读者文摘:给人留下聪明印象的技巧(3)

Four. Eliminate Pauses. Confidence is as perceptible in your voice as it is in your body language.

不要停顿。自信在你的声音和肢体语言中都能体现出来。

As you have probably noticed from watching any political panel show, public event, or business meeting with multiple speakers,

你可能已经注意到，在有很多人演讲的政治电视讨论会、公共事件或者商业会议上，

the "winner" of the talk is usually the person who speaks most energetically and fluidly.

演讲的胜者通常是演讲最有能量最流畅的那个人。

Too many pauses make you sound unsure of yourself, and if you are unconvinced by your own ideas,

太多停顿会让你听起来不自信，如果你自己都不相信自己的观点，

why should the rest of the room be convinced? Theoretical physicist¹ Leonard Mlodinow points out the impact of this bias²:

那其他人又怎么会相信呢？理论物理学家伦纳德·姆沃迪瑙指出了这种偏见的影响

"If two speakers utter exactly the same words but one speaks a little faster and louder and with fewer pauses and greater variation in volume,

如果两个说话者说的完全一样，但其中一个说话更快、更大声，停顿更少，音量变化更大，

that speaker will be judged to be more energetic, knowledgeable³, and intelligent."

那个演讲者会被认为更有活力、更有知识、更聪明。”

Five. Restate Other People's Smart Points. Because of one of those unfair-but-true mental quirks⁴,

重申他人的要点。因为一个不公平但真实的心理怪癖之一就是，

the person in a meeting who simply summarizes the good points made by everyone else

相比于一开始就提出自己论点的人，

will often be better remembered than the people who came up with the ideas in the first place.

简单地总结其他人表达的好的论点的人会更容易被人记住。

If you are struggling to get a word in at your next staff gathering⁵, take notes on the best comments your coworkers deliver.

如果你很难在下一次员工聚会上插进一句话，那就把你同事的最佳评价记录下来。

Near the end of the meeting, restate these ideas in a concise⁶, matter-of-fact way.

在会议快结束的时候，用简洁、实事求是的方式重申这些想法。

Even when giving credit to your coworkers, you will sound smarter.

甚至在夸赞同事的时候，你也会听起来更聪明。

Six. Tell Some Jokes. A French study published in the journal Psychological Reports found that

讲一些笑话。一项发表在《心理学报告》杂志上的法国研究发现，

women find men they overhear telling funny jokes to be smarter and more attractive than those heard conversing⁷ about mundane⁸ topics.

女人发现她们无意中听到的男人讲有趣的笑话的男人比那些谈论单调话题的男人更聪明、更有吸引力。

Other studies have shown that funny women similarly appear smarter to others.

其他研究也发现，风趣的女人也会让人觉得更聪明。

There may be some validity to this, because a certain level of intellect is required to consistently make clever remarks.

这可能有一定的正确性，因为不断做出聪明的评论需要一定的智力水平。

So you can use humor as a hard-to-fake cue to your intelligence. Just don't forget the punch line!

所以你可以用幽默作为提示你智商的线索。别忘了这句妙语！

1 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

2 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

3 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。

4 quirks   

n.奇事，巧合( quirk的名词复数 )；怪癖

参考例句：

• One of his quirks is that he refuses to travel by train. 他的怪癖之一是不愿乘火车旅行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All men have their own quirks and twists. 人人都有他们自己的怪癖和奇想。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

6 concise   

adj.简洁的，简明的

参考例句：

• The explanation in this dictionary is concise and to the point.这部词典里的释义简明扼要。
• I gave a concise answer about this.我对于此事给了一个简要的答复。

7 conversing   

v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I find that conversing with her is quite difficult. 和她交谈实在很困难。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They were conversing in the parlor. 他们正在客厅谈话。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

8 mundane   

adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的

参考例句：

• I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作，而不是一份平凡无奇的。
• I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的，即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。