已读不回

成年人的社交，似乎有一种关系叫「已读不回」。

🤔️小作业：

1. The main point the author is trying to convey in the passage is __.

A. The influence of technology on people's anxiety levels.

B. The societal pressure to reply instantly to messages.

C. The need for a new social contract for online communications.

D. The different emotions people feel when their messages are ignored.

B. Ignoring someone's message after reading it.

C. The practice of not returning electronic communications.

D. Avoiding face-to-face contact.

A. The shortness of the messages sent.

B. The inability to use online messaging platforms.

C. The ability to see when someone was last active online.

D. The length of the relationship.

无注释原文：

Message sent, received but no instant reply: how does that make you feel?

From: The Conversation

Your phone chimes, it's a message from your partner. You reply instantly because that's what you always do.

Then you decide to add another message: “By the way, I love you ☺”

You see the “read” status appear under the message, and you wait for his or her reply. An hour later you are still waiting, still checking.

Has this ever happened to you?

For most of us, there is an unwritten social contract that underlies our online messaging interactions. The clearest part of that contract is that certain types of messages demand a timely response.

In our world of instant communications, it seems we have come to expect that the general immediacy and access to information afforded to us by our technology, should be reflected in our online social communication, just as it would be when face-to-face.

But norms that exist in the real world don't necessarily transfer easily to the digital realm. Is it time we developed a new social contract for online communications?

Stoking the fires of social anxiety

When the social contract is broken or even bent a little, it can introduce a hierarchy of discomfort into the communication process, often including anxiety and introspective rumination over the reasons for the non-reply.

These types of emotions may be felt much more powerfully when we believe the person on the other end has actually read our message but has chosen to ignore us.

In these cases, our discomfort may rise with the passing of time. The rising anxiety may escalate to the point where we bombard the non-replier with yet more messages to try to elicit a response.

Of course, responses such as these can vary from person to person, and culture to culture. It has been suggested some people who are highly emotionally reactive and use text messaging excessively may actually feel rejected, isolated and suffer deep anxiety when replies to their messages are not immediate.

Read receipts makes things worse

It's worth considering that the technology platform we use to conduct our messaging activities, may contribute to our expectations of an immediate reply.

Virtually every online messaging platform has a way of informing us when our message has been delivered to, and read by, the recipient.

WhatsApp has two blue ticks, one for successful delivery and one for when the message has been read. Facebook messenger shows the recipient's profile picture beside the message, and so on.

If we know the person well, we may even know they have message receipt notifications set to appear on their device. These notifications do not specifically trigger the read-receipt for our message, but we know it's likely the recipient has at least seen our message.

Combine all this with the ability to see when someone was last active online, and you have the perfect reply-status nightmare, if you are someone who cares.

The fear of being ghosted

It's easy to understand how read-receipt anxiety has evolved. Just imagine the offline equivalent – you say something to someone, you know they have heard you, but they deliberately ignore you.

When face to face, we would almost always make further enquiries to get our response and we'd be confused, or angry if it was not forthcoming.

It's really not very surprising, given the very high volume of online messaging we now engage in, that people expect the same communication etiquette when using messaging platforms.

When non-reply behaviour is taken to an extreme, it may be analogous to a phenomenon known as ghosting. Ghosting involves indulging in behaviours such as not returning text messages, emails, phone calls or any related electronic communications.

It can occur within any type of close relationship but is more often associated with intimate ones. People often use ghosting as way of breaking off a relationship without any apparent justification.

Most of us would agree that a non-reply to an online message of love to an intimate other elicits a very strong emotional response, one that has very little to do with the length of the relationship in question.

In any intimate relationship, a non-reply may make us feel humiliated, rejected, isolated and embarrassed. Over time our anxiety will increase until we hear that return chime – hopefully they love us too, along with an apology for the delay, and all emotions can return quickly to normal levels.

Some people may actually use non-reply behaviour to manage their relationship dynamics, and torture their friends and loved ones. Of course no one reading this would ever have engaged in such Machiavellian behaviour!

Perhaps we need a new type of online communication social contract, and let's set these expectations at the beginning of a relationship, or any friendship.

For example, on Tinder, profiles should perhaps have a box to tick to specify whether immediate replies are optional. Thanks to read-receipts and their associated emotional impact, relationship communication really has never been more complex and perplexing.

