If it sounds easy; it isn't.
听上去容易，其实则不然。

The questions begin gently enough: Would you like to be famous? What's your perfect day? Or when did you last sing to yourself?
这些问题的第一部分问的很有礼貌：你想成名吗？你完美的一天是怎么样的？或者你最后一次独自唱歌是什么时候？

But they rapidly become more personal.
但是问题很快变得更加私密。

Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die? And how do you feel about your relationship with your mother?
你有没有想过你会怎么死呢？你觉得你和母亲之间的关系怎么样？

The idea is to foster the atmosphere of mutual vulnerability and intimacy that a romantic relationship thrives on. Albeit by revealing to each other your deepest, darkest thoughts - the sort it usually takes a few months to admit (if ever).
这想法是通过营造相互脆弱感和亲密感，以此让恋爱关系不断发展。即使是通过互相透露出你最深最黑暗的想法，而通常需要花几个月双方才会承认（或永远都不承认）有这样的想法。

The 36 questions were published in a study by psychologist Arthur Aron called The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness.
这36个问题由心理学家亚瑟·艾伦发布在一项名为《人际间亲密度的实验一代》的研究中。

He tested the theory that it's possible to make two people fall in love by getting them to share intimate thoughts and memories. To prove this, he persuaded 52 sets of male and female strangers and 19 sets of female strangers to try it. Two of the participants entered a lab via separate doors, before sitting opposite one another and answering his series of ever-more personal and probing questions.
他测试过这个理论，让两个人通过互相分享亲密的想法和记忆从而坠入爱河的方法是可行的。为了证明这一理论，他说服了52对陌生男女和19对女性陌生人来测试。参加的两个人通过不同的门进入同一实验室，然后面对面坐，回答他一系列越私密和深入的问题。

Six months after the experiment? Two of them got married (and they invited the whole lab to the ceremony).
那在测试的6个月后会怎么样呢？两个人结婚了（而且邀请了整个实验室人员来到婚礼仪式现场）。

Aron's questions, which first appeared in 1997, are experiencing a bounce in popularity following an article in the New York Times by university professor Mandy Len Catron. She tried the experiement with an acquaintance.
艾伦的这36个问题首次出现在1997年，非常火。而之前大学教授曼迪·勒·卡朗在《纽约时报》中发布了相关的文章。她和一个熟悉的朋友做了这个实验。

The result? (Spoiler alert klaxon). They fell in love, of course.
结果呢？（剧透警告）当然他们相爱了。

The last, terrifying, element of Aron's experiment requires the two participants to stare into each other's eyes for four minutes.
艾伦实验最后一个也是最惊心动魄元素需要两位参与者对视4分钟。

Catron describes it thus: "I’ve skied steep slopes and hung from a rock face by a short length of rope, but staring into someone’s eyes for four silent minutes was one of the more thrilling and terrifying experiences of my life".
卡朗这样描述道：我滑下斜坡，被一根短绳悬挂在岩壁上，却要盯着某人双眸沉默四分钟。这是我一生中最激动人心，惊心动魄的经历之一。

Fancy giving it a try?
想要试试吗？

So grab your potential love interest - or any willing particpant (that's half the battle, says Catron, just trying the experiment signals that you're open to falling in love) and get questioning.
所以抓住你潜在的恋爱对象，或任意愿意参加的人（卡朗说，这样就成功一半了，只要尝试这些实验，你就对爱敞开大门了）然后问问题。

You never know what might happen.
你永远不知道会发生什么。