英语专业八级考试(TEM-8)的选材主要来自英美报刊杂志、广播电台或网站。其中一个包括：TED演讲，2018和2016年专八听力讲座(Mini-lecture)就来自TED演讲。建议大家平时多看多听TED演讲。
演讲者：Alexis Ohanian
演说题目: How to make a splash in social media
There are a lot of web 2.0 consultants who make a lot of money. In fact, they make their living on this stuff. I'm going to try to save you all the time and money and go through it in the next three minutes, so bear with me. Started a website in 2005 with a few friends, called Reddit.com. It's what you'd call a social news website;
嗯，现在，很多web 2.0 (注重用户交互的新型互联网应用)的技术顾问赚了大钱。实际上，他们就是靠这东西为生的。我会试着帮你节省点时间和钞票，在接下来的三分钟里我会一一解释清楚，这这究竟是怎么一回事。我跟一群朋友在2005年建立了一个网站，叫做Reddit.com。这是一个社交型新闻网站。
basically, the democratic front page of the best stuff on the web. You find some interesting content -- say, a TED Talk -- submit it to Reddit, and a community of your peers votes up if they like it, down if they don't. That creates the front page. It's always rising, falling; a half million people visit every day. But this isn't about Reddit. It's about discovering new things that pop up on the web. In the last four years, we've seen all kinds of memes, all kinds of trends get born right on our front page.
基本上就是说公共首页上罗列的是目前网上风头最劲的东西。你找到一些好玩儿的，比如说TEDTalk，传到Reddit上，然后你的社区同好们喜欢就顶，不喜欢就踩。首页就是这么来的。升升降降，新闻总是在换。每天大概有50万的点击量。但这不是Reddit本身的魅力。这其实是大家对发掘网络上新鲜事的热情。因为最近四年我们见到了各种各样的流行语和潮流从我们的首页开始发扬光大。
This isn't about Reddit itself, it's actually about humpback whales. Well, technically, it's about Greenpeace, an environmental organization that wanted to stop the Japanese government's whaling campaign. The whales were getting killed; they wanted to put an end to it. One of the ways they wanted to do it was to put a tracking chip inside one of the whales. But to personify the movement, they wanted to name it.
但今天我要讲的不是有关Reddit。是有关座头鲸的。嗯，好吧，严格说来其实是有关Greenpeace(绿色和平)，一个环境保护组织，旨在阻止日本政府的捕鲸运动。那里的座头鲸正遭受杀戮。他们想阻止这一切。途径之一就是在这些座头鲸之一身上植入追踪芯片。但为了使大家更有参与感，他们想为这只座头鲸命名。
So in true web fashion, they put together a poll, where they had a bunch of very erudite, very thoughtful, cultured names. I believe this is the Farsi word for "immortal." I think this means "divine power of the ocean" in a Polynesian language. And then there was this: "Mister Splashy Pants."
所以，遵循网络规则，他们发起了一场公投，包含很多非常高雅、深刻、有内涵的名字。我相信这是波斯语中的“不朽”。我认为这个的意思是“海之神力”一个波利尼西亚词。然后就是这个了：喷水先生。
And this was a special name. Mister Pants, or "Splashy" to his friends, was very popular on the Internet. In fact, someone on Reddit thought, "What a great thing, we should all vote this up." And Redditors responded and all agreed. So the voting started. We got behind it ourselves; we changed our logo for the day, from the alien to Splashy, to help the cause. And it wasn't long before other sites like Fark and Boing Boing and the rest of the Internet started saying, "We love Splashy Pants!"
而这个，这个很特别。阿喷先生，或喷喷，因为朋友们的支持，在网络上流行开来。实际上，Reddit上的一些人认为， “哦，太棒了，我们该把它顶上去。”然后，如你所知，Redditor（Reddit用户）们群起而顶之。于是，选举开始，我们网站人员也在背后默默支持。我们改变了网站徽标，把外星人改成了喷水鲸鱼。不久之后连Fark 和Boing Boing之类的网站都开始宣称 “是的！我们就爱喷水先生。”
So it went from about five percent, which was when this meme started, to 70 percent at the end of voting. Pretty impressive, right? We won! Mister Splashy Pants was chosen. Just kidding -- Greenpeace actually wasn't that crazy about it, because they wanted one of the more thoughtful names to win. They said, "No, just kidding. We'll give it another week of voting."
