英语新闻
High-speed Internet has had the greatest technological impact on society over the past decade and is the technology most people say they cannot live without, according to a new poll.
Twenty four percent of 1,950 U.S. adults questioned in the online survey conducted by Zogby International said high-speed Internet had the greatest impact on their lives, followed closely by Facebook at 22 percent.
Of the technologies people say they cannot live without, high-speed Internet came in first at 28 percent and email was second at 18 percent.
When asked what they thought would be the greatest technological advancement in the next year, 24 percent said it would be in home entertainment and 16 percent said it would be in general computing.
Looking ahead to the next decade, 43 percent of those surveyed predicted there would be regular use of stem cells and cloning techniques to create human organs for transplant.
Forty percent said computer chips would be implanted in people to monitor their health, and the same number said robots would be capable of performing manual labor jobs.
(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
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(Agencies)
最新调查显示，在过去十年中，高速互联网对社会的科技影响最大，大多数人表示离开它就无法生活。
佐格比国际公司共对1950名美国成年人开展了此项在线调查，24%的受访者称高速互联网对他们的生活影响最大，紧随其后的是Facebook（得票率22%）。
在被问及离开何种科技就无法生活时，高速互联网以28%的得票率高居榜首，电子邮件排在第二，得票率为18%。
调查还要求受访者预测明年最大的科技进步，24%的人认为将出现在家庭娱乐领域，另有16%认为将与通用计算有关。
展望未来十年，43%的受访者预测称干细胞的应用、以及利用克隆技术制造用于移植的人体器官将非常普遍。
40%的受访者表示计算机芯片将被植入人体来监测健康状况，另有相同比例的受访者表示机器人将可以从事手工劳动的工作。
If your social life leaves something to be desired, it might be your brain structure that’s to blame.
A ‘Facebook feature’ deep in the temporal lobe governs the number of friends you are likely to make, scientists have found.
The amygdala, a small almond-shaped structure, has for some time been linked to empathy and fear responses.
But a study suggests that the larger the amygdala, the wider and more complex is its owner’s network of friends and colleagues.
Volunteers aged between 19 to 83 were asked to complete questionnaires which measured how many regular social contacts they had, and in how many different groups.
Magnetic resonance imaging scans found a positive link between big amygdalas and the richest social lives. Professor Lisa Barrett, a psychologist
at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, reported the findings in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
She said they were consistent with the social brain theory, which suggests the human amygdala evolved to deal with an increasingly complex social world.
Other studies of primates have shown that those living in larger groups tend to have larger amygdalas. The findings was published in a new study in Nature Neuroscience.
Dr Lisa Barrett, Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, who took part in the research, said the amygdala got bigger to cope with mankind's more hectic social life.
She added: 'Further research is in progress to try to understand more about how the amygdala and other brain regions are involved in social behaviour in humans.'
Her colleague Dr Bradford Dickerson, an associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School said: 'This link between amygdala size and social network size and complexity was observed for both older and younger individuals and for both men and women.'
Recently US scientists reported on the case of a woman whose amygdala had been destroyed by a medical condition.
As a result the 44-year-old mother of three felt no fear and constantly put herself in danger. Over the years she had been threatened with a knife, held at gunpoint and assaulted.
(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
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(Agencies)
如果你的社交生活不尽人意，那可能得怪你的大脑结构。
科学家们发现，大脑颞叶深处的“交际特征”决定了你可能交到的朋友个数。
人们一度认为杏仁核与同理心和恐惧反应有关。杏仁核是大脑内一个小的杏仁状组织。
但是一项研究显示，一个人的杏仁核越大，他的朋友圈和同事圈就越大越复杂。
参与该研究的志愿者年龄介于19岁到83岁之间，研究者请他们填写调查问卷，以得出他们经常联系的朋友个数以及有多少种不同类别的朋友。
磁共振成像扫描显示，杏仁核的大小与社交生活的丰富程度成正比。美国东北大学的心理学家丽莎?贝瑞特教授在《自然神经科学》杂志上发表了以上调查结果。东北大学位于马萨诸塞州波士顿市。
贝瑞特教授说调查结果与社会脑理论相符，该理论认为人类杏仁核的进化是为了应对愈来愈复杂的社交世界。
其他对灵长类动物的研究发现，群居动物的杏仁核要更大一些。这些研究成果发表在《自然神经科学》的一项新研究报告中。
东北大学的心理学教授丽莎?贝瑞特博士参与了这项课题，她说人类的杏仁核变大是为了应付日益繁忙的社交生活。
她接着说：“我们目前正在进行更深层次的研究，来进一步了解杏仁核和其他脑部区域如何影响人类的社会行为。”
她的同事布拉德福德?狄
克生博士说：“我们观察了人们的杏仁核大小与社交圈大小和复杂程度之间的关系。我们的观察对象有老有少，有男有女。”狄克生博士是哈佛大学医学院的神经病学副教授。
美国科学家们观察了一位因病导致杏仁核受损的妇女，最近他们就观察结果作了报告。
报告显示，这位已经是三个孩子母亲的44岁的女人从来感觉不到恐惧，并经常将自己置于危险的境地。这些年来，她遭受过匕首威胁，被人拿枪指过头，还曾经惨遭殴打。
Imagine waking up to a world where China is the world's leading superpower, astronauts are busy walking on Mars and a brand new political party is ruling the UK.
