2016理工B职称英语WORD版及翻译

此文章是本人整理，教材原文及匹配翻译，

第一篇Inventor of LED

When Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor alloys, his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today, his discovery of light-emitting diodes, or1 LEDs, are used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work, developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.

On April 23, 2004, Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th year that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has given the award to prominent inventors.

“Any time you get an award, big or little2, it’s always a surprise.”Holonyak said.

Holonyak, 75, was a student of John Bardeen, an inventor of the transistor, in the early 1950s. After graduate school3, Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric4, where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches5.

Later, Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking at how to generate invisible light, he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.

Holonyak, now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois, said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace as they are today, but didn’t realize how many uses they would have. “You don’t know in the beginning. You think you’re doing something important, you think it’s worth doing, but you really can’t tell what the big payoff is going to be, and when, and how. You just don’t know.”he said.

The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen, 75, with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for her work on a new generation of “molecular sieves,”that can separate molecules by size. 词汇：semiconductor /

第一篇LED的发明者

当Nick Holonyak着手用半导体含金创造一种新的可视照明设备的时候，同事们都认为他不现实。今天，他发现的发光二极管，或叫LED，使用范围覆盖从DVD到机场警钟的一切东西。他的许多学生继续着他的工作，发明了交通灯中使用的照明设备和其他的日用技术。

2004年4月23号，Holoyak在华盛顿的一次典礼上被授予Lemelson-MIT项目的50万美元的奖金。这是麻省理工的Lemelson-MIT项目第十年颁奖给杰出的发明人。

“任何时候你得了奖，不论是大是小，总是一分惊喜。”Holonyad说。

Holonyak，75岁，是20世纪50年代初期晶体管的发明者JohnBardeen的学生。从研究生院毕业之后，Holonyak在Bell实验室工作。之后去了通用电器公司，在那里他发明了一种开关，现在家用减光开关中普遍使用。

后来，Holonyak开始研究如何应用半导体发电。当他的同事们正在研究如何发出看不见的光时，他却想要看得见的光。1962年他发明的LED，现在的使用寿命可以比白炽灯泡长十倍，而且更环保、更经济。

Holonyak现在是伊利诺斯大学电子、计算机工程和物理专业的教授，他说他预料到LED的使用有可能像今天这样普遍，但没有意识到它会有多少用途。

“开始的时候你并不知道，你认为你在做一件很重要的事情，你认为它值得做，但是你不能说出要付出多大的代价，什么时候付出，怎样付出。你并不知道。”他说。

Lemelson-MIT项目同样授予75岁的EdithFlanigen10万美元的终身成就奖，她的成就是创造新一代的“分子筛”，也就是可以通过大小来分离分子。

第二篇El Nino

While some forecasting methods had limited success predicting the 1997 El Nino a few months in advance1, the Columbia University researchers say their method can predict large El Nino events up to two years in advance. That would be good news for governments, farmers and others seeking to plan for the droughts and heavy rainfall that El Nino can produce in various parts of the world.

Using a computer, the researchers matched sea-surface temperatures to later El Nino occurrences between 1980 and 2000 and were then able to anticipate El Nino events dating back to 1857, using prior sea-surface temperatures. The results were reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

The researchers say their method is not perfect, but Bryan C. Weare, a meteorologist at the University of California. Davis, who was not involved in the work, said it “suggests2 El Nino is indeed predictable.”

“This will probably convince others to search around more for even better methods,”said Weare. He added that the new method “makes it possible to predict El Nino at long lead times3.”Other models also use sea-surface temperatures, but they have not looked as far back because they need other data, which is only available for recent decades, Weare said. The ability to predict the warming and cooling of the Pacific is of immense importance4. The 1997 El Nino, for example, caused an estimated $20 billion in damage worldwide, offset by beneficial effects in other areas, said David Anderson, of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, England. The 1877 El Nino, meanwhile, coincided with a failure of the Indian monsoon and a famine that killed perhaps 40 million in India and China, prompting the development of seasonal forecasting, Anderson said.

When El Nino hit in 1991 and 1997, 200 million people were affected by flooding in China alone, according to a 2002

United Nations report.

While predicting smaller El Nino events remains tricky, the ability to predict larger ones should be increased to at least a year if the new method is confirmed.

El Nino tends to develop between April and June and reaches its peak between December and February. The warming tends to last between 9 and 12 months and occurs every two to seven years.

The new forecasting method does not predict any major El Nino events in the next two years, although a weak warming toward the end of this year is possible.

第二篇厄尔尼诺

当某些预报方法不能提前几个月成功预测1997年厄尔尼诺现象的时候，哥伦比亚大学的研究人员说他们的方法可以提前两年预测厄尔尼诺现象。这对全世界各地的政府、农民和其他寻求为厄尔尼诺带来的干旱和大雨做准备的人来说是一条好消息。

研究人员使用计算机把1980年初2000年之间的海面温度和后来的厄尔尼诺的发生联系起来，进而能够用之前的海面温度预测远至1857年的厄尔尼诺现象。研究结果刊登在昀新的《自然》杂志上。

研究人员说他们的方法并不完美，但加利福尼亚大学的气象学家BryanC.Weare说这种方法显示出厄尔尼诺是可以预测的，尽管他们已并没有参加研究工作。

Weare说:“这会促使其他人去寻找里好的办法。”他还补充说，新的方法“使在提前很长的一段时间里预测厄尔尼诺现象成为可能。”其他的方法也使用海面温度，但他们没能回顾得那么久远是因为缺少其他的资料，而这些资料在近几十年才能够获得。

预测太平洋的升温和降温有极其重要的意义。英国Reading的欧洲中级天气预报中心的DavidAnderson说:以1997年的厄尔尼诺为例，它导致了全球范围内约200亿美元的损失，抵消了在其他一些地区的良性影响；1877年的厄尔尼诺与印度遭受的季风和饥荒同时发生，导致了印度和中国约四千万人丧生，结果剌激了季节性预报的发展。

根据2002年的联合国报道，1991年初和1997年厄尔尼诺爆发的时候，仅中国就有2亿人受到洪水的侵害。

然而小的厄尔尼诺预测还是难以捉摸的，如果新的方法被认可的话，对大型厄尔尼诺现象的预测至少应该被提前一年。

厄尔尼诺总是在4月和6月期间发展，在12月初2月之间达到高峰。气候总是在9月初12月之间变暖，并且每2年到7年出现一次。

尽管气温在年底的时候有可能微弱上升，新的预测方法预计未来两年不会出现大的厄尔尼诺现象。

第三篇Smoking

Since 1939, numerous studies have been conducted to determine whether smoking is a health hazard. The trend of the evidence has been consistent and indicates that there is a serious health risk. Research teams have conducted studies that show beyond all reasonable doubt that tobacco smoking is associated with a shortened life expectancy1.

Cigarette smoking is believed by most research workers in this field to be an important factor in the development of cancer of the lungs and cancer of the throat and is believed to be related to cancer of some other organs of the body. Male cigarette smokers have a higher death rate from heart disease than non-smoking males. Female smokers are thought to be less affected because they do not breathe in the smoke so deeply.

Apart from statistics, it might be helpful to look at what smoking tobacco does to the human body. Smoke is a mixture of gases, vaporized chemicals, minute particles of ash and other solids. There is also nicotine, which is powerful poison, and black tar. As smoke is breathed in, all those components form deposits on the membranes of the lungs. One point of concentration is where the air tube and bronchus divides. Most lung cancer begins at this point.

Filters and low tar tobacco2 are claimed to make smoking to some extent safer, but they can only slightly reduce, not eliminate the hazards.

第三篇抽烟

自1939年以来，人们进行了无数次研究，以确定抽烟是否危害健康，证据的趋向是一致的，显示出抽烟对健康有严重危害。研究组进行的研究确凿无疑地表明抽烟与人的预期寿命的缩短有关。

这个领域的大部分研究人员部认为抽烟是肺癌和喉癌产生的重要原因，并且和人体其他某些器官的癌症有关。抽烟的男性因心脏病而死亡的机率高于不抽烟的男性。女性吸烟者被认为受的影响较小，因为她们不深吸烟。

除了统计之外，看一看吸烟对人体的影响也可能会有帮助。烟是各种气体、蒸发的化学物质、微小的灰和其他固体颗粒的混合物。里面还有很强的毒素尼古丁和黑焦油。当烟被吸入时，所有这些成分形成肺膜上的沉淀物，其集中的一点是气管和支气管分叉的地方。大部分肺癌开始于这一点。

过滤嘴和焦油含量低的烟草被宣称使抽烟在某种程度上安全一些，但是它们只能稍微降低而不是消除危害。第四篇Engineering Ethics

Engineering ethics is attracting increasing interest in engineering universities throughout the nation. At Texas A&M University, evidence of this interest in professional ethics culminated in the creation of a new course in engineering ethics, as well as a project funded by1 the National Science Foundation to develop material for introducing ethical issues into required undergraduate engineering courses. A small group of faculty and administrators actively supported the growing effort at Texas A&M, yet this group must now expand to meet the needs of increasing numbers of students wishing to learn2 more about the value implications of their actions as professional engineers.

The increasing concern for the value dimension3 of engineering is, at least in part, a result of the attention that the media

has given to cases such as the Challenger disaster, the Kansas City Hyatt-Regency Hotel walkways collapse, and the Exxon oil spill. As a response to this concern, a new discipline, engineering ethics, is emerging. This discipline will doubtles4 take its place5 alongside such well-established fields as medical ethics, business ethics, and legal ethics.

The problem presented by this development is that most engineering professors are not prepared to introduce literature in engineering ethics into their classrooms. They are most comfortable with quantitative concepts6 and often do not believe they are qualified to lead class discussions on ethics. Many engineering faculty members do not think that they have the time in an already overcrowded syllabus to introduce discussions on professional ethics, or the time in their own schedules to prepare the necessary material. Hopefully, the resources presented herein will be of assistance.

第四篇工程道德

工程道德在全美的工程类院校里愈来愈受到关注。在得克萨斯州的A&.M大学，随着工程道德这门新课的开设以及由全美科学基金会提供基金，旨在为大学工程类必修课程提供道德问题方面的材料的项目的启动，人们对职业道德的关注达到了顶峰，一个由教师和管理人员组成的小组对得克萨斯州A&.M大学的不懈努力予以了积极的支持，但是由于越来越多的学生希望能够更加了解作为职业工程人员自己的行为的价值含义，为了满足这些需求，目前该小组必须发展壮大。

人们之所以对工程价值尺度愈发关注，至少部分原因是由于媒体对挑战者号灾难、堪萨斯城Hyatt-Regency旅馆通道的坍塌以及Exxon石油泄漏等事件的关注所引起的，为了响应人们的关注，一个新的学科——工程道德应运而生。同医学道德、商业道德和法律道德这些已经确立的学科一样，该学科无疑也将确立起自己的地位。

开发这一新学科所面临的问题是，大部分工程教授不愿意将工程道德方面的资料引进课堂，他们满足于使用以数字表达的概念，不相信自己有资格就工程道德问题在课堂上展开讨论，许多工程类教授认为课程安排紧张，没有时间在课堂上就职业道德问题进行讨论，或者觉得自己没有时间去准备必要的材料。希望这里提供的资料会有所帮助。

第五篇Rescue Platform

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, security experts are trying to develop new ways of rescuing people from burning skyscrapers. One idea is a platform capable of flying vertically and hovering in the air like a helicopter.1 The platform would rise up and down alongside a skyscraper and pick up people trapped in high stories.

The idea for the vertical takeoff platform was hatched more than ten years ago by a Russian aerospace engineer，David Metreveli, who has since2 moved to Israel. Metreveli’s design, called the Eagle, calls for two jet engines that turn four large horizontal propellers. The spinning of the propellers generates the necessary lift, or upward force, to raise the platform. The more power is supplied to the propellers, the higher the platform rises. Moving the platform sideways involves applying differing amounts of power to each propeller.

Helicopters are now used in some cases to get people out of burning buildings. Escape baskets3 slung from them dangle beside the building for people to climb into. Unfortunately, the baskets cannot reach every floor of a building because the ropes from which they hang become unstable beyond a certain length.

So far, Metreveli has built a small-scale model of the Eagle to test his idea. In the wake of4 September 11, he has been able to secure enough funding to start building a larger, 4-meter by 4-meter5 prototype, which he calls the Eaglet.

