自強街87號

今天幫檢討模考題，竟然還是有二個字我不確定、甚至還有一個連聽都沒聽過的。學了這麼久的英文，不過是高三程度的考題，還是一堆說法不熟，操！真他媽的怒！我要把這恥辱記起來：

1. substance abuse

2. to lobby

今天讀到一篇文章，分享自一位資深文字工作者，這位專欄作家的一席話，讓我陷入了沉思...

 Let Go, Let Love, and Let God 

「波特小姐：彼得兔誕生的故事」(Miss Potter) 拍得淡雅，如同彼得兔的畫風，像是藍天裡的一抹恬淡與優雅。劇中的對白也屬同樣風格，聰慧卻不張狂；機智不顯譏諷；雋永又絲毫不賣弄。而我最喜歡的一句對白是，「我和母親達成一個共識，我們決定不再試圖理解對方。」(My mother and I came to an understanding, we agreed not to understand each other. )

對於一個非英美語系的外國人，有時英文學再多也還是聽不懂他們在講殺小。有過這種沮喪的感覺嗎？考你幾題吧：

1. 什麼是 'patient zero'？(俗)

2. 什麼是 'qtna'？(簡)

當成功、能幹的人認為自己其實所知不足，因此常害怕自曝其短而被他人認為是個假貨，此謂「冒牌貨症候群」。這是一種根深柢固的心理：絕大多數人在生活中有時覺得自己不夠好。

自從心理學家首度辨識出冒牌貨症候群後，研究已經指出，超過70%的人曾經有過這種感覺。冒牌貨症候群也是突破性思考的一個障礙。假如你認為自己其實不懂正在做的事，害怕別人會發現你的短處與不足，又怎麼可能會相信自己將能洞察到以往沒有人看出的東西呢？你能想像愛迪生認為自己「不是發明家」，或賈伯斯擔心自己「哪有才能去設計電腦」嗎？

但是，儘管看似反直覺，冒牌貨症候群其實最常發生於優秀能幹者身上。當我們在哈佛、耶魯、史丹佛或MIT談到這種心理時，全場安靜到連一根針掉落，都能聽到聲音。當學生得知這種感覺被稱為「冒牌貨症候群」，並非只有他們才有這種感受時，我們可以看出，他們都鬆了一口氣。喜愛漫畫書，後來成為現代「蝙蝠俠」系列電影製片人的烏斯蘭說，他現在在製片場還偶爾會有這種感覺，他告訴我們：「我仍然會有這種感覺，覺得可能會有某個保全人員以為我是閒雜人等，走進來把我趕出去。」

Klára Würtz is among the more important pianists to have emerged from the latter decades of the 20th century. Hungarian-born, Amsterdam-based, she has, since the early '90s, made numerous tours of the United States and Canada while also appearing throughout Holland and elsewhere in Europe. If her repertory generally excludes Baroque as well as contemporary music, it is broad still, taking in all the sonatas of Mozart and large chunks of the outputs of Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Bartók, Debussy, and many others. Würtz has made numerous recordings for a variety of labels, including Brilliant Classics, Regis Records, and Globe.

Würtz was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1965. She was a child prodigy: she first sat down at the piano at age five and soon became an extraordinarily accomplished player. She joined the Hungarian Radio and Television Children's Chorus in the early '70s, not as a singer but to serve as the group's pianist. She soon enrolled at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in her native city where she studied under Zoltán Kocsis, György Kurtág, and Ferenc Rados. She would later attend master classes held by András Schiff in England.

1985 proved to be a breakthrough year for Würtz when she captured first prize in the Ettore Pozzoli International Piano Competition, a prestigious event held every two years in Seregno, Italy. In 1988 Würtz was a prize winner in another important contest, the Dublin International Piano Competition. By this time her career was firmly established in Europe, though not yet in North America.