Maysoon Zayid在出生时由于医生失职，造成脑瘫，身体不受意识控制的一直颤抖，但这并不妨碍她成为一名喜剧演员(comic)，脱口秀红人(standup comedian)，作家(writer)和踢踏舞表演者(tap dancer)。她的父母不相信“不能”，从未把她当成残疾人看待，她自己也拒绝别人的怜悯，从来不认为她是一位所谓的“励志人物”。在TED演讲中，她讲述了自己的故事，用极富幽默和感染力的语言，博得满堂彩。

　　下面我们就来分享一下她的演讲片段，跟牛人学学如何用语言，征服观众!

　　My name is Maysoon Zayid, and I am not drunk, but the doctor who delivered me was. He cut my mom six different times in six different directions, suffocating poor little me in the process. As a result, I have cerebral palsy, which means I shake all the time. CP is not genetic. It's not a birth defect. You can't catch it. No one put a curse on my mother's uterus, and I didn't get it because my parents are first cousins, which they are. It only happens from accidents, like what happened to me on my birthday.

　　Cerebral palsy: a medical condition usually caused by brain damage before or at birth that causes the loss of control of movement in the arms and legs. 脑瘫。

　　Birth defect：a disease or medical condition existing since or before birth. 先天缺陷。

　　Put a curse on something or somebody: 对某物或某人下了诅咒，被诅咒的人或物可以说成somebody or something is under a curse.

　　Now, I must warn you, I'm not inspirational. And I don't want anyone in this room to feel bad for me, because at some point in your life, you have dreamt of being disabled. Come on a journey with me. It's Christmas Eve, you're at the mall, you're driving around in circles looking for parking, and what do you see? Sixteen empty handicapped spaces. And you're like, "God, can't I just be a little disabled?" Also, I've got to tell you, I've got 99 problems, and palsy is just one. If there was an Oppression Olympics, I would win the gold medal. I'm Palestinian, Muslim, I'm female, I'm disabled, and I live in New Jersey. If you don't feel better about yourself, maybe you should.

　　Point: a particular time or stage of development. 例如：

　　Many people suffer from mental illness at some point in their lives.

　　We had reached the point when there was no money left.

　　At this point I don't care what you decide to do.

　　Cliffside Park, New Jersey is my hometown. I have always loved the fact that my hood and my affliction share the same initials. I also love the fact that if I wanted to walk from my house to New York City, I could. A lot of people with CP don't walk, but my parents didn't believe in "can't." My father's mantra was, "You can do it, yes you can can." So, if my three older sisters were mopping, I was mopping. If my three older sisters went to public school, my parents would sue the school system and guarantee that I went too, and if we didn't all get A's, we all got my mother's slipper. My father taught me how to walk when I was five years old by placing my heels on his feet and just walking. Another tactic that he used is he would dangle a dollar bill in front of me and have me chase it. My inner stripper was very strong.

　　Mantra: a statement or a principle that people repeat very often because they think it is true, especially when you think that it not true or is only part of the truth. 准则，例如：

　　Listening to customers is now part of the mantra of new management in public services.

　　The people that I grew up with had no problem with my faith. They did, however, seem very concerned that I would starve to death during Ramadan. I would explain to them that I have enough fat to live off for three whole months, so fasting from sunrise to sunset is a piece of cake.

　　have a problem with something: to disagree with or object to something. 例如：

　　I have no problem with you working at home tomorrow.

　　We are going to do this my way. Do you have a problem with that?

　　Ramadan: the 9th month of the Muslim year, when Muslims do not eat or drink between sunrise and sunset. 伊斯兰教的斋月。

　　Live off something: to have one particular type of food as the main thing you eat in order to live. 例如：

　　He seems to live off junk food.

　　Fast: to eat little or no food for a period of time, especially for religious or health reasons. 例如：

　　Muslims fast during Ramadan.

　　还有一个常见表达，juice fast，“果汁禁食”，就是只喝果蔬汁不进食其他食物，可能是由于信仰原因，或者是为了戒毒or减肥。

　　My parents reinforced this notion that I could do anything, that no dream was impossible. And my dream was to be on the daytime soap opera "General Hospital." I went to college during affirmative action and got a sweet scholarship to ASU, Arizona State University, because I fit every single quota.

