(guān)系，之后，回想這件事時，我決定除掉我人生中的負(fù)面情緒。還沒完全做到，但確實好多了。過去兩年我從未和妻子吵架，感覺很好，我不再嘗試爭論對錯，我選擇快樂。

注釋：

1.reflect on: 回想

2.eliminate: v.去除

3.negative energy: n.負(fù)面能量咱們中文經(jīng)常說的負(fù)能量就是這個說法

positive energy: 正面能量

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.一個月后，我參加女兒的表演，她一年級，沒什么藝術(shù)天份，就算如此。我淚流滿面，像個孩子，這讓我的世界重新有了意義。當(dāng)當(dāng)時我意識到，將這兩件事連接起來，其實我生命中唯一重要的事，就是成為一個好父親，比任何事都重要，比任何事都重要，我人生中唯一的目標(biāo)就是做個好父親。

注釋：

1.Ball: 球；舞會。在這里用成動詞，是哭的意思。

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.那天我經(jīng)歷了一個奇跡，我活下來了。我還得到另一個啟示，像是看見自己的未來再回來，改變自己的人生。

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 relationships and the negative energy in them? And more than anything are you being the best parent you can?

我鼓勵今天要坐飛機的各位，想像如果你坐的飛機出了同樣的事，最好不要－但想像一下，你會如何改變？有什么是你想做卻沒做的，因為你覺得你有其它機會做它？你會如何改變你的人際關(guān)系，不再如此負(fù)面？最重要的是，你是否盡力成為一個好父母？

Thank you.謝謝。

文章選自TED演講

環(huán)球教育北美考試院托福聽力老師黃清

教育學(xué)碩士，英語專業(yè)八級，相關(guān)英語考試都取得高分。第十四屆世界游泳錦標(biāo)賽曾為多名裁判與泳聯(lián)主席翻譯。多次擔(dān)任美國知名企業(yè)在中國的會議翻譯，隨同翻譯。多次教授知名企業(yè)比如柯達(dá)公司在華的美國高層漢語。

標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的美式發(fā)音，熱愛英語教學(xué)工作，親切有耐心，課堂輕松有趣，對托福真題做了深入的研究，總結(jié)出一套能在短時間內(nèi)幫助學(xué)生提分的技巧方法。

格言：授之以魚不如授之以漁.

第四篇：TED精彩演講：墜機讓我學(xué)到的三件事

TED精彩演講：墜機讓我學(xué)到的三件事

災(zāi)難到來時，我們會發(fā)現(xiàn)看似普通的日常生活是多么可貴。2009年1月15日，全美航空1549號班機迫降紐約哈德遜河，Ric Elias 就坐在第一排的位置。聽他分享在“人生最后一刻” 學(xué)到了什么。

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.想像一個大爆炸，當(dāng)你在三千多英尺的高空；想像機艙內(nèi)布滿黑煙，想像引擎發(fā)出喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦的聲響，聽起來很可怕。

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員說話的人，于是我立刻看著他們，他們說，“沒問題，我們可能撞上鳥了。” 機長已經(jīng)把機頭轉(zhuǎn)向，我們離目的地很近，已經(jīng)可以看到曼哈頓了。

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.” 兩分鐘以后，三件事情同時發(fā)生：機長把飛機對齊哈德遜河，一般的航道可不是這樣。他關(guān)上引擎。想像坐在一架沒有聲音的飛機上。然后他說了幾個字，我聽過最不帶情緒的幾個字，他說，“即將迫降，小心沖擊。”

I didn't have to talk to the flight attendant anymore.I could see in her eyes, it was terror.Life was over.我不用再問空服員什么了。我可以在她眼神里看到恐懼，人生結(jié)束了。

Now I want to share with you 3 things I learned about myself that day.現(xiàn)在我想和你們分享那天我所學(xué)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.在那一瞬間內(nèi)，一切都改變了。我們的人生目標(biāo)清單，那些我們想做的事，所有那些我想聯(lián)絡(luò)卻沒有聯(lián)絡(luò)的人，那些我想修補的圍墻，人際關(guān)系，所有我想經(jīng)歷卻沒有經(jīng)歷的事。之后我回想那些事，我想到一句話，那就是，“我收藏的酒都很差。” 因為如果酒已成熟，分享對象也有，我早就把把酒打開了。我不想再把生命中的任何事延后，這種緊迫感、目標(biāo)性改變了我的生命。

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.那天我學(xué)到的第二件事是，正當(dāng)我們通過喬治華盛頓大橋，那也沒過多久，我想，哇，我有一件真正后悔的事。雖然我有人性缺點，也犯了些錯，但我生活得其實不錯。我試著把每件事做得更好。但因為人性，我難免有些自我中心，我后悔竟然花了許多時間，和生命中重要的人討論那些不重要的事。我想到我和妻子、朋友及人們的關(guān)系，之后，回想這件事時，我決定除掉我人生中的負(fù)面情緒。還沒完全做到，但確實好多了。過去兩年我從未和妻子吵架，感覺很好，我不再嘗試爭論對錯，我選擇快樂。

The third thing I learnedfirst-grade, not much artistc 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.一個月后，我參加女兒的表演，她一年級，沒什么藝術(shù)天份，就算如此。我淚流滿面，像個孩子，這讓我的世界重新有了意義。當(dāng)當(dāng)時我意識到，將這兩件事連接起來，其實我生命中唯一重要的事，就是成為一個好父親，比任何事都重要，比任何事都重要，我人生中唯一的目標(biāo)就是做個好父親。

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.那天我經(jīng)歷了一個奇跡，我活下來了。我還得到另一個啟示，像是看見自己的未來再回來，改變自己的人生。

