视频是美国长纪录片导演大卫霍夫曼在自己家里的房子着火，所有收藏化为灰烬后，现身TED大家分享的经历，语言平实简单，而生动。集中有很多简单却打动人心的句子。这位很多在考托福口语需要描述自己心路历程的时候词穷的同学们提供了非常好的素材和模仿范本。其中比较好的句子我会在下面的文章中摘出来。
David Hoffman 其人：
大卫霍夫曼是美国长纪录片制片人之一，曾为美国二战老兵。从业50年间，曾拍摄过5部长纪录片，包括《国王穆雷》（King，Murray） （一个实验性质的故事片，讲述了一个长岛推销员去拉斯维加斯与一群土豪high rollers赌博的经历）。 这部片子曾获得坎城影展（一个一年一度的高逼格法国电影展）的评委会奖（同得此奖的还有张艺谋的《活着》，然后陈凯歌的《霸王别姬》得过金棕榈，王家卫凭借《春光乍泄》得过最佳导演奖）。他其他的品还包括 《艾尔-斯克鲁斯-他的家人和朋友》，由美国乡村歌手艾尔本人和他的好友摇滚巨星Bob Dylan领衔。
以下是部分正文：
I had a fire, nine days ago, my archive, 175 films, my 16-millimeter negative, all my books, my dad’s books, my photographs, I’d collected. I was a collector, major, big-time. It’s gone.
（Tips: major这个词大家应该不陌生，名词和动词都是主修的意思；形容词，主要的，重要的；big-time，形容词，一流的，多用在口语当中。这个结构实际严格来说不符合常规语法，因为这两个形容词应该放在名词collector前，但是在这里，放在后面，是根据说话人的思路来的，并且也有了强调作用，体现出了说话者的真实思路和情感，绝非念稿子呀，这个大家感受一下评分标准里的natural pacing； negative，名词，底片）
I just looked at it, and I didn’t know what to do. I mean, this was, was that my things? I always lived in my present, I loved the present and I cherished the future. And I was often told some strange things, “You’ve got to make something good out of something bad. You’ve got to leave something good out of something bad. This was bad! Man, I was --I coughed. I was sick.
（Tips：看这里！看这里！看这里！全部都是简简单单的简单句啊，除了一个漂亮的what to do之外有木有一点复合句从句的影子？木有啊！木有啊!但是你依然可以感受到大叔，额，不，老爷爷收藏尽毁的悲伤啊有木有？从 I just looked at it，and I didn’t know what to do. 茫然无措，只在这一句话。还有，I coughed. I was sick. 谁告诉我这种句子你说不出来我就把四级书吞下去，有木有，这太简单了有木有？）
That’s my camera lens. The first one--the one I shot my Bob Dylan film with 35 years ago. That’s my feature film. “King, Murray”, won Cannes Film Festival in 1970--the only print I had. That’s my papers.
That was in minutes, 20 minutes. Epiphany hit me. Something hit me. “You’ve go to make something good out of bad,” I started to say to my friends, neighbors, my sister. By the way, that’s “Sputnik”, I ran it last year. “Sputnik” was downtown, the negative. It wasn’t touched.
（Tips：Epiphany主显节，是指一年一度基督教朝拜基督的日子，也只神灵显现。作者在这里是想说明灵光乍现。Epiphany hit me, something hit me. 而这里最生动的莫过于hit这个词的用法。你想想当你突然有个好点子的时候，有没有被雷到，不不，被雷击，不，击到的感觉，瞬间灵感的迸发或者恍神，都可以用hit。By the way是我要提出来注意的一个词组，很多同学大概初中就学过，喜欢拿它来装逼，可很多同学其实并不清楚它什么时候用，装错了反而显得很low，那么我们现在看看这句话里面BTW的用法吧。前面David老爷爷还说了，灵光乍现，喊来了自己的朋友邻居和姐妹，后面突然提到了他拍的一个片子，这个很奇怪啊感觉有点莫名其妙连不上。这个时刻，对就是当你要说与前文无关的话题的时候，你要用BTW，引出一个，不大相关的新话题。所以必须有上下文，切记！）
These are some pieces of things I used in my Sputnik feature film which opens in New York in two weeks.
（Tips: open vi. 开演。很多同学可能都在想说“戏剧/电影上映”的时候犯难了吧，不知道该怎么说对不对。其实很简单，一个词 open， 文中which引导的定语从句修饰的就是Sputnik feature film，这个opens当然就是说这个电影开演。当然还有一个，首映，premier，作不及物动词用，比如 I was very excited when Fight Club premiered. )
That’s me at my desk, downtown. I called my sister. I called my neighbors. I said, “ Come dig.” That’s me at my desk. Eh... That was a desk took 40-some years to build.
（这个句子，省掉了desk 后面的that，说明口语里面是可以容许这种错误粗线的，不会影响得分，因为没有影响表意。）
You know, all the stuff. That’s my daughter, Jean. She came, she’s a nurse in San Francisco. “Dig it up, “ I said. “Pieces. I want pieces. Bits and pieces.” I came up with this idea: a life of bits and pieces, which I’m just starting to work on--my next project.
