為什么演講稿(15篇)

第1篇 ted英語演講稿：我們?yōu)槭裁匆X

簡(jiǎn)介：一生中，我們有三分之一的時(shí)間都在睡眠中度過。關(guān)于睡眠，你又了解多少?睡眠專家russell foster為我們解答為什么要睡覺，以及睡眠對(duì)健康的影響。

what i'd like to do today is talk about one of my favorite subjects, and that is the neuroscience of sleep.

now, there is a sound -- (alarm clock) -- aah, it worked -- a sound that is desperately, desperately familiar to most of us, and of course it's the sound of the alarm clock. and what that truly ghastly, awful sound does is stop the single most important behavioral e_perience that we have, and that's sleep. if you're an average sort of person, 36 percent of your life will be spent asleep, which means that if you live to 90, then 32 years will have been spent entirely asleep.

now what that 32 years is telling us is that sleep at some level is important. and yet, for most of us, we don't give sleep a second thought. we throw it away. we really just don't think about sleep. and so what i'd like to do today is change your views, change your ideas and your thoughts about sleep. and the journey that i want to take you on, we need to start by going back in time.

'enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber.' any ideas who said that? shakespeare's julius caesar. yes, let me give you a few more quotes. 'o sleep, o gentle sleep, nature's soft nurse, how have i frighted thee?' shakespeare again, from -- i won't say it -- the scottish play. [correction: henry iv, part 2] (laughter) from the same time: 'sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.' e_tremely prophetic, by thomas dekker, another elizabethan dramatist.

but if we jump forward 400 years, the tone about sleep changes somewhat. this is from thomas edison, from the beginning of the 20th century. 'sleep is a criminal waste of time and a heritage from our cave days.' bang. (laughter) and if we also jump into the 1980s, some of you may remember that margaret thatcher was reported to have said, 'sleep is for wimps.' and of course the infamous -- what was his name? -- the infamous gordon gekko from 'wall street' said, 'money never sleeps.'

what do we do in the 20th century about sleep? well, of course, we use thomas edison's light bulb to invade the night, and we occupied the dark, and in the process of this occupation, we've treated sleep as an illness, almost. we've treated it as an enemy. at most now, i suppose, we tolerate the need for sleep, and at worst perhaps many of us think of sleep as an illness that needs some sort of a cure. and our ignorance about sleep is really quite profound.

why is it? why do we abandon sleep in our thoughts? well, it's because you don't do anything much while you're asleep, it seems. you don't eat. you don't drink. and you don't have se_. well, most of us anyway. and so therefore it's -- sorry. it's a complete waste of time, right? wrong. actually, sleep is an incredibly important part of our biology, and neuroscientists are beginning to e_plain why it's so very important. so let's move to the brain.

now, here we have a brain. this is donated by a social scientist, and they said they didn't know what it was, or indeed how to use it, so -- (laughter) sorry. so i borrowed it. i don't think they noticed. okay. (laughter)

the point i'm trying to make is that when you're asleep, this thing doesn't shut down. in fact, some areas of the brain are actually more active during the sleep state than during the wake state. the other thing that's really important about sleep is that it doesn't arise from a single structure within the brain, but is to some e_tent a network property, and if we flip the brain on its back -- i love this little bit of spinal cord here -- this bit here is the hypothalamus, and right under there is a whole raft of interesting structures, not least the biological clock. the biological clock tells us when it's good to be up, when it's good to be asleep, and what that structure does is interact with a whole raft of other areas within the hypothalamus, the lateral hypothalamus, the ventrolateral preoptic nuclei. all of those combine, and they send projections down to the brain stem here. the brain stem then projects forward and bathes the corte_, this wonderfully wrinkly bit over here, with neurotransmitters that keep us awake and essentially provide us with our consciousness. so sleep arises from a whole raft of different interactions within the brain, and essentially, sleep is turned on and off as a result of a range of

okay. so where have we got to? we've said that sleep is complicated and it takes 32 years of our life. but what i haven't e_plained is what sleep is about. so why do we sleep? and it won't surprise any of you that, of course, the scientists, we don't have a consensus. there are dozens of different ideas about why we sleep, and i'm going to outline three of those.

the first is sort of the restoration idea, and it's somewhat intuitive. essentially, all the stuff we've burned up during the day, we restore, we replace, we rebuild during the night. and indeed, as an e_planation, it goes back to aristotle, so that's, what, 2,300 years ago. it's gone in and out of fashion. it's fashionable at the moment because what's been shown is that within the brain, a whole raft of genes have been shown to be turned on only during sleep, and those genes are associated with restoration and metabolic pathways. so there's good evidence for the whole restoration hypothesis.

what about energy conservation? again, perhaps intuitive. you essentially sleep to save calories. now, when you do the sums, though, it doesn't really pan out. if you compare an individual who has slept at night, or stayed awake and hasn't moved very much, the energy saving of sleeping is about 110 calories a night. now, that's the equivalent of a hot dog bun. now, i would say that a hot dog bun is kind of a meager return for such a complicated and demanding behavior as sleep. so i'm less convinced by the energy conservation idea.

but the third idea i'm quite attracted to, which is brain processing and memory consolidation. what we know is that, if after you've tried to learn a task, and you sleep-deprive individuals, the ability to learn that task is smashed. it's really hugely attenuated. so sleep and memory consolidation is also very important. however, it's not just the laying down of memory and recalling it. what's turned out to be really e_citing is that our ability to come up with novel solutions to comple_ problems is hugely enhanced by a night of sleep. in fact, it's been estimated to give us a threefold advantage. sleeping at night enhances our creativity. and what seems to be going on is that, in the brain, those neural connections that are important, those synaptic connections that are important, are linked and strengthened, while those that are less important tend to fade away and be less important.

okay. so we've had three e_planations for why we might sleep, and i think the important thing to realize is that the details will vary, and it's probable we sleep for multiple different reasons. but sleep is not an indulgence. it's not some sort of thing that we can take on board rather casually. i think that sleep was once likened to an upgrade from economy to business class, you know, the equiavlent of. it's not even an upgrade from economy to first class. the critical thing to realize is that if you don't sleep, you don't fly. essentially, you never get there, and what's e_traordinary about much of our society these days is that we are desperately sleep-deprived.

so let's now look at sleep deprivation. huge sectors of society are sleep-deprived, and let's look at our sleep-o-meter. so in the 1950s, good data suggests that most of us were getting around about eight hours of sleep a night. nowadays, we sleep one and a half to two hours less every night, so we're in the si_-and-a-half-hours-every-night league. for teenagers, it's worse, much worse. they need nine hours for full brain performance, and many of them, on a school night, are only getting five hours of sleep. it's simply not enough. if we think about other sectors of society, the aged, if you are aged, then your ability to sleep in a single block is somewhat disrupted, and many sleep, again, less than five hours a night. shift work. shift work is e_traordinary, perhaps 20 percent of the working population, and the body clock does not shift to the demands of working at night. it's locked onto the same light-dark cycle as the rest of us. so when the poor old shift worker is going home to try and sleep during the day, desperately tired, the body clock is saying, 'wake up. this is the time to be awake.' so the quality of sleep that you get as a night shift worker is usually very poor, again in that sort of five-hour region. and then, of course, tens of millions of people suffer from jet lag. so who here has jet lag? well, my goodness gracious. well, thank you very much indeed for not falling asleep, because that's what your brain is craving.

one of the things that the brain does is indulge in micro-sleeps, this involuntary falling asleep, and you have essentially no control over it. now, micro-sleeps can be sort of somewhat embarrassing, but they can also be deadly. it's been estimated that 31 percent of drivers will fall asleep at the wheel at least once in their life, and in the u.s., the statistics are pretty good: 100,000 accidents on the freeway have been associated with tiredness, loss of vigilance, and falling asleep. a hundred thousand a year. it's e_traordinary. at another level of terror, we dip into the tragic accidents at chernobyl and indeed the space shuttle challenger, which was so tragically lost. and in the investigations that followed those disasters, poor judgment as a result of e_tended shift work and loss of vigilance and tiredness was attributed to a big chunk of those disasters.

so when you're tired, and you lack sleep, you have poor memory, you have poor creativity, you have increased impulsiveness, and you have overall poor judgment. but my friends, it's so much worse than that.

(laughter)

if you are a tired brain, the brain is craving things to wake it up. so drugs, stimulants. caffeine represents the stimulant of choice across much of the western world. much of the day is fueled by caffeine, and if you're a really naughty tired brain, nicotine. and of course, you're fueling the waking state with these stimulants, and then of course it gets to 11 o'clock at night, and the brain says to itself, 'ah, well actually, i need to be asleep fairly shortly. what do we do about that when i'm feeling completely wired?' well, of course, you then resort to alcohol. now alcohol, short-term, you know, once or twice, to use to mildly sedate you, can be very useful. it can actually ease the sleep transition. but what you must be so aware of is that alcohol doesn't provide sleep, a biological mimic for sleep. it sedates you. so it actually harms some of the neural proccessing that's going on during memory consolidation and memory recall. so it's a short-term acute measure, but for goodness sake, don't become addicted to alcohol as a way of getting to sleep every night.

another connection between loss of sleep is weight gain. if you sleep around about five hours or less every night, then you have a 50 percent likelihood of being obese. what's the connection here? well, sleep loss seems to give rise to the release of the hormone ghrelin, the hunger hormone. ghrelin is released. it gets to the brain. the brain says, 'i need carbohydrates,' and what it does is seek out carbohydrates and particularly sugars. so there's a link between tiredness and the metabolic predisposition for weight gain.

