口译中级辅导：美国总统奥巴马2011年国情咨文_第3页

　　Today, with the help of a government loan, that empty space is being used to manufacture solar shingles that are being sold all across the country. In Robert’s words, “We reinvented ourselves.”

　　今天，在政府贷款的帮助下，空闲的厂房被用于制造销往全球各地的太阳能电池板。用罗伯特的话说：“我们再造了自己。”

　　That’s what Americans have done for over two hundred years: reinvented ourselves. And to spur on more success stories like the Allen Brothers, we’ve begun to reinvent our energy policy. We’re not just handing out money. We’re issuing a challenge. We’re telling America’s scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we’ll fund the Apollo Projects of our time.

　　这就是美国人在过去两百多年里一直在做的事情，再造自我。为了推动更多像阿伦兄弟这样的成功故事，我们已开始再造我们的能源政策。我们将不只提供款项，我们还将提供挑战。我们将告诉美国的科学家和工程师，如果他们组建他们领域最好的科学家小组，致力解决清洁能源最困难问题，我们将向我们时代的 “阿波罗项目”提供资金支持。

　　At the California Institute of Technology, they’re developing a way to turn sunlight and water into fuel for our cars. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they’re using supercomputers to get a lot more power out of our nuclear facilities. With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.

　　在加州理工学院，科学家正在寻找一种将太阳光和水转换成汽车燃料的方法。在橡树岭国家实验室，科学家们正在通过超级计算机以使从我们的核设施获得更多能量。在进行更多的研究和激励措施后，我们可以用生物燃料来打破我们对石油的依赖，成为在2015年前首个拥有一百万电动汽车上路的国家。

　　We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.

　　我们需要找到创新背后的要素。为了向创新提供经费支持，我将请求国会取消向石油公司所提供的数十亿美元税款补贴。我不知道你是否注意到这一情况，但石油公司自身运营得很不错。所以，与其向昨天的能源业提供补贴，我们不如投资于未来的能源。

　　Now, clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they’re selling. So tonight, I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: by 2035, 80% of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources. Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all – and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen.

　　现在，清洁能源领域的技术突破只有在业界知道有销售市场的情况下才会转变成清洁能源业的工作岗位。所以，今晚，我想让你们和我一起来制订一个新目标：争取在2035年之前使美国85%的电力供应量来自清洁能源。一些人想要风力和太阳能，其它人想要核电、清洁煤炭和天然气。为了实现这一目标，我们将需要所有这些清洁能源。我呼吁民主党人和共和党人通过合作来实现这一目标。

　　Maintaining our leadership in research and technology is crucial to America’s success. But if we want to win the future – if we want innovation to produce jobs in America and not overseas – then we also have to win the race to educate our kids.

　　保持我们在研究和技术领域的领导地位对于美国的成功至关重要。如果我们想拥抱未来，如果我们想让创新在美国而不是海外创造就业岗位，那么我们必须赢得教育我们孩子的竞赛。

　　Think about it. Over the next ten years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school degree. And yet, as many as a quarter of our students aren’t even finishing high school. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. America has fallen to 9th in the proportion of young people with a college degree. And so the question is whether all of us – as citizens, and as parents – are willing to do what’s necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.

　　思考一下吧，在未来十年，近半数新就业岗位将需要拥有高中以上的教育程度。虽然如此，美国仍有近四分之一的学生甚至未完成中学教育。我们教育和科学的教育质量落后于许多国家。美国年轻人拥有大学学位比例的排行已降至世界第九位。所以问题是，我们所有的人，作为公民，作为父母，是否愿意做那些必要的事情以便让每个孩子都有成功的机会?

　　That responsibility begins not in our classrooms, but in our homes and communities. It’s family that first instills the love of learning in a child. Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair; that success is not a function of fame or PR, but of hard work and discipline.

　　这一责任不仅是在我们的教室内开始的，也是在我们的家庭和社区里开始的。是家庭首先培养了孩子爱好学习的习惯，只有父母在确保关掉电视的情况下，孩子的家庭作业才会完成。我们需要教育我们的孩子，不仅是超级碗比赛的获胜者值得庆祝，那些科学大赛的赢家也应当值得庆祝。成功不是名气或者公共关系所带来的，它是由辛劳的工作和自律造就的。

　　Our schools share this responsibility. When a child walks into a classroom, it should be a place of high expectations and high performance. But too many schools don’t meet this test. That’s why instead of just pouring money into a system that’s not working, we launched a competition called Race to the Top. To all fifty states, we said, “If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we’ll show you the money.”考试网(www．Examw。com)

　　我们的学校也有责任。当一名儿童步入教室，它就应当是一个被寄以厚望和拥有很高教学能力的地方。但是太多的学校未能达到这一标准。这就是为什么我们没有向教育系统注入大笔资金原因，我们启动了一个名为“冲顶赛跑”的竞争。我们对所有50个州说：“如果你们能够向我们展示提高教师质量和学生成就的最具创新力的方案，我们将向你们提供款项。”

　　Race to the Top is the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation. For less than one percent of what we spend on education each year, it has led over 40 states to raise their standards for teaching and learning. These standards were developed, not by Washington, but by Republican and Democratic governors throughout the country. And Race to the Top should be the approach we follow this year as we replace No Child Left Behind with a law that is more flexible and focused on what’s best for our kids.

　　“冲顶赛跑”是我们公共学校在十年内所进行的最有意义的改革。它只使用了不到我们每年教育开支的1%的经费，但它已使40个州提高了教学和学习标准。这些标准不是由华盛顿所决定的，它是由美国各个州的共和党和民主党州长们所决定的。“冲顶赛跑”应当成为我们今年所采取的方法。我们今年将用一个更为灵活、专注于用给我们的孩子带来最大益处的法律来取代《不让一个儿童落后法》。

　　You see, we know what’s possible for our children when reform isn’t just a top-down mandate, but the work of local teachers and principals; school boards and communities.

　　你们应该知道，当改革不仅仅是从上到下的指示时，我们的孩子所能够取得的成绩有多大。改革措施将由当地的教师和校长、校董事会和社区来决定。

　　Take a school like Bruce Randolph in Denver. Three years ago, it was rated one of the worst schools in Colorado; located on turf between two rival gangs. But last May, 97% of the seniors received their diploma. Most will be the first in their family to go to college. And after the first year of the school’s transformation, the principal who made it possible wiped away tears when a student said “Thank you, Mrs. Waters, for showing… that we are smart and we can make it.”

　　以丹佛的布鲁斯·兰多夫学校为例，它在三年前被评为是科罗拉多州最差的学校之一，它位于两个敌对黑帮争夺的地盘内。但在去年五月，该校97%的高三学生获得了毕业证，大多数人将是他们家庭中上大学的第一人。在学校实现转变后的第一年，一位学生的话使这一切成为现实的校长流下了眼泪。这个学生说： “感谢你，威特斯女士，感谢你向我们表明，我们是聪明的，我们能够成功。”