- 注释版
- 纯净版
来源:
[1] SADNESS is an emotion we usually try to avoid. So why do we choose to listen to sad music?
[2] Musicologists and philosophers have wondered about this. Sad music can induce intense emotions, yet the type of sadness evoked by music also seems pleasing in its own way. Why? Aristotle famously suggested the idea of catharsis: that by overwhelming us with an undesirable emotion, music (or drama) somehow purges us of it.
wonder 想知道
例：I wondered what that noise was.
我想知道那噪音是什么。
overwhelm 使承受(过量之物)
例：a child overwhelmed with presents
得到大量礼物的孩子
purge (从组织中) 清除 (异己成员)
例：They promised that racists should be purged from the party.
他们保证把种族主义分子从党内清洗出去。
[3] But what if, despite their apparent similarity, sadness in the realm of artistic appreciation is not the same thing as sadness in everyday life?
despite 尽管
例：I failed the test despite studying all night.
尽管整夜学习，我还是考试不及格。
appreciation 欣赏
例：an investigation into children's understanding and appreciation of art.
关于孩子对艺术的理解与欣赏的一个调查。
[4] In a study published this summer in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, my colleagues and I explored the idea that “musical emotion” encompasses both the felt emotion that the music induces in the listener and the perceived emotion that the listener judges the music to express. By isolating these two overlapping sets of emotions and observing how they related to each other, we hoped to gain a better understanding of sad music.
encompass 包括，包含
例：a work that encompasses the entire range of the world's religious beliefs
一部包括世界一切宗教信仰的著作。
induce 引起
例：Doctors said surgery could induce a heart attack.
医生们说手术可能导致心脏病。
related to 与…有关
例：Each of these are expenses related to your job.
这些开支都是和你的工作相关的。
a better understanding of 对 … 更好的了解
例：My goal is to gain a better understanding of what I need.
我的目标是更好的了解我需要什么。
[5] Forty-four people served as participants in our experiment. We asked them to listen to one of three musical excerpts of approximately 30 seconds each. The excerpts were from Mikhail Glinka’s “La Séparation” (F minor), Felix Blumenfeld’s “Sur Mer” (G minor) and Enrique Granados’s “Allegro de Concierto” (C sharp major, though the excerpt was in G major, which we transposed to G minor).
[6] We were interested in the minor key because it is canonically associated with sad music, and we steered clear of well-known compositions to avoid interference from any personal memories related to the pieces.
be interested in 对...感兴趣
例：Why are you interested in this position?
你为什么对这个职位感兴趣？
be associated with 与…有关系
例：Smoking has been associated with lung cancer.
肺癌被认为与吸烟有关。
steer 有意避开某人/某物
例：I think a lot of people, women in particular, steer clear of these sensitive issues.
我认为很多人，尤其是女性，有意避开这些敏感问题。
[7] (Our participants were more or less split between men and women, as well as between musicians and nonmusicians, though these divisions turned out to be immaterial to our findings.)
split 裂开，分开
例：The board split in half.
那块板被劈成了两半。
turn out 证明是，原来是
例：The person I spoke to turned out to be our new teacher.
我找(他)说话的那个人原来是我们的新老师。
[8] A participant would listen to an excerpt and then answer a question about his felt emotions: “How did you feel when listening to this music?” Then he would listen to a “happy” version of the excerpt — i.e., transposed into the major key — and answer the same question. Next he would listen to the excerpt, again in both sad and happy versions, each time answering a question about other listeners that was designed to elicit perceived emotion: “How would normal people feel when listening to this music?”
into 成为
例：to turn a nasty episode into a joke.
把一件不愉快的事转化成一个小玩笑。
version 版本; 变体
例：an updated version of his bestselling book.
他这本畅销书的一个最新版本。
elicit 引起 (反应)
例：to elicit an angry reply.
诱出愤怒的回答。
[9] (This is a slight simplification: in the actual study, the order in which the participant answered questions about felt and perceived emotion, and listened to sad and happy excerpts, varied from participant to participant.)
vary 各不相同
例：The text varies from the earlier versions.
这一文本有别于那些早期的版本。
[10] Our participants answered each question by rating 62 emotion-related descriptive words and phrases — from happy to sad, from bouncy to solemn, from heroic to wistful — on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much).
descriptive 描述的
例：Each activity has a descriptive name and an entry action detailing the work performed by the activity.
每个活动都有一个描述性的名称和输入活动来细化活动执行的工作。
bouncy 有活力的
例：She was bouncy and full of energy.
她生气勃勃，精力充沛。
solemn 严肃的
例：His solemn little face broke into smiles.
他那严肃的小脸绽开了笑容。
heroic 英勇的
例：The heroic image of Lei Feng flashed before my eyes.