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? 我鼓勵今天要坐飛機的各位，想像如果你坐的飛機出了同樣的事，最好不要－但想像一下，你會如何改變？有什么是你想做卻沒做的，因為你覺得你有其它機會做它？你會如何改變你的人際關(guān)系，不再如此負(fù)面？最重要的是，你是否盡力成為一個好父母？ Thank you.謝謝。

第五篇：TED英語演講稿

01.Remember to say thank you

Hi.I'm 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 say thank you to someone, I would want to praise them, I would want to take in their praise of me and I'd 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.I'm fortunate enough to work in the 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 he's proud of them.But then, they hear from all the family and friends that the father told everybody else that he was proud of him, but he never told the son.It's because he didn't know that his son needed to hear it.So my question is, why don't we ask for the things that we need? I know a gentleman, married for 25 years, who's longing to hear his wife say, “Thank you for being the breadwinner, so I can stay home with the kids,” but won't ask.I know a woman who's good at this.She, once a week, meets with her husband and says, “I'd 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 genuine, but she takes responsibility for that.And a friend of mine, April, who I've had since kindergarten, she thanks her children for doing their chores.And she said, “Why wouldn't I thank it, even though they're supposed to do it?”

So, the question is, why was I blocking it? Why were other people blocking it? Why can I say, “I'll take my steak medium rare, I need size six shoes,” but I won't say, “Would you praise me this way?” And it's because I'm giving you critical data about me.I'm telling you where I'm insecure.I'm telling you where I need your help.And I'm treating you, my inner circle, like you're 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 they'd do something called “truing” the wheels.The guy said, “You know, when you true the wheels, it's going to make the bike so much better.” I get the same bike back, and they've taken all the little warps out of those same wheels I've had for two and a half years, and my bike is like new.So, I'm going to challenge all of you.I want you to true your wheels: be honest about the praise that you need to hear.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 it's simple.And why should we care about this? We talk about world peace.How can we have world peace with different cultures, different languages? I think it starts household by household, under the same roof.So, let's 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 somebody's never said that to you, but you've 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 brain

?Hablas espa?ol? Parlez-vous fran?ais? ni hui shuo zhong wen ma? If you answered “si”,”oui” or ”hui” and you are watching this 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 friends.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 know 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, let’s take Gabriella, whose family immigrates to the US from Peru when she was two-years old.As a compound bilingual, Gabriella 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, while continuing to speak Spanish at home and with friends.Finally, Gabriella’s 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 of 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.It’s well known that the brain’s left hemisphere is more dominant 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 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 language 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 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 brain’s neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when 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 earlier experts.Before the 1960s, bilingualism was considered a handicap that slowed the child’s 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 increase 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 function, 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 didn’t have the good fortune of learning a second language like a child, it’s never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from, ”Hello,” to “Hola”, ”Bonjour” or “ninhao’s” because when it comes to our brains a little exercise can go a long way.03.Feats of memory anyone can do

I'd like to invite you to close your eyes.Imagine yourself standing outside the front door of your home.I'd like you to notice the color of the door, the material that it's 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 see this.They are pedaling really hard, they're sweaty, they're 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, whatever's 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.It's a talking horse.You can practically feel his blue fur tickling your nose.You can smell the oatmeal raisin cookie that he's 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, she's dancing on your coffee table, and she's singing “Hit Me Baby One More Time.” And then, follow me into your kitchen.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.It's 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 was a bunch of guys and a few ladies, widely varying in both age and hygienic upkeep.They were memorizing hundreds of random numbers, looking at them just once.They were memorizing the names of dozens and dozens and dozens of strangers.They were memorizing entire poems in just a few minutes.They were competing to see who could memorize the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards the fastest.I was like, this is unbelievable.These people must be freaks of nature.And I started talking to a few of the competitors.This is a guy called Ed Cook, who had come over from England, where he had one of the best-trained memories.And I said to him, “Ed, when did you realize that you were a savant?” And Ed was like, “I'm not a savant.In fact, I have just an average memory.Everybody who competes in this contest will tell you that they have just an average memory.We've all trained ourselves to perform these utterly miraculous feats of memory using a set of ancient techniques, techniques invented 2,500 years ago in Greece, the same techniques that Cicero had used to memorize his speeches, that medieval scholars had used to memorize entire books.” And I said, “Whoa.How come I never heard of this before?”

And we were standing outside the competition hall, and Ed, who is a wonderful, brilliant, but somewhat eccentric English guy, says to me, “Josh, you're an American journalist.Do you know Britney Spears?” I'm like, “What? No.Why?” “Because I really want to teach Britney Spears how to memorize the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards on U.S.national television.It will prove to the world that anybody can do this.”

