欧美人文风情第207篇:我敢说,你看不完这短短三分钟影片

 I dare you to watch this entire video. I dare you to watch this entire video.  我挑战你看完这整部影片。我挑战你看完这整部影片。

No skipping ahead, no pausing, no opening another tab and letting this play in the background.  不能跳过去、不能暂停、不能打开其它视窗然后让这在背景播放。

I dare you to sit still and do nothing but watch a single three-minute Internet video. 我挑战你乖乖坐着然后什么事都不做，只单看一部三分钟的网路影片。

Hmm, it's difficult for you, isn't it? You're becoming bored.  嗯，这对你来说很困难，对吧？你开始感到无聊。

Your brain is beginning to itch¹ inside your skull², begging for a morsel³ of distraction⁴ from the Internet.  你的大脑开始在头颅内骚动，哀求着要从网路上得到一点点能分散注意力的东西。

And you're holding it together for now, but the truth is, you're frightened.  而你现在还撑着，不过事实是，你吓坏了。

It's been so long since you've tried to focus like this that you don't know if you can do it anymore. 自你上次试着这么专注已经过了好久，久到你都不知道自己还能不能做到。

And this video is boring, isn't it? Maybe you think it's a trick, that there's some reward for sticking it out.  而且这部影片很无聊，对吧？或许你认为这是个花招，认为坚持到最后会有某种奖励。

You think that at two minutes and 50 seconds, a funny message will appear for a frame or two,  你以为在两分五十秒时，一个好笑的讯息会出现个一两幕，

and you'll only see it if you watch the whole thing.  而你只有看完整部影片才会看到那讯息。

You've probably already scrubbed along the bottom of the progress bar to see if that happens, right?  你搞不好已经沿着时间轴拉看看那会不会发生了，对吧？

Well, it doesn't. There's no joke, no prize. There's just you and this video. Either you watch it or you don't. 这个嘛，并不会。没有笑话、没有奖励。只有你和这部影片。你要不看完它，不然就是不要看。

I dare you to watch it. But the obstacles are mounting. That was an email. That was a new post on Instagram.  我挑战你看它。不过阻碍正在增加。那是封信件。那是 Instagram 上的一则新贴文。

That was a celebrity⁵ who just died on Twitter. Maybe it was Shaq.  那是推特上一个名人刚过世的消息。搞不好是侠客。

Everyone's tweeting about Shaq's death, and you're missing it. Are you comfortable with that? 大家都在推文说侠客的死，而你在错过。你对那感到自在吗？

That was 10 seconds. But it felt like a year, didn't it?  那是十秒钟。不过感觉起来像一年，是吧？

A decade of instantaneous entertainment has made you so mentally soft and fat  十年来的即时娱乐刺激使你心理上变得如此软弱又肥胖，

that you find even 10 seconds of boredom⁶ excruciating. How sad. 你发现就连十秒的无聊都难以忍受。多悲哀啊。

Remember when you were a child? You could spend an entire hour watching an ant crawl across a rock.  记得你还是个孩子的时候吗？你可以花整整一小时看一只蚂蚁爬过石头。

One afternoon, you checked out a library book, and you were so engrossed⁷ that you read the entire thing in just one day.  有个下午，你从图书馆借出一本书，而你是那么入迷，所以你在仅仅一天内就读完全部。

When was the last time that happened to you? 你上次那样是什么时候了？

The truth is, you're weaker now. Attention is the scalpel you use to cut away the fat from your life,  事实是，你现在变得更加软弱。专注力是你用来将脂肪从生活中切除的解剖刀，

but the Internet has robbed you of it.  但网路已经把它从你身上夺走了。

And now, instead of choosing what you experience, you drift from tab to tab full of content you hate,  现在，不是选择你所经历的事物，你反而游荡在充满你厌恶的内容的视窗间，

like a hungry ghost who will never be full. Your life is filtering through your fingers, and you are doing nothing to stop it.  就像个永远不会满足的饿鬼。你的生命在从指间流逝，而你却没做任何事来阻止。

But if you watch this entire video, if you make the choice to sit and be bored for these 180 seconds,  不过如果你看了这整部影片，如果你选择坐着然后感到无聊 180 秒，

you will have finally taken the first step in regaining⁸ control over the one truly unrenewable resource in life: your time. 你将会终于采取第一步，取回生命中唯一不可更新资源的控制权的第一步：那资源就是你的时间。

Less than three minutes ago, I dared you to watch this entire video.  不到三分钟前，我挑战你看这完整部影片。

In a moment, you will have won or lost, and only you will know the difference.  马上，你就会胜利或落败，而只有你会知道差别。

Either way, the dare will be over. To decide what you'll do with the rest of your life, you'll have to dare yourself. 不管怎样，挑战将结束。要决定你接下来的人生要怎样，你将得挑战自己。

 

1 itch   

n.痒，渴望，疥癣；vi.发痒，渴望

参考例句：

• Shylock has an itch for money.夏洛克渴望发财。
• He had an itch on his back.他背部发痒。

2 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

3 morsel   

n.一口，一点点

参考例句：

• He refused to touch a morsel of the food they had brought.他们拿来的东西他一口也不吃。
• The patient has not had a morsel of food since the morning.从早上起病人一直没有进食。

4 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

5 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

6 boredom   

n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊

参考例句：

• Unemployment can drive you mad with boredom.失业会让你无聊得发疯。
• A walkman can relieve the boredom of running.跑步时带着随身听就不那么乏味了。

7 engrossed   

adj.全神贯注的

参考例句：

• The student is engrossed in his book.这名学生正在专心致志地看书。
• No one had ever been quite so engrossed in an evening paper.没人会对一份晚报如此全神贯注。

8 regaining   

复得( regain的现在分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地

参考例句：

• She was regaining consciousness now, but the fear was coming with her. 现在她正在恢发她的知觉，但是恐怖也就伴随着来了。
• She said briefly, regaining her will with a click. 她干脆地答道，又马上重新振作起精神来。