蟑螂帶來的啟示

蟑螂帶來的啟示

The Cockroach Theory

本文選自桑達爾·皮查伊——谷歌現任首席執行官的一篇演講稿（有改動）。讓我們跟隨他的腳步，看一場蟑螂引發的鬧劇。你會從中得到什么啟示呢？

At a restaurant, a1)cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady.

She started2)screaming out of fear.

With a scared face and3)trembling voice, she started jumping. Both her hands tried to get rid of the cockroach. Her4)panic made everyone in her group panicky.

The lady finally pushed the cockroach away, but…it landed on another lady. Then she continued the drama.

The waiter rushed forward to help. And the cockroach fell upon the waiter.

The waiter stood5)firm, calmed himself and6)observed the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he took it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Watching all this, I started wondering, was the cockroach the reason for their7)theatrical behavior? If so, then why was the waiter so calm?

It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to8)handle the9)disturbance caused by the cockroach, that disturbed the ladies.

I realized that, it is not the shouting of my boss or my wife that disturbs me. But it’s my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me.

It’s not the traffic jam that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me.

More than the problem, it’s my reaction to the problem that creates

10)chaos in my life.

詞組加油站

get rid of 擺脫……

traffic jam 交通堵塞

1) cockroach ['k?kr??t?] n. [昆] 蟑螂

2) scream [skri?m] v. 尖叫

3) trembling ['trembl??] adj. 顫抖的

4) panic ['p?n?k] n. 恐慌，驚慌

5) firm [fз?m] adj. 穩固的，沉著的

6) observe [?b'zз?v] v. 觀察

7) theatrical [θ?'?tr?kl] adj. 戲劇性的，夸張的

8) handle ['h?ndl] v. 處理

9) disturbance [d?'stз?b?ns] n. 騷亂，混亂

10) chaos ['ke??s] n. 混亂，紛亂

餐廳里不知道從哪兒突然飛進一只蟑螂，停在了一位女士身上。

她嚇得大叫起來。

她表情驚恐，聲音顫抖，又蹦又跳，雙手止不住地想趕走蟑螂。她的驚恐讓同伴們也慌張起來。

最后，這位女士總算把蟑螂趕走了，但是……它又落了在另一位女士身上。于是，先前那一幕再度上演。

服務生趕緊跑過來幫忙，后來蟑螂落到了他的身上。

服務生穩穩地站在那里，氣定神閑，觀察著自己襯衫上的蟑螂。當覺得萬無一失的時候，他張開手指，一把抓住蟑螂，然后把它扔出了餐廳。

我在旁邊看著這一切，心里不禁在想，是蟑螂讓女士們這般驚慌失措嗎？若是如此，那么為何服務生又能那般鎮定呢？

其實，讓女士們驚慌的并不是蟑螂，而是她們缺乏能力去處理蟑螂帶來的慌亂。

我意識到，讓自己煩擾的并非老板或妻子的大喊大叫，而是因為自己沒法處理好由大喊大叫引起的不耐煩情緒。

讓我煩躁的也不是交通擁堵，同樣是因為自己沒法處理好由交通擁堵引起的焦躁情緒。

生活會變得混亂不堪，不單是問題本身造成的，我面對問題的態度才是關鍵因素。