雷锋的英雄形象闪现在我的眼前。
wistful 依依不舍的
例：Brown can also be sad and wistful.
褐色也象征着悲伤与渴望。
[11] We found, as anticipated, that felt emotion did not correspond exactly to perceived emotion. Although the sad music was both perceived and felt as “tragic” (e.g., gloomy, meditative and miserable), the listeners did not actually feel the tragic emotion as much as they perceived it. Likewise, when listening to sad music, the listeners felt more “romantic” emotion (e.g., fascinated, dear and in love) and “blithe” emotion (e.g., merry, animated and feel like dancing) than they perceived.
anticipate 预期
We anticipated her winning first prize.
我们期望她获得第一名。
correspond to 符合于…
例：I now have a list of albums that correspond to what the user thinks he wants.
我现在拥有了用户认为他想要的对应的唱片列表。
likewise 同样地
例：Likewise, if you think what you do will hurt others, don't do it.
同样地,如果你认为你所做的事会伤人的话,那么就别做它。
[12] Something similar happened with the happy music: perceived blithe emotions were rated higher than their felt counterparts. In general, it appears that perceived emotions may be rated higher than felt emotions when it comes to emotional categories characteristically associated with a given key.
counterpart 对应的人或物
例：Each of them has a counterpart column in the database tables.
每个字段在数据库表中有一个对应的列。
key 调
例：the key of A minor.
A小调。
[13] When listening to sad music, then, there is a tension, or slippage, between the two types of emotions. How are we to understand this gap?
be to do 打算去做
例：Your goal is to do the same thing.
你的目标是做同样的事情
[14] One answer might be that in everyday life we typically experience emotions that have a direct connection to whatever object or situation gives rise to them. But when we listen to sad music (or watch a sad movie, or read a sad novel), we are inoculated from any real threat or danger that the music (or movie or novel) represents.
gives rise to 引起，导致
例：This gives rise to the need for more formal planning.
这带动了对更规范的计划制定的需求。
inoculate 给...预防接种
例：a programme to inoculate every child in the country.
一个给全国每个孩子接种疫苗的计划。
[15] If this is true, what we experience when we listen to sad music might be thought of as “vicarious emotions.” Here, there is no object or situation that induces emotion directly, as in regular life. Instead, the vicarious emotions are free from the essential unpleasantness of their genuine counterparts, while still drawing force from the similarity between the two.
free from 使摆脱；免于
例：Knowing this, we would be free from money.
看清楚这一点就能够从金钱中超脱。
essential 基本的; 重要的
例：Most authorities agree that play is an essential part of a child's development.
大多数权威人士认为玩耍是孩子成长的一个重要部分。
[16] We need to study vicarious emotions further. In doing so, we may be able to improve our understanding of a neglected feature of our emotional system — namely, its sensitivity to something other than palpable needs or threats. When we weep at the beauty of sad music, we experience a profound aspect of our emotional selves that may contain insights about the meaning and significance of artistic experience — and also about ourselves as human beings.
单词
wonder 想知道
overwhelm 使承受(过量之物)
purge (从组织中) 清除 (异己成员)
despite 尽管
appreciation 欣赏
encompass 包括，包含
induce 引起
steer 有意避开某人/某物
split 裂开，分开
into 成为
version 版本; 变体
elicit 引起 (反应)
vary 各不相同
bouncy 有活力的
solemn 严肃的
heroic 英勇的
wistful 依依不舍的
anticipate 预期
likewise 同样地
counterpart 对应的人或物
key 调
inoculate 给...预防接种
essential 基本的; 重要的
词组
related to 与…有关
a better understanding of 更好的了解...
be interested in 对...感兴趣
be associated with 与…有关系
turn out 证明是，原来是
correspond to 符合于…
be to do 打算去做
gives rise to 引起，导致
free from 使摆脱；免于
句子
But what if, despite their apparent similarity, sadness in the realm of artistic appreciation is not the same thing as sadness in everyday life?
尽管它们表面上很像，但是假如艺术欣赏领域的“悲伤”和我们日常生活中的“悲伤”并不一样呢?
2.By isolating these two overlapping sets of emotions and observing how they related to each other, we hoped to gain a better understanding of sad music.
我们希望通过将这两种重叠的情绪分开，以及观察他们之间有何关联，来获得对于“悲伤音乐”更多的理解。
3.We were interested in the minor key because it is canonically associated with sad music.
我们对于小调的音乐比较感兴趣，因为他们是公认的“悲伤音调”。
4.Our participants were more or less split between men and women, as well as between musicians and nonmusicians
参与实验的志愿者大致按照性别做了区分，同样也区分了他们是否为音乐家。
- Our participants answered each question by rating 62 emotion from happy to sad, from bouncy to solemn, from heroic to wistful — on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much).