I was like, “Well, I'm not Britney Spears, but maybe you could teach me.I mean, you've got to start somewhere, right?” And that was the beginning of a very strange journey for me.I ended up spending the better part of the next year not only training my memory, but also investigating it, trying to understand how it works, why it sometimes doesn't work, and what its potential might be.And I met a host of really interesting people.This is a guy called E.P.He's an amnesic who had, very possibly, the worst memory in the world.His memory was so bad, that he didn't even remember he had a memory problem, which is amazing.And he was this incredibly tragic figure, but he was a window into the extent to which our memories make us who we are.At the other end of the spectrum, I met this guy.This is Kim Peek, he was the basis for Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie “Rain Man.” We spent an afternoon together in the Salt Lake City Public Library memorizing phone books, which was scintillating.And I went back and I read a whole host of memory treatises, treatises written 2,000-plus years ago in Latin, in antiquity, and then later, in the Middle Ages.And I learned a whole bunch of really interesting stuff.One of the really interesting things that I learned is that once upon a time, this idea of having a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory was not nearly so alien as it would seem to us to be today.Once upon a time, people invested in their memories, in laboriously furnishing their minds.Over the last few millenia, we've invented a series of technologies--from the alphabet, to the scroll, to the codex, the printing press, photography, the computer, the smartphone--that have made it progressively easier and easier for us to externalize our memories, for us to essentially outsource this fundamental human capacity.These technologies have made our modern world possible, but they've also changed us.They've changed us culturally, and I would argue that they've changed us cognitively.Having little need to remember anymore, it sometimes seems like we've forgotten how.One of the last places on Earth where you still find people passionate about this idea of a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory, is at this totally singular memory contest.It's actually not that singular, there are contests held all over the world.And I was fascinated, I wanted to know how do these guys do it.A few years back a group of researchers at University College London brought a bunch of memory champions into the lab.They wanted to know: Do these guys have brains that are somehow structurally, anatomically different from the rest of ours? The answer was no.Are they smarter than the rest of us? They gave them a bunch of cognitive tests, and the answer was: not really.There was, however, one really interesting and telling difference between the brains of the memory champions and the control subjects that they were comparing them to.When they put these guys in an fMRI machine, scanned their brains while they were memorizing numbers and people's faces and pictures of snowflakes, they found that the memory champions were lighting up different parts of the brain than everyone else.Of note, they were using, or they seemed to be using, a part of the brain that's involved in spatial memory and navigation.Why? And is there something that the rest of us can learn from this?

The sport of competitive memorizing is driven by a kind of arms race where, every year, somebody comes up with a new way to remember more stuff more quickly, and then the rest of the field has to play catch-up.This is my friend Ben Pridmore, three-time world memory champion.On his desk in front of him are 36 shuffled packs of playing cards that he is about to try to memorize in one hour, using a technique that he invented and he alone has mastered.He used a similar technique to memorize the precise order of 4,140 random binary digits in half an hour.Yeah.And while there are a whole host of ways of remembering stuff in these competitions, everything, all of the techniques that are being used, ultimately come down to a concept that psychologists refer to as “elaborative encoding.”

And it's well-illustrated by a nifty paradox known as the Baker/baker paradox, which goes like this: If I tell two people to remember the same word, if I say to you, “Remember that there is a guy named Baker.” That's his name.And I say to you, “Remember that there is a guy who is a baker.” Okay? And I come back to you at some point later on, and I say, “Do you remember that word that I told you a while back? Do you remember what it was?” The person who was told his name is Baker is less likely to remember the same word than the person was told his job is a baker.Same word, different amount of remembering;that's weird.What's going on here?

Well, the name Baker doesn't actually mean anything to you.It is entirely untethered from all of the other memories floating around in your skull.But the common noun “baker”--we know bakers.Bakers wear funny white hats.Bakers have flour on their hands.Bakers smell good when they come home from work.Maybe we even know a baker.And when we first hear that word, we start putting these associational hooks into it, that make it easier to fish it back out at some later date.The entire art of what is going on in these memory contests, and the entire art of remembering stuff better in everyday life, is figuring out ways to transform capital B Bakers into lower-case B bakers--to take information that is lacking in context, in significance, in meaning, and transform it in some way, so that it becomes meaningful in the light of all the other things that you have in your mind.One of the more elaborate techniques for doing this dates back 2,500 years to Ancient Greece.It came to be known as the memory palace.The story behind its creation goes like this:

There was a poet called Simonides, who was attending a banquet.He was actually the hired entertainment, because back then, if you wanted to throw a really slamming party, you didn't hire a D.J., you hired a poet.And he stands up, delivers his poem from memory, walks out the door, and at the moment he does, the banquet hall collapses.Kills everybody inside.It doesn't just kill everybody, it mangles the bodies beyond all recognition.Nobody can say who was inside, nobody can say where they were sitting.The bodies can't be properly buried.It's one tragedy compounding another.Simonides, standing outside, the sole survivor amid the wreckage, closes his eyes and has this realization, which is that in his mind's eye, he can see where each of the guests at the banquet had been sitting.And he takes the relatives by the hand, and guides them each to their loved ones amid the wreckage.What Simonides figured out at that moment, is something that I think we all kind of intuitively know, which is that, as bad as we are at remembering names and phone numbers, and word-for-word instructions from our colleagues, we have really exceptional visual and spatial memories.If I asked you to recount the first 10 words of the story that I just told you about Simonides, chances are you would have a tough time with it.But, I would wager that if I asked you to recall who is sitting on top of a talking tan horse in your foyer right now, you would be able to see that.The idea behind the memory palace is to create this imagined edifice in your mind's eye, and populate it with images of the things that you want to remember--the crazier, weirder, more bizarre, funnier, raunchier, stinkier the image is, the more unforgettable it's likely to be.This is advice that goes back 2,000-plus years to the earliest Latin memory treatises.So how does this work? Let's say that you've been invited to TED center stage to give a speech, and you want to do it from memory, and you want to do it the way that Cicero would have done it, if he had been invited to TEDxRome 2,000 years ago.What you might do is picture yourself at the front door of your house.And you'd come up with some sort of crazy, ridiculous, unforgettable image, to remind you that the first thing you want to talk about is this totally bizarre contest.And then you'd go inside your house, and you would see an image of Cookie Monster on top of Mister Ed.And that would remind you that you would want to then introduce your friend Ed Cook.And then you'd see an image of Britney Spears to remind you of this funny anecdote you want to tell.And you'd go into your kitchen, and the fourth topic you were going to talk about was this strange journey that you went on for a year, and you'd have some friends to help you remember that.This is how Roman orators memorized their speeches--not word-for-word, which is just going to screw you up, but topic-for-topic.In fact, the phrase “topic sentence”--that comes from the Greek word “topos,” which means “place.” That's a vestige of when people used to think about oratory and rhetoric in these sorts of spatial terms.The phrase “in the first place,” that's like “in the first place of your memory palace.”

