“买一送一”――“一人一电脑”儿童助学计划

翻译：宁波

新年到了，你许愿了吗？许个愿望，希望同学们天天开心、身体棒棒、英语棒棒……不忘加上一个崇高的心愿：消除贫困，世界和平。或许你会认为这离我们太遥远了，其实只要每个人都献出一份爱心，世界就能变得更加美好――而在世界的某个角落，有一个人正在为这个伟大的梦想奋斗着……

A visionary[理想主义的] new mission to get a laptop into the hands of every poor child in the world, one billion of them. Today, the One Laptop Per Child Foundation is announcing the “Give One, Get One” Program. Listen to this, for 400 dollars you can buy a laptop for your child and another one is sent to a needy child in a foreign country. Sounds great. Can this project change the world? For the answer, Fiona Golojulia.

For first and second graders in Cambridge, Massachusetts, new laptops are fun new fixtures[设备] in the classrooms.

Child A: You can, um, use it for your homework.

Child B: You, you could do kids stuff on it.

Child C: And I can pick it up. See!

Golojulia: Wow!

If MIT注 professor Nicolas Negroponte has his way, scenes like this one will play out in classrooms around the world. His dream: to give each child in the developing world one of his specially designed laptops.

Negroponte: If you think of it as a laptop, it can be viewed as a luxury. If you think of it as education, it’s not a luxury.

Just how cool are the laptops? Well, according to the panel[专门小组] of experts I turned to, the products are extremely cool, allowing users not only to surf the net and read e-books, but to draw, to chat, to make movies. And since so many of its potential users don’t have electricity, there is the added bonus[额外津贴] of being able to recharge[充电] the laptops with hand cranks[摇柄] or solar power. They are also certifiably[可保证的] kid-tested, able to withstand[经受] milk spills[溢出] and drops of up to 5 feet.

Negroponte has been working to sell the low cost computers to government leaders who in turn give them to their country’s children. But now he is looking for the private sector[私营部门] to get in on the giving. Beginning November 12th, consumers can purchase two of the special laptops, one for themselves and one for a child in the developing country. Retail price for both, 400 dollars.

Negroponte: I am sure they will sell given that you got a 200-dollar tax write-off in addition to getting a really cool laptop.

Negroponte admits his ultimate goal is a lofty[崇高的] one.

Golojulia: 10, 15 years from now, how will this world be different?

Negroponte: Poverty will be eliminated[消除] and there will be world peace.

Golojulia: 10 to 15 years?

Negroponte: Might take 20.

这是理想主义的新任务――把笔记本电脑送到十亿名世界贫困学童的手中。今天，“一学童一笔记本电脑”基金会宣布开始实施“买一送一”活动。听一下这条新闻，你只要花400美元为自己孩子买一台笔记本电脑，我们就会把另外一台送给一个外国贫困儿童。听起来真不错。这项活动可以改变世界吗？菲欧娜・高罗茱丽亚为我们带来答案。

对于美国马萨诸塞州剑桥市的一、二年级的小学生来说，崭新的笔记本电脑是有趣的教室新配置。

儿童甲：你可以，呃，用它来做家庭作业。

儿童乙：你可以在它上面玩儿童游戏。

儿童丙：我可以把它拿起来。你看！

高罗茱丽亚：哇！

如果麻省理工大学尼古拉斯・尼葛洛庞帝教授有能力最终实现他的梦想，这样的景象将在全世界的每个教室中上演。他的梦想是让发展中国家的每个学童都能得到一款他特别设计的笔记本电脑。

尼葛洛庞帝：如果你把它看作是笔记本电脑，你会认为它是奢侈品。但如果你把它看作是教育的一部分时，它就不是奢侈品（而是必需品）。

那么，这些笔记本电脑到底有多棒呢？我求助了专家小组，根据他们的说法，这款产品性能突出，不仅可以让用户畅游网络、阅读电子书籍，还可以画画、聊天、制作电影视频。并且，由于很多潜在用户没有用电条件，它还增加了额外的优点――可以用手柄或太阳能为笔记本充电。这款电脑通过了儿童测试检验，可以经受牛奶洒溢和高达五英寸的跌落振荡。

尼葛洛庞帝一直致力于向各政府领导人销售低成本电脑，他们便把这些电脑馈赠给该国儿童。不过，现在他寻求私营部门加入这个慈善之列。这个活动始于11月12日，消费者可以购买两台特别版笔记本电脑，一台自用，一台捐献给发展中国家的儿童。两台电脑的总市场零售价为400美元。

尼葛洛庞帝：我相信，鉴于消费者除了得到一款性能出色的笔记本电脑外还可以冲销200美元的税款，它们会很畅销的。

尼葛洛庞帝承认，他的终极目标很远大。

高罗茱丽亚：从现在算起10年或15年后，这个世界会有什么不同？

尼葛洛庞帝：贫困彻底消失，世界一片和平。

高罗茱丽亚：10到15年？

尼葛洛庞帝：也可能要花上20年。