比尔盖茨的哈佛大学演讲(3)

　　我在哈佛学到了很多经济学和政治学的新思想。我也了解了很多科学上的新进展。

　　But humanity's greatest advances are not in its discoveries - but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity - reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.

　　但是，人类最大的进步并不来自于这些发现，而是来自于那些有助于减少人类不平等的发现。不管通过何种手段----民主制度、健全的公共教育体系、高质量的医疗保健、还是广泛的经济机会----减少不平等始终是人类最大的成就。

　　I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country. And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries.

　　我离开校园的时候，根本不知道在这个国家里，有几百万的年轻人无法获得接受教育的机会。我也不知道，发展中国家里有无数的人们生活在无法形容的贫穷和疾病之中。

　　It took me decades to find out.

　　我花了几十年才明白了这些事情。

　　You graduates came to Harvard at a different time. You know more about the world's inequities than the classes that came before. In your years here, I hope you've had a chance to think about how - in this age of accelerating technology - we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.

　　在座的各位同学，你们是在与我不同的时代来到哈佛的。你们比以前的学生，更多地了解世界是怎样的不平等。在你们的哈佛求学过程中，我希望你们已经思考过一个问题，那就是在这个新技术加速发展的时代，我们怎样最终应对这种不平等，以及我们怎样来解决这个问题。

　　Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause - and you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. Where would you spend it?

　　为了讨论的方便，请想象一下，假如你每个星期可以捐献一些时间、每个月可以捐献一些钱----你希望这些时间和金钱，可以用到对拯救生命和改善人类生活有最大作用的地方。你会选择什么地方?

　　For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have.

　　对Melinda(注：盖茨的妻子)和我来说，这也是我们面临的问题：我们如何能将我们拥有的资源发挥出最大的作用。