网友吵翻了!这双腿是擦了油还是画了白线?

What started innocuously at the beginning of the week as nothing more than a quirky point-of-view snap of an Instagram user's legs has quickly escalated into an internet sensation on a scale not seen since the hotly contested colour of 'that dress' in 2015 made the world want to tear its eyes out.

2015年那件连衣裙诡异的颜色使得不少人都恨不得把自己眼珠子抠出来，而本周Instagram上一位博主自拍的一张双腿的照片又再现了那时的盛况，很快就在网上造成了轰动。

At issue in the current hullabaloo is whether we initially perceive an unusual slickness to the skin, as if the legs had been oiled, or whether we see merely a few streaks of white paint smudged on her bare outstretched pins.

这次人们吵得不可开交的问题就是“这条腿到底是擦了油，还是仅仅只是在她伸出来的光滑的腿上画了一些白色的线？”

In the 48 hours since the photo of Hunter Culverhouse's legs was re-posted on Wednesday by a mischief-making Twitter user, social media hasn't stopped wringing its hands over what is and isn't visible.

周三的时候，一名恶作剧推特用户将原博主亨特·卡尔弗豪斯的这张腿照再次发到了网上，两天之内社交媒体上的人们都没有缓过来争论这个问题的兴奋劲儿。

Though the deceptively simple optical trick has caught the world by surprise this week, in fact the principle behind it is a very familiar one to many, even if they don't realise it.

尽管这个带有欺骗性的光学小技巧抓住了全世界人们的眼球，但是它背后的原理对于许多人来说并不陌生--即使他们并没有察觉到。

The illusion is a product of our suggestibility as a species – an innate impressionability with which our brains are hardwired.

这种幻觉是人类暗示感应性的产物--这是一种我们大脑中生来就有的固有印象。

Put simply, our minds are desperate to comprehend larger patterns – an evolutionary proclivity that has helped us survive and thrive.

简单地说，要理解更大一些的信息就必须要用我们的大脑来进行处理--这是一种帮助我们生存和繁荣的进化倾向。