美国掠影：不坐三人座椅中间座

You probably missed The New York Times photograph that showed a revealing picture of New Yorkers’ rides into work on commuter trains. The photographer stood behind a long series of rows, three seats to a row. In the photo, every window and aisle seat - and not ONE middle seat - is occupied. The train is otherwise crowded; the aisles are jammed with standees - all of them ignoring the available middle seat. Some people are even sitting on the floor.

不久前，纽约时报刊登的一张照片，上面展示的是纽约人乘坐通勤火车的图景。摄影师站在一长溜三人座的座位后拍得这张照片。在照片上，每个窗户和靠走道的座位都有人坐，但没有一个人坐中间那个座位!车厢里真的很挤，就连过道上也站满了人，有些人甚至坐在地板上，可人们好像根本没看见三排座中间的那个座位。

The accompanying story explores why Americans despise center seats, though not mentioning the unavoidable fact that many of us are, shall we say, rather husky.

和照片配图的文章探究了为什么美国人不喜欢坐中间座位。不过文章没有提到一个无可回避的事实，那就是，我们很多人，嗯，块头儿相当大。

It seems that women, in particular, feel uneasy sitting elbow-to-elbow with strangers. And while being jammed into a window seat even farther from the middle aisle can also seem claustrophobic, at least there’s a view.

看来，很多人，特别是女性，对于和陌生人肩并肩坐在一起觉得很不舒服。坐在最里面，虽然有点被囚禁的感觉，但至少还能看看窗外的景色。

For the poor sap in the middle, there’s a real possibility of being squished between the extremely obese, insufferably chatty, overly perfumed or repulsively unbathed. So, before or after a tiring day, a lot of people would rather stand.

而坐在中间，如果被夹在又肥又壮、喋喋不休、香水喷得太多或者不喜欢洗澡的人当中，那就惨了。因此，不管是要开始新的一天，或者在结束了一天的辛劳工作后，很多人情愿站着。