第五篇救生平台

在世界贸易中心遭到恐怖袭击后，安全专家们正在努力寻找新方法，来从燃烧的摩天大楼上营救人们，其中的想法之一就是构建一个能够垂直升降并像直升机一样在空中盘旋的平台。该平台可沿摩天大楼上下移动，运送高楼受困人员。

十多年前，一名俄罗斯航空航天工程师DavidMetreveli酝酿出垂直起落平台这一想法，随后移居以色列。Metreveli 的设计方案命名为“老鹰”，需用两个喷气发动机来推动四个大型水平方向旋转的螺旋推进器。螺旋推进器快速旋转，生成必要的上升力，使平台升起。供给螺旋推进器的能量越多，平台升得就越高。要使平台侧向移动，则需要给螺旋推进器添加不等的能量。

现在，人们有时还用直升机营救起火大楼中的被困人员，从直升机中抛出的就生篮在大楼旁摇摆，人们可以爬到里面去。不幸的是，由于悬挂救生篮的绳索在超出一定长度后就会非常不稳定，所以救生篮无法到达每一层楼。

目前，Metreveli已经建立起一个小型“老鹰”模型来检测自己的构思。“9?11”事件后，MetreveJi获得了足够的基金，开始构建一个较大规模的模型。该模型大小为4米×4米，他将之命名为“小鹰”。

第六篇Microchip Research Center Created

A research center has been set up in this Far Eastern country to develop advanced microchip production technology. The center, which will start out with about US $14 million, will help the country develop its chip industry without always depending on imported technology.

The center will make use of its research skills and facilities to develop new technology for domestic chip plants. The advent of the center will possibly free the country from the situation that it is always buying almost-outdated technologies from other countries, said the country’s flagship chipmaker.1 Currently, chip plants in this country are in a passive situation because many foreign governments don’t allow them to import the most advanced technologies, fearing they will be used for military purposes. Moreover, the high licensing fees they have to pay to technology providers are also an important

reason for their decision of self-reliance2.

As mainstream chip production technology shifts from one generation to the next every three to five years3, plants with new technology can make more powerful chips at lower costs, while4 plants with outdated equipment, which often cost billions of dollars to build, will be marginalized by the maker.

More than 10 chip plants are being built, each costing millions of US dollars.5 The majority of that money goes to overseas equipment vendors and technology owners —mainly from Japan and Singapore.

Should the new center play a major role in improving the situation in the industry,6 the country admits the US $14 million investment is still rather small. This country is developing comprehensive technologies. Most of the investment will be spent on setting alliances with technology and intellectual property7 owners.

第六篇微芯片研究中心成立

为了开发先进的微芯片生产技术，这个远东国家建立了一个研究中心，该中心启动资金为一千四百万美元，可以帮助该国开发自己的芯片工业，不必总是依赖于进口技术。

该中心将会应用自己的研究技术和设施，为本国芯片厂家开发新技术。这个国家名列首位的芯片制造公司说，芯片中心的成立可能使这个国家摆脱从他国购买即将淘汰的技术的困境。由于许多外国政府担心先进技术会被用于军事目的，不允许这个国家的芯片生产厂家进口前沿技术，所以这些生产厂家处于一种被动局面。另外，由于这些芯片生产厂家必须向技术提供者支付高额的许可费，这也构成了他们决定要自力更生的一个重要原因。

由于主流芯片生产技术每隔3～5年就要进行更新换代，所以掌握了新技术的厂家就可以以较低的成本制造出较好的芯片，而那些耗费数十亿美元建立起的厂家，如果设备落后，也将会被生产商所淘汰。

几个芯片厂正在建立之中，每个厂的造价都在几百万美元，其中大部分资金都流向了海外设备商和技术所有者——主要是日本和新加坡。

如果新建的芯片中心能在改变该国芯片行业的被动形势中起到重要作用，该国承认，一千四百万美元的投资仍是微不足道的。该国正在开发综合技术，大部分投资将用于与技术和知识产权所有者建立联盟。

第七篇Moderate Earthquake Strikes England

A moderate earthquake struck parts of southeast England on 28 April 2007, toppling chimneys from houses and rousing residents from their beds. Several thousand people were left without power1 in Kent County2. One woman suffered minor head and neck injuries.

“It felt as if the whole house was being slid across like a fun-fair ride,3”said the woman.

The British Geological Survey said the 4.3-magnitude quake4 struck at 8:19 a. m. and was centered under the English Channel5, about 8.5 miles south of Dover6 and near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel7.

Witnesses said cracks appeared in walls and chimneys collapsed across the county. Residents said the tremor had lasted for about 10 to 15 seconds.

“I was lying in bed and it felt as if someone had just got up from bed next to me,”said Hendrick van Eck, 27, of Canterbury8 about 60 miles southeast of London. “I then heard the sound of cracking, and it was getting heavier and heavier9. It felt as if someone was at the end of my bed hopping up and down.”

There are thousands of moderate quakes on this scale around the world each year, but they are rare in Britain. The April 28 quake was the strongest in Britain since 2002 when a 4.8-magnitude quake struck the central England city of Birmingham10.

The country’s strongest earthquake took place in the North Sea in 1931, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale11. British Geological Survey scientist Roger Musson said the quake took place on 28 April in an area that had seen several of the biggest earthquakes ever to strike Britain, including one in 1580 that caused damage in London and was felt in France.12 Musson predicted that it was only a matter of time13 before another earthquake struck this part of England. However, people should not be scared too much by this prediction. Musson said, as the modern earthquake warning system of Britain should be able to detect a forthcoming quake and announce it several hours before it takes place. This would allow time for people to evacuate and reduce damage to the minimum..

第七篇中度地震袭击英国

2007年4月28日英格兰东南部地区发生中度地震，一些房屋烟囱倒塌，许多居民半夜从睡梦中惊醒。肯特郡几千人遭遇断电，一名女子头部和颈部受了轻伤。

“我感觉整个房子就像游乐场的滑行机一样在滑动。”该女子说。

英国地质调查局说，本次里氏4.3级的地震发生于上午8点19分，震中在英吉利海峡底部，位于多佛尔以前约8.5英里处的海峡隧道入口附近。

一些目击者看到郡中墙壁现裂缝，并有烟囱倒塌。当地居民说震动大约持续了10～15秒。

“我当时躺在床上，觉得好像旁边有人从床上站起来。”住在伦敦东南部60英里处的27岁的HendrickvanEck说，“然后我听到有东西裂开的声音，而且越来越响。就好像有人在我床尾不停地并着脚跳。”

这种规模的中度地震世界上每年都会发生几千次，但在英国仍非常少见。4月28日的地震是英国自2002年中部城市伯明翰里氏4.8级地震以来昀强的一次。

英国的地震昀高曾达到里氏6.1级，1931年发生在北海。英国地质勘测所的科学家罗杰·马森说，4月28日发生地震的地区曾经遭受过几起英国昀大的地震，其中的一次发生在1580年，那次地震蹂躏了伦敦，并波及法国。马森

预言了英格兰的这个地区早晚还会发生地震，但他说人们不必对此产生太大恐惧，因为英国的现代地震预警系统应该能够侦测即将发生的地震，并在震前数小时内通知大家。这将使人们有时间撤离震区，并把损失降到昀低。

第八篇What Is a Dream?What Is a Dream?

For centuries, people have wondered about the strange things that they dream about. Some psychologists say that this nighttime activity of the mind has no special meaning. Others，however，think that dreams are an important part of our lives. In fact, many experts believe that dreams can tell us about a person’s mind and emotions.

Before modern times, many people thought that dreams contained messages from God. It was only in the twentieth century that people started to study dreams in a scientific way.

The Austrian psychologist, Sigmund Freud1，was probably the first person to study dreams scientifically. In his famous book, The interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud wrote that dreams are an expression of a person’s wishes. He believed that dreams allow people to express the feelings, thoughts, and fears that they are afraid to express in real life.

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung2 was once a student of Freud’s. Jung，however，had a different idea about dreams. Jung believed that the purpose of a dream was to communicate a message to the dreamer. He thought people could learn more about themselves by thinking about their dreams. For example, people who dream about falling may learn that they have too high an opinion of themselves. On the other hand, people who dream about being heroes may learn that they think too little of themselves.

Modern-day psychologists continue to develop theories about dreams. For example, psychologist William Domhoff from the University of California, Santa Cruz，believes that dreams are tightly linked to a person’s daily life, thoughts, and behavior. A criminal, for example, might dream about crime.

Domhoff believes that there is a connection between dreams and age. His research shows that children do not dream as much as adults. According to Domhoff, dreaming is a mental skill that needs time to develop.

He has also found a link between dreams and gender. His studies show that the dreams of men and women are different. For example, the people in men’s dreams are often other men, and the dreams often involve fighting. This is not true of women’s dreams.3 Domhoff found this gender difference in the dreams of people from 11 cultures around the world, including both modern and traditional ones.

Can dreams help us understand ourselves? Psychologists continue to try to answer this question in different ways. However, one thing they agree on this: If you dream that something terrible is going to occur, you shouldn’t panic. The dream may have meaning, but it does not mean that some terrible event will actually take place. It’s important to remember that the world of dreams is not the real world.

第八篇什么是梦？

许多世纪以来，人们都对他们梦到的奇异事情感到疑惑。一些心理学家认为，这种大脑的夜间活动并没有特殊含义。另一些人则认为，梦是生命中重要的一部分。实际上，许多专家认为，梦能揭示人的心理和情感活动。

近代以前，很多人认为梦传递的是上帝的信息。直到20世纪，人们才开始从科学的角度研究梦。奥地利心理学家西格蒙德·弗洛伊德或许是第一个用科学的方法研究梦的人。在他的著作《梦的解析》(1900)中，弗洛伊德写道，梦是一个人愿望的表达。他认为梦打开了一扇窗，让人们得以表达在生活中不敢表达的情感、思想和恐惧。瑞士精神病学家卡尔·荣格曾是弗洛伊德的学生，但他对梦的看法与弗洛伊德不同。他认为，做梦的目的是要给做梦的人传递一种信息。而人们想想自已做的梦，便能对自己有一个更深刻的了解。比如，如果梦到从高处坠落，那么他应该反思自己是不是白视过高。反过来，如果梦中自己成了英雄，应该想想平时可能太看低自己了。

现代心理学家还在继续发展关于梦的理论，来自位于圣克鲁兹的加利福尼亚大学的威廉·多姆霍夫就是其中一位。他认为，梦境和一个人的日常生活、思想和行为都紧密相关，比方说，一个罪犯就可能梦到犯罪。

多姆霍夫还认为，梦和年龄也有关系。他的研究表明，孩子不像成人做梦做的那么多。他认为，做梦也是一项心理机能，也需要随着年龄增长而发展。多姆霍夫还发现梦和性别之间的关系。通过研究，他发现男性和女性的梦境常常是不同的。例如，在男性梦境中出现的通常是其他男性，而且常与打斗有关，而女性的梦境则不是这样。多姆霍夫通过研究包括来自现代文化以及传统文化背景在内的11种不同文化背景的人群梦境中的性别差异得出了上述结论。

梦能帮助我们更好地理解自己吗？心理学家还在尝试通过不同方式来解答这个问题，不过，有一件事他们是意见一致的：如果你梦到有不好的事要发生，不要慌张。梦可能会有意义，但也不意味着你梦到的一些恐怖事情就一定会发生。要记住，梦中的世界并不是真实的世界。

第九篇Dangers Await Babies with Altitude

Women who live in the world’s highest communities tend to give birth to underweight babies, a new study suggests. These babies may grow into adults with a high risk of heart disease and strokes.1

Research has hinted that newborns in mountain communities are lighter than average. But it wasn’t clear whether this is due to reduced oxygen levels at high altitudes or because their mothers are under-nourished —many people who live at high altitudes are relatively poor compared with those living lower down.

To find out more, Dino Giussani and his team at Cambridge University studied the records of 400 births in Bolivia during 1997 and 1998. The babies were born in both rich and poor areas of two cities: La Paz and Santa Cruz. La Paz is the highest city in the world, at 3.65 kilometers above sea level, while Santa Cruz is much lower, at 0.44 kilometers.

Sure enough, Giussani found that the average birthweight of babies in La Paz was significantly lower than in Santa Cruz. This was true in both high and low-income families. Even babies born to poor families in Santa Cruz were heavier on average than babies born to wealthy families in lofty La Paz. “We were very surprised by this result,”says Giussani. The results suggest that babies born at high altitudes are deprived of2 oxygen before birth. “This may trigger the release or suppression of hormones that regulate growth of the unborn child,3”says Giussani.

His team also found that high-altitude babies tended to have relatively larger heads compared with their bodies4. This is probably because a fetus starved of oxygen will send oxygenated blood to the brain in preference to the rest of the body.5 Giussani wants to find out if such babies have a higher risk of disease in later life. People born in La Paz might be prone to heart trouble in adulthood, for example. Low birth weight is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. And newborns with a high ratio of head size to body weight are often predisposed to high blood pressure and strokes in later life.

