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"Every cloud has a silver lining," says the optimist.It follows naturally, then, that the pessimist must favor"looking for the rusty lining".Just as the optimist can always find reasons for hoping that bad situations can improve,so the best pessimist can always find that in every situation there is something you can worry about.In the essay, the author, a self-proclaimed pemssimist,claims to be worried about being swallowed by things from outer space and about much else besides.He certainly seems to be what is known as "a born worrier",though how serious he is about it all you can judge it all you can judge for yourself.
“黑暗中總有一線光明”，樂觀者說。那么悲觀者當(dāng)然一定會喜歡“尋找陰暗面”。正如樂觀者總能找到希望糟糕局面會好轉(zhuǎn)的理由一樣，最了不起的悲觀者總會發(fā)現(xiàn)在每種境況中總有一些可以擔(dān)憂的事兒。在這篇文章中，自命悲觀者的作者聲稱擔(dān)心自己會被來自外層空間的東西吞沒，此外還為許多別的事兒犯愁。他無疑像是個(gè)所謂的“天生的發(fā)愁人”，但他所說的話在多大程度上是認(rèn)真的呢，你就自己去估摸吧。
Look for the Rusty Lining
尋找陰暗面
by Ralph Schoenstein
拉爾夫·舍恩斯坦
My grandfather's hobby was worrying,and although hobbies are not usually thought of as being inheritable, I am a talented worrier, too.My grandfather's glum genes, which skipped my merry father,have reflowered in me as a major, all-purpose anxiety.A few weeks ago, for example, I learned that collapsing stars called black holes may soon such up all the matter in the universe.Because I read this in Vogue, I hoped at first that the black holes were some kind of fad—a celestial pop event like Kohoutek or UFOs—but then I saw that the author of the article had been twice a visiting member at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton,and I knew that another crisis was at hand.Ominously, the Institute is just down the street from where I do my worrying.
我祖父的業(yè)余愛好是發(fā)愁。雖然人們通常并不認(rèn)為業(yè)余愛好是可以遺傳的，但我也是一個(gè)頗有才氣的發(fā)愁人。我祖父的憂愁基因，跳過了我那樂天派的父親，在我身上重新開花結(jié)果，我成為一個(gè)動輒犯愁、憂心忡忡的人。舉例來說吧，幾個(gè)星期前，我得知被稱為黑洞的行將崩潰的恒星，可能不久將把宇宙的一切物質(zhì)吸收殆盡。因?yàn)檫@個(gè)消息是我在《時(shí)裝》半月刊上讀到的，起先我希望黑洞是某種時(shí)髦玩意兒——就像時(shí)下天上常發(fā)生的科胡特克彗星或飛碟那樣的事件——可是我又看到該文的作者曾兩度在普林斯頓擔(dān)任高級研究院的客座研究員，這一下我知道又一個(gè)危機(jī)即將來臨。不祥的是，該研究院就坐落在離我發(fā)愁的地方不遠(yuǎn)的同一條街上。