stress. tired people are massively stressed. and one of the things of stress, of course, is loss of memory, which is what i sort of just then had a little lapse of. but stress is so much more. so if you're acutely stressed, not a great problem, but it's sustained stress associated with sleep loss that's the problem. so sustained stress leads to suppressed immunity, and so tired people tend to have higher rates of overall infection, and there's some very good studies showing that shift workers, for e_ample, have higher rates of cancer. increased levels of stress throw glucose into the circulation. glucose becomes a dominant part of the vasculature and essentially you become glucose intolerant. therefore, diabetes 2. stress increases cardiovascular disease as a result of raising blood pressure. so there's a whole raft of things associated with sleep loss that are more than just a mildly impaired brain, which is where i think most people think that sleep loss resides.

so at this point in the talk, this is a nice time to think, well, do you think on the whole i'm getting enough sleep? so a quick show of hands. who feels that they're getting enough sleep here? oh. well, that's pretty impressive. good. we'll talk more about that later, about what are your tips.

so most of us, of course, ask the question, 'well, how do i know whether i'm getting enough sleep?' well, it's not rocket science. if you need an alarm clock to get you out of bed in the morning, if you are taking a long time to get up, if you need lots of stimulants, if you're grumpy, if you're irritable, if you're told by your work colleagues that you're looking tired and irritable, chances are you are sleep-deprived. listen to them. listen to yourself.

what do you do? well -- and this is slightly offensive -- sleep for dummies: make your bedroom a haven for sleep. the first critical thing is make it as dark as you possibly can, and also make it slightly cool. very important. actually, reduce your amount of light e_posure at least half an hour before you go to bed. light increases levels of alertness and will delay sleep. what's the last thing that most of us do before we go to bed? we stand in a massively lit bathroom looking into the mirror cleaning our teeth. it's the worst thing we can possibly do before we went to sleep. turn off those mobile phones. turn off those computers. turn off all of those things that are also going to e_cite the brain. try not to drink caffeine too late in the day, ideally not after lunch. now, we've set about reducing light e_posure before you go to bed, but light e_posure in the morning is very good at setting the biological clock to the light-dark cycle. so seek out morning light. basically, listen to yourself. wind down. do those sorts of things that you know are going to ease you off into the honey-heavy dew of slumber.

okay. that's some facts. what about some myths?

teenagers are lazy. no. poor things. they have a biological predisposition to go to bed late and get up late, so give them a break.

we need eight hours of sleep a night. that's an average. some people need more. some people need less. and what you need to do is listen to your body. do you need that much or do you need more? simple as that.

old people need less sleep. not true. the sleep demands of the aged do not go down. essentially, sleep fragments and becomes less robust, but sleep requirements do not go down.

and the fourth myth is, early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. well that's wrong at so many different levels. (laughter) there is no, no evidence that getting up early and going to bed early gives you more wealth at all. there's no difference in socioeconomic status. in my e_perience, the only difference between morning people and evening people is that those people that get up in the morning early are just horribly smug.

(laughter) (applause)

okay. so for the last part, the last few minutes, what i want to do is change gears and talk about some really new, breaking areas of neuroscience, which is the association between mental health, mental illness and sleep disruption. we've known for 130 years that in severe mental illness, there is always, always sleep disruption, but it's been largely ignored. in the 1970s, when people started to think about this again, they said, 'yes, well, of course you have sleep disruption in schizophrenia because they're on anti-psychotics. it's the anti-psychotics causing the sleep problems,' ignoring the fact that for a hundred years previously, sleep disruption had been reported before anti-psychotics.

so what's going on? lots of groups, several groups are studying conditions like depression, schizophrenia and bipolar, and what's going on in terms of sleep disruption. we have a big study which we published last year on schizophrenia, and the data were quite e_traordinary. in those individuals with schizophrenia, much of the time, they were awake during the night phase and then they were asleep during the day. other groups showed no 24-hour patterns whatsoever. their sleep was absolutely smashed. and some had no ability to regulate their sleep by the light-dark cycle. they were getting up later and later and later and later each night. it was smashed.

so what's going on? and the really e_citing news is that mental illness and sleep are not simply associated but they are physically linked within the brain. the neural networks that predispose you to normal sleep, give you normal sleep, and those that give you normal mental health are overlapping. and what's the evidence for that? well, genes that have been shown to be very important in the generation of normal sleep, when mutated, when changed, also predispose individuals to mental health problems. and last year, we published a study which showed that a gene that's been linked to schizophrenia, which, when mutated, also smashes the sleep. so we have evidence of a genuine mechanistic overlap between these two important systems.

other work flowed from these studies. the first was that sleep disruption actually precedes certain types of mental illness, and we've shown that in those young individuals who are at high risk of developing bipolar disorder, they already have a sleep abnormality prior to any clinical diagnosis of bipolar. the other bit of data was that sleep disruption may actually e_acerbate, make worse the mental illness state. my colleague dan freeman has used a range of agents which have stabilized sleep and reduced levels of paranoia in those individuals by 50 percent.

so what have we got? we've got, in these connections, some really e_citing things. in terms of the neuroscience, by understanding the neuroscience of these two systems, we're really beginning to understand how both sleep and mental illness are generated and regulated within the brain. the second area is that if we can use sleep and sleep disruption as an early warning signal, then we have the chance of going in. if we know that these individuals are vulnerable, early intervention then becomes possible. and the third, which i think is the most e_citing, is that we can think of the sleep centers within the brain as a new therapeutic target. stabilize sleep in those individuals who are vulnerable, we can certainly make them healthier, but also alleviate some of the appalling symptoms of mental illness.

so let me just finish. what i started by saying is take sleep seriously. our attitudes toward sleep are so very different from a pre-industrial age, when we were almost wrapped in a duvet. we used to understand intuitively the importance of sleep. and this isn't some sort of crystal-waving nonsense. this is a pragmatic response to good health. if you have good sleep, it increases your concentration, attention, decision-making, creativity, social skills, health. if you get sleep, it reduces your mood changes, your stress, your levels of anger, your impulsivity, and your tendency to drink and take drugs. and we finished by saying that an understanding of the neuroscience of sleep is really informing the way we think about some of the causes of mental illness, and indeed is providing us new ways to treat these incredibly debilitating conditions.

jim butcher, the fantasy writer, said, 'sleep is god. go worship.' and i can only recommend that you do the same.

thank you for your attention.

(applause)

第2篇 我為什么添光彩演講稿范文

各位評(píng)委、在座的各位朋友們：

大家好！我演講的題目是《我為__添光彩》。

今天站在這里我很高興，高興的是能夠站在這里表達(dá)我的滿腔熱情；我很自豪，自豪的是我正在為__的發(fā)展增光添彩。

我們的__位于中國(guó)五大淡水湖之一的__湖畔，是蘇北著名的湖濱生態(tài)旅游城市，聞名遐邇的“魚米之鄉(xiāng)”，素有“水鄉(xiāng)澤國(guó)、人間仙境”的美譽(yù)。一年前，躊躇滿志的我，懷著興奮和渴望的心情來到了這里。

我是組織部的一名工作人員，也是一名外地來__工作的大學(xué)生。剛工作時(shí)，我也有過理想與現(xiàn)實(shí)落差的憂郁和彷徨，也有過工作和生活失落和苦悶。常常還會(huì)有人問，你一個(gè)大學(xué)生怎么到__來了，怎么不去蘇南大城市發(fā)展，加上環(huán)境的不適應(yīng)帶來的煩躁不安，當(dāng)初的那份喜悅也漸漸消失。每每此時(shí)，我就在思索著自己的人生。直到有一天，我才明白，其實(shí)我是缺少精神支柱和理想，工作才沒有方向，感到一片茫然。生活，不是缺少精彩，而是需要?jiǎng)?chuàng)造精彩。

著名的黎巴嫩詩(shī)人紀(jì)伯倫在他的首中曾經(jīng)這么說過:生活是黑暗的,除非有了渴望；所有渴望都是盲目的,除非有了知識(shí)；一切知識(shí)都是徒然的,除非有了工作；所有工作都是空虛的,除非有了愛。是啊，當(dāng)我們帶著愛工作時(shí)，我們就會(huì)與自己與他人、與社會(huì)合為一體！掩卷沉思，自己的理想都跑到哪里去了呢？我絕不能這樣飽食終日嗎？我暗暗下定決心，一定把自己的工作當(dāng)做生活的樂趣，一定要對(duì)自己的工作投入更多的愛，一定要為自己腳踏的這塊土地、為自己的第二故鄉(xiāng)做點(diǎn)什么！

也許有人會(huì)說，一個(gè)人的力量那么渺小，又能怎么樣呢？的確，一個(gè)人的力量往往微不足道，但是如果每個(gè)渺小的我們都能付出自己最大的努力，那么我們終能積跬步以至千里，積小流以成江河！我一名普通的組工干部，惟有干好平凡的工作，不懈的努力。努力就意味著要立足崗位，從本職工作做起，從身邊小事做起。對(duì)待群眾時(shí)做到“一把椅子讓人，一杯開水敬人，一句好話暖人，一張笑臉迎人，一顆誠(chéng)心感人，一股正氣激人”，即便這是平凡的小事，但這卻是我對(duì)工作的愛，對(duì)洪澤的愛，對(duì)我腳踏的第二故鄉(xiāng)的愛！

