Imagining the future as almost entirely bleak(黯淡的，无望的) has somehow crept into the collective consciousness(集体意识) this year.
今年，把未来想象成几乎一片黯淡，不知怎地已悄然渗入集体意识。
Last week I was having coffee with an old friend. He was telling me about what his kids wanted to study when they went to university, when he suddenly broke off, stared into the middle distance and said, “I wish I’d never had children.”(他正跟我讲他的孩子们上大学想学什么，突然停住，目光望向远处，说：“我真希望自己从没生过孩子。”)
上周我和一位老朋友喝咖啡。他正跟我讲他的孩子们上大学想学什么，突然停住，目光望向远处，说：“我真希望自己从没生过孩子。”
He’d been a father for 20 years and I’d never heard him say that.
他当父亲已经二十年了，我从没听他说过这样的话。