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为机器翻译并非一一对应，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Message sent, received but no instant reply: how does that make you feel?

From: The Conversation

Your phone chimes, it's a message from your partner. You reply instantly because that's what you always do.

你的手机响了，是你对象发来的消息。和往常一样，你秒回了。

chime /tʃaɪm/ 表示“（铃或钟）敲，鸣，响”，英文解释为“(of bells) to make a clear ringing sound”举个🌰：In the square the church bells chimed. 广场上教堂的钟声敲响了。

Then you decide to add another message: “By the way, I love you ☺”

然后你决定再加一条消息：“对了，爱你哟☺”

You see the “read” status appear under the message, and you wait for his/her reply. An hour later you are still waiting, still checking.

你看到消息下方出现“已读”状态，你等待着Ta的回复。一个小时过去了，你还在等待，还在不断查看。

Has this ever happened to you?

这种情况你遇到过吗？

For most of us, there is an unwritten social contract that underlies our online messaging interactions. The clearest part of that contract is that certain types of messages demand a timely response.

对我们大多数人来说，在线聊天交流背后存在一种不成文的社会契约。这份契约最明确的部分就是，某些类型的消息需要及时回复。

1）作名词，表示“合同；契约”，英文解释为“a legal document that states and explains a formal agreement between two different people or groups, or the agreement itself”如：a contract of employment 雇用合同。

2）作动词，熟词僻义，表示“染（重病）”，英文解释为“If you contract a serious illness, you become ill with it.”如：to contract a virus/a disease 感染病毒/疾病。

🎬电影《震荡效应》（Concussion）中的台词提到：of contracting a brain related injury such as dementia, Alzheimer's, depression or CTE? 造成相关的大脑损伤，如痴呆、阿尔茨海默氏症，抑郁症，或CTE？

3）表示“（使）收缩；（使）缩小；（使）缩短”，英文解释为“to make or become shorter or narrower or generally smaller in size”举个🌰：In spoken English, "do not" often contracts to "don't". 在英语口语中，do not 常常缩略成 don't。

表示“是…的深层原因；对…有重大影响”，英文解释为“to be a hidden cause of or strong influence on something”举个🌰：Psychological problems very often underlie apparently physical disorders. 心理问题常常是明显生理疾病的深层原因。

In our world of instant communications, it seems we have come to expect that the general immediacy and access to information afforded to us by our technology, should be reflected in our online social communication, just as it would be when face-to-face.

在我们这个即时通讯的世界里，我们似乎已经期待，科技给我们带来信息获取的即时性和便捷性，应该反映在我们的在线社交沟通中，就像面对面交流一样。

immediacy /ɪˈmiː.di.ə.si/ 表示“即时性；直接性”，英文解释为“the fact that something seems real and important, so that you feel involved with it”举个🌰：Pre-recorded TV programmes have so much less immediacy and warmth than live theatre. 事先录制的电视节目比剧院现场少了很多的即时性和亲切感。

But norms that exist in the real world don't necessarily transfer easily to the digital realm. Is it time we developed a new social contract for online communications?

但现实世界中存在的规范并不一定能轻易地转移到数字领域。是时候为在线聊天交流制定一份新的社会契约了吗？

表示“规范；行为标准”，英文解释为“standards of behaviour that are typical of or accepted within a particular group or society”，如：social/cultural norms 社会/文化规范。

📍the norm 表示“常态，正常行为”，英文解释为“a situation or type of behaviour that is expected and considered to be typical”举个🌰：One child per family is fast becoming the norm in some countries. 每个家庭一个孩子在一些国家正迅速普遍起来。

realm /rɛlm/ 1）表示“领域；场所”，英文解释为“an area of activity, interest, or knowledge”举个🌰：At the end of the speech he seemed to be moving  into the realms of  fantasy. 讲话的最后，他似乎进入了虚幻的境地。

2）表示“王国”（a country ruled by a king or queen）

📍beyond the realm of possibility 表示“超出范围，不可能”（not possible），相反的说法：within the realm of possibility 意思就是“在可能的范围”（possible），举个🌰：A successful outcome is not beyond the realms of possibility. 最后取得成功并非没有可能。

🎬电影《复仇者联盟2：奥创纪元》（Avengers: Age of Ultron）中的台词提到：In every realm, there's a reflection. 每个国度都有倒影。

Stoking the fires of social anxiety 引发社交焦虑

When the social contract is broken or even bent a little, it can introduce a hierarchy of discomfort into the communication process, often including anxiety and introspective rumination over the reasons for the non-reply.