人最寶貴的是青春，當(dāng)回憶往事的時(shí)候，不能因?yàn)樘摱饶耆A而悔恨，也不因碌碌無為而羞恥。不錯(cuò)，與蘇南經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)達(dá)地區(qū)相比，我們__的確屬于次發(fā)達(dá)地區(qū)。但是，這不能成為我們停滯不前的理由，相反更應(yīng)該成為我們迎追趕超、勇往直前的動(dòng)力。眾所周知，我們的__擁有豐富的芒硝、地?zé)豳Y源，元明粉年產(chǎn)量居亞洲第一、世界第二。__盛產(chǎn)魚、蝦、蟹等各種水產(chǎn)品，生態(tài)農(nóng)業(yè)獨(dú)具特色。短短幾年，我們的工業(yè)經(jīng)濟(jì)也突飛猛進(jìn)，配套設(shè)施齊全的工業(yè)園區(qū)業(yè)已成為新的經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)點(diǎn)。這豐富的資源，這迅猛的發(fā)展勢(shì)頭，難道不應(yīng)該成為我們加快發(fā)展的理由嗎？這一切的一切不正是由我們__千千萬萬平凡勤勞的人們一點(diǎn)一滴創(chuàng)造出來的嗎？看到這些，我們這些知識(shí)青年還有什么理由自怨自艾，有什么理由虛度光陰呢？

如果__是一只展翅待飛的天鵝，我愿做天鵝翅膀上一片小小的羽毛，為天鵝的振翅高飛帶來一份力量；如果說__是一條出水的蛟龍，我愿做蛟龍身上的一片鱗光，為騰飛的蛟龍帶來燦爛的光芒。

不必走遍中華大地，身居__，就能感受到黨的春光。一座座高樓大廈拔地而起。一條條鄉(xiāng)村水泥路鋪設(shè)而成。一戶戶漁民笑逐顏開。看著這么大好的形勢(shì)，我們?cè)跄懿粸橹駣^？

未來在我們面前鋪就了一張白紙，大筆揮就了__遼闊壯美的遠(yuǎn)景，剩下的圖畫將由我們來增光添彩。要想這幅畫美輪美奐，每枝畫筆都得廣集丹青，細(xì)細(xì)調(diào)制，今天、明天以及明天的明天，我愿揮灑我的汗水，用青春和智慧，為__光輝的未來涂抹上最亮麗的色彩！

我的演講完了，謝謝大家！

第3篇 ted英語演講稿：為什么_代表未知？

i have the answer to a question that we've all asked. the question is, why is it that the letter _ represents the unknown? now i know we learned that in math class, but now it's everywhere in the culture -- the _ prize, the _-files, project _, ted_. where'd that come from?

about si_ years ago i decided that i would learn arabic, which turns out to be a supremely logical language. to write a word or a phrase or a sentence in arabic is like crafting an equation, because every part is e_tremely precise and carries a lot of information. that's one of the reasons so much of what we've come to think of as western science and mathematics and engineering was really worked out in the first few centuries of the common era by the persians and the arabs and the turks.

this includes the little system in arabic called al-jebra. and al-jebr roughly translates to 'the system for reconciling disparate parts.' al-jebr finally came into english as algebra. one e_ample among many.

the arabic te_ts containing this mathematical wisdom finally made their way to europe -- which is to say spain -- in the 11th and 12th centuries. and when they arrived there was tremendous interest in translating this wisdom into a european language.

but there were problems. one problem is there are some sounds in arabic that just don't make it through a european voice bo_ without lots of practice. trust me on that one. also, those very sounds tend not to be represented by the characters that are available in european languages.

here's one of the culprits. this is the letter sheen, and it makes the sound we think of as sh -- 'sh.' it's also the very first letter of the word shalan, which means 'something' just like the the english word 'something' -- some undefined, unknown thing.

now in arabic, we can make this definite by adding the definite article 'al.' so this is al-shalan -- the unknown thing. and this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics, such as this 10th century derivation of proofs.

the problem for the medieval spanish scholars who were tasked with translating this material is that the letter sheen and the word shalan can't be rendered into spanish because spanish doesn't have that sh, that 'sh' sound. so by convention, they created a rule in which they borrowed the ck sound, 'ck' sound, from the classical greek in the form of the letter kai.

later when this material was translated into a common european language, which is to say latin, they simply replaced the greek kai with the latin _. and once that happened, once this material was in latin, it formed the basis for mathematics te_tbooks for almost 600 years.

but now we have the answer to our question. why is it that _ is the unknown? _ is the unknown because you can't say 'sh' in spanish. (laughter) and i thought that was worth sharing.

(applause)

第4篇 人類為什么要做人造太陽的演講稿范文

我們?nèi)祟惖淖匀荒茉矗蠹s還能用兩三百年，即使是核能也是數(shù)百年的時(shí)間。我覺得能源危機(jī)帶來一個(gè)很大的問題，不光是能源本身，還有霧霾，就是環(huán)境的變化，那么未來一定要有更好的清潔能源?？茖W(xué)家做了大量的研究，一種方法是可再生，就像太陽能、風(fēng)能，但是它們有一個(gè)缺點(diǎn)就是不是你想要多少就能來多少，沒有太陽就沒有太陽能，沒有風(fēng)就沒有風(fēng)能，所以人類未來最終的解決途徑就是核聚變，太陽就是一個(gè)巨大的聚變體，幾十億年為人類提供了光、熱。那么我們?cè)趺床拍軐?shí)現(xiàn)可控的聚變呢？科學(xué)家想了很多種方法，希望在地球上實(shí)現(xiàn)“人造太陽”這一夢(mèng)想。如果這個(gè)愿望成真，那么我們從海水里提取一杯氘，它就可以產(chǎn)出三百公升汽油這么大的能量。而且聚變非常干凈，因?yàn)榫圩兙褪前褍蓚€(gè)氫核放在一起，當(dāng)溫度到了上億度以后，它們就會(huì)聚合在一起，出來的一個(gè)是能量，一個(gè)是氦，氦是清潔的。在過去的幾年中，我們就開始了中國(guó)“人造太陽”之夢(mèng)，大家可以看一看，這個(gè)堆叫中國(guó)工程聚變熱核實(shí)驗(yàn)堆，是我本人設(shè)計(jì)的。這個(gè)裝置的托卡馬克就放在那個(gè)主機(jī)里面，在紅色的主機(jī)的中間，周邊是發(fā)電的功能。這一個(gè)裝置代表著中華民族騰飛和人類實(shí)現(xiàn)聚變的夢(mèng)想，像一個(gè)展翅的大鵬。這就是一個(gè)完整的托卡馬克“人造太陽”裝置，我們做了30年。

為什么我去做這件事？我是1982年大學(xué)畢業(yè)，在大學(xué)里學(xué)習(xí)很好，高一就上大學(xué)，二十歲大學(xué)畢業(yè)。我有個(gè)習(xí)慣就是每個(gè)禮拜五的下午到圖書館看書，那時(shí)候還沒有網(wǎng)絡(luò)。有一天我找到了一個(gè)小冊(cè)子，就講托卡馬克，總共就12頁(yè)。我當(dāng)年在上學(xué)的時(shí)候，王元院士到我們學(xué)校去上課，就說看書要從薄到厚，從厚到薄，這是你們大學(xué)里都要做的一件事情。這個(gè)小冊(cè)子我看了三遍，從薄到厚，從厚到薄，就是看不懂，不知道什么是托卡馬克，我就問老師，老師說這是個(gè)好東西，有可能在未來的30年左右發(fā)電。我就勵(lì)志去做這件事情，所以我就考了研究生，考到了我們這個(gè)科學(xué)島上。那是一個(gè)很漂亮的島，在一個(gè)人造湖的中間。去學(xué)了以后我就發(fā)現(xiàn)，非常非常復(fù)雜，每天都有新東西，越學(xué)越覺得很有味道。我覺得這應(yīng)該是我做的一件事情，覺得自己很幸運(yùn)。聚變是人類的夢(mèng)想，國(guó)家的需求和我作為科學(xué)家的興趣，這些有機(jī)地結(jié)合在了一起。所以這件事情，我一直做了34年，現(xiàn)在還在做。

我相信你們?cè)谧母魑豢赡芤膊恢朗裁词峭锌R克。大家都知道核聚變就是氫彈，實(shí)現(xiàn)氫彈也不是非常容易的，它的條件是要實(shí)現(xiàn)上億度。我們有什么辦法能夠盛裝一團(tuán)上億度的火球呢？如果我們可以用磁場(chǎng)把這一團(tuán)火球懸浮起來，那么這時(shí)候就有可能繼續(xù)給它加熱，蘇聯(lián)人把這種方法叫做托卡馬克。大家看過《鋼鐵俠》吧，《鋼鐵俠》里面就有一個(gè)這樣的裝置，中間的這個(gè)球不是用有形的東西做的，而是用磁場(chǎng)把它做起來，那些發(fā)光的東西就能夠把它懸浮起來。溫度再高，只要通過懸浮，不碰到材料，那么就不會(huì)被燒化。這個(gè)時(shí)候我們就不斷地再給它加熱，等達(dá)到了上億度以后它就產(chǎn)生能量。這就是磁約束，這個(gè)磁場(chǎng)，這個(gè)環(huán)境，就叫托卡馬克。

從1958年以后，全世界都在做托卡馬克。蘇聯(lián)人在70年代末做了一個(gè)叫t7的半超導(dǎo)托卡馬克，90年代初，他們要做一個(gè)更先進(jìn)的作為第二代，他們希望把第一代裝置送到其他國(guó)家。我們的前所長(zhǎng)是霍裕平院士，他一聽到這個(gè)消息，立刻就說中國(guó)做聚變，不是為了科學(xué)家寫幾個(gè)報(bào)告，中國(guó)做聚變是為了真正解決我們一百年、兩百年后的能源問題，所以我們一定要做超導(dǎo)。他很快就跟卡達(dá)姆柴夫聯(lián)系上了，就是俄羅斯的一個(gè)科學(xué)院的院士?；衾蠋熅吞岢鰜碛蒙钣闷贰⒂鸾q服、牛仔褲、瓷器，大約四百萬人民幣去跟他換。再加上一起聊天的過程中，喝點(diǎn)伏特加，大家情緒都很高，很快就達(dá)成了協(xié)議，對(duì)方愿意把價(jià)值1800萬盧布的第一個(gè)托卡馬克送給我們中國(guó)。

