羅伯特·林德/Robert Lynd
The worst bores, I sometimes think, are those who love telling people the various routes from one place to another. I have never been more bored in my life than when listening to an old gentleman explaining to an old lady the several ways in which she might have come from Notting Hill Gate to Hampstead. She had complained of the time the journey had taken and immediately he was off on a long rigmarole consisting of the number of buses and the frames of streets and stations. He went on in a flat voice conducting her, as it seemed to me, through every street in west and north London. He told her of all the various places where she might have changed buses and named most of the public-houses on the way. In the end, it seemed to me, he was boring himself as well as the rest of us; but he dared not stop, I fancy, because he could think of nothing else to talk about. By the time he rose to go I was in a coma with words like Camden High Street, Prince of Wales Road and Britannia jostling each other in my brain.
Another boring form of conversation is that of the man who, when talking politics, trots out all the old threadbare arguments with the air of a person using them for the first time. I have been a bore of this kind myself. As a boy I was blind enough to regard Mr. Gladstone's proposal of Home Rule for Ireland as both dangerous and wicked, and, whenever I met a great friend of mine who was a Home Ruler, I would drag the conversation round to the great theme. I shouted the wildest nonsense into his ear as I walked beside him in the streets, telling him with blazing eyes of all the good England had done to Ireland and yelling all the usual musty quotations from the Pre-Home-Rule Gladstone and Sir William Harcourt. Not once did I use an original argument, for I knew none. I was merely an infuriated parrot, speaking out of the richest store of ignorance conceivable. Signs of distress on his patient face could not stop me; but one day, driven beyond endurance, he turned to me with a slight flush and said quietly, "My God, what a bore you are!" Now no one likes to be thought a bore, and it is difficult to go on arguing with a man who tells you that you are boring him. To realize that one is boring somebody is to become a pricked balloon. I certainly did. La Roche-foucauld tells us that "we can forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore," yet, after the first moment of shock, I never liked my friend the less for his candour. Since then I must have bored many people; but outside the family circle no one has since told me that I was boring them. I have to study the expression on their faces to know……
我有時覺得，最招人厭煩的人就是那種喜歡跟人講從一個地方到另一地方有多少條路可走的人。我一生中感到最厭煩的一回，是聽一位老先生向一位上年紀的女人介紹從諾丁山門回漢普斯特德可能走的全部街道。她抱怨說自己走的那條路太費時間。於是，他一大串的絮絮叨叨便開了頭，其中包括所有的公共汽車路線、街道名和站名。接下來，他用一種平鋪直敘的語調給她指點整個倫敦西部和北部的每一條路。他告訴她所有可以換車的地名，並且還一一詳述路上所有的酒店名稱。最後我感覺到，他好像把自己也弄煩了，至於我們這些人就更不用說了；但他還是不敢停下來，想來或許因為他再沒有別的什麽好談了。等到最後他起身走開時，我早就暈了，什麽卡門敦大街、威爾士親王路，以及不列顛街等等之類街名，在我的腦海中不斷碰撞，亂作一團。
另外一種使人厭煩的是這樣一種人的談話方式，這種人一談起政治來，就把所有陳詞濫調全都抖摟出來，那神情活像他是第一次使用這些語句。我自己就一向是這類討人厭煩的人。年輕的時候，我因為認識不夠，曾誤以為格萊斯頓先生的愛爾蘭自治提案是危險和有害的，於是每次遇見我那位倡議地方自治的好朋友時，我總愛把話題扯到那個大問題上去。路上並肩走著的時候，我便往他的耳朵裏塞那些荒唐的糊塗話，目光炯炯地為他講述英國曆來對愛爾蘭的全部德政，並向他大聲疾呼那些從自治之前的格萊斯頓以及威廉·哈考特爵士那裏引來的盡人皆知的陳詞濫調。我從來沒有發表過一點兒新鮮的議論，因為我對那些一無所知。我像一隻被激怒了的鸚鵡，隻知道重複一大堆可以想到的愚昧無知的話語。就連他那張很有耐性的臉孔上的痛苦表情也不能讓我停止。但是有一天，他實在忍無可忍，突然臉一紅，衝著我冷冷來了句：“我的天，你真是個夠討厭的人。”當然，誰也不願意被人當成討厭的人，而對一個當麵說你討厭的人，你便很難繼續再和他辯論下去了。當我們了解到自己在招人厭煩時，我們就像泄氣的氣球。我當時的情況就是這樣。拉·羅什富科曾說過：“我們能原諒那些使我們感到厭煩的人，但不能原諒感到我們厭煩的人。”震動之後，我倒沒有因為友人的坦率而減少和他的友情。那次以後，我肯定還曾經招不少人的厭煩；但是除了家裏人，一直沒有人跟我講過我讓他們厭煩。我得認真研究別人的麵部表情，才能知道我是否在招他們厭煩……
心靈小語
談話是人與人之間最基本的交流方式，是別人認識你最直觀的途徑。成功談話的竅門就是關注他人，尊重他人，懂得傾聽。
W 詞匯筆記
complain[k?m?plein]v.抱怨
例 How dare he complain?
他怎麽敢抱怨？
fancy[?f?nsi]v.猜想；以為
例 She fancied herself nervous.
她自以為神經衰弱。
jostle[?d??s?l]v.擠；推；撞
例 The players were jostled by an angry crowd as they left the field.
運動員們離開賽場時，被憤怒的人群推搡著。
drag[dr?ɡ]v.拖；拉；拽
例 The ship dragged her anchor during the storm.
船在暴風雨中拖動了錨鏈。
S 小試身手
最招人厭煩的人就是那種喜歡跟人講從一個地方到另一地方有多少條路可走的人。
譯___________________________________________
就連他那張很有耐性的臉孔上的痛苦表情也不能讓我停止。
譯___________________________________________
我們能原諒那些使我們感到厭煩的人，但不能原諒感到我們厭煩的人。
譯___________________________________________
P 短語家族
I have never been more bored in my life.
be bored in：對……感到厭煩
造___________________________________________
……when talking politics, trots out all the old threadbare arguments with the air of a person using them for the first time.
trot out：拋出；炫耀；提出……供考慮
造___________________________________________