“The Advantages of Stupidity” 节选

王婧雅

Free time is great for brainstorming (Admittedly this seems to be a bad choice of words!).Yet the ideas stupid people create tend to be original. For example, when was the last time someone stupid said something, and made one think about it?　It seems that people are always talking about someone else’s dumb idea. An example of such an idea would be, "How many stories will that English teacher drop before having a stroke?" This would suggest that stupid people may have the upper hand when it comes to thinking up original ideas. In fact, the next time someone wants an original idea for something, they should try talking to their local, community stupid person. The reason for this is that while a stupid person thinks with his head, he does not do so an organized manner. This is why they have so much creativity. By thinking in this fashion, their ideas have a natural tendency to flow more easily, without the interruptions which occur from the editing of thoughts that logical people would have normally. Thus if someone else should say to one, "That was a stupid idea!" one should merely look that person straight in the eye, and say, "Thank-you!"　This also means that the claim, "Stupid minds think alike." is not true. All stupid minds have different ideas, each idea being original.
    空闲时间对于献计献策非常有利（诚然，这似乎不是个好的选词）。然而愚钝的人往往会有独具新意的想法。举个例子来说，你还能记得上次一个愚人所说却又引人深思的话吗？看起来人们总乐于琢磨别人的蠢主意。就像，“英语老师还要唠叨多少个故事才会中风呀？”这说明对于奇思妙想，愚钝的人可能会占上风。事实上，下次再需要这种标新立异的想法，就应该去问问当地社区里那些笨笨的人。原因在于，尽管他们也在用脑袋想问题，却从不按套路出牌。这也是为什么他们会如此的富有创造力。这样想来，他们的主意才天生如行云流水，不像平日里那些因逻辑的思考整合而时时打断思维的人。如果有人对另一个人说，“这真是个笨主意！”，那么这个人就该直视他的眼睛，道：“多谢—夸奖！”。这也表明了那句“笨蛋所见略同”的断言是错误的。笨人们也各有所思，而且每个想法都独树一帜。

[ 本帖最后由 王婧雅 于 2008-11-22 14:32 编辑 ]

Cinderella

I shall say this passage is rather original

Free time is great for brainstorming (Admittedly this seems to be a bad choice of words!).空闲时间对于献计献策非常有利（诚然，这似乎不是个好的选词）。这里brainstorming翻译成献计献策很显然是受字典的限制了。再考虑一下？如果这不是文章开头的话，那么之前是什么段落？若是文章开头，也许翻译成“狂思乱想”挺好。因为作者接下来说的，按照常理来说，纯粹是胡思乱想，所以他和读者们这么打个招呼：我接下来要说的，可是你闻所未闻的哦~~~今天我有时间，个人的空闲时间呢，很适合于胡说八道的。所以接下来我就随便说说，说点你没听过的东西、连想都没想过的东西~~~

By thinking in this fashion, their ideas have a natural tendency to flow more easily这样想来，他们的主意才天生如行云流水，————in this fashion这里的this，是指前句while a stupid person thinks with his head, he does not do so an organized manner（这里又掉了一个词吧，in an organized manner），所以不是“这样想来”，而是这些笨人就是不按普通人的逻辑思考，所以他们的想法很自然流露出来，without the interruptions which occur from the editing of thoughts that logical people would have normally. 不像那些讲逻辑的人，在思考的时候，还总是考虑逻辑的问题，而打断自己的思路。

其余不错！