Have you ever been waiting in line at the grocery store,
你是否曾经在杂货店里排队等候，
innocently perusing the magazine rack, when a song pops into your head?
毫无念头的浏览着杂志书架时，有一首歌在你的脑海里响起？
Not the whole song, but a fragment of it that plays and replays
不是整首歌，而是部分片段一遍接著一遍回响在耳边，与拍子分秒不差的契合，
until you find yourself unloading the vegetables in time to the beat.
直到你发现到自己将蔬菜取出来结帐。
You've been struck by an earworm, and you're not alone.
你已经受扰于耳朵虫，而且你不是一个人。
Over 90% of people are plagued by earworms at least once a week,
超过90%的人每个礼拜至少有一次会受到耳朵虫的侵扰，
and about a quarter of people experience them several times a day.
而大概有四分之一的人每天会经历好几遍。
They tend to burrow in during tasks that don't require much attention,
他们会在工作不是太需要注意力时沈浸其中，
say, when waiting on water to boil or a traffic light to change.
比如在等待水煮开的时候或是等待交通信号灯转换时。
This phenomenon is one of the mind's great mysteries.
此现象是人类脑袋里最神秘的事情。
Scientists don't know exactly why it's so easy for tunes to get stuck in our heads.
科学家们也不清楚曲调会如此轻易地深植于我们脑海里的原因。
From a psychological perspective, earworms are an example of mental imagery.
从心理学角度来看，耳朵虫是心理的假想。
This imagery can be visual, like when you close your eyes and imagine a red wagon, or it can be auditory,
这种假想可以是视觉性的，就像当你闭上眼睛想像一辆红色的货车；或者也可能是声乐性的假想，
like when you imagine the sound of a baby screaming, or oil sizzling in a pan.
就像当你在想像着婴儿哭泣的声音，或是像平底锅里油吱吱做响的声音。
Earworms are a special form of auditory imagery because they're involuntary.
耳朵虫是特殊的声乐性假想，因为这些音乐会不由自主地回响起。
You don't plug your ears and try to imagine "Who Let the Dogs Out," or, well, you probably don't.
你不必堵住耳朵然后试图想像「是谁放出狗的？」这首歌，或者，你大概什么也不需要做。
It just intrudes onto your mental soundscape and hangs around like an unwanted house guest.
它恰恰可以侵入进你内心的声乐天地，而且就像个不请自来的客人在你的脑中到处晃荡。
Earworms tend to be quite vivid and they're normally made up of a tune, rather than, say, harmonies.
耳朵虫是相当鲜明的，一般来说它们由旋律组成，而不是合声。
A remarkable feature of earworms is their tendency to get stuck in a loop,
耳朵虫的奇特之处在于它像陷在绕圈圈般不断重复的倾向，
repeating again and again for minutes or hours.
不断重复播放长达数分钟或数小时之久。