第九篇高海拔地区的婴儿有危险

一个新的研究表明，住在世界高海拔地区的女人通常生下体重不足的婴儿。这些婴儿在长大成人后得心脏病和中风的风险很大。

研究暗示在山区出生的新生儿低于平均体重。但是还不清楚这是由于在高海拔的地方氧气不足，还是由于他们的母亲没有获得足够的营养——许多住在高海拔地方的人相对都比住在低处的人穷。

为了了解更多的情况，剑侨大学的迪诺·古萨尼和他的团队研究了1997年到1998年玻利维亚的400个新生儿的记录。这些婴儿出生于两个城市的富有和贫困地区：拉巴斯和圣克鲁斯。拉巴斯是世界上昀高的城市，海拔3.65千米，而圣克鲁斯低很多，海拔0.44千米。

当然，吉萨尼发现拉巴斯的新生儿的平均出生体重明显低于圣克鲁斯的新生儿。无论高收入家庭还是低收入家庭都是如此。甚至圣克鲁斯的贫穷家庭的婴儿比拉巴斯的富有家庭的婴儿平均体重还要重。古萨尼说：“我们对这个结果感到吃惊。”

这个结果表明在高海拔出生的婴儿出生前就缺氧了。吉萨尼说：“这可能会触发调节未出生儿成长的荷尔蒙的释放或抑制。”

他的团队还发现高海拔的婴儿通常有相对身体来说较大的头部。这可能是因为一个缺氧的胚胎会首先把充氧的血液输送到脑部，然后才送到身体的其他部位。

古萨尼想要查出这样的婴儿在今后的生活中是不是更容易得病。例如在拉巴斯出生的人在成年之后更可能得心脏病。出生体重低是得冠心病的一个危险因素，头部相对身体较大的新生儿在今后的生活中通常容易得高血压和中风。

*第十篇The Biology of Music

Humans use music as a powerful way to communicate. It may also play an important role in love. But what is music, and how does it work its magic? Science does not yet have all the answers.

What are two things that make humans different from animals? One is language, and the other is music. It is true that some animals can sing (and many birds sing better than a lot of people). However, the songs of animals, such as birds and whales, are very limited. It is also true that humans, not animals, have developed musical instruments. 1 Music is strange stuff. It is clearly different from language. However, people can use music to communicate things —especially their emotions. When music is combined with speech in a song, it is a very powerful form of communication. But, biologically speaking, what is music?

If music is truly different from speech, then we should process music and language in different parts of the brain. The scientific evidence suggests that this is true.

Sometimes people who suffer brain damage lose their ability to process language. However, they don’t automatically lose their musical abilities. For example, Vissarion Shebalin, a Russian composer，had a stroke in 1953. It injured the left side of his brain. He could no longer speak or understand speech. He could, however, still compose music until his death ten years later. On the other hand，sometimes strokes cause people to lose their musical ability, but they can still speak and understand speech. This shows that the brain processes music and language separately.

By studying the physical effects of music on the body，scientists have also learned a lot about how music influences the emotions. But why does music have such a strong effect on us? That is a harder question to answer. Geoffrey Miller, a researcher at University College, London, thinks that music and love have a strong connection. Music requires special talent, practice, and physical ability. That’s why it may be a way of showing your fitness to be someone’s mate. For example, singing in tune or playing a musical instrument requires fine muscular control. You also need a good memory to remember the notes. And playing or singing those notes correctly suggests that your hearing is in excellent condition. Finally, when a man sings to the woman he loves (or vice versa)，it may be a way of showing off.

However, Miller’s theory still doesn’t explain why certain combinations of sounds influence our emotions so deeply. For scientists，this is clearly an area that needs further research.

第十篇音乐生物学

人们把音乐作为一种高效的交流方式，在爱情中它也可能会起到重要的作用。但是音乐是什么？它又是如何起

到神奇的效果？科学界还没有给出答案。哪两项事物使得人类不同于动物？一个是语言，另一个是音乐。当然一些动物会唱歌(并且许多鸟唱得比很多人都好听)，但是，动物的歌声是有限的，比如鸟类和鲸鱼。同样，是人类而不是动物开发出了乐器。

音乐是个奇怪的东西，它与语言有明显的不同。但是，人们能够用音乐去传达——尤其是情感。当音乐与歌曲中的语言结合在一起的时候，它就是一种强有力的表达方式。但是，从生物学来讲，音乐是什么？如果音乐与语言真的不同，那么我们应该在大脑的不同区域内对音乐和语言进行加工处理，科学证据也证实了这一点。

有时，受过脑损伤的人会丧失他们处理语言的能力。但是，他们不会自动地丢失音乐才能。比如，维沙翁·舍巴林，一位苏联作曲家，在1953年得了中风。他的大脑的左半边受到损害，他再也不能说话或是理解别人的话，但是他仍然能够谱曲，直到十年后他离开人世。另一方面，中风有时会使人们丧失音乐能力，但是他们仍然能够说话也能听懂别人的话。这就说明大脑是分别加了处理音乐和语言的。

通过研究音乐在人身体上的物理效应，科学家也了解到许多关于音乐是如何影响情感的。但是，为什么音乐对我们有如此强烈的影响？这是一个更难回答的问题。伦敦大学学院的研究员杰弗里·米勒认为音乐和爱有紧密的关，音乐需要特殊才能、练习和体能。这也许是一种方式让你展示你适合做某人的伴侣。比如，按调唱歌或者弹奏乐器需要有很好的肌肉控制力。你也需要有好的记忆力来记住音符。能正确地演奏或者唱出这些音符也证明你的听力也非常好。所以，当一个男人唱给他心爱的女人时(反之亦然) 音乐就可能成为一种展示的方式。

然而，米勒的理论仍然不能解释为什么声音的特定结合可以深深地影响我们的情感。对于科学家来说，这显然是一个需要深入研究的领域。

第一篇More Than 8 Hours Sleep Too Much of a Good Thing

1 Although the dangers of too little sleep are widely known, new research suggests that people who sleep too much may also suffer the consequences.

2 Investigators at the University of California in San Diego found that people who clock up1 9 or 10 hours each weeknight appear to have more trouble falling and staying asleep, as well as a number of other sleep problems, than people who sleep 8 hours a night. People who slept only 7 hours each night also said they had more trouble falling asleep and feeling refreshed after a night’s sleep than 8-hour sleepers.2

3 These findings, which Dr. Daniel Kripke reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine3, demonstrate that people who want to get a good night’s rest may not need to set aside

4 more than 8 hours a night. He added that “it might be a good idea”for people who sleep more than 8 hours each night to consider reducing the amount of time they spend in bed, but cautioned that more research is needed to confirm this.

4 Previous studies have shown the potential dangers of chronic shortages of sleep —for instance, one report demonstrated that people who habitually sleep less than 7 hours each night have a higher risk of dying within a fixed period than people who sleep more.

5 For the current report, Kripke reviewed the responses of 1,004 adults to sleep questionnaires, in which participants indicated how much they slept during the week and whether they experienced any sleep problems. Sleep problems included waking in the middle of the night, arising early in the morning and being unable to fall back to sleep, and having fatigue interfere with day-to-day functioning5.

6 Kripke found that people who slept between 9 and 10 hours each night were more likely to report experiencing each sleep problem than people who slept 8 hours. In an interview, Kripke noted that long sleepers may struggle to get rest at night simply because they spend too much time in bed. As evidence, he added that one way to help insomnia is to spend less time in bed. “It stands to reasons6 that if a person spends too long a time in bed, then they’ll spend a higher percentage of time awake,”he said.

第一篇每晚只需8个小时，睡眠过多非益事

睡眠不足带来的危害已经广为人知，而一项新的研究表明睡眠过多同样会产生不良后果。

圣地亚哥加利福尼亚大学的研究人员发现在入睡、保持睡眠等方面，每晚睡9或10小时的人比睡8小时的人存在更多问题。与8小时睡眠者相比，每晚仅睡7个小时的人则表示，他们在入睡及经过一夜睡眠后精力恢复方面有更多的麻烦。

DanielKripke愽士在《心身医学》杂志上报告的这些新发现表明，人们如果想晚上休息好，每天留给睡眠的时间只需8个小时。他补充说，对于那些每晚睡8个小时以上的人们来说，考虑减少在床上度过的时间“也许是个好主意”。不过他又提醒说这还需要进一步的研究证实。以往的研究证明了长期睡眠缺乏的潜在危机。有报告显示，睡眠经常少于7小时的人比睡眠充足者，在特定时期内死亡的机率更高。

而在目前这份报告中，Kripke考评了一份1004名成年人参与反馈的睡眠调查问卷。问卷内容涉及每周睡眠时间和各种可能的睡眠问题，包括半夜惊醒、清晨早醒、无法重新入睡，以及白天疲劳影响日常工作等。

Kripke发现每晚睡9～10小时的人比睡8个小时的人更容易出现各类睡眠问题。在一次访谈中，Kripke注意到睡眠时间长的人夜间可能难以入眠，正是因为他们睡得太多了。因此他补充说，治疗失眠昀好的一种方法就是少睡点儿。“在床上花的时间过长，醒着的时间就会更多，这是理所当然的。”

第二篇Soot and Snow: a Hot Combination

1 New research from NASA scientists suggests emissions of black soot alter the way sunlight reflects off snow. According to

a computer simulation, black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century.

2 Soot in the higher latitudes of the Earth, where ice is more common, absorbs more of the sun’s energy and warmth than an icy, white background. Dark-colored black carbon, or soot, absorbs sunlight, while lighter colored ice reflects sunlight.

3 Soot in areas with snow and ice may play an important role in climate change. Also, if snow and ice covered areas begin

melting, the warming effect increases, as the soot becomes more concentrated on the snow surface. “This provides a positive feedback, as glaciers and ice sheets melt, they tend to get even dirtier,”said Dr. James Hansen, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York.

4 Hansen found soot’s effect on snow albedo (solar energy reflected back to space), which1 may be contributing to trends toward early springs in the Northern Hemisphere, such as thinning Arctic sea ice, melting glaciers and permafrost. Soot also is believed to play a role in changes in the atmosphere above the oceans and land.

5 “Black carbon reduces the amount of energy reflected by snow back into space, thus heating the snow surface more than if there were no black carbon2,”Hansen said. Soot’s increased absorption of solar energy is especially effective in warming the world’s climate. “This forcing is unusually effective, causing twice as much global warming as a carbon-dioxide forcing of the same magnitude,”Hansen noted.

6 Hansen cautioned, although the role of soot in altering global climate is substantial, it does not alter the fact that greenhouse gases are the primary cause of climate warming during the past century.3 Such gases are expected to be the largest climate forcing for the rest4 of this century.

7 The researchers found that observed warming in the Northern Hemisphere was large in the winter and spring at middle and high latitudes. These observations were consistent with the researchers’climate model simulations, which showed some of the largest warming effects occurred when there were heavy snow cover5 and sufficient sunlight.

第二篇煤灰与白雪：“火热”的组合

美国国家航空和航天局的科学家的一项新调查显示，黑色煤烟的排放改变了冰雪对阳光的反射。依据电脑模拟，上世纪观测到的全球变暖有25%是黑煤灰引起的。

地球高纬地区冰雪覆盖，那里的煤灰比白色的冰面吸收了更多的太阳热能。因为深黑色的炭或煤灰吸收太阳光，而浅色的冰面则反射阳光。

冰雪地区的煤灰对气候变化可能起着至关重要的作用。而且一旦覆盖大地的冰雪开始融化，煤灰就会更加固着于冰面，从而加剧温室效应。“冰山、冰块一融化，就会变得更脏”。JamesHansen博士，一位来自纽约美国国家航空和航天局的Goddard太空研究所的研究人员如此说。

Hansen发现，煤灰对冰雪反射率的影响，可能正是促使北半球春季提早的原因，引起北冰洋冰层变薄，冰山及冻土雪原融化。相信煤灰对海洋和陆地上空大气层的变化也有一定影响。

“黑炭减少了冰雪反射回太空的能量，比没有炭灰的条件下更强烈地加热冰面。”Hansen说。煤灰对太阳热能的大量吸收是全球气候变暖的重要因素。Hansen指出，“这种温室作用特别显著，是同量二氧化碳强度的两倍。”

Hansen又提醒说，尽管煤灰对全球气候变化的作用重大，但这并不能改变一个事实：温室气体是上世纪气候变暖的首要原因，而且它们还将是塑造本世纪气候的主力。

研究人员发现北半球观测到的变暖现象大多发生在中高纬地区的冬春两季。这样的观测结果与气象模拟实验相吻合，表明部分大规模的温室效应发生在有厚雪覆盖层和强烈阳光的时期。

第三篇Icy Microbes

1 In ice that has sealed a salty Antarctic lake for more than 2,800 years, scientists have found frozen bacteria and algae that returned to life after thawing. The research may help in the search for life on Mars, which is thought to have subsurface lakes of ice.

2 A research team led by Peter Doran of the University of Illinois at Chicago drilled through more than 39 feet of ice to collect samples of bacteria and algae. When Doran’s team brought them back and warmed them up a bit, they sprang back to life.

3 Doran said the microbes have been age-dated at 2,800 years old, but even older microbes may live deeper in the ice sheet sealing the lake, and in the briny water below the ice.1 That deeper ice and the water itself will be cautiously sampled in a later expedition that will test techniques that may one day be used on Mars.

