如果世界上有一种传染病叫快乐,相信大家都愿意被传染。如果使用感叹号是最容易被传染的途径,想必你也一定愿意用吧!
I have only one gift to offer as a friend. It's not loyalty; that's a rare quality for people to appreciate. I am patient, yes, but that is hardly a noticeable trait2). And I can't give wise advice; I have the life experience of a teenager. Were it not for my one talent, I might have few friends.
I am an expert in happiness. I know it better than any other emotion, and I love everything about it. I enjoy watching it spread across angry faces, I like to find the smile lines on older people's skin, and I take pleasure in making people happy. Something few people understand about happiness is that it's a disease, a contagious disease with universal symptoms. The most common symptom is a smile.
Through years of observation I have come to an important conclusion: the easiest way to infect others with happiness is to be happy yourself. The key to spreading happiness is a mixture of extreme optimism, laughing and smiling, and using as many exclamation points3) as possible. I do this as often as I can in order to balance out4) the pessimists and so-called "realists" of the world.
I find exclamation points the most effective method. Whatever the mood of my sentence, whether I'm writing, texting or speaking, I add one. I have become so accustomed to using them that I often find it necessary to take them out of my essays or remove them from the ends of my passwords.
I know what I'm doing when I add exclamation points. I'm telling people not to worry. I'm showing them that everything is all right, and that even if it isn't, it will be soon. I'm helping them look on the bright side, to read their troubles from a different point of view. When I say I'm "okay" you might worry, but when I'm "okay!!" you probably won't think twice. The power of exclamation is something I take advantage of whenever I can.
There was a time, however, when I lost my exclamation points.
As soon as my phone's screen lit up, my face would too. I smiled with delight. Someone I liked very much had texted me. I replied as rapidly as I could, employing a plethora5) of exclamation points. This person was someone I believed deserved all of the happiness I could give.
"Can I ask you a question?" my source of happiness texted.
"Of course!!" I replied.
"Why do you use so many exclamation points?" I didn't tell him it was because I wanted to infect others with my happiness. The spread of happiness is less effective when people know what you're up to.
"I dunno6). I just like them!!"
"They seem a little excessive to me," he wrote. "It's so unnecessary."
I began to doubt the data I had accumulated on happiness. If the person who made me happiest believed that my methods were ineffective, maybe I needed to reevaluate. It's clear to me now that I shouldn't have been so quick to accept his opinion. This person didn't even realize what he had done to me, and at first, I didn't either.
Thus began the great downfall of my favorite punctuation mark. Exclamation points disappeared from my neutral texts and even from my sad ones. They began to appear only when I was truly happy, which, as the year progressed, was less often. Most of my friends couldn't handle this sadder version of me, and it made sense; it wasn't really me at all. I started to spread a different disease: depression. Other friends became unavailable because they had their own problems and couldn't deal with mine.
Eventually the very person who'd started this stopped talking to me, and I was fully abandoned. No one wants to feel like they are being pulled under7) by a friend. I had transformed from a little ball of sunshine into a lead weight, and the change was far too dramatic and sudden to be dealt with by others. I spent much of my time alone, with no one to comfort me and no one to confide in. I had lost the part of me people liked most.
I may have hated losing my exclamation points, but I don't regret it. Experiencing what I did made me realize how much they meant to me. I needed to understand the emptiness at the end of a sentence without exclamation. I needed to realize how heavy I had become without it.
I finally emerged from the depths of this episode8) through an explosion of exclamation. I was infected by my favorite disease again, and I felt light. I am thankful to the person who told me I didn't need them. Because of him, I now know that I needed them more than anything.
