剑桥雅思13Test3Passage2阅读原文翻译How baby talk gives infant brans a boost儿语在婴儿大脑发育中的作用

剑桥雅思13阅读第三套题目第二篇文章的主题为儿语在婴儿大脑发育中的作用。文章一共6段，分别介绍了人们认为儿语对儿童大脑附有帮助，较早接触语言的好处，父亲和母亲对儿童的说话方式不同，儿语和一对一沟通都能够促进儿童学习语言，儿语更能够吸引儿童的关注，并有效刺激儿童的大脑。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思13 Test3 Passage2阅读原文翻译

段落A

The typical way of talking to a baby–High-pitched,exaggerated and repetitious–is a source of fascination for linguists who hope to understand how‘baby talk’impacts on learning,Most babies start developing their hearing while still in the womb,prompting some hopeful parents to play classical music to their pregnant bellies.Some research even suggests that infants are listening to adult speech as early as 10 weeks before being born,gathering the basic building blocks of their family’s native tongue.

高音调，夸张和重复-这种对婴儿说话的典型方式对那些希望理解儿语如何影响学习的语言学家来说充满了吸引力。大多数婴儿还在母亲子宫里的时候就发育出听觉。这促使一些满怀希望的家长对着他们怀孕的腹部播放古典音乐。一些研究甚至建议婴儿在出生前10周就开始听成人说话，收集获取其家庭自身语言的基本构成要素。

段落B

Early language exposure seems to have benefits to the brain–for instance,studies suggest that babies raised in bilingual homes are better at learning how to mentally prioritize information.So how does the sweet if sometimes absurd sound of infant-directed speech influence a baby’s development?Here are some recent studies that explore the science behind baby talk.

语言的早期接触似乎对大脑有好处-例如，研究表明，双语家庭中长大的孩子在学习如何优先处理信息方面表现的更好。所以，甜蜜语言，或者说有时以婴儿为导向、毫无意义的话语如何影响婴儿的发育呢?以下是最近一些探索儿语背后科学原理的研究。

段落C

Fathers don’t use baby talk as often or in the same ways as mothers–and that’s perfectly OK,according to a new study.Mark VanDam of Washington State University at Spokane and colleagues equipped parents with recording devices and speech-recognition software to study the way they interacted with their youngsters during a normal day.‘We found that moms do exactly what you’d expect and what’s been described many times over,’VanDam explains.‘But we found that dads aren’t doing the same thing.Dads didn’t raise their pitch or fundamental frequency when they talked to kids.’Their role may be rooted in what is called the bridge hypothesis,which dates back to 1975.It suggests that fathers use less familial language to provide their children with a bridge to the kind of speech they’ll hear in public.‘The idea is that a kid gets to practice a certain kind of speech with mom and another kind of speech with dad,so the kid then has a wider repertoire of kinds of speech to practice,’says VanDam.

父亲并不像母亲那样经常使用儿语，其方式也有所不同。根据一项最新的研究，这完全没问题。斯波坎华盛顿州立大学的Mark Vandam和其同事为父母佩戴录音装置和语音识别软件，以研究他们日常生活中与孩子的互动方式。“我们发现，母亲的做法与你所期待的和之前已经描述过很多次的完全一致”，VanDam解释到。“但我们发现父亲并没有做相同的事情。当对孩子说话时，父亲没有提高他们的音调或基础频率”。他们的角色或许根植于所谓的“桥梁假设”。该理论可以追溯到1975年。它认为，父亲使用不那么家庭化的语言为他们的孩子提供一座桥梁，方便孩子过渡到他们在公共场所会听到的语言。“该观点认为孩子需要与母亲练习一种特定的语言，并且跟父亲练习另外一种语言，以便孩子随后可以对更广泛的说话方式进行练习”，Vandam说。

段落D

Scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Connecticut collected thousands of 30-second conversations between parents and their babies,fitting 26 children with audio-recording vests that captured language and sound during a typical eight-hour day.The study found that the more baby talk parents used,the more their youngsters began to babble.And when researchers saw the same babies at age two,they found that frequent baby talk had dramatically boosted vocabulary,regardless of socioeconomic status.‘Those children who listened to a lot of baby talk were talking more than the babies that listened to more adult talk or standard speech,’says Nairán Ramírez-Esparza of the University of Connecticut.‘We also found that it really matters whether you use baby talk in a one-on-one context,’she adds.The more parents use baby talk one-on-one,the more babies babble,and the more they babble,the more words they produce later in life.’

华盛顿大学和康涅狄格大学的科学家通过给26个孩子配备可以在一天8小时中捕捉语言和声音的录音背心，收集了数千份父母和孩子之间长度为30秒的对话。研究发现，父母使用的儿语越多，他们的孩子咿呀学语的时间也会更多。当研究者将目光聚焦到两岁的儿童身上时，他们发现无论社会经济地位如何，频繁的儿语明显促进了词汇量的增长。“相比于那些听了更多成人谈话或者标准话语的孩子来说，那些听了许多儿语的孩子说话更多”，康涅狄格大学的Nairan Ramirez-Esparza说到。“我们还发现，是否在一对一的情况下使用儿语同样重要”，她补充到。父母在跟孩子进行一对一交流时使用的儿语越多，孩子咿呀学语的也越多。而孩子咿呀学语的越多，他们在日后的生活中使用的词汇也越多”。

段落E

Another study suggests that parents might want to pair their youngsters up so they can babble more with their own kind.Researchers from McGill University and Universitédu Quebec a Montreal found that babies seem to like listening to each other rather than to adults–which may be why baby talk is such a universal tool among parents.They played repeating vowel sounds made by a special synthesizing device that mimicked sounds made by either an adult woman or another baby.This way,only the impact of the auditory cues was observed.The team then measured how long each type of sound held the infants’attention.They found that the‘infant’sounds held babies’attention nearly 40 percent longer.The baby noises also induced more reactions in the listening infants,like smiling or lip moving,which approximates sound making.The team theorizes that this attraction to other infant sounds could help launch the learning process that leads to speech.‘It may be some property of the sound that is just drawing their attention,’says study co-author Linda Polka.‘Or maybe they are really interested in that particular type of sound because they are starting to focus on their own ability to make sounds.We are speculating here but it might catch their attention because they recognize it as a sound they could possibly make.’

另外一项研究表明，父母可能想要让他们的孩子与同伴待在一起，以便他们可以试着说更多自己的语言。麦吉儿大学和魁北克蒙特利尔大学的研究者发现，婴儿似乎更喜欢倾听彼此而非成人的话语。这或许解释了为什么儿语是父母普遍使用的工具。他们播放由一种特殊的合成设备制作的重复元音，模仿成年女性或者另一个婴儿的声音。这样一来，被观测的就只有听觉信号的影响。团队随后测量每种声音能够吸引孩子的注意力多长时间。他们发现，婴儿的声音可以让孩子保持关注的时间长出将近40%。婴儿的声音也可以引发正在倾听的孩子们的更多反应，比如微笑或者唇动。这都近似于发声的动作。该团队推断这种被其他婴儿的声音所吸引的现象能够帮助开启通向说话的学习过程。“可能是声音的某种特质吸引了他们的注意力”，研究的合著者Linda Polka说到。“或者也有可能是它们真的对特定类型的声音感兴趣，因为他们开始关注自身的发声能力。我们在此只是推测，但这种声音可以吸引他们的注意力或许是因为他们将它当作自己也有可能发出的声响”。

段落F

In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,a total of 57 babies from two slightly different age groups–seven months and eleven and a half months–were played a number of syllables from both their native language(English)and a non-native tongue(Spanish).The infants were placed in a brain-activation scanner that recorded activity in a brain region known to guide the motor movements that produce speech.The results suggest that listening to baby talk prompts infant brains to start practicing their language skills.‘Finding activation in motor areas of the brain when infants are simply listening is significant,because it means the baby brain is engaged in trying to talk back right from the start,and suggests that seven-month-olds’brains are already trying to figure out how to make the right movements that will produce words,’says co-author Patricia Kuhl.Another interesting finding was that while the seven-month-olds responded to all speech sounds regardless of language,the brains of the older infants worked harder at the motor activations of non-native sounds compared to native sounds.The study may have also uncovered a process by which babies recognize differences between their native language and other tongues.

《美国科学院论文集》发表的一项研究中，研究者给来自两个不同年龄组的(7个月以及11个半月)57名婴儿播放一些来自他们母语(英语)和非母语(西班牙语)的音节。这些婴儿佩戴了脑部激活扫描仪，记录引导运动神经产生语言的大脑区域的活动。研究结果表明，听儿语会促进婴儿大脑开始练习他们的语言技能。“当婴儿仅仅在倾听的时候，发现大脑运动区域被激活十分重要，因为这意味着婴儿大脑从一开始就努力尝试做出回应，并表明七个月大的婴儿的大脑已经在尝试弄清楚如何做出产生话语的正确动作”，合著者Patricia Kuhl说到。另外一项有趣的发现是，虽然7个月大的婴儿会对所有声音做出反应，无论其属于何种语言，但相比于母语来说，年龄较大的婴儿听到非母语声音时大脑运动区域被激活的更加剧烈。该研究或许同样揭示了婴儿辨别母语和其他语言差异的过程。

剑桥雅思13Test3Passage1阅读原文翻译The coconut palm椰子树

剑桥雅思13阅读三套题目第 一篇文章的主题为椰子树。文章一共6段，分别介绍了椰子在西方世界的广泛分布，椰子树各部分的用途，果实的结构和作用，椰汁的生物特性和作用，椰子能在海中漂浮并沿岸生长，以及叶子的起源等内容。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思13 Test3 Passage1阅读原文翻译

第1段

For millennia,the coconut has been central to the lives of Polynesian and Asian peoples.In the western world,on the other hand,coconuts have always been exotic and unusual,sometimes rare.The Italian merchant traveller Marco Polo apparently saw coconuts in South Asia in the late 13th century,and among the mid-14th-century travel writings of Sir John Mandeville there is mention of‘great Notes of Ynde’(great Nuts of India).Today,images of palm-fringed tropical beaches are cliches in the west to sell holidays,chocolate bars,fizzy drinks and even romance.

一千年来，椰子一直都是波利尼西亚人和亚洲人生活的中心。但在西方世界，椰子一直都是一种外来的、不同寻常的物种，有时十分罕见。意大利商人旅行家马可波罗在13世纪末期的时候显然在南亚见过椰子。在14世纪中期John Mandeville的游记中也提到“印度的巨大坚果”。如今，棕榈点缀的热带沙滩的形象已经成为西方售卖假期、巧克力棒、气泡饮料、甚至爱情故事的固定手法。

第2段

Typically,we envisage coconuts as brown cannonballs that,when opened,provide sweet white flesh.But we see only part of the fruit and none of the plant from which they come.The coconut palm has a smooth,slender,grey trunk,up to 30 metres tall.This is an important source of timber for building houses,and is increasingly being used as a replacement for endangered hardwoods in the furniture construction industry.The trunk is surmounted by a rosette of leaves,each of which may be up to six metres long.The leaves have hard veins in their centres which,in many parts of the world,are used as brushes after the green part of the leaf has been stripped away.Immature coconut flowers are tightly clustered together among the leaves at the top of the trunk.The flower stems may be tapped for their sap to produce a drink,and the sap can also be reduced by boiling to produce a type of sugar used for cooking.

通常来说，我们想象中的椰子是棕色的炮弹形状，打开的时候会有香甜的白色果肉。但我们只看到这种水果的一部分，并没有看到结出它们的植物。椰子树有着光滑细长的灰色树干，可以长到30米高。它是建造房屋的重要木材来源，并越来越多的被用作家具建造行业频临灭绝的硬木的替代品。树干被莲座状的叶子包裹，每一片最长可以达到6米。叶子中心有着坚硬的脉络。在世界许多地方，当叶子的绿色部分被剥离之后，它们被当作刷子使用。尚未成熟的椰子花紧紧的聚集在树干顶部的叶子中。敲打花茎得到的汁液可以用来生产饮料，也可以通过煮沸浓缩来生产用于烹饪的某种糖。

第3段

Coconut palms produce as many as seventy fruits per year,weighing more than a kilogram each.The wall of the fruit has three layers:a waterproof outer layer,a fibrous middle layer and a hard,inner layer.The thick fibrous middle layer produces coconut fibre,‘coir’,which has numerous uses and is particularly important in manufacturing ropes.The woody innermost layer,the shell,with its three prominent‘eyes’,surrounds the seed.An important product obtained from the shell is charcoal,which is widely used in various industries as well as in the home as a cooking fuel.When broken in half,the shells are also used as bowls in many parts of Asia.

椰子每年可以生产70颗果实，每个重量超过1公斤。果实的外壁有三层：起防水作用的外层，纤维状的中层，以及坚硬的内层。厚实的纤维状中层出产椰子纤维，“coir”。它拥有广泛的用途，在绳索制造业尤其重要。带有三个突出的“眼睛”的木制最内层椰壳包裹着种子。从椰壳中获得的一项重要产品是木炭。它被广泛应用于各种产业，也可以作为烹饪燃料用于家中。在亚洲的许多地方，椰壳也被一分为二，当作碗来使用。

第4段

Inside the shell are the nutrients(endosperm)needed by the developing seed.Initially,the endosperm is a sweetish liquid,coconut water,which is enjoyed as a drink,but also provides the hormones which encourage other plants to grow more rapidly and produce higher yields.As the fruit matures,the coconut water gradually solidifies to form the brilliant white,fat-rich,edible flesh or meat.Dried coconut flesh,‘copra’,is made into coconut oil and coconut milk,which are widely used in cooking in different parts of the world,as well as in cosmetics.A derivative of coconut fat,glycerine,acquired strategic importance in a quite different sphere,as Alfred Nobel introduced the world to his nitroglycerine-based invention:dynamite.

椰壳内部是发育中的种子所需要的营养物质(胚乳)。起初，胚乳是香甜的液体，即椰汁。它虽然被当作饮品享用，但也提供促进其他植物快速生长和产量提升的荷尔蒙。随着果实的成熟，椰汁逐渐凝固，形成亮白、富含脂肪、可食用的果肉。干椰子肉-“copra”-被制成椰油和椰奶。它们被广泛用于世界各地的烹饪，并添加到化妆品中。随着阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔为世界带来其基于硝化甘油的发明-炸药，椰脂的衍生物-丙三醇-在不同领域取得战略性的重要地位。

第5段

Their biology would appear to make coconuts the great maritime voyagers and coastal colonizers of the plant world.The large,energy-rich fruits are able to float in water and tolerate salt,but cannot remain viable indefinitely;studies suggest after about 110 days at sea they are no longer able to germinate.Literally cast onto desert island shores,with little more than sand to grow in and exposed to the full glare of the tropical sun,coconut seeds are able to germinate and root.The air pocket in the seed,created as the endosperm solidifies,protects the embryo.In addition,the fibrous fruit wall that helped it to float during the voyage stores moisture that can be taken up by the roots of the coconut seedling as it starts to grow.

椰子的生物特性似乎使其成为植物世界伟大的航海者和海岸的殖民者。富含能量的巨大果实可以漂浮在水中，并且不受盐的影响。不过它并不能无限存活。研究发现，在海水中漂浮大约110天之后，它们就不再能发芽。即便被抛到荒岛，只有沙地可以生长，并暴露在威力全开的热带阳光之下，椰子种子依然可以生根发芽。种子中由于胚乳凝固而形成的气穴可以保护胚芽。此外，在航行过程中帮助它漂浮的纤维状果实壁储存了水分。这些水分可以在椰子幼苗开始生长时被根系所吸收。

第6段

There have been centuries of academic debate over the origins of the coconut.There were no coconut palms in West Africa,the Caribbean or the east coast of the Americas before the voyages of the European explorers Vasco da Gama and Columbus in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.16th century trade and human migration patterns reveal that Arab traders and European sailors are likely to have moved coconuts from South and Southeast Asia to Africa and then across the Atlantic to the east coast of America.But the origin of coconuts discovered along the west coast of America by 16th century sailors has been the subject of centuries of discussion.Two diametrically opposed origins have been proposed:that they came from Asia,or that they were native to America.Both suggestions have problems.In Asia,there is a large degree of coconut diversity and evidence of millennia of human use–but there are no relatives growing in the wild.In America,there are close coconut relatives,but no evidence that coconuts are indigenous.These problems have led to the intriguing suggestion that coconuts originated on coral islands in the Pacific and were dispersed from there.

关于椰子起源的学术争论已经进行了几个世纪。在15世纪末和16世纪初欧洲探险者达·伽马和哥伦布航行之前，非洲西部，加勒比海或者美洲东岸都没有椰子树的痕迹。16世纪的贸易和人类迁徙模式表明，很有可能是阿拉伯商人和欧洲水手将椰子从南亚和东南亚带往非洲，然后穿过大西洋达到美洲的东海岸。但是，16世纪水手们沿着美洲西岸发现的椰子源自何处成为几个世纪以来讨论的主题。人们提出两个截然相反的起源地：它们要么来自亚洲，要么是美洲的本土植物。两种说法都有问题。在亚洲，椰子的多样性程度很高，并且有数千年人类使用的证据-但并没有野生的亲缘植物。在美洲，有跟叶子十分亲近的亲缘植物，但没有证据表明椰子是本土生长的。这些问题催生出一种有趣的推断，椰子源于太平洋中的珊瑚岛，从那里散播开来。

剑桥雅思13Test2Passage3阅读原文翻译Making the most of trends潮流对商业策略的影响

剑桥雅思13阅读第二套题目第三篇文章的主题为潮流对商业策略的影响。文章一共8段，采用总分总的结构，一上来指出大多数经理人忽视潮流对消费者的影响，随后列举了一些具体的策略和案例，最后总结潮流是产品创新的机遇。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思13 Test2 Passage3阅读原文翻译

第1段

Most managers can identify the major trends of the day.But in the course of conducting research in a number of industries and working directly with companies,we have discovered that managers often fail to recognize the less obvious but profound ways these trends are influencing consumers’aspirations,attitudes,and behaviors.This is especially true of trends that managers view as peripheral to their core markets.

大多数经理人都能够识别当下的主要潮流。但是，在对一些行业进行研究和与各种公司直接合作的过程中，我们发现经理人往往无法意识到这些潮流正在以不那么明显但却意义深远的方式影响着消费者的需求，态度和行为。这对于那些经理人认为处于他们核心市场边缘的潮流来说，尤其如此。

第2段

Many ignore trends in their innovation strategies or adopt a wait-and-see approach and let competitors take the lead.At a minimum,such responses mean missed profit opportunities.At the extreme,they can jeopardize a company by ceding to rivals the opportunity to transform the industry.The purpose of this article is twofold:to spur managers to think more expansively about how trends could engender new value propositions in their core markets,and to provide some high-level advice on how to make market research and product development personnel more adept at analyzing and exploiting trends.

许多人在他们的创新战略中忽视潮流因素，或者采用一种“等等看”的策略，结果让竞争对手拔得头筹。最 低限度来讲，这些应对意味着错过盈利的机会。最严重的情况下，他们将改变整个行业的机会拱手让给竞争对手，从而危及自己的公司。这篇文章带有双重目的：刺激经理人以一种更为宽泛的方式思考潮流如何在他们的核心市场中创造新的价值增长点，以及针对如何进行市场研究并使得产品开发人员更加擅长分析和利用潮流提出一些高水平的意见。

第3段

One strategy,known as‘infuse and augment’,is to design a product or service that retains most of the attributes and functions of existing products in the category but adds others that address the needs and desires unleashed by a major trend.A case in point is the Poppy range of handbags,which the firm Coach created in response to the economic downturn of 2008.The Coach brand had been a symbol of opulence and luxury for nearly 70 years,and the most obvious reaction to the downturn would have been to lower prices.However,that would have risked cheapening the brand’s image.Instead,they initiated a consumer-research project which revealed that customers were eager to lift themselves and the country out of tough times.Using these insights,Coach launched the lower-priced Poppy handbags,which were in vibrant colors,and looked more youthful and playful than conventional Coach products.Creating the sub-brand allowed Coach to avert an across-the-board price cut.In contrast to the many companies that responded to the recession by cutting prices,Coach saw the new consumer mindset as an opportunity for innovation and renewal.

一种被称为“渗透与扩充”的战略是设计一种产品或服务。它保留同类现存产品大部分的特征与功能，但同时添加一些其他东西来满足主流趋势所释放出来的需求与渴望。这一战略的一个案例是Poppy系列手袋。它由蔻驰公司推出以应对2008年的经济衰退。在将近70年的时间里，蔻驰品牌一直都是财富与奢 侈的象征，而应对经济衰退最显而易见的反应本应是降低价格。但是，那将冒着使品牌形象贬值的风险。因此，取而代之的是，他们发起了一项消费者调查项目，发现消费者十分渴望将自己和国家带出这段艰难的时期。利用这些发现，蔻驰推出低价的Poppy手袋。它们颜色鲜艳，相比于传统的蔻驰产品看起来更加年轻化和有趣。创造这一子品牌使得蔻驰可以免于降低全线产品的价格。与许多公司通过降价来应对衰退的方式相比，蔻驰将新的消费者观念看作是创新和自我更新的机遇。

第4段

A further example of this strategy was supermarket Tesco’s response to consumers’growing concerns about the environment.With that in mind,Tesco,one of the world’s top five retailers,introduced its Greener Living program,which demonstrates the company’s commitment to protecting the environment by involving consumers in ways that produce tangible results.For example,Tesco customers can accumulate points for such activities as reusing bags,recycling cans and printer cartridges,and buying home-insulation materials.Like points earned on regular purchases,these green points can be redeemed for cash.Tesco has not abandoned its traditional retail offerings but augmented its business with these innovations,thereby infusing its value proposition with a green streak.

