地道英语

Mental gymnastics 头脑体操

内容简介

当你在思考一个很难的问题时，可能要绞尽脑汁才能想出解决办法，这就好比大脑在做 “gymnastics（体操）”。英语中有一个表达可以用来比喻这种 “冥思苦想，挖空心思” 的过程。听节目，学习表达 “mental gymnastics” 的用法。

文字稿

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Jiaying
大家好，欢迎收听 BBC英语教学的 “地道英语” 节目。I'm Jiaying. 

Beth
And I'm Beth. We're going to look at an expression that is all about doing hard work with your brain – 'mental gymnastics'. 

Jiaying
Mental gymnastics. 单词 “gymnastics” 的意思是 “体操”，在体操中，需要展示身体的灵活性和力量。那什么是 “mental gymnastics（头脑体操）” 呢？ 

Beth
Well, it can be the effort we spend trying to work out something difficult. This weekend, I need to go to three different places, at more or less the same time, and I'm doing mental gymnastics to try to find a way I can do it. 

Jiaying
需要 “mental gymnastics” 解决的事情通常都比较有难度。Beth 这周末要在同一个时间段赶到三个不同的地方办事，她要 “绞尽脑汁，冥思苦想” 才能安排好出行计划，所以这个思考的过程就可以被称为 “mental gymnastics”。 

Beth
Yes, because my brain has got to do a lot of hard work. 

Jiaying
那当我想要学一门语法规则很复杂的外语的时候，会不会需要进行 “mental gymnastics”？ 

Beth
Yes, exactly! Let's hear some more examples. 

Examples
To get a good score in a maths exam, you need to be good at mental gymnastics! 

This plan is too complicated, and I'm too tired for the kind of mental gymnastics I'd need to work it out.

An orchestra conductor needs to be good at mental gymnastics to work out what each musician should be doing.

Jiaying
你正在收听的是 BBC英语教学的 “地道英语” 节目。上面我们介绍了表达 “mental gymnastics” 的含义和用法，它表示 “绞尽脑汁、挖空心思的思考过程”。

Beth
There's actually another more negative way that we use it. When people try to justify saying something that they don't really believe, we can say that they are doing mental gymnastics. 

Jiaying
Right. 表达 “mental gymnastics” 还有一个带贬义的用法。举个例子，因为我自己很喜欢看手机，所以当我提醒孩子们别总是玩手机的时候，我就需要 “挖空心思” 来解释自己的行为。It takes some serious mental gymnastics to justify why it's still OK for me to use my phone so much. 

Beth
Yes, it's hard work trying to come up with an excuse that you don't really believe! 

Jiaying
I think we need to stop here, and you should go and write the next episode – that's going to take some mental gymnastics, isn't it?

Beth
Well, luckily, I'm full of energy today, so mental gymnastics won't be a problem! 

Jiaying
OK, great! Bye. 

Beth
Bye!