I thought this was just fascinating, and I got really into it.And I went to a few more of these memory contests, and I had this notion that I might write something longer about this subculture of competitive memorizers.But there was a problem.The problem was that a memory contest is a pathologically boring event.Truly, it is like a bunch of people sitting around taking the SATs--I mean, the most dramatic it gets is when somebody starts massaging their temples.And I'm a journalist, I need something to write about.I know that there's incredible stuff happening in these people's minds, but I don't have access to it.And I realized, if I was going to tell this story, I needed to walk in their shoes a little bit.And so I started trying to spend 15 or 20 minutes every morning, before I sat down with my New York Times, just trying to remember something.Maybe it was a poem, maybe it was names from an old yearbook that I bought at a flea market.And I found that this was shockingly fun.I never would have expected that.It was fun because this is actually not about training your memory.What you're doing, is you're trying to get better and better at creating, at dreaming up, these utterly ludicrous, raunchy, hilarious, and hopefully unforgettable images in your mind's eye.And I got pretty into it.This is me wearing my standard competitive memorizer's training kit.It's a pair of earmuffs and a set of safety goggles that have been masked over except for two small pinholes, because distraction is the competitive memorizer's greatest enemy.I ended up coming back to that same contest that I had covered a year earlier, and I had this notion that I might enter it, sort of as an experiment in participatory journalism.It'd make, I thought, maybe a nice epilogue to all my research.Problem was, the experiment went haywire.I won the contest--which really wasn't supposed to happen.Now, it is nice to be able to memorize speeches and phone numbers and shopping lists, but it's actually kind of beside the point.These are just tricks.They work because they're based on some pretty basic principles about how our brains work.And you don't have to be building memory palaces or memorizing packs of playing cards to benefit from a little bit of insight about how your mind works.We often talk about people with great memories as though it were some sort of an innate gift, but that is not the case.Great memories are learned.At the most basic level, we remember when we pay attention.We remember when we are deeply engaged.We remember when we are able to take a piece of information and experience, and figure out why it is meaningful to us, why it is significant, why it's colorful, when we're able to transform it in some way that makes sense in the light of all of the other things floating around in our minds, when we're able to transform Bakers into bakers.The memory palace, these memory techniques--they're just shortcuts.In fact, they're not even really shortcuts.They work because they make you work.They force a kind of depth of processing, a kind of mindfulness, that most of us don't normally walk around exercising.But there actually are no shortcuts.This is how stuff is made memorable.And I think if there's one thing that I want to leave you with, it's what E.P., the amnesic who couldn't even remember he had a memory problem, left me with, which is the notion that our lives are the sum of our memories.How much are we willing to lose from our already short lives, by losing ourselves in our Blackberries, our iPhones, by not paying attention to the human being across from us who is talking with us, by being so lazy that we're not willing to process deeply?

I learned firsthand that there are incredible memory capacities latent in all of us.But if you want to live a memorable life, you have to be the kind of person who remembers to remember.Thank you.01.請別忘記感謝身邊的人

嗨。我在這里要和大家談?wù)勏騽e人表達(dá)贊美，傾佩和謝意的重要性。并使它們聽來真誠，具體。

之所以我對此感興趣是因為我從我自己的成長中注意到幾年前，當(dāng)我想要對某個人說聲謝謝時，當(dāng)我想要贊美他們時，當(dāng)我想接受他們對我的贊揚，但我卻沒有說出口。我問我自己，這是為什么？我感到害羞，我感到尷尬。接著我產(chǎn)生了一個問題難道我是唯一一個這么做的人嗎？所以我決定做些探究。

我非常幸運的在一家康復(fù)中心工作，所以我可以看到那些因為上癮而面臨生與死的人。有時候這一切可以非常簡單地歸結(jié)為，他們最核心的創(chuàng)傷來自于他們父親到死都未說過“他為他們而自豪”。但他們從所有其它家庭或朋友那里得知他的父親告訴其他人為他感到自豪，但這個父親從沒告訴過他兒子。因為他不知道他的兒子需要聽到這一切。

因此我的問題是，為什么我們不索求我們需要的東西呢？我認(rèn)識一個結(jié)婚25年的男士渴望聽到他妻子說，“感謝你為這個家在外賺錢，這樣我才能在家陪伴著孩子，”但他從來不去問。我認(rèn)識一個精于此道的女士。每周一次，她見到丈夫后會說，“我真的希望你為我對這個家和孩子們付出的努力而感謝我。”他會應(yīng)和到“哦，真是太棒了，真是太棒了。”贊揚別人一定要真誠，但她對贊美承擔(dān)了責(zé)任。一個從我上幼兒園就一直是朋友的叫April的人，她會感謝她的孩子們做了家務(wù)。她說：“為什么我不表示感謝呢，即使他們本來就要做那些事情？”

因此我的問題是，為什么我不說呢？為什么其它人不說呢？為什么我能說：“我要一塊中等厚度的牛排，我需要6號尺寸的鞋子，”但我卻不能說：“你可以贊揚我嗎？”因為這會使我把我的重要信息與你分享。會讓我告訴了你我內(nèi)心的不安。會讓你認(rèn)為我需要你的幫助。雖然你是我最貼心的人，我卻把你當(dāng)作是敵人。你會用我托付給你的重要信息做些什么呢？你可以忽視我。你可以濫用它。或者你可以滿足我的要求。

