Chances are, the petite woman hanging onto the pole, barely able to maintain her balance on the swaying No. 7 train, does not have a beer gut.
大多数时候，如果你看到摇摇晃晃的纽约地铁七号线上有个紧紧抓住把手、几乎快要摔倒的娇弱女子，要记得，她那隆起的腹部可不是啤酒肚。
No, ladies and gentlemen, her protruding stomach inches away from your Kindle or iPhone holds part of the future generation of our great city. She's pregnant! So have some pity in these dog days of summer and give up your seats, you lazy bums.
是的，女士们先生们，那个距离你们的Kindle电子书或是iPhone电话几厘米远的大肚子里，装着的可是我们这个伟大城市未来一代的一分子。她正怀着孕！所以，在这大热天里，有点同情心吧，快站起来让座，懒虫！
Let's be real: We are all guilty of ignoring the pregnant woman sometimes. I, too, confess to pretending not to see her out of the corner of my eye. I'm napping. I'm engrossed in 'Gone Girl.' I fought hard for this seat, damn it, and someone else will surely get up, right?
让我们诚实一点吧：我们都有过假装看不见孕妇的时候。我承认，我也这样做过，装作什么都没有看见。我在打盹儿，我在专注地看《Gone Girl》。该死，我费了好大劲才得到这个座位，而且总会有别的人站起来让座的，对吧？
Ah, the plight of the pregnant.
唉，怀孕的苦恼啊。
Marion Koshy strategizes. The Kew Gardens resident is seven months pregnant. Her commute is long. We're talking more than an hour long, a bus ride to the E train to the 6 train long.
住在丘园小区(Kew Gardens)的马里昂•科希(Marion Koshy)为此大费周章。科希是一名34岁的社工，怀孕七个月了。她每天上班路上花费的时间很长。我们一路聊了一个多小时，从乘公交车到换乘E线地铁，再转乘地铁六号线。
She has tried leaving home earlier. She's tried different cars. She's tried taking the local instead of the express. Her secret weapon: eye contact.
她曾试着早点从家里出发，也试过乘坐其他交通工具，或是避开地铁快车，只坐慢车。她的秘密武器是：对眼神儿。
'I have this thing where I kind of just peer over the paper and I'll look at the person, but it's as if I'm reading and maybe I'll catch their glance and then hope they'll give me their seat,' said the 34-year-old social worker.
她说，“我的一套办法是，我会盯着报纸看，然后我看人，不过看起来我还是在看报纸，没准儿我会和谁对上眼神儿，然后他也许会把座位让给我。”
It doesn't always work. One day this week, she was standing up reading the paper. The train was crowded. Three men were sitting near her. 'One looked up at me and then looked down again,' she recalled. 'I know he was reading the back of my paper. He didn't say a word.'
这办法不是总能奏效。曾有一天，她正站着看报纸，地铁里很挤，在她边上坐着三名男性乘客。她回忆当天的情景说，“其中一个抬头看了我一眼，然后又低下了头。我知道他正在看我手里这张报纸的背面。他什么都没有说。”
Chivalry, apparently, is dead.
显然，绅士已死。
'It's kind of like you're a panhandler,' added Ms. Koshy, one of many pregnant woman to make this analogy. 'They pretend like you don't even exist.'
科希接着说，“这感觉就好像你是个乞丐。他们假装你根本不存在。”很多孕妇都做过同样的类比。
Ms. Koshy was one of those who refused seats when she first started to show. No, she could stand, thank you very much. Now she'll take it where she can get it, which is about 50% of the time.
和其他一些人一样，肚子刚开始有点显的时候，如果有人给她让座，科希总是婉言谢绝。不用了，她站着没事儿，非常感激。而如今，只要有空座，她就会坐上去。而能得到空座的概率只有50%左右。
Come on New Yorkers, we can do better than that!
嘿，拜托，纽约人，你们就不能表现得好一点吗？
Men will explain that you never ask or assume a woman is pregnant. This is true: It's a cardinal sin. But there comes a point when there's no question that a woman is pregnant. This is the point where you simply get up, folks. Don't make a show of it, don't embarrass the poor woman, just get up and motion to the seat.