这一战略的另一个例子是Tesco超市面对消费者越来越关心环境所做出的应对。了解到这一情况后，Tesco，世界五大零售商之一，推出了它的“绿色生活项目”，通过一些让消费者参与其中并产生实际效果的方式，展示该公司对环境保护的承诺。例如，Tesco的顾客可以通过反复使用购物袋，回收易拉罐和打印机墨盒，购买家居隔热材料等活动来积分。跟日常购物行为所获取的积分一样，这些绿色积分可以兑换现金。Tesco并没有放弃其传统的零售服务，而是利用这些创新扩充了自己的业务，并凭此在它的价值定位中注入了一抹环保色彩。

第5段

A more radical strategy is‘combine and transcend’.This entails combining aspects of the product’s existing value proposition with attributes addressing changes arising from a trend,to create a novel experience–one that may land the company in an entirely new market space.At first glance,spending resources to incorporate elements of a seemingly irrelevant trend into one’s core offerings sounds like it’s hardly worthwhile.But consider Nike’s move to integrate the digital revolution into its reputation for high-performance athletic footwear.In 2006,they teamed up with technology company Apple to launch Nike+,a digital sports kit comprising a sensor that attaches to the running shoe and a wireless receiver that connects to the user’s iPod.By combining Nike’s original value proposition for amateur athletes with one for digital consumers,the Nike+sports kit and web interface moved the company from a focus on athletic apparel to a new plane of engagement with its customers.

一种更为激进的战略是“融合与超越”。这涉及将产品现存的价值定位与针对潮流中所产生变化的新特征结合在一起，从而创造出新奇的体验。这可能将公司带入全新的市场领域。乍看起来，耗费资源将看似不相关的潮流元素融入一家公司的核心产品好像不太值得。但想想耐克的举动。它将数字革命融入到自己高性能运动鞋的声誉之中。2006年，他们与科技公司苹果合作推出了耐克+，一款数码运动设备，包括一个附加在跑鞋上的传感器和一个连接到用户iPod的无线接收装置。通过结合耐克原本针对业余运动爱好者的价值定位与针对数码消费者的价值定位，耐克+运动设备与网络界面将该公司从专注运动服饰带向了一个吸引消费者的新平台。

第6段

A third approach,known as‘counteract and reaffirm’,involves developing products or services that stress the values traditionally associated with the category in ways that allow consumers to oppose–or at least temporarily escape from–the aspects of trends they view as undesirable.A product that accomplished this is the ME2,a video game created by Canada’s iToys.By reaffirming the toy category’s association with physical play,the ME2 counteracted some of the widely perceived negative impacts of digital gaming devices.Like other handheld games,the device featured a host of exciting interactive games,a foil-color LCD screen,and advanced 3D graphics.What set it apart was that it incorporated the traditional physical component of children’s play:it contained a pedometer,which tracked and awarded points for physical activity(walking,running,biking,skateboarding,climbing stairs).The child could use the points to enhance various virtual skills needed for the video game.The ME2,introduced in mid-2008,catered to kids’huge desire to play video games while countering the negatives,such as associations with lack of exercise and obesity.

第三种策略被称为“抵制与重申”，即以一种允许消费者反对，或者至少暂时逃离潮流中他们所不喜欢方面的方式，开发产品与服务来强调传统上与该类别联系在一起的价值体系。实现这一策略的一个产品是ME2，一款由加拿大iToys公司所推出的电子游戏。通过重申玩具品类与体育锻炼之间的联系，ME2得以抵制一些大众普遍认可的数码游戏设备的负面影响。正如其他手持游戏一样，该设备配备全色彩液晶显示屏和先进的立体画面，以一系列令人兴奋的互动游戏为特征。与众不同的地方在于，它结合了儿童游戏的传统运动因素，内置计步器，可以记录体育活动(徒步，跑步，骑行，滑板和爬楼梯)并奖励积分。孩子可以使用积分来强化游戏所需要的各种虚拟技能。2008年年中推出的ME2既照顾到孩子玩游戏的巨大渴望，也抵制了一些负面看法，例如游戏与缺乏运动和肥胖之间的联系。

第7段

Once you have gained perspective on how trend-related changes in consumer opinions and behaviors impact on your category,you can determine which of our three innovation strategies to pursue.When your category’s basic value proposition continues to be meaningful for consumers influenced by the trend,the infuse-and-augment strategy will allow you to reinvigorate the category.If analysis reveals an increasing disparity between your category and consumers’new focus,your innovations need to transcend the category to integrate the two worlds.Finally,if aspects of the category clash with undesired outcomes of a trend,such as associations with unhealthy lifestyles,there is an opportunity to counteract those changes by reaffirming the core values of your category.

一旦你了解到消费者观念和行为方面与潮流相关的变化如何影响你的产品序列，那么你就可以决定采用我们三项创新策略中的哪一项。当你的产品的基本价值定位对受到潮流影响的消费者仍有意义时，“渗透与扩充”战略可以使产品复兴。如果分析显示，你的产品和消费者新的关注点之间的分歧越来越大，那么创新就需要超越该品类来融合两个不同的世界。最后，如果产品的某些方面正好与潮流中令人不悦的地方相冲突，比如与不健康的生活方式发生了关联，那么有机会通过重申品类的核心价值来抵制这些变化。

第8段

Trends–technological,economic,environmental,social,or political–that affect how people perceive the world around them and shape what they expect from products and services present firms with unique opportunities for growth.

那些影响人们如何看待周围世界，并塑造他们对产品和服务具体期待的潮流-无论是技术的、经济的、环境的、社会的、还是政治的-都为公司提供增长的独特机遇。

剑桥雅思13Test2Passage2阅读原文翻译Oxytocin催产素

剑桥雅思13阅读第二套题目第二篇文章的主题为催产素。文章一共6段，分别介绍了催产素是什么，人们过去对它的看法，实际上其作用因人而异，之前被研究者忽视的现象，以及其复杂作用背后的原因。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思13 Test2 Passage2阅读原文翻译

段落A

Oxytocin is a chemical,a hormone produced in the pituitary gland in the brain.It was through various studies focusing on animals that scientists first became aware of the influence of oxytocin.They discovered that it helps reinforce the bonds between prairie voles,which mate for life,and triggers the motherly behaviour that sheep show towards their newborn lambs.It is also released by women in childbirth,strengthening the attachment between mother and baby.Few chemicals have as positive a reputation as oxytocin,which is sometimes referred to as the‘love hormone’.One sniff of it can,it is claimed,make a person more trusting,empathetic,generous and cooperative.It is time,however,to revise this wholly optimistic view.A new wave of studies has shown that its effects vary greatly depending on the person and the circumstances,and it can impact on our social interactions for worse as well as for better.

催产素是一种化学物质，一种由大脑中脑垂体分泌的荷尔蒙。通过对动物的各种试验，科学家首 次意识到催产素的影响。他们发现，它有助于加强草原田鼠配偶之间的亲密度，激发绵羊对新出生羊羔的母性行为。女性在生产时也会分泌该物质，加强母亲和孩子之间的联系。很少有化学物质拥有像催产素这样良好的名声。它有时被称为“爱情荷尔蒙”。据称，只要轻轻嗅一口，就可以让一个人变得更加信赖别人，更有同理心，更加慷慨，也更加富有合作精神。然而，是时候修改这一全盘乐观的观点了。新一批的研究显示，其作用会根据个人和环境的不同而出现很大差异。它可以影响我们的社交互动，即能让它变得更差，也能让它变得更好。

段落B

Oxytocin’s role in human behaviour first emerged in 2005.In a groundbreaking experiment,Markus Heinrichs and his colleagues at the University of Freiburg,Germany,asked volunteers to do an activity in which they could invest money with an anonymous person who was not guaranteed to be honest.The team found that participants who had sniffed oxytocin via a nasal spray beforehand invested more money than those who received a placebo instead.The study was the start of research into the effects of oxytocin on human interactions.‘For eight years,it was quite a lonesome field,’Heinrichs recalls.‘Now,everyone is interested.’These follow-up studies have shown that after a sniff of the hormone,people become more charitable,better at reading emotions on others’faces and at communicating constructively in arguments.Together,the results fuelled the view that oxytocin universally enhanced the positive aspects of our social nature.

2005年，催产素在人类行为中的作用首 次被发现。在一次开创性的实验中，德国弗莱堡大学的Markus Heinrichs和他的同事邀请志愿者进行一项活动。在该活动中，他们可以对一个并不保证诚信的匿名人物进行投资。该团队发现，相比于那些吸入安慰剂的人来说，那些事先通过喷鼻剂吸入催产素的参与者投的钱更多。该研究开启了对催产素如何影响人类互动的探索。“8年来，它一直都是一个无人问津的领域”，Heinrichs回忆到，“现在，每个人都兴趣盎然”。随后的研究显示，在吸入荷尔蒙之后，人们变得更加宽厚，更能从他人的面部读取情绪，更能在争论中建设性地交流意见。加在一起，这些结果催生出这样一种观念，即催产素全面加强了我们社交属性中的积极方面。

段落C

Then,after a few years,contrasting findings began to emerge.Simone Shamay-Tsoory at the University of Haifa,Israel,found that when volunteers played a competitive game,those who inhaled the hormone showed more pleasure when they beat other players,and felt more envy when others won.What’s more,administering oxytocin also has sharply contrasting outcomes depending on a person’s disposition.Jennifer Bartz from Mount Sinai School of Medicine,New York,found that it improves people’s ability to read emotions,but only if they are not very socially adept to begin with.Her research also shows that oxytocin in fact reduces cooperation in subjects who are particularly anxious or sensitive to rejection.

几年后，相反的研究结果开始出现。以色列海法大学的Simone Shamay-Tsoory发现，当志愿者进行竞争性游戏时，那些吸入荷尔蒙的人会在击败其他玩家时表现出更多的愉悦，而在其他人获胜时则会更加嫉妒。此外，使用催产素也会因为个人性格而出现截然不同的结果。纽约西奈山医学院的Jennifer Bartz发现，它确实能够提升人们阅读情绪的能力，但这一点只有在他们本来不怎么擅长社交的情况下才成立。她的研究还显示，催产素事实上减少了那些对拒绝特别紧张或者敏感的实验对象之间的合作。

段落D

Another discovery is that oxytocin’s effects vary depending on who we are interacting with.Studies conducted by Carolyn DeClerck of the University of Antwerp,Belgium,revealed that people who had received a dose of oxytocin actually became less cooperative when dealing with complete strangers.Meanwhile,Carsten De Dreu at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands discovered that volunteers given oxytocin showed favouritism:Dutch men became quicker to associate positive words with Dutch names than with foreign ones,for example.According to De Dreu,oxytocin drives people to care for those in their social circles and defend them from outside dangers.So,it appears that oxytocin strengthens biases,rather than promoting general goodwill,as was previously thought.

另外一项发现是，催产素的效果也会因我们进行互动的人的不同而出现差异。比利时安特卫普大学Carolyn DeClerck所进行的研究表明，摄入催产素的人在与完全陌生的人打交道时变得不那么配合。与此同时，荷兰阿姆斯特丹大学的Carsten De Dreu发现，被给予催产素的实验者展现出偏好行为，例如，荷兰男性会更快的将积极词汇与荷兰姓名而非外国姓名联系在一起。根据De Dreu的研究，催产素驱使人们关心那些处于他们社交圈中的人，并保护他们远离外部危险。所以，催产素似乎强化了偏见，而不是像之前所认为的那样，整体提升人们的善念。

段落E

There were signs of these subtleties from the start.Bartz has recently shown that in almost half of the existing research results,oxytocin influenced only certain individuals or in certain circumstances.Where once researchers took no notice of such findings,now a more nuanced understanding of oxytocin’s effects is propelling investigations down new lines.To Bartz,the key to understanding what the hormone does lies in pinpointing its core function rather than in cataloguing its seemingly endless effects.There are several hypotheses which are not mutually exclusive.Oxytocin could help to reduce anxiety and fear.Or it could simply motivate people to seek out social connections.She believes that oxytocin acts as a chemical spotlight that shines on social clues–a shift in posture,a flicker of the eyes,a dip in the voice–making people more attuned to their social environment.This would explain why it makes us more likely to look others in the eye and improves our ability to identify emotions.But it could also make things worse for people who are overly sensitive or prone to interpreting social cues in the worst light.

从一开始就有这些微妙之处的迹象。Bartz最近指出，在将近一半的现有研究结果中，催产素只影响了特定的个体或者只在特定的环境中发挥作用。研究者曾一度忽视了这些发现，而现在对催产素作用更为细致的理解正推动调查研究沿着一条新的路径前进。对于Bartz来说，理解荷尔蒙作用的关键在于确定其核心功能，而非归纳整理其似乎无穷无尽的影响。现在有几种并不完全互相排斥的理论假设。催产素能够帮助缓解紧张和恐惧。或者，它只是简单的推动人们去寻找社交联系。她认为，催产素就像照耀社交提示(姿势的改变，眼睛的眨动，嗓音变低)的聚光灯一样，使得人们更加适应他们的社交环境。这解释了为什么它让我们更有可能去注视别人的眼睛，提升我们识别情绪的能力。但它对于那些过度敏感，或者倾向于用最坏的方式解读社交线索的人来说，则会使情况变得更加糟糕。

段落F

Perhaps we should not be surprised that the oxytocin story has become more perplexing.The hormone is found in everything from octopuses to sheep,and its evolutionary roots stretch back half a billion years.‘It’s a very simple and ancient molecule that has been co-opted for many different functions,’says Sue Carter at the University of Illinois,Chicago,USA.‘It affects primitive parts of the brain like the amygdala,so it’s going to have many effects on just about everything.’Bartz agrees.‘Oxytocin probably does some very basic things,but once you add our higher-order thinking and social situations,these basic processes could manifest in different ways depending on individual differences and context.’

或许，我们并不应该为催产素的故事变得更加复杂而感到吃惊。从章鱼到绵羊的万事万物中都能找到荷尔蒙的存在，它的进化源头可以追溯到50亿年前。“它是一种十分简单又古老的分子，整合了许多不同的功能”，美国芝加哥伊利诺伊大学的Sue Carter说，“它影响着像杏仁体这样大脑中最为基本的部分，所以它会对几乎所有事情产生许多影响”。Bartz同意这种说法。“催产素可能起着一些十分基本的作用，不过一旦你加入我们更为高阶的思考和社交情景，这些基本过程就会因个体差异和背景而以不同的方式显现出来”。

剑桥雅思13Test2Passage1阅读原文翻译Bring cinnamon to Europe肉桂在欧洲的历史

剑桥雅思13阅读第二套题目第 一篇文章的主题为肉桂在欧洲的发展历史。文章一共6段，按照时间顺序介绍了肉桂在古代欧洲的用途，运往欧洲的传统方式，以及先是葡萄牙人，再是荷兰人，最后是英国人对其贸易的垄断。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思13 Test2 Passage1阅读原文翻译

第1段

Cinnamon is a sweet,fragrant spice produced from the inner bark of trees of the genus Cinnamomum,which is native to the Indian sub-continent.It was known in biblical times,and is mentioned in several books of the Bible,both as an ingredient that was mixed with oils for anointing people’s bodies,and also as a token indicating friendship among lovers and friends.In ancient Rome,mourners attending funerals burnt cinnamon to create a pleasant scent.Most often,however,the spice found its primary use as an additive to food and drink.In the Middle Ages,Europeans who could afford the spice used it to flavour food,particularly meat,and to impress those around them with their ability to purchase an expensive condiment from the‘exotic’East.At a banquet,a host would offer guests a plate with various spices piled upon it as a sign of the wealth at his or her disposal.Cinnamon was also reported to have health benefits,and was thought to cure various ailments,such as indigestion.

肉桂是一种带有甜味、富有芳香的香料，产自樟属树木的内层树皮，原产地为印度次大陆。它在圣经时代就广为人知，并在圣经的多个章节被提及。它即可以作为原料跟油混在一起涂抹人们的身体，也被当作爱人和朋友之间情谊的象征。在古代罗马，参加葬礼的吊唁者会焚烧肉桂以创造怡人的气味。然而，这种香料最常见的用途还是作为食物和饮料的添加剂。在中世纪，买的起香料的欧洲人用它来给食物，尤其是肉类调味，并利用它向周围的人炫耀他们能够买得起来自奇异东方的昂贵调料。在宴会中，主人会向客人提供堆满香料的盘子，作为其可支配财富的象征。肉桂还被认为有益于健康，可以治疗各种小病，比如消化不良。

第2段

Toward the end of the Middle Ages,the European middle classes began to desire the lifestyle of the elite,including their consumption of spices.This led to a growth in demand for cinnamon and other spices.At that time,cinnamon was transported by Arab merchants,who closely guarded the secret of the source of the spice from potential rivals.They took it from India,where it was grown,on camels via an overland route to the Mediterranean.Their journey ended when they reached Alexandria.European traders sailed there to purchase their supply of cinnamon,then brought it back to Venice.The spice then travelled from that great trading city to markets all around Europe.Because the overland trade route allowed for only small quantities of the spice to reach Europe,and because Venice had a virtual monopoly of the trade,the Venetians could set the price of cinnamon exorbitantly high.These prices,coupled with the increasing demand,spurred the search for new routes to Asia by Europeans eager to take part in the spice trade.

到了中世纪末期，欧洲中产阶级家庭开始渴望上层人物的生活方式，其中就包括他们对香料的消费。这导致对肉桂和其他香料需求的增长。那时，肉桂由阿拉伯商人负责运输。他们对可能的竞争者严格保守香料来源的秘密。他们将它从印度这一生长地带走，利用骆驼经由陆路运至地中海。他们的旅程在到达亚历山大港时终止。欧洲商人会乘船到那里购买他们所提供的肉桂，然后将它带回威尼斯。之后香料再从这一大型贸易城市运往全欧洲的市场。因为陆上贸易路线只能够运输少量香料到达欧洲，同时也因为威尼斯对该贸易的实际垄断，威尼斯人可以将肉桂的价格定的十分离谱。这样的价位，再加上日益增长的需求刺激那些急于在香料贸易中分一杯羹的欧洲人寻找到达亚洲的新路线。

第3段

Seeking the high profits promised by the cinnamon market,Portuguese traders arrived on the island of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean toward the end of the 15th century.Before Europeans arrived on the island,the state had organized the cultivation of cinnamon.People belonging to the ethnic group called the Salagama would peel the bark off young shoots of the cinnamon plant in the rainy season,when the wet bark was more pliable.During the peeling process,they curled the bark into the‘stick’shape still associated with the spice today.The Salagama then gave the finished product to the king as a form of tribute.When the Portuguese arrived,they needed to increase production significantly,and so enslaved many other members of the Ceylonese native population,forcing them to work in cinnamon harvesting.In 1518,the Portuguese built a fort on Ceylon,which enabled them to protect the island,so helping them to develop a monopoly in the cinnamon trade and generate very high profits.In the late 16th century,for example,they enjoyed a tenfold profit when shipping cinnamon over a journey of eight days from Ceylon to India.

追逐肉桂市场所带来的高额利润，葡萄牙商人在15世纪末时来到了印度洋的锡兰岛。在欧洲人到达该岛屿之前，其统治者已经开始有组织地栽培肉桂。被称为Salagama的少数民族会在雨季期间剥掉肉桂树嫩枝的树皮。此时潮湿的树皮更为柔韧。在剥皮过程中，他们会将树皮卷成棍子的形状。这一香料形状一直延续到今天。随后，Salagama人会将制成的产品作为贡品献给国王。在葡萄牙人到达之后，他们需要大幅提升产量，因此奴役了锡兰岛上许多其他的原住民，逼迫他们从事肉桂采集的工作。1518年，葡萄牙人在锡兰岛上建造了一座堡垒，以便他们能够守卫该岛，从而帮助他们取得肉桂贸易中的垄断地位，并产生高额利润。例如，在16世纪末期，当肉桂从锡兰经过8天的旅程到达印度之后，他们可以赚取10倍的利润。

第4段

When the Dutch arrived off the coast of southern Asia at the very beginning of the 17th century,they set their sights on displacing the Portuguese as kings of cinnamon.The Dutch allied themselves with Kandy,an inland kingdom on Ceylon.In return for payments of elephants and cinnamon,they protected the native king from the Portuguese.By 1640,the Dutch broke the 150-year Portuguese monopoly when they overran and occupied their factories.By 1658,they had permanently expelled the Portuguese from the island,thereby gaining control of the lucrative cinnamon trade.