所以，票数从刚开始的5%，一路涨到投票结束时的70%。很牛对吧？我们赢了！喷水先生被选中了。嗯，开个玩笑。好吧。其实，绿色和平并不喜欢这个名字。他们想要个更有深意的名字。所以他们说，“不，不，这太扯了。我们再投一个礼拜。”
Well, that got us a little angry, so we changed it to Fightin' Splashy.
好吧，我们有点不爽。所以，我们把口号改成了“加油，喷水先生”。
And the Reddit community -- really, the rest of the Internet, really got behind this. Facebook groups were created. Facebook applications were created. The idea was, "Vote your conscience, vote for Mister Splashy Pants." People were putting up signs in the real world about this whale.
而且Reddit社区真的，不如说整个互联网，真的都开始力挺它了。Facebook上建立了新群组和新应用。宗旨就是，“投良心票，投喷水先生票。”而且在现实世界里人们也贴起了这样的标志——关于这条鲸鱼。终于到了最后关头。
This was the final vote: 78 percent of the votes. To give you an idea of the landslide, the next highest name pulled in three.
形势明朗了...78%高票当选，描述一下这场压倒性的胜利就是，第二名只得到3%。了解了吧？
There was a clear lesson: the Internet loves Mister Splashy Pants. Which is obvious. It's a great name. Everyone wants to hear their news anchor say, "Mister Splashy Pants."
所以很明显。网民喜欢喷水先生。这名字很棒。大家都想在电视或广播上听到“喷水先生”。
I think that's what helped drive this. What was cool were the repercussions. Greenpeace created an entire marketing campaign around it -- Mister Splashy Pants shirts and pins, an e-card so you could send your friend a dancing Splashy. But even more important was that they accomplished their mission. The Japanese government called off their whaling expedition. Mission accomplished: Greenpeace was thrilled, the whales were happy -- that's a quote.
我觉得这也是原动力之一。但更酷的是现在绿色和平的对应，他们将之彻底市场化了。他们卖喷水先生T恤和胸章。他们甚至开发了一种电子贺卡，让你可以把跳舞的喷水先生发给你的朋友。但更重要的是他们真的完成了他们的任务。日本政府叫停了他们的捕鲸考察。使命达成。绿色和平很激动。鲸鱼们很开心。引用一下。
And actually, Redditors in the Internet community were happy to participate, but they weren't whale lovers. A few, certainly, but we're talking about a lot of people, really interested and caught up in this meme. Greenpeace came back to the site and thanked Reddit for its participation. But this wasn't really altruism; just interest in doing something cool.
实际上，网络社区中的Redditor们喜欢凑热闹，但他们并不真的热爱鲸鱼。可能有一些是。但大多数人只是对这个热闹感兴趣并且趋之若鹜。绿色和平的人到这个网站来感谢Reddit们的参与。但这种参与其实不是出于利他主义。只是大家都想做点很酷的事儿而已。
This is how the Internet works. This is that great big secret. The Internet provides a level playing field. Your link is as good as your link, which is as good as my link. With a browser, anyone can get to any website no matter your budget. That is, as long as you can keep net neutrality in place.
这就是互联网世界的规则。这就是互联网的大秘密。因为网络提供了一个人人平等的游乐场。你的链接和（转向另一观众）你的一样有价值，我的也是一样。只要你有一个浏览器。不管财力大小任何人都能访问任何网站。只要网络能保持它的中立性。
Another important thing is it costs nothing to get content online. There are so many publishing tools available, it only takes a few minutes to produce something. and the cost of iteration is so cheap, you might as well.
另一个很重要的点是在网络上浏览内容现在不用花任何额外费用。我们有太多厉害的网络发布工具。现在几分钟就可以有所创造。重复操作是如此简单，你也许会想也试一把。
If you do, be genuine. Be honest, up-front. One of the great lessons Greenpeace learned is that it's OK to lose control, OK to take yourself a little less seriously, given that, even though it's a very serious cause, you could ultimately achieve your goal. That's the final message I want to share: you can do well online. But no longer is the message coming from just the top down. If you want to succeed you've got to be OK to lose control. Thank you.
如果你真的想做，请保持真诚。请实话实说。请敏锐前卫。而且绿色和平实际上学到了很重要的一课，那就是失控，其实没什么大不了。不把自己太当回事也没什么大不了。了解了这个，即使这本身是挺不得了的道理，你最终就能实现你的目标。这也是我想与大家分享的最后一个秘诀——就是上网也能做大事。但秘诀并不再是大人物掌控一切。若想成功，面对失控的情形你要心态平和。谢谢大家。
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TED学院合集
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