外刊精读 | 如何管理自己的情绪？

今天是小芳老师陪你精读外刊的第231天

泛读原文（盲听1遍，泛读1遍，对照文本听1遍）

When it comes to first impressions, we all want to make a good one. And that’s why we tend to focus on our best traits and qualities. However, we often fall into the trap of thinking that everything about us needs to be perfect. But that’s just unrealistic. We all have imperfections. It’s part of being human. And while it’s easy to believe that our ‘supposed flaws and imperfections’ make us less attractive, here are some that can actually make us seem more appealing to others:

An unexpected and troublesome feature of being human is that we feel so much more than we spontaneously realise we feel. There are emotions coursing through us – of anger or joy, resentment or fear – that lie just outside the sphere of ordinary consciousness, and that elude us as we rush through the challenges of our lives.

These emotions lie low in part because they are often too shocking, or sad, or contrary to expectations for us to want to make sense of them. We might hate where we are supposed to love; or might feel sad where we are meant to be practical – and so, out of timidity and fear, we omit to register our authentic reality. Or else, our feelings get ignored because they enter our minds too fast, and in too great a quantity for us to disentangle them in the limited time we devote to self-understanding.

And yet, unless the full panoply of our emotions is regularly identified and adequately ‘felt’, we are likely to fall prey to a range of psychological ills: anxiety, paranoia, depression and worse. Mental unwellness is born out of an accumulation of unfelt feelings.

We must do ourselves the favour of regularly – ideally once a day – carving out periods in which to get more deeply acquainted with our true emotions. We must continually ask ourselves a simple-sounding but grand and deep question: What am I feeling now?

To draw out valuable answers, we should sit somewhere quiet, probably in bed, with the lights low, and a pad and pen handy. We should close our eyes and let the generosity and free-form nature of the question resonate. After a few moments of scanning the penumbra of the inner mind, we are liable to pick up a few intimations of something. It might be the rustle of a disturbingly well-camouflaged anxiety. With some of the stealth of a hunter in the undergrowth or a fisherman by the bank of a river, we can press ourselves to reflect further: what does it seem we are actually anxious about? It may require a good deal more reverie and inner enquiry before we very gradually feel a recognisable notion emerging, like a landscape subtly appearing at the slow break of a summer day. We may need to decode apparently minute moments of aggression, meanness, confusion or grief that have impacted on us without us properly noticing. Or we might, as we examine ourselves, detect traces of ancient traumas that seem to be still active in distant valleys: someone is crying, someone is very worried, a small person – who might be us – needs our help quite badly.

We should carry out a similar process with our bodies, where many more muted feelings lie buried. ‘What is my body feeling?’ we can ask, strangely but usefully. ‘What would it like to talk to me about if only it could?’ And to get more specific: ‘If my shoulders could speak right now, what might they say? And my chest, what would it say? And my arms, my hands, my legs, my feet?’

Our limbs might want to curl into a ball and long for reassurance, or else hit an opponent or elongate themselves defiantly and boldly. Or they might remember an old frustrated wish to be held tightly on a comforting chest.

Through ten or twenty minutes of this kind of concentrated, but loose and exploratory wander through ourselves, we reduce the worry and sorrow of unfelt feelings. We become sad where we were previously melancholy, angry where we were irritable and compassionate where we were anxious – and the result is a newfound peace of mind and lightness of the soul. We seem to have so much time for everything – except for what can save us.

精读原文

When it comes to first impressions, we all want to make a good one. And that’s why we tend to focus on our best traits and qualities. However, we often fall into the trap of thinking that everything about us needs to be perfect. But that’s just unrealistic. We all have imperfections. It’s part of being human. And while it’s easy to believe that our ‘supposed flaws and imperfections’ make us less attractive, here are some that can actually make us seem more appealing to others:

重点词汇：
1. Troublesome - 令人烦恼的；令人困扰的
2. Spontaneously - 自发地；不由自主地
3. Resentment - 愤恨；怨恨
4. Timidity - 胆怯；怯懦
5. Disentangle - 解开；澄清
6. Panoply - 全副装备；一系列
7. Unwellness - 不健康；不舒适
8. Reverie - 幻想；遐想
9. Muted - 柔和的；无声的
10. Melancholy - 忧郁；悲哀

例句与翻译：
1. He found it troublesome to deal with the difficult customer. (他发现与那个难缠的顾客打交道很令人烦恼。)
2. The children spontaneously started singing and dancing. (孩子们自发地开始唱歌跳舞。)
3. She couldn't hide her resentment towards her colleague who took credit for her work. (她无法隐藏对同事把功劳归属于她的愤恨之情。)
4. His timidity prevented him from speaking up in front of a large audience. (他的胆小使他无法在大庭广众之下发表意见。)
5. It took her a while to disentangle the complicated problem. (她花了一些时间来解决这个复杂的问题。)
6. The panoply of colors during sunset was breathtaking. (夕阳的灿烂色彩让人惊叹不已。)
7. Mental unwellness can lead to various psychological disorders. (精神疾病可能导致各种心理障碍。)
8. He sat in reverie, daydreaming about his future plans. (他坐着遐想，幻想着他的未来计划。)
9. The muted colors of the painting created a peaceful atmosphere. (画中柔和的色彩营造出一种宁静的氛围。)
10. She couldn't shake off her melancholy after the loss of her pet. (在宠物离世后，她无法摆脱忧郁的情绪。)

长难句解析：
1. Mental unwellness is born out of an accumulation of unfelt feelings.
精神上的不健康是未被感受到的情感积累的结果。
- 主句结构：Mental unwellness is born.
- out of短语：由...产生；源于...
- an accumulation of unfelt feelings：未被感受到的情感积累

2. We may need to decode apparently minute moments of aggression, meanness, confusion or grief that have impacted on us without us properly noticing.
我们可能需要解码那些表面上微不足道的攻击、恶意、困惑或悲伤的瞬间，而我们没有正确注意到它们对我们的影响。
- 主句结构：We may need to decode.
- apparently minute moments of aggression, meanness, confusion or grief：表面上微小的攻击、恶意、困惑或悲伤的瞬间
- that have impacted on us without us properly noticing：对我们产生了影响，而我们没有真正注意到

多项选择阅读理解题目：
1. According to the passage, why do we often fail to recognize our true emotions?
A. Because we are too busy with our daily lives.
B. Because our emotions are too shocking or sad.
C. Because we lack self-understanding.
D. Because we have too many emotions to handle.
2. What does the author suggest we do to reduce the accumulation of unfelt feelings?
A. Devote more time to self-understanding.
B. Seek professional help for psychological issues.
C. Engage in physical activities.
D. Ignore our emotions completely.
3. The word "panoply" in the passage is closest in meaning to:
A. array
B. hinderance
C. separation
D. familiarity

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答案

BAA

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