当荷兰人在17世纪之初到达南亚海岸时，他们期待取代葡萄牙人肉桂之 王的地位。荷兰人与锡兰岛上的一个内陆国家Kandy结盟。作为对方支付大象和肉桂的报酬，他们保护当地国王免受葡萄牙人的侵害。到了1640年，荷兰人推翻并占领葡萄牙人的工厂，打破了其长达150年的垄断地位。到了1658年，他们永 久性地将葡萄牙人驱逐出该岛，并因此控制了一本万利的肉桂贸易。

第5段

In order to protect their hold on the market,the Dutch,like the Portuguese before them,treated the native inhabitants harshly.Because of the need to boost production and satisfy Europe’s ever-increasing appetite for cinnamon,the Dutch began to alter the harvesting practices of the Ceylonese.Over time,the supply of cinnamon trees on the island became nearly exhausted,due to systematic stripping of the bark.Eventually,the Dutch began cultivating their own cinnamon trees to supplement the diminishing number of wild trees available for use.

为了保护自己对市场的掌控，荷兰人像之前的葡萄牙人一样，对待岛上居民十分严苛。为了提升产量，满足欧洲对肉桂不断增长的胃口，荷兰人开始改变锡兰人的采集方法。随着时间的推移，岛上肉桂树的供应因为该系统性的剥皮而接近枯竭。最终，荷兰人开始培育他们自己的肉桂树以弥补可供使用的野生树木数量的减少。

第6段

Then,in 1796,the English arrived on Ceylon,thereby displacing the Dutch from their control of the cinnamon monopoly.By the middle of the 19th century,production of cinnamon reached 1,000 tons a year,after a lower grade quality of the spice became acceptable to European tastes.By that time,cinnamon was being grown in other parts of the Indian Ocean region and in the West Indies,Brazil,and Guyana.Not only was a monopoly of cinnamon becoming impossible,but the spice trade overall was diminishing in economic potential,and was eventually superseded by the rise of trade in coffee,tea,chocolate,and sugar.

随后，1796年时，英国人来到了锡兰岛，就此取代荷兰人对肉桂的垄断地位。19世纪中叶，在一种品质稍低的香料得到欧洲人口味的认可之后，肉桂产量达到每年1000吨。那时，肉桂在印度洋其他地区，以及西印度群岛、巴西和圭亚那都有种植。不仅垄断肉桂成为一件不可能的事情，而且整个香料贸易的经济潜力也在缩减，最终被咖啡、茶叶、巧克力和糖的贸易增长所超越。

剑桥雅思13Test1Passage3阅读原文翻译Artificial artists人工智能艺术家

剑桥雅思13阅读第 一套题目第三篇文章的主题为人工智能艺术家。文章一共7段，分别介绍了人工智能目前在艺术领域所取得的成就，它们对人类的挑战，具体的发展过程，人们所存在的偏见，以及对这种偏见的解释。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思13 Test1 Passage3阅读原文翻译

第1段

The Painting Fool is one of a growing number of computer programs which,so their makers claim,possess creative talents.Classical music by an artificial composer has had audiences enraptured,and even tricked them into believing a human was behind the score.Artworks painted by a robot have sold for thousands of dollars and been hung in prestigious galleries.And software has been built which creates art that could not have been imagined by the programmer.

“绘画愚人”是越来越多拥有创造性天赋的(至少它们的创造者是这么说的)计算机程序之一。人工智能作曲家所创作的古典音乐令观众陶醉其中，甚至让他们误以为这是某个人类的杰作。机器人绘画的艺术品曾卖出上千美元的高价，并被挂在著 名的艺术馆中展览。还有一些软件创造出其程序员从来都不曾想象过的艺术品。

第2段

Human beings are the only species to perform sophisticated creative acts regularly.If we can break this process down into computer code,where does that leave human creativity?‘This is a question at the very core of humanity,’says Geraint Wiggins,a computational creativity researcher at Goldsmiths,University of London.‘It scares a lot of people.They are worried that it is taking something special away from what it means to be human.’

人类是唯 一能够经常完成复杂而又富有创造性行为的物种。如果我们将该过程分解为计算机代码，那么这将人类的创造力置于何处呢?“这是一个关乎人性最核心内容的问题”，伦敦大学史密斯学院的一位计算机创造力研究者Geraint Wiggins说到，“它吓到了许多人。他们担心这将剥夺一些人之所以为人的特殊东西”。

第3段

To some extent,we are all familiar with computerised art.The question is:where does the work of the artist stop and the creativity of the computer begin?Consider one of the oldest machine artists,Aaron,a robot that has had paintings exhibited in London’s Tate Modern and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.Aaron can pick up a paintbrush and paint on canvas on its own.Impressive perhaps,but it is still little more than a tool to realise the programmer’s own creative ideas.

从某种程度上来说，我们都对计算机艺术十分熟悉。问题在于，艺术家的工作止于何处，而计算机的创造力又从何处开始?想想最古老的机器艺术家之一，Aaron。其创作的画作被陈列在伦敦泰特现代美术馆和旧金山现代艺术博物馆中。Aaron能独自拿起画笔，并在帆布上作画。或许这令人惊叹，但它仍然不过是一件实现程序员自身创造性想法的工具。

第4段

Simon Colton,the designer of the Painting Fool,is keen to make sure his creation doesn’t attract the same criticism.Unlike earlier‘artists’such as Aaron,the Painting Fool only needs minimal direction and can come up with its own concepts by going online for material.The software runs its own web searches and trawls through social media sites.It is now beginning to display a kind of imagination too,creating pictures from scratch.One of its original works is a series of fuzzy landscapes,depicting trees and sky.While some might say they have a mechanical look,Colton argues that such reactions arise from people’s double standards towards software-produced and human-produced art.After all,he says,consider that the Painting Fool painted the landscapes without referring to a photo.‘If a child painted a new scene from its head,you’d say it has a certain level of imagination,’he points out.‘The same should be true of a machine.’Software bugs can also lead to unexpected results.Some of the Painting Fool’s paintings of a chair came out in black and white,thanks to a technical glitch.This gives the work an eerie,ghostlike quality.Human artists like the renowned Ellsworth Kelly are lauded for limiting their colour palette–so why should computers be any different?

“绘画愚人”的设计者Simon Colton渴望确保他的作品不会引来同样的批评。不像诸如Aaron这样的早期艺术家，“绘画愚人”只需要极少的指示，并且能够通过在互联网上寻找材料提出其自己的想法。该软件运行自己的网络搜索功能，浏览社交媒体的各个页面。它现在也开始展示出某种想象力，从零创作图片。其原创作品之一是一系列描绘树木和天空的朦胧风景画。虽然一些人可能会说它们看起来有些机械，但Colton认为这种反应源自人们对于软件创作和人类创作的艺术品的双重标准。毕竟，他说，要考虑到“绘画愚人”在描绘风景的时候并没有参考照片。“如果一个孩子从自己的头脑中描绘出一副崭新的景象，你会说它有一定程度的想象力”，他指出。”同样的标准也应该适用于机器“。软件错误也能造成一些出乎意料的结果。由于技术故障，一些“绘画愚人”的作品将椅子画成了黑白色。这赋予画作一种怪诞、诡异的感觉。诸如Ellsworth Kelly这样著 名的人类艺术家就因为尽量少的使用颜色而受到传颂-所以为什么计算机就应该有所不同呢?

第5段

Researchers like Colton don’t believe it is right to measure machine creativity directly to that of humans who‘have had millennia to develop our skills’.Others,though,are fascinated by the prospect that a computer might create something as original and subtle as our best artists.So far,only one has come close.Composer David Cope invented a program called Experiments in Musical Intelligence,or EMI.Not only did EMI create compositions in Cope’s style,but also that of the most revered classical composers,including Bach,Chopin and Mozart.Audiences were moved to tears,and EMI even fooled classical music experts into thinking they were hearing genuine Bach.Not everyone was impressed however.Some,such as Wiggins,have blasted Cope’s work as pseudoscience,and condemned him for his deliberately vague explanation of how the software worked.Meanwhile,Douglas Hofstadter of Indiana University said EMI created replicas which still rely completely on the original artist’s creative impulses.When audiences found out the truth they were often outraged with Cope,and one music lover even tried to punch him.Amid such controversy,Cope destroyed EMI’s vital databases.

像Colton这样的研究者认为，将机器的创造力直接与人类相比并不正确，因为人类已经用了上千年来提升我们的技巧。然而，另一些人则痴迷于这样的前景，即计算机可能创造出与我们最好的艺术家同样富有创造力、同样巧妙的作品。到目前为止，只有一位接近这一目标。作曲家David Cope发明了一个叫做“音乐智能实验”的程序，简称为EMI。EMI不仅可以创作Cope风格的乐曲，而且还能模仿最受尊崇的古典音乐作曲家的作品，包括巴赫、肖邦和莫扎特。观众被感动至流泪。EMI甚至让古典音乐专家误以为他们听到的是真正的巴赫作品。然而，并非每个人都为此惊叹。一些人，比如Wiggins，就猛烈抨击Cope的作品是伪科学，并谴责他对于该软件的工作方式故意含糊其辞。与此同时，印第安纳大学的Douglas Hofstadter认为，EMI所创作的仿制品仍然完全依赖于原本艺术家的创作冲动。当听众发现真相时，他们经常会对Cope感到异常地愤怒。一名音乐爱好者甚至想要揍他。在这些争议之中，Cope销毁了EMI至关重要的数据库。

第6段

But why did so many people love the music,yet recoil when they discovered how it was composed?A study by computer scientist David Moffat of Glasgow Caledonian University provides a clue.He asked both expert musicians and non-experts to assess six compositions.The participants weren’t told beforehand whether the tunes were composed by humans or computers,but were asked to guess,and then rate how much they liked each one.People who thought the composer was a computer tended to dislike the piece more than those who believed it was human.This was true even among the experts,who might have been expected to be more objective in their analyses.

但是，为什么会有如此多的人喜欢音乐，却在发现它的创作方式时感到厌恶呢?格拉斯哥卡利多尼亚大学的计算机科学家David Moffat所进行的一项研究为我们提供了线索。他让专业音乐家和非专业人员评估六首作品。参与者事先未被告知这些音乐是由人类所创作的还是由计算机所创作的，但被要求进行猜测，然后根据他们对每一首的喜欢程度进行分级。认为创作者是计算机的人们通常比那些认为创作者是人类的人更加不喜欢该乐曲。甚至在专家中也是如此。而人们原本期待他们的分析会更加客观。

第7段

Where does this prejudice come from?Paul Bloom of Yale University has a suggestion:he reckons part of the pleasure we get from art stems from the creative process behind the work.This can give it an‘irresistible essence’,says Bloom.Meanwhile,experiments by Justin Kruger of New York University have shown that people’s enjoyment of an artwork increases if they think more time and effort was needed to create it.Similarly,Colton thinks that when people experience art,they wonder what the artist might have been thinking or what the artist is trying to tell them.It seems obvious,therefore,that with computers producing art,this speculation is cut short–there’s nothing to explore.But as technology becomes increasingly complex,finding those greater depths in computer art could become possible.This is precisely why Colton asks the Painting Fool to tap into online social networks for its inspiration:hopefully this way it will choose themes that will already be meaningful to us.

这种偏见来自何处呢?耶鲁大学的Paul Bloom提出如下见解：他认为我们从艺术中获得的部分乐趣来源于其背后的创作过程。这能够赋予它一种“无法抗拒的本质”，Bloom说。与此同时，纽约大学Justin Kruger所进行的实验表明，如果人们认为创作一件艺术品所需要的时间和努力更多，那么他们就会更加欣赏它。相似的，Colton认为当人们体验艺术时，他们会好奇艺术家当时在想什么，或者尝试告诉他们什么。因此，原因似乎很明显，如果是计算机所创作的艺术，这一推测过程被缩短了-没有什么东西可供探索。但随着技术变得越来越复杂，在计算机艺术品中探索更为深入的内涵也许会成为可能。这也正是Colton让“绘画愚人”搜索社交媒体以获取灵感的原因：希望通过这种方式，它可以选择那些对我们来说已经具有意义的主题。

剑桥雅思13Test1Passage2阅读原文翻译Why being bored is stimulating and useful too

剑桥雅思13阅读第1套题目第1篇文章的主题为“厌烦”这种情绪。文章一共6段，分别介绍了定义和定性“厌烦”的困难，对“厌烦”的分类，对该情绪的不同看法，性格与它之间所存在的联系，以及一种新的“厌烦”感的来源和应对之道。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思13 Test1 Passage2阅读原文翻译

段落A

We all know how it feels–it’s impossible to keep your mind on anything,time stretches out,and all the things you could do seem equally unlikely to make you feel better.But defining boredom so that it can be studied in the lab has proved difficult.For a start,it can include a lot of other mental states,such as frustration,apathy,depression and indifference.There isn’t even agreement over whether boredom is always a low-energy,flat kind of emotion or whether feeling agitated and restless counts as boredom,too.In his book,Boredom:A Lively History,Peter Toohey at the University of Calgary,Canada,compares it to disgust–an emotion that motivates us to stay away from certain situations.‘If disgust protects humans from infection,boredom may protect them from“infectious”social situations,’he suggests.

我们都知道这种感觉——无法集中注意力到任何事情上，时间变得格外迟缓，所有事情都似乎无法让自己感觉好受一些。但要定义厌烦这种情绪，以便它可以在实验室里接受研究，却被证明十分困难。首先，它包含许多其他精神状态，如沮丧、冷漠、压抑和漠不关心。人们甚至对于“厌烦是否总是一种低能量、平淡的情绪状态”，或者“焦躁不安、坐立不宁是否算作厌烦”都存在争议。加拿大卡尔加里大学的Peter Toohey在其著作《厌烦：一段鲜活的历史》中将它与厌恶(一种促使我们脱离特定情景的情绪)进行了比较。他提出：“如果厌恶保护人类免受感染，那么厌烦可能保护他们远离“感染性”的社会情景。

段落B

By asking people about their experiences of boredom,Thomas Goetz and his team at the University of Konstanz in Germany have recently identified five distinct types:indifferent,calibrating,searching,reactant and apathetic.These can be plotted on two axes–one running left to right,which measures low to high arousal,and the other from top to bottom,which measures how positive or negative the feeling is.Intriguingly,Goetz has found that while people experience all kinds of boredom,they tend to specialise in one.Of the five types,the most damaging is‘reactant’boredom with its explosive combination of high arousal and negative emotion.The most useful is what Goetz calls‘indifferent’boredom:someone isn’t engaged in anything satisfying but still feels relaxed and calm.However,it remains to be seen whether there are any character traits that predict the kind of boredom each of us might be prone to.

通过询问人们厌烦的经历，德国康斯坦茨大学的Thomas Goetz及其团队最近界定出五种不同的类型：漠不关心，摇摆不定，有所期待、应激反应和无动于衷。这些类型可以被置于两条坐标轴中：一条从左到右，表示从低到高的情感激发;另一条从上到下，表示情绪的积极或消极程度。有趣的是，Goetz发现，虽然人们会体验各种各样的厌烦情绪，但他们常常集中于其中一种。在五种类型中，最 具破坏性的是“应激反应型”厌烦。它综合了高应激反应和消极情绪的爆发式力量。最有用的类型是被Goetz称为“漠不关心型”的厌烦，即某人并没有从事任何让人满足的活动，但依然感到放松和平静。然而，是否存在一些可以预示我们更加倾向于哪种厌烦类型的性格特点仍然有待研究。

段落C

Psychologist Sandi Mann at the University of Central Lancashire,UK,goes further.‘All emotions are there for a reason,including boredom,’she says.Mann has found that being bored makes us more creative.‘We’re all afraid of being bored but in actual fact it can lead to all kinds of amazing things,’she says.In experiments published last year,Mann found that people who had been made to feel bored by copying numbers out of the phone book for 15 minutes came up with more creative ideas about how to use a polystyrene cup than a control group.This article is from Laokaoya website.Mann concluded that a passive,boring activity is best for creativity because it allows the mind to wander.In fact,she goes so far as to suggest that we should seek out more boredom in our lives.

英国兰卡斯特中央大学的心理学家-Sandi Mann更进一步。她说：“所有情绪的存在都有其原因，厌烦也不例外”。Mann发现，厌烦可以使我们更具创造性。“我们都害怕处于厌烦之中，但实际上，它能导向各种各样奇妙的事情”。在去年发布的实验中，Mann发现，与对照组相比，那些被要求从电话簿中连抄15分钟数字，从而感到厌烦的实验对象在如何使用一个聚苯乙烯杯子上提出了更加有创意的想

剑桥雅思13Test1Passage1阅读原文翻译Case Study:Tourism New Zealand website

剑桥雅思13阅读第 一套题目第 一篇文章的主题为新西兰旅游网站。文章一共七段，分别介绍了新西兰旅游网在其旅游业中所发挥的作用，该网站的具体内容，独特特色，若干新增内容，吸引游客的活动类型，以及是否具备推广意义等内容。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思13 Test1 Passage1阅读原文翻译

第1段

New Zealand is a small country of four million inhabitants,a long-haul flight from all the major tourist-generating markets of the world.Tourism currently makes up 9%of the country’s gross domestic product,and is the country’s largest export sector.Unlike other export sectors,which make products and then sell them overseas,tourism brings its customers to New Zealand.The product is the country itself–the people,the places and the experiences.In 1999,Tourism New Zealand launched a campaign to communicate a new brand position to the world.The campaign focused on New Zealand’s scenic beauty,exhilarating outdoor activities and authentic Maori culture,and it made New Zealand one of the strongest national brands in the world.

新西兰是一个拥有四百万居民的小型国家。它与世界上所有的主要游客市场都隔着一场漫长而艰苦的飞行。目前，旅游业占该国国内生产总值的9%，并且是其最 大的出口行业。与其他制造产品然后卖向国外的出口行业不同，旅游业将顾客带到新西兰。其产品是国家自身-其人民，地点和相应的体验。1999年，新西兰旅游业发起了一项活动，向世界传达其崭新的品牌定位。该活动将重点放在新西兰美丽的风景，激动人心的户外活动，以及原汁原味的毛利文化上。它使得新西兰成为世界上最强有力的国家品牌之一。

第2段

A key feature of the campaign was the website www.newzealand.com,which provided potential visitors to New Zealand with a single gateway to everything the destination had to offer.The heart of the website was a database of tourism services operators,both those based in New Zealand and those based abroad which offered tourism services to the country.Any tourism-related business could be listed by filling in a simple form.This meant that even the smallest bed and breakfast address or specialist activity provider could gain a web presence with access to an audience of long-haul visitors.In addition,because participating businesses were able to update the details they gave on a regular basis,the information provided remained accurate.And to maintain and improve standards,Tourism New Zealand organised a scheme whereby organisations appearing on the website underwent an independent evaluation against a set of agreed national standards of quality.As part of this,the effect of each business on the environment was considered.

这场宣传活动的主要特征在于“新西兰旅游”网站。它为未来可能前往新西兰的旅客提供了一个一站式的接口。在这里，他们可以找到目的地所能提供的一切。该网站的核心是各种旅游服务供给商所组成的数据库。它们既包括新西兰的本土商家，也包括虽然位于国外，但提供面向该国旅游服务的商家。任何旅游相关的经营者只需填写一张简单的表格就能够出现在网站上。这意味着即便是最小型的旅馆和早餐商户，或者某项专业活动的提供者都可以在网站上获得一席之地，并接触到远方的游客。除此之外，由于参与其中的商家能够定期更新其放在网站上的各项细节，所以上面的信息一直都很准确。为了维持并提升水准，“新西兰旅游”还安排了这样一项方案，即网站上展示的组织机构都必须按照一套共同认可的国家质量标准接受独立评估。这其中就有每项商业活动对环境的影响。

第3段

To communicate the New Zealand experience,the site also carried features relating to famous people and places.One of the most popular was an interview with former New Zealand All Blacks rugby captain Tana Umaga.Another feature that attracted a lot of attention was an interactive journey through a number of the locations chosen for blockbuster films which had made use of New Zealand’s stunning scenery as a backdrop.As the site developed,additional features were added to help independent travellers devise their own customised itineraries.To make it easier to plan motoring holidays,the site catalogued the most popular driving routes in the country,highlighting different routes according to the season and indicating distances and times.

为了传播新西兰的旅游体验，网站还推出了与名人和知名地点有关的特色介绍。其中受欢迎的内容之一是与新西兰All Blacks橄榄球队队长Tana Umaga进行的访谈。另外一个吸引了大量关注的特色内容是一场互动式旅程。它穿越一系列将新西兰令人目眩神迷的风景选做背景的电影大片中曾经出现过的地点。随着网站的发展，其他特色被加入进来，以帮助独立的旅行者制定自己个性化的行程。为了使得规划汽车旅行更为容易，网站还分类整理了新西兰受欢迎的自驾路线，并根据季节、所需时间和距离重点推荐不同的路线。

第4段

Later,a Travel Planner feature was added,which allowed visitors to click and‘bookmark’places or attractions they were interested in,and then view the results on a map.The Travel Planner offered suggested routes and public transport options between the chosen locations.There were also links to accommodation in the area.By registering with the website,users could save their Travel Plan and return to it later,or print it out to take on the visit.The website also had a‘Your Words’section where anyone could submit a blog of their New Zealand travels for possible inclusion on the website.