当社会契约被打破甚至稍稍偏离时，就会给交流过程带来一系列的不适，通常包括焦虑和对未回复原因的内省式反思。

1）stoke/stoke up原意表示“给…添煤; 给…添柴火”，英文解释为“If you stoke a fire, you add coal or wood to it to keep it burning.”举个🌰：Once the fire had been stoked up, the room began to get warm. 炉火添了木柴拨旺之后，屋子里开始暖和起来。

2）表示“煽动；激起（某种感觉）”，英文解释为“If you stoke something such as a feeling, you cause it to be felt more strongly.”举个🌰：He's been accused of stoking up racial hatred in the region. 他被控在这一地区煽动种族仇恨。

📺美剧《美国恐怖故事》（American Horror Story）中的台词提到：and I was stoking the fire, and you were on the couch, rocking a baby 我在生火 你在沙发上哄孩子睡觉。

🎬电影《人类清除计划4》（The First Purge）中的台词提到：We didn't, and now they're stoking the fire in another motherfucking way. 我们没有（互相残杀）他们就换了一种方式来火上浇油。

introspective /ˌɪn.trəˈspek.tɪv/ 表示“自省的，反省的”，英文解释为“examining and considering your own ideas, thoughts, and feelings, instead of talking to other people about them”举个🌰：She is famous for her introspective songs about failed relationships. 她因其反省失败恋情的歌曲闻名。

rumination /ˌruː.mɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ 表示“沉思，长时间思考”，英文解释为“the act of thinking carefully and for a long period about something”

These types of emotions may be felt much more powerfully when we believe the person on the other end has actually read our message but has chosen to ignore us.

当我们认为对方实际上已经看到了我们的消息，但选择无视时，这些情绪可能会变得更加强烈。

In these cases, our discomfort may rise with the passing of time. The rising anxiety may escalate to the point where we bombard the non-replier with yet more messages to try to elicit a response.

在这种情况下，随着时间的推移，我们的不适感可能会上升。焦虑感可能会上升到我们不停地给对方发更多消息试图引起回应的程度。

escalate /ˈɛskəˌleɪt/ 表示“使…加剧；加剧”，英文解释为“If a bad situation escalates or if someone or something escalates it, it becomes greater in size, seriousness, or intensity.”举个🌰：They fear the dispute could escalate. 他们都害怕争端会加剧。

🎬电影《死亡实验》（The Experiment）中的台词提到：Do I need to escalate matters right now? 逼我把事情闹大吗？

📍de-escalate /ˌdiːˈes.kə.leɪt/ 表示“（使）缓和，（使）缓解”，英文解释为“to (cause to) become less dangerous or difficult”举个🌰：There are signs that the confrontation is beginning to de-escalate. 有迹象表明对立已经开始缓和。

elicit /iˈlɪs.ɪt/ 表示“引出，探出，诱出（尤指信息或反应）”，英文解释为“to get or produce something, especially information or a reaction”举个🌰：Have you managed to elicit a response from them yet? 你设法探到他们的反应了吗？

📍此前Jasper对着每个镜头道歉文中出现的表达：These children tell their parents those things that will elicit praise and hide the parts of their lives that won't. 这些孩子会告诉父母那些可以赢得赞扬的事情，隐瞒自己生活中不会受到赞赏的事情。

Of course, responses such as these can vary from person to person, and culture to culture. It has been suggested some people who are highly emotionally reactive and use text messaging excessively may actually feel rejected, isolated and suffer deep anxiety when replies to their messages are not immediate.

当然，诸如此类的反应因人而异，也因文化而异。有研究表明，那些情绪反应强烈且过度依赖短信的人，消息没有得到及时回复时，可能确实会感到被拒绝、被孤立，并深感焦虑。

表示“隔离；孤立；分离”，英文解释为“to separate something from other things with which it is connected or mixed；to keep a person or animal separate from other people or animals by putting them in a different place”举个🌰：A high wall isolated the house from the rest of the village. 一堵高墙将这栋房子与村庄的其他部分隔离开来。

Read receipts makes things worse 已读回执让情况变得更糟

It's worth considering that the technology platform we use to conduct our messaging activities, may contribute to our expectations of an immediate reply.

