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"Every cloud has a silver lining," says the optimist.It follows naturally, then, that the pessimist must favor"looking for the rusty lining".Just as the optimist can always find reasons for hoping that bad situations can improve,so the best pessimist can always find that in every situation there is something you can worry about.In the essay, the author, a self-proclaimed pemssimist,claims to be worried about being swallowed by things from outer space and about much else besides.He certainly seems to be what is known as "a born worrier",though how serious he is about it all you can judge it all you can judge for yourself.
“黑暗中总有一线光明”，乐观者说。那么悲观者当然一定会喜欢“寻找阴暗面”。正如乐观者总能找到希望糟糕局面会好转的理由一样，最了不起的悲观者总会发现在每种境况中总有一些可以担忧的事儿。在这篇文章中，自命悲观者的作者声称担心自己会被来自外层空间的东西吞没，此外还为许多别的事儿犯愁。他无疑像是个所谓的“天生的发愁人”，但他所说的话在多大程度上是认真的呢，你就自己去估摸吧。
Look for the Rusty Lining
寻找阴暗面
by Ralph Schoenstein
拉尔夫·舍恩斯坦
My grandfather's hobby was worrying,and although hobbies are not usually thought of as being inheritable, I am a talented worrier, too.My grandfather's glum genes, which skipped my merry father,have reflowered in me as a major, all-purpose anxiety.A few weeks ago, for example, I learned that collapsing stars called black holes may soon such up all the matter in the universe.Because I read this in Vogue, I hoped at first that the black holes were some kind of fad—a celestial pop event like Kohoutek or UFOs—but then I saw that the author of the article had been twice a visiting member at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton,and I knew that another crisis was at hand.Ominously, the Institute is just down the street from where I do my worrying.
我祖父的业余爱好是发愁。虽然人们通常并不认为业余爱好是可以遗传的，但我也是一个颇有才气的发愁人。我祖父的忧愁基因，跳过了我那乐天派的父亲，在我身上重新开花结果，我成为一个动辄犯愁、忧心忡忡的人。举例来说吧，几个星期前，我得知被称为黑洞的行将崩溃的恒星，可能不久将把宇宙的一切物质吸收殆尽。因为这个消息是我在《时装》半月刊上读到的，起先我希望黑洞是某种时髦玩意儿——就像时下天上常发生的科胡特克彗星或飞碟那样的事件——可是我又看到该文的作者曾两度在普林斯顿担任高级研究院的客座研究员，这一下我知道又一个危机即将来临。不祥的是，该研究院就坐落在离我发愁的地方不远的同一条街上。