随后，网站又增加了“旅游规划助手”功能。网站访问者可以点击并收藏他们感兴趣的地方或景点，然后在地图上查看结果。“旅游规划助手”会提供往来与各个选定地点之间的推荐路线和公共交通方式，以及对应区域的住宿链接。在网站注册之后，用户可以保存他们的旅行计划，并稍后返回查看，或者将它打印出来一路携带。网站还有一个“Your Words”板块，任何人都可以把自己与新西兰旅游相关的博客提交上来，它们可能会被网站收录其中。

第5段

The Tourism New Zealand website won two Webby awards for online achievement and innovation.More importantly perhaps,the growth of tourism to New Zealand was impressive.Overall tourism expenditure increased by an average of 6.9%per year between 1999 and 2004.From Britain,visits to New Zealand grew at an average annual rate of 13%between 2002 and 2006,compared to a rate of 4%overall for British visits abroad.

新西兰旅游网站因其在线上所获得的成就和创新而赢得过两次Webby奖。也许更重要的还在于，新西兰旅游业的增长令人赞叹。整体旅游支出在1999年到2004年之间平均每年增长6.9%。仅从英国一地，从2002年到2006年，前往新西兰旅游的游客数量就平均每年增长13%。而同期英国海外旅游的整体增长率只有4%。

第6段

The website was set up to allow both individuals and travel organisations to create itineraries and travel packages to suit their own needs and interests.On the website,visitors can search for activities not solely by geographical location,but also by the particular nature of the activity.This is important as research shows that activities are the key driver of visitor satisfaction,contributing 74%to visitor satisfaction,while transport and accommodation account for the remaining 26%.The more activities that visitors undertake,the more satisfied they will be.It has also been found that visitors enjoy cultural activities most when they are interactive,such as visiting a marae(meeting ground)to learn about traditional Maori life.Many long-haul travellers enjoy such learning experiences,which provide them with stories to take home to their friends and family.In addition,it appears that visitors to New Zealand don’t want to be‘one of the crowd’and find activities that involve only a few people more special and meaningful.

网站设立的初衷是为了让个人和旅游机构都能够创建符合他们需求与兴趣的行程和旅行套餐。网站上，游客不仅可以根据地理位置搜寻活动，而且还能够根据它们的特定属性来进行查找。这一点十分重要，因为研究显示，各种活动项目是游客满意度的关键驱动因素，贡献了74%的游客满意度，而交通和住宿构成剩下的26%。游客参与的活动越多，他们的满意度就越高。研究还发现，游客比较喜欢具有互动性质的文化活动，比如参观“毛利会堂”以了解传统的毛利人生活。许多远道而来的游客喜欢这样的学习体验。这为他们提供了可以带回去与朋友和家人分享的故事素材。此外，来到新西兰的游客似乎不喜欢成为大众的一员，而是觉得那些只有少数人参与的活动更加特别，也更加有意义。

第7段

It could be argued that New Zealand is not a typical destination.New Zealand is a small country with a visitor economy composed mainly of small businesses.It is generally perceived as a safe English-speaking country with a reliable transport infrastructure.Because of the long-haul flight,most visitors stay for longer(average 20 days)and want to see as much of the country as possible on what is often seen as a once-in-a-lifetime visit.However,the underlying lessons apply anywhere–the effectiveness of a strong brand,a strategy based on unique experiences and a comprehensive and user-friendly website.

有人可能会认为新西兰并非典型的度假目的地。它是一个小国家，游客经济主要由小型商家所构成。人们普遍将其视为一个安全的、说英语的国家，有着可靠的交通基础设施。由于长途飞行，大多数游客都会待的更久一些(平均20天)，并且要想尽可多的看看这个国家，因为他们通常将这视为一场“一生一次”的旅行。然而，其旅游业兴旺发达背后的原因却适用于任何其他地方：强有力品牌的效应，基于独特体验的战略，以及一个全面且对用户友好的网站。

剑桥雅思12Test8Passage3阅读原文翻译UK companies need more effective boards of directors

剑桥雅思12阅读第8套题目第三篇文章的主题为英国公司董事会的变革。整篇文章采用总分结构，分别论述了董事们和高 级经理在各方面存在的问题，以及相应的改进建议。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思12 Test8 Passage3阅读原文翻译

段落A

After a number of serious failures of governance(that is,how they are managed at the highest level),companies in Britain,as well as elsewhere,should consider radical changes to their directors’roles.It is clear that the role of a board director today is not an easy one.Following the 2008 financial meltdown,which resulted in a deeper and more prolonged period of economic downturn than anyone expected,the search for explanations in the many post-mortems of the crisis has meant blame has been spread far and wide.Governments,regulators,central banks and auditors have all been in the frame.The role of bank directors and management and their widely publicised failures have been extensively picked over and examined in reports,inquiries and commentaries.

在经历了一系列严重的管理失误(也就是说，在公司的最 高管理层面上)之后，英国-以及其他各处-的公司应当考虑对其管理者们的职业角色采取一些彻底的变革了。很显然，一位公司董事的角色在今天是很不好扮演的。2008年的金融危机造成了一段比任何人预期得还要深入和更加持久的经济低迷时期，在那之后，人们在对这场金融灾难所进行的许多事后分析中寻找真正的解释，这也就意味着谴责的对象分布得既远且广，随处都是。政府、监管机构、中央银行和审计师们都在被谴责的范围之内。银行经理及其管理行为所扮演的角色和他们广为公众所关注的失职在各种各样的报道、问询和评论中都受到了广泛的挑剔和检视。

段落B

The knock-on effect of this scrutiny has been to make the governance of companies in general an issue of intense public debate and has significantly increased the pressures on,and the responsibilities of,directors.At the simplest and most practical level,the time involved in fulfilling the demands of a board directorship has increased significantly,calling into question the effectiveness of the classic model of corporate governance by part-time,independent non-executive directors.Where once a board schedule may have consisted of between eight and ten meetings a year,in many companies the number of events requiring board input and decisions has dramatically risen.Furthermore,the amount of reading and preparation required for each meeting is increasing.Agendas can become overloaded and this can mean the time for constructive debate must necessarily be restricted in favour of getting through the business.

这场检视的连锁效应也使得整体上的公司监管行为成了大众热烈讨论的问题，并极大地增加了管理者们的压力和责任。在最简单也最实用的层面上，需要花在完成董事会职位职责上所需的时间有了大幅度的增长，从而引起人们质疑先前那种由兼职的、独立非执行董事们来进行企业管理的传统模式是否真的有效，过去的董事会议程曾经也许只包含每年八到十次的会议，而当前在许多公司里，需要董事会参与探讨和决策的事件数量显著上升。此外，要参与每次会议所需完成的阅读和准备量也在增加。日程有可能排得过满，而这则意味着进行建设性辩论的时间不得不受到限制而让位于处理预设议程条目。

段落C

Often,board business is devolved to committees in order to cope with the workload,which may be more efficient but can mean that the board as a whole is less involved in fully addressing some of the most important issues.It is not uncommon for the audit committee meeting to last longer than the main board meeting itself.Process may take the place of discussion and be at the expense of real collaboration,so that boxes are ticked rather than issues tackled.

董事会事务通常都移交给公司各执行委员会处理以应对大额的工作量，这么做也许确实更有效率，但也会意味着董事会作为整体而言在充分处理一些最重要的事务方面参与度不够。一场审计委员会议开得比主要董事会议本身更久也不是什么稀奇的事。推动会议流程有可能会代替了讨论协商，而这么做的代价就是牺牲了真正的协同合作，结果只是在一项项议程上标注了表示进行过的记号而不是真正处理解决了问题。

段落D

A radical solution,which may work for some very large companies whose businesses are extensive and complex,is the professional board,whose members would work up to three or four days a week,supported by their own dedicated staff and advisers.There are obvious risks to this and it would be important to establish clear guidelines for such a board to ensure that it did not step on the toes of management by becoming too engaged in the day-to-day running of the company.Problems of recruitment,remuneration and independence could also arise and this structure would not be appropriate for all companies.However,more professional and better-informed boards would have been particularly appropriate for banks where the executives had access to information that part-time non-executive directors lacked,leaving the latter unable to comprehend or anticipate the 2008 crash.

有这么一个激进的解决办法也许能对一些非常大型的、生意拓展得极其广泛而复杂的公司起作用，那就是组建一个专业董事会，其成员可以每周最多工作三或四天，由其自身的专职员工和顾问提供支持辅助。这么做有其显而易见的风险，一定要面向这样一个董事会建立清晰的指导原则，以确保它不会太过搀和到公司的日常运营事务之中去指手画脚，从而触犯了公司的真正经营管理。如果采用这个办法，则可能还要面临招聘、薪酬和独立性等相关问题，且这个结构未必适用于所有公司。不过，更加专业和对相关领域资讯了解更多的董事会成员对于银行机构来说将会是格外合适的，因为在这些机构里，执行者们可以获得兼职的非执行者们所缺乏的信息资源，后者正是由于不了解这些信息而导致无法去充分理解或提前预见到2008年那场经济动荡。

段落E

One of the main criticisms of boards and their directors is that they do not focus sufficiently on longer-term matters of strategy,sustainability and governance,but instead concentrate too much on short-term financial metrics.Regulatory requirements and the structure of the market encourage this behaviour.The tyranny of quarterly reporting can distort board decision-making,as directors have to’make the numbers’every four months to meet the insatiable appetite of the market for more data.This serves to encourage the trading methodology of a certain kind of investor who moves in and out of a stock without engaging in constructive dialogue with the company about strategy or performance,and is simply seeking a short-term financial gain.This effect has been made worse by the changing profile of investors due to the globalisation of capital and the increasing use of automated trading systems.Corporate culture adapts and management teams are largely incentivized to meet financial goals.

人们对董事会及其经理们的主要批评之一在于：他们没有将足够的注意力放在诸如企业战略、可持续发展和经营管理这样的更长远性目标上，而是相反地过度关注了短期财务指标。各项规章要求和市场结构鼓励了这种行为。季度报告好看与否凌驾于一切之上，这有可能会扭曲了董事会的决策行为，因为经理们不得不每四个月就“刷新一次数字”以应对市场对于更多数据的永不满足的胃口。这种做法助长了某一类投资者的交易方法，他们随时进出股市，从不与公司就策略或业绩表现进行任何有建设性的对话，仅仅只谋求短期的财政赢利。由于资本的全球化和自动交易系统使用频率的上升，投资者成员正在发生着变化，从而使得这种短视局面变得更为严重。企业文化不得不做出调整适应，管理团队也在很大程度上被激励去达成这种财政目标。

段落F

Compensation for chief executives has become a combat zone where pitched battles between investors,management and board members are fought,often behind closed doors but increasingly frequently in the full glare of press attention.Many would argue that this is in the interest of transparency and good governance as shareholders use their muscle in the area of pay to pressure boards to remove underperforming chief executives.Their powers to vote down executive remuneration policies increased when binding votes came into force.The chair of the remuneration committee can be an exposed and lonely role,as Alison Carnwath,chair of Barclays Bank’s remuneration committee,found when she had to resign,having been roundly criticised for trying to defend the enormous bonus to be paid to the chief executive;the irony being that she was widely understood to have spoken out against it in the privacy of the committee.

首席执行官们的薪酬也成了一个战区，投资者、管理层和董事会成员在这里激战连连，过去通常都是在关着的门后悄悄进行，但现在却越来越频繁地暴露在媒体的聚光灯之下。很多人会认为这对透明性和良好的企业经管有好处，因为股东们会利用他们在薪酬领域里的强壮肌肉(即话语权优势)来对董事会施压，要求他们换掉那些业绩不佳的首席执行官们。当有约束力投票的做法开始执行时，股东们投票削减执行官薪酬待遇的权力变得更大了。薪酬委员会主席的职位可以是全无遮蔽保护而又孤独的.Barcdays银行的薪酬委员会主席Alison Carnwath就有此体会，她因为试图去为需要付给首席执行官的巨额津贴做辩护而饱受指摘，最终不得不辞职;讽刺的是，大家都知道在委员会内部私下交流的时候，她对这种高额薪酬是持反对态度的。

段落G

The financial crisis stimulated a debate about the role and purpose of the company and a heightened awareness of corporate ethics.Trust in the corporation has been eroded and academics such as Michael Sandel,in his thoughtful and bestselling book What Money Can’t Buy,are questioning the morality of capitalism and the market economy.Boards of companies in all sectors will need to widen their perspective to encompass these issues and this may involve a realignment of corporate goals.We live in challenging times.

2008年的金融危机激起了人们对公司角色和目标的广泛辩论和对企业操守道德的更高关注。对公司企业的公众信任度由此受到了损害，而一些学者，例如Michael Sandel在他充满思考的畅销书《钱买不到什么》里所做的那样，正在质疑资本主义和市场经济的道德准则。公司所有部门的董事会都将需要拓宽视野以全面思考这些问题，这也许会牵扯到企业目标的整改。我们生活在一个充满挑战的年代。

剑桥雅思12Test8Passage2阅读原文翻译bring back the big cats

剑桥雅思12阅读第八套题目第二篇文章的主题为生态保护的新思路。文章一共九段，以猞猁为引子，介绍英国目前生态保护的做法所面临的挑战和改变，新的生态保护做法的不同，以及英国所进行的转变。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思12 Test8 Passage2阅读原文翻译

第1段

There is a poem,written around 598 AD,which describes hunting a mystery animal called a llewyn.But what was it?Nothing seemed to fit,until 2006,when an animal bone,dating from around the same period,was found in the Kinsey Cave in northern England.Until this discovery,the lynx—a large spotted cat with tasselled ears—was presumed to have died out in Britain at least 6,000 years ago,before the inhabitants of these islands took up farming.But the 2006 find,together with three others in Yorkshire and Scotland,is compelling evidence that the lynx and the mysterious llewyn were in fact one and the same animal.If this is so,it would bring forward the tassel-eared cat’s estimated extinction date by roughly 5,000 years.

一首写于公元598年的诗歌描述了对一种叫做llewyn的神秘动物的围猎。但它究竟是什么?直到2006年，似乎都没有真实的动物能跟它对上号。当时，在英格兰北部的Kinsey洞穴里发现了一块可以追溯到大约同一时期的动物骨头。在这一发现之前，猞猁-一种耳朵尖 端长着一撮絮状毛、皮肤上遍布斑点的猫科动物-一直被认为已经于6000多年前，英伦群岛居民尚未开始农耕时就已经在该地灭绝。但2006年的这项发现，再加上约克郡和苏格兰的其他三处发现，组成极有说服力的证据，证明猞猁和神秘的llewyn实际上是同一种动物。如果事实真的如此，那么这种絮状耳朵大猫的预估灭绝时间会再推迟大约5000年。

第2段

However,this is not quite the last glimpse of the animal in British culture.A 9th-century stone cross from the Isle of Eigg shows,alongside the deer,boar and aurochs pursued by a mounted hunter,a speckled cat with tasselled ears.Were it not for the animal’s backside having worn away with time,we could have been certain,as the lynx’s stubby tail is unmistakable.But even without this key feature,it’s hard to see what else the creature could have been.The lynx is now becoming the totemic animal of a movement that is transforming British environmentalism:rewilding.

然而，这还不是这种动物在英国文化中最后一次出现。一座来自Eigg岛的9世纪的石头十字架上显示，被一个骑在马上的猎手所追逐的猎物中，除了鹿、野猪和野牛之外，还有一只长着絮状耳朵的斑点大猫。如果不是这只动物的背部由于年深日久而显得模糊不清的话，我们本来是可以完全确定的。因为它那又短又粗的猞猁尾巴错不了。然而，即使没有这个关键特征，也很难说那只动物还能是别的什么。猞猁现在正逐渐成为一场改变英国环保主义信条的运动(重归乡野)的图腾。

第3段

Rewilding means the mass restoration of damaged ecosystems.It involves letting trees return to places that have been denuded,allowing parts of the seabed to recover from trawling and dredging,permitting rivers to flow freely again.Above all,it means bringing back missing species.One of the most striking findings of modern ecology is that ecosystems without large predators behave in completely different ways from those that retain them.Some of them drive dynamic processes that resonate through the whole food chain,creating niches for hundreds of species that might otherwise struggle to survive.The killers turn out to be bringers of life.

重归乡野意味着大规模恢复遭到破坏的生态系统。这涉及让树木回到那些光秃秃的地方，使部分海床不受拖网和捕鱼船的骚扰而得以休养生息，允许河流得以重新自由地流淌。最重要的一点是，这意味着将那些消失了的物种重新带回到自然环境中。现代生态学研究最令人震惊的发现之一是，没有大型捕猎动物生活在其中的生态系统，会与保有它们的生态系统以完全不同的方式来运转。一些猎食动物驱动着能震荡整条食物链的动态进程，为成百上千个原本可能得挣扎求存的物种创造出生存的一席之地。杀手最终其实是生命的赋予者。

第4段

Such findings present a big challenge to British conservation,which has often selected arbitrary assemblages of plants and animals and sought,at great effort and expense,to prevent them from changing.It has tried to preserve the living world as if it were a jar of pickles,letting nothing in and nothing out,keeping nature in a state of arrested development.But ecosystems are not merely collections of species;they are also the dynamic and ever-shifting relationships between them.And this dynamism often depends on large predators.

这些发现为英国的物种保护工作提出了一个大大的挑战，因为这种工作到目前为止通常只是随机地选取一些植物和动物，然后再花费巨大的精力和财力去努力阻止它们发生变化。这是在尝试着将一个活生生的世界当作一罐泡菜那样储存下来，什么都不让进来，什么都不让出去。这就把自然环境保持在一种束手束脚的发展局限之内。然而，生态系统并不仅仅是物种的集合而已;它们还是物种之间动态的和不断变化的关系。而这种活力往往依赖于大型猎食动物。

第5段

At sea the potential is even greater:by protecting large areas from commercial fishing,we could once more see what 18th-century literature describes:vast shoals of fish being chased by fin and sperm whales,within sight of the English shore.This policy would also greatly boost catches in the surrounding seas;the fishing industry’s insistence on scouring every inch of seabed,leaving no breeding reserves,could not be more damaging to its own interests.

在海洋里，潜在的发展空间更为广阔：通过保护大片海域不受商业捕捞的侵扰，我们就有可能再一次见到18世纪的文学作品所描绘的景象：从英国海滩极目远眺之处，巨大的鱼群被长须鲸和抹香鲸一路追逐。这个政策还能极大地提高周边海域的捕捞量;捕鱼业目前坚持搜刮每一寸海床、不留下任何休养繁殖余地的做法不可能比任何其他举动都更加有损于其自身利益了。

第6段

Rewilding is a rare example of an environmental movement in which campaigners articulate what they are for rather than only what they are against.One of the reasons why the enthusiasm for rewilding is spreading so quickly in Britain is that it helps to create a more inspiring vision than the green movement’s usual promise of‘Follow us and the world will be slightly less awful than it would otherwise have been’.

在整场环保运动中，“重归乡野”是一个罕有的例子，因为其推行者们明确表达了他们想要支持达成什么而不仅仅只是反对什么。人们对“重归乡野”的热情之所以在英国传播得如此迅速，原因之一在于它有助于创造出一个更加令人振奋的前景，而不是环保运动通常保证的“跟着我们走，世界就会比它本来可能成为的那副样子稍微少糟糕一点。

第7段

The lynx presents no threat to human beings:there is no known instance of one preying on people.It is a specialist predator of roe deer,a species that has exploded in Britain in recent decades,holding back,by intensive browsing,attempts to re-establish forests.It will also winkle out sika deer:an exotic species that is almost impossible for human beings to control,as it hides in impenetrable plantations of young trees.The attempt to reintroduce this predator marries well with the aim of bringing forests back to parts of our bare and barren uplands.The lynx requires deep cover,and as such presents little risk to sheep and other livestock,which are supposed,as a condition of farm subsidies,to be kept out of the woods.

猞猁对人类完全不构成威胁：没有任何已知的关于猞猁袭击人的记载。它专门捕猎孢子，而该物种近几十年来在英国的数量呈爆炸式增长。由于大量啃食植被而妨碍了人们试图重建森林的努力，猞猁也偏爱猎食梅花鹿：人类几乎完全没可能控制得住这个外来物种，因为它的藏身之处位于无法穿行的小树植被丛中。重新引人给猁这种猎食者的尝试能很好地契合于让我们的一些荒芜之地重新被森林覆盖的目标。猞猁需要地深林密的生活场所，因此对羊群和其他牲畜几乎不构成什么风险，因为后者作为农牧生产资料一般都会被限制在林地之外的场所活动。

第8段

On a recent trip to the Cairngorm Mountains,I heard several conservationists suggest that the lynx could be reintroduced there within 20 years.If trees return to the bare hills elsewhere in Britain,the big cats could soon follow.There is nothing extraordinary about these proposals,seen from the perspective of anywhere else in Europe.The lynx has now been reintroduced to the Jura Mountains,the Alps,the Vosges in eastern France and the Harz mountains in Germany,and has re-established itself in many more places.The European population has tripled since 1970 to roughly 10,000.As with wolves,bears,beavers,boar,bison,moose and many other species,the lynx has been able to spread as farming has left the hills and people discover that it is more lucrative to protect charismatic Wildlife than to hunt it,as tourists will pay for the chance to see it.Large-scale rewilding is happening almost everywhere—except Britain.