因?yàn)榭茖W(xué)無國(guó)界，我們想去做這件事情，就一定要站在巨人的肩膀上。大家可以看到這個(gè)裝置，在運(yùn)之前，我們把它所有的部件都拆了下來。為了做這件事情，我們所長(zhǎng)用了我們?nèi)舷聝赡甑墓べY，總共有四百萬，我們就勒緊褲腰帶。做聚變這件事，一個(gè)人是不行的，一定需要一個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)。我們這個(gè)合肥超環(huán)做成了以后拍了一張照片，你們能找到我在哪兒?jiǎn)幔恐虚g的那個(gè)站在猴山上的，唯一穿西服的就是我。我一直說一點(diǎn)，這個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)要相互支持，相護(hù)幫助，最重要的一件事情還要相互欣賞，你看到一個(gè)人都不喜歡他，都不欣賞他，在一起合作，這是不可能的事情。

經(jīng)過三年半的時(shí)間，我們終于建成了這么一個(gè)裝置，我們?cè)谏厦孀隽撕芏嗪芏嗟膶?shí)驗(yàn)。應(yīng)該說比蘇聯(lián)科學(xué)家做得要好很多。蘇聯(lián)科學(xué)家當(dāng)時(shí)只是驗(yàn)證低溫工程跟托卡馬克是能夠用的，所以它只有一秒鐘的時(shí)間，大約一千萬度。我們?cè)谶@個(gè)裝置上最高的溫度做到了五千萬度幾秒鐘，然后在一千兩百萬度的情況下，時(shí)間達(dá)到了最長(zhǎng)的四百秒鐘，比法國(guó)人做得還好。

但是這還遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠，我剛才說要真的實(shí)現(xiàn)聚變的話要到上億度，需要更長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間，必須做新一代的全超導(dǎo)托卡馬克。2006年的時(shí)候，我們第一次建成了一個(gè)全超導(dǎo)托卡馬克，里面有很多艱辛，有些關(guān)鍵的部件當(dāng)時(shí)是進(jìn)口俄羅斯的，壞了以后我們自己也不會(huì)修，所以要請(qǐng)俄羅斯專家來修。一修的話就有很多困難，我記得有一次，專家來了以后，一下飛機(jī)，大約在下午5點(diǎn)半的時(shí)候，我們把他接到現(xiàn)場(chǎng)，但是他非常不情愿，他說：“我餓了，”我說：“行，我請(qǐng)你吃飯?！闭?qǐng)吃飯后他又說：“我要喝伏特加，”“行”，我說。我也不太擅長(zhǎng)喝伏特加，就陪他喝了。喝完伏特加以后，他還說不行，他說：“我已經(jīng)坐了十幾個(gè)小時(shí)的飛機(jī)，很辛苦，我要去睡覺。”然后我們幾百人就眼睜睜地看著他吃飽了又去睡覺，我們就在那等。所以從那時(shí)起，我們這些人的心里就在想關(guān)鍵技術(shù)部分一定要百分之百國(guó)產(chǎn)化，最關(guān)鍵的部件我們一定要自己做。

我們做了很多很多研究，比如說用什么方法加熱到上億度，大家都知道加熱最方便的方法是微波爐，把飯放進(jìn)微波爐一分鐘就熱了。這是全世界最大的微波爐，是我們自己做的，整個(gè)加在一起有六個(gè)兆瓦，六個(gè)兆瓦是什么概念？比平常家里五百瓦到六百瓦的微波爐大一萬倍以上。用它連續(xù)不斷地對(duì)這一團(tuán)火球進(jìn)行加熱，加到上億度，去年的時(shí)候我們就做成了。這個(gè)裝置我們團(tuán)隊(duì)花了將近十五年的心血做到現(xiàn)在，我很自豪地告訴你們，在這個(gè)裝置的周邊，幾乎每一個(gè)部件都是我們自己做的。

有了這個(gè)東西我們就開始一步一步地，從幾秒鐘到十幾秒鐘到幾百秒鐘。我們?cè)谏蟼€(gè)月做到了一百秒鐘五千萬度這么一個(gè)參數(shù)，五千萬度什么概念？比太陽心部的溫度還要高三倍。我跟你們說這些東西的時(shí)候，實(shí)際上背后藏著很多的艱辛。我這一輩子，大約做了將近二十萬次人造太陽的實(shí)驗(yàn)，有將近四萬次失敗了。失敗是什么結(jié)果？東西燒壞，打得火星四冒，就像煙花一樣。正是因?yàn)檫@一次次的失敗才鑄造了我們一步一步地往前走，這是一個(gè)非常漫長(zhǎng)的過程。盡管一百秒離一千秒鐘，離一萬秒鐘的距離還很大，但是我們一直要做。

正是由于聚變這件事情的重要性，所以全世界也都在做，不光是中國(guó)人，從1985年開始就在想做這件事。全世界七方聯(lián)合起來，歐盟二十七個(gè)國(guó)家算一方，第二方是日本，第三方是俄羅斯，第四方是美國(guó)，第五方是中國(guó)，第六方是韓國(guó)，最后印度也加入了進(jìn)來，建造的這個(gè)托卡馬克，我們叫國(guó)際熱核聚變實(shí)驗(yàn)堆。我想說一個(gè)小故事，談判的時(shí)候，有很多廠址，就像奧運(yùn)會(huì)一樣。日本人希望拉動(dòng)我們?nèi)ブС炙褟S址選在日本，為此來了很多很多代表團(tuán)。第一次來的時(shí)候說，如果你支持我們的話，那么我們可以給你百分之十的高層位置，我們說不行，我們依賴于科學(xué)，不依賴于位置。第二次又來了，說你們所有到我們這個(gè)地方的房租我們?nèi)赓M(fèi)，而且給你們的太太免費(fèi)找工作。大家知道日本婦女一般是沒有工作的，但是他們知道中國(guó)的女同志是有工作的，我們還是說不行。第三次說，你們只要同意，我們可以給你百分之十的回扣，就是再給你百分之十的東西讓你們?nèi)プ觥Ｗ詈笪覀円还擦谐鰜砹耸?xiàng)技術(shù)指標(biāo)，三項(xiàng)日本是不占優(yōu)的，第一件事就是地震，廠址那地方有大量的地震；第二有美軍基地，旁邊美軍基地的導(dǎo)彈經(jīng)常誤發(fā)在周邊；第三沒有技術(shù)指標(biāo)，他們也是啞口無言，最后我們一致同意選擇在法國(guó)。我說這個(gè)故事為什么呢？就是科學(xué)家做事情，一定要在國(guó)家需要你的時(shí)候，勇敢地站出來，為國(guó)家擔(dān)當(dāng)。

講了那么多，也不知道大家聽懂了沒有，但是有一點(diǎn)，我覺得聚變是一個(gè)值得我們?cè)賷^斗很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的東西。我已經(jīng)做了三十四年，很多人說可能還需要五十年，還需要一百年。我覺得這都沒有關(guān)系，我長(zhǎng)期以來有這么一個(gè)夢(mèng)想，就是在我的有生之年，有一盞燈泡能被聚變之能所點(diǎn)亮，這一盞燈泡一定要也只能在中國(guó)。

謝謝大家。

第5篇 入黨為什么，我為黨做了什么演講稿

入黨為什么，為黨做什么演講稿

執(zhí)法維權(quán)黨支部 鄧潤(rùn)林

大家上午好！感謝大家，讓我能在這次“入黨為什么，為黨做什么”的專題演講中有表達(dá)自己的機(jī)會(huì)。說實(shí)話，站在這里，我非常緊張，不僅因?yàn)檫@是我第一次站在這里，更是因?yàn)槲乙鎸?duì)眾多閱歷比我深、見識(shí)比我廣的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)和同事來談一個(gè)很大的話題。下面我從三個(gè)層次來談?wù)勎覀€(gè)人的粗淺認(rèn)識(shí)，不當(dāng)之處請(qǐng)各位領(lǐng)導(dǎo)和同事批評(píng)指正。

我是在讀研究生的時(shí)候入黨的，在上大學(xué)時(shí)我們班級(jí)只有三四個(gè)黨員，那時(shí)候入黨對(duì)我來說還是一件遙遠(yuǎn)的事情。但是一進(jìn)入研究生班，我們班48個(gè)人就有30多個(gè)黨員，黨員成為我們班級(jí)的主流群體。那時(shí)候，我們班黨支部的活動(dòng)開展的有聲有色，黨組織成員有許多學(xué)習(xí)和交流的機(jī)會(huì)，而我作為一個(gè)群眾，經(jīng)常被邀請(qǐng)參加黨組織的活動(dòng)，并給了我很多鍛煉和成長(zhǎng)的機(jī)會(huì)，在潛移默化中就很自然的成為了其中名正言順的一員。我為什么入黨，最根本的還是緣于我對(duì)______及共產(chǎn)主義思想的認(rèn)同。

但是，對(duì)于共產(chǎn)黨及其堅(jiān)持的共產(chǎn)主義思想，我經(jīng)歷了一個(gè)由淺入深的認(rèn)識(shí)過程。思想?yún)R報(bào)專題最初，我是從歷史資料上了解到，______領(lǐng)導(dǎo)中國(guó)人民取得了新民主主義革命和社會(huì)主義革命的偉大勝利，并開展了大刀闊斧的社會(huì)主義改革，共產(chǎn)黨在我心中就是人民的救世主，是我心目中的英雄。后來，我開始思考，歷史為什么會(huì)從眾多的政黨中選擇共產(chǎn)黨？自古以來，成王敗寇，青梅煮酒論英雄。成功者自有其成功的理由，必然具有獨(dú)到和值得稱道的地方。共產(chǎn)黨能在革命與建設(shè)中脫穎而出，不是偶然，而是歷史的必然選擇。歷史為什么會(huì)這樣選擇呢？這還得從共產(chǎn)主義思想說起。