4 Called Lake Vida , the 4.5-square-kilometer body is one of a series of lakes located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, some 2,200 kilometers due south2 of New Zealand. This lake has been known since the 1950s, but people ignored it because they thought it was just a big block of ice. While at the site for other research in the 1990s, Doran and his colleagues sent3 radar signals into the clear ice covering the lake and were surprised to find that 62 feet below there was a pool of liquid water that was about seven times more salty than seawater.

5 That prompted the researchers to return in 199

6 with equipment to drill a hole down to within a few feet of the water layer. At the bottom of this hole, researchers harvested specimens of algae and bacteria.

6 The researchers will return in 2004 equipped with instruments that are sterilized. They will then drill through the full 62 feet of ice and sample some of the briny water from the lake for analysis. The water specimen will be cultured to see if it contains life. Specimens from the water are expected to be even older than the life forms extracted from the ice covering.

第三篇冰冻微生物

在一个南极咸水湖封冻了2800多年的冰块中，科学家发现，冰冻的微生物和水藻在解冻后又复活了。该研究成果可能会有助于寻找火星上的生命，人们认为火星的地表下面有冰湖。

由芝加哥的伊利诺伊大学的PeterDoran率领的考察队在南极冰块上钻洞深达39英尺，采集了微生物和水藻的样本。Doran的考察队将其带回并给其温暖环境，这些样本竟又复活了。

Doran说，这些微生物有2800年的高龄，但是或许还有更老的微生物生存在封湖冰块的更深层和冰块下面的咸水中。在以后的深险中，还会谨慎地对更深的冰层和水提取样本，对将来或许会用于火星的技术进行检测。

这个湖名叫Vida湖，面积为4.5平方公里，是南极洲上位于McMurd干谷的湖群中的一个，位于新西兰正南约2200千米处。该湖在20世纪50年代已为人知，但过去人们认为这只不过是一个巨大的冰块，所以不曾引起足够的重视。但是在20世纪90年代，在进行其他考察的地方，Doran和同事们往覆盖湖面的清澈的冰层中发出雷达信号，惊奇地发现在62英尺深处居然有一个水潭，这里的水其咸度大约是海水的7倍。

于是，1996年，考察人员带着设备再次来到南极。钻出一个深及水层数英尺的洞。在洞底，考察人员采集到了水藻和微生物的样本。

2004年，考察人员将携带经过杀菌的仪器再次回到南极。他们将在62英尺的冰层上钻洞，对从湖中提取咸水的样本进行分析。水的样本将会受到培育，看其是否含有生命。据预测，水中提取样本的历史甚至会比冰层中提取的生命形式的历史还要长。

第四篇Compact Disks

1 If someone says to you your music CDs don’t really hold any music on them, and they only have numbers recorded on them, you may not believe it. In fact, he is right in that sound is actually recorded onto the CDs as special numbers —a digital code.1 The code is pressed onto the CD as bumps on a long spiral track almost five kilometers

long. These bumps are an average of 0.5 microns wide.

2 A small laser beam shines onto the bumps as the CD turns. The light is reflected back to a receiver that records how the laser light bounces back. This lets the CD player2 turn the reflected light back into the original code. This means you can hear the original code as music.

3 Digital codes are used with many technologies. E-mail needs these kinds of code numbers. Space probes communicate with their ground station on earth using digital codes. Bar codes are read as digital codes in computer systems. Digital communications with cell phones need digital codes. Weather radios also tune in to specific signals using these codes.

4 There are many types of compact disk. One format is called CD-RWs. They can be recorded on and re-recorded on (rewritten on) as you would do with a floppy disk3. Another format is the CD-ROM. The technology for recording on these disks is different from other CDs. These CDs have a dye layer that the CD writer can darken or leave clear. The clear and dark spots are the digital code. CD-ROM stands for Compact Disc —Read Only

Memory.4 This disk is like a “super”floppy disk that can hold lots of information. One CD-ROM can hold the same amount of data as 500 floppy disks. Information is permanently recorded onto it. Computer games and other programs are considered to be CD-ROMs.

5 CDs were first sold to the public in 1982. These CDs still play well and sound fine. Current CDs are expected to last between 70 to 200 years. Of course, you can make sure your CDs last a long time by taking care of them.

6 Science keeps on developing. It may not be many more years before a completely new technology is invented5 and introduced to the public for music recording. In the meantime, there is no doubt you will continue to enjoy listening to your favorite music on CDs6 and playing your favorite computer games on CD-ROMs.

第四篇光盘

如果有人告诉你，你的光盘上实际并没有音乐，有的只是一些录下来的数字，你也许不会相信。但实际上，他说得对，因为其实声音是以特殊的数字形式，即数码，刻录在光盘碟片上。这些数码被强行刻在光盘上，就像一条5公里长的曲折道路上有一些凸起一样。这些凸起平均0.5微米宽。

当光盘转动时，一束极小的激光射到这些凸起上，光束被反射到接受器上——该接受器是用来记录了激光是如何弹回来的。这样一来，光盘阅读者器就能把反射来的光变成昀初的数码。这也就意味着这些昀初的数码传到你那里，就成为了你听到的音乐。

数码可用于许多技术。电子邮件依赖这些编码，空间探测器在与地面站联络时也要用到数码。计算机系统可以将条形码读为数码。使用手机进行的数码交流也需要数码。使用这些编码，无线电天气预报设备也可以接受具体的信号。

光盘有许多种。有一种叫做CD-RW，是一种可反复重刻（重写)的光盘，其使用原理跟软盘一样。另一种是CD-ROM，用这种光盘存储数据的技术跟其他的光盘不同。这种光盘有一种染色层，光盘刻录机可以将其涂黑或者留一些空白，这些黑点和空白点就是数码。这里CD-ROM就是读存储光盘的简称。这种存储盘就如同可容纳海量信息的超级软盘，一张CD-ROM可以容纳相当于500张软盘存储的信息，而且上面的信息可以永久保存。电脑游戏和其他程序也可视为CD-ROM。

人们第一次从市面上购买到光盘是在1982年，到现在为止这些光盘仍在使用中并且据说效果都还不错。目前人们使用的光盘据说寿命可达70～200年不等。当然，有一点你可以肯定的是，只要你足够爱惜，你的光盘还可以用得更久。

科学是处在不断发展中的，或许用不了很多年，一种全新的音乐存储形式会为公众所熟识。与此同时，毫无疑问，你将能继续用光盘欣赏你昀喜欢的音乐，并且能继续用CD-ROM玩你昀喜欢的电脑游戏。

第五篇LED Lighting

1 An accidental discovery announced recently has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison’s bright invention1 obsolete. LEDs are already used in traffic lights, flashlights, and architectural lighting. They are flexible and operate less expensively than traditional lighting.

2 Michael Bowers, a graduate student2 at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which

are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons3. They’re easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bower’s particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms.

3 When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened. He was surprised when a white glow covered the table. The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light4, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow.

4 Then Bowers and another student got the idea to stir the dots into polyurethane and coat a blue LED light bulb with the mix. The lumpy bulb wasn’t pretty, but it produced white light similar to a regular light bulb.

5 LEDs produce twice as much light as a regular 60 watt bulb and burn for over 50.000 hours. The Department

of Energy estimates LED lighting could reduce U. S. energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent by 2025. LEDs don’t emit heat, so they’re also more energy efficient. And they’re much harder to break.

6 Quantum dot mixtures could be painted on just about anything5 and electrically excited to produce a rainbow of colors t including white. The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.

第五篇发光二极管

日前公布的一项意外发现将发光二极管的研究推向新的高潮。这项研究显示，发光二极管与传统的电灯泡比起来，可能会更廉价、使用更持久。这项重大突破使人们看到，未来的趋势很可能是，爱迪生的发明将逐渐失去它的价值。目前发光二极管已被用于交通信号灯、手电筒和建筑照明，他们跟传统的电灯比起来更灵活，操作成本更低廉。

Vanderbilt大学的一名研究生MichaelBowers正试图制造出一种非常小的量子点。这些量子点基本上都是晶体，且只有几毫微米大小，里面包含100～1000个不等的光子。这些光子就是很容易激活的能量束，并且他们体积越小，能量越可能达到昀强烈的程度。这些能量束中的每一个光点都异常小，只包括33或34对的原子。

当我们把光照射到量子点上或者给它们通上电，它们会有所反应，即发出自己的光，通常是一种耀眼的、振动的色彩。但当Bowers把激光照在量子点上的时候，意想不到的事情发生了。当一种白色的光束照在桌子上时他惊呆了——这些量子点本应该发出蓝光的，但是相反的，他们发出的是美丽的白色光。

Bowers和另一个学生就此有了另一个想法，他们把聚亚安酯掺在这些量子点中，将混合物涂在一个蓝色的发光二极管灯泡上，这个看上去不怎么好看的灯泡发出了一种白色的光，跟我们普通用的灯泡极为相似。

发光二极管发出的光是普通60瓦灯泡的两倍、且可以持续使用达5万小时。据能源部估计，至2025年，使用发光二极管照明会为美国节约29%的能源。另外，发光二极管不会散热，这也有助于能源节约。与此同时。与传统灯泡比起来发光二极管更不易碎。

量子点混合物可以涂在任何事物的表层，通电后会产生一道道色彩，其中包括白色。我们未来的光源很可能不再是灯泡，相反地，它可以是任何东西，比如一张餐桌，一道墙，甚至是一支餐叉。

第六篇How We Form First Impression

1 We all have first impression of someone we just met. But why? Why do we form an opinion about someone without really knowing anything about him or her —aside perhaps from a few remarks or readily observable traits.

2 The answer is related to how your brain allows you to be aware of the world. Your brain is so sensitive in picking up facial traits, even very minor difference in how a person’s eyes, ears, nose, or mouth are placed in relation to each other makes you see him or her as different1. In fact, your brain continuously processes incoming sensory information —the sights and sounds of your world. These incoming “signals”are compared against2 a host of “memories”stored in the brain areas called the cortex system to determine what these new signals “mean.”

3 If you see someone you know and like at school3, your brain says “familiar and safe.”If you see someone new, it says, “new —potentially threatening.”Then your brain starts to match features of this stranger with other “known”memories. The height, weight, dress, ethnicity, gestures, and tone of voice are all matched up. The more unfamiliar the characteristics, the more your brain may say. “This is new. I don’t like this person.”Or else, “I’m intrigued.”Or your brain may perceive a new face but familiar clothes, ethnicity, gestures —like your other friends; so your brain says: “I like this person.”But these preliminary “impressions”can be dead wrong4.

4 When we stereotype people, we use a less mature form of thinking (not unlike the immature thinking of a very young child) that makes simplistic and categorical impressions of others. Rather than learn about the depth and breadth of people —their history, interest, values, strengths, and true character —we categorize them as jocks , geeks , or freaks.

5 However, if we resist initial stereotypical impressions, we have a chance to be aware of what a person is truly like. If we spend time with a person, hear about his or her life, hopes, dreams, and become aware of the person’s character, we use a different, more mature style of thinking —and the most complex areas of our cortex, which allow us to be humane.

第六篇对别人的第一印象是怎样形成的

对刚刚遇到的人我们都会留下第一印象，为什么？为什么我们会对一无所知的人形成自己的印象——除去一些描述或显而易见的特征？

这与你的大脑如何感知世界是息息相关的。大脑对面部特征十分敏感，即使是每个人在眼睛、耳朵或嘴部的细小差异也会使大脑察觉到其不同之处。实际上，大脑一直在不断地对接收到的感官信息进行处理——包括影像和声音。大脑将这些“信号”与储存在脑皮层系统的大量“记忆”相比较以便确定这些新收到的信号的“意思”。

如果你在学校看到某个你认识而且喜欢的人，你的大脑会做出“熟悉安全”的判断；如果你看见了一个陌生的

人，你的大脑会告诉你“陌生，有潜在的威胁”，紧接着你的大脑会开始将这个陌生人的特征与“已知”的记忆进行比较，包指身高、体重、穿着、种族、手势以及音调等等。特征越不相符，大脑越会告诫你，“这是陌生人，我不喜欢这个人”，或“我很好奇”。大脑也可能观察到一张新面孔，但却有着熟悉的穿着、种族特征和手势——像你的朋友，这时大脑会告诉你“我喜欢这个人”。但这些第一印象却可能是完全错误的。

当区分人时，我们使用一种欠成熟的思维方式（与小孩子不成熟的想法一样）去对别人做出简单并且范畴化的判断。（这佯的后果是）我们将人区分为骗子、反常的人或怪人，而不是对人的深度和广度，即历史、兴趣、价值、力量或真正的性格有所了解。

但是，如果对模式化的第一印象加以抑制，我们就会有机会对一个人有真正的了解。如果我们花一些时间与一个人在一起，倾听他或她的生活、希望和梦想，了解了这个人的性格，我们才会用一种不同的、更成熟的方式去思考——即用脑皮层中昀复杂的区域进行思考，而这会使我们更富有人情味。

第七篇Screen Test

1 Every year millions of women are screened with X-rays to pick up signs of breast cancer. If this happens early eough, the disease can often be treated successfully. According to a survey published last year, 21 countries have screening programmes. Nine of them, including Australia, Canada, the US and Spain, screen women under 50.