我把我的自行車拿到車行－－我喜歡這么做－－同樣的自行車，他們會對車輪做整形。那里的人說：“當(dāng)你對車輪做整形時，它會使自行車變成更好。”我把這輛自行車拿回來，他們把有小小彎曲的鐵絲從輪子上拿走這輛車我用了2年半，現(xiàn)在還像新的一樣。所以我要問在場的所有人，我希望你們把你們的車輪整形一下：真誠面對對你們想聽到的贊美。你們想聽到什么呢？回家問問你們的妻子，她想聽到什么？回家問問你們的丈夫，他想聽到什么？回家問問這些問題，并幫助身邊的人實現(xiàn)它們。

非常簡單。為什么要關(guān)心這個呢？我們談?wù)撌澜绾推健Ｎ覀冊趺从貌煌奈幕煌恼Z言來保持世界和平？我想要從每個小家庭開始。所以讓我們在家里就把這件事情做好。我想要感謝所有在這里的人們因為你們是好丈夫，好母親，好伙伴，好女兒和好兒子。或許有些人從沒跟你們說過但你們已經(jīng)做得非常非常得出色了。感謝你們來到這里，向世界顯示著你們的智慧，并用它們改變著世界。

02.雙語能力對大腦的益處驚人

你會說中文嗎？如果你能回答“si”、“oui”或者“是的”，而且能看懂這個英文短片，那么你就跟世界上很多人一樣、具備雙語能力或是多語能力。除了旅游時溝通比較方便、看電影不需要字幕這些好處之外，通曉兩種或者三種以上的語言，意味著你的大腦在結(jié)構(gòu)上或運作上與你那些單一語言的朋友有著明顯的不同。所以到底什么才能算通曉一門語言呢？

衡量語言能力，主要包含兩個主動部分——說和寫，和兩個被動部分——聽和讀。雖然一個出色的雙語者對于兩種語言都有著相近的使用能力，但是大多數(shù)的雙語者對兩個語種的認(rèn)知和使用能力是有差異的。根據(jù)個人所處的環(huán)境以及他們具體學(xué)語言的方法，雙語者通常可以分成三類。

舉個例子來說，Gabriella在兩歲時跟著家人由秘魯移民到美國。她屬于復(fù)合型雙語者，Gabriella在剛接觸這個世界時就同時學(xué)英語和西班牙語，所以給她一個概念、她的大腦就能同時喚起兩種語言信號。她有一個十幾歲的哥哥，則屬于協(xié)調(diào)型雙語使用者，他運用兩種不同的概念，一方面在學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)英語，另一方面用西班牙語和家人、朋友交流。

最后，Gabriella的父母，則屬于從屬型雙語者。當(dāng)他們學(xué)習(xí)外語（英語）時，需要通過母語進行翻譯再進行學(xué)習(xí)。

如果不考慮口音和發(fā)音問題，這三種類型的雙語者至少都算能精通一門語言。因此，一般人很難發(fā)現(xiàn)這三種類型的差異。然而現(xiàn)在，由于大腦成像技術(shù)不斷進步，神經(jīng)語言學(xué)家能夠知道語言學(xué)習(xí)對雙語使用者的大腦產(chǎn)生什么樣的影響。

大家都知道，大腦的左半球是掌管數(shù)據(jù)和邏輯分析的，而大腦的右半球則掌管情感與社交，但這并不是絕對的、只是比例多少的問題。

語言同時包括了左腦和右腦的功能，而隨著年齡的增長，大腦的功能會逐漸側(cè)重其中的一邊，語言學(xué)習(xí)的關(guān)鍵時期假說就是由這個事實引申出來的。根據(jù)這個理論，兒童學(xué)習(xí)語言更容易，是因為他們的大腦仍在發(fā)展、可塑性更強，他們可以同時調(diào)用左右兩邊大腦的機能來學(xué)習(xí)語言；然而多數(shù)成年人只通過大腦的一邊（通常是左腦）學(xué)習(xí)語言。

如果這個假說是真的，那么在兒童時期學(xué)習(xí)語言可以讓你對其社會和情感內(nèi)涵有著更整體的把握。另一方面，近期的研究表明，成年人學(xué)習(xí)外語時的情緒性偏見沒那么多，同時相比于母語環(huán)境，他們在外語環(huán)境中遇到問題時也更為理性。

無論如何，當(dāng)你學(xué)習(xí)一門新的語言時，多語能力都會給你的大腦帶來明顯的好處。有些好處甚至是可視化的，比如大腦灰白質(zhì)的密度增加，那里包含了大多數(shù)的神經(jīng)元和突觸，而且在學(xué)習(xí)外語時，大腦的部分區(qū)域會變得更加活躍。雙語者的大腦可以持續(xù)不斷地接收強化訓(xùn)練，這能讓一些病癥（如阿茲海默癡呆癥和失智癥）的發(fā)作推遲至5年以后。

雙語能力對認(rèn)知能力的有所幫助在現(xiàn)代來看是很好理解的，但是過去的專家一定會對這個觀點大吃一驚。在1960年之前，人們認(rèn)為使用雙語對于兒童的成長來說是一種障礙，因為這需要兒童花費精力去分辨別不同語言，這種觀點的產(chǎn)生源自有瑕疵的研究方法。