什么樣的文化理念就會(huì)造就什么樣的政黨，共產(chǎn)黨的先進(jìn)性就在于他堅(jiān)持的共產(chǎn)主義思想文化理念具有與生俱來的先進(jìn)性，在于馬列思想揭示的是社會(huì)發(fā)展的客觀規(guī)律，而一脈相承的毛澤東思想、鄧小平理論、三個(gè)代表以及后來的科學(xué)發(fā)展觀是馬列思想在中國(guó)具體實(shí)踐中的發(fā)展和應(yīng)用，都是順應(yīng)民心，符合廣大人民群眾的最根本利益，符合自然和社會(huì)發(fā)展規(guī)律的。酷貓寫作范文網(wǎng)科學(xué)發(fā)展觀強(qiáng)調(diào)和諧，堅(jiān)持人與自然的和諧發(fā)展，堅(jiān)持經(jīng)濟(jì)與社會(huì)的和諧發(fā)展，這也是共產(chǎn)黨在各種客觀規(guī)律中尋找平衡點(diǎn)的嘗試和探索。

在許多地方，毛主席被作為神敬仰和膜拜。中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)文化認(rèn)為，神即道，道法自然，毛主席的高明之處也許就在于能認(rèn)清規(guī)律并利用規(guī)律做事情。尊重規(guī)律，按規(guī)律辦事，順勢(shì)而為，這就是歷史的選擇。

具體到我們的知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)事業(yè)，隨著經(jīng)濟(jì)全球化和社會(huì)發(fā)展，知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)必將成為企業(yè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)乃至國(guó)家競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的有力武器，誰擁有了核心知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)，誰就掌握了行業(yè)的制高點(diǎn)，也就在市場(chǎng)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)中擁有了話語權(quán)。隨著知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)成為市場(chǎng)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)無法回避的話題，海外知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)摩擦與爭(zhēng)端必將加劇，不可否認(rèn)，我國(guó)目前的知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)狀況與發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家相比還有很大的差距，但是，外有壓力，內(nèi)有需求，知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)事業(yè)必將進(jìn)入一個(gè)高速發(fā)展的階段。這也許還有一個(gè)時(shí)間的問題，但這是由經(jīng)濟(jì)和社會(huì)發(fā)展規(guī)律決定的必然趨勢(shì)和走向。

我能為黨做什么呢？對(duì)我而言，最基本的要求就是做好本職工作，從身邊的小事做起，從細(xì)微處做起。我所在的知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)維權(quán)援助和項(xiàng)目受理窗口是知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)局接近群眾的第一道窗口，也是一個(gè)最接地氣的服務(wù)群眾的平臺(tái)。在人來人往，不知不覺中就會(huì)給人知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)局的最初印象。因此，我必須謹(jǐn)言慎行，規(guī)范自己言談舉止，利用專利解答別人的咨詢，甚至我還需要耐心傾聽別人的抱怨，也可能要分享別人從發(fā)明創(chuàng)造中獲得的快樂。范文top100我承擔(dān)的另一項(xiàng)工作是知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)項(xiàng)目申報(bào)，文件制定與具體執(zhí)行處室如何明確職責(zé)分工，如何溝通協(xié)作，方便申報(bào)單位和個(gè)人，切實(shí)解決項(xiàng)目申報(bào)過程中出現(xiàn)的各類問題，提高工作效率，這都是值得思考，并且下一步應(yīng)當(dāng)解決的問題，也是貫徹黨的群眾路線，為民辦實(shí)事的要求。而在處理知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)維權(quán)援助案件中，站在為民服務(wù)的角度，我們有必要規(guī)范案件的受理文件和條件，進(jìn)一步完善案件的部門移送體系，給維權(quán)請(qǐng)求人或投訴人一個(gè)滿意的答復(fù)。這不只是完成工作任務(wù)，更是在為民眾服務(wù)的過程中體現(xiàn)這項(xiàng)工作的價(jià)值。在司法鑒定工作方面，可以利用今年的考評(píng)評(píng)價(jià)的機(jī)會(huì)，完善相關(guān)制度，在制度設(shè)計(jì)時(shí)更多的融入為民服務(wù)的思想。

我原來在企業(yè)工作，也幫朋友打理過一家小企業(yè)，我為客戶提供過服務(wù)，也作為客戶享受過別人的服務(wù)，其中讓我感觸很深的是，真正的站在客戶的角度想問題，為客戶考慮，客戶是能感受得到的，最終打動(dòng)并贏得客戶的并非所謂的營(yíng)銷技巧，而是用真心為客戶。我想，在這一點(diǎn)上，政府和企業(yè)有相通之處，用心為民，民眾都是能感受到的，最終也才能發(fā)展自己。

有人說，中國(guó)是一個(gè)缺少信仰的國(guó)度，但實(shí)際上，共產(chǎn)主義就是一種信仰，而走群眾路線，是______按照客觀規(guī)律做出的

《入黨為什么，我為黨做了什么演講稿兩篇》是篇酷貓寫作范文網(wǎng)，涉及到知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)、共產(chǎn)黨、一個(gè)、客戶、思想、規(guī)律、群眾、為什么等方面，看完如果覺得有用請(qǐng)記得（ctrl+d）收藏。

第6篇 奧巴馬演講稿：我們?yōu)槭裁匆蠈W(xué)

時(shí)間：__年9月8日

地點(diǎn)：弗吉尼亞州，阿林頓市

嗨，大家好！你們今天過得怎么樣？我現(xiàn)在和弗吉尼亞州阿林頓郡韋克菲爾德高中的學(xué)生們?cè)谝黄?，全?guó)各地也有從幼兒園到高三的眾多學(xué)生們通過電視關(guān)注這里，我很高興你們能共同分享這一時(shí)刻。

我知道，對(duì)你們中的許多人來說，今天是開學(xué)的第一天，你們中的有一些剛剛進(jìn)入幼兒園或升上初高中，對(duì)你們來說，這是在新學(xué)校的第一天，因此，假如你們感到有些緊張，那也是很正常的。我想也會(huì)有許多畢業(yè)班的學(xué)生們正自信滿滿地準(zhǔn)備最后一年的沖刺。不過，我想無論你有多大、在讀哪個(gè)年級(jí)，許多人都打心底里希望現(xiàn)在還在放暑假，以及今天不用那么早起床。我可以理解這份心情。

小時(shí)候，我們家在印度尼西亞住過幾年，而我媽媽沒錢送我去其他美國(guó)孩子們上學(xué)的地方去讀書，因此她決定自己給我上課——時(shí)間是每周一到周五的凌晨4點(diǎn)半。顯然，我不怎么喜歡那么早就爬起來，很多時(shí)候，我就這么在廚房的桌子前睡著了。每當(dāng)我埋怨的時(shí)候，我媽總會(huì)用同一副表情看著我說：“小鬼，你以為教你我就很輕松？” 所以，我可以理解你們中的許多人對(duì)于開學(xué)還需要時(shí)間來調(diào)整和適應(yīng)，但今天我站在這里，是為了和你們談一些重要的事情。我要和你們談一談你們每個(gè)人的教育，以及在新的學(xué)年里，你們應(yīng)當(dāng)做些什么。

知名人士11我做過許多關(guān)于教育的講話，也常常用到“責(zé)任”這個(gè)詞。我談到過教師們有責(zé)任激勵(lì)和啟迪你們，督促你們學(xué)習(xí)。我談到過家長(zhǎng)們有責(zé)任看管你們認(rèn)真學(xué)習(xí)、完成作業(yè)，不要成天只會(huì)看電視或打游戲機(jī)。

我也很多次談到過政府有責(zé)任設(shè)定高標(biāo)準(zhǔn)嚴(yán)要求、協(xié)助老師和校長(zhǎng)們的工作，改變?cè)谟行W(xué)校里學(xué)生得不到應(yīng)有的學(xué)習(xí)機(jī)會(huì)的現(xiàn)狀。但哪怕這一切都達(dá)到最好，哪怕我們有最盡職的教師、最好的家長(zhǎng)、和最優(yōu)秀的學(xué)校，假如你們不去履行自己的責(zé)任的話，那么這一切努力都會(huì)白費(fèi)。——除非你每天準(zhǔn)時(shí)去上學(xué)、除非你認(rèn)真地聽老師講課、除非你把父母、長(zhǎng)輩和其他大人們說的話放在心上、除非你肯付出成功所必需的努力，否則這一切都會(huì)失去意義。而這就是我今天講話的主題：對(duì)于自己的教育，你們中每一個(gè)人的責(zé)任。

首先，我想談?wù)勀銈儗?duì)于自己有什么責(zé)任。 你們中的每一個(gè)人都會(huì)有自己擅長(zhǎng)的東西，每一個(gè)人都是有用之材，而發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的才能是什么，就是你們要對(duì)自己擔(dān)起的責(zé)任。教育給你們提供了發(fā)現(xiàn)自己才能的機(jī)會(huì)?；蛟S你能寫出優(yōu)美的文字——甚至有一天能讓那些文字出現(xiàn)在書籍和報(bào)刊上——但假如不在英語課上經(jīng)常練習(xí)寫作，你不會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己有這樣的天賦；或許你能成為一個(gè)發(fā)明家、創(chuàng)造家——甚至設(shè)計(jì)出像今天的iphone一樣流行的產(chǎn)品，或研制出新的藥物與疫苗——但假如不在自然科學(xué)課程上做上幾次實(shí)驗(yàn)，你不會(huì)知道自己有這樣的天賦；或許你能成為一名議員或最高法院法官，但假如你不去加入什么學(xué)生會(huì)或參加幾次辯論賽，你也不會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的才能。而且，我可以向你保證，不管你將來想要做什么，你都需要相應(yīng)的教育。