Well this could be the reality in 15 years if some of the predictions of 100,000 Britons are correct.
The massive survey asked the men and women of the UK how they pictured the world in 2025.
Nearly half believe Prince William will bypass Prince Charles to be crowned King of England although one in six think the monarchy will have been abolished.
On the world stage 60 per cent think China is set to become the world's leading superpower, while a third of us think Great Britain will be made up of four self-governed countries.
A quarter of those polled believe a new party will form the Government in 2025 although the same proportion think that Labour will be back in power.
Further afield four per cent are optimistic there will be a permanent human base on Mars while one in ten expect a colony of humans to be living in space. Meanwhile technology will have come on in leaps and bounds.
More than half questioned in the MSN study predict people will watch all their favourite shows via TV sets hooked up to the internet.
Two-thirds believe cosmetic surgery will have become common place and one in six think we will look after our own health using apps and gadgets rather than relying on the doctor.
But at least we can distract ourselves with the daily comings and goings of pop singers and reality stars, as more than half think that 'celebrity' will be a registered profession.
The Pulse of the Nation survey was carried out to mark MSN's 15 year anniversary.
Matt Ball, editor-in-chief at MSN UK, said: 'When MSN launched Toy Story came out and was the first completely computer generated film, John Major was Prime Minister and Barings bank collapsed.
'British life has changed remarkably since then. The depth and breadth of insight from our research demonstrates how passionate and opinionated people are about life in the UK.'
(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
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(Agencies)
想象一下，有一天当你醒来时，发现中国成了世界领先的超级大国，宇航员们在火星上行走，而统治英国的是一个崭新的政党。
15年后这些情景可能都会成真——如果接
受调查的那些英国人预测得准的话。该调查涵盖了10万名英国人。
这项大型调查问他们想象中的2025年的世界是什么样的。
有近一半的被调查者认为威廉王子会越过其父查尔斯王子提前登基，成为英国国王。但也有六分之一的人认为到那时君主制已经被废除了。
对于将来的世界格局，60%的人认为中国定会成为世界超级大国，而三分之一的人认为英国会分解成四个自治的国家。
四分之一的被调查者相信2025年将会有一个新政党来成立政府，但也有同样比例的人认为工党会重新掌权。
有4%的人想得有点远，他们乐观地相信到时候火星上会有一个永久性人类基地，而十分之一的人认为2025年会有人移民太空。同时，人们预计科技将会飞速发展。
这项MSN发起的调查显示，过半的被调查者预测说到2025年人们可以在连着网络的电视机上收看他们喜爱的节目。
三分之二的人认为到时候整形手术会很普遍。六分之一的人认为在2025年我们可以通过应用软件和一些小设备来检测健康状况，而不用事事麻烦医生。
但至少来来往往的流行歌手和真人秀明星能让我们解闷，因为过半的人认为“明星”将会成为一个注册职业。这项“国家动向调查”是为了纪念MSN的15周年生日而进行的。
MSN英国的主编麦特?保尔说：“15年前MSN刚推出的时候，第一部完全由电脑制作的电影《玩具总动员》刚刚上映，巴林银行刚刚倒闭，当时任首相的还是约翰?梅杰。
“自那时起，英国人民的生活发生了翻天覆地的变化。调查所得见解的深度和广度表现了人们对英国生活充满热情，并且对生活有自己的看法。”
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