人类生活的冷知识（为什么会冒出这些奇怪的脑洞）

2019.7.14 周日

浴中奇思

An idea, thought, or concept that first comes to you when you are taking your morning shower...

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社交网站Reddit有一个成员众多的社群，叫做“Showerthoughts”。

顾名思义，shower thoughts就是洗澡时冒出来的想法。

Shower thoughts

An idea, thought, or concept that first comes to you when you are taking your morning shower or doing some other part of your morning routine;

你早上洗澡或者洗漱的时候突然蹦到脑子里的想法、思考，或者概念；

Often an epiphany /ɪ'pɪfəni/ ;

常常是灵光一现的顿悟；

Often sudden;

往往不可预测；

Often marked by the inability to recall later.

大多之后想不起来。

— From Urban Dictionary

简而言之，就是人在“例行公事”的放松状态下脑子飞出去所做的运动。

一念之间，醍醐灌顶，脑洞大开，转头就忘。

该社群的简介还写道：

A subreddit for sharing those miniature epiphanies you have that highlight the oddities within the familiar.

在这里分享那些乍现的灵感，发现平凡中的不凡。

These sorts of musings tend to arise when a person's mind is engaged with a routine, uncomplicated activity (like commuting, mowing the lawn, or waiting for a customer service representative to finally answer an allegedly important telephone call).

这类思考通常在你例行的日常生活里出现在脑海里（比方说通勤的时候、修剪草坪的时候，或者是等客服代表终于接听一个所谓的重要电话的时候）。

While the word "showerthought" may be a bit misleading – showerthoughts don't have to occur in the shower, after all – the concept it embodies is something that everyone has experienced.

“浴中奇思”这个词可能会有点误导性——“showerthoughts”不一定非得是洗澡时的想法——这个概念代表的是每个人都体会过的那种奇思妙想。

来看看外国网友的一些shower thoughts，哪些是你也曾想到过的？

- 1 -

When you're a kid, you don't realize you're also watching your mom and dad grow up.

你小的时候意识不到自己也在看着（年轻的）父母成长。

- 2 -

It would be cool if after you died you could see the top 5 times you almost died.

如果死后可以看到自己一生中离死亡最近的五个场景，那多有意思啊。

- 3 -

Stan Lee's funeral is going to be a reverse cameo where all the superheroes appear in the background of his story.

斯坦·李（注：漫威编剧、漫画家）的葬礼将会是一个反转过来的配角群戏，所有的超级英雄都会成为他的人生故事的背景。

- 4 -

Coffee makes you hyper, but coffee shops are designed for people to chill, whereas alcohol is a depressant but bars and clubs are designed for people to be energetic.

咖啡让你有精神，但是咖啡馆的设计初衷是让你去放松的；相反，酒精让你迟钝无力，但是酒吧却是叫你去嗨玩的。

- 5 -

The internet both almost killed off the postal service with email and then made it more needed than ever with online delivery.

互联网先是用电子邮件几乎埋葬了传统信件邮递服务，然后又用网购快递救活了邮寄公司。

- 6 -

The spiders that live in Buckingham Palace now are probably the descendants of the spiders that lived there during Victorian times - it's a whole parallel royal family but with spiders.

如今住在白金汉宫的蜘蛛可能是维多利亚时代就住在里面的蜘蛛的后代——这简直就是和人类皇室平行发展的一个蜘蛛皇室。

- 7 -

The night before a day off is more satisfying than the actual day off.

放假前的那天晚上比第二天真正放假还要来得爽。

- 8 -

The tallest person in the world has physically experienced being the exact height of every other person in the world at some point. "Ahh, I remember when I was your height…"

世界上最高的人的身体经历过世界上所有人的身高。“啊，我记得我跟你差不多高的时候……”

- 9 -

Replying "k" in morse "-.-", has the same passive aggressive tone.