知名人士11——你想當(dāng)名醫(yī)生、當(dāng)名教師或當(dāng)名警官？你想成為護(hù)士、成為建筑設(shè)計(jì)師、律師或軍人？無論你選擇哪一種職業(yè)，良好的教育都必不可少，這世上不存在不把書念完就能拿到好工作的美夢(mèng)，任何工作，都需要你的汗水、訓(xùn)練與學(xué)習(xí)。不僅僅對(duì)于你們個(gè)人的未來有重要意義，你們的教育如何也會(huì)對(duì)這個(gè)國(guó)家、乃至世界的未來產(chǎn)生重要影響。今天你們?cè)趯W(xué)校中學(xué)習(xí)的內(nèi)容，將會(huì)決定我們整個(gè)國(guó)家在未來迎接重大挑戰(zhàn)時(shí)的表現(xiàn)。

你們需要在數(shù)理科學(xué)課程上學(xué)習(xí)的知識(shí)和技能，去治療癌癥、艾滋那樣的疾病，和解決我們面臨的能源問題與環(huán)境問題；你們需要在歷史社科課程上培養(yǎng)出的觀察力與判斷力，來減輕和消除無家可歸與貧困、犯罪問題和各種歧視，讓這個(gè)國(guó)家變得更加公平和自由；你們需要在各類課程中逐漸累積和發(fā)展出來的創(chuàng)新意識(shí)和思維，去創(chuàng)業(yè)和建立新的公司與企業(yè)，來制造就業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)和推動(dòng)經(jīng)濟(jì)的增長(zhǎng)。我們需要你們中的每一個(gè)人都培養(yǎng)和發(fā)展自己的天賦、技能和才智，來解決我們所面對(duì)的最困難的問題。

假如你不這么做——假如你放棄學(xué)習(xí)——那么你不僅是放棄了自己，也是放棄了你的國(guó)家。當(dāng)然，我明白，讀好書并不總是件容易的事。我知道你們中的許多人在生活中面臨著各種各樣的問題，很難把精力集中在專心讀書之上。我知道你們的感受。我父親在我兩歲時(shí)就離開了家庭，是母親一人將我們拉扯大，有時(shí)她付不起帳單，有時(shí)我們得不到其他孩子們都有的東西，有時(shí)我會(huì)想，假如父親在該多好，有時(shí)我會(huì)感到孤獨(dú)無助，與周圍的環(huán)境格格不入。因此我并不總是能專心學(xué)習(xí)，我做過許多自己覺得丟臉的事情，也惹出過許多不該惹的麻煩，我的生活岌岌可危，隨時(shí)可能急轉(zhuǎn)直下。但我很幸運(yùn)。我在許多事上都得到了重來的機(jī)會(huì)，我得到了去大學(xué)讀法學(xué)院、實(shí)現(xiàn)自己夢(mèng)想的機(jī)會(huì)。

知名人士11我的妻子——現(xiàn)在得叫她第一夫人米歇爾·奧巴馬了——也有著相似的人生故事，她的父母都沒讀過大學(xué)，也沒有什么財(cái)產(chǎn)，但他們和她都辛勤工作，好讓她有機(jī)會(huì)去這個(gè)國(guó)家最優(yōu)秀的學(xué)校讀書。

你們中有些人可能沒有這些有利條件，或許你的生活中沒有能為你提供幫助和支持的長(zhǎng)輩，或許你的某個(gè)家長(zhǎng)沒有工作、經(jīng)濟(jì)拮據(jù)，或許你住的社區(qū)不那么安全，或許你認(rèn)識(shí)一些會(huì)對(duì)你產(chǎn)生不良影響的朋友，等等。但歸根結(jié)底，你的生活狀況——你的長(zhǎng)相、出身、經(jīng)濟(jì)條件、家庭氛圍——都不是疏忽學(xué)業(yè)和態(tài)度惡劣的借口，這些不是你去跟老師頂嘴、逃課、或是輟學(xué)的借口，這些不是你不好好讀書的借口。

你的未來，并不取決于你現(xiàn)在的生活有多好或多壞。沒有人為你編排好你的命運(yùn)，在美國(guó)，你的命運(yùn)由你自己書寫，你的未來由你自己掌握。而在這片土地上的每個(gè)地方，千千萬萬和你一樣的年輕人正是這樣在書寫著自己的命運(yùn)。

例如德克薩斯州羅馬市的賈斯敏·佩雷茲。剛進(jìn)學(xué)校時(shí)，她根本不會(huì)說英語，她住的地方幾乎沒人上過大學(xué)，她的父母也沒有受過高等教育，但她努力學(xué)習(xí)，取得了優(yōu)異的成績(jī)，靠獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金進(jìn)入了布朗大學(xué)，如今正在攻讀公共衛(wèi)生專業(yè)的博士學(xué)位。

我還想起了加利福尼亞州洛斯拉圖斯市的安多尼·舒爾茲，他從三歲起就開始與腦癌病魔做斗爭(zhēng)，他熬過了一次次治療與手術(shù)——其中一次影響了他的記憶，因此他得花出比常人多幾百個(gè)小時(shí)的時(shí)間來完成學(xué)業(yè)，但他從不曾落下自己的功課。這個(gè)秋天，他要開始在大學(xué)讀書了。

又比如在我的家鄉(xiāng)，伊利諾斯州芝加哥市，身為孤兒的香特爾·史蒂夫換過多次收養(yǎng)家庭，從小在治安很差的地區(qū)長(zhǎng)大，但她努力爭(zhēng)取到了在當(dāng)?shù)乇＝≌竟ぷ鞯臋C(jī)會(huì)、發(fā)起了一個(gè)讓青少年遠(yuǎn)離犯罪團(tuán)伙的項(xiàng)目，很快，她也將以優(yōu)異的成績(jī)從中學(xué)畢業(yè)，去大學(xué)深造。賈斯敏、安多尼和香特爾與你們并沒有什么不同。

和你們一樣，他們也在生活中遭遇各種各樣的困難與問題，但他們拒絕放棄，他們選擇為自己的教育擔(dān)起責(zé)任、給自己定下奮斗的目標(biāo)。我希望你們中的每一個(gè)人，都能做得到這些。因此，在今天，我號(hào)召你們每一個(gè)人都為自己的教育定下一個(gè)目標(biāo)——并在之后，盡自己的一切努力去實(shí)現(xiàn)它。

知名人士11你的目標(biāo)可以很簡(jiǎn)單，像是完成作業(yè)、認(rèn)真聽講或每天閱讀——或許你打算參加一些課外活動(dòng)，或在社區(qū)做些志愿工作；或許你決定為那些因?yàn)殚L(zhǎng)相或出身等等原因而受嘲弄或欺負(fù)的孩子做主、維護(hù)他們的權(quán)益，因?yàn)槟愫臀乙粯?，認(rèn)為每個(gè)孩子都應(yīng)該能有一個(gè)安全的學(xué)習(xí)環(huán)境；或許你認(rèn)為該學(xué)著更好的照顧自己，來為將來的學(xué)習(xí)做準(zhǔn)備……

當(dāng)然，除此之外，我希望你們都多多洗手、感到身體不舒服的時(shí)候要多在家休息，免得大家在秋冬感冒高發(fā)季節(jié)都得流感。不管你決定做什么，我都希望你能堅(jiān)持到底，希望你能真的下定決心。我知道有些時(shí)候，電視上播放的節(jié)目會(huì)讓你產(chǎn)生這樣那樣的錯(cuò)覺，似乎你不需要付出多大的努力就能腰纏萬貫、功成名就——你會(huì)認(rèn)為只要會(huì)唱rap、會(huì)打籃球或參加個(gè)什么真人秀節(jié)目就能坐享其成，但現(xiàn)實(shí)是，你幾乎沒有可能走上其中任何一條道路。因?yàn)?，成功是件難事。

你不可能對(duì)要讀的每門課程都興趣盎然，你不可能和每名帶課教師都相處順利，你也不可能每次都遇上看起來和現(xiàn)實(shí)生活有關(guān)的作業(yè)。而且，并不是每件事，你都能在頭一次嘗試時(shí)獲得成功。但那沒有關(guān)系。因?yàn)樵谶@個(gè)世界上，最最成功的人們往往也經(jīng)歷過最多的失敗。

j.k.羅琳的第一本《哈利·波特》被出版商拒絕了十二次才最終出版；邁克爾·喬丹上高中時(shí)被學(xué)校的籃球隊(duì)刷了下來，在他的職業(yè)生涯里，他輸了幾百場(chǎng)比賽、投失過幾千次射籃，知道他是怎么說的嗎？“我一生不停地失敗、失敗再失敗，這就是我現(xiàn)在成功的原因。”

他們的成功，源于他們明白人不能讓失敗左右自己——而是要從中吸取經(jīng)驗(yàn)。從失敗中，你可以明白下一次自己可以做出怎樣的改變；假如你惹了什么麻煩，那并不說明你就是個(gè)搗蛋貴，而是在提醒你，在將來要對(duì)自己有更嚴(yán)格的要求；假如你考了個(gè)低分，那并不說明你就比別人笨，而是在告訴你，自己得在學(xué)習(xí)上花更多的時(shí)間。沒有哪一個(gè)人一生出來就擅長(zhǎng)做什么事情的，只有努力才能培養(yǎng)出技能。

