九岁纯真男孩书写“爱情宝典”

 　　There are many places a young man can go for romantic¹ advice—friends, family, and if the worst comes to the worst, the Internet. Now, desperate² bachelors³ are taking dating tips from a nine-year-old boy。

　　关于爱情，年轻人可以从很多地方得到建议——朋友、家人，最糟莫过于互联网。而目前，绝望的单身汉们都在向一名九岁的男孩学习约会技巧。

　　Alec Greven, from Colorado, is the author of How to Talk to Girls. The book, which started as an elementary school project, has become a New York Times best-seller⁴. “I just observed around the playground how boys mess up and what mistakes they make,” said Alec. “A lot of boys made the wrong conversations。”

　　美国科罗拉多州的亚历克·格雷文写了一本名为《如何与女孩交谈》的书。这本书起初只是亚历克的一次小学作业，而现在已经登上了《纽约时报》畅销书榜的首位。亚历克说：“我只是在操场观察男孩子和女孩子在一起的时候都搞糟了哪些事情，犯了哪些错误。很多男孩子的交谈方式都有问题。”

　　Alec believes showing interest is the key to winning⁵ a girl’s heart. He said: “Your goal is to make sure she does most of the talking so then you can’t mess up。”

　　亚历克认为：要赢得女孩子的芳心，关键是要表现出感兴趣。他说：“你要做的是确保她在交谈中占主导地位，这样事情就不会搞砸。”

　　In his book, Alec suggests that men find a cool role model to base their behaviour on. “The best choice for most boys is a regular girl。” he said. Alec also offers advice for when relationships don’t work out so well. On breaking-up, he said: “You say something like, ‘I don’t think this is really going to work but would you like to be friends’。” On being dumped⁶, he replied: “I say, life is hard, move on. If you can’t get over it, it’s ruined。”

　　在书中，亚历克建议男性要为自己的举止树立一个好榜样。他认为，“对于大多数男孩来说，最好是选择一个普通女孩。” 亚历克对于相处不顺的情况也提出了建议，比如分手时，他认为：“这种情况下应该说‘我认为我们俩在一起不合适，但能让我们继续做朋友吗’之类的话。” 如果被甩了呢？亚历克的回答是：“我会说生活就是如此艰难，继续生活吧。要抛开过去，否则你的生活就毁了。”

　　Despite his junior love-guru status, Alec says there are no ladies in his life, aside from his mother. “I’m a little too young for all that dating and everything,” he said. Alec is working on several follow-ups to How to Talk to Girls. How to Talk to Moms, How to Talk to Dads and How to Talk to Grandparents are already in the pipeline⁷。

　　虽然身为年少的爱情专家，但亚历克说自己的生活中除了母亲还没有其他女士。他说：“约会和其他事情对我来说还太早了点。” 亚历克正计划写其他的与《如何与女孩交谈》类似的书：《如何同母亲交谈》，《如何同父亲交谈》，《如何同祖父母交谈》等都即将问世。

　　Vocabulary:

　　in the pipeline 在进行中，在处理中，在生产中

1 romantic   

adj.浪漫的，风流的，传奇性的，夸大的，想象的，浪漫派的

参考例句：

• She thinks it will be romantic to be an actress.她认为当个女演员会很浪漫。
• Her husband is very romantic.她丈夫非常浪漫。

2 desperate   

adj.不顾死活的，危急的，令人绝望的，极渴望的

参考例句：

• They made a desperate attempt to save the company.他们为挽救公司作孤注一掷的努力。
• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。

3 bachelors   

n.学士( bachelor的名词复数 )；（被大雄海豹逐出交配场的）小雄海豹；单身男子；尚未交配的幼雄兽

参考例句：

• You bachelors are really sneaky. 你们没结婚的人太不老实。 来自汉英文学 - 围城
• Gus was a bachelor, and FDR enjoyed learning through him, how bachelors operated. 格斯是一个光棍，罗斯福喜欢从他那里打听光棍怎么打发日子。 来自辞典例句

4 best-seller   

n.畅销书，畅销货(唱片等)

参考例句：

• This book is a best seller.这本书是一种畅销的书。
• I hope for this book to become a best seller.我希望这本书会成为一本畅销书。

5 winning   

adj.获胜的，胜利的；吸引人的，有说服力的

参考例句：

• Team A has no chance of winning.A队没有获胜的可能。
• They have great hopes of winning.他们获胜的希望极大。

6 dumped   

adj.废弃的v.倾倒( dump的过去式和过去分词 )；丢下；随便堆放；释放

参考例句：

• Too much toxic waste is being dumped at sea. 太多的有毒废料在向大海里倾倒。
• They dumped his belongings unceremoniously on the floor. 他们粗暴地把他的物品摔到地板上。

7 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。