我们这些参与实验的志愿者是这样回答问题的：他们把62种情绪区分成不同类别和等级，从开心到难过，从有活力的到严肃的，从艰苦卓绝的到依依不舍的，范围从0（一点也不）到4（非常）。
6.Something similar happened with the happy music: perceived blithe emotions were rated higher than their felt counterparts.
对于开心的音乐来说，也发生了同样的事情：认知到的愉快情绪比感受到的愉快情绪获得了更高的评价。
7.Instead, the vicarious emotions are free from the essential unpleasantness of their genuine counterparts, while still drawing force from the similarity between the two.
相反，替代情绪则没有真实悲伤情绪所具有的那种关键的悲伤，但这两者之间的相似性依然可以起到影响。
8.When we weep at the beauty of sad music, we experience a profound aspect of our emotional selves that may contain insights about the meaning and significance of artistic experience.
当我们为了悲情音乐而哭泣的时候，我们能感受到情感上深层次的自我。这种自我可能包含一种洞见，由此看出艺术感知的意义和重要性。
来源:
[1] SADNESS is an emotion we usually try to avoid. So why do we choose to listen to sad music?
[2] Musicologists and philosophers have wondered about this. Sad music can induce intense emotions, yet the type of sadness evoked by music also seems pleasing in its own way. Why? Aristotle famously suggested the idea of catharsis: that by overwhelming us with an undesirable emotion, music (or drama) somehow purges us of it.
[3] But what if, despite their apparent similarity, sadness in the realm of artistic appreciation is not the same thing as sadness in everyday life?
[4] In a study published this summer in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, my colleagues and I explored the idea that “musical emotion” encompasses both the felt emotion that the music induces in the listener and the perceived emotion that the listener judges the music to express. By isolating these two overlapping sets of emotions and observing how they related to each other, we hoped to gain a better understanding of sad music.
[5] Forty-four people served as participants in our experiment. We asked them to listen to one of three musical excerpts of approximately 30 seconds each. The excerpts were from Mikhail Glinka’s “La Séparation” (F minor), Felix Blumenfeld’s “Sur Mer” (G minor) and Enrique Granados’s “Allegro de Concierto” (C sharp major, though the excerpt was in G major, which we transposed to G minor).
[6] We were interested in the minor key because it is canonically associated with sad music, and we steered clear of well-known compositions to avoid interference from any personal memories related to the pieces.
[7] (Our participants were more or less split between men and women, as well as between musicians and nonmusicians, though these divisions turned out to be immaterial to our findings.)
[8] A participant would listen to an excerpt and then answer a question about his felt emotions: “How did you feel when listening to this music?” Then he would listen to a “happy” version of the excerpt — i.e., transposed into the major key — and answer the same question. Next he would listen to the excerpt, again in both sad and happy versions, each time answering a question about other listeners that was designed to elicit perceived emotion: “How would normal people feel when listening to this music?”
[9] (This is a slight simplification: in the actual study, the order in which the participant answered questions about felt and perceived emotion, and listened to sad and happy excerpts, varied from participant to participant.)
[10] Our participants answered each question by rating 62 emotion-related descriptive words and phrases — from happy to sad, from bouncy to solemn, from heroic to wistful — on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much).
[11] We found, as anticipated, that felt emotion did not correspond exactly to perceived emotion. Although the sad music was both perceived and felt as “tragic” (e.g., gloomy, meditative and miserable), the listeners did not actually feel the tragic emotion as much as they perceived it. Likewise, when listening to sad music, the listeners felt more “romantic” emotion (e.g., fascinated, dear and in love) and “blithe” emotion (e.g., merry, animated and feel like dancing) than they perceived.
[12] Something similar happened with the happy music: perceived blithe emotions were rated higher than their felt counterparts. In general, it appears that perceived emotions may be rated higher than felt emotions when it comes to emotional categories characteristically associated with a given key.
[13] When listening to sad music, then, there is a tension, or slippage, between the two types of emotions. How are we to understand this gap?
[14] One answer might be that in everyday life we typically experience emotions that have a direct connection to whatever object or situation gives rise to them. But when we listen to sad music (or watch a sad movie, or read a sad novel), we are inoculated from any real threat or danger that the music (or movie or novel) represents.
[15] If this is true, what we experience when we listen to sad music might be thought of as “vicarious emotions.” Here, there is no object or situation that induces emotion directly, as in regular life. Instead, the vicarious emotions are free from the essential unpleasantness of their genuine counterparts, while still drawing force from the similarity between the two.
[16] We need to study vicarious emotions further. In doing so, we may be able to improve our understanding of a neglected feature of our emotional system — namely, its sensitivity to something other than palpable needs or threats. When we weep at the beauty of sad music, we experience a profound aspect of our emotional selves that may contain insights about the meaning and significance of artistic experience — and also about ourselves as human beings.