最新的研究的確顯示，在跨語言測驗當(dāng)中，使用雙語的學(xué)生的反應(yīng)時間與錯誤次數(shù)增加了；同時也表明，學(xué)生需要花費更多的努力和注意力進行語言的轉(zhuǎn)換，這也使得前額葉腦區(qū)更加活躍、進而強化其機能。前額葉腦區(qū)主要影響執(zhí)行、解決問題、多任務(wù)轉(zhuǎn)換、集中注意力、排除無關(guān)信息的能力。

雖然學(xué)習(xí)雙語不一定能讓你更聰明，但是它可以讓你的大腦更加健康、多元和活躍。即使你在年幼時沒有機會學(xué)習(xí)第二語言，但是現(xiàn)在學(xué)習(xí)永遠(yuǎn)不會太晚。從現(xiàn)在開始學(xué)一門外語吧，把“hello”轉(zhuǎn)換成“Hola”、“Bonjour”、“你好”(本文作者母語為英語)等外語問候，即使只是小小的訓(xùn)練，也能對大腦有所幫助。03.每個人都能掌握的記憶技巧

請大家跟我一起閉上眼睛，象一下。

你站在，自己家門口的外面，請留心一下門的顏色，以及門的材質(zhì)，現(xiàn)在請想象一群超重的裸騎者，正在進行一場裸體自行車賽，向你的前門直沖而來，盡量讓畫面想象得栩栩如生近在眼前，他們都在奮力地踩腳踏板汗流浹背，路面非常顛簸，然后徑直撞進了你家前門，自行車四下飛散車輪從你身旁滾過，輻條扎進了各種尷尬角落，跨過門檻，進到門廳、走廊和門里的其他地方，室內(nèi)光線柔和舒適，光線灑在甜餅怪物身上，他坐在一匹棕色駿馬的馬背上，正向你招手，這匹馬會說話，你可以感覺到他的藍(lán)色鬃毛讓你鼻子發(fā)癢，你可以聞到他正要扔進嘴里的葡萄燕麥曲奇的香氣，繞過他繞過他走進客廳，站在客廳里把你的想象力調(diào)到最大檔，想象小甜甜布蘭妮，她衣著暴露在你咖啡桌上跳舞，并唱著“Hit Me Baby One More Time”，接下來跟著我走進你的廚房，廚房的地面被一道黃磚路覆蓋，依次鉆出你的烤箱向你走來的是，《綠野仙蹤》里的多蘿西鐵皮人，稻草人和獅子，他們手挽著手蹦蹦跳跳地向你走來，好了睜開眼睛吧，我要給你們講一個每年春天在紐約，都會舉辦的奇異競賽，叫做全美記憶冠軍賽，幾年前我作為一名科技類記者，去報道這項競賽，心里想著大概那兒得像，怪才的“超級碗冠軍賽”一樣熱鬧吧，一大堆男人和屈指可數(shù)的女性，從小孩兒到老人有些還不怎么注意個人衛(wèi)生，有的奮力在只看一次的情況下，記下上百個任意列出的數(shù)字，有的在努力記住成群的陌生人的名字，有的想在幾分鐘內(nèi)努力背下整篇詩歌，還有的在比賽誰能以最快速度，記下一整副打亂的牌的順序，我當(dāng)時覺得這太不可思議了，這些人肯定天賦異稟。