在最近去往Caimgorm山脉的一次旅途中，我听到若干位环境保护学家建议说：在20年之内猞猁就可以重新被放归到那里的野生环境中，如果树木回到了英国其他地区那些光秃秃的山上，这些大猫很快就会跟随而来。如果从任何欧洲其他地区的角度看来，这些建议都并没有什么非比寻常之处。猞猁目前已被重新放归到了Jura山脉、阿尔卑斯山脉、法国东部的Vosges山脉和德国的Harz山脉各处，并且还在许多其他地方自行适应了环境。自1970年以来，欧洲猞猁的数量已经翻了三倍，达到了大约10000只。与狼、熊、河狸、野猪、野牛、驼鹿和许多其他物种一样，猞猁能够随着农耕活动退出山地区域而繁殖四散，并且人们也发现保护这些有魅力的野生动物要比猎捕它们更加有利可图，因为旅游观光客们会为有机会看到野生动物而付费。大规模的“重归乡野”活动正几乎无处不在地进行着-只除了在英国。

第9段

Here,attitudes are just beginning to change.Conservationists are starting to accept that the old preservation-jar model is failing,even on its own terms.Already,projects such as Trees for Life in the Highlands provide a hint of what might be coming.An organisation is being set up that will seek to catalyse the rewilding of land and sea across Britain,its aim being to reintroduce that rarest of species to British ecosystem:hope.

在这里，人们的态度才刚刚开始转变。环保学家们正开始接受和承认：原先那种老旧的储藏罐模式正在失败，即使以它自身的评判标准来看也是如此。诸如“高地上的生命之树”这样的项目预示着我们接下来有可能达成什么样的目标。已建立了一个组织来试图推进英国上下的土地和海域加快重归乡野进程，其目标在于将那个最为稀有的物种重新引入英国的生态系统中来：希望。

剑桥雅思12Test8Passage1阅读原文翻译The History of Glass玻璃的历史

剑桥雅思12阅读第八套题目第 一篇文章的主题为玻璃的历史。文章一共7段，按照时间顺序介绍了玻璃从无到有，再到无处不在的发展过程。下面是具体每一段的翻译，以供大家参考。

剑桥雅思12 Test8 Passage1阅读原文翻译

第1段

From our earliest origins,man has been making use of glass.Historians have discovered that a type of natural glass—obsidian—formed in places such as the mouth of a volcano as a result of the intense heat of an eruption melting sand—was first used as tips for spears.Archaeologists have even found evidence of man-made glass which dates back to 4000 BC;this took the form of glazes used for coating stone beads.It was not until 1500 BC,however,that the first hollow glass container was made by covering a sand core with a layer of molten glass.

从我们最早的起源开始，人类就一直在使用玻璃。历史学家发现，一种通常形成于火山口一类的地方(由于火山爆发的高温融化了沙子)的天然玻璃-黑曜石-被当作矛尖使用。考古学家甚至发现过可以追溯到公元前4000年的人造玻璃的证据，即用来包裹石头珠子的玻璃涂层。然而，直到公元前1500年，通过用融化的玻璃覆盖沙子模型才制作出第 一个中空的玻璃容器。

第2段

Glass blowing became the most common way to make glass containers from the first century BC.The glass made during this time was highly coloured due to the impurities of the raw material.In the first century AD,methods of creating colourless glass were developed,which was then tinted by the addition of colouring materials.The secret of glass making was taken across Europe by the Romans during this century.However,they guarded the skills and technology required to make glass very closely,and it was not until their empire collapsed in 476 AD that glass-making knowledge became widespread throughout Europe and the Middle East.From the 10th century onwards,the Venetians gained a reputation for technical skill and artistic ability in the making of glass bottles,and many of the city’s craftsmen left Italy to set up glassworks throughout Europe.

从公元前1世纪开始，吹玻璃就是制作玻璃容器最常见的方法。由于原材料中存在杂质，这一时期制作的玻璃颜色各异。公元1世纪，制造无色玻璃的方法被发明出来。这些玻璃可以通过添加有色材料来沾染其他颜色。同样在该世纪，罗马人将玻璃制造的秘密带到欧洲。但他们十分严密的保守制作玻璃的工艺和技术。直到罗马帝国于公元476年崩溃，玻璃制作的知识才在欧洲和中东广泛传播。从10世纪开始，威尼斯人因制作玻璃瓶子的高超技术和艺术水准而声名远扬。这座城市的许多手工艺人离开意大利，在欧洲各地建立自己的玻璃作坊。

第3段

A major milestone in the history of glass occurred with the invention of lead crystal glass by the English glass manufacturer George Ravenscroft(1632—1688).He attempted to counter the effect of clouding that sometimes occurred in blown glass by introducing lead to the raw materials used in the process.The new glass he created was softer and easier to decorate,and had a higher refractive index,adding to its brilliance and beauty,and it proved invaluable to the optical industry.It is thanks to Ravenscroft’s invention that optical lenses,astronomical telescopes,microscopes and the like became possible.

玻璃发展史上的一个重要里程碑是英国玻璃制造商George Ravenscroft(1632-1588)发明了铅水晶玻璃。为了消除在吹制玻璃中有时发生的雾化效应，他在该过程所使用的原材料中加入了铅。他制造的新玻璃更柔软，更容易装饰，并且有着更高的折射率，增加了玻璃本身的亮度和美感。这对于光学工业来说价值无限。正是由于Ravenscroft的发明，光学镜片、天文望远镜、显微镜和诸如此类的东西才成为可能。

第4段

In Britain,the modern glass industry only really started to develop after the repeal of the Excise Act in 1845.Before that time,heavy taxes had been placed on the amount of glass melted in a glasshouse,and were levied continuously from 1745 to 1845.Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace at London’s Great Exhibition of 1851 marked the beginning of glass as a material used in the building industry.This revolutionary new building encouraged the use of glass in public,domestic and horticultural architecture.Glass manufacturing techniques also improved with the advancement of science and the development of better technology.

在英国，现代玻璃产业直到1845年废除消费税法之后才开始真正起步。在这之前，玻璃作坊中所融化的玻璃被征以重税，而且这一税收在1745年到1845年之间被持续收取。Joseph Paxton为1851年伦敦世界博览会所设计的水晶宫殿标志着玻璃开始作为一种材料被应用于建筑工业中。这一革命性的新建筑鼓励在人们在公共、私人以及园艺建筑中使用玻璃。随着科学的进步和更好技术的出现，玻璃制作工业也有所提升。

第5段

From 1887 onwards,glass making developed from traditional mouth-blowing to a semi-automatic process,after factory-owner HM Ashley introduced a machine capable of producing 200 bottles per hour in Castleford,Yorkshire,England—more than three times quicker than any previous production method.Then in 1907,the first fully automated machine was developed in the USA by Michael Owens—founder of the Owens Bottle Machine Company(later the major manufacturers Owens-Illinois)—and installed in its factory.Owens’invention could produce an impressive 2,500 bottles per hour.Other developments followed rapidly,but it was not until the First World War,when Britain became cut off from essential glass suppliers,that glass became part of the scientific sector.Previous to this,glass had been seen as a craft rather than a precise science.

从1887年开始，玻璃制作从传统的人工吹制进化到半自动流程。当时的工厂主HM Ashley在英格兰约克郡的Castleford引进了一台每小时可以生产出200个瓶子的机器。这比之前任何生产方法都快了不止3倍。随后，1907年，美国的Michael Owens(Owens Bottle Machine Company的创始人，即后来的大型制造商Owens-Illinois)开发出第 一台全自动机器，并将它安装在自己的工厂里。Owens的发明可以每小时制造出令人惊叹的2500个瓶子。其他的进展很快跟上。但直到第 一次世界大战，英国失去其主要的玻璃供应商，玻璃才成为科学研究的一部分。在此之前，玻璃被当作是手工艺品，而非精确的科学。

第6段

Today,glass making is big business.It has become a modern,hi-tech industry operating in a fiercely competitive global market where quality,design and service levels are critical to maintaining market share.Modern glass plants are capable of making millions of glass containers a day in many different colours,with green,brown and clear remaining the most popular.Few of us can imagine modern life without glass.It features in almost every aspect of our lives—in our homes,our cars and whenever we sit down to eat or drink.Glass packaging is used for many products,many beverages are sold in glass,as are numerous foodstuffs,as well as medicines and cosmetics.

如今，玻璃制造是一门大生意。它已经成为竞争激烈的全球市场上一项现代高科技产业。质量，设计和服务水平对于维持市场份额至关重要。现代玻璃工厂能够在一天里制造数百万各种不同颜色的玻璃。其中绿色、棕色和透明色仍然最为流行。我们很难想象没有玻璃的现代生活。它几乎出现在我们生活的方方面面-在我们的家里，汽车里，以及任何我们想要坐下吃饭或者喝水的时候。玻璃包装被用于许多产品，很多饮料都以玻璃瓶的形式出售，同样的还有无数的食物，药品和化妆品。

第7段

Glass is an ideal material for recycling,and with growing consumer concern for green issues,glass bottles and jars are becoming ever more popular.Glass recycling is good news for the environment.It saves used glass containers being sent to landfill.As less energy is needed to melt recycled glass than to melt down raw materials,this also saves fuel and production costs.Recycling also reduces the need for raw materials to be quarried,thus saving precious resources.

玻璃是回收利用的理想材料。随着越来越多的消费者关心环境问题，玻璃瓶罐的受欢迎程度与日俱增。玻璃回收对于环境来说是条好 消息。它能够留下本来要送往垃圾填埋场的玻璃容器。由于融化回收玻璃所需要的能量比融化原材料要少，这一举措也可以节省燃料和生产成本。回收也会降低开采原材料的需求，并因此节约宝贵的资源。

剑桥雅思12Test7Passage3阅读原文翻译Music and the emotions音乐与情感

剑桥雅思12阅读第七套题目第三篇文章的主题为音乐与情感。文章一共六段，分别介绍了音乐能引发人们的生理反应，科学实验的两项发现，乐曲结构设计与刺激多巴胺神经元的关系，贝多芬作品的证明，以及音乐的精华在于其不可预测性。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思12 Test7 Passage3阅读原文翻译

第1段

Why does music make us feel?On the one hand,music is a purely abstract art form,devoid of language or explicit ideas.And yet,even though music says little,it still manages to touch us deeply.When listening to our favourite songs,our body betrays all the symptoms of emotional arousal.The pupils in our eyes dilate,our pulse and blood pressure rise,the electrical conductance of our skin is lowered,and the cerebellum,a brain region associated with bodily movement,becomes strangely active.Blood is even re-directed to the muscles in our legs.In other words,sound stirs us at our biological roots.

音乐为什么能让我们有所触动?一方面，音乐是种完全抽象的艺术形式，没有任何语言或者清晰的想法。但即便音乐什么都没有说，它仍然可以触及我们的心底深处。当听到我们最喜爱的歌曲时，我们的身体会显示出各种情绪受到激发的现象。眼睛瞳孔会扩张，心跳加快，血压上升，皮肤的电导率会下降，而小脑-与身体运动有关的大脑区域-会变得异常活跃。血液甚至会重新导入我们腿部的肌肉。换句话说，声音会从我们最深处的生物根源撩动我们。

第2段

A recent paper in Nature Neuroscience by a research team in Montreal,Canada,marks an important step in revealing the precise underpinnings of‘the potent pleasurable stimulus‘that is music.Although the study involves plenty of fancy technology,including functional magnetic resonance imaging(FMRI)and ligand-based positron emission tomography(PET)scanning,the experiment itself was rather straightforward.After screening 217 individuals who responded to advertisements requesting people who experience‘chills’to instrumental music,the scientists narrowed down the subject pool to ten.They then asked the subjects to bring in their playlist of favourite songs–virtually every genre was represented,from techno to tango–and played them the music while their brain activity was monitored.Because the scientists were combining methodologies(PET and fMRI),they were able to obtain an impressively exact and detailed portrait of music in the brain.The first thing they discovered is that music triggers the production of dopamine–a chemical with a key role in setting people’s moods–by the neurons(nerve cells)in both the dorsal and ventral regions of the brain.As these two regions have long been linked with the experience of pleasure,this finding isn’t particularly surprising.

最近由加拿大蒙特利尔的一个研究团队发表在《自然神经科学》上的一篇论文标志着在揭示音乐这一“强烈愉悦刺激”的本质上向前迈出了一步。虽然该研究涉及到许多高端技术，包括功能性核磁共振成像以及基于配体的正电子释放层成像扫描，但实验自身其实十分简单明了。在对217名响应广告的个体进行筛选之后(广告征集那些听到器乐感到“全身颤抖”的人)，科学家将实验对象缩小到10人。然后，他们让这些人提供自己最喜欢的歌曲的播放清单-几乎包括了所有风格，从科技电音到探戈曲目等等，并在为他们播放这些音乐的时候对他们的大脑活动进行监测。由于科学家结合了PET和fMRI这两种方法，他们可以获得大脑中音乐十分准确细致的图像。他们的第 一个发现是，音乐刺激大脑背面和腹面的神经元产生多巴胺-一种调节人们情绪的关键化学物质。由于这两个区域早已被证明与愉悦的体验有关，这一发现并不是很让人惊讶。

第3段

What is rather more significant is the finding that the dopamine neurons in the caudate–a region of the brain involved in learning stimulus-response associations,and in anticipating food and other‘reward’stimuli–were at their most active around 15 seconds before the participants’favourite moments in the music.The researchers call this the‘anticipatory phase’;and argue that the purpose of this activity is to help us predict the arrival of our favourite part.The question,of course,is what all these dopamine neurons are up to.Why are they so active in the period preceding the acoustic climax?After all,we typically associate surges of dopamine with pleasure,with the processing of actual rewards.And yet,this cluster of cells is most active when the‘chills’have yet to arrive,when the melodic pattern is still unresolved.

更重要的一项发现是，尾状核(大脑区域中负责学习刺激-应激关联和预期食物与其他奖励刺激的区域)中的多巴胺神经元在实验对象最喜欢的乐曲部分到来之前的15秒处于最活跃的状态。研究者将其称之为“预期阶段”，并认为这一活动的目的是帮助我们迎接最喜欢的部分的到来。当然，问题在于这些多巴胺神经元究竟想做什么。它们为什么在乐曲高潮之前如此活跃?毕竟，我们通常将多巴胺的激增与愉悦，以及处理实际的奖励联系在一起。然而，这些细胞在“颤抖”还没到来，在旋律结构尚未完全展开的时候就处于最活跃的状态。

第4段

One way to answer the question is to look at the music and not the neurons.While music can often seem(at least to the outsider)like a labyrinth of intricate patterns,it turns out that the most important part of every song or symphony is when the patterns break down,when the sound becomes unpredictable.If the music is too obvious,it is annoyingly boring,like an alarm clock.Numerous studies,after all,have demonstrated that dopamine neurons quickly adapt to predictable rewards.If we know what’s going to happen next,then we don’t get excited.This is why composers often introduce a key note in the beginning of a song,spend most of the rest of the piece in the studious avoidance of the pattern,and then finally repeat it only at the end.The longer we are denied the pattern we expect,the greater the emotional release when the pattern returns,safe and sound.

回答该问题的一种方法是研究音乐而非神经元。虽然音乐常常像精致模式组成的迷宫一样(至少在外人看来)，但每首歌或者交响曲最重要的部分其实发生在这些模式破裂，声音变得不可预测的时候。如果音乐模式太过明显，它就会变得像闹钟一样无聊至极，惹人厌烦。毕竟，无数的研究都证明多巴胺神经元会快速适应可预测的奖励。如果我们知道接下来会发生什么，那么我们就不会变的兴奋。因此，作曲家经常会在一首歌开始的地方引入一个关键音符，在接下来的篇幅中竭尽全力避免出现该模式，然后只在结尾的地方对它进行重复。我们期待该模式却不得的时间越长，当这一模式最终圆满回归的时候，我们的情感释放也会越强烈。

第5段

To demonstrate this psychological principle,the musicologist Leonard Meyer,in his classic book Emotion and Meaning in Music(1956),analysed the 5th movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-sharp minor,Op.131.Meyer wanted to show how music is defined by its flirtation with–but not submission to–our expectations of order.Meyer dissected 50 measures(bars)of the masterpiece,showing how Beethoven begins with the clear statement of a rhythmic and harmonic pattern and then,in an ingenious tonal dance,carefully holds off repeating it.What Beethoven does instead is suggest variations of the pattern.He wants to preserve an element of uncertainty in his music,making our brains beg for the one chord he refuses to give us.Beethoven saves that chord for the end.

为了证实这一心理学原理，音乐学家Leonard Meyer在他发表于1956年的经典著作《音乐中的情绪与意义》中，分析了贝多芬弦乐四重奏升C小调131号作品中的第五乐章。Meyer希望展示出，音乐如何通过挑逗而非服从我们对秩序的期待定义自身。Meyer分解了这首大师之作的50个小节，由此展示贝多芬如何以节奏分明并和谐的模式开始，然后在接下来独具匠心的音符舞蹈中小心翼翼地避免重复它。贝多芬所做的是暗示该模式的种种变化。他希望在他的音乐中保留一种不确定的元素，让我们的大脑祈求那一组他拒绝赐予我们的和弦。贝多芬将那组和弦一直留到最后。

第6段

According to Meyer,it is the suspenseful tension of music,arising out of our unfulfilled expectations,that is the source of the music’s feeling.While earlier theories of music focused on the way a sound can refer to the real world of images and experiences–its‘connotative‘meaning–Meyer argued that the emotions we find in music come from the unfolding events of the music itself.This‘embodied meaning’arises from the patterns the symphony invokes and then ignores.It is this uncertainty that triggers the surge of dopamine in the caudate,as we struggle to figure out what will happen next.We can predict some of the notes,but we can’t predict them all,and that is what keeps us listening,waiting expectantly for our reward,for the pattern to be completed.

根据Meryer的看法，正是音乐这种从我们得不到满足的期望中诞生的悬而未决的张力构成音乐触及我们感受的根源。虽然音乐的早期理论关注于声音指向真实世界图像或经验的方式-即它的“隐晦”含义，Meryer认为我们在音乐中发现的种种情感来自于音乐本身所展开的事项。这一“体现型含义”来自于交响乐所激发又可以忽视的模式。正是这种不确定性引发尾状核中多巴胺的激增，因为我们会努力弄清楚接下来要发生什么。我们能够预测到一些音符，但我们无法预测到所有的旋律。这是这一点让我们继续听下去，充满期待地等待着我们的奖励，等待着模式最终完成。

剑桥雅思12Test7Passage2阅读原文翻译The Intersection of Health Sciences and Geography

剑桥雅思12阅读第七套题目第二篇文章的主题为地理与健康的交叉学科。文章分为8段，分别介绍了某些疾病更加常见的原因，地理位置影响人们的疾病种类，污染环境的影响，综合性学科健康地理学的诞生，以及该学科的研究内容，研究方法和存在价值等。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思12 Test7 Passage2阅读原文翻译

段落A

While many diseases that affect humans have been eradicated due to improvements in vaccinations and the availability of healthcare,there are still areas around the world where certain health issues are more prevalent.In a world that is far more globalized than ever before,people come into contact with one another through travel and living closer and closer to each other.As a result,super-viruses and other infections resistant to antibiotics are becoming more and more common.

虽然由于疫苗接种的进步和健康服务的存在，许多影响人类的疾病已经被彻底消除，但世界上仍然有一些区域更为盛行某种特定的健康问题。在一个全球化程度前所未有的世界里，人们在旅行中彼此接触，住的也越来越密集。这样一来，对抗生素存在抗性的超级病毒和其他感染正变得越来越常见。

段落B

Geography can often play a very large role in the health concerns of certain populations.For instance,depending on where you live,you will not have the same health concerns as someone who lives in a different geographical region.Perhaps one of the most obvious examples of this idea is malaria-prone areas,which are usually tropical regions that foster a warm and damp environment in which the mosquitos that can give people this disease can grow.Malaria is much less of a problem in high-altitude deserts,for instance.

地理位置在特定人群的健康问题中扮演着重要角色。例如，取决于你生活在哪里，你与居住在另外一个地理区域的人将会有着不同的健康困扰。或许这一观点最明显的证据之一就是那些疟疾高发区域。它们通常都是热带地区，造就了温暖潮湿的环境，滋生能够给人类带来这种疾病的蚊子。疟疾在高纬度沙漠这样的地方就不算是一个重大问题。

段落C

In some countries,geographical factors influence the health and well-being of the population in very obvious ways.In many large cities,the wind is not strong enough to clear the air of the massive amounts of smog and pollution that cause asthma,lung problems,eyesight issues and more in the people who live there.Part of the problem is,of course,the massive number of cars being driven,in addition to factories that run on coal power.The rapid industrialization of some countries in recent years has also led to the cutting down of forests to allow for the expansion of big cities,which makes it even harder to fight the pollution with the fresh air that is produced by plants.

在一些国家，地理因素以十分明显的方式影响着人群的健康。在许多大城市，风力不足以清除空气中的大量雾霾和污染。它们给居住在那里的人造成哮喘、肺部疾病、视力问题和许多其他疾病。当然，这一问题的部分原因在于路上行驶的大量汽车，以及依赖煤炭能源的工厂。近年来一些国家迅速的工业化也造成森林被大量砍伐，以便为大城市的扩展腾出空间。如此一来，想要靠植物制造的新鲜空气来对抗污染就变得愈发的困难。

段落D

It is in situations like these that the field of health geography comes into its own.It is an increasingly important area of study in a world where diseases like polio are re-emerging,respiratory diseases continue to spread,and malaria-prone areas are still fighting to find a better cure.Health geography is the combination of,on the one hand,knowledge regarding geography and methods used to analyse and interpret geographical information,and on the other,the study of health,diseases and healthcare practices around the world.The aim of this hybrid science is to create solutions for common geography-based health problems.While people will always be prone to illness,the study of how geography affects our health could lead to the eradication of certain illnesses,and the prevention of others in the future.By understanding why and how we get sick,we can change the way we treat illness and disease specific to certain geographical locations.

