2024年4月16日发(作者：)

口译文本（一）

2.3 Yo-Yo Ma

Today we’ll meet one of the greatest cellists of our times, Yo-Yo Ma. His career as a

professional cellist spans more than 20 years and over 50 albums. He has been honored for his

music with many awards including an amazing 14 Grammy. He has played on many important

occasions including the Grammy and the Olympics.

Yo-Yo Ma was born in France to Chinese parents who were both musicians. His mother was a

singer, his father, a composer. Yo-Yo Ma gave his first public performance when he was only 5. Four

years later, at the tender age of 9, he was playing at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York, by

which time the family had moved to the US. Yo-Yo Ma pursued his cello studies at the Julliard

School of Music. From there he opted to attend Harvard and got a degree in anthropology. His

experiences at Harvard as well as his multi-cultural background have helped to shape who he is

today.

Today Yo-Yo Ma continues his musical journey, never hesitating to collaborate with musicians of

all genres and from around the world. He is inspired by people and nature. To him, the cello is an

extension of his vocal cords. The most important thing when he plays is to give all of himself all of

the time in a performance, to try to transmit the contents of the music to the audience he is playing

for.

7.2 Prepare for the worst

When nations are faced with great catastrophes, it is common for the accusations to start flying

before the dust settles or any debris has even been cleared.

Commentators are quick to raise a cry over government action or lack thereof, or whether the

disaster could have been averted or its deadly consequences mitigated. This is especially true when

many lives are lost and many more are at stake, and society is forced to cope with something

terrible for the first time.

There is always a steep learning curve when it comes to responding to calamities of this kind,

and Mother Nature does an expert job of keeping us on our toes. The ability to expect the

unexpected should perhaps be considered a necessary virtue for public officials.

The Indian Ocean tsunami that wreaked havoc in southern Thailand and other neighboring

countries is a perfect example of why that is so.

New policies, organizations and procedures will spring up amid the devastation. Expensive new

technologies will be deployed and bureaucrats shuffled around. The world of officialdom will

appear to be in control, actively responding to needs and crises as they arise.

As a society, the people of Thailand have demonstrated that they can come together and help

one another in times of crisis. But we must now work much more resolutely to prepare for possible

disasters, no matter how high or low their probability. We cannot just focus on the next tsunami

because the next big catastrophe could equally well be something totally different and unexpected.

We must prepare for the worst, no matter what form it may take.

7.3 Extreme Sports

In the past, young sportspeople would play hockey or baseball. Today, they want risk and

excitement --- the closer to the edge the better. They snowboard over cliffs and mountain-bike

down steep mountains. They wind-surf near hurricanes, go white-water rafting through rapids, and