装逼的物理科学术语（为何一有可怕的事情发生我们就会用）

每天选择看什么文章，都是凭借着标题的吸引力。今天的这篇Why We Turn To The Word “Surreal”Whenever Something Terrible Happens为何一有可怕的事情发生我们就会用"surreal（超现实)”一词就是被它的标题吸引！

本文改编自杰西．麦克休所著、达顿出版社出版的《美国标准：13部畅销书中意想不到的美国历史》。今天的文章词汇和句式上都不难，就是一开始读起来有些不解，我以为作者开篇就会讲“surreal”和可怕的事情的联系，可却用了好长的篇幅讲了美国民众在大事发生时为什么还要寻求《韦氏词典》的 帮助去得到某些词的释义，直到读到我列举出的第二句，我才真正理解了‘surreal’和大事件之间的联系。文章有点长，觉得几处译的好地方给大家黑体标出了。

take the pulse of the population,

译成了“探查民意”，我觉得译的真的是太好了，这句话一开始我的理解是“给民众把脉”，怎么都找不到合适的书面语表达这个意思，看了译文真有种豁然开朗的感觉。

1: Sokolowski told me repeatedly that

the dictionary is “neither an accusations) nor a diagnosis ". I'd contend that it can be both, but it can also serve a different purpose: it can take the pulse of the population, expressing some anxiety or national trend through a surge of

interconnected words-and their web of meanings.

索科洛夫斯基再三对我说，词典“既不可用于指控，也不可用于诊断”我则认为这两方面都可以，而且它还有另一个作用，即探查民意，通过互相关联的词语及其错综复杂的含义的突然涌现反映某种焦虑或全国性趋势。

2: This impulse to define ，especially in moments of chaos sometimes seems an attempt to avoid the messiness of mourning .The reaction to many of these events is confusion', followed by disbelief and even rage. If national grief were to be boxed into the Kibler-Ross stages, Americans are often stuck in the first three: denial, anger，and bargaining. In the word “surreal,” there is a refusal.By understanding tragedy as “surreal,”we seem to be saying “this cannot really behappening.

这种想阐明事实的冲动——尤其是在混乱的时候——有时似乎是为了避免悲伤而致混乱。人们在遇到很多这

样的事件时先是困惑，然后是怀疑甚至愤怒。如果把全民悲伤按库布勒一罗斯的阶段说进行划分，美国人常常困在前三个阶段：“否认”“愤怒”和“讨价还价”“surreal( 超现实）一词有拒绝接受之意。若认为灾难“超现实”，似乎是在说“这样的事不可能真的发生”。

It's why SO many of these "surreal” incidents whether 9/11 or Sandy Hook have become ripe for conspiracy theories. Some people find more solace in refusing to

believe that, these events could and did happen.To this swath of Americans, even a shadowy cabal of puppet-masters is easier to stomach than the idea that a plane could be hijacked mid-air Or that someone could walk into an elementary school and massacre children.

这就是为什么如此多这样的“超现实”事件——无论是“9•11”事件还是桑迪胡克小学枪击事件一一会变得很适合阴谋论。拒绝相信这些事件可能并且确实已经发生会让一些人找到更多慰藉。对这部分美国人来说，与飞机会在空中被劫持或有人会走进小学屠杀儿童这种说法相比，他们甚至更容易接受存在一个暗中操纵一切的阴谋小集团。

3: The fragility of life is at the heart of those occurrences we deem

surreal. Perhapsnothing encapsulates that more in recent memory than the COVID-19 pandemic. To suddenly find that even the most mundane spaces grocery stores, subway cars offices, a friend's home are rife with danger is an experience that seems like

a bad dream. That vibrant cities could shut down overnight or that our government could let more than half

a million people die from a virus all seem “surreal ”in the truest sense of the word.

生命的脆弱是那些我们视为超现实

的事件的本质。在最近的记忆中或许没有什么比新冠肺炎大流行更能概括这一点。突然发现连最平常的地方一食品杂货店、地铁车厢、办公室、朋友家一—也充满危险，这似乎像是场噩梦。活力四射的城市可能一夜之间停摆，我们的政府竟让50 多万人死于一种病毒，这一切看起来都最真实地演绎了“超现实”的含义。

4: Whether world war or a global

pandemic, these periods of history can feel nightmarish.especially given the bedrocks of American belief. Much of our national identity

stems from our belief in meritocracy : that if we work hard, we will be rewarded. In a nation that values optimism, practicality and planning, it's difficult to cope with the

suddenness of trauma: the fact that some questions cannot be fully

answered. It's why we struggle to mourn, to sit with our suffering and to see it as real, to be awake with pain and not to understand it as ‘the irrational reality of a dream.

无论是世界大战还是全球性流行病，这种历史时期都会给人驅梦般的感觉，尤其是考虑到美国人的基本信仰。我们的民族身份认同很大程度上源于我们对精英领导制度的信仰，即努力工作就会得到回报。在一个重视乐观、务实和规划的国家，人们很难应付突如其来的精神打击，也就是说一些疑问无法得到充分解答。这就是我们不知如何应对悲伤、不能忍受痛楚和把事情当真的原因，我们很难在痛苦中保持清醒，很难不把事情当作“梦境般的荒谬现实”。

5: Whether in 2021 or 1921, we have tended to respond to uncertainty in much the same way we always have: with a desire for clarity, for absolute truths. The craving for definition has not gone away, even if the market for print dictionaries wanes.

无论是在 2021 年还是1921 年，我们对不确定性的反应方式基本上一直没有变过：渴望阐明事实，渴望绝对真相。纵使纸质词典的市场需求减弱，人们对释义的渴求也未消失。

6: Nearly two centuries after the first publication of Webster's dictionary, Americans turn to this book when they feel confused, afraid or

destabilized And the dictionary

continues to serve a vital purpose in times of tumult'. “If the entire country is looking up a word， implicitly the

country is asking us a question,” Sokolowski said.“And what

is the dictionary for but to

answer questions about language?”

在首版《韦氏词典》问世近 200年后，美国人在感到困惑、害怕或不安时会求助于这本书。该词典继续在人们心烦意乱时发挥至关重要的作用。“如果全国民众都在查找某个词⋯这个国家就是在含蓄地向我们提问,”索科洛夫斯基说，“而词典除了解答语言方面的疑问外还能用来干什么呢？”