正是在这样一些情况下，健康地理这一领域应运而生。它的重要性在如今这个世界日益增长。诸如小儿麻痹之类的疾病又在重新冒头，呼吸系统疾病在持续不断地传播，疟疾肆虐的地区还在努力寻找更好的治疗方案。健康地理学一方面结合地理知识和用于分析解读地理信息的方法，另一方面又包括对世界范围内健康、疾病和医疗实践的研究。这一混合科学的目的是为那些常见的基于地理因素的健康问题提供解决方案。虽然人们总会得病，但研究地理如何影响我们的健康能够消除特定的疾病，并在未来预防其他疾病。通过弄清楚我们为什么以及如何得病，我们可以改变治疗某些地理区域所特有的疾病的方法。

段落E

The geography of disease and ill health analyses the frequency with which certain diseases appear in different parts of the world,and overlays the data with the geography of the region,to see if there could be a correlation between the two.Health geographers also study factors that could make certain individuals or a population more likely to be taken ill with a specific health concern or disease,as compared with the population of another area.Health geographers in this field are usually trained as healthcare workers,and have an understanding of basic epidemiology as it relates to the spread of diseases among the population.

疾病和亚健康地理会分析某些特定疾病出现在世界上不同区域的频率，并将这些数据与该地区的地理特征将叠加，以研究两者之间是否存在关系。健康地理学家也会通过与其他地区的人口进行对比，研究使得特定个体或群体更容易遭受某种健康问题困扰或染上某种疾病的因素。这一领域的健康地理学家通常会作为医务人员接受训练，并且懂得传染学的基本知识，因为它与疾病在人群中的传播有关。

段落F

Researchers study the interactions between humans and their environment that could lead to illness(such as asthma in places with high levels of pollution)and work to create a clear way of categorizing illnesses,diseases and epidemics into local and global scales.Health geographers can map the spread of illnesses and attempt to identify the reasons behind an increase or decrease in illnesses,as they work to find a way to halt the further spread or re-emergence of diseases in vulnerable populations.

研究者会研究那些可能引发疾病的、人类与环境之间的相互影响(例如高污染地区的哮喘)，并创造一种清晰的方式，将疾病、疫情和传染病按照本地和全球的规模进行分类。健康地理学家在寻找方法阻止疾病在易感染人群中的进一步传播或重新冒头时，会绘制疾病传播的地图，并试图找出疾病上升或者下降背后的因素。

段落G

The second subcategory of health geography is the geography of healthcare provision.This group studies the availability(or lack thereof)of healthcare resources to individuals and populations around the world.In both developed and developing nations there is often a very large discrepancy between the options available to people in different social classes,income brackets,and levels of education.Individuals working in the area of the geography of healthcare provision attempt to assess the levels of healthcare in the area(for instance,it may be very difficult for people to get medical attention because there is a mountain between their village and the nearest hospital).These researchers are on the frontline of making recommendations regarding policy to international organisations,local government bodies and others.

健康地理学的第二个分支是健康医疗资源供给的地理特性。它研究世界各地的个体和群体是否享有(或缺乏)医疗资源。无论是在发达国家还是在发展中国家，不同社会阶层、收入水平和教育程度的人群所拥有的选择往往存在巨大差异。健康医疗供给地理学领域的研究者试图评估该区域的医疗保障水平(例如，如果人们居住的村庄与最近的医院之间隔着一座大山的话，他们想要获得医疗照料就是一件非常困难的事情)。这些研究者工作在第 一 线，为国际组织、当地政府和其他机构的政策提供建议。

段落H

The field of health geography is often overlooked,but it constitutes a huge area of need in the fields of geography and healthcare.If we can understand how geography affects our health no matter where in the world we are located,we can better treat disease,prevent illness,and keep people safe and well.

健康地理学这一领域经常受到忽视，但它在地理学和医疗领域存在巨大的需求。如果无论我们处于世界何处，都能够理解地理影响我们健康的方式，那么我们就可以更好的治疗和预防疾病，保障人们的健康和安全。

剑桥雅思12Test7Passage1阅读原文翻译Flying tortoises飞翔的乌龟

剑桥雅思12阅读第7套题目第 一篇文章的主题为飞翔的乌龟。文章一共7段，分贝介绍了加拉帕戈斯龟的栖息地和发展起源，人类活动的影响，一开始的龟类保护活动，以及最终的放归方案。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

段落A

Forests of spiny cacti cover much of the uneven lava plains that separate the interior of the Galapagos island of lsabela from the Pacific Ocean.With its five distinct volcanoes,the island resembles a lunar landscape.Only the thick vegetation at the skirt of the often cloud-covered peak of Sierra Negra offers respite from the barren terrain below.This inhospitable environment is home to the giant Galapagos tortoise.Some time after the Galapagos’s birth,around five million years ago,the islands were colonised by one or more tortoises from mainland South America.As these ancestral tortoises settled on the individual islands,the different populations adapted to their unique environments,giving rise to at least 14 different subspecies.Island life agreed with them.In the absence of significant predators,they grew to become the largest and longest-living tortoises on the planet,weighing more than 400 kilograms,occasionally exceeding 1.8 metres in length and living for more than a century.

起伏不平的熔岩平原上布满了多刺的仙人掌。它将Isabela省加拉帕戈斯岛的内陆与太平洋分割开来。拥有五座独立的火山，该岛看起来就像是月球表面一样。只有在内格拉山脉经常云雾缭绕的山顶周围长得郁郁葱葱的植被，能缓解山下土地贫瘠荒凉的景象。这一不适宜人类居住的环境是巨大的加拉帕戈斯龟的家园。加拉帕戈斯岛诞生于大约500万年前。在那之后的某个时间，有一只或者更多来自南美大陆的龟来到这里。随着这些乌龟祖先在各个岛屿上定居，不同的族群逐渐适应他们独特的环境，诞生了至少14个亚种。它们颇为适应岛上的生活。由于没有什么天敌，它们成长为地球上体型最 大，寿命最长的乌龟。体重超过400公斤，身长偶尔超过1.8米，能活一百多年。

段落B

Before human arrival,the archipelago’s tortoises numbered in the hundreds of thousands.From the 17th century onwards,pirates took a few on board for food,but the arrival of whaling ships in the 1790s saw this exploitation grow exponentially.Relatively immobile and capable of surviving for months without food or water,the tortoises were taken on board these ships to act as food supplies during long ocean passages.Sometimes,their bodies were processed into high-grade oil.In total,an estimated 200,000 animals were taken from the archipelago before the 20th century.This historical exploitation was then exacerbated when settlers came to the islands.They hunted the tortoises and destroyed their habitat to clear land for agriculture.They also introduced alien species—ranging from cattle,pigs,goats,rats and dogs to plants and ants—that either prey on the eggs and young tortoises or damage or destroy their habitat.

在人类到来之前，加拉帕戈斯龟的数量有成千上万只。从17世纪开始，海盗会带一些上船作为食物。但18世纪90年代捕鲸船的到来造成这一举措的指数型增长。这种龟不怎么活动，可以在没有食物和水源的情况下生存好几个月，因此它们被带上船，作为漫长越洋航行中的食物补给。有时候，它们的身体还会被加工成优质油脂。据估计，在20世纪之前，总共有200000只龟被从群岛上带走。这种漫长的侵害行为在人们来到岛屿定居之后变本加厉。他们捕捉象龟，摧毁他们的栖息地以腾出地方来发展农业。他们还引入了外来物种，从牛、猪、山羊、老鼠和狗到植物和蚂蚁。这些动物要么猎食象龟蛋和象龟幼崽，或者破坏它们的栖息地。

段落C

Today,only 11 of the original subspecies survive and of these,several are highly endangered.In 1989,work began on a tortoise-breeding centre just outside the town of Puerto Villamil on Isabela,dedicated to protecting the island’s tortoise populations.The centre’s captive-breeding programme proved to be extremely successful,and it eventually had to deal with an overpopulation problem.

今天，最初的亚种中只有11个生存下来。其中还有好几种处于极度濒危的状态。1989年，一座旨在保护岛上龟群的龟类繁殖中心开始在伊莎贝拉岛维利亚米尔港镇外破土动工。事实证明，该中心的人工繁殖项目十分成功，以至于它最终不得不面临象龟数量过多的问题。

段落D

The problem was also a pressing one.Captive-bred tortoises can’t be reintroduced into the wild until they’re at least five years old and weigh at least 4.5 kilograms,at which point their size and weight—and their hardened shells—are sufficient to protect them from predators.But if people wait too long after that point,the tortoises eventually become too large to transport.

这一问题同样十分紧迫。人工繁殖的象龟至少要长到5岁，体重达到4.5公斤才能被再次放回野外。这时，它们的大小和体重，以及坚硬的外壳，已经足以保护它们免受捕食者的侵害。但如果人们在此之后仍然等待很长的时间，这些象龟就会变得太过巨大而无法运输。

段落E

For years,repatriation efforts were carried out in small numbers,with the tortoises carried on the backs of men over weeks of long,treacherous hikes along narrow trails.But in November 2010,the environmentalist and Galapagos National Park liaison officer Godfrey Merlin,a visiting private motor yacht captain and a helicopter pilot gathered around a table in a small caféin Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz to work out more ambitious reintroduction.The aim was to use a helicopter to move 300 of the breeding centre’s tortoises to various locations close to Sierra Negra.

多年来，放归活动一直以小规模进行。人类背着象龟，沿着狭窄的小路，克服种种困难，一连走上好几周才能完成。但2010年11月，环境学家兼加拉帕戈斯国家公园外联主任Godfrey Merlin，一位来访的私人游艇船长和一位直升机飞行员在圣克鲁斯岛阿约拉岗的一家小咖啡馆里聚在一起，制定出更为宏大的放归计划。他们打算利用直升机将繁殖中心的300只象龟运送到Sierra Negra附近的不同地点。

段落F

This unprecedented effort was made possible by the owners of the 67-metre yacht White Cloud,who provided the Galapagos National Park with free use of their helicopter and its experienced pilot,as well as the logistical support of the yacht,its captain and crew.Originally an air ambulance,the yacht’s helicopter has a rear double door and a large internal space that’s well suited for cargo,so a custom crate was designed to hold up to 33 tortoises with a total weight of about 150 kilograms.This weight,together with that of the fuel,pilot and four crew,approached the helicopter’s maximum payload,and there were times when it was clearly right on the edge of the helicopter’s capabilities.During a period of three days,a group of volunteers from the breeding centre worked around the clock to prepare the young tortoises for transport.Meanwhile,park wardens,dropped off ahead of time in remote locations,cleared landing sites within the thick brush,cacti and lava rocks.

这一行动得以开展，多亏了67米长的游艇“白云号”的所有者们。他们为加拉帕戈斯国家公园免费提供直升机与经验丰富的驾驶员，以及游艇，船长及船员们的后勤支持。游艇上的直升机原本是一架空中救援机，有着双扇后开门和巨大的内部空间，非常适合运输。为此人们还特意设计了一种集装箱，能够装下33只乌龟，总重大约150公斤。这一重量，再加上燃油、飞行员和四名机组成员，逼近直升机的最 大载重量。有几次载重量明显达到了飞机能力的极限。在三天的时间里，来自繁殖中心的志愿者日夜不停地为运输幼年象龟做着准备。与此同时，公园的管理员提前到达各个偏远的地点，在茂盛的灌木丛、仙人掌和熔岩中清理出直升机降落的地点。

段落G

Upon their release,the juvenile tortoises quickly spread out over their ancestral territory,investigating their new surroundings and feeding on the vegetation.Eventually,one tiny tortoise came across a fully grown giant who had been lumbering around the island for around a hundred years.The two stood side by side,a powerful symbol of the regeneration of an ancient species.

一经释放，这些幼年象龟很快在它们祖先的土地上四散开来，探索周围的环境，并以植物为食。最终，一只小象龟遇到了一只完全成长的巨大象龟。它已经在岛上度过了100年左右的时间。这两只象龟站在一起，成为古老物种复苏的有力标志。

剑桥雅思12Test6Passage3阅读原文翻译The Benefits of Being Bilingual双语使用者的优势

剑桥雅思12阅读第六套题目第三篇文章的主题为双语使用者的优势。文章一共7段，分别介绍了双语使用者在冲突管理型任务，感觉加工，掌握新语言，保持认知系统灵敏等方面的优势。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思12 Test6 Passage3阅读原文翻译

段落A

According to the latest figures,the majority of the world’s population is now bilingual or multilingual,having grown up speaking two or more languages.In the past,such children were considered to be at a disadvantage compared with their monolingual peers.Over the past few decades,however,technological advances have allowed researchers to look more deeply at how bilingualism interacts with and changes the cognitive and neurological systems,thereby identifying several clear benefits of being bilingual.

根据最新的数据，世界上大多数人口现在都能够使用两种或多种语言(说着两种或更多种语言长大)。过去，与只说一种语言的同龄人相比，这些孩子被认为处于劣势。但在过去几十年里，技术的进步让研究者可以更加深入地探索双语使用如何影响并改变认知和神经系统，从而找出能够使用两种语言的一些明显好处。

段落B

Research shows that when a bilingual person uses one language,the other is active at the same time.When we hear a word,we don’t hear the entire word all at once:the sounds arrive in sequential order.Long before the word is finished,the brain’s language system begins to guess what that word might be.If you hear‘can’,you will likely activate words like‘candy’and‘candle’as well,at least during the earlier stages of word recognition.For bilingual people,this activation is not limited to a single language;auditory input activates corresponding words regardless of the language to which they belong.Some of the most compelling evidence for this phenomenon,called‘language co-activation’,comes from studying eye movements.A Russian-English bilingual asked to‘pick up a marker’from a set of objects would look more at a stamp than someone who doesn’t know Russian,because the Russian word for‘stamp’,marka,sounds like the English word he or she heard,‘marker’.In cases like this,language co-activation occurs because what the listener hears could map onto words in either language.

研究发现，当双语人士使用一种语言时，另一种也会同时处于活跃状态。当我们听到一个单词时，我们并不是立刻听到完整的词汇：单词音节按顺序传到耳朵里。早在单词说完之前，大脑的语言系统就开始猜测这个单词可能是什么。如果你听到can，你可能会激活诸如candy和candle这样的单词。至少在单词识别的早期阶段如此。对于双语使用者而言，这一激活过程并不局限于一种语言。不论单词所属的语言是什么，听觉输入都会激活相应的它们。这一被称作“语言协调激活”的现象最有说服力的证据来自于对眼球运动的研究。与不会俄语的人相比，一名俄语和英语的使用者被要求从一组物品中“pick up marker”时，会更多的看向邮票，因为俄语中对应邮票的单词marka，听起来与他/她听到的英语单词marker十分相似。在诸如此类的案例中，语言协调激活的出现是因为人们把听到的内容映射到任一语言的单词上。

段落C

Having to deal with this persistent linguistic competition can result in difficulties,however.For instance,knowing more than one language can cause speakers to name pictures more slowly,and can increase‘tip-of-the-tongue states’,when you can almost,but not quite,bring a word to mind.As a result,the constant juggling of two languages creates a need to control how much a person accesses a language at any given time.For this reason,bilingual people often perform better on tasks that require conflict management.In the classic Stroop Task,people see a word and are asked to name the colour of the word’s font.When the colour and the word match(i.e.,the word‘red’printed in red),people correctly name the colour more quickly than when the colour and the word don’t match(i.e.,the word‘red’printed in blue).This occurs because the word itself(‘red’)and its font colour(blue)conflict.Bilingual people often excel at tasks such as this,which tap into the ability to ignore competing perceptual information and focus on the relevant aspects of the input.Bilinguals are also better at switching between two tasks;for example,when bilinguals have to switch from categorizing objects by colour(red or green)to categorizing them by shape(circle or triangle),they do so more quickly than monolingual people,reflecting better cognitive control when having to make rapid changes of strategy.

然而，应对这种持续的语言竞争会导致一些困难。例如，通晓不止一种语言会造成人们在说出图片名称时较为缓慢，并出现更多“话在嘴边”的现象，即你几乎能想到某个单词，却无法说出口。这样一来，两种语言持续的斗争就要求人们在任何时候都控制好语言的接入。正因为这一原因，双语使用者通常在那些需要管理冲突的任务上表现更好。在经典的斯特色谱任务中，参与者被要求说出所看到的字体的颜色。相比于颜色与单词不匹配的情况(比如red被印刷成蓝色)，当颜色与单词匹配时(比如red被印刷成红色)，人们可以更快地准确说出颜色名称。这是因为单词自身(red)与它的字体颜色(blue)相冲突。双语使用者通常在这类任务中表现的更好。他们擅长忽略干扰性信息而专注于输入信息中的有效内容。双语使用者在任务转换方面表现的也更好。例如，当双语使用者需要从将物体按颜色(红色或绿色)分类的任务中转换到按形状(圆形或三角形)分类时，他们会比单一语言使用者更快。这反映出，当需要进行快速的策略转变时，他们拥有更好的认知控制能力。

段落D

It also seems that the neurological roots of the bilingual advantage extend to brain areas more traditionally associated with sensory processing.When monolingual and bilingual adolescents listen to simple speech sounds without any intervening background noise,they show highly similar brain stem responses.When researchers play the same sound to both groups in the presence of background noise,however,the bilingual listeners’neural response is considerably larger,reflecting better encoding of the sound’s fundamental frequency,a feature of sound closely related to pitch perception.

双语优势的神经根源似乎延伸到传统上与感官处理更为相关的大脑区域。当使用单一语言的青少年和使用两种语言的青少年在没有背景噪音的干扰下听一段简单的演讲时，他们展现出高度相似的脑干反应。然而，当研究者在有背景噪音的情况下，为两组人播放相同的音频时，双语使用者的神经反应更为明显。这反映出他们可以更好地对声音的基础频率进行编码，而声音基础频率这一特征与音调知觉紧密相关。

段落E

Such improvements in cognitive and sensory processing may help a bilingual person to process information in the environment,and help explain why bilingual adults acquire a third language better than monolingual adults master a second language.This advantage may be rooted in the skill of focusing on information about the new language while reducing interference from the languages they already know.

这些认知和感官处理方面的提升可能有助于双语使用者处理环境中的信息，并有助于解释为什么使用双语的成年人会比使用单一语言的成年人更好的掌握第三种语言。这一优势的根源可能在于专注新语言的信息并减少已知语言干扰的能力。

段落F

Research also indicates that bilingual experience may help to keep the cognitive mechanisms sharp by recruiting alternate brain networks to compensate for those that become damaged during aging.Older bilinguals enjoy improved memory relative to monolingual people,which can lead to real-world health benefits.In a study of over 200 patients with Alzheimer’s disease,a degenerative brain disease,bilingual patients reported showing initial symptoms of the disease an average of five years later than monolingual patients.In a follow-up study,researchers compared the brains of bilingual and monolingual patients matched on the severity of Alzheimer’s symptoms.Surprisingly,the bilinguals’brains had more physical signs of disease than their monolingual counterparts,even though their outward behaviour and abilities were the same.If the brain is an engine,bilingualism may help it to go farther on the same amount of fuel.

研究也表明，通过利用大脑备用网络来弥补那些由于老化而受到损伤的部分，双语经历可以帮助保持认知机制的灵敏。与单一语言使用者相比，老年双语使用者的记忆力较好。这会给我们的健康带来切实的好处。在一项对超过200名阿尔兹海默症(一种大脑退化疾病)患者的研究中，使用两种语言的病人报告症状比只使用一种语言的病人平均晚5年。在随后的一项研究中，研究者比较了阿尔兹海默症症状严重程度一致的双语病人和单一语言病人的大脑。令人惊讶的是，与单一语言的病人相比，双语使用者的大脑拥有更多的疾病体征，尽管他们展现出来的行为和能力是相同的。如果大脑是台发动机的话，双语能力可能会帮助它在相同燃料的情况下走的更远。

段落G

Furthermore,the benefits associated with bilingual experience seem to start very early.In one study,researchers taught seven-month-old babies growing up in monolingual or bilingual homes that when they heard a tinkling sound,a puppet appeared on one side of a screen.Halfway through the study,the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen.In order to get a reward,the infants had to adjust the rule they’d learned;only the bilingual babies were able to successfully learn the new rule.This suggests that for very young children,as well as for older people,navigating a multilingual environment imparts advantages that transfer far beyond language.

