时差N小时 收集东西成瘾的丈夫真恼人

Dear Annie:

亲爱的安妮：

My husband has an office that doubles as a spare bedroom. Every holiday season, we have overnight company. To make room for them, I have to pick up papers from under the desk, the computer, the floor, etc. Last year, I carried 30 boxes of papers to the basement.

我丈夫有一个办公室，比备用卧室大两倍。每逢节日，我们都会和同伴们玩个通宵。为了给他们腾出地方，我需要把各种文件从办公桌、电脑和地板下面拿出来。去年，我往地下室拿了30箱文件。

My husband hates to sort through all this. I have set up two file cabinets, bookshelves and a cubby with 24 slots. I'm trying to get him to work with me on the boxes in the basement so I won't throw out something important, but he balks¹ at the idea. I've asked him to give me just one hour a day, but it is a struggle. He tries to show me where things are located, but all I see is chaos². － Buried in Paper

我丈夫痛恨整理这些文件。我建了两个文件柜、书架和一个包含24个分区的杂物间。我试图让他跟我一起去地下室收拾这些箱子，这样我不会把一些重要的文件丢掉，但他却不愿意这样做。我要求他每天抽出一个小时帮我收拾东西，但他却不同意。他告诉我他能找到文件，但我看到的却是一片混乱。—— 埋在纸堆里的人

Dear Buried:

亲爱的“ 埋在纸堆里的人”：

Your husband is a packrat, and the thought of going through his stuff is paralyzing, so you will have to do the lion's share of organizing. Set a time for his assistance and make it 15 minutes instead of an hour. Sort through some things in advance. Show him a pile of magazines and tell him to pick out what he wants because the rest goes. If your husband sees that he can accomplish something in those 15 minutes, he may be willing to do more.

你的丈夫可真是一个packrat（一种软件名称）啊，整理他的东西真不是个简单任务，所以大部分的事都需要你来做。你可以要求他每天抽出15分钟而不是一个小时来帮你收拾东西。还有，可以提前整理好一些东西。把一堆杂志放在他面前，让他挑出他想要的东西，其余你将要拿走。如果你丈夫看到他可以在这15分钟内完成这些工作，他可能会愿意做的更多。

1 balks   

v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的第三人称单数 )；（指马）不肯跑

参考例句：

• They braced up the old house with balks of timber. 他们用梁木加固旧房子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。