所以我開始采訪參賽者，這位叫Ed Cook，是從英格蘭來的，他在那兒接受了最好的記憶訓(xùn)練，我問他 “Ed 你是什么時候開始意識到，自己是記憶天才的?”，Ed答道“我并不是什么專家，其實我的記憶力很一般，來參賽的每一個人，都會告訴你他們的記憶力只是一般水平，我們都在訓(xùn)練自己后才能，完成這些奇跡般的記憶游戲，我們運用了一系列古老的技巧，這些技巧是希臘人在兩千五百年前發(fā)明的，西塞羅正是用了這些技巧，來記憶他的演講稿的，中世紀(jì)學(xué)者用這種技巧來背誦正本書籍的內(nèi)容“，我驚訝不已 ”哇噻怎么我從來沒聽說過呢?“，我們站在競技大廳外，聰明過人令人驚嘆，而又稍有些古怪的英國人Ed，對我說 ”Josh 你是個美國記者，你知道小甜甜布蘭妮吧?”，我茫然不解 “什么? 當(dāng)然為什么要問這個?”，“因為我真的很想在，美國國家電臺上教會布蘭妮，怎樣記住一整副打亂的牌的順序，就能證明這是人人都可以做到的了“，我說 ”雖然我不是布蘭妮，但你也可以教教我呀，總得找個人開教嘛不是嗎?“，接著一段非常奇特的歷程在我面前展開了序幕，結(jié)果第二年的大部分時間，我都花在了訓(xùn)練自己的記憶力，同時調(diào)查研究記憶上，我想嘗試?yán)斫猱a(chǎn)生記憶的原理，為何有時會記了又忘，及其它到底隱藏著什么樣的潛力，途中我遇到了很多有趣的人，其中一個叫E.P.，他患有健忘癥他的記憶力，恐怕是世界上最差的了，他的記憶能力差到，甚至記不得自己有健忘癥，真的很神奇，雖然他是個悲劇角色，但通過他我們能了解到，記憶在何種程度上塑造了我們的人格，情況的另一個極端是我遇到了這樣一個人，他叫Kim Peek，他是Dustin Hoffman在電影《雨人》里的角色的原型，我和他花了一下午，在鹽湖城公共圖書館里背電話簿，讓我大開眼界，回家后我讀了許多關(guān)于記憶的論文，寫于兩千多年前的論文，用拉丁文寫的從古代，一直到后來中世紀(jì)期間，我學(xué)到很多很有意思的事兒，其中一個就是，曾經(jīng)，訓(xùn)練規(guī)束培養(yǎng)記憶力的這種概念，完全不像如今那樣陌生，曾幾何時人們寄希望于自己的記憶，能不遺余力地裝飾自己的心靈，近幾千年來，人類發(fā)明了一系列技術(shù)，從字母表到卷軸，到法典印刷機攝影技術(shù)，電腦智能手機，讓我們能越來越輕松地，外化記憶能力，讓我們從根本上，把這種基礎(chǔ)的人類能力拱手讓出，這些技術(shù)讓現(xiàn)代生活變?yōu)榭赡埽瑫r也改變了我們，不僅在文化上，我覺得也在認(rèn)知上，不再需要費勁去記憶，有時會覺得我們已經(jīng)忘了如何去記憶，在這片地球上已經(jīng)很少有地方，能讓你覺得人們?nèi)詿嶂杂冢?xùn)練規(guī)束培養(yǎng)記憶力了，那非同尋常的記憶大賽算是一個，其實它也沒有那么非同尋常，世界各地都開始舉辦這樣的競賽，我對此深深著迷想要知道這些人是怎么做到的，幾年前倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院的一組研究人員，請來一批記憶大賽的冠軍接受研究，他們想要弄明白，這些人的大腦，是否跟我們其他人在解剖學(xué)上的結(jié)構(gòu)不一樣?，答案是否定的，那他們比我們都聰明嗎?，他們給研究對象實施了一系列認(rèn)知測試，依舊得出了否定結(jié)論，但對比受控制的比對目標(biāo)的大腦，記憶大賽冠軍們的大腦，確實有一處很有趣的不同很說明問題，這些人被送去做功能磁共振，掃描大腦時，當(dāng)他們在記憶數(shù)字或人臉或雪花圖案時，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)記憶大賽冠軍們，的大腦激活的區(qū)域，跟普通人不太一樣，值得注意的是他們看來是在用，腦中在空間記憶和導(dǎo)航時會用到的部分，為什么? 我們可以從中得出什么樣的結(jié)論呢?，競爭性記憶的較量，被一種類似軍事比賽的方式推向了白熱化，每年都會有人，帶著更有效的記憶方法現(xiàn)身賽場，而其他人就必須迎頭趕上，這是我的朋友Ben Pridmore，贏得過三次國際記憶大賽冠軍，在他的臺前，有三十六副打亂順序的牌，他要在一個小時內(nèi)記下全部，用的是一種他自己發(fā)明的也只有他會的技巧，用與此類似的方法，他曾一字不差地背下了，4140個任意排列的二進制數(shù)，只用了半個小時，很牛吧，參賽者在這些競賽中，運用過很多不同的記憶方法，各式各樣被運用到的所有技巧，最終都能歸化為一個概念，心理學(xué)家稱之為”精細(xì)編碼“，這個概念能用一則幽默的悖論完美詮釋，叫做Baker/baker悖論，簡單說來就是，假設(shè)我讓兩個人去記同一個詞，我跟你說，”記住有個人叫Baker“，Baker是人名，我又來告訴你 ”記住有個人是面包師(baker)“，過了一段時間我又回來找到你們，問 ”還記得我之前，叫你們記住的那個詞嗎?“，”還記得是什么詞嗎?“，被告知人名是Baker的人，記住這個詞的可能性遠(yuǎn)不如，被告知職業(yè)是面包師的那個人，同樣的詞導(dǎo)致不同的記憶程度，到底是為什么呢，是因為人名Baker沒有任何特殊含義，沒法跟你腦海里，零碎繁雜的記憶產(chǎn)生任何聯(lián)系，但是面包師(baker)作為一個常用名詞，我們都知道面包師是什么，面包師帶著搞笑的白帽子，他們手上沾滿了面粉，他們下班回到家?guī)е鴵浔堑目久姘悖踔量赡苡行┤擞信笥丫褪敲姘鼛煟覀兂醮温牭竭@個詞時，馬上就會產(chǎn)生各種各樣的聯(lián)想，這使我們能在一段時間后還能回憶起來，其實要理解記憶競賽中的，一切奧妙，或在日常生活中改善記憶力的秘訣，僅僅在于想辦法把Baker中的大寫B(tài)，變?yōu)槊姘鼛?baker)中的小寫b，把沒有前因后果，沒有重要性沒有涵義的信息，用某種方法轉(zhuǎn)化為，有意義的內(nèi)容，跟腦海里的其他記憶串聯(lián)起來，這種精確記憶的技巧，在兩千五百年前的古希臘就已出現(xiàn)，后來將其稱為記憶宮殿，發(fā)明這種技巧的過程如下，有個叫做Simonides的詩人，他要去參加一個晚宴，其實他算是被請去做表演嘉賓的，因為在那個年代炫酷派對的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，不是請D.J.