經濟學人：從進化的角度看，人類似乎已經足夠聰明了

第2篇精讀

MODERN life is socushythat some wonder if human evolution has stopped. Unlikely, reply biologists, for family sizes (and therefore numbers ofdescendants) still vary. A study just published inthe Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesuses a newstatisticalmethod to examine how genetic contributions to certain human traitscorrelate withhow many children a person has. The data came from the UKBiobank, which contains genetic and medical data from half a million people.Positive valuesmean an association with successful reproduction; negative ones the opposite. Intriguingly, this analysis suggests genetic contributions to intelligence and educational achievement are currentlydisfavouredby natural selection. In evolutionary terms, it seems, humans are nowbrainyenough.

精讀筆記

cushy：/"k??i,ˋku??/adja cushy job or life is very easy and does not need much effort輕鬆的，容易的（=easy） I wish I had a nice cushy job like her.我希望有份她那樣的輕鬆的好工作。a very cushy number (=an easy job or life)很輕鬆的工作，愜意的生活

No proceedings were started against him and he could yet end up with acushyjob.他沒有遭到任何起訴，退出後還拿到一份輕鬆的工作。

human evolution 人類演化

descendant[d?"send(?)nt]

1. someone who is related to a person who lived a long time ago, or to a family, group of people etc that existed in the past後代，後裔; He was a direct descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte.他是拿破崙·波拿巴的嫡系子孫。descendant of the dragon龍的傳人

2.something that has developed from something else派生物:[+ of ] Quechua is a descendant of the Inca language.蓋丘亞語是印加語的一種派生語。

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences美國國家科學院院刊And theresearch,publishedinthe ProceedingsoftheNationalAcademy of Sciences,couldexplainanancientleapinhumanevolution.這項發表在美國國家科學院院刊上的研究結果還進一步說明了人類演化歷史中的一次遠古的飛躍。

statistical[st?"t?st?k(?)l]adj統計的，統計學的statistical physics統計物理學statistical mechanics統計力學

correlate["k?r?le?t; -r?-] if two or more facts, ideas etc correlate or if you correlate them, they are closely connected to each other or one causes the other（使）相互關聯 correlate strongly / significantly / closely [+ with ]Lack ofprenatal（產前的，孕期的）care correlates strongly with premature birth.缺乏產前護理與早產有密切關係。

Biobank生物庫

Positive values正值Positive的含義非常多，在醫學上表示「陽性的」，在數學上表示「正值」，或者與電相關可表示「正極的」 a positive charge 正電荷

Intriguingly[in"tri:gi?li]adv.有趣地；有魅力地

disfavourea feeling of dislike and disapproval不喜歡，不贊同; 冷淡，疏遠;The job creation program is looked uponwith disfavourby the local community.當地社區不贊同那個創造就業機會的計劃。Coal fell into disfavour because burning it caused pollution.煤不再受到歡迎，因為燒煤會造成污染。

brainy["bre?n?] able to learn easily and think quickly聰明的，多智的，敏銳的;（=smart ，intelligent）The term "birdbrain," is obsolete, she said, and should be replaced by "brainy birds.「笨鳥」的說法已經過時了，她說，而應該被稱作「聰明的鳥」。

翻譯

現代生活如此安逸，一些人不禁懷疑人類進化是否已經停止。生物學家表示這不大可能，因為家庭規模（以及因此帶來的後代數量）仍大小各異。剛剛發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》（Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences）上的一項研究採用了一種新的統計方法，檢驗與某些人類特質有關的遺傳因素與一個人擁有的子女數量之間的相關性。這些數據來自英國生物樣本庫（UK Biobank），庫內存有50萬人口的基因和醫療數據。正值表示與成功繁殖相關聯，負值則相反。有趣的是，這項分析顯示，目前自然選擇並不偏向與智力和教育成就有關的遺傳因素。從進化的角度看，人類似乎已經足夠聰明了。

sentence

建議背誦句子：

A study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences uses a new statistical method to examine how genetic contributions to certain human traitscorrelate withhow many children a person has.

（correlate with連接前後兩個how引導的方式狀語）

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