美国国家公共电台 NPR What Really Happened At That Robotics Competition You've Heard So Much About

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This week, a highly anticipated robotics competition for 15 to 18 year olds from 157 nations ended in controversy¹ - the way it began. On Wednesday, six members of the team from the East African country of Burundi vanished. The teams from Gambia and Afghanistan also made headlines after the U.S. State Department denied them entry visas. Eventually, they were allowed to compete. As NPR's Claudio Sanchez reports, the drama marred² an otherwise uplifting event that was focused on youngsters and robots.

CLAUDIO SANCHEZ, BYLINE³: Dean Kamen, the inventor entrepreneur and founder⁴ of FIRST Global Challenge, opened the competition with a simple message.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DEAN KAMEN: Politics divides the world. Technology can unite the world.

SANCHEZ: And with that, an Olympic-style parade of nations filled Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KAMEN: It is my sincere pleasure to formally declare the 2017 FIRST Global Challenge open.

SANCHEZ: Every team arrived with a robot in tow, built with the exact same components⁵, each designed, engineered and programmed differently to gobble up and sort plastic balls. For two days, teenagers rich and poor, male and female competed on a level playing field. But there were reminders⁶ like the team made up of Syrian refugees that in some parts of the world, there is no such thing as a level playing field.

FADIL HARABI: Maybe more than 90 percent of the Syrian refugee in Lebanon don't have the passport, don't have the legal status.

SANCHEZ: Fadil Harabi, the team's mentor⁷, says getting passports was a lot more complicated than building a robot.

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting) Team Hope. Team Hope. Team Hope.

SANCHEZ: Every time the Syrians, called Team Hope, competed, kids from other countries cheered them on. For Colleen Johnson, 18, a member of the all-girl U.S. team, that's what this event was all about.

COLLEEN JOHNSON: Everybody here is working together, helping⁸ each other fix programming issues, to lift each other up, to make the best competition possible.

SANCHEZ: For Team Honduras, the technology gap between poor and rich nations is as much about opportunity as it is about resources.

DANIEL MARQUEZ: (Foreign language spoken).

SANCHEZ: Seventeen-year-old Daniel Marquez says Honduras is a country where there aren't many opportunities. Not a single member of the team had ever handled a remote control, let alone built a robot.

MELISSA LEMUS: (Foreign language spoken).

SANCHEZ: "The world today demands that we understand technology," says Melissa Lemus, one of two girls on the team. As the competition entered its third and final day, I checked in on Afghanistan's all-girls team. It seemed they had grown weary of the media frenzy⁹ around them.

LIDA AZIZI: (Foreign language spoken).

SANCHEZ: Speaking through an interpreter, 15-year-old Lida Azizi was disappointed that her team's skills and the robot the girls built had gotten a lot less attention than their visa problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: They're happy to be here, but it's very exhausting for them. They've had very little sleep, so they're at an active disadvantage here.

SANCHEZ: The Afghan's consolation¹⁰ prize - a medal for courageous¹¹ achievement, plus knowing they had placed much higher in countries like Canada, the United Kingdom and the U.S. Top honors went to Team Europe, Poland and Armenia. The event ended like one big party with a hopeful message delivered by World Bank president Jim Kim.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JIM KIM: You are the first generation in human history that can end extreme poverty in the world. From what I saw of these robots, I know you can do it.

SANCHEZ: Kim's message was not lost on anyone. Intelligence and talent with a moral vision have no borders, no race, nationality, religion or gender¹². Claudio Sanchez, NPR News.

1 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

2 marred   

adj. 被损毁, 污损的

参考例句：

• The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans. 喝醉了的球迷行为不轨，把比赛给搅了。
• Bad diction marred the effectiveness of his speech. 措词不当影响了他演说的效果。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

6 reminders   

n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• The strike has delayed the mailing of tax reminders. 罢工耽搁了催税单的投寄。

7 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

10 consolation   

n.安慰，慰问

参考例句：

• The children were a great consolation to me at that time.那时孩子们成了我的莫大安慰。
• This news was of little consolation to us.这个消息对我们来说没有什么安慰。

11 courageous   

adj.勇敢的，有胆量的

参考例句：

• We all honour courageous people.我们都尊重勇敢的人。
• He was roused to action by courageous words.豪言壮语促使他奋起行动。

12 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。