精美英文欣赏:放松心情 Lighten Up(上)

Lighten¹ Up

放松心情

These days, it seems that almost all of us have something to worry about.

这些日子，似乎我们每个人都有担心的事情。

People are frustrated² and uptight³ about almost everything—being five minutes late,

人们对很多事情会感到沮丧和紧张——还有五分钟就要迟到了，

having someone else show up five minutes late, being stuck in traffic,

希望对方能在五分钟后出现，因为交通堵塞被困，

witnessing someone look at us wrong or say something wrong, paying bills,

眼睁睁地让别人看我们出错或说错了什么话，

waiting in line, overcooking a meal,

买单时排很长的队，煮饭的时间过长，

making an honest mistake—you name it, we all become upset over it.

我们眼里的无心之错，这些都会令人感到沮丧。

The root cause for being upset is our unwillingness⁴ to accept life as being different,

感到沮丧的根本原因是我们不愿意接受生活时常的变化，

in any way, from our expectations. Very simply,

而是希望所有事都能如愿。简单地说，

we want things to be a certain way but they are not a certain way.

我们希望事情以特定的方式发生，而不愿意接受它变化的一面。

Life is simply as it is. Perhaps Benjamin Franklin said it best:

生活原本就很简单。也许正如本杰明·富兰克林说的：

"Our limited perspective⁵, our hopes and fears become our measure of life,

“我们的视野是有限的，我们的希望和恐惧成为衡量生活的标准，

and when circumstances do not fit our ideas, they become our difficulties."

当事与愿违，它们就成为生活中的困难”。

We spend our lives wanting things,

我们一生都在希望东西，

people and events to be just as we want them to be—and when they are not,

人和事情都如我们想象中的那样发展——当他们不那样发展，

we fight and we suffer.How do we reduce this suffering?

我们就会抗争，就觉得痛苦。我们如何减少这样的感受呢？

The first step in recovering from a bad mood is to admit that you have a problem.

第一步，从不好的情绪中恢复的办法就是承认我们遇到了问题。

You have to want to change, to become more easygoing.

你不得不通过改变把问题变得容易解决。

You have to see that your own state of heart is largely⁶ of your own creation—

你必须知道一个人的心态是由自己决定的——

it is composed of the way you set up your life and the way you react to it.

它是由你创造生活的方式和你对这样的生活的反应。

1 lighten   

vt./vi.减轻，变轻；照亮，变亮

参考例句：

• The sky began to lighten after the storm.暴风雨后天空开始放晴。
• They decided to lighten taxes.他们决定减轻税收。

2 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 uptight   

adj.焦虑不安的，紧张的

参考例句：

• He's feeling a bit uptight about his exam tomorrow.他因明天的考试而感到有点紧张。
• Try to laugh at it instead of getting uptight.试着一笑了之，不要紧张。

4 unwillingness   

n. 不愿意，不情愿

参考例句：

• Her unwillingness to answer questions undermined the strength of her position. 她不愿回答问题，这不利于她所处的形势。
• His apparent unwillingness would disappear if we paid him enough. 如果我们付足了钱，他露出的那副不乐意的神情就会消失。

5 perspective   

n.视角，观点，想法

参考例句：

• You can get a perspective of the whole city from here.从这里你可以看到城市的全景。
• We may get a clear perspective of the people's happy lives.我们知道人民对幸福生活的展望。

6 largely   

adv.大部分，主要地

参考例句：

• It is largely dependent on the weather.这多半取决于天气情况。
• Their conclusions were largely founded on guesswork.他们的结论大部份基于猜测。