经济学家和17岁男孩儿关于爱情的对话

只看该作者 · 2012-10-8 13:50

亲爱的经济学家,

Dear Economist,

我今年17岁,我就读的学校不久前才变成**同校。和我一样,其他六年级的学生几乎都是男生。我觉得学校不能满足我浪漫的需求,在校期间我永远都不会知道什么是真爱。事实上,我根本没什么指望可以找到爱情。你能不能帮帮我,或者哪怕只是给点儿希望?

I am 17 years old and my school only recently became coeducational. The other sixth-form students are almost all male, like me. I feel that the school does not meet my romantic needs and that I will never know true love while at school. In fact, I’m not having much luck at finding any love at all. Please can you help, or even just offer some hope?

没有恋爱的学生贝德福德(Bedford)

Yours, truly lovelorn,Student K, Bedford

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亲爱的学生K,

Dear Student K,

你是对的。六年级没有满足你的浪漫需求。即使男孩数量仅略高于女孩(比如,55比45),假设根据传统每个人都是成双成对,那么将会有10个男孩落单,在荷尔蒙的刺激下,他们愿意变着法儿地向女孩们提供更好的条件。聪明的女孩知道如何利用这种健康的竞争,使其对自己有利。

You are right. The sixth form does not meet your romantic needs. Even if the boys only mildly outnumbered the girls – say, 55 to 45 – then assuming everyone paired off in the traditional fashion, there would be 10 boys left out, hormones raging, willing to offer the girls a better deal in one way or another. Sensible girls know how to exploit this healthy competition in their favour.

不过,当你长大一些,就该是你的天下了。在发达国家的城市里,约会年龄的女性数量超过约会年龄的男性。(经济学家莉娜?埃德隆德(Lena Edlund)认为,女性从城市生活中获得的益处多于男性。)

Still, as you grow older, your time will come. In cities across the developed world, dating-age women outnumber dating-age men. (Economist Lena Edlund argues that women have more to gain from city life than men.)

可约会女性的供应过剩,以及随之而来的约会劣势迫使女性急于改善自我,这可以解释为何她们往往比男性穿着更考究,受教育程度也更高。经济学家克尔温?查尔斯(Kerwin Charles)和Ming Luoh的研究发现,当许多本来到适婚年龄的男性最终入狱时,会出现类似的效应。打破约会市场的平衡不太费事,而你的情况似乎尤为极端。

The excess supply of datable women and the resulting dating disadvantage forces women into bursts of self-improvement, which may explain why they tend to be better dressed and better educated than men. Research by economists Kerwin Charles and Ming Luoh finds a similar effect when many otherwise-marriageable men end up in prison. It does not take much to tip a dating market out of equilibrium, and your plight seems particularly extreme.

不过还是振作起来吧。在你这个年纪时,我的处境甚至更糟,就读于一所男校。似乎错过了一切,直到我发现对面的女校愿意通过交易获得一些好处。Yet take heart. At your age I was in an even worse situation, at an all-boys school. All seemed lost, until I discovered that the girls’ school opposite was willing to look for some gains from trade.

只看该作者 · 2012-10-8 14:30

不错，呵呵，顶下。

只看该作者 · 2012-10-9 14:03

恋爱中的狮子

A lion once fell in love with a beautiful girl, so he went to her parents and asked them to marry her to him.

The old parents did not know what to say.

They did not like the idea of giving their daughter to the lion, but they did not want to enrage the king of beasts.

At last the father said, "We are glad to marry our daughter to you, but we fear that you might possibly hurt her. So if you remove your claws and teeth, we will give her to you."

The lion loved the girl very much, so he trimmed his claws and took out his big teeth. When he came to the parents again, they simply laughed in his face, and beat him out of their house.

只看该作者 · 2012-10-9 14:03

一只狮子爱上了一位美丽的女孩儿，便找到她的父母向她求婚。

女孩儿的父亲不知道该如何回答，他不忍将女儿许配给野兽，但又害怕激怒这兽中之王。

于是父亲说：“我们很乐意将女儿嫁给你，但又怕你不小心伤害她，如果你拔去牙齿，剁掉利爪，我们就将女儿嫁给你。”

狮子非常爱这个女孩儿，于是他修剪了爪子，拔掉了尖牙后又去找女孩的父母。可是这时，他们嘲笑他，并把他赶了出去。

寓意: 有些人轻易相信别人的话，抛弃自己的长处，结果轻而易举地被原来害怕他们的人击败了。

只看该作者 · 2012-10-9 15:05

mark

只看该作者 · 2012-10-11 15:03

公车上的鲜花(上)

We were a very motley crowd of people who took the bus every day that summer 33 years ago. During the early morning ride from the suburb, we sat drowsily with our collars up to our ears, a cheerless and taciturn

bunch.

One of the passengers was a small grey man who took the bus to the centre for senior citizens every morning. He walked with a stoop and a sad look on his face when he, with some difficulty, boarded the bus and sat down alone behind the driver. No one ever paid very much attention to him.

Then one July morning he said good morning to the driver and smiled short-sightedly down through the bus before he sat down. The driver nodded guardedly. The rest of us were silent.

The next day, the old man boarded the bus energetically, smiled and said in a loud voice: "And a very good morning to you all!" Some of us looked up, amazed, and murmured "Good morning," in reply.

The following weeks we were more alert. Our friend was now dressed in a nice old suit and a wide out-of-date tie. The thin hair had been carefully combed. He said good morning to us every day and we gradually began to nod and talk to each other.

One morning he had a bunch of wild flowers in his hand. They were already dangling a little because of the heat. The driver turned around smilingly and asked: "Have you got yourself a girlfriend, Charlie?" We never got to know if his name really was "Charlie", but he nodded shyly and said yes.