　　Affirmative action: the practice or policy of making sure that a particular number of jobs, etc. are given to people from groups that are often treated unfairly because of their race, sex, etc. 平权行动。

　　Sweet: making you feel happy or satisfied.

　　比如我们常说的Sweet dreams.

　　还有sweet经常用来形容“胜利”，例如：

　　I can't tell you how sweet this victory is.

　　还有一个固定用法：the sweet smell of success，表示the pleasant feeling of being successful.

　　In 2003, my brother from another mother and father Dean Obeidallah and I started the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, now in its 10th year. Our goal was to change the negative image of Arab-Americans in media, while also reminding casting directors that South Asian and Arab are not synonymous. Mainstreaming Arabs was much, much easier than conquering the challenge against the stigma against disability. My big break came in 2010. I was invited to be a guest on the cable news show "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." I walked in looking like I was going to the prom, and they shuffle me into a studio and seat me on a spinning, rolling chair.

　　Stigma: feelings of disapproval that people have about particular illnesses or ways of behaving. 污名，耻辱的、见不得人的事。例如：

　　There is no longer any stigma attached to being divorced.

　　So I looked at the stage manager and I'm like, "Excuse me, can I have another chair?" And she looked at me and she went, "Five, four, three, two ..." And we were live, right? So I had to grip onto the anchor's desk so that I wouldn't roll off the screen during the segment, and when the interview was over, I was livid. I had finally gotten my chance and I blew it, and I knew I would never get invited back. But not only did Mr. Olbermann invite me back, he made me a full-time contributor, and he taped down my chair.

　　Blow: to waste an opportunity. 例如：

　　She blew her chances by arriving late for the interview.

　　You had your chance and you blew it.

　　One fun fact I learned while on the air with Keith Olbermann was that humans on the Internet are scumbags. People say children are cruel, but I was never made fun of as a child or an adult. Suddenly, my disability on the world wide web is fair game. I would look at clips online and see comments like, "Yo, why's she tweaking?" "Yo, is she retarded?" And my favorite, "Poor Gumby-mouth terrorist. What does she suffer from? We should really pray for her." One commenter even suggested that I add my disability to my credits: screenwriter, comedian, palsy.

　　On the air: broadcasting on television or radio. 例如：

　　We will be back on air tomorrow morning at 7.

　　反义词就是off the air，例如：

　　The program was taken off the air over the summer.

　　Fair game: if a person or thing is said to be fair game, it is considered acceptable to play jokes on them, criticize them, etc. “理所当然的抨击对象”，例如：

　　The younger teachers were considered fair game by most of the kids.

　　Politicians were always considered fair game by cartoonists.

　　Disability is as visual as race. If a wheelchair user can't play Beyoncé, then Beyoncé can't play a wheelchair user. People with disabilities are the largest minority in the world, and we are the most underrepresented in entertainment. The doctors said that I wouldn't walk, but I am here in front of you. However, if I grew up with social media, I don't think I would be. I hope that together, we can create more positive images of disability in the media and in everyday life. Perhaps if there were more positive images, it would foster less hate on the Internet.

　　Foster: to encourage something to develop. 这里也可以用promote替换。例如：

　　The club's aim is to foster better relations within the community.

　　The aim of the campaign is to promote awareness of environmental issues

　　My crooked journey has taken me to some very spectacular places. I got to walk the red carpet flanked by soap diva Susan Lucci and the iconic Loreen Arbus. I got to act in a movie with Adam Sandler and work with my idol, the amazing Dave Matthews. I toured the world as a headliner on Arabs Gone Wild. I was a delegate representing the great state of New Jersey at the 2008 DNC. And I founded Maysoon's Kids, a charity that hopes to give Palestinian refugee children a sliver of the chance my parents gave me. But the one moment that stands out the most was when I got to perform for the man who flies like a butterfly and stings like a bee, has Parkinson's and shakes just like me, Muhammad Ali. It was the only time that my father ever saw me perform live, and I dedicate this talk to his memory. My name is Maysoon Zayid, and if I can can, you can can.

　　如果一位脑瘫患者可以有如此的人生，then what’s your excuse for not working hard?

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