剛開始，小明百聽不厭懷表的聲音，他想聽，爺爺要和他交換條件：說要乖才讓他聽。要怎么乖？當然要聽爺爺的話，更具體地說，那就是要替爺爺掏耳朵。爺爺有喜歡掏耳朵的壞習慣，奶奶死后就沒人替他掏耳朵了。小明八歲了，有一天爺爺耳朵癢得不得了，他冒險地想到小明，要他試著輕輕替他掏耳朵。開始時小明覺得好玩，他小心地試了一下，爺爺竟驚艷地稱贊他手巧，很滿意地賞了錢，讓他去租連環(huán)漫畫看。從此之后，這一份替爺爺掏耳朵的工作就牢牢地跟在小明的身上了。

At first, Xiaoming wished he could listen to the ticking watch every waking minute; but his grandpa laid down a condition: He could only listen to it if he was a good boy. Just what did that mean? Doing what Grandpa asked him to do, specifically cleaning Grandpa's ears. That had long been one of the old man's guilty pleasures, but after Grandma died, there was no one to do it for him. One day, when his ears itched almost unbearably, he entertained the risky thought of asking Xiaoming, who was eight, to gently clean them for him. Thinking this could be fun, Xiaoming gave it a try, cautiously. To Grandpa's pleasant surprise, he did a skillful job, earning the old man's praise and money to rent some comic books. From then on, no one but Xiaoming cleaned Grandpa's ears。

guilty pleasure是什么意思？

My comments:

Guilty pleasures are one’s peculiar, often secret pleasures, things we do that are pleasurable but which make us feel guilty at the same time.

Why guilty?

They make us feel guilty because somehow, we feel we’re not supposed to do them.

Here, grandpa enjoys getting his ears cleaned. If you ask a doctor, any doctor, they may advise against it – cleaning one’s ears too often and without sedulous care may lead to many problems, medical and otherwise.

However, getting one’s ears cleaned is nothing to be ashamed of, that is, in comparison with some other guilty pleasures people have.

Such as married couples having a love affair on the side, for example. It’s something that they enjoy doing, obviously but something that makes them feel guilty as hell. They know they shouldn’t be doing it.

Some of them at any rate. Government officials who keep many young women as modern day concubines by supplying them with houses bought with embezzled money don’t seem to feel any guilt or remorse at all.

That’s why it only feels right whenever one of these corrupt officials is taken to task.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現行法律法規(guī)的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.