男士们会为自己开脱说，你既不能去问一位女性是不是怀孕了，也不该做出这样的凭空假设。没错，这样做会犯下滔天大错。不过总有一些时候你能毫无疑问地看出来一位女士的确是怀孕了。诸位，总有一些时候，你要做的只是站起来而已。别大惊小怪的，别让那位可怜的女士尴尬了，你只需站起来，指指空出来的座位。
Christopher Diamond says he always gets up for the pregnant and he thinks most everyone does so─when they notice. 'A lot of times, people are so immersed in whatever they're reading or playing that they don't notice,' said the 45-year-old Prospect Heights resident. 'Large bellies don't really stand out that much on the subway.'
现年45岁、家住展望高地(Prospect Heights)的克里斯托夫•戴蒙德(Christopher Diamond)说，他看到孕妇总是会站起来让座，而且他认为大多数人都是这样做的──只要他们注意到了。他说，“很多时候，人们太专注于自己手中的书或是游戏，注意不到周围的事情。在地铁上，大肚子其实不是那么明显。”
In London, the Transport for London agency doles out officially sanctioned 'Baby on Board' badges to pregnant women. More than 380,000 badges have been requested since the program was launched in 2006, according to an email from a press officer.
在伦敦，伦敦交通局(Transport for London)向孕妇发放印有“宝宝在内”(Baby on Board)字样的小牌子。根据来自新闻部门官员坎迪斯•琼斯(Candice Jones)的邮件，自2006年开始推行这个做法后，要求获得这个小牌子的申请已经超过38万份。
'The badge aims to encourage customers to give up their seats to pregnant women and help mothers-to-be feel more comfortable using the Tube,' wrote Candice Jones.
琼斯说，“这个小牌子旨在鼓励人们让座给孕妇，帮助准妈妈们能够更舒服地乘坐地铁。”
New York has the MTA's 'Courtesy is Contagious' announcements, but no one listens to them.
纽约的大都会运输署(MTA)贴出了“礼貌可以影响他人”(Courtesy is Contagious)的宣传语，但大家对此都无动于衷。
Pregnant women─past and present─have a lot to say on this topic.
提起这个话题，孕妇们──无论是怀过孕的还是正在孕中的──都有一肚子的话要说。
There is no trend. Some say they always get a seat; others that they rarely do.
没有什么趋势可循。一些人说她们总能得到座位，另一些人则表示她们很少能坐下。
Expecting mothers have different strategies.
准妈妈们各有各的办法。
Lindsay Reitzes, who gave birth five months ago, used to take the Q train every day and strip down to her lightest layer. 'I always put on a big show when I got on the subway,' said the 33-year-old Park Slope resident. 'I'd take off my jacket and I'd sit there holding my stomach and kind of leaning against the bar looking very tired and exhausted.'
现年33岁的林赛•雷泽斯(Lindsay Reitzes)家住公园坡(Park Slope)，五个月前刚刚生完孩子，怀孕时她天天乘坐Q线地铁，每次都会放弃自己最后的矜持。她说，“当我上地铁的时候，我总是把动静搞得很大。我会脱下外套，然后用手捧着肚子，依着扶手，看上去非常疲惫、筋疲力尽的样子。”
If no one relented, she would take to shouting out: 'Will someone give up a seat to a very pregnant woman?'
如果没有人动怜悯心，她会大叫道：“有没有人愿意把座位让给一个肚子很大的孕妇啊？”
One white woman said men and women of the same race as her were more inclined to offer their seats. Many pregnant women said fellow women are more gracious in offering their seats, and there is always that woman who very loudly tries to publicly shame someone on their behalf to give up a seat.
一位白人女性说，和她同样肤色的男性和女性更愿意给自己让座。很多孕妇表示，女性同胞在让座方面更慷慨一些，而且往往是那些女性会试图大声地公开羞辱那些不让座的人。
Danielle Guzman, who is due at the end of the month, said unequivocally it was African-American men who offer up their seats during her daily commute to a job at Wall Street. She is white. Still, she only snags a seat about 25% of the time.