The other passengers whistled and clapped at him. Charlie bowed and waved the flowers before he sat down on his seat.

只看该作者 · 2012-10-11 15:04

33年的前的那个夏季，每天我们混迹在各色人中等待公车的到来。一大清早我们就从郊区开始坐车，我们把衣领高竖到耳朵上，懒洋洋的坐在那，一群沉闷的，没有言语的人。

其中的一个乘客是个无名小卒，他每天乘车前往老年人中心。他行走时驼着背，表情悲伤。当他艰难地上了公车，独自做到驾驶员身后的座位上时，很少有人过多的注意到他。

然而七月的一个早晨，他向驾驶员问好并且在他坐下来之前微笑着环视了一下公车里的乘客。司机礼貌的点点头，我们依然沉默的坐着，没有反应。

第二天，那个老人精力充沛的上了公车，微笑着大声的说：“各位早上好啊！”一些人慢慢的抬起头觉得很奇怪，有些人嘀咕着小声回应着：“早上好！”

接下来的几周我们更震惊了。我们的朋友现在穿着体面的一个旧外套和一个过时的宽领带。稀疏的头发也是精心梳理的。他每天向我们问好，我们也逐渐的互相点头致意，相互交谈起来了。

一天早晨他手里拿着一束野花。因为炎热，他们都抓着吊环站着。司机转过头来笑着问道：“查理，你有女朋友了吗？”我们从来也不知道他的真名是不是叫查理，但是他害羞的点点头说：“是的。”

其他的乘客兴奋的吹着口哨，拍打着他。查理鞠躬以示感谢，他挥舞着鲜花坐到了他的位子上。

只看该作者 · 2012-10-15 15:27

The Last Leaf

(O.Henry)

In a little district west of Washington Square the streets have run crazy and broken themselves into small strips called "places." These "places" make strange angles and curves. One Street crosses itself a time or two. An artist once discovered a valuable possibility in this street. Suppose a collector with a bill for paints, paper and canvas should, in traversing this route, suddenly meet himself coming back, without a cent having been paid on account!

So, to quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon came prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and Dutch attics and low rents. Then they imported some pewter mugs and a chafing dish or two from Sixth Avenue, and became a "colony."

At the top of a squatty, three story brick Sue and Johnsy had their studio. "Johnsy" was familiar for Joanna. One was from Maine; the other from California. They had met at the table of an Eighth Street "Delmonico's," and found their tastes in art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so congenial that the joint studio resulted.

That was in May. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy fingers. Over on the east side this ravager strode boldly, smiting his victims by scores, but his feet trod slowly through the maze of the narrow and moss-grown "places."

Mr. Pneumonia was not what you would call a chivalric old gentleman. A mite of a little woman with blood thinned by California zephyrs was hardly fair game for the red-fisted, short-breathed old duffer. But Johnsy he smote; and she lay, scarcely moving, on her painted iron bedstead, looking through the small Dutch window-panes at the blank side of the next brick house.

One morning the busy doctor invited Sue into the hallway with a shaggy, grey eyebrow.

"She has one chance in - let us say, ten," he said, as he shook down the mercury in his clinical thermometer. " And that chance is for her to want to live. This way people have of lining on the side of the undertaker makes the entire pharmacopoeia look silly. Your little lady has made up her mind that she's not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind?"

只看该作者 · 2012-10-15 15:28

欧·亨利

华盛顿广场西边的一个小区，街道分布得乱七八糟每条街又狭又长，称做“胡同”。这些“胡同”稀奇古怪地拐着弯子。一条街有时自己本身就交叉了不止一次。有一回一个画家发现这条街有一种优越性：要是有个收帐的跑到这条街上，来催要颜料、纸张和画布的钱，他就会突然发现自己两手空空，原路返回，一文钱的帐也没有要到！

所以，不久之后不少画家就摸索到这个古色古香的老格林尼治村来，寻求朝北的窗户、18世纪的尖顶山墙、荷兰式的阁楼，以及低廉的房租。然后，他们又从第六街买来一些蜡酒杯和一两只火锅，这里便成了“艺术区”。

苏艾和琼珊的画室设在一所又宽又矮的三层楼砖房的顶楼上。“琼珊”是琼娜的爱称。她俩一个来自缅因州，一个是加利福尼亚州人。她们是在第八街的“台尔蒙尼歌之家”吃份饭时碰到的，她们发现彼此对艺术、生菜色拉和时装的爱好非常一致，便合租了那间画室。那是5月里的事。到了11月，一个冷酷的、肉眼看不见的、医生们叫做“肺炎”的不速之客，在艺术区里悄悄地游荡，用他冰冷的手指头这里碰一下那里碰一下。在广场东头，这个破坏者明目张胆地踏着大步，一下子就击倒几十个受害者，可是在迷宫一样、狭窄而铺满青苔的“胡同”里，他的步伐就慢了下来。

肺炎先生不是一个你们心目中行侠仗义的老的绅士。一个身子单薄，被加利福尼亚州的西风刮得没有血色的弱女子，本来不应该是这个有着红拳头的、呼吸急促的老家伙打击的对象。然而，琼西却遭到了打击；她躺在一张油漆过的铁床上，一动也不动，凝望着小小的荷兰式玻璃窗外对面砖房的空墙。

一天早晨，那个忙碌的医生扬了扬他那毛茸茸的灰白色眉毛，把苏叫到外边的走廊上。

“我看，她的病只有十分之一的恢复希望，”他一面把体温表里的水银柱甩下去，一面说，“这一分希望就是她想要活下去的念头。有些人好像不愿意活下去，喜欢照顾殡仪馆的生意，简直让整个医药界都无能为力。你的朋友断定自己是不会痊愈的了。她是不是有什么心事呢？”