TED演讲稿：探寻美式中餐的由来

2017-06-16 11:49:11来源：网络

　　以下是新东方在线口译网为大家带来的TED演讲稿：探寻美式中餐的由来。TED是美国的一家私有非盈利机构，该机构以它组织的TED大会著称，这个会议的宗旨是“用思想的力量来改变世界”。大家在锻炼雅思听力的时候，也可以学习一下里面的主角们的思维模式，论述方法，希望还能对大家的英语写作有所启迪。

　　Chinese restaurants have played an important role in American history, as a matter of fact. The Cuban missile crisis was resolved in a Chinese restaurant called Yenching Palace in Washington, D.C., which unfortunately is closed now, and about to be turned into Walgreen's. And the house that John Wilkes Booth planned the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is actually also now a Chinese restaurant called Wok 'n Roll, on H Street in Washington.

　　事实上，中国餐馆在美国历史上发挥了很重要的作用。古巴导弹危机是在华盛顿一家名叫“燕京馆”的中餐馆里解决的。很不幸，这家餐馆现在关门了，即将被改建成沃尔格林连锁药店。而约翰·威尔克斯·布斯刺杀林肯总统的那所房子现在也成了一家中餐馆，就是位于华盛顿的“锅和卷”。

　　And if you think about it, a lot of the foods that you think of or we think of or Americans think of as Chinese food are barely recognizable to Chinese, for example: beef with broccoli, egg rolls, General Tso's Chicken, fortune cookies, chop suey, the take-out boxes.

　　如果你仔细想想，就会发现很多你们所认为或我们所认为，或是美国人所认为的中国食物，中国人并不认识。比如西兰花牛肉、蛋卷、左宗棠鸡、幸运饼干、杂碎、外卖盒子。

　　So, the interesting question is, how do you go from fortune cookies being something that is Japanese to being something that is Chinese? Well, the short answer is, we locked up all the Japanese during World War II, including those that made fortune cookies, so that's the time when the Chinese moved in, kind of saw a market opportunity and took over.

　　所以有趣的是，幸运饼干是怎么从日本的东西变成中国的东西的呢?简单地说，我们在二战时扣押了所以的日本人，包括那些做幸运饼干的。这时候，中国人来了，看到了商机，自然就据为己有了。

　　General Tso's Chicken -- which, by the way, in the US Naval Academy is called Admiral Tso's Chicken. I love this dish. The original name in my book was actually called The Long March of General Tso, and he has marched very far indeed, because he is sweet, he is fried, and he is chicken -- all things that Americans love.

　　左宗棠鸡，在美国海军军校被称为左司令鸡。我很喜欢这道菜。在我的书里，这道菜实际上叫左将军的长征，它确实在美国很受欢迎，因为它是甜的，油炸的，是鸡肉做的——全部都是美国人的最爱。

　　So, you know, I realized when I was there, General Tso is kind of a lot like Colonel Sanders in America, in that he's known for chicken and not war. But in China, this guy's actually known for war and not chicken.

　　我意识到左宗棠将军有点像美国的桑德斯上校(肯德基创始人)，因为他是因鸡肉而出名的而不是战争。而在中国，左宗棠确实是因为战争而不是鸡肉闻名的。

　　So it's kind of part of the phenomenon I called spontaneous self-organization, right, where, like in ant colonies, where little decisions made by -- on the micro-level actually have a big impact on the macro-level.

　　这就有点像我所说的自发组织现象。就像在蚂蚁群中，在微观层面上做的小小决定会在宏观层面上产生巨大的影响。

　　And the great innovation of Chicken McNuggets was not nuggetfying them, because that's kind of an easy concept, but the trick behind Chicken McNuggets was, they were able to remove the chicken from the bone in a cost-effective manner, which is why it took so long for other people to copy them.

　　麦乐鸡块的发明并没有给他们带来切实收益，因为这个想法很简单，但麦乐鸡背后的技巧是如何用一种划算的方式来把鸡肉从骨头上剔出来。这就是为什么过了这么久才有人模仿他们。

　　We can think of Chinese restaurants perhaps as Linux: sort of an open source thing, right, where ideas from one person can be copied and propagated across the entire system, that there can be specialized versions of Chinese food, you know, depending on the region.

　　我们可以把中餐馆比作Linux：一种开源系统。一个人的想法可以在整个系统中被复制，被普及。在不同的地区，就有特别版本的中国菜。

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