英語腦筋急轉彎中蘊藏的人生哲理
To test your mental acuity, answer the following questions (no peeking at the answers!):
測測你的腦力，回答以下問題（不要偷看答案哦！）：
re Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?
1.在喜馬拉雅山被發現之前，世界上最高的山是什麼山？
ie was born on December 28th, yet her birthday always falls in the summer. How is this possible?
2.比莉出生在12月28日，但她都是在夏天過生日的，這是什麼原因？
3. If you were running a race and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?
3.如果你在跑步比賽中超過了第二名，那麼你現在是第幾名？
4. Johnny’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name?
4.強尼的媽媽有三個孩子，第一個孩子叫四月，第二個孩子叫五月，第三個孩子叫什麼？Answers
答案
1. Mt. Everest. It just wasn’t discovered yet.
1.喜馬拉雅山。它始終是第一高山，只是還沒被發現而已。
2. Billie lives in the southern hemisphere.
2.比莉住在南半球。
3. You would be in 2nd place. You passed the person in second place, not first.
3.你還是第二名，因爲你超過的是第二名，不是第一名。
4. Johnny.
4.強尼。Okay, some of these are a bit corny. But they all illustrate several brain idiosyncrasies that affect how we make decisions in the world.
好吧，有些題目是有點老土，但是這些題目卻能很好地證明我們大腦中的一些習性是如何影響我們做出判斷的。
Thanks to the way our brain works, we have a very strong tendency to see what we want to see and what we expect to see. When we only see what we want or expect to see, we miss opportunities because we only see what has worked in the past rather than what could be.
大腦的工作方式讓我們更願意去看我們想看到的東西和希望看到的東西。這樣我們就會失去一些機會，因爲我們僅僅注意到了過去而沒有看到未來的機遇。
Our brain doesn’t like information gaps, so we tend to jump at the first answer/solution that looks good rather than take the time to examine all the data. This is especially true in a world where we receive more information every day than we have time to assimilate. Finally, our brains love to see patterns and make connections.
我們的大腦不喜歡有信息空擋，所以我們傾向於相信大腦裏出現的第一個答案或者解決辦法，而不是通盤考慮、仔細研究所有的信息。在這個信息爆炸的時代，情況就更是如此了，我們沒有時間去吸收理解所有的信息。最終，我們的大腦就會形成思維定勢。
We can’t change how the brain works – at least not yet. Give science another 50 years and who knows what our brains will be doing! For now, we can become more aware of how our brain works, then pause from time to time to consider what we’re missing. This includes the data we’re unconsciously screening out as well as different sources of data to counterbalance what we expect to see.
至少現在我們不能改變大腦的工作方式，也許未來的50年裏，科學就能做出改變，誰知道呢！現在我們能做的就是，更多地關注自己大腦的工作方式，時不時地停下來想想，我們是不是遺漏掉了什麼，有沒有什麼信息是我們在潛意識裏把它排除掉的，或者是不是有一些我們不希望看到的不同信息被忽略了。
Get in the habit of teasing your brain. You’ll be amazed at what you end up seeing that you didn’t see before.
養成訓練腦力的好習慣吧。最終你會驚喜地發現自己看到了以往所看不到的東西。