现年42岁、家住公园坡的丹妮尔•古斯曼(Danielle Guzman)本月底即将分娩，她明确表示，在她每天乘地铁去华尔街上班的途中，给她让座的是非洲裔美国男性，她本人则是白人。不过她得到座位的概率也只有25%左右。
'I've never had a female ever, of any type, offer me a seat,' said the 42-year-old Park Slope resident. 'I've had women look at me and make eye contact and smile, but then that's it, they go back to whatever they're doing.'
她说，“从来没有女性给我让过座，哪个种族的都一样。曾有女性看着我，用眼神示意微笑，但只是如此而已，然后她们就继续回去做自己的事情了。”
There have been experiments on this kind of thing. Elizabeth Carey Smith, a graphic designer, kept track of the final four months of her pregnancy and documented the results. Out of 108 crowded train rides, she was offered seats 88 times and men and women were about equally willing to offer up a seat. The Greenpoint resident took a number of trains and found she fared the worst on the G and E.
曾有人就这个问题做过实验。平面设计师伊丽莎白•凯莉•史密斯(Elizabeth Carey Smith)在她怀孕的最后四个月里追踪记录下了自己的乘车经历。在她108次乘坐拥挤地铁的经历中，被让座88次，愿意让座的男性和女性比例大致相当。史密斯家住格林波伊恩特(Greenpoint)，要乘坐多趟地铁，她发现自己在G线和E线上的待遇最糟糕。
New Yorkers, the Midwest transplant concluded, are more considerate than rude.
从美国中西部移居纽约的史密斯因此得出结论，能为他人考虑的纽约人要多过没礼貌的纽约人。
I'm still on the fence on whether I think that's true. On Thursday, I rode the train with Ms. Koshy from the Union Turnpike stop in Kew Gardens into Manhattan, about a 30-minute ride. No one offered her a seat when she got on. A woman standing up with her young son frowned.
对此，笔者仍有些怀疑。不久前，我与科希一同从丘园小区的联合大道(Union Turnpike)地铁站，乘坐开往曼哈顿的地铁，全程共30分钟。当她上车时，没有人起来让座。一位带着年幼儿子站在一边的女士皱起了眉头。
'It's very upsetting,' she said. 'I'm from Poland, so it's normal for us to give up a seat….The crowd will sneer if you don't.'
她说，“这太让人不舒服了。我从波兰来，在我们那里，让座是很正常的一件事……如果你不让座，大家会嘲笑你的。”
Ms. Koshy stood in front of a row of six people. Two men were dozing. One older woman looked her up and down and went back to reading her tabloid. It wasn't until one stop before hers that someone got up and another woman motioned for her to take the seat.
科希站在一排六人座前面。有两位男士在打盹儿，一位年长的女性上下打量了她一番，然后继续看手中的小报。直到地铁行至科希的倒数第二站时，才有人站起来，另外一位女士向科希示意要她坐下。
On the transfer to the No. 6 train, again there were no seats. An elderly man looked at her and looked down. A few seconds went by.
换乘六号线时，还是没有座位。一位年长男士上下打量了她一番。几秒钟过去了。
'You want to sit down?' asked Harvey Feuerstein, a dapper attorney who would be getting off at the next stop.
衣冠楚楚的律师哈维•福伊尔施泰因(Harvey Feuerstein)问道，“你要坐这里吗？”他到下一站下车。
'Thank you,' she said, sitting down with relief.
“谢谢，”科希回答道，坐下来松了一口气。
As he got up, a woman younger than him asked if he would like her seat.
当福伊尔施泰因站起身时，一个比他年轻的女士问他想不想坐在她的座位上。
Perhaps the MTA is onto something with that Courtesy is Contagious line after all.
或许大都会运输署这句“礼貌可以影响他人”的宣传语总归还是有些用处的。