英语美文 | What is the most inspiring fact that you know?

What is the most inspiring fact that you know?

文 / Sabrina Deep

原文：http://dwz.cn/3zwKqJ

Until a few years ago, I was an apparently calm person. If you were going to offend me or verbally attack me I almost never lose it in public; of course I got upset, of course I felt hurt, but I didn't show it. I thought I was cool for that; you know those people who raise their voice or get tempered in public or that just discuss a controversial topic with what they call passion and we call unnecessary and unjustified fury...they really got on my nerves. But of course I couldn't give them satisfaction and I used to keep my voice volume down, to call them "wild" with a smirk on my face and to simply avoid their company around from that point on.

直到几年前，我还是一个表面看上去很镇定的人。我几乎从没有在公共场合失控，即使你得罪我或者骂我。我当然生气，也会感到伤心，但我并不会表现出来。我觉得我这样子很酷。有一些人他们说话声音很大，他们会在公共场合发火，会情绪激地的争论一些具有争议性的话题......这些真的已经让我开始神经质了。这些让我很不满，但我仍然会小声说话，傻笑着称呼他们为“野蛮人”并且避免成为与他们争论的对象。

Then, one day I met my husband and I fell hopelessly in love with him. Oh my! A proud Italian who loudly discuss even with himself (at least he's fair) when he's not happy with himself. It was hard at the beginning; for example, we were together with his Italian friends and it sounded like they were going to rip each other guts any moment, except that instead they were talking on who was their soccer team best player and they were even agreeing with each other! "Well, he's Italian," I thought; "I have to put up with that."

后来，有一天，我遇到了我的丈夫，我无可救药地爱上了他。他是骄傲的意大利人，当他对自己不满的时候甚至会大声自言自语。刚开始的时候我很难接受。例如，当我们与他的意大利朋友在一起，我觉得他们好像随时都要撕裂对方似的，但他们只是在讨论水才是他们足球队最好的队员，甚至是赞同彼此观点的。“嗯，他是意大利人，”我想： “我必须忍受这一点。”

Things, however, got worse for me when we started disagreeing on things; stupid quarrels, but he seemed really angry and loud, while I seemed detached and civil. Truth is that I was boiling too, but I was used to not show it on the outside. Fight after fight, he always acted as if nothing happened a few minutes after each quarrel, while my moments of inner discontent started to expand more and more in time and to become hours, sometimes even days. Always maintaining my proverbial exterior calm, of course.

当我们开始对事情表达不同意见的时候，情况开始变得越来越糟糕。愚蠢的争吵，他看上去真的生气了，声音很大，我虽然看上去依然彬彬有礼，却也已经恼怒起来。吵架之后打架，每次吵架几分钟以后，他就像是什么都没有发生过。而我被心中的不满笼罩的时间却越来越长，几个小时，有时甚至几天。当然，我始终保持着外表冷静。

One day I felt that this had to change and the conversation went more or less like this:

有一天，我觉得这种情况需要改变，我们的对话是这样的：

Me: "Either you change your attitude when we fight or I will start avoiding any discussion with you as soon as one starts, and this will affect our relationship."

我说：“要么你改变我们吵架时的态度，要么我避免跟你讨论问题，不然这将会影响我们的关系！”

Him: "Did you know that boiling water freezes faster than ambient temperature water? "

他说：“你知道开水比常温水结冰快吗？”

Me: "This can't be, and beside: what does it have to do with what I just told you? You should at least listen to what I say."

我说：“这是不可能的，而且，这都是什么和什么，你至少应该听听我在说什么”。

Him: "It's true instead. It's called the Mpemba effect. If you put two similar containers filled with the same amount of the same water into the fridge except that one has boiling water in it while the other one has water at ambient temperature, the boiling water will freeze faster than the ambient water. Baby, you gotta boil, first, to cool down faster. That's why Italians live longer than Canadians -" to which he threw a wink at me. "We look constantly stressed, but in truth we are just masters of detox."

他说：“这是真的，这就是所谓的姆潘巴现象。如果你把两个同样大小的容器装水放进冰箱，一个装常温水，一个装沸水，你会发现沸水先结冰。宝贝，你得先发火，才能更快的冷静下来。这就是意大利人的寿命比加拿大人长的原因 。“他向我扔了一个眼色。 “我们看上去焦虑不安，但实际上我们是排毒大师。”

The connection he suggested is to be proven, but I have learned a fact I didn't know, and that fact has inspired me to understand that if I'm angry about something or someone, for that anger to disappear it has to be towards the outside or otherwise it is like hiding the dust underneath the carpet: your house might look clean, but it is not.

他提出的联系得到了证实，但我明白一个我从前不明白的事实，这个其实让我明白，如果我对某人或者某事生气，为了让这怒气消失，必须将它释放出来。否则它就像是隐藏在地毯下的灰尘：你的屋子看起来很干净，但事实并非如此。