值得考虑的是，我们用来进行消息互动的技术平台，可能会影响我们对即时回复的期望。

Virtually every online messaging platform has a way of informing us when our message has been delivered to, and read by, the recipient.

几乎所有即时通讯平台都能够告诉我们，消息何时已发送给接收方并被接收方阅读。

recipient /rɪˈsɪp.i.ənt/ 表示“接受者；领受者；承受者”，英文解释为“a person who receives something”举个🌰：He was a recipient of the Civilian Service Award. 他被授予平民服务奖章。

WhatsApp has two blue ticks, one for successful delivery and one for when the message has been read. Facebook messenger shows the recipient's profile picture beside the message, and so on.

WhatsApp有两个蓝色的勾，一个√表示发送成功，另一个√表示消息已被阅读。而Facebook Messenger在消息框旁边显示接收方的头像，等等。

1）表示“（钟表）发出嘀嗒声；滴答地走”，英文解释为“When a clock or watch ticks, it makes a sound every second.”举个🌰：In the silence we could hear the clock ticking. 寂静中，我们能听到钟表滴答作响。

2）表示“进展，进步；正常运转”，英文解释为“to operate as a functioning mechanism”

作名词，表示“核对号，钩号（✓）”，英文解释为“a mark that shows that something is correct or has been done”举个🌰：Put a tick by/against the names of the people who have accepted the invitation. 在接受邀请的人的姓名上打钩。

profile一词经常出现，1）表示“（有关某人的）简介，概况”，英文解释为“A profile of someone is a short article or programme in which their life and character are described.”举个🌰：A newspaper published comparative profiles of the candidates' wives. 一份报纸刊登了候选人妻子们的对比简介。

2）表示“关注度”，英文解释为“If someone has a high profile, people notice them and what they do. If you keep a low profile, you avoid doing things that will make people notice you.”常用：a high profile 惹人注目/关注；高姿态，a low profile 不惹人注目，低姿态；如：a move that would give Egypt a much higher profile in the upcoming peace talks 会给埃及在即将到来的和平谈判中高关注度的一个行动。

📍如果你把微信语言设置成英文，你就会发现微信官方把头像处理成：Profile Photo，上面的“My Profile”对应的中文则是“个人信息”。

If we know the person well, we may even know they have message receipt notifications set to appear on their device. These notifications do not specifically trigger the read-receipt for our message, but we know it's likely the recipient has at least seen our message.

如果我们熟悉对方，我们甚至可能知道他们的设备上打开了消息接收通知。这些通知并不会特意触发消息已读回执，但我们知道至少接收方可能已经看到了我们的消息。

notification /ˌnəʊ.tɪ.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/ 表示“（提醒社交媒体账号上有更新的）通知信息”，英文解释为“a message that is automatically sent to you to tell you there has been activity on one of your social media accounts, for example, when someone has commented on something you have written on Facebook™ ”

1）作动词，除了表示“发动；引起；触发”，英文解释为“to make sth happen suddenly”举个🌰：Nuts can trigger off a violent allergic reaction. 坚果可以引起严重的过敏反应。

2）作名词，表示“扳机”，英文解释为“The trigger of a gun is a small lever which you pull to fire it.”举个🌰：A man pointed a gun at them and pulled the trigger. 一个男人用枪指着他们，扣动了扳机。

类似的还有：

📍stir表示“激发，激起（强烈的感情）；引起（强烈的反应）”，英文解释为“to make someone have a strong feeling or reaction”，举个🌰：The poem succeeds in stirring the imagination. 这首诗能够激发起想象力。

📍provoke也表示“激起，引起”，英文解释为“to cause a reaction or feeling, especially a sudden one”，如：provoke debate/discussion 激起辩论/讨论。

📍spur 鼓动；激励；鞭策；刺激；鼓舞”，英文解释为“If one thing spurs you to do another, it encourages you to do it.”举个🌰：It's the money that spurs these fishermen to risk a long ocean journey in their flimsy boats. 是金钱驱使这些渔民驾驶单薄的小船冒险出海远航。

🎬电影《龙之心3：巫师的诅咒》（Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse）中的台词提到：To spur the clans to war. 激励部族发起战争。

Combine all this with the ability to see when someone was last active online, and you have the perfect reply-status nightmare, if you are someone who cares.