用“k”（“哦，嗯”）的摩斯电码“-.-”来回复消息，可以达到同样的冷漠挑衅效果。

【注】想了解“K”这个让老外讨厌的词，可以看这篇文章：中国人最讨厌的回复是“嗯”，美国人最讨厌的回复是……

- 10 -

One k short of being offensive, one too many ks to be passive aggressive...

一个”k”还算不上冒犯，但太多”kkkkk……”（“行行行行行……”）就有冷漠挑衅的意味了。

- 11 -

It's entirely possible that two random people on the internet have had a friendly conversation on one forum and later an aggressive hateful conversation on another forum, without ever knowing of their previous wholesome interaction.

极有可能互联网上两个陌生人在一个平台上友好聊天，但之后在另一个论坛里就撕起来了，还可能完全不知道他俩之间有过友好交流。

有过类似经历的不止广大网友们。

说过“给我一个支点，我可以撬动整个地球”这句话的著名古希腊数学家阿基米德也是在泡澡的时候发现了阿基米德原理，即浮力的大小，等于物体排开液体所受到的重力。

他的这个泡澡轶事流传甚广，应该算得上最有名的泡澡了。

The most widely-known anecdote about Archimedes tells of how he invented a method for determining the volume of an object with an irregular shape.

阿基米德最广为人知的轶事讲述了他是如何发明一种方法来确定不规则形状物体的体积的。

According to Vitruvius, a votive crown for a temple had been made for King Hiero II of Syracuse, who had supplied the pure gold to be used, and Archimedes was asked to determine whether some silver had been substituted by the dishonest goldsmith.

根据维特鲁维乌斯的说法，锡拉丘兹的希罗二世国王为一座寺庙做了一个祭祀用的王冠，希罗二世提供了纯金来打造王冠，后来他要求阿基米德搞清楚爱做手脚的金匠是否用了银代替金。

Archimedes had to solve the problem without damaging the crown, so he could not melt it down into a regularly shaped body to calculate its density.

阿基米德必须在不损坏王冠的情况下解决这个问题，因此他无法将王冠熔化成规则形状的物体来计算它的密度。

While taking a bath, he noticed that the level of the water in the tub rose as he got in, and realized that this effect could be used to determine the volume of the crown.

在洗澡的时候，他注意到浴缸里的水位在他踏入的时候上升了，他意识到这个现象可以用来确定王冠的体积。

Archimedes then took to the streets naked, so excited by his discovery that he had forgotten to dress, crying "Eureka!" (Greek: "εὕρηκα, heúrēka!", meaning "I have found [it]!")

阿基米德随后赤身裸体跑上街头，他无比兴奋于这一发现，连衣服都忘了穿，大喊着“Eureka！”（希腊语："εὕρηκα, heúrēka!"，意思是“我找到了”！）

由此，eureka在1603年正式进入到英语中，和moment连用，表示“恍然大悟的时刻”！

汉语里没有“浴中奇思”的准确对应词。

但是对于eureka moment，我们有不少成语：恍然大悟、灵光乍现、醍醐灌顶、茅塞顿开。

你有过哪些“浴中奇思”呢？留言告诉双语君吧！

这里是中国日报双语新闻夜听双语，我是双语君。

晚安，好梦。

Notes

epiphany n. /ɪˈpɪfəni/ 对现实真谛的顿悟或洞察

oddity n. /ˈɒdəti/古怪反常的人（或事物）

musing n. /ˈmjuːzɪŋ/沉思；冥想

parallel adj. /ˈpærəlel /平行的；同时发生的

hateful adj. /ˈheɪtfl/不友好的；十分讨厌的

anecdote n. /ˈænɪkdoʊt/轶事；趣闻

eureka /juˈriːkə/（因找到某物，尤指问题的答案而高兴）我发现了，我找到了

编辑：左卓

实习生：张琳曼

来源：Reddit; UrbanDictionary

BGM: I know you're not, but I hope you're thinking of the time we had together –Xeuphoria

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