英语脑筋急转弯中蕴藏的人生哲理

 　　To test your mental acuity¹, answer the following questions (no peeking² at the answers!):

　　测测你的脑力，回答以下问题(不要偷看答案哦!)：

　　1.Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?

　　1.在喜马拉雅山被发现之前，世界上最高的山是什么山?

　　2.Billie was born on December 28th, yet her birthday always falls in the summer. How is this possible?

　　2.比莉出生在12月28日，但她都是在夏天过生日的，这是什么原因?

　　3. If you were running a race and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?

　　3.如果你在跑步比赛中超过了第二名，那么你现在是第几名?

　　4. Johnny’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name?

　　4.强尼的妈妈有三个孩子，第一个孩子叫四月，第二个孩子叫五月，第三个孩子叫什么?

　　Answers

　　答案

　　1. Mt. Everest. It just wasn’t discovered yet.

　　1.喜马拉雅山。它始终是第一高山，只是还没被发现而已。

　　2. Billie lives in the southern hemisphere.

　　2.比莉住在南半球。

　　3. You would be in 2nd place. You passed the person in second place, not first.

　　3.你还是第二名，因为你超过的是第二名，不是第一名。

　　4. Johnny.

　　4.强尼。

　　Okay, some of these are a bit corny. But they all illustrate³ several brain idiosyncrasies that affect how we make decisions in the world.

　　好吧，有些题目是有点老土，但是这些题目却能很好地证明我们大脑中的一些习性是如何影响我们做出判断的。

　　Thanks to the way our brain works, we have a very strong tendency to see what we want to see and what we expect to see. When we only see what we want or expect to see, we miss opportunities because we only see what has worked in the past rather than what could be.

　　大脑的工作方式让我们更愿意去看我们想看到的东西和希望看到的东西。这样我们就会失去一些机会，因为我们仅仅注意到了过去而没有看到未来的机遇。

　　Our brain doesn’t like information gaps, so we tend to jump at the first answer/solution that looks good rather than take the time to examine all the data. This is especially true in a world where we receive more information every day than we have time to assimilate. Finally, our brains love to see patterns and make connections.

　　我们的大脑不喜欢有信息空挡，所以我们倾向于相信大脑里出现的第一个答案或者解决办法，而不是通盘考虑、仔细研究所有的信息。在这个信息爆炸的时代，情况就更是如此了，我们没有时间去吸收理解所有的信息。最终，我们的大脑就会形成思维定势。

　　We can’t change how the brain works – at least not yet. Give science another 50 years and who knows what our brains will be doing! For now, we can become more aware of how our brain works, then pause from time to time to consider what we’re missing. This includes the data we’re unconsciously screening out as well as different sources of data to counterbalance what we expect to see.

　　至少现在我们不能改变大脑的工作方式，也许未来的50年里，科学就能做出改变，谁知道呢!现在我们能做的就是，更多地关注自己大脑的工作方式，时不时地停下来想想，我们是不是遗漏掉了什么，有没有什么信息是我们在潜意识里把它排除掉的，或者是不是有一些我们不希望看到的不同信息被忽略了。

　　Get in the habit of teasing your brain. You’ll be amazed at what you end up seeing that you didn’t see before.

　　养成训练脑力的好习惯吧。最终你会惊喜地发现自己看到了以往所看不到的东西。

1 acuity   

n.敏锐，（疾病的）剧烈

参考例句：

• We work on improving visual acuity.我们致力于提高视觉的敏锐度。
• The nurse may also measure visual acuity.护士还可以检查视敏度。

2 peeking   

v.很快地看( peek的现在分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出

参考例句：

• I couldn't resist peeking in the drawer. 我不由得偷看了一下抽屉里面。
• They caught him peeking in through the keyhole. 他们发现他从钥匙孔里向里窥视。 来自辞典例句

3 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。