（a life of bits and pieces, 老爷爷从收藏的残片出悟出了生活的真理，生活不就是这些琐屑的残片么？A life of bits and pieces, 琐屑的生活）
That’s my sister. She took care of pictures, because I was a big collector of snapshot photography that I believed said a lot. And those are some of the pictures, something was good about the burnt pictures. I didn’t know. I looked at that--I said, “WOW, is that better than the --”
（Tips : take care of 是一个被低估了的词组，因为首先，它是初中甚至小学学过的，所以孩子们都觉得它很low，但实则不然。其实take care of是我们口语里面最常用的词组之一，它不止指“照顾”，有的时候可能是我们最宽泛的一个“管”“来”，比如最近流行的一句话“放下那个妹子，让我来”，你怎么说？放下那个妹子好说，“Let her go”, 那让我来呢? 可千万别说”let me do her”，这个do放在这里...确实有点不妥，因为do在英语中是一个类似于中文“搞”的万能动词，那么这句话翻成中文可能会造成什么效果，呵呵, 我就不说了，大家都懂的。OK，所以那我们应该怎么妥帖而恰当地表达“让我来”这个意思呢，非常简单“I’ll take care of this”,我能搞定。或者 “I’ll take care of her.” 所以下次遇到英雄救美的场面哈，孩子们应该怎么办呢?一个take care of尽显英雄气概。 其二是snapshot photography，snapshot就是我们所说的快照，或者抓拍。本人作为一个摄影爱好初学者，尤其喜爱抓拍，因为抓拍是唯一个能够捕捉到人最真实的情感神韵也最容易拍出美照的方法啦。这里snapshot作为名词用，也可以用作及物动词，表达 “给...拍快照”的意思。比如，我女朋友喜欢我给她拍快照。可以说“My girlfriend really enjoys being snapshot by me.” ）
That’s my proposal on Jimmy Doolittle. I made that movie for television. It’s the only copy I had. Pieces of it. Idea about women. So I started to say, “Hey, man, you are too much! You could cry about this.” I really didn’t. I just instead said, “I’m going to make something out of it, and maybe next year ...” And I appreciate this moment, to come up on this stage with so many people, who’ve already given me so much solace, and just say to TEDsters (ted listeners, 演讲者现编的词）I’m proud of me. That I take something bad, I turn it, and I’m going to make something good out of this, all this pieces.
（Tips: 首先，我们看看这里的 “You are too much！”应该怎么理解，too much 是太多的意思，你想一下我们什么情况下会说一个人 “太多”了呢？我们来看一下来自yahoo.com的这句话的英文解释-If someone is "too much" it usually means that the person using the phrase finds them to be a bit out of the ordinary, and a character in a generally entertaining yet unusual way. It usually means that you are annoying, as normally after people say that they want to take a break. I have heard some saying it to me: was because of my extreme energy, talking enthusiastically all the time or asking the person to join me in EVERY thing i do. 大家感受一下。翻译成中文：你真是作死！对不对，这才是标准的越zuo越die啊有木有。所以不要再no zuo no die了，宣传地再好，考托福也是行不通滴，不如老老实实用上咱这简单易懂的 You are too much 吧。其实这句话也可以表示，“你太作”了的意思。实在太好用，拿好不谢。）
That’s Arthur Leipzig’s original photograph I loved. I was a big record collector, the records didn’t make it. Boy, I tell you, film burns. Film burns. I mean, this was 16millimeter safety film. The negatives are gone. That’s my father’s letter to me, telling me to marry the woman I first married when I was 20. Um... That’s my daughter and me. She’s still there. She’s there this morning, actually. That’s my house. My family’s living in the Hilton Hotel in Scotts Valley. That’s my wife, Heidi, who didn’t take it as well as I did. My children, Davey and Henry. My son, Davey, in the hotel two nights ago. So my message to you folks, from my 3 minutes, is that I appreciate the chance to share this with you. I will be back. I love being at TED. I came to live it, and I am living it. That’s my view from my window, outside of Santa Cruz, in Bonny Doon, just 35 miles from here. Thank you everybody.
（最后要讲的一点点就是 这个the records didn’t make it. 很多同学可能在高中课本中学过“make it”这个词组，意思为成功，succeed。但是在这个里面，我们的“make it”是挺过来的意思，比如说你想说小时候被父母扔家里，冰箱里只有一点面包，只能撑两天。那么我们可以说，“There’s only so much bread for me to make it till the day after tomorrow”, 或者某人病重，你说他撑不过明天了， “He probably won’t make it through tomorrow.” 所以在本段中，老爷爷说他心爱的唱片records收藏都没撑过大伙，表示已化为灰烬了。而这里用了make，也相当于类似拟人的用法，跟中文一样儿样儿的。）