此外，与双语经历相关的好处似乎很早就显现出来。在一项研究中，研究者教授来自单语或双语家庭的7个月大的婴儿。当他们听到清脆的声音时，一个木偶会出现在屏幕的一侧。在研究进行到一半时，木偶开始出现在屏幕的另一侧。为了得到奖励，婴儿必须调整他们所学到的规则。只有双语婴儿能够成功地学习新规则。这表明，对于年龄非常小的孩子以及年龄更大的人来说，在多语言环境中成长赋予他们远超语言的优势。

剑桥雅思12Test6Passage2阅读原文翻译The lost city失落的城市

剑桥雅思12阅读第6套题目第2篇文章以人物传记的方式，描述了印加古城的发现过程。文章一共7段，按照时间顺序分别介绍了Bingham到达南美洲，选择不同路线，获知小山，登山后所看到的景象，以及逐渐受人重视的经历。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思12 Test6 Passage2阅读原文翻译

段落A

When the US explorer and academic Hiram Bingham arrived in South America in 1911,he was ready for what was to be the greatest achievement of his life:the exploration of the remote hinterland to the west of Cusco,the old capital of the Inca empire in the Andes mountains of Peru.His goal was to locate the remains of a city called Vitcos,the last capital of the Inca civilisation.Cusco lies on a high plateau at an elevation of more than 3,000 metres,and Bingham’s plan was to descend from this plateau along the valley of the Urubamba river,which takes a circuitous route down to the Amazon and passes through an area of dramatic canyons and mountain ranges.

当美国探险家和学者Hiram Bingham于1911年到达南美大陆时，他已经为即将到来的自己人生中最伟大的成就做好了准备：探索库斯科西部遥远的内陆地区，秘鲁安第斯山脉印加帝国的古都所在。他的目标是找到被称为Vitcos的城市遗迹，印加文明最后的首都。库斯科位于海拔3000多米的高原之上。Bingham计划沿着乌鲁班巴河的河谷一路向下。走环形路线到达亚马逊，并穿过一片巨大的峡谷和山脉。

段落B

When Bingham and his team set off down the Urubamba in late July,they had an advantage over travellers who had preceded them:a track had recently been blasted down the valley canyon to enable rubber to be brought up by mules from the jungle.Almost all previous travellers had left the river at Ollantaytambo and taken a high pass across the mountains to rejoin the river lower down,thereby cutting a substantial corner,but also therefore never passing through the area around Machu Picchu.

当Bingham和他的团队在7月末沿着乌鲁班巴河顺流而下时，他们与之前的旅行者相比拥有一项优势：一条沿着峡谷的小道刚刚被开辟出来，以方便骡马从森林中运输橡胶。几乎所有之前的旅行者都在Ollantaytambo离开河道，在高处穿过山脉，再在低处与河流汇合。这样虽然少走了不少路，但也因此从来都没有穿越过马丘比丘附近的区域。

段落C

On 24 July they were a few days into their descent of the valley.The day began slowly,with Bingham trying to arrange sufficient mules for the next stage of the trek.His companions showed no interest in accompanying him up the nearby hill to see some ruins that a local farmer,Melchor Arteaga,had told them about the night before.The morning was dull and damp,and Bingham also seems to have been less than keen on the prospect of climbing the hill.In his book Lost City of the Incas,he relates that he made the ascent without having the least expectation that he would find anything at the top.

7月24日，他们在山谷中已经走了一些日子。这天天亮的很慢。Bingham正努力为下一阶段的路途安排足够的骡子。他的同伴对陪同他登上附近的山丘，观察当地农民Melchor Arteaga前天晚上告诉他们的一些遗迹毫无兴趣。那天早晨阴暗潮湿，Bingham似乎也对攀登小山的前景不那么期待。他在《印加的失落城市》一书中提到，他爬山时根本就没有期望能在山顶发现任何东西。

段落D

Bingham writes about the approach in vivid style in his book.First,as he climbs up the hill,he describes the ever-present possibility of deadly snakes,‘capable of making considerable springs when in pursuit of their prey’;not that he sees any.Then there’s a sense of mounting discovery as he comes across great sweeps of terraces,then a mausoleum,followed by monumental staircases and,finally,the grand ceremonial buildings of Machu Picchu.‘It seemed like an unbelievable dream…the sight held me spellbound…’he wrote.

Bingham在书中用生动的语言描述了这一过程。一开始在爬山过程中，他描述到致命毒蛇出现的风险。它们在捕捉猎物时能够高高弹起。虽然他并没有见到任何一条。随着他走过巨大的看台，陵墓，壮观的台阶，并最终达到马丘比丘宏伟的仪式建筑，他的发现越来越多。他写到，“这似乎是一场令人难以置信的梦境，那景象令我着迷”。

段落E

We should remember,however,that Lost City of the Incas is a work of hindsight,not written until 1948,many years after his journey.His journal entries of the time reveal a much more gradual appreciation of his achievement.He spent the afternoon at the ruins noting down the dimensions of some of the buildings,then descended and rejoined his companions,to whom he seems to have said little about his discovery.At this stage,Bingham didn’t realise the extent or the importance of the site,nor did he realise what use he could make of the discovery.

然而，我们应当记住，《印加的失落城市》是一部事后作品，直到1948年才写成。那时他的旅行已经结束许多年了。他按照时间写成的日志揭示了更多其成就逐渐被理解的过程。他在废墟中花了一下午，记录一些建筑的尺寸，然后下山与同伴汇合。他似乎并没有跟他们提及自己的发现。这时候，Bingham还没有意识到这个地方的重要性，他也没有意识到自己能利用这一发现做什么。

段落F

However,soon after returning it occurred to him that he could make a name for himself from this discovery.When he came to write the National Geographic magazine article that broke the story to the world in April 1913,he knew he had to produce a big idea.He wondered whether it could have been the birthplace of the very first Inca,Manco the Great,and whether it could also have been what chroniclers described as‘the last city of the Incas’.This term refers to Vilcabamba,the settlement where the Incas had fled from Spanish invaders in the 1530s.Bingham made desperate attempts to prove this belief for nearly 40 years.Sadly,his vision of the site as both the beginning and end of the Inca civilisation,while a magnificent one,is inaccurate.We now know that Vilcabamba actually lies 65 kilometres away in the depths of the jungle.

然而，在返回不久之后，他想到自己可以利用这一发现出名。当他终于在1913年四月在《国家地理》杂志刊登文章将这个故事公布于世时，他意识到自己需要一个更大胆的想法。他猜想，它有没有可能是印加文明的诞生地-伟大的曼科，或者它有没有可能是编年史作家所描述的印加最后的城市-Vilcabamba，即16世纪30年代印加人躲避西班牙入侵者的聚居地。Bingham用了将近40年的时间竭尽全力证明这一想法。遗憾的是，他所到之处虽然景象十分壮观，但无论是作为印加文明的起始之地，还是结束之处，均与史实不符。我们现在知道，Vilcabamba实际上位于65公里外的丛林深处。

段落G

One question that has perplexed visitors,historians and archaeologists alike ever since Bingham,is why the site seems to have been abandoned before the Spanish Conquest.There are no references to it by any of the Spanish chroniclers–and if they had known of its existence so close to Cusco they would certainly have come in search of gold.An idea which has gained wide acceptance over the past few years is that Machu Picchu was a moya,a country estate built by an Inca emperor to escape the cold winters of Cusco,where the elite could enjoy monumental architecture and spectacular views.Furthermore,the particular architecture of Machu Picchu suggests that it was constructed at the time of the greatest of all the Incas,the emperor Pachacuti(c.1438-71).By custom,Pachacuti’s descendants built other similar estates for their own use,and so Machu Picchu would have been abandoned after his death,some 50 years before the Spanish Conquest.

自Bingham以来，一直困扰着游客、历史学家和考古学家的一个问题是，为什么这座城市在被西班牙占领之前就被抛弃。没有任何西班牙编年史作者提到此处。而如果他们知道它的位置与库斯科如此之近，他们肯定会来寻找黄金的。过去几年里被人们普遍接受的一种观点是，马丘比丘位于火山之上，一名印加国王在这里建造城市以逃避库斯科寒冷的冬季。而精英阶层则可以享受巨大的建筑并欣赏壮观的景象。此外，马丘比丘独特的建筑表明，它建设于印加文明最为鼎盛的时期-帕查库蒂国王在位期间(c.1438-1471年)。根据传统，帕查库蒂的后代们建造了其他相似的建筑供自己使用。因此，在他死后，马丘比丘就被遗弃了。差不多50年后，西班牙入侵者才到来。

剑桥雅思8Test4阅读Passage1原文翻译Land of the Rising Sum数学崛起之地

剑桥雅思8阅读第四套题目第 一篇文章的主题为日本数学的崛起。文章共分为A-F六部分，分别介绍了日本数学教育的辉煌成绩，日本中学教育的背景，文部省在此过程中的作用，数学课的流程，对后进学生的帮助，并总结了日本数学教育成功的要素，下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思8 Test4 Passage1阅读原文翻译

A部分

Japan has a significantly better record in terms of average mathematical attainment than England and Wales.Large sample international comparisons of pupils’attainments since the 1960s have established that not only did Japanese pupils at age 13 have better scores of average attainment,but there was also a larger proportion of‘low’attainers in England,where,incidentally,the variation in attainment scores was much greater.The percentage of Gross National Product spent on education is reasonably similar in the two countries,so how is this higher and more consistent attainment in maths achieved?

日本的平均数学水平要比英格兰和威尔士好得多。自20世纪60年代以来，国际上对学生学业成绩的大量样本比较表明，不仅13岁的日本学生的平均学业成绩更高，而且英格兰“低成绩”学生的比例也更大，同时其成绩差异也更明显。两国在教育上花费的国民生产总值的百分比十分相似，那么数学上更高和更一致的成就是如何获得的呢?

B部分-第1段

Lower secondary schools in Japan cover three school years,from the seventh grade(age 13)to the ninth grade(age 15).Virtually all pupils at this stage attend state schools:only 3 per cent are in the private sector.Schools are usually modern in design,set well back from the road and spacious inside.Classrooms are large and pupils sit at single desks in rows.Lessons last for a standardised 50 minutes and are always followed by a 10-minute break,which gives the pupils a chance to let off steam.Teachers begin with a formal address and mutual bowing,and then concentrate on whole-class teaching.

日本的初中涵盖从7年级(13岁)到9年级(15岁)的三个学年。目前，几乎所有学生都在公立学校就读：只有3%在私立学校。学校通常采用现代设计，远离道路，内部宽敞。教室很大，学生们成排坐在单张桌子旁。上课时长为标准的50分钟，之后总是有10分钟的休息时间，这使学生有机会发泄精力。教师从正式的问候和互相鞠躬开始，然后专注于全班教学。

B部分-第2段

Classes are large–usually about 40–and are unstreamed.Pupils stay in the same class for all lessons throughout the school and develop considerable class identity and loyalty.Pupils attend the school in their own neighbourhood,which in theory removes ranking by school.In practice in Tokyo,because of the relative concentration of schools,there is some competition to get into the‘better’school in a particular area.

班级很大-通常约为40名学生-并且没有按照成绩分班。在整个学校的所有课程中，学生都待在同一个班级，并培养出可观的班级认同和忠诚度。学生在自己附近的学校上学。从理论上讲，这可以消除学校的排名。在东京的实践中，由于学校相对集中，进入某个特定地区“更好”的学校会有一些竞争。

C部分

Traditional ways of teaching form the basis of the lesson and the remarkably quiet classes take their own notes of the points made and the examples demonstrated.Everyone has their own copy of the textbook supplied by the central education authority,Monbusho,as part of the concept of free compulsory education up to the age of 15.These textbooks are,on the whole,small,presumably inexpensive to produce,but well set out and logically developed.(One teacher was particularly keen to introduce colour and pictures into maths textbooks:he felt this would make them more accessible to pupils brought up in a cartoon culture.)Besides approving textbooks,Monbusho also decides the highly centralised national curriculum and how it is to be delivered.

传统的教学方法构成了课程的基础，而安静的课堂则记下老师提出的观点和所举的例子。每个人都有自己的中央教育当局(Monbusho)提供的教科书。它们是15岁以下免费义务教育概念的一部分。这些教科书总体上很小，生产成本低廉，但是出发点很好，逻辑流畅。(一位老师特别热衷于将色彩和图片引入数学教科书中：他认为这将使在卡通文化中成长的学生更容易使用它们。)除了批准教科书之外，Monbusho还决定了高度集中的国家课程以及如何教授这些课程。

D部分-第1段

Lessons all follow the same pattern.At the beginning,the pupils put solutions to the homework on the board,then the teachers comment,correct or elaborate as necessary.Pupils mark their own homework:this is an important principle in Japanese schooling as it enables pupils to see where and why they made a mistake,so that these can be avoided in future.No one minds mistakes or ignorance as long as you are prepared to learn from them.

所有课程都遵循相同的模式。开始时，学生将家庭作业的解决方案写在黑板上，然后老师进行评论，根据需要进行更正或解释。学生批改自己的作业：这是日本学校教育中的一项重要原则，因为它使学生能够了解他们在哪里以及为什么犯错，以便将来可以避免。只要你准备向错误或无知学习，就不会有人介意它们。

D部分-第2段

After the homework has been discussed,the teacher explains the topic of the lesson,slowly and with a lot of repetition and elaboration.Examples are demonstrated on the board;questions from the textbook are worked through first with the class,and then the class is set questions from the textbook to do individually.Only rarely are supplementary worksheets distributed in a maths class.The impression is that the logical nature of the textbooks and their comprehensive coverage of different types of examples,combined with the relative homogeneity of the class,renders work sheets unnecessary.At this point,the teacher would circulate and make sure that all the pupils were coping well.

在讨论完作业后，老师会慢慢地讲解本节课的主题，并进行大量重复和解释。黑板上展示有例子;首先老师与全班一起处理教科书中的问题，然后学生独立完成教科书上的习题。很少在数学课上分发补充练习题。给人的印象是，教科书的逻辑性质以及它们对不同类型例子的全面覆盖，再加上班级的相对同质性，使练习题变得不必要。在这一点上，老师将四处巡视，并确保所有学生都很好地应对。

E部分-第1段

It is remarkable that large,mixed-ability classes could be kept together for maths throughout all their compulsory schooling from 6 to 15.Teachers say that they give individual help at the end of a lesson or after school,setting extra work if necessary.In observed lessons,any strugglers would be assisted by the teacher or quietly seek help from their neighbour.Carefully fostered class identity makes pupils keen to help each other–anyway,it is in their interests since the class progresses together.

值得注意的是，在从6岁到15岁的所有义务教育阶段中，数学课一直采用大型混合能力的班级形式。老师说，他们在课程结束后或放学后会提供个人帮助，并在必要时布置额外的作业。在所观察的课程中，任何挣扎的人都会得到老师的帮助，或者悄悄地寻求邻居的帮助。精心培养的班级认同使学生热衷于互相帮助-无论如何，班级一起进步符合他们的利益。

E部分-第2段

This scarcely seems adequate help to enable slow learners to keep up.However,the Japanese attitude towards education runs along the lines of‘if you work hard enough,you can do almost anything’.Parents are kept closely informed of their children’s progress and will play a part in helping their children to keep up with class,sending them to‘Juku’(private evening tuition)if extra help is needed and encouraging them to work harder.It seems to work,at least for 95 per cent of the school population.

这似乎不足以帮助缓慢的学习者跟上进度。但是，日本人对教育的态度是“只要努力就可以做到几乎所有事情”。父母会密切了解孩子的学习情况，并会在帮助孩子跟上课堂进度。如果需要额外的辅助，他们会将孩子送至“Juku”(私人夜间补习)，并鼓励他们更加努力地学习。这似乎至少对95%的学校人口都很有效。

F部分-第1段

So what are the major contributing factors in the success of maths teaching?Clearly,attitudes are important.Education is valued greatly in Japanese culture;maths is recognised as an important compulsory subject throughout schooling;and the emphasis is on hard work coupled with a focus on accuracy.

那么，数学教学成功的主要因素是什么?显然，态度很重要。在日本文化中，教育受到高度重视;数学被认为是整个教育过程中的重要必修课;重点是努力学习和准确性。

F部分-第2段

Other relevant points relate to the supportive attitude of a class towards slower pupils,the lack of competition within a class,and the positive emphasis on learning for oneself and improving one’s own standard.And the view of repetitively boring lessons and learning the facts by heart,which is sometimes quoted in relation to Japanese classes,may be unfair and unjustified.No poor maths lessons were observed.They were mainly good and one or two were inspirational.

其他相关要素涉及班级对较慢学生的支持态度，班级内部缺乏竞争，以及积极强调为自己学习和提高自己的水平。涉及到日本课堂时，有时会被引用的观点认为，它主要是无聊的重复和用心背诵事实。但这既不公平也不合理。没有观察到草稿的数学课程。它们大体而言都很好，还有一两个十分具有启发意义。

剑桥雅思8Test3阅读Passage3原文翻译How Does the Biological Clock Tick生物钟如何工作

剑桥雅思8阅读第三套题目第三篇文章的主题为生物钟如何工作。文章共有7段，分别介绍了所有物品都有损耗，物品变旧与生物衰老的差别，死亡的原理，人类的平均寿命，生物钟控制寿命，能量消耗在此过程中的作用，以及节约能够可以延年益寿。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思8 Test3 Passage3阅读原文翻译

段落A

Our life span is restricted.Everyone accepts this as‘biologically’obvious.‘Nothing lives for ever!’However,in this statement we think of artificially produced,technical objects,products which are subjected to natural wear and tear during use.This leads to the result that at some time or other the object stops working and is unusable(‘death’in the biological sense).But are the wear and tear and loss of function of technical objects and the death of living organisms really similar or comparable?

我们的寿命受到限制。每个人都认为这是“生物学上”显而易见的。“没有什么能够永生!”但是，在这一说法中，我们想到的是人工生产的技术物品以及在使用过程中会遭受自然磨损的产品。这导致以下结果：物体有时会停止工作并且无法使用(生物学意义上的“死亡”)。但是，技术物品的磨损与功能丧失和有机物的死亡真的是相似的或可比较的吗?

段落B

Our‘dead’products are‘static’,closed systems.It is always the basic material which constitutes the object and which,in the natural course of things,is worn down and becomes‘older’.Ageing in this case must occur according to the laws of physical chemistry and of thermodynamics.Although the same law holds for a living organism,the result of this law is not inexorable in the same way.At least as long as a biological system has the ability to renew itself it could actually become older without ageing;an organism is an open,dynamic system through which new material continuously flows.Destruction of old material and formation of new material are thus in permanent dynamic equilibrium.The material of which the organism is formed changes continuously.Thus our bodies continuously exchange old substance for new,just like a spring which more or less maintains its form and movement,but in which the water molecules are always different.

我们的“死去的”产品是“静态的”封闭系统。构成物体的基本材料在事物的自然发展过程中会被磨损并变“旧”。在这种情况下，老化必须根据物理化学和热力学定律进行。尽管同样的规律也适用于生物，但该规律的结果并非不可避免。至少只要生物系统具有更新自身的能力，它实际上就可以变老而不老化。生物是一个开放的，动态的系统。新材料在其中不断流动。因此，旧材料的破坏和新材料的形成处于永 久的动态平衡中。形成生物的物质不断变化。因此，我们的身体不断地将旧物质换为新物质，就像一个或多或少保持其形态和运动的弹簧一样，但是其中的水分子总是不同的。

段落C

Thus ageing and death should not be seen as inevitable,particularly as the organism possesses many mechanisms for repair.It is not,in principle,necessary for a biological system to age and die.Nevertheless,a restricted life span,ageing,and then death are basic characteristics of life.The reason for this is easy to recognise:in nature,the existent organisms either adapt or are regularly replaced by new types.Because of changes in the genetic material(mutations)these have new characteristics and in the course of their individual lives they are tested for optimal or better adaptation to the environmental conditions.Immortality would disturb this system–it needs room for new and better life.This is the basic problem of evolution.

因此，衰老和死亡不应被看作是必然的，尤其是当生物体具有许多修复机制。原则上，生物系统没有必要发生老化和死亡。然而，有限的寿命，衰老，然后死亡是生命的基本特征。我们很容易意识到其原因：在自然界中，现有的生物要么适应新生物，要么定期被新生物取代。由于遗传物质(突变)的变化，它们具有新的特征。在其个体生命过程中，它们经受测试以更好地适应环境条件。永生会扰乱这个系统-它需要为新的、更好的生命创造空间。这是进化的基本问题。

段落D

Every organism has a life span which is highly characteristic.There are striking differences in life span between different species,but within one species the parameter is relatively constant.For example,the average duration of human life has hardly changed in thousands of years.Although more and more people attain an advanced age as a result of developments in medical care and better nutrition,the characteristic upper limit for most remains 80 years.A further argument against the simple wear and tear theory is the observation that the time within which organisms age lies between a few days(even a few hours for unicellular organisms)and several thousand years,as with mammoth trees.

每个生物体都有其独具特色的生命长度。不同物种之间的寿命存在显著差异。但在一个物种内，参数相对恒定。例如，人类的平均寿命几千年来几乎没有变化。尽管越来越多的人由于医疗保健的发展和更好的营养而达到高龄，但对于大多数人来说，其典型的上限仍然是80岁。反对简单磨损理论的另一个论据来自以下观察，生物衰老的时间介于几天(单细胞生物甚至几小时)和数千年之间(正如巨杉树一样)。

段落E

If a life span is a genetically determined biological characteristic,it is logically necessary to propose the existence of an internal clock,which in some way measures and controls the ageing process and which finally determines death as the last step in a fixed programme.Like the life span,the metabolic rate has for different organisms a fixed mathematical relationship to the body mass.In comparison to the life span this relationship is‘inverted’:the larger the organism the lower its metabolic rate.Again this relationship is valid not only for birds,but also,similarly on average within the systematic unit,for all other organisms(plants,animals,unicellular organisms).