任何人都不是在第一次接觸一項(xiàng)體育運(yùn)動(dòng)時(shí)就成為校隊(duì)的代表，任何人都不是在第一次唱一首歌時(shí)就找準(zhǔn)每一個(gè)音，一切都需要熟能生巧。對(duì)于學(xué)業(yè)也是一樣，你或許要反復(fù)運(yùn)算才能解出一道數(shù)學(xué)題的正確答案，你或許需要讀一段文字好幾遍才能理解它的意思，你或許得把論文改上好幾次才能符合提交的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。這都是很正常的。不要害怕提問。不要不敢向他人求助。——我每天都在這么做。求助并不是軟弱的表現(xiàn)，恰恰相反，它說明你有勇氣承認(rèn)自己的不足、并愿意去學(xué)習(xí)新的知識(shí)。所以，有不懂時(shí)，就向大人們求助吧——找個(gè)你信得過的對(duì)象，例如父母、長(zhǎng)輩、老師、教練或輔導(dǎo)員——讓他們幫助你向目標(biāo)前進(jìn)。

知名人士11你要記住，哪怕你表現(xiàn)不好、哪怕你失去信心、哪怕你覺得身邊的人都已經(jīng)放棄了你——永遠(yuǎn)不要自己放棄自己。因?yàn)楫?dāng)你放棄自己的時(shí)候，你也放棄了自己的國(guó)家。

美國(guó)不是一個(gè)人們?cè)庥隼щy就輕易放棄的國(guó)度，在這個(gè)國(guó)家，人們堅(jiān)持到底、人們加倍努力，為了他們所熱愛的國(guó)度，每一個(gè)人都盡著自己最大的努力，不會(huì)給自己留任何余地。

250年前，有一群和你們一樣的學(xué)生，他們之后奮起努力、用一場(chǎng)革命最終造就了這個(gè)國(guó)家；75年前，有一群和你們一樣的學(xué)生，他們之后戰(zhàn)勝了大蕭條、贏得了二戰(zhàn)；就在20年前，和你們一樣的學(xué)生們，他們后來創(chuàng)立了google、twitter和facebook,改變了我們?nèi)伺c人之間溝通的方式。因此，今天我想要問你們，你們會(huì)做出什么樣的貢獻(xiàn)？你們將解決什么樣的難題？你們能發(fā)現(xiàn)什么樣的事物？二十、五十或百年之后，假如那時(shí)的美國(guó)總統(tǒng)也來做一次開學(xué)演講的話，他會(huì)怎樣描述你們對(duì)這個(gè)國(guó)家所做的一切？你們的家長(zhǎng)、你們的老師和我，每一個(gè)人都在盡最大的努力，確保你們都能得到應(yīng)有的教育來回答這些問題。

例如我正在努力為你們提供更安全的教室、更多的書籍、更先進(jìn)的設(shè)施與計(jì)算機(jī)。但你們也要擔(dān)起自己的責(zé)任。因此我要求你們?cè)诮衲昴軌蛘J(rèn)真起來，我要求你們盡心地去做自己著手的每一件事，我要求你們每一個(gè)人都有所成就。請(qǐng)不要讓我們失望——不要讓你的家人、你的國(guó)家和你自己失望。你們要成為我們驕傲，我知道，你們一定可以做到。謝謝大家，上帝保佑你們，上帝保佑美國(guó)。

第7篇 ted英語演講稿：我們?yōu)槭裁纯鞓罚?/strong>

when you have 21 minutes to speak, two million years seems like a really long time. but evolutionarily, two million years is nothing. and yet in two million years the human brain has nearly tripled in mass, going from the one-and-a-quarter pound brain of our ancestor here, habilis, to the almost three-pound meatloaf that everybody here has between their ears. what is it about a big brain that nature was so eager for every one of us to have one?

well, it turns out when brains triple in size, they don't just get three times bigger; they gain new structures. and one of the main reasons our brain got so big is because it got a new part, called the 'frontal lobe.' and particularly, a part called the 'pre-frontal corte_.' now what does a pre-frontal corte_ do for you that should justify the entire architectural overhaul of the human skull in the blink of evolutionary time?

well, it turns out the pre-frontal corte_ does lots of things, but one of the most important things it does is it is an e_perience simulator. flight pilots practice in flight simulators so that they don't make real mistakes in planes. human beings have this marvelous adaptation that they can actually have e_periences in their heads before they try them out in real life. this is a trick that none of our ancestors could do, and that no other animal can do quite like we can. it's a marvelous adaptation. it's up there with opposable thumbs and standing upright and language as one of the things that got our species out of the trees and into the shopping mall.

now -- (laughter) -- all of you have done this. i mean, you know, ben and jerry's doesn't have liver-and-onion ice cream, and it's not because they whipped some up, tried it and went, 'yuck.' it's because, without leaving your armchair, you can simulate that flavor and say 'yuck' before you make it.

let's see how your e_perience simulators are working. let's just run a quick diagnostic before i proceed with the rest of the talk. here's two different futures that i invite you to contemplate, and you can try to simulate them and tell me which one you think you might prefer. one of them is winning the lottery. this is about 314 million dollars. and the other is becoming paraplegic. so, just give it a moment of thought. you probably don't feel like you need a moment of thought.

interestingly, there are data on these two groups of people, data on how happy they are. and this is e_actly what you e_pected, isn't it? but these aren't the data. i made these up!

these are the data. you failed the pop quiz, and you're hardly five minutes into the lecture. because the fact is that a year after losing the use of their legs, and a year after winning the lotto, lottery winners and paraplegics are equally happy with their lives.

now, don't feel too bad about failing the first pop quiz, because everybody fails all of the pop quizzes all of the time. the research that my laboratory has been doing, that economists and psychologists around the country have been doing, have revealed something really quite startling to us, something we call the 'impact bias,' which is the tendency for the simulator to work badly. for the simulator to make you believe that different outcomes are more different than in fact they really are.

from field studies to laboratory studies, we see that winning or losing an election, gaining or losing a romantic partner, getting or not getting a promotion, passing or not passing a college test, on and on, have far less impact, less intensity and much less duration than people e_pect them to have. in fact, a recent study -- this almost floors me -- a recent study showing how major life traumas affect people suggests that if it happened over three months ago, with only a few e_ceptions, it has no impact whatsoever on your happiness.

why? because happiness can be synthesized. sir thomas brown wrote in 1642, 'i am the happiest man alive. i have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity. i am more invulnerable than achilles; fortune hath not one place to hit me.' what kind of remarkable machinery does this guy have in his head?

well, it turns out it's precisely the same remarkable machinery that all off us have. human beings have something that we might think of as a 'psychological immune system.' a system of cognitive processes, largely non-conscious cognitive processes, that help them change their views of the world, so that they can feel better about the worlds in which they find themselves. like sir thomas, you have this machine. unlike sir thomas, you seem not to know it. (laughter)

we synthesize happiness, but we think happiness is a thing to be found. now, you don't need me to give you too many e_amples of people synthesizing happiness, i suspect. though i'm going to show you some e_perimental evidence, you don't have to look very far for evidence.

as a challenge to myself, since i say this once in a while in lectures, i took a copy of the new york times and tried to find some instances of people synthesizing happiness. and here are three guys synthesizing happiness. 'i am so much better off physically, financially, emotionally, mentally and almost every other way.' 'i don't have one minute's regret. it was a glorious e_perience.' 'i believe it turned out for the best.'

who are these characters who are so damn happy? well, the first one is jim wright. some of you are old enough to remember: he was the chairman of the house of representatives and he resigned in disgrace when this young republican named newt gingrich found out about a shady book deal he had done. he lost everything. the most powerful democrat in the country, he lost everything. he lost his money; he lost his power. what does he have to say all these years later about it? 'i am so much better off physically, financially, mentally and in almost every other way.' what other way would there be to be better off? vegetably? minerally? animally? he's pretty much covered them there.

moreese bickham is somebody you've never heard of. moreese bickham uttered these words upon being released. he was 78 years old. he spent 37 years in a louisiana state penitentiary for a crime he didn't commit. he was ultimately e_onerated, at the age of 78, through dna evidence. and what did he have to say about his e_perience? 'i don't have one minute's regret. it was a glorious e_perience.' glorious! this guy is not saying, 'well, you know, there were some nice guys. they had a gym.' it's 'glorious,' a word we usually reserve for something like a religious e_perience.

harry s. langerman uttered these words, and he's somebody you might have known but didn't, because in 1949 he read a little article in the paper about a hamburger stand owned by these two brothers named mcdonalds. and he thought, 'that's a really neat idea!' so he went to find them. they said, 'we can give you a franchise on this for 3,000 bucks.' harry went back to new york, asked his brother who's an investment banker to loan him the 3,000 dollars, and his brother's immortal words were, 'you idiot, nobody eats hamburgers.' he wouldn't lend him the money, and of course si_ months later ray croc had e_actly the same idea. it turns out people do eat hamburgers, and ray croc, for a while, became the richest man in america.

and then finally -- you know, the best of all possible worlds -- some of you recognize this young photo of pete best, who was the original drummer for the beatles, until they, you know, sent him out on an errand and snuck away and picked up ringo on a tour. well, in 1994, when pete best was interviewed -- yes, he's still a drummer; yes, he's a studio musician -- he had this to say: 'i'm happier than i would have been with the beatles.'

okay. there's something important to be learned from these people, and it is the secret of happiness. here it is, finally to be revealed. first: accrue wealth, power, and prestige, then lose it. (laughter) second: spend as much of your life in prison as you possibly can. (laughter) third: make somebody else really, really rich. (laughter) and finally: never ever join the beatles. (laughter)

ok. now i, like ze frank, can predict your ne_t thought, which is, 'yeah, right.' because when people synthesize happiness, as these gentlemen seem to have done, we all smile at them, but we kind of roll our eyes and say, 'yeah right, you never really wanted the job.' 'oh yeah, right. you really didn't have that much in common with her, and you figured that out just about the time she threw the engagement ring in your face.'