2 But the medical benefit of screening these younger women are controversial, partly because the radiation brings a small risk of inducing cancer. Also, younger women must be given higher doses of X-rays because their breast tissue is denser.

3 Researchers at the Polytechnic University1 of Valencia analysed the effect of screening more than 160,000 women at 11 local clinics. After estimating the women’s cumulative dose of radiation, they used two models to calculate the number of extra cancers this would cause.

4 The mathematical model recommended by Britain’s National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) predicted that the screening programme would cause 36 cancers per 100,000 women, 18 of them fatal. The model preferred by the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation led, to a lower figure of 20 cancers.

5 The researchers argue that the level of radiation-induced cancers is “not very significant”compared to the far larger number of cancers that are discovered and treated. The Valencia programme, they say, detects between 300 and 450 cases of breast cancer in every 100,000 women screened.

6 But they point out that the risk of women contracting cancer from radiation could be reduced by between 40 and 80 percent if screening began at 50 instead of 45, because they would be exposed to less radiation. The results of their study, they suggest, could help “optimise the technique”for breast cancer screening.

7 “There is a trade-off between the diagnostic benefits of breast screening and its risks.”admits Michael Clark of the NRPB. But he warns that the study should be interpreted with caution. “On the basis of the current data, for every 10 cancers successfully detected and prevented there is a risk of causing one later in life. That’s why radiation exposure should be minimised in any screening programme.”

第七篇透视检查

每年上百万的女人都做X射线透视，检查是否有乳腺癌迹象。如果检查得足够早，疾病就可以被成功地治疗。根据去年公布的一项调查，21个国家有透视计划。其中9个国家，包括澳大利亚、加拿大、美国和西班牙为50岁以下女性进行透视.

但是用X射线检查年轻女人，就医学上的好处而论，是有争议的，部分原因是辐射有诱发癌症的小小的危险。另外，年轻女人乳房组织紧密，给予的X射线的剂量要多一些。

Valencia理工大学的研究人员分析了11个社区诊所用X射线检查16万以上女人的结果。估测了女性的辐射累积剂量之后，他们用两种模型计算这可能导致的额外的癌症数量。

英国国家辐射保护委员会推荐的数学模型预言X射线计划会导致每10万个女人中的36个患上癌症，18人致死。联合国原子辐射影响科学委员会首选的模型得出了一个较低的数字——20人患癌症。

研究人员争辩说，与发现后接受治疗的癌症数字相比，由辐射诱发癌症的数字是很小的。他们说，Valencia项目在每10万位接受远视的妇女中发现300～150个乳腺癌病例。

但是他们指出如果X射线检查在50岁耐不是45岁时开始，会使妇女由于辐射而患癌症的危险减少40%～80%，因为她们可以接受更少的辐射。他们暗示说他们研究的结果有助于使乳腺癌透视的技术更加乐观。

英国国家辐射保护委员会的MichaelClark承认，“在胸透的诊断益处和危险之间有一个平衡”。但是他警告说，应该谨慎地解释此项研究。“基于目前的数据，每成功地发现10例癌症就有可能导致今后出现一例癌症。这就是在所有的透视计划中，接受辐射应该减少到昀小的原因。”

第八篇The Mir Space Station

1 The Russian Mir Space Station, which came down in 2001 at last after 15 years of pioneering the concept of long-term human space flight, is remembered for its accomplishments in the human space flight history. It can be credited with many firsts in space.

2 During Mir’s lifetime, Russia spent about US $4.2 billion to build and maintain the station.

3 The Soviet Union launched Mir, which was designed to last from three to five years, on February 20, 1986, and housed 10

4 astronauts over 12 years and seven months, most of whom were not Russian. In fact, it became the first international space station by playing host to1 62 people from 11 countries. From 199

5 through 1998, seven astronauts from the United States took turns living on Mir for up to six months each2. They were among the 37 Americans who visited the station during nine stopovers by space shuttles.

4 The more than 400 million the United States provided Russian for the visits not only kept Mir operating, but also gave the

Americans and their partners in the international station project valuable experience in long-term flight and multinational operations.

5 A debate continues over Mir’s contributions to science. During its existence, Mir was the laboratory for 23,000 experiments and earned scientific equipment, estimated to be worth $80 million, from many nations.3 Experiments on Mir arc credited with a range of findings, from the first solid measurement of the ration of heavy helium atoms in space to how to grow wheat in space. But for those favouring human space exploration, Mir showed that people could live and work in space long enough for a trip to Mars. The longest single stay in space is the 437.7 days that Russian astronaut Valery Polyakov spent on Mir from 1994 to 1995. And Sergie Avdeyev accumulated

747.6 days in space in three trips to the space station. The longest American stay was that of Shannon Lucid4, who spent 188 days aboard Mir in 1996.

6 Despite the many firsts Mir accomplished, 199

7 was a bad year out of 15 for Mir, In 1997, an oxygen generator caught fire. Later, the main computer system broke down, causing the station to drift several times and there were power failures.

7 Most of these problems were repaired, with American help and suppliers, but Mir’s reputation as a space station was ruined.

8 Mir’s setbacks arc nothing, though5, when we compare them with its accomplishments. Mir was a tremendous success, which will be remembered as a milestone in space exploration and the space station that showed long-term human habitation in space was possible. But it’s time to move on to the next generation. The International Space Station being built will be better, but it owes a great debt to Mir.

第八篇和平号空间站

在人类长期空间飞行方面领先了15年的俄国和平号空间站在2001年回归。它因其在人类空间飞行史上的成就而被人们记住。它在太空领域占有很多第一次。在和平号使用期间俄国花了大约42亿美元建造和维护空间站。

1986年2月20日苏联发射了被设计能使用3～5年的和平号。它在12年零7个月里负载了104位宇航员，他们大部分都不是俄国人。事实上，它作为来自11个国家62个宇航员的东道主成为第一个国际空间站。从1995年到1998年，来自美国的7位宇航员轮流在和平号上各住了6个月之久。他们是在宇宙飞船中途停留时来参观过的37位美国人中的几个。

美国为参观而支付的4亿多美元不仅使和平号继续工作而且给在国际空间站项目中的美国人和他们的搭档们提供了宝贵的长期飞行和多国合作方面的经验。

关于和平号空间站对科学的贡献方面的争论不断。在和平号存在的时间里，它是23000个实验的实验室，并且携带了许多国家提供的价值约八千万美元的科学仪器。一系列的发现要归功于和平号上的实验，从第一次在太空有效地测量重氦原子的量到怎样在太空种小麦。对那些对人类的太空探索有兴趣的人来说，和平号告诉人们人可以在太空工作和生活的时间足够到达火星。在太空中一次停留昀长的时间是俄国宇航员瓦雷利·波里亚科夫从1994年到1995年在和平号上停留的437.7天。吉·阿维德耶夫三次到太空站共计停留了747.6天。美国人在空间站停留昀长的一次是珊农·露西的那一次，她1996年在和平号上停留了188天。

尽管和平号完成了很多第一次，但1997年是它15年中的一个坏年头。1997年一个氧气发生器着火了。

后来主计算机崩溃导致太空始几次失控。除此之外还有一些动力失败事故。这些问题中的大部分都在美国的帮助和支持下被解决了，但是和平号作为太空站名声扫地。但是，和它的成就相比和平号这些挫折算不了什么。和平号是一个巨大的成功，它将作为太空探索中的里程碑和显示人类有可能在太空长期生活的太空站而被记住。但是到了开始下一代的时候了。正在建造的太空站将更好，但这要归功于和平号。

第九篇More Rural Research Is Needed

1 Agricultural research funding is vital if the world is to feed itself better than it does now. Dr. Tony Fischer, crop scientist, said demand was growing at 2.5% per year, but with modern technologies and the development of new ones, the world should be able to stay ahead1.

2 “The global decline in investment in international agricultural research must be reversed if significant progress is to be made towards reducing malnutrition and poverty,”he said.

3 Research is needed to solve food production, land degradation2 and environmental problems. Secure local food supplies3 led to economic growth which, in turn, slowed population growth. Dr. Fischer painted a picture of the world’s ability to feed itself in the first 25 years, when the world’s population is expected to rise from 5.8 to 8 billion people. He said that things will probably hold or improve

4 but there’ll still be a lot of hungry people. The biggest concentration of poor and hungry people would be in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia in 2020, similar to the current pattern. If there is any change, a slight improvement will be seen in southern Asia, but not in sub-Saharan Africa. The major improvement will be in east Asia, South America and South-East Asia.

4 The developing world was investing about 0.5%, or $8 billion a year, of its agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) on

5 research, and the developed world was spending 2.5% of its GDP. Dr. Fischer said more was needed from all countries.

5 He said crop research could produce technologies that spread across many countries, such as wheat production research having spin-offs for Mexico, China or India6.

6 “Technologies still need to be refined for the local conditions but a lot of the strategic research can have global application, so that money can be used very efficiently,”Dr. Fischer said.

7 Yields of rice, wheat and maize have grown impressively in the past 30 years, especially in developing countries. For example, maize production rose from 2-8 tonnes per hectare between 1950 and 1995. But technologies driving this growth, such as high-yield varieties, fertilizers, and irrigation, were becoming exhausted. “If you want to save the land for

non-agricultural activities, for forests and wildlife, you’re going to have to increase yield,”Dr. Fischer said.

第九篇需要进行更多的农业研究

如果世界人民想比现在吃得更好，农业研究资金的投入至关重要。农业科学家托尼·费舍说过需求每年增长2.5%，但由于有了现代技术和新技术的开发，世界应该能够不断前进。他说：“要想在减少营养不良和贫困方面取得巨大的进步，就必须扭转全球对国际农业研究投入下滑的趋势。”

解决粮食生产、土地贫瘠化和环境污染问题，必须进行研究。稳定的当地粮食供应可以促进经济地长，放慢人口地长速度。费舍博士描绘说，世界有能力在人口由58亿增加到80亿的头25年实现粮食供应充足。情况很可能保持现状或有所改善，但仍会有大批人口处于饥饿当中。2020年贫穷和饥饿人口昀大集中地为撒哈拉以南的非洲部分和南亚，这与目前情况类似。如果有什么变化的话，也只是在南亚有稍微的改善，而不是在撒哈拉以南的非洲。主要改善地区将是东亚、南美和东南亚。

发展中国家每年将农业国内生产总值的大约0.5%（80亿美元）用于研究，发达国家则用2.5%的国内生产总值进行研究。费舍博士说所有国家都需要更多的资金。他说粮食研究会开发出新技术，这些新技术又会传播到许多国家，例如小麦生产研究的成果已经在墨西哥、

中国或印度得到应用。他说：“技术仍需因地制宜进行改进，但许多战略性研究可以在全球应用，所以可以非常有效地利用财力。”在过去30年中，大米、小麦和玉米的产能大幅度地增长，尤其是在发展中国家，例如，1950年到1995年，玉米产量由每公顷2吨均加到每公顷8吨。但是，推动高产的技术，比如高产新品种、化肥以及灌溉，正在消耗殆尽。费舍博士说：“如果你想腾出土地做非农业用途，保护森林和野生动物，就必须提高单位面积产量。”第十篇Washoe Learned American Sign Language

1 An animal that influenced scientific thought has died. A chimpanzee named Washoe and born in Africa died of natural causes late last month at the age of 4

2 at a research center in the American state of Washington. Washoe had become known in the scientific community１and around the world for her ability to use American Sign Language. She was said to be the first non-human to learn a human language. Her skills also led to debate

3 about primates and their ability to understand language.

2 Research scientists Allen and Beatrix Gardner began teaching Washoe sign language in 1966. In 1969, the Gardners7 described Washoe’s progress in a scientific report. The people who experimented with Washoe said she grew to understand4 about 250 words. For example, Washoe made signs to communicate when it was time to eat. She could request foods like apples and bananas. She also asked questions like, “Who is coming to play?”Once5 the news about Washoe spread, many language scientists began studies of their own6 into this new and exciting area of research. The whole direction of primate research changed.

3 However, critics argued Washoe only learned to repeat sign language movements from watching her teachers. They said she had never developed true language skills. Even now, there are some researchers who suggest that primates learn sign language only by memory, and perform the signs only for prizes. Yet Washoe’s keepers disagree. Roger Fouts is a former student of the Gardners7. He took Washoe to a research center in Ellensburg, Washington. There, Washoe taught sign language to three younger chimpanzees, which are still alive.

4 Scientists like private researcher Jane Goodall believes Washoe provided new information about the mental workings of chimpanzees8. Today, there are not as many scientists studying language skills with chimps. Part of the reason is that this kind of research takes a very long time.

5 Debate continues about chimps’understanding of human communication. Yet, one thing is sure —Washoe changed popular ideas about the possibilities of animal intelligence.