把这些和能看到某人上次在线时间的功能结合在一起，对于在意别人的人来说，那就绝对是回复状态噩梦了。

The fear of being ghosted 害怕被“幽灵化”

It's easy to understand how read-receipt anxiety has evolved. Just imagine the offline equivalent – you say something to someone, you know they have heard you, but they deliberately ignore you.

已读回执焦虑的形成很容易理解。想象一下线下的情况——你对某人说了些什么，你知道他们听到了你的话，但他们故意无视你。

ghost /ɡəʊst/ 作名词，1）表示“鬼，幽灵”，英文解释为“the spirit of a dead person, sometimes represented as a pale, almost transparent image of that person that some people believe appears to people who are alive”举个🌰：Do you believe in ghosts? 你相信有鬼吗？

2）表示“（通常指对不好的事或人的）记忆，回忆；摆脱不掉的往事”，英文解释为“a memory, usually of something or someone bad”

作动词，可以表示“（书、文章等）他人代笔的，由影子写手写的”，英文解释为“(of a book, article, etc.) written for another person to publish under their own name”如：Ghosted autobiographies 他人代笔的自传。

1）作形容词，表示“（价值、数量、意义、重要性等）相等的，相同的”，英文解释为“equal in value, amount, meaning, importance, etc.”举个🌰：Eight kilometres is roughly equivalent to five miles. 八公里约等于五英里。

2）作名词，表示“相等的东西；等量；对应词”，英文解释为“a thing, amount, word, etc. that is equivalent to sth else”。

比如，提到Weibo时候会介绍为中国版的Twitter，常见的有几种说法：

🧣Weibo, China's Twitter-like service (SCMP)

🧣Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter (NPR NEWS)

🧣Twitter-like Weibo (Reuters)

🧣Weibo, a Twitter-like platform (NYT)

1）表示“故意地”，英文解释为“intentionally”举个🌰：I'm sure he says these things deliberately to annoy me. 我敢肯定他是故意说这些来气我的。

2）表示“不慌不忙地，从容地”，英文解释为“slowly and carefully”举个🌰：Calmly and deliberately, she cut up his suits one by one. 她平静从容地把他的西服一件一件剪成碎片。

When face to face, we would almost always make further enquiries to get our response and we'd be confused, or angry if it was not forthcoming.

面对面时，我们几乎总是会进一步询问以获得回应，如果没有得到回应，我们会感到困惑或生气。

It's really not very surprising, given the very high volume of online messaging we now engage in, that people expect the same communication etiquette when using messaging platforms.

随着我们现在在网络上交流的频率越来越高，人们自然而然地期望在使用即时通讯平台时能够遵守相同的交流礼仪。

volume /ˈvɒl.juːm/ 1）表示“总数；总量；总额”，英文解释为“the number or amount of something in general”举个🌰：It's the sheer volume of traffic in the city that is causing the problems. 造成这些问题的就是城里的交通流量。

2）表示“容积；体积；容量”，英文解释为“the amount of space that is contained within an object or solid shape”举个🌰：Which of these bottles do you think has the greater volume? 你认为这些瓶子中哪个容积最大？

3）表示“卷；册”，英文解释为“one in a set of related books”也可以表示“书”，英文解释为“a book”如：如：a volume of poetry 一本诗集，举个🌰：She took a slim volume down from the shelf. 她从书架上取下一本很薄的书。

4）表示“音量；音量调节钮”，英文解释为“the level of sound produced by a television, radio, etc., or the switch or other device controlling this”举个🌰：Could you turn the volume down, please, I'm trying to sleep. 你能把音量调低些吗？我要睡觉。

etiquette /ˈɛtɪˌkɛt/ 表示“礼仪，礼节”，英文解释为“the formal rules for polite behaviour in society or in a particular group”，如：table etiquette 餐桌礼仪。

🎬电影《逃离地球》（Escape from Planet Earth）中的台词提到：You should abide by the following basic etiquette. 你必须遵守以下基本礼节。

When non-reply behaviour is taken to an extreme, it may be analogous to a phenomenon known as ghosting. Ghosting involves indulging in behaviours such as not returning text messages, emails, phone calls or any related electronic communications.

