分秒必争，我们一起来“边等边学”

等公交车15分钟，等电梯3分钟，约会等人20分钟，我们一天的时间有不少都花在了等待上。如果把这些等待的时间都用来学习，那估计很多人都能成为学霸了吧！

Wait-learning refers to learning that takes place while a person is awaiting the completion of some other task, for example, learn some new words while waiting for the elevator.
“边等边学”指利用等待其他事情完成的时间来学习的行为，比如，等电梯的时候学几个新单词。

The average person spends 10 to 15 minutes a day waiting for texts and instant-message (IM) replies, according to an analysis by Carrie Cai, a PhD student at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).
据麻省理工学院计算机科学与人工智能实验室的一位博士研究生Carrie Cai调查发现，人们每天等待短信息回复的平均时间为10到15分钟。

What if you could be more productive during those idle moments? Cai is on the case.
如果能将这些闲散的时间利用起来做一些事情，会怎么样呢？Carrie Cai就在研究这个。

A CSAIL team led by Cai recently developed "WaitChatter," a Google Chat extension that delivers foreign-language vocab quizzes right to your chatbox any time the system detects that you are waiting for an instant message.
Carrie Cai带领的计算机科学与人工智能实验室研究团队最近研发了一个基于谷歌聊天的扩展程序，能够在你等待聊天信息回复的时候，直接在你的聊天会话框中发送外语词汇小测验。

"Given all the time that is wasted due to waiting, we wanted to explore how to use these moments as opportunities for learning," says Cai, who presented a related paper at the Association of Computing Machinery's Computer Human Interaction Conference (CHI 2015) in Seoul in April. "This integrated approach, which we call 'wait-learning', is far less likely to be perceived as time-consuming or intrusive compared to using a separate learning app."
Carrie Cai表示：“我们想要把那些等待的时间充分利用起来，让大家有更多学习的时间。我们把这种组合的学习方式称为‘边等边学’，这种学习方式不怎么耗费时间，与其他独立的学习应用相比，使用起来也不繁琐。今年4月，Carrie Cai在计算机协会在首尔举办的人机交互大会上宣读了与该项目有关的论文。

"People who say they want to learn a language often try an app like Duolingo and end up feeling that they have to 'make time' or invest extra effort for it," she says. "Users generally don't want to have to close a window or switch apps, which means it's important to incorporate the learning tool right into the programs they use."
Carrie Cai表示，想要学外语的人通常会试用Duolingo等应用程序，结果发现他们得专门找时间用这个程序学习。用户通常都不愿意关闭窗口或者在不同的程序之间切换，也就是说，把学习工具嵌入到他们使用的程序里面很重要。

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen）