TED演讲：不要一悔再悔(4)

 　　So let's start off by defining some terms. What is regret?  首先让我们定义一下几个词语。什么是后悔？

　　Regret is the emotion we experience when we think that our present situation could be better or happier if we had done something different in the past.  后悔是我们觉得如果过去做法不同，当下的状况就会更好更幸福时的情绪表达。

　　So in other words, regret requires two things. It requires, first of all, agency-we had to make a decision in the first place.  也就是，后悔包含两点。首先是对象—我们曾经作出的决定。

　　And second of all, it requires imagination.  第二是想像。

　　We need to be able to imagine going back and making a different choice, and then we need to be able to kind of spool¹ this imaginary record forward and imagine how things would be playing out in our present.  我们要想像如果能回到过去，作出不同的选择，那么我们就能据此想像未来，眼下的事情会如何发展。

　　And in fact, the more we have of either of these things-the more agency and the more imagination with respect to a given regret, the more acute that regret will be. 这两样我们有的越多—在一种遗憾上有更多的对象和想像，这种后悔就越强烈。

1 spool   

n.（缠录音带等的）卷盘（轴）；v.把…绕在卷轴上

参考例句：

• Can you wind this film back on to its spool?你能把这胶卷卷回到卷轴上去吗？
• Thomas squatted on the forward deck,whistling tunelessly,polishing the broze spool of the anchor winch.托马斯蹲在前甲板上擦起锚绞车的黄铜轴，边擦边胡乱吹着口哨。