英語美文朗讀 第573期 Its harder to be kind than clever

On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat.

 

有一次我們?nèi)ヂ眯?，當時我10歲。我在車后的座椅上翻來覆去。我的祖父正在開車，我的祖母坐在副駕駛座上。

 

She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell. At that age, I'd take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I'd calculate our gas mileage, figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending.

在旅途中，她總是在抽煙，我討厭煙味。那時的我，會找各種機會來做運算。我會算一加侖汽油能讓我們走多遠，還會算一些跟買菜開支有關(guān)的無聊運算。

 

I'd been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I can't remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life. I think it might have been two minutes per puff.

我一直有聽說禁煙運動。我不記得具體細節(jié)，但是，廣告上說的大概是，每吸一口煙，就會讓人短命幾分鐘，可能大概是2分鐘。

 

At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per day, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on.

反正，我決定要給我的祖母算筆賬。我推算她每天抽煙的數(shù)量，每支煙要吸幾口，等等。

 

When I was satisfied that I'd come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed. At two minutes per puff, you've taken nine years off your life!

我算出了一個看似合理的數(shù)字，并洋洋自得。我把腦袋伸到車的前座，拍拍祖母的肩膀，驕傲地說，你每吸一口煙，就會短命兩分鐘，這樣算下來，你總共已經(jīng)短命了九年了！

 

I have a vivid memory of what happened next, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness sand arithmetic skills.

接下來發(fā)生的事情，并不是我期待的那樣，這令我記憶猶新。我期待的，是得到掌聲，因為我很聰明，而且數(shù)學學得很好。

 

Jeff, you're so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division. That's not what happened.

我期待的，是她說，Jeff，你可真聰明！你要做一些復雜的運算，算出一年有多少分鐘，然后還要做除法！但事實并非如此。

 

Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do.

相反，我的祖母哭了。我坐在后座上，不知道怎么辦才好。

 

While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow.

祖母正在哭泣，這時，一直安靜開車的祖父把車停在高速公路路肩上，下了車，走過來，給我開門，等我下車。

 

Was I in trouble? My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time. Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother.

我是不是闖禍了？我的祖父，是一個非常睿智，又很安靜的人。他從來沒有批評過我，也許這將會是第一次吧？或者，他會讓我回到車上，向祖母道歉。

 

I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be.

我和祖父母還沒經(jīng)歷過這樣的情形，所以我也猜不到會面對怎么樣的結(jié)果。

 

We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, Jeff, one day you'll understand that it's harder to be kind than clever.

我們站在車的旁邊。祖父看著我，一陣沉默之后，他緩緩地、冷靜地說，Jeff，總有一天，你會明白，善良比聰明更難做到。