來打碟而是要請詩人來頌詩，他站起來背出了他的全篇詩作然后瀟灑離去，他剛走出門口晚宴大廳就塌了，砸死了里面所有的人，不僅全體死亡，所有的死者都被砸得面目全非，沒人說得清死者都有些誰，沒人說得清誰坐在哪兒，導(dǎo)致死者的尸體沒法得到合適的殉葬安置，這又加重了整件事的悲劇色彩，Simonides站在外面，作為廢墟中的唯一幸存者，閉上眼睛猛然意識到，在他的腦海中，他眼前出現(xiàn)了所有賓客所坐的位置，他就牽著親屬們的手，穿過廢墟把他們帶到了親人身邊，Simonides當(dāng)時猛然醒悟的事，大概我們大家也都猜到了，其實是不管我們，有多不善于記住姓名電話號碼，或是同事的每句指令，我們都擁有異常敏銳的視覺或空間記憶能力，要是我讓你們逐字逐句地重述，我剛才講的Simonides故事的前十個字，應(yīng)該沒幾個人會記得，但我敢打賭，如果我讓你們現(xiàn)在回想下，在你的門廳里坐在會講話的棕色駿馬上的，是誰，你們就明白我剛才說的意思了，記憶宮殿的原理，就是在你的腦海里建立一棟想象大廈，并讓你想記住的東西，的影像充滿其中，越是瘋狂古怪奇詭，荒誕搞笑亂七八糟招人厭惡的影像，就越容易記住，這個建議來自于兩千多年前，拉丁最早的記憶學(xué)者，那么這種說法的原理到底是什么呢，假設(shè)你被邀請，站上TED的中心講臺演講，而你想脫稿完成，如西塞羅在兩千年前在TEDx羅馬上的演講一般，他就會這么霸氣走一回而你也想這樣，你要做的就是，想象自己站在自家門前，然后憑空想象出，一段完全荒誕瘋狂難忘的景象，用來提示你上臺要提的第一件事，就是這場詭異的裸騎大賽，然后你走進房子里，想到甜餅怪物，坐在Ed先生背上的樣子，這個景象會提醒你，要介紹你的朋友Ed Cook，然后你腦海里出現(xiàn)了小甜甜布蘭妮的樣子，你就會想起要講那個關(guān)于布蘭妮的小故事，然后你走進廚房，你要說到的第四個話題是，你花了一整年走過的奇妙歷程，通過綠野仙蹤就可以聯(lián)想得到，這就是羅馬演說家背誦演講稿的秘訣，并非一字不差逐字背誦只會平添麻煩，而是記住一個個主題，其實短語”主題句“，就來源于希臘詞”topos“，意思是”地點“，這是古時候，人們談到演講或是修辭時，會用到的空間術(shù)語，短語 ”第一"，就意味著你的記憶宮殿的第一層，這簡直太有意思了，我對這起了很大的興趣，后來我又去了更多記憶大賽，我開始萌發(fā)了要更詳細(xì)描寫，這種競技記憶文化的念頭，但有一個問題，問題是記憶大賽，其實過程很無聊的，(大笑)，真的就像一群人坐那兒高考一樣，最最激動人心的時刻，也不過就是有人揉了揉太陽穴，我是個記者總得有東西可寫呀，我知道這些人腦子里肯定是驚濤駭浪，但我作為外人無法得見，我意識到若我真的想報道這事兒，一定得親身體驗才行，所以我開始嘗試著每天早上坐下來看紐約時報前，花上十五到二十分鐘，嘗試記憶一些事，背背小詩，背背我在跳蚤市場買來的，舊年鑒里的人名，我驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)這其實非常帶勁，要不去嘗試根本想不到，有趣在于其實目標(biāo)并不是要通過訓(xùn)練提高記憶力，而是你在努力培養(yǎng)改善，創(chuàng)造力想象力，在你的腦海里憑空造出，那些完全滑稽荒誕胡亂最好是難忘的影像，而它成為了我的樂趣，這是我戴著標(biāo)準(zhǔn)競賽記憶者訓(xùn)練套裝的樣子，它有一對耳塞，一副護目鏡鏡面全部遮黑，就留了兩個小孔，因為競技記憶者最大的敵人就是注意力分散，最后我再次回到了一年前報道的那場競賽場上，我一時沖動也想報名參加，就當(dāng)做參與性新聞報道的實驗了，我當(dāng)時想到時能在前言里調(diào)侃一下自己也好，問題是實驗最后得到了意想不到的結(jié)果，那場競賽我贏了，真是完全出乎我預(yù)料之外，對我來說現(xiàn)在，背演講稿電話號碼或是購物單，都是小菜一碟倒是很不錯，但其實這些都不重要了，這些都是小伎倆，這些記憶伎倆之所以有效，是因為它們依仗人類大腦運轉(zhuǎn)的，一些基本原理，并不用真的去建立記憶宮殿，或記下幾副牌的順序，你也完全可以從了解大腦運轉(zhuǎn)原理中，獲得一些益處，我們總會議論記憶力很好的人，總覺得那些人是天賦異稟，事實并不是這樣，強大的記憶力是可以習(xí)得的，從最根本的說起專心致志就能記住，全心投入時就能記住，只要能想辦法把信息和經(jīng)歷，轉(zhuǎn)化為有意義的事，就能記住，想它為何重要為何多彩，當(dāng)我們能把它轉(zhuǎn)化成為，有前因后果的事，并跟我們腦海中繁雜瑣碎的其他事產(chǎn)生聯(lián)想時，當(dāng)我們能把人名Baker轉(zhuǎn)化為面包師baker時，記憶宮殿或是那些記憶技巧，都只是捷徑而已，其實說到底它們都不能算捷徑，這方法有效是因為它迫使你思考，它迫使你往更深層次去想，讓你更加專注，大部分人平時并不會費力去訓(xùn)練這個，其實捷徑并不存在，這一直就是我們能記住事物的原因，有一件事我希望你們能記住，就是E.P.，那個連自己患了健忘癥都想不起來的人，讓我深思，得出了一個感想，人生就是我們個人記憶的合集，在短暫的人生里，你還愿意因為黑莓 iPhone，喪失多少瞬間，忽略對面坐著的人，在跟我們交談的人，變得越發(fā)懶惰不愿意，深究任何事？，通過親身經(jīng)歷我發(fā)現(xiàn)，我們的身體里潛藏著，不可思議的記憶能力，但若你想活得難忘，就得做那種，記得時常記憶的人。

謝謝。