如果寿命是遗传决定的生物学特征，那么从逻辑上讲，有必要提出一个内部时钟的存在。该时钟以某种方式测量和控制衰老过程，并最终将死亡确定为固定程序中的最后一步。像寿命一样，不同生物体的代谢率与其体重之间存在固定的数学关系。与寿命相比，这种关系是“倒置的”：生物体越大，其代谢率越低。同样，这种关系不仅对鸟类有效，而且对于系统单位内相似的所有其他生物同样有效(植物，动物，单细胞生物)。

段落F

Animals which behave‘frugally’with energy become particularly old,for example,crocodiles and tortoises.Parrots and birds of prey are often held chained up.Thus they are not able to‘experience life’and so they attain a high life span in captivity.Animals which save energy by hibernation or lethargy(e.g.bats or hedgehogs)live much longer than those which are always active.The metabolic rate of mice can be reduced by a very low consumption of food(hunger diet).They then may live twice as long as their well-fed comrades.Women become distinctly(about 10 per cent)older than men.If you examine the metabolic rates of the two sexes you establish that the higher male metabolic rate roughly accounts for the lower male life span.That means that they live life‘energetically’–more intensively,but not for as long.

表现“节俭”的动物能活的特别久，例如鳄鱼和乌龟。鹦鹉和猛禽经常被拴起来。因此，他们无法“体验生活”，但他们在囚禁中的寿命却很高。通过冬眠或嗜睡来节省能量的动物(例如蝙蝠或刺猬)的寿命比总是活跃的动物更长。极少消耗食物(饥饿饮食)可降低小白鼠的代谢率。然后，他们的寿命是他们经过良好喂养的同伴的两倍。女性明显比男性活的长(大约10%)。如果检查两个性别的新陈代谢率，则可以确定较高的男性新陈代谢率大致解释了较低的男性寿命。这意味着他们“精力充沛”地过着更加紧张的生活，但时间不长。

段落G

It follows from the above that sparing use of energy reserves should tend to extend life.Extreme high performance sports may lead to optimal cardiovascular performance,but they quite certainly do not prolong life.Relaxation lowers metabolic rate,as does adequate sleep and in general an equable and balanced personality.Each of us can develop his or her own‘energy saving programme’with a little self-observation,critical self-control and,above all,logical consistency.Experience will show that to live in this way not only increases the life span but is also very healthy.This final aspect should not be forgotten.

由上述内容可知，节约使用能量会倾向于延长寿命。极限的高性能运动可能会导致最 佳的心血管运动表现，但无疑不会延长寿命。放松会降低新陈代谢的速度，充足的睡眠和良好的性格也会降低新陈代谢的速度。我们每个人都可以通过一些自我观察，严格的自我控制以及最重要的逻辑一致性来制定自己的“节能计划”。经验表明，以这种方式生活不仅可以延长寿命，而且非常健康。最后一个方面不应被忘记。

剑桥雅思8Test3阅读Passage2原文翻译The Nature of Genius天才的本质

剑桥雅思8阅读第三套题目第二篇文章的主题为天才的本质。文章一共7段，分别介绍了天才这一词汇的来源和含义，人们对天才的误解，之前对天才的研究和存在的缺陷，成为天才的原因，天才的本质，成为天才要付出的代价，以及我们应该对天才持何种态度。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思8 Test3 Passage2阅读原文翻译

第1段

There has always been an interest in geniuses and prodigies.The word‘genius’,from the Latin gens(=family)and the term‘genius’,meaning‘begetter’,comes from the early Roman cult of a divinity as the head of the family.In its earliest form,genius was concerned with the ability of the head of the family,the paterfamilias,to perpetuate himself.Gradually,genius came to represent a person’s characteristics and thence an individual’s highest attributes derived from his‘genius’or guiding spirit.Today,people still look to stars or genes,astrology or genetics,in the hope of finding the source of exceptional abilities or personal characteristics.

人们一直对天才和神童感兴趣。“genius”一词来自拉丁语gens(=family)和“genius”(意为“生子”)。它来自罗马人早期对一家之主神性的崇拜。天才最早的时候与一家之主使自己永存的能力有关。逐渐地，天才开始代表一个人的特征。因此一个人的最 高属性源于他的“天才”或指导精神。如今，人们仍在寻找星象或基因，占星术或遗传学，以期找到卓越能力或个人特征的来源。

第2段

The concept of genius and of gifts has become part of our folk culture,and attitudes are ambivalent towards them.We envy the gifted and mistrust them.In the mythology of giftedness,it is popularly believed that if people are talented in one area,they must be defective in another,that intellectuals are impractical,that prodigies burn too brightly too soon and burn out,that gifted people are eccentric,that they are physical weaklings,that there’s a thin line between genius and madness,that genius runs in families,that the gifted are so clever they don’t need special help,that giftedness is the same as having a high IQ,that some races are more intelligent or musical or mathematical than others,that genius goes unrecognised and unrewarded,that adversity makes men wise or that people with gifts have a responsibility to use them.Language has been enriched with such terms as‘highbrow’,‘egghead’,‘blue-stocking’,‘wiseacre’,‘know-all’,‘boffin’and,for many,‘intellectual’is a term of denigration.

天才和天赋的概念已成为我们民间文化的一部分。人们对它们的态度也很矛盾。我们羡慕有天赋的人，不信任他们。在天才的神话中，人们普遍认为，如果人们在某个领域有才华，他们必定在另一个领域有缺陷，知识分子是不切实际的，天才们过早地燃烧并耗尽了精力，有天赋的人是古怪的，身体很虚弱，天才和疯狂之间的界限很窄，天才在家族中遗传，有天赋的人是如此聪明，他们不需要特殊的帮助，拥有天赋与拥有很高的智商一样，有些种族比其他人更聪明，或在音乐或数学更有优势，天才不被承认和很难得到奖励，逆境使人聪明，或者有天赋的人有责任使用它们。这些语言中充斥着“高傲”，“傻瓜”，“突破常规”，“自以为是”，“无所不知”，“书呆子”等词。对于许多人来说，“智力”是贬义词。

第3段

The nineteenth century saw considerable interest in the nature of genius,and produced not a few studies of famous prodigies.Perhaps for us today,two of the most significant aspects of most of these studies of genius are the frequency with which early encouragement and teaching by parents and tutors had beneficial effects on the intellectual,artistic or musical development of the children but caused great difficulties of adjustment later in their lives,and the frequency with which abilities went unrecognised by teachers and schools.However,this article is from Laokaoya website,the difficulty with the evidence produced by these studies,fascinating as they are in collecting together anecdotes and apparent similarities and exceptions,is that they are not what we would today call norm-referenced.In other words,when,for instance,information is collated about early illnesses,methods of upbringing,schooling,etc.,we must also take into account information from other historical sources about how common or exceptional these were at the time.For instance,infant mortality was high and life expectancy much shorter than today,home tutoring was common in the families of the nobility and wealthy,bullying and corporal punishment were common at the best independent schools and,for the most part,the cases studied were members of the privileged classes.It was only with the growth of paediatrics and psychology in the twentieth century that studies could be carried out on a more objective,if still not always very scientific,basis.

19世纪，人们对天才的本质产生了浓厚的兴趣，并产生了不少有关著 名神童的研究。也许对今天的我们而言，这些天才研究中最重要的两个方面是：父母和家教早期的鼓励与教学对儿童的智力，艺术或音乐发展产生有益影响，但却给儿童适应日后生活造成了巨大困难的频率;以及能力不被教师和学校认可的频率。然而，虽然这些研究在收集轶事、相似性和例外性方面十分引人入胜，但其所给出的证据的缺陷在于它们并非我们今天所认可的规范参考。换句话说，例如，当整理有关早期疾病，养育方法，上学等的信息时，我们还必须考虑来自其他历史资料的信息来说明它们在当时是多么普遍或特殊。例如，婴儿死亡率很高，预期寿命比今天短得多，在贵族家庭中补习很普遍，在最好的私立学校中，欺负和体罚在十分常见。并且在大多数情况下，它们所研究的案例来自于特权阶级。随着二十世纪儿科和心理学的发展，研究才能在更客观的基础上进行，即使仍然不是很科学。

第4段

Geniuses,however,they are defined,are but the peaks which stand out through the mist of history and are visible to the particular observer from his or her particular vantage point.Change the observers and the vantage points,clear away some of the mist,and a different lot of peaks appear.Genius is a term we apply to those whom we recognise for their outstanding achievements and who stand near the end of the continuum of human abilities which reaches back through the mundane and mediocre to the incapable.There is still much truth in Dr Samuel Johnson’s observation,‘The true genius is a mind of large general powers,accidentally determined to some particular direction’.We may disagree with the‘general’,for we doubt if all musicians of genius could have become scientists of genius or vice versa,but there is no doubting the accidental determination which nurtured or triggered their gifts into those channels into which they have poured their powers so successfully.Along the continuum of abilities are hundreds of thousands of gifted men and women,boys and girls.

天才，无论它们如何定义，都不过是在历史的薄雾中脱颖而出的山峰。他们能被特点的观察者从特点的视角看到。改变观察者和观察位置，清除一些薄雾，然后就会出现许多不同的山峰。天才是一个术语，我们用它来形容那些因其杰出成就而得到认可，或者那些站在人类能力范围极限的人。塞缪尔·约翰逊(Samuel Johnson)博士的观察仍然有很多道理：“真正的天才具备杰出的普遍能力，无意中决定了某个特定方向”。我们可能会不同意“普遍”，因为我们怀疑是否所有的天才音乐家都可能成为天才科学家，反之亦然，但毫无疑问，偶然的决定使得他们的天赋进入能够成功发挥自己能力的渠道。成千上万的有才华的男人和女人，男孩和女孩分布在能力的光谱表上。

第5段

What we appreciate,enjoy or marvel at in the works of genius or the achievements of prodigies are the manifestations of skills or abilities which are similar to,but so much superior to,our own.But that their minds are not different from our own is demonstrated by the fact that the hard-won discoveries of scientists like Kepler or Einstein become the commonplace knowledge of schoolchildren and the once outrageous shapes and colours of an artist like Paul Klee so soon appear on the fabrics we wear.This does not minimise the supremacy of their achievements,which outstrip our own as the sub-four-minute milers outstrip our jogging.

我们所欣赏，喜爱或惊叹的天才的作品或神童的成就是他们技能或能力的体现，这些技能与能力与我们自己的能力相似但非常优越。但是，开普勒或爱因斯坦这样的科学家来之不易的发现成为学生的常识，而保罗·克利这样的艺术家曾经令人发指的形状和颜色很快在我们所穿的衣服上出现，这一事实证明了他们的想法与我们的想法没有什么不同。但这并不能损害他们成就的至高无上性。他们超越我们，就像能够跑进4分钟以内的跑步选手超越我们慢跑的速度一样。

第6段

To think of geniuses and the gifted as having uniquely different brains is only reasonable if we accept that each human brain is uniquely different.The purpose of instruction is to make us even more different from one another,and in the process of being educated we can learn from the achievements of those more gifted than ourselves.But before we try to emulate geniuses or encourage our children to do so we should note that some of the things we learn from them may prove unpalatable.We may envy their achievements and fame,but we should also recognise the price they may have paid in terms of perseverance,single-mindedness,dedication,restrictions on their personal lives,the demands upon their energies and time,and how often they had to display great courage to preserve their integrity or to make their way to the top.

只有当我们承认每个人的大脑都具有独特的差异时，将天才视为具有独特大脑的人才合理。这一说法的目的是使我们彼此之间变得更加不同。在接受教育的过程中，我们可以从那些比我们更有天赋的人的成就中学习。但是，在我们尝试模仿天才或鼓励我们的孩子这样做之前，我们应该注意，我们从他们那里学到的一些东西可能令人不快。我们可能会羡慕他们的成就和名声，但我们也应该认识到他们在以下方面所付出的代价：毅力，一心一意，奉献，对个人生活的节制，对精力和时间的要求，必须经常展现极大的勇气以保持自己的正直，或登上成功的巅 峰。

第7段

Genius and giftedness are relative descriptive terms of no real substance.We may,at best,give them some precision by defining them and placing them in a context but,whatever we do,we should never delude ourselves into believing that gifted children or geniuses are different from the rest of humanity,save in the degree to which they have developed the performance of their abilities.

天才和天赋是没有什么实质内容的相对描述性术语。我们可能最多只能通过定义它们并将它们放在上下文中来赋予它们一些精确度，但是，无论我们做什么，我们都不应自欺欺人地相信有天赋的孩子或天才不同于其他人类，除非他们已经在某种程度上展现出自己的能力。

剑桥雅思8Test3阅读Passage1原文翻译Striking Back at Lightning with Lasers用激光回击闪电

剑桥雅思8阅读第三套题目第 一篇文章的主题为用激光回击闪电。文章一共10个自然段，大体可以分为四部分：闪电所带来的危害，之前回击闪电方法所存在的缺陷，激光技术的介绍，以及它在其他方面的用途。下面是具体每一段的翻译。

剑桥雅思8 Test3 Passage1阅读原文翻译

第1段

Seldom is the weather more dramatic than when thunderstorms strike.Their electrical fury inflicts death or serious injury on around 500 people each year in the United States alone.As the clouds roll in,a leisurely round of golf can become a terrifying dice with death–out in the open,a lone golfer may be a lightning bolt’s most inviting target.And there is damage to property too.Lightning damage costs American power companies more than$100 million a year.

很少有天气比雷暴袭击更为剧烈。仅在美国，它们每年就造成500人死亡或重伤。随着云层翻滚中，一场悠闲的高尔夫可能变成与死亡的可怕赌博-站在开放地带，一个孤独的球员可能成为闪电最诱人的目标。财产也受到损害。雷电使美国电力公司每年损失超过1亿美元。

第2段

But researchers in the United States and Japan are planning to hit back.Already in laboratory trials they have tested strategies for neutralising the power of thunderstorms,and this winter they will brave real storms,equipped with an armoury of lasers that they will be pointing towards the heavens to discharge thunderclouds before lightning can strike.

但是美国和日本的研究人员正计划进行反击。他们已经在实验室测试了中和雷暴力量的方案。今年冬天，他们将冒着真正的暴风雨，配备激光武器，指向天空以在雷电袭击之前释放雷云的电荷。

第3段

The idea of forcing storm clouds to discharge their lightning on command is not new.In the early 1960s,researchers tried firing rockets trailing wires into thunderclouds to set up an easy discharge path for the huge electric charges that these clouds generate.The technique survives to this day at a test site in Florida run by the University of Florida,with support from the Electrical Power Research Institute(EPRI),based in California.EPRI,which is funded by power companies,is looking at ways to protect the United States’power grid from lightning strikes.‘We can cause the lightning to strike where we want it to using rockets,‘says Ralph Bernstein,manager of lightning projects at EPRI.The rocket site is providing precise measurements of lightning voltages and allowing engineers to check how electrical equipment bears up.

强迫暴风云按命令释放闪电的想法并不新鲜。在20世纪60年代初期，研究人员试图发射火箭将电线拖入雷云中，从而为这些云产生的巨大电荷建立一条简易的放电路径。在加利福尼亚州电力研究所(EPRI)的支持下，该技术在佛罗里达大学经营的一个测试点中一直使用到今天。由电力公司资助的EPRI正在研究保护美国电网免受雷击的方法。EPRI闪电项目经理拉尔夫·伯恩斯坦(Ralph Bernstein)说：“我们可以用火箭让闪电击中我们想要的位置”。火箭场可以精确测量闪电电量，并允许工程师检查电气设备的承受能力。

Bad Behaviour不良行为

第4段

But while rockets are fine for research,they cannot provide the protection from lightning strikes that everyone is looking for.The rockets cost around$1,200 each,can only be fired at a limited frequency and their failure rate is about 40 per cent.And even when they do trigger lightning,things still do not always go according to plan.‘Lightning is not perfectly well behaved,‘says Bernstein.‘Occasionally,it will take a branch and go someplace it wasn’t supposed to go.‘

但是，尽管火箭可以很好地用于研究，但它们并不能提供所有人所寻求的免除雷电袭击的保护。这些火箭的价格约为每枚1,200美元，只能以有限的频率发射，其失败率约为40%。即使它们确实触发了闪电，事情仍然不一定总是按计划进行。伯恩斯坦说：“闪电行为并不完美。有时，它会沿着一个分支，转到原本不应该去的地方”。

第5段

And anyway,who would want to fire streams of rockets in a populated area?‘What goes up must come down,‘points out Jean-Claude Diels of the University of New Mexico.Diels is leading a project,which is backed by EPRI,to try to use lasers to discharge lightning safely–and safety is a basic requirement since no one wants to put themselves or their expensive equipment at risk.With around$500,000 invested so far,a promising system is just emerging from the laboratory.

而且无论如何，谁愿意在人口稠密地区发射火箭?新墨西哥大学的让-克洛德·戴尔斯指出，“发射上去的东西一定会下来”。戴尔斯领导了一个由EPRI支持的项目，试图使用激光安全地释放闪电-安全是一项基本要求，因为没有人愿意将自己或昂贵的设备置于危险之中。到目前为止，已投入约50万美元，实验室中刚刚出现了一个有前途的系统。

第6段

The idea began some 20 years ago,when high-powered lasers were revealing their ability to extract electrons out of atoms and create ions.If a laser could generate a line of ionisation in the air all the way up to a storm cloud,this conducting path could be used to guide lightning to Earth,before the electric field becomes strong enough to break down the air in an uncontrollable surge.To stop the laser itself being struck,it would not be pointed straight at the clouds.Instead it would be directed at a mirror,and from there into the sky.The mirror would be protected by placing lightning conductors close by.Ideally,the cloud-zapper(gun)would be cheap enough to be installed around all key power installations,and portable enough to be taken to international sporting events to beam up at brewing storm clouds.

这个想法始于20年前，当时高功率激光显示了它们从原子中提取电子并产生离子的能力。如果激光能在空气中产生一条直至暴雨云的电离线，这一传导路径就可以在电场变得足以分离空气之前将闪电引导到地面。为了阻止激光本身受到电击，它不会直指云层。取而代之的是对准镜子，然后从那里射向天空。镜子通过在附近放置避雷针来得到保护。理想的情况是，云吹弹枪(枪支)的价格会足够便宜，可安装在所有关键的动力装置周围，并具有足够的便携性，可被带到国际体育赛事上，驱散正在酿造暴风雨的乌云。

A stumbling block绊脚石

第7段

However,there is still a big stumbling block.The laser is no nifty portable:it’s a monster that takes up a whole room.Diels is trying to cut down the size and says that a laser around the size of a small table is in the offing.He plans to test this more manageable system on live thunderclouds next summer.

但是，仍然有一个很大的绊脚石。激光不是轻巧的便携设备：它是一个占据整个房间的怪物。戴尔斯正在努力缩小尺寸，并说即将出现像小桌子大小的激光设备。他计划明年夏天在实时雷云上测试这个更易于管理的系统。

第8段

Bernstein says that Diels’s system is attracting lots of interest from the power companies.But they have not yet come up with the$5 million that EPRI says will be needed to develop a commercial system,by making the lasers yet smaller and cheaper.‘I cannot say I have money yet,but I’m working on it,‘says Bernstein.He reckons that the forthcoming field tests will be the turning point–and he’s hoping for good news.Bernstein predicts‘an avalanche of interest and support’if all goes well.He expects to see cloud-zappers eventually costing$50,000 to$100,000 each.

伯恩斯坦说戴尔斯的系统吸引了电力公司的许多兴趣。但是他们还没有提供EPRI所说的开发商业系统所需要的500万美元。这些钱将用于将激光设备变得更小，更便宜。伯恩斯坦说：“我不能说我没有钱，但我正在努力。”他认为即将进行的现场测试将成为转折点-他希望有个好 消息。如果一切顺利的话，伯恩斯坦预计会出现“大量的兴趣和支持”。他希望看到每个云吹弹枪最终只花费5万到10万美元。

第9段

Other scientists could also benefit.With a lightning‘switch’at their fingertips,materials scientists could find out what happens when mighty currents meet matter.Diels also hopes to see the birth of‘interactive meteorology’–not just forecasting the weather but controlling it.‘If we could discharge clouds,we might affect the weather,‘he says.

其他科学家也可以受益。拥有触手可及的闪电“开关”，材料科学家就能发现强大的电流遇到物质时会发生什么。戴尔斯还希望看到“交互式气象学”的诞生-它不仅可以预测天气，还可以控制天气。他说：“如果我们能够为云层放电，我们可能也会影响天气。”

第10段

And perhaps,says Diels,we’ll be able to confront some other meteorological menaces.‘We think we could prevent hail by inducing lightning,‘he says.Thunder,the shock wave that comes from a lightning flash,is thought to be the trigger for the torrential rain that is typical of storms.A laser thunder factory could shake the moisture out of clouds,perhaps preventing the formation of the giant hailstones that threaten crops.With luck,as the storm clouds gather this winter,laser-toting researchers could,for the first time,strike back.

戴尔斯说，也许，我们将能够应对一些其他气象威胁。他说，“我们认为可以通过引发闪电来防止冰雹”。雷声，雷电产生的冲击波，被认为是暴风雨的触发因素。一家激光雷电工厂可以将水分从云层中抖出，也许可以防止形成威胁农作物的巨大冰雹。幸运的是，当今年冬天乌云密布的时候，携带激光的研究人员可以第 一次反击。