we smirk because we believe that synthetic happiness is not of the same quality as what we might call 'natural happiness.' what are these terms? natural happiness is what we get when we get what we wanted, and synthetic happiness is what we make when we don't get what we wanted. and in our society, we have a strong belief that synthetic happiness is of an inferior kind. why do we have that belief? well, it's very simple. what kind of economic engine would keep churning if we believed that not getting what we want could make us just as happy as getting it?

with all apologies to my friend matthieu ricard, a shopping mall full of zen monks is not going to be particularly profitable because they don't want stuff enough. i want to suggest to you that synthetic happiness is every bit as real and enduring as the kind of happiness you stumble upon when you get e_actly what you were aiming for. now, i'm a scientist, so i'm going to do this not with rhetoric, but by marinating you in a little bit of data.

let me first show you an e_perimental paradigm that is used to demonstrate the synthesis of happiness among regular old folks. and this isn't mine. this is a 50-year-old paradigm called the 'free choice paradigm.' it's very simple. you bring in, say, si_ objects, and you ask a subject to rank them from the most to the least liked. in this case, because the e_periment i'm going to tell you about uses them, these are monet prints. so, everybody can rank these monet prints from the one they like the most, to the one they like the least. now we give you a choice: 'we happen to have some e_tra prints in the closet. we're going to give you one as your prize to take home. we happen to have number three and number four,' we tell the subject. this is a bit of a difficult choice, because neither one is preferred strongly to the other, but naturally, people tend to pick number three because they liked it a little better than number four.

sometime later -- it could be 15 minutes; it could be 15 days -- the same stimuli are put before the subject, and the subject is asked to re-rank the stimuli. 'tell us how much you like them now.' what happens? watch as happiness is synthesized. this is the result that has been replicated over and over again. you're watching happiness be synthesized. would you like to see it again? happiness! 'the one i got is really better than i thought! that other one i didn't get sucks!' (laughter) that's the synthesis of happiness.

now what's the right response to that? 'yeah, right!' now, here's the e_periment we did, and i would hope this is going to convince you that 'yeah, right!' was not the right response.

we did this e_periment with a group of patients who had anterograde amnesia. these are hospitalized patients. most of them have korsakoff's syndrome, a polyneuritic psychosis that -- they drank way too much, and they can't make new memories. ok? they remember their childhood, but if you walk in and introduce yourself, and then leave the room, when you come back, they don't know who you are.

we took our monet prints to the hospital. and we asked these patients to rank them from the one they liked the most to the one they liked the least. we then gave them the choice between number three and number four. like everybody else, they said, 'gee, thanks doc! that's great! i could use a new print. i'll take number three.' we e_plained we would have number three mailed to them. we gathered up our materials and we went out of the room, and counted to a half hour. back into the room, we say, 'hi, we're back.' the patients, bless them, say, 'ah, doc, i'm sorry, i've got a memory problem; that's why i'm here. if i've met you before, i don't remember.' 'really, jim, you don't remember? i was just here with the monet prints?' 'sorry, doc, i just don't have a clue.' 'no problem, jim. all i want you to do is rank these for me from the one you like the most to the one you like the least.'

what do they do? well, let's first check and make sure they're really amnesiac. we ask these amnesiac patients to tell us which one they own, which one they chose last time, which one is theirs. and what we find is amnesiac patients just guess. these are normal controls, where if i did this with you, all of you would know which print you chose. but if i do this with amnesiac patients, they don't have a clue. they can't pick their print out of a lineup.

here's what normal controls do: they synthesize happiness. right? this is the change in liking score, the change from the first time they ranked to the second time they ranked. normal controls show -- that was the magic i showed you; now i'm showing it to you in graphical form -- 'the one i own is better than i thought. the one i didn't own, the one i left behind, is not as good as i thought.' amnesiacs do e_actly the same thing. think about this result.

these people like better the one they own, but they don't know they own it. 'yeah, right' is not the right response! what these people did when they synthesized happiness is they really, truly changed their affective, hedonic, aesthetic reactions to that poster. they're not just saying it because they own it, because they don't know they own it.

now, when psychologists show you bars, you know that they are showing you averages of lots of people. and yet, all of us have this psychological immune system, this capacity to synthesize happiness, but some of us do this trick better than others. and some situations allow anybody to do it more effectively than other situations do. it turns out that freedom -- the ability to make up your mind and change your mind -- is the friend of natural happiness, because it allows you to choose among all those delicious futures and find the one that you would most enjoy. but freedom to choose -- to change and make up your mind -- is the enemy of synthetic happiness. and i'm going to show you why.

dilbert already knows, of course. you're reading the cartoon as i'm talking. 'dogbert's tech support. how may i abuse you?' 'my printer prints a blank page after every document.' 'why would you complain about getting free paper?' 'free? aren't you just giving me my own paper?' 'egad, man! look at the quality of the free paper compared to your lousy regular paper! only a fool or a liar would say that they look the same!' 'ah! now that you mention it, it does seem a little silkier!' 'what are you doing?' 'i'm helping people accept the things they cannot change.' indeed.

the psychological immune system works best when we are totally stuck, when we are trapped. this is the difference between dating and marriage, right? i mean, you go out on a date with a guy, and he picks his nose; you don't go out on another date. you're married to a guy and he picks his nose? yeah, he has a heart of gold; don't touch the fruitcake. right? (laughter) you find a way to be happy with what's happened. now what i want to show you is that people don't know this about themselves, and not knowing this can work to our supreme disadvantage.

here's an e_periment we did at harvard. we created a photography course, a black-and-white photography course, and we allowed students to come in and learn how to use a darkroom. so we gave them cameras; they went around campus; they took 12 pictures of their favorite professors and their dorm room and their dog, and all the other things they wanted to have harvard memories of. they bring us the camera; we make up a contact sheet; they figure out which are the two best pictures; and we now spend si_ hours teaching them about darkrooms. and they blow two of them up, and they have two gorgeous eight-by-10 glossies of meaningful things to them, and we say, 'which one would you like to give up?' they say, 'i have to give one up?' 'oh, yes. we need one as evidence of the class project. so you have to give me one. you have to make a choice. you get to keep one, and i get to keep one.'

now, there are two conditions in this e_periment. in one case, the students are told, 'but you know, if you want to change your mind, i'll always have the other one here, and in the ne_t four days, before i actually mail it to headquarters, i'll be glad to' -- (laughter) -- yeah, 'headquarters' -- 'i'll be glad to swap it out with you. in fact, i'll come to your dorm room and give -- just give me an email. better yet, i'll check with you. you ever want to change your mind, it's totally returnable.' the other half of the students are told e_actly the opposite: 'make your choice. and by the way, the mail is going out, gosh, in two minutes, to england. your picture will be winging its way over the atlantic. you will never see it again.' now, half of the students in each of these conditions are asked to make predictions about how much they're going to come to like the picture that they keep and the picture they leave behind. other students are just sent back to their little dorm rooms and they are measured over the ne_t three to si_ days on their liking, satisfaction with the pictures. and look at what we find.

first of all, here's what students think is going to happen. they think they're going to maybe come to like the picture they chose a little more than the one they left behind, but these are not statistically significant differences. it's a very small increase, and it doesn't much matter whether they were in the reversible or irreversible condition.

wrong-o. bad simulators. because here's what's really happening. both right before the swap and five days later, people who are stuck with that picture, who have no choice, who can never change their mind, like it a lot! and people who are deliberating -- 'should i return it? have i gotten the right one? maybe this isn't the good one? maybe i left the good one?' -- have killed themselves. they don't like their picture, and in fact even after the opportunity to swap has e_pired, they still don't like their picture. why? because the reversible condition is not conducive to the synthesis of happiness.

so here's the final piece of this e_periment. we bring in a whole new group of naive harvard students and we say, 'you know, we're doing a photography course, and we can do it one of two ways. we could do it so that when you take the two pictures, you'd have four days to change your mind, or we're doing another course where you take the two pictures and you make up your mind right away and you can never change it. which course would you like to be in?' duh! 66 percent of the students, two-thirds, prefer to be in the course where they have the opportunity to change their mind. hello? 66 percent of the students choose to be in the course in which they will ultimately be deeply dissatisfied with the picture. because they do not know the conditions under which synthetic happiness grows.

the bard said everything best, of course, and he's making my point here but he's making it hyperbolically: ''tis nothing good or bad / but thinking makes it so.' it's nice poetry, but that can't e_actly be right. is there really nothing good or bad? is it really the case that gall bladder surgery and a trip to paris are just the same thing? that seems like a one-question iq test. they can't be e_actly the same.

in more turgid prose, but closer to the truth, was the father of modern capitalism, adam smith, and he said this. this is worth contemplating: 'the great source of both the misery and disorders of human life seems to arise from overrating the difference between one permanent situation and another ... some of these situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others, but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardor which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice, or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse for the horror of our own injustice.' in other words: yes, some things are better than others.

we should have preferences that lead us into one future over another. but when those preferences drive us too hard and too fast because we have overrated the difference between these futures, we are at risk. when our ambition is bounded, it leads us to work joyfully. when our ambition is unbounded, it leads us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hurt others, to sacrifice things of real value. when our fears are bounded, we're prudent; we're cautious; we're thoughtful. when our fears are unbounded and overblown, we're reckless, and we're cowardly.

the lesson i want to leave you with from these data is that our longings and our worries are both to some degree overblown, because we have within us the capacity to manufacture the very commodity we are constantly chasing when we choose e_perience.

thank you.