纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 037北美水獭烟(5)

Smoking was not only sophisticated¹, it was intellectual and meditative², and Sherlock Holmes famously described one particularly testing case as "quite a three-pipe problem".

抽烟不仅能展现成熟魅力，还能帮助思考，展现智慧。福尔摩斯曾有句名言来形容一个案子十分棘手：这得花三斗烟的时间。

And there was, of course, also the intensely enjoyable personal engagement³ with the physical object. Here's the politician Tony Benn:

当然，烟斗本身也能给抽烟者带来愉悦。政治家托尼本因是个著名的老烟枪，他愉快地回忆起往昔：

"It's a beautiful object. I've never seen it before, and I do find it quite hard to imagine how you would smoke anything like that, but still I'm sure if you had to,you would…

这真是一个美极了的小物件。我之前从未见过,我发现它很难想象你会像那样吸烟,但我相信如果你会,你会…

Stanley Baldwin smoked a pipe, Harold Wilson smoked a pipe-it was a very normal thing to do, and of course the pipe of peace, and sitting round together, and friendship pipes associated with friendship, and so on. So they do have a meaning over and above the satisfaction of smoking. It's a sort of hobby in a way-you scrape it, and clean it and fill it and tap it and light it, and it goes out and you light it again, and if you are asked a question at a meeting-not that you can smoke in meetings any more-but if you were asked a question, light your pipe and say 'that's a very good question'-it gives you a little bit of time to think of the answer. But I wouldn't recommend anybody else to start smoking."

斯坦利鲍德温抽烟斗，哈罗德威尔逊也抽烟斗：抽烟是件极平常的事。当然还有和平烟，让大家坐拢到一起的友谊烟，等等。抽烟除了给人满足感之外，还有别的意义。它可以说是种嗜好：清理烟斗，放入烟丝，轻敲一下，然后点燃，如果熄灭就再点一次。而如果在会议上有人问你问题，你可以点燃烟斗说：“这真是个好问题。”这样便有时间思考。我也不建议任何人开始学抽烟。

1 sophisticated   

adj.老练的，精密的，尖端的，高雅的

参考例句：

• She has become very sophisticated since she went to live in London.移居伦敦后她变得世故多了。
• This is a very sophisticated machine.这是一台非常精密的机器。

2 meditative   

adj.沉思的，冥想的

参考例句：

• A stupid fellow is talkative;a wise man is meditative.蠢人饶舌，智者思虑。
• Music can induce a meditative state in the listener.音乐能够引导倾听者沉思。

3 engagement   

n.订婚，婚约，约定，约会

参考例句：

• I can't see you on Monday because I have a previous engagement.星期一我不能见你，因为我有约在先。
• It was my mother's very own engagement ring.这正是我母亲自己的订婚戒指。