第十篇Washoe学会了美国手语

一个影响科学思维的动物已经死亡了。一个出生在非洲名为Washoe的黑猩猩上个月底在美国华盛顿州的一个研究中心，自然死亡，42岁的高龄。Washoe在科学界和世界各地众所周知，她能够使用美国手语。她是第一个了解人类语言的非人类。她的技能也导致有关灵长类动物和他们所能理解的语言的争议。

科学家Allen和BeatrixGardner于1966年开始教Washoe手语。1969年，Gardner在科学的报告中描述了Washoe的进步。对Washoe做实验的人说Washoe逐渐掌握了约250个单词。例如，Washoe能用手语表达“该吃饭了!”。她能要苹果和香蕉这样的食品。她也问诸如“谁要来玩?”之类的问题。Washoe能用手语的消息一散开，许多语言学家开始在他们自己这一令人振奋的新研究领域展开研究。灵长类动物的整个研究方向改变了。

然而，批评者认为Washoe只学会了看她的教师的手语重复动作。他们说Washoe从来没有发展真正的语言技能。即使是现在，也有一些研究表明灵长类学习手语只是机械重复、死记硬背、物质刺激的结果。可是Washoe的饲养员不同意这种说法。RogerFouts以前是Gardner夫妇的学生。RogerFouts把Washoe带到了华盛顿埃伦斯堡的一个研究中心。在这里，Washoe教三个年轻的黑猩猩手语，这三个黑猩猩依然活着。

像JaneGoodall这样的独立的科学家认为Washoe为黑猩猩心理活动的研究提供了新信息。今天，没有那么多科学家研究黑猩猩的语言技能。部分原因在于这类研究需要花费很长的时间。对黑猩猩懂得人类交流方式与否的辩论仍在继续。然而，有一件事却是肯定的——Washoe改变了有关动

物智能可能性的普遍观点。

第一篇Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles

The Ford motor company’s1 abandonment of electric cars effectively signals the end of the road for the technology, analysts say.

General Motors2 and Honda3 ceased production of battery-powered cars in 1999, to focus on fuel cell4 and hybrid electric gasoline engines5, which are more attractive to the consumer. Ford has now announced it will do the same.

Three years ago, the company introduced the Think City two-seater car and a golf cart called the THINK or Think Neighhor6. It hoped to sell 5,000 cars each year and 10,000 carts. But a lack of demand means only about 1,000 of the cars have been produced, and less than 1,700 carts have been sold so far in 2002.

“The bottom line7 is we don’t believe that this is the future of environment transport for the mass market,”Tim Holmes of Ford Europe said on Friday. “We feel we have given electric our best shot8.”The Think City has a range of only about 53 miles and up to a six-hour battery recharge time. General Motors’EVI electric vehicle also had a limited range, of about 100 miles.

The very expensive batteries also mean electric cars cost much more than petrol-powered alternatives. An electric Toyota9 RAV4 EV vehicle costs over $42,000 in the US, compared with just $17,000 for the petrol version. Toyota and Nissan10 are now the only major auto manufacturers to produce electric vehicles.

“There is a feeling that battery electric has been given its chance. Ford now has to move on with its hybrid program11, and that is what we will be judging them on,”Roger Higman, a senior transport campaigner at UK Friends of the Earth, told the Environment News Service.

Hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda in the past few years have sold well. Hybrid engines offer greater mileage than petrol-only engines, and the batteries recharge themselves. Ford says it thinks such vehicles will help it meet planned new guidelines12 on vehicle emissions13 in the US.

However t it is not yet clear exactly what those guidelines will permit. In June, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler14 won a court injunction, delaying by two years Californian legislation requiring car-makers to offer 100,000 zero-emission and other low-emission vehicles in the state by 2003. Car manufacturers hope the legislation will be rewritten to allow for more low-emission, rather than zero-emission, vehicles.

第一篇福特放弃电动汽车

分析人士评论，福特汽车公司放弃电动汽年的举动有力地证明了这种技术是行不通的。

通用汽车公司和日本本田汽车公司早于1999年就停止了电池动力汽车的生产，转而开发燃料电池和电池内燃混合机，这对消费者更有吸引力。福特宣布它现在也要做同样的尝试。

3年前，福特推出名为ThinkCity的双排座汽车和Think或ThinkNeighbor系列高尔夫车，希望能销售5000辆汽车、10000高尔夫车。但由于需求不足，截至2002年仅生产了大约1000辆汽车，售出的高尔夫车还不足1700辆。

“关键是我们认为电动车不能代表大众市场环保交通的未来”，福特欧洲区的TimHolmes于周五说，“我们感觉自己对电力车已做了昀好的尝试。”

ThinkCity系列的运行里程仅53英里，电池充电需6小时。通用公司的EVI电力车也仅能运行100英里。

昂贵的电池也意味着电动汽车的造价比汽油动力车高出许多。日本丰田产的RAV4EV系列电动车在美国的售价达42000美元，而同系列的汽油动力车仅售17000美元。丰田和日产汽车公司是现在仅存的两大电动车制造商。

“应该说电池动力车已经获得了充分的机会。福特现已转向电池内燃混合机开发项目，我们应据此评价他们的发展。”RogerHigman，英国FriendsoftheEarth组织的一位高级交通运动代表这样对《环保新闻》评论说。

日本本田和丰田公司推出的混合机汽车在过去几年取得了良好的销售业绩。混合动力车比汽油机车运行里程更长，电池又可自行充电。福特表示，他们认为这样的机车有助于达到美国新制订的车辆排放规定。

不过，这些规定究竟允许怎样的排放物现在还不十分清楚。六月份通用和戴姆勒克莱斯勒公司赢得一项法庭裁决，可推迟两年执行一项加州法令，该法令要求汽车生产商在2003年前向该州提供10万辆零排放和其他低排放汽车。制造商希望修改此法令，允许他们生产更多低排放而不是零排放的汽车。

第二篇World Crude Oil Production May Peak

a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict

In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014. This prediction is almost a decade earlier than some other predictions．Their study is in ACS’Energy＆Fuels1．

Ibrahim Nashawi and colleagues point out that rapid growth in global oil consumption has sparked a growing interest in predicting "peak oil"．"Peak oil "is the point where oil production reaches a maximum and then declines. Scientists have developed several models to forecast this point, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models is called the Hubbert model2. It assumes that global oil production will follow a bell shaped curve3. A related concept is that4 of "Peak Oil." The term "Peal Oil" indicates the moment in which world wide production Will peak, afterwards to start on irreversible decline．

The Hubbert model accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in 1970. The model has since gained in popularity and has been used to forecast oil production worldwide．

However, recent studies show that the model is insufficient to account for5 more complex oil production cycles of some countries．Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics, and other factors, the scientists say.

The new study describes development of a new version of the Hubbert model that provides a more realistic and accurate oil production forecast．Using the new model, the scientists evaluated the oil production trends of 47 major oil-producing countries, which supply most of the world’s conventional crude oil6．They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world's oil reserves7 are

being reduced at a rate of 2.1 percent a year. The new model could help inform energy-related decisions and public policy debate, they suggest.

第二篇世界原油产量可能提前十年达到峰值

科威特科学家预测世界常规原油产量将在2014年达到峰值，这一发现可能会促进储存石油的努力。这一预测比其他预测提前了将近十年，已经发表在美国化学学会《能量与燃料》杂志上。

伊布赫姆?纳夏威和同事们指出，全球石油消耗的快速增长使人们对“石油峰值”预测的兴趣越来越浓。“石油峰值”指的是石油产量达到最大值后开始下降的时间点。科学家已经构建了几个模型来预测这一时间，有些模型认为这一时间在2020年或更晚。其中最着名的预测模型之一是赫伯特模型。赫伯特模型认为世界石油产量呈钟形曲线，与此相关的概念是“石油峰值”。这一术语指的是世界石油产量达到峰值的那一刻，之后将呈现无法逆转的下降趋势。

赫伯特模型精确地预测到美国石油产量于1970年达到峰值。这一模型从此受到欢迎，已经用于预测世界石油生产。

但是，最近研究表明，这一模型不足以解释某些国家更加复杂的石油生产周期。科学家称，这些生产周期受到技术变化、政策和其他因素的很大影响。

最近研究描述了赫伯特模型的新版本，提供了更加实际、更加准确的石油生产预测。科学家使用新模型评估了47个主要产油国家的石油生产趋势，这47个国家是世界常规原油的主要提供者。科学家预计全球常规原油产量将于2014年达到峰值，比之前预计的要早很多年。科学家还指出，世界石油储量正在以2.1%的速度逐年减少，他们认为新模型会帮助做出与能源相关的决定，帮助进行国家政策辩论。

第三篇Citizen Scientists (C级)

Understanding how nature responds to climate change will require monitoring key life cycle event —flowering, the appearance of leaves, the first frog calls of the spring —all around the world. But ecologists can’t be everywhere so they’re turning to non-scientists, sometimes called citizen scientists, for help.

Climate scientists are not present everywhere. Because there are so many places in the world and not enough scientists to observe all of them, they’re asking for your help in observing signs of climate change across the world. The citizen scientist movement encourages ordinary people to observe a very specific research interest —birds, trees,

flowers budding, etc. —and send their observations to a giant database to be observed by professional scientists. This helps a small number of scientists track a large amount of data that they would never be able to gather on their own. Much like citizen journalists helping large publications cover a hyper-local beat, citizen scientists are ready for the conditions where they live. All that’s needed to become one is a few minutes each day or each week to gather data and send it in.

A group of scientists and educators launched an organization last year called the National Phenology Network. “Phenology”is what scientists call the study of the timing of events in nature.

One of the group’s first efforts relies on scientists and non-scientists alike to collect data about plant flowering and leafing every year. The program, called Project BudBurst, collects life cycle data on a variety of common plants from across the United States. People participating in the project —which is open to everyone —record their observations on the Project BudBurst website.

“People don’t have to be plant experts they just have to look around and see what’s in their neighborhood,”says Jennifer Schwartz, an education consultant with the project. “As we collect this data, we’ll be able to make an estimate of how plants and communities of plants and animals will respond as the climate changes.”

第三篇公民科学家

理解大自然对气候变化有怎样的反应需要监视世界各个角落的关键生命周期事件——花开、叶子的出现、第一只青蛙叫出春天的到来。但是生态学家不可能去到世界的各个角落，所以他们向非科学家求助，这些非科学家有时也被称作公民科学家。

气象科学家不可能足迹遍及天下。因为在世界上有如此多的地方，没有足够的科学家来观察它们。所以他们请求你来帮助观察全世界气候变化的迹象。公民科学家运动鼓励普通人根据自己的兴趣来观察某一个特定的方面——鸟儿、树木、花卉等等一一并把他们的观察结果发送到一个巨大的数据库来供专业科学家研究。这有助于数量有限的科学家得到如果只靠他们自己根本收集不到的巨大数据。就像公民记者帮助报道传统新闻报道方式所忽略的小型社区的相关信息一样，公民科学家也对他们所居住的环境很熟悉。所需要的就是每天或每周留出儿分钟来搜集数据并发送过来。

一群科学家和教育家在去年发起了一个叫做纽约国家物候学的组织。“物候学”就是科学家们所说的在自然中研究每个事件的时间。

其中一个小组的首要尝试就是依靠科学家和非科学家来收集关于每年植物开花和长叶子的数据。这一项目叫做花季追踪计划，它收集遍布美国的各种各样的植物生长周期的数据。参与这一项目的人们一一这一计划对所有人开放——把他们的观察记录登录在花季追踪计划网站上。

“人们不需要是植物学家——他们仅仅需要环视四周看看周围有什么。”JenniferSchwarts说，她是这项计划的教育顾问。“通过收集数据，我们就能够估算出气候变化对植物和生物群落会有怎样的影响。”

第四篇Motoring Technology

1.2 million road deaths worldwide occur each year, plus a further 50 million injuries. To reduce car crash rate, much research now is focused on safety and new fuels. —though some electric vehicle and biofuel1 research aims at going faster.

Travelling at speed has always been risky. One cutting edge area2 of research in motoring safety is the use of digital in-car assistants3. They can ensure you don’t miss crucial road signs or fall asleep. The use of artificial intelligence software allows these assistants to monitor your driving and makes sure your phone or radio doesn’t distract you at a vital moment. Most crashes result from human and not mechanical faults.

Some safety developments aim to improve your vision. Radar can spot4 obstacles in fog, while other technology “sees through”high-sided5 vehicles blocking your view6. And improvements to seat belts, pedal controls and tyres are making driving smoother and safer. The colour of a car has been found to be linked with safety, as have, less surprisingly, size and shape7.

And alternatives to fossil-fuel8 based petrol, such as plant oils, are a hot area of research. Fuel cells9 based on hydrogen burn cleanly, and are the subject of a serious research effort.

But whatever is in the fuel tank, you don’t want a thief in the driving seat and there have been many innovations, some using satellite tracking and remote communications10, to fight against car theft. These communication systems can also come into play11 if you crash, automatically calling for help.

