前两天实习医生格蕾学了个词叫 soothing： 格蕾和新男友在医院里见到，之前刚有过不愉快，Andrew给熬夜工作的格蕾带了杯咖啡以表示歉意。格蕾：Oh. That's very soothing.

Soothing的意思和comforting有点儿像，但更熨帖。刚好今天读The China Challenge一书，里面写到戴秉国的文章也用到这个词：Dai's essay should have been soothing to pessimists outside of China, because it suggested that China was not as powerful s they might expect.