I believe in adding exclamation points to the end of all my sentences. I do it to remind others of the positive side, to show my excitement about what they say. I even do it to make sure they realize that I enjoy talking to them. I use them in writing and aloud. I accidentally use them all the time. I use them in part to reassure myself of my own happiness. But most importantly, I use them because they are a part of me. They are one of many things that define me, and thanks to my past experiences, no one will ever take them away from me again! 作为朋友,我只有一样礼物可以奉献。它不是忠诚,忠诚这种美德罕见稀有,鲜有人能够欣赏。没错,我有耐心,但这算不上什么引人注目的品质。我也没有能力给出明智的建议,因为我只有一个十几岁孩子的生活经验。若不是因为我的一种天赋,我或许根本交不到几个朋友。
我是一位快乐专家。我了解快乐胜于了解其他任何情感,而且凡是跟它相关的一切我都喜欢。我喜欢看着它在愤怒的面孔上蔓延,我喜欢在老人的脸上寻找“笑纹”,我也乐于让他人快乐。关于快乐很少有人了解的一点就是,它是一种病,一种具有普遍症状的传染病,其中最常见的症状就是微笑。
通过多年的观察,我得出了一个重要结论:想用快乐感染别人,最简单的办法就是让自己快乐。传递快乐的关键是既要极度乐观,又要绽放笑容,还要尽可能多地使用感叹号。我尽可能地经常这么做,以便抵消世上那些悲观主义者和所谓的“现实主义者”所带来的影响。
我发现感叹号是最有效的方法。无论是在写字、发信息,还是在说话,不管我的那句话语气如何,我都会加上一个感叹号。我已经变得太过习惯于使用感叹号,结果常常发现必须要从我的论文里或密码结尾删掉一些感叹号。
我知道当我加上感叹号时自己在做什么:我在告诉他人不要担心;我在向他们表明一切顺利,就算现在不顺利,也会很快好起来;我在帮助他们往好的方面想,帮他们换个角度看待自己的烦恼。当我说我“很好”时,你或许会担心;但如果我说我“很好!!”时 ,你可能就不会再思来想去了。无论何时,只要我可以,我就会利用感叹号的力量。
但是,有那么一段时间,我却丢失了我的感叹号。
我的手机屏幕一亮,我也会面露喜色。我开心地笑了,是我非常喜欢的一个朋友给我发了条信息。我立马回复了他,用了特别多的感叹号,因为我坚信这个人值得我给予所有的快乐。
“我能问你一个问题吗?”作为我快乐之源的那个人发信息问。
“当然!!”我回复。
“你为什么用这么多感叹号?”
我没告诉他这是因为我想用自己的快乐感染别人。如果对方知道你在做什么,那么传播快乐的效果就要打折扣了。
“我不知道。我就是喜欢它们!!”
“对我来说这些感叹号似乎有点多了,”他写道,“这太没必要了。”
我开始怀疑我积累的那些关于快乐的资料了。如果令我最快乐的那个人都认为我的方法没有效果,那或许我就需要重新评估一下了。现在我很清楚,当时我本不应该那么快就接受他的意见。这个家伙根本没有意识到他对我做了些什么,而一开始,我也没有意识到。
就这样,我最喜欢的标点符号开始一落千丈。感叹号从我那些没有感情色彩的信息,甚至是那些悲伤的信息里消失不见了。它们开始只在我真正开心时才会出现,而这样的时候随着时间的推移变少了。我的大部分朋友都不知道该怎样和这样一个比较阴郁的我打交道,他们这样是有道理的,因为这根本就不是真正的我。我开始传播一种截然不同的病:抑郁。我的其他朋友开始不和我联系,因为他们有自己的问题,没能力帮我解决我的问题。
到了最后,连那个造成这一切的家伙也不和我说话了,我彻底被抛弃了――没有人想要那种正被朋友拉下水的感觉。我从一小团阳光变成了一个铅块,而且这种改变过于戏剧化,又太过突然,令其他人措手不及。我大部分时间都孤零零一个人,没有人安慰我,也没有人听我吐露心声。我已经失去了让人们最喜欢的那部分自我。
我或许曾痛恨丢失了我的感叹号,但我现在并不后悔。经历了我做过的这些事情让我意识到它们对我有多重要。我需要理解句尾没有感叹号的那种空虚,我需要认识到失去感叹号的我变得多么沉闷。
随着使用感叹号数量的激增,我终于从这段经历的深渊中挣脱出来。我又染上了我最爱的那种病,我心感轻盈。我很感谢曾告诉我我不需要感叹号的那个人。因为他,我现在知道我需要它们胜过一切。
我认为要在我所有句子的结尾加上感叹号。我这么做是要提醒他人看到积极的一面,是对他们所说的话表示出我的激动,甚至是为了确保他们明白我喜欢和他们说话。我写信息时用感叹号,说话时也用感叹的语气。我无意中一直都在用感叹号。在某种程度上我用感叹号是为了让自己安心,确信自己是快乐的。但最重要的是,我用感叹号是因为它们是我的一部分,它们和许多其他东西一起造就了我。多亏过去的那些经历,现在没有人能够再次将它们从我身边带走!
1. contagious [k?n?te?d??s] adj. 有感染力的,易感染的
2. trait [tre?t] n. 品质
3. exclamation point: 感叹号。exclamation [?ekskl??me??n] n. 感叹
4. balance out: 抵消
5. plethora [?pleθ?r?] n. 过多
6. dunno: don't know的简写形式,意为“不知道”。
7. pull under: (漩涡、急流)把……卷到水底下
8. episode [?ep?s??d] n. 一段经历