Accidents cause many traffic jams, but there are more subtle interplays between vehicles that can cause jams even on a clear but busy road. Such jams can be analysed using statistical tools. Robotic drivers could be programmed to make traffic flow smoothly and will perhaps one day be everyone’s personal chauffeur, but their latest efforts suggest that won’t be soon.

第四篇汽车技术

每年，全世界有120万起路面交通死亡事故，以及5000万起路面交通伤残事故。为降低车祸发生率，现在有很多研究将注意力放在行车安全和开发新型燃料上。而有些关于电动机车和生物燃料的研究旨在达到更快的速度。

高速驾驶一向是很危险的。一项在机动车安全前沿领域的研究是有关车内数字化辅助设施的。这些设施会确保司机们不会错过重要的路况指示牌或在开车时睡着。通过运用人工智能软件，这些辅助设施可监控行车过程并确保在关键时刻司机不会被手机或广播干扰注意力。许多车祸是由人为原因造成的而非机械故障。

一些行车安全方面的改进力图改善司机的视野。雷达可对雾中的障碍物定位，而其他的科技手段可透过阻碍你视线的高大车辆看到前方。

对安全带、刹车板控制和车胎的改进也使行车过程变得更顺畅、安全。人们发现车的颜色与安全有关，令人不会感到惊讶的是，车的大小和形状也与安全有关。

从矿物燃料中提取的汽油的替代物，例如植物油，也是研究中的一个热门区域。取材于氢气的燃料电池燃烧时无污染，并已成为一项重要研究的攻克对象。

但不管燃料箱中盛为何物，你可不想在驾驶座上坐的是一个窃贼。对此，也有很多创新来打击汽车盗窃，其中一些运用了卫星跟踪和远程通讯，当发生车祸时，这些通讯系统也可起作用，自动地呼叫帮助。

交通事故可引发许多交通堵塞。但在一畅通却繁忙的路段上，汽车间也有很多的细微互动，从而导致可能的阻塞。此类阻塞可用数据统计工具来进行分析。被编程的机器人可使交通流动更顺畅，并有朝一日有望成为每个人的私家司机。但昀新成果表明这种设想并非短期内可以实现。

第五篇Late-Night Drinking

Coffee lovers beware. Having a quick “pick-me-up”cup of coffee1 late in the day will play havoc with2 your sleep. As well as being a stimulant, caffeine interrupts the flow of melatonin, the brain hormone that sends people into a sleep. Melatonin levels normally start to rise about two hours before bedtime. Levels then peak between 2 am and 4 am, before falling again3. “It’s the neurohormone that controls our sleep and tells our body when to sleep and when to wake,”says Maurice Ohayon of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center at Stanford University in California. But researchers in Israel have found that caffcinated coffee halves the body’s levels of this sleep hormone. Lotan Shilo and a team at the Sapir Medical Center in Tel Aviv University found that six volunteers slept less well after a cup of caffeinated coffee than after drinking the same amount of decal. On average, subjects slept 336 minutes per night after drinking caffeinated coffee, compared with 415 minutes after decal. They also took half an hour to drop off4 —twice as long as usual —and jigged around5 in bed twice as much.

In the second phase of the experiment, the researchers woke the volunteers every three hours and asked them to give a urine sample, Shilo measured concentrations of a breakdown product of melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin concentrations in caffeine drinkers were half those in decaf drinkers. In a paper accepted for publication in Sleep Medicine, the researchers suggest6 that caffeine blocks production of the enzyme that drives melatonin production.

Because it can take many hours to eliminate caffeine from the body, Ohayon recommends that coffee lovers switch to decaf after lunch.

第五篇在深夜饮咖啡

咖啡爱好者注意了。在深夜喝一杯快速提神的咖啡会严重影响你的睡眠，跟兴奋剂一样，咖啡因会扰乱褪黑激素的自由流动，这种褪黑激素是大脑里促人睡眠的一种荷尔蒙。

在上床睡觉前约2小时的时候褪黑激素含量开始上升，在凌晨2点到4点达到昀高值，然后再次下降。加州斯坦福大学斯坦福睡眠流行病学研究中心的MauriceOhayon说：“控制我们睡眠的是神经激素，它告诉我们的身体什么时候睡觉，什么时候醒来。”而以色列的研究人员们发现含咖啡因的咖啡使这种睡眼荷尔蒙浓度降至一半。

LotanShilo和TelAviv大学“Sapir医学中心”的一组人员，在给六位志愿者做试验时发现，他们在饮了咖啡因的咖啡后比饮了脱咖啡因的咖啡后睡眼质量要差。平均来说，在喝了含咖啡因的咖啡后每晚睡眠时间为336分钟，而喝

了脱咖啡因的咖啡后则睡415分钟。同时他们得花半个小时入睡，是通常情况的两倍，另外，他们在床上辗转次数也要长一倍。

在实验的第二阶段，研究人员每三个小时便叫醒一次志愿者，并叫他们提供尿样。Shilo检验了他们褪黑激素分解产物的浓度，结果显示，咖啡因摄入者体内的褪黑激素是非咖啡因摄入人者的一半。在《睡眼医学》刊物上发表的文章中.研究人员暗示说，褪黑激素的生成由酶促成，而咖啡因阻止了酶的生成。

因为要花许多小时的时间才能将身体中的咖啡因除去，Ohayon建议咖啡爱好者应在午后换喝脱咖啡因的咖啡。

第六篇Making Light of1 Sleep

All we have a clock located inside our brains. Similar to your bedside alarm clock，your internal clock2 runs on a 24-hour cycle. This cycle，called a circadian rhythm，helps control when

you wake，when you eat and when you sleep.

Somewhere around puberty，something happens in the timing of the biological clock. The

clock pushes forward，so adolescents and teenagers are unable to fall asleep as early as they used to. When your mother tells you it's time for bed，your body may be pushing you to stay up3 for several hours more. And the light coming from your computer screen or TV could be pushing you to stay up even later.

This shift4 is natural for teenagers. But staying up very late and sleeping late can get your body's clock out of sync with the cycle of light and dark5. It can also make it hard to get out of bed in the morning and may bring other problems，too. Teenagers are put in a kind of a gray cloud6 when they don't get enough sleep，says Mary Carskadon，a sleep researcher at Brown University in Providence，RI7 .It affects their mood and their ability to think and learn.

But just like your alarm clock，your internal clock can be reset. In fact，it automatically resets

itself every day. How? By using the light it gets through your eyes.

Scientists have known for a long time that the light of day and the dark of night play important roles in setting our internal clocks. For years，researchers thought that the signals that synchronize the body's clock8 were handled through the same pathways that we use to see.

But recent discoveries show that the human eye has two separate light-sensing systems. One system allows us to see. The second system tells our body whether it's day or night.

第六篇不要太在意睡眠

我们每个人的大脑里都有一个像我们床边的闹钟一样的生物钟。人脑里的生物钟24小时走一圈，这一圈也就是一次完整的昼夜节律，正是这个节律决定了我们吃饭、睡觉和起床的时间。

青春期时，人的生物钟在定时方面会发生变化，生物钟会提前。这时，青少年会比以前睡得晚，所以当你妈妈告诉你该睡觉时，你的生物钟可能会让你多推迟几小时，并且电脑或电视光线可能会导致你熬夜到更晚。

生物钟的这种变化对青少年说是正常的，但熬夜到太晚会打乱你生物钟与昼夜时间循环之间的平衡，这样就会带来一些问题，例如：早晨很难按时起床。位于美国罗得州布郎大学睡眠方面的研究员MaryCarskadon说：“当青少年睡眠不足时会打不起精神，这将影响到他们心情、学习和思考问题的状态。”

其实生物钟与闹钟一样，也是可调的，事实上，生物钟每天都在进行着自我调节，其方式就是通过你眼睛接收到光线的变化。

很早之前，科学家就知道了昼夜光线强弱的变化对生物钟调节起到了重要的作用，长久以来，研究者们认为眼睛所接受到的平衡生物钟的光信号同样作用于人类的视觉系统。

但最近几年的研究发现，人类眼睛有两个感光系统，一个是视觉系统，而另一个是感知昼夜的系统。

第七篇Sugar Power for Cell Phones

Using enzymes commonly found in living cells, a new type of fuel cell produces small amounts of electricity from sugar. If the technology is able to succeed in mass production, you may some day share your sweet drinks with your cell phone.

In fuel cells, chemical reactions generate electrical currents. The process usually relies on precious metals, such as platinum. In living cells, enzymes perform a similar job, breaking down sugars to obtain electrons and produce energy.

When researchers previously used enzymes in fuel cells, they had trouble keeping them active, says Shelley D. Minteer of St Louis University1. Whereas biological cells continually produce fresh enzymes, there’s no mechanism in fuel cells to replace enzymes as they quickly degrade.

Minteer and Tarnara Klotzbach, also of St Louis University, have now developed polymers that wrap around an enzyme and preserve it in a microscopic pocket. “We tailor these pockets to provide the ideal microenvironment for the enzyme, Minteer says. The polymers keep the enzyme active for months instead of days.

In the new fuel cell, tiny polymer bags of enzyme are embedded in a membrane that coats one of the electrodes. When glucose from a sugary liquid gets into a pocket, the enzyme oxidizes it, releasing electrons and protons. The electrons cross the membrane and enter a wire through which they travel to the other electrode, where they react with oxygen in the atmosphere to produce water. The flow of electrons through the wire constitutes an electrical current that can generate power.

So far, the new fuel cells don’t produce much power, but the fact that they work at all is exciting, says Paul Kenis, a chemical engineer at the University of Illinois2 at Urbana-Champaign3. “Just getting it to work,”Kenis says, “is a major accomplishment.”

Sugar-eating fuel cells could be an efficient way to make electricity. Sugar is easy to find. And the new fuel cells that run on

it are biodegradable, so the technology wouldn’t hurt the environment. The scientists are now trying to use different enzymes that will get more power from sugar. They predict that popular products may be using the new technology in as little as 3 years.

第七篇用糖为手机发电

一种新型燃料细胞通过利用活体细胞中很常见的酶能从糖中生产少量的电。如果这项技术能够成功应用于大批量生产，人们可以与自己的手机分享甜饮料（因为糖可以发电供给手机)。

燃料细胞中的化学反应能产生电流。这个过程通常依赖于贵金属，比如铂。在活体细胞中，酶发挥类似的作用，通过分解糖得到电子进而产生能量。

圣路易斯大学的ShelleyD.Minteer说，以前研究人员在燃料细胞中使用酶时，很难维持酶的活性。生物细胞能不停地产生新鲜的酶，但燃料细胞中没有能替换很快降解的酶的机制。

Minteer与同样来自圣路易斯大学的TamaraKlotzbach现在研制了一种聚合物，它能包裹酶并将其保存在用显微镜才能看见的袋子里。Minteer解释说：“我们改造袋子使其能为酶提供理想的微环境。”这种聚合物能使酶保持几个月而不是几天的活性。

在新型燃料细胞中，装有酶的微小的聚合物袋子镶嵌在一张裹在一个电极上的薄膜里。含糖液体中的葡萄糖进入袋子时，酶将其氧化，释放出电子和质子。电子穿过薄膜进入一根导线并通过这根导线到达其他电子。导线中的电子与大气中的氧发生反应产生水。电子在导线中流动形成电流，电流能产生电能。

伊利诺斯大学Urbana-Champaign校区的化学工程师PaulKenis指出，目前这种新型燃料细胞产生不了多少电能，但它们确实产生了电，这一事实令人激动。Kenis说：“单是使它可以产生电能，就是一项大的成果。”

消耗糖的燃料细胞有可能成为高效的发电工具。糖容易得到，而且消耗糖的新型燃料细胞可生物降解，因此这项技术不会损害环境。目前，科学家们正试图利用别的能从糖中产生更多电的酶。他们预计，在不到三年的时间里这种新技术便可在大众化的产品中使用。

第八篇Eiffel Is an Eyeful1

Some2 300 meters up, near the Eiffel Tower’s wind-whipped summit the world comes to scribble3. Japanese, Brazilians, Americans —they graffiti4 their names, loves and politics on the cold iron —transforming the most French of monuments into symbol of a world on the move5.

With Paris laid out in miniature6 below, it seems strange that visitors would rather waste time marking their presence than admire the view.7 But the graffiti also raises a question:Why, nearly 114 years after it was completed, and decades after it ceased to be the world’s tallest structure, is la Tour Eiffel still so popular8?

The reasons are as complex as the iron work that graces9 a structure some 90 stories high. But part of the answer is, no doubt, its agelessness. Regularly maintained, it should never rust away. Graffiti is regularly painted over, but the tower lives on.

“Eiffel represents Paris and Paris is France. It is very symbolic,”says Hugues Richard10, a 31-year old Frenchman who holds the record for cycling up to the tower’s second floor —747 steps in 19 minutes and 4 seconds, without touching the floor with his feet. “It’s iron lady, it inspires us,11”he says.