当不回复行为走向极端时，它可能类似于一种被称为“幽灵化”（ghosting）的现象。“幽灵化”包括不回复短信、电子邮件、电话或任何相关的电子通信等行为。

analogous /əˈnæl.ə.ɡəs/ 表示“相似的；类似的；可比拟的”，英文解释为“having similar features to another thing and therefore able to be compared with it”举个🌰：The experience of mystic trance is in a sense analogous to sleep or drunkenness. 神秘的催眠体验在某种意义上类似于睡眠或醉酒。

It can occur within any type of close relationship but is more often associated with intimate ones. People often use ghosting as way of breaking off a relationship without any apparent justification.

这种现象会发生在任何类型的亲密关系中，但更常见于伴侣关系中。在没有明显理由的情况下，人们通常会通过“幽灵化”的方式来结束一段关系。

表示“亲密的；有性关系的；宜于密切关系的”，英文解释为“having, or being likely to cause, a very close friendship or personal or sexual relationship”如：intimate relationships 亲密关系，举个🌰：The restaurant has a very intimate atmosphere. 这家餐厅的氛围很怡人。

表示“正当的理由；辩解”，英文解释为“a good reason or explanation for something”举个🌰：There is no justification for treating people so badly. 没有理由如此恶劣地对待他人。

Most of us would agree that a non-reply to an online message of love to an intimate other elicits a very strong emotional response, one that has very little to do with the length of the relationship in question.

我们大多数人都会同意，在亲密关系中不回复传达爱意的消息，会引发非常强烈的情绪反应，而这与该关系持续时间长短无关。

In any intimate relationship, a non-reply may make us feel humiliated, rejected, isolated and embarrassed. Over time our anxiety will increase until we hear that return chime – hopefully they love us too, along with an apology for the delay, and all emotions can return quickly to normal levels.

在任何亲密关系中，不回复可能会让我们感到羞辱、被拒绝、孤立和尴尬。随着时间的推移，我们的焦虑会不断增加，直到我们听到回复的铃声——期待他们也能向我们表示爱意，并对迟迟未回消息道歉，这样所有的情绪才能迅速恢复正常。

humiliate /hjuːˈmɪl.i.eɪt/ 表示“羞辱，使丢脸”，英文解释为“to make someone feel ashamed or lose respect for himself or herself”举个🌰：How could you humiliate me by questioning my judgment in front of everyone like that? 你怎么能那样当众质疑我的判断，让我丢脸？

Some people may actually use non-reply behaviour to manage their relationship dynamics, and torture their friends and loved ones. Of course no one reading this would ever have engaged in such Machiavellian behaviour!

实际上，有些人可能会利用不回复的行为来管理他们的人际关系，让亲朋好友感到煎熬。当然，读到这篇文章的人应该都不会做出这种马基雅维利式的行为！

表示“折磨，煎熬”，英文解释为“a very unpleasant experience”举个🌰：The rush-hour traffic was sheer torture as usual. 交通高峰期像往常一样简直就是一种煎熬。

Machiavellian /ˌmæk.i.əˈvel.i.ən/ 表示“马基雅弗利式的，为夺取权力而不择手段的”，英文解释为“using clever but often dishonest methods that deceive people so that you can win power or control”

Perhaps we need a new type of online communication social contract, and let's set these expectations at the beginning of a relationship, or any friendship.

也许我们需要一种新型在线交流社会契约，让我们在一段关系或友谊开始时就明确这些预期。

For example, on Tinder, profiles should perhaps have a box to tick to specify whether immediate replies are optional. Thanks to read-receipts and their associated emotional impact, relationship communication really has never been more complex and perplexing.

例如，在Tinder上，个人资料中或许应该有一个勾选框，用来说明是否需要立即回复。由于已读回执及其相关情绪影响，人际交流真的变得前所未有的复杂和难解。

表示“可选择的；非强制的”，英文解释为“If something is optional, you can choose if you want to do it, pay it, buy it, etc.”举个🌰：English is compulsory for all students, but art and music are optional. 英语是所有学生的必修课，而艺术和音乐则是选修的。

表示“具体说明；明确指出”，英文解释为“to explain or describe something clearly and exactly”举个🌰：He said we should meet but didn't specify a time. 他说我们应该见见面，但没说具体时间。

perplexing /pəˈpleksɪŋ/ 表示“复杂的，令人费解的；令人困惑的；令人不解的”，英文解释为“If you find something perplexing, you do not understand it or do not know how to deal with it.”举个🌰：It took years to understand many perplexing diseases. 许多疑难病症要耗时多年才能搞明白。

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