爲什麼事情這麼令人惱火呢？

Nails on a chalkboard. A fly buzzing around the room. A child having a tantrum in the next apartment. The drip-drip-drip of a leaking faucet. An overheard cell-phone conversation in a public place. Most people would agree that these things are amazingly annoying, but what is it about them, exactly, that irritates us so much?
黑板上有釘子。一隻蒼蠅在房間裏嗡嗡地叫。隔壁房子一個小孩在發脾氣。水龍頭漏水的滴答滴答聲。公共場所電話聊天的串音。大部分人覺得這些事情非常令人討厭，但是它們究竟是怎麼了，真的讓我們那麼生氣嗎？

According to "Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us," some sounds, like the screech-squeak of nails on a chalkboard or the high-pitched drone of a mosquito near one's ear, are irritating because we react to them in a physical way. "It seems to be something intrinsic about that mix of frequencies," said Flora Lichtman, co-author of "Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us," in a recent interview with NPR. "The change in volume rapidly—it's called 'rough' in acoustics—most people's ears don't like that stimulus."
根據《惱人：惹怒我們的科學》，一些聲音，如黑板上釘子的吱吱尖叫聲或一隻蚊子在耳朵邊的嗡嗡尖叫聲，都非常惱人，因爲我們身體對這些的反應。“這似乎是一些關於頻率混合的內在東西。”《惱人：惹怒我們的科學》合著者Flora Lichtman在最近一個NPR的訪問中說。“音量迅速改變——聲學中稱爲‘粗’——大部分人不喜歡那種刺激。”

We all react to sounds, sensations, and situations differently because of our personal experiences, cultural differences, and emotional associations. But in general, the things that annoy us tend to have three things in common, regardless of our personal histories: Unpredictability, unpleasantness, and uncertainty. A perfect example? The over-heard cellphone call.
我們對聲音，感覺和情況的反應不同，因爲我們的個人經歷，文化差異和情感聯想不同。但是總體上，不管我們的個人史多麼的不同，使我們感到生氣的事都有三個共同點：不可預測性，不愉快和不確定性。一個完美的例子？打電話時的串音。

It's not just the fact that it's rude, points out Lauren Emberson, a psychology graduate student at Cornell University who has studied the annoying nature of "halfalouges"—when you hear only one side of a conversation. It has to do with the way we process information. "Our brains are always predicting what's going to happen next, based on our current state of knowledge—this is how we learn about the world, but it also reflects how we are in the world," she says. "When something is unexpected, it draws our attention in, our brains tune into it because we're this information-seeking, prediction-loving cognitive system."
這不僅僅是沒有禮貌，康奈爾大學一名心理學研究生研究了“一半對話” 的惱人本質 ，即你只聽到對話的一面。這跟我們對信息進行加工的方式有關。“我們的大腦總是預測下一步要發生的事，這是以我們當前的知識狀態爲基礎的——這就是我們如何認識世界，但也是對我們在世界上是怎樣的反映。”她說。“當發生意外時，就引起大腦注意進行調諧，因爲我們處於這種尋求信息，喜歡預言的認知系統中。”

"The thing that's frustrating about a cell phone conversation is that it's very hard to predict, which was one of the things that we found makes something annoying, usually," adds Lichtman. It's unpleasant, because you can't concentrate on other things while your brain is trying to predict the missing parts of the overheard conversation, studies show. And the fact that you know it must end, but don't know exactly when, ratchets up the annoying factor.
“電話對話令人沮喪的是通常很難去猜測我們知道的事情中哪些使我們生氣。”Lichtman還稱。研究表明，這很不愉快，因爲當你大腦試着猜測串音談話中錯過的部分時，你不能集中精力。而且事實上你知道這個對話必須結束，但你不知道確切什麼時候結束，這就增加了生氣的因素。

In fact, not knowing the reason for something—why your computer is running slowly, why your 8 a.m. flight still hasn't boarded at 8:25, why traffic is at a standstill even though it's not rush hour—can make it seem even more annoying that it would be otherwise.
事實上，不知道一些事情的原因——爲什麼電腦反應那麼慢，爲什麼早上8點的飛機到8:25還沒起飛，爲什麼即使不是上下班高峯期交通還是停滯了——這些可以使在其他方面也會更生氣。

So, what can you to keep your irritation in check? In the book, Lichtman and her co-author, NPR Science Correspondent Joe Palca, suggest "cognitive restructuring," where you remind yourself that you shouldn't be annoyed by whatever is pushing your buttons—a baby cries because it has no other way to communicate, for example; that loud coworker is just being her usual, overly perky self. Another trick: Focus on something else. "But that doesn't work very well," admits Palca on NPR's "Morning Edition. "So basically the bottom-line is you're stuck: it's annoying, and that's part of life."
所以，你怎麼控制你的惱怒？Lichtman和她的合著者，美國國家公共電視臺科學記者Joe Palca在書中建議“認知重組”，提醒自己不要去激發你的惱怒，例如，一個嬰兒哭因爲他沒有其他的溝通方式；那個大聲的傢伙只是她平常，過度活躍的自己。另一個技巧是關注其他事情。“但是那沒有發揮多大的作用。”Palca在NPR《早間節目》中承認。“所以從根本上說底線是你陷入這種情況：這是惱人的，而且是生活中的一部分。”