But to what?12 After all, the tower doesn’t have a purpose. It ceased to be the world’s tallest in 1930 when the Chrysler Building13 went up in New York. Yes, television and radio signals are beamed from the top, and Gustave Eiffel, a frenetic builder who died on December 27, aged 91, used its height for conducting research into weather, aerodynamics and radio communication.

But in essence the tower inspires simply by being there —a blank canvas for visitors to make of it what they will.14 To the technically minded,15 it’s an engineering triumph. For lovers, it’s romantic.

“The tower will outlast all of us, and by a long way16,”says Isabelle Esnous, whose company manages Eiffel Tower.

第八篇引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔

世界各地的人们都来到大约300米高，接近埃菲尔铁塔顶端的地方涂鸦。日本人、巴西人、美国人在这块冰冷的铁上涂上自己的名字、喜好和政治观点，使这昀具有法兰西色彩的纪念碑成为动感世界的象征。

从塔上可以看到巴黎市的远景，但奇怪的是，观光者们宁愿花时间留下到此一游的痕迹，而不去观赏风景。但这些涂鸦者也引起了一个问题：为什么在建成114年后，且在几十年前就已经不是世界上昀高的建筑物的今天埃菲尔铁塔却仍然这么受欢迎。

这个问题的答案就像那构成90层的铁塔的工程一样复杂。一部分的理由是，毫无疑问，铁塔是永不过时的。周期性的维护使得它永远不会被腐蚀掉。埃菲尔铁塔定期油漆，覆盖那些涂鸦，但是它仍将继续存在下去。

“埃菲尔是巴黎的象征，而巴黎又代表了法国。所以，埃菲尔十分具有象征性。”HuguesRichard说道。这位31岁的法国人保持着在19分零4秒的时间内骑自行车经过747级台阶登上铁塔第二层的纪录。“这是铁娘子，能让人产生灵感。”他说。

但是它能使人们产生怎样的灵感呢？毕竟，铁塔并没有任何目的。1930年纽约的Chrysler大厦取代它成为世界上昀高的建筑。但是电视和广播信号仍然从塔顶发送出来，而GustaveEiffel，这个狂热的建造者利用它的高度进行气象学、空气动力学和无线电通讯的研究。他在12月27日逝世，终年91岁。

本质上来说，铁塔伫立在那儿本身就是一个灵感——它就像一张空白的画布，任游客自由遐想。对于那些善于从技术角度考虑问题的人来说，它是一个工程上的胜利；而对于恋人们来说，它则象征着浪漫。

“这座塔将在我们所有的人离去后长久存在。”埃菲尔铁塔管理公司的IsabelleEsnous说。

第九篇An Essential Scientific Process

All life on the earth depends upon green plants. Using sunlight, the plants produce their own food. Then animals feed upon the plants. They take in the nutrients the plants have made and stored. But that’s not all. Sunlight also helps a plant produce oxygen. Some of the oxygen is used by the plant, but a plant usually produces more oxygen than it uses. The excess oxygen is necessary for animals and other organisms to live.

The process of changing light into food and oxygen is called photosynthesis. Besides light energy from the sun, plants also use water and carbon dioxide. The water gets to the plant through its roots. The carbon dioxide enters the leaves through tiny openings called stomata. The carbon dioxide travels to chloroplasts, special cells in the bodies of green plants. This is where photosynthesis takes place. Chloroplasts contain the chlorophylls that give plants their green color. The chlorophylls are the molecules that trap light energy. The trapped light energy changes water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and a simple sugar called glucose.

Carbon dioxide and oxygen move into and out of the stomata. Water vapor also moves out of the stomata. More than 90 percent of water a plant takes in through its roots escapes through the stomata. During the daytime, the stomata of most plants are open. This allows carbon dioxide to enter the leaves for photosynthesis. As night falls, carbon dioxide is not needed. The stomata of most plants close. Water loss stops.

If photosynthesis ceased, there would be little food or other organic matter on the earth. Most organisms would disappear. The earth’s atmosphere would no longer contain oxygen. Photosynthesis is essential for life on our planet.

第九篇一个至关重要的科学过程

地球上所有的生命都依靠绿色植物生存。植物利用阳光制造自己的食物，而动物则以植物为食，它们吸收植物制造和储存的营养物质。但是植物能做的还不仅仅这些，它们还能利用阳光产生氧气，这些氧气的一部分被植物自身消耗了，但植物消耗的氧气量远小于它们产生的氧气，这些多余的氧气对于动物以及其他生物体的生存是至关重要的。

植物将光转化为营养物质和氧气的这个过程叫作光合作用，在这一过程中，植物不仅吸收阳光中的能量，还吸收水和二氧化碳。水通过根系进入植物体内，而二氧化碳则通过叶片上的小孔进人植物体，这些小孔叫作气孔。二氧化碳进入植物体内后，到达叶绿体，叶绿体是绿色植物体内的一种特殊细胞。叶绿体是光合作用发生的地方。叶绿体内包含叶绿素，这种物质使得叶子呈现绿色，它是一种能吸收光能的分子，吸收进来的光能将水和二氧化碳转化，产生氧气和一种结构简单的糖——葡萄糖。

二氧化碳和氧气通过气孔进出。水蒸气也是从气孔逸出。植物体通过根系吸收的水分中的90%。白天，大多数植物的气孔都是张开的，使得二氧化碳能进入植物体参与光合作用。到了夜晚，植物不再需要二氧化碳，于是大多数植物的气孔就关闭了，水分散失也停止了。

如果光合作用停止的话，地球上将不会再有食物或其他有机物质，大多数生物体都会消失，地球的大气中的氧气也将消失。光合作用对于地球上的生命来说是至关重要的。

第十篇Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers

Young female chimps are faster and better learners than young male chimps, suggests a new study1, echoing learning differences seen in human girls and boys2.

While young male chimps pass their time playing, young female chimps carefully study their mothers. As a result, they learn how to fish for3 tasty termite snacks over two years before the boys.

Elizabeth Lonsdorf, now at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, US, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, spent four years watching how young chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park in Tanzania4 learned “cultural behavior”. The sex differences in learning hehavior were “consistent and strikingly apparent”, says the team. The researchers point out that similar differences are seen in human children with regard to5 skills such as writing. “A sex-based learning differences may therefore date back6 at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans,”they write in the journal Nature.

Chimps make flexible tools from vegetation and then insert them into termite mounds, extract them and then munch the termites clinging onto the tool. The researchers used video cameras to record this feeding behavior and found that each chimp mother had her own technique, such as how she used tools of different lengths.

Analysis of the six infants whose ages were known showed that girl chimps were an average of 31 months old when they succeeded in fishing out their termites, where the boy chimps were aged 58 months on average. Females were also more skillful at getting out more termites with every dip7 and used techniques similar to their mothers while males did not. Instead of studying their mothers, the boy chimps spent a significantly greater amount of time frolicking around the termite mound. Behaviors such as playing or swinging might help the male infants later in life when typically male activities like hunting or fighting for dominance become important, suggest the researchers.

Lonsdorf adds that there are just two main sources of animal protein for chimps —the termites or colobus monkeys. “Mature males often hunt monkeys up trees, but females are almost always either pregnant or burdened with a clinging infant8. This makes hunting difficult,”she says. “Adult females spend more time fishing for termites than males.”So becoming proficient at termite fishing9 could mean adult females eat better. “They can watch their offspring at the same time. The young of both sexes seem to pursue activities related to their adult sex roles10 at a very young age.”

第十篇年轻雌猩猩学习优于她们的弟兄

一项新的研究显示，与年轻雄性相比，年轻雌黑猩猩是更快更好的学习者，这与人类的两性学习差异相仿。

在小雄猩猩玩乐嬉闹的时候，雌猩猩却在悉心向母亲学习。结果她们比“男孩们”提早两年学会捕获美味小吃—白蚁。

美国芝加哥林肯公园动物园的ElizabethLonsdorf和她在圣保罗市明尼苏达大学的同事们用了4年时间观察坦桑尼亚Gombe自然公园的年轻黑猩猩学习它们的“文化行为”。

学习行为的性别差异是“一贯的并且是惊人显著的”，观察小组报告说。研究人员指出，类似的差别也存在于人类儿童写作等技巧的习得过程。他们在《自然》杂志中写道，“基于性别的学习差异可以上溯到人类和黑猩猩昀近的共同始祖。”

黑猩猩用植物制造灵巧的工具，将它们插入蚁丘把白蚁驱赶出来，再津津有味地享用粘在工具上的白蚁。研究人员用摄像机记录下这种捕食行为，发现每位猩猩母亲在诸如怎样使用不同长度的工具等方面都有她们自己的诀窍。

分析研究6只已知年龄的幼猩猩显示，雌猩猩在平均31个月大时就能成功捕获白蚁，而雄猩猩则需到58个月时才能学会。雌猩猩每次都能熟练地收获更多的白蚁，并能采用与母亲相似的技巧，而雄猩猩却做不到。

“男孩们”不向母亲学习，却花费大量时间在蚁丘周围嬉戏。研究人员认为玩耍、摇荡等活动或许对公幼兽后来的诸如捕猎、争夺领导权等典型的雄性活动大有裨益。

Lonsdorf补充说，黑猩猩食物中动物蛋白的主要来源有两个——白蚁和优猴。“成熟雄性常在树间抓捕疣猴，而雌性则总是因为怀孕或身上吊着小猩猩而难以捕猎，”她说。“成年雌性比雄性花更多的时间捕食白蚁。”因此娴熟地捕获白蚁意味着雌性比雄性吃得更好。“并且可以同时看护后代。雌雄两位似乎都是在十分年幼的时候就开始了与成年后性别角色有关的活动。”

第十一篇When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach

Our senses aren’t just delivering a strict view of what’s going on in the world；they’re affected by what’s going on in our heads. A new study finds that hungry people see food-related words more clearly than people who’ve just eaten. Psychologists have known for decades that what’s going on, inside our head affects our senses. For example, poorer children think coins are larger than they are, and hungry people think pictures of food are brighter. Remi Radel of University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis，France，wanted to investigate how this happens. Does it happen right away as the brain receives signals from the eyes or a little later as the brain’s high-level thinking processes get involved.

Radel recruited 42 students with a normal body mass index. On the day of his or her test, each student was told to arrive at the lab at noon after three or four hours of not eating. Then they were told there was a delay. Some were told to come back in 10 minutes; others were given an hour to get lunch first. So half the students were hungry when they did the experiment and the other half had just eaten.

For the experiment, the participant looked at a computer screen. One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen for about

l/300th of a second each. They flashed at so small a size that the students could only consciously perceive. A quarter of the words were food-related. After each word，each person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they’d seen —a food-related word like cake or a neutral word like boat. Each word appeared too briefly for the participant to really read it.

Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food- related words. Because the word appeared too quickly for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception, not in thinking processes, Radel says.

“This is something great to me. Humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for. From the experiment, I know that our brain can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs,”Radel says.

第十一篇我们的视觉服务于我们的胃口

我们的五官不仅仅让我们感知世界；还受大脑活动的影响。一项新研究发现：比起那些刚刚用过餐的人，饥饿的人能更清晰地看到与食品有关的词。

数十年以来，心理学家已经知道我们的心理活动直接影响到我们的视觉。例如，贫穷的孩子看到的硬币比实际的要大；饥饿的人看到的食物图片更明亮。法国的尼斯?索菲亚?安提波利斯大学试图调查这一现象：发生这种情况的时间是在大脑从眼睛接收到视觉信号的即时还是稍后些，这时高级思维活动已经介入了。

雷戴尔招募了健康指数正常的42位学生作为被试者。在测试的当天，每个学生被告知在中午到达实验室，这时距上一次的用餐时间有3?4个小时。等他们到达实验室时，他们被告知实验时间有延迟。一半学生被告知十分钟后再回来;其余的给1个小时的时间先吃午饭。所以一半学生饿着肚子，另一半学生饱腹参加了此次实验。

实验的步骤如下：要求被试者看电脑屏幕。屏幕上的80个字以1/300秒的频率闪动。由于字体非常之小，被试者只能凭感觉捕捉到字形。1/4的字是与食物有关的。每闪动一个字，被试者回答字体的亮度并选择看到的是哪类词：一类是和食物有关的词，比如“蛋糕”；一类是中性词，比如“船”。由于每个词的闪动在瞬间完成，被试者根本看不清楚那个词是什么。

饥饿的人看到与食物有关的词更明亮，且能更好地辨认出与食物有关的词。由于每个词的闪动太快，其实那些被试者根本不会确切地看到什么，这就说明：他们只是感觉不同，根本没经过思考。雷戴尔给出了这样的解释。

雷戴尔说：“这就是重点所在。人类可以真正感知到自身的需要或者为之奋斗的目标。该实验使我了解这样的事实，即我们的大脑是受我们的动机和需要所支配的。

第十二篇Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass

In January, 2003, the eastern two-thirds of the United States was at the mercy of1 a bitterly cold air mass2 that has

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