一起翻译一本书，公众号“追随己心”将带领大家一起翻译《Beyond Feelings: A Guide to Critical Thinking》，将学习了多年的英语真正用起来，体会原版书籍和英文的美。

What Is Critical Thinking?

什么是批判性思维

When Arthur was in the first grade, the teacher directed the class to “think.” “Now, class,” she said, “I know this problem is a little harder than the ones we’ve been doing, but I’m going to give you a few extra minutes to think about it. Now start thinking.”

亚瑟读一年级时，老师指导全班同学进行“思考”，她说：“同学们，现在我知道这个问题比我们一直在学的东西难一些，但是，我将给你们额外的几分钟去思考它。现在开始思考吧。”

It was not the first time Arthur had heard th eword used. He’d heard it many times at home, but never quite this way. The teacher seemed to be asking for some special activity, something he should know how to start and stop—like his father’s car. “Vroom-m-m,” he muttered half aloud. Because of his confusion, he was unaware he was making the noise.

“Arthur, please stop making noises and start thinking.”

亚瑟不是第一次听到这话，他在家里已经听到好多次了，但他始终弄不清这种方法。老师似乎要求的是某项特殊的活动，是他应该知道如何开始和停止的某件事情——就像他父亲的汽车一样。“嗯，嗯，嗯”，他嘟嚷着发出声响。因为他的困惑，他没有意识到自己正发出响声。

亚瑟，请不要出声，开始思考。”

mutter：[ˈmʌtɚ] vt.轻声低语，咕哝地抱怨;含糊地说;自言自语地说; n.咕哝;小声低语，小声抱怨;怨言;

Embarrassed and not knowing quite what to do,he looked down at his desk. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the little girl next to him was staring at the ceiling. “Maybe that’s the way you start thinking,” he guessed. He decided the others had probably learned how to do it last year, that time he was home with the measles. So he stared at the ceiling.

他感到尴尬，不知所措，于是低下头，看着课桌。然后，他透过眼角的余光，注意到旁边的小女孩正盯着天花板。“也许这就是你开始思考的方法”，他猜测道。他判定其他同学可能在去年已学会如何思考，那时候他正因为麻疹在家养病。于是，他也盯着天花板。

measles：[ˈmizəlz]  n.  <医>麻疹; [兽]（牛，猪的）囊虫病; [摄]斑点; <美俚>梅毒，麻疹的红斑点;

As he progressed through grade school and high school, he heard that same direction hundreds of times. “No, that’s not the answer, you’re not thinking—now think!” And occasionally he would hear from particularly self-pitying teachers given to muttering to themselves aloud:“What did I do to deserve this? Don’t they teach them anything in the grades any more?Don’t you people care about ideas? Think, dammit, THINK.”

亚瑟上小学和中学时，数百次地听到同样的要求。“不，这不是答案，你没有思考——现在思考！偶尔，他会昕到特别直怜的老师大声地对自己说：“我到底做了什么才得到这种报应？他们在小学不再教孩子们什么东西了吗？你们这些人不关心思想吗？思考，该死的思考。”

So Arthur learned to feel somewhat guilty about the whole matter. Obviously, this thinking was an important activity that he’d failed to learn. Maybe he lacked the brain power. But he was resourceful enough. He watched the other students and did what they did. Whenever a teacher started in about thinking, he screwed up his face, furrowed his brow, scratched his head, stroked his chin, stared off into space or up at the ceiling, and repeated silently to himself, “Let’s see now, I’ve got to think about that,think, think—I hope he doesn’t call on me—think.”Though Arthur didn’t know it, that’s just what the other students were saying to themselves.

于是，亚瑟感到对整件事有些内疚。显然，这种思考是一项他还未学会的重要活动。也许他缺少脑力思考。但他足够聪明，他曾看着其他同学，仿效他们的做法。只要老师开始要求思考，他就振作精神，皱起眉头，挠头托腮，凝视空旷处或是天花板，默默地对自己重复说：“让我们考虑一下，我已经开始对此思考了，思考，思考（我希望他不要叫到我），思考。”虽然亚瑟并来意识到这一点，但这也正是其他同学对自己所说的。

furrow：[ˈfɜ:roʊ] n.皱纹;犁沟;车辙; v.犁田，开沟;使起皱纹;

Your experience may have been similar to Arthur’s. In other words, many people may have simply told you to think without ever explaining what thinking is and what qualities a good thinker has that a poor thinker lacks. If that is the case, you have a lot of company. Extensive,effective training in thinking is the exception rather than the rule. This fact and its unfortunate consequences are suggested by the following comments from accomplished observers of the human condition:

你的经历也许与亚瑟相似。也就是说，许多人可能只是告诉你去思考，却根本不解释思考是什么，以及一名好的思考者具备什么样的品质，而这是弱思考者所缺乏的。如果事实如此，那你就有很多同伴。广泛、有效的思维训练是例外而非常规。这个事实及其令人遗憾的结果是由对人的生存条件卓有成果的观察家们所做的下述评论得出的：

The most interesting and astounding contradiction in life is to me the constant insistence by nearly all people upon “logic,” “logical reasoning,” “sound reasoning,” on the one hand, and on the other their in ability to display it, and their unwillingness to accept it when displayed by others.

Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.

对我来说，生活中最有趣和令人震惊的矛盾是：一方面，几乎所有人都不断坚持“逻辑”、“逻辑推理”和“夸理推理”；另一方面，他们却不能表现出这种能力，当别人表现出来时也不愿接受之。

我们大多数所谓的推理在于为继续相信我们已经相信的东西找到理由。

astound：[əˈstaʊnd]  vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊;

Clear thinking is a very rare thing, but even just plain thinking is almost as rare. Most of us most of the time do not think at all. We believe and we feel, but we do not think.

Mental indolence is one of the commonest of human traits.

清晰的思考是非常罕见的事，甚至简单清楚的思考也几乎是罕见的。我们许多人在大多数时间里根本就不思考，我们信奉并且感觉着，但并不思考。

思想懒惰是人最常见的特质之一。

What is this activity that everyone claims is important but few people have mastered? Thinking is a general term used to cover numerous activities, from day dreaming to reflection and analysis. Here are just some of the synonyms listed in Roget’s Thesaurus for think:

这个每人都声称重要却没有几个人能掌握的话动是什么呢？思考是一个普遍术语，它涵盖了从白日梦到反思和分析等许多活动。下面是罗杰特(Roget)的《分类词亍[编》(Thesaurus)申所列出的“思考¨(think)的近义词：

appreciate   consult       fancy       reason

believe       contemplate   imagine    reflect

cerebrate   deliberate    meditate   ruminate

cogitate    digest        muse      speculate

conceive    discuss       ponder     suppose

consider     dream        realize    weigh

评价        商讨         幻想       推理

相信        默想         想象       反思

动脑筋      慎思         沉思       反复思量

思索        领悟         冥想       推铡

设想        讨论         细想       假设

考虑        空想         认识       衡量

All of those are just the names that thinking goes under. They really don’t explain it. The fact is, after thousands of years of humans’ experiencing thought and talking and writing about thinking, it remains in many respects one of the great mysteries of our existence. Still,though much is yet to be learned, a great deal is already known.

所有这些都是归入思考一类的名称。但它们并没有解释它。事实是，在人类数千年思想的历程、谈论和写作有关思考的文字之后，它在许多方面仍是我们现存的一个巨大的谜。虽然许多事情还有待学习，但是，我们已经知道许多了。