太不公平啦
2023復習正是強化復習階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 Snot fair! 太不公平啦! Exactly when is something perceived as not fair? 究竟在什么情況下人們會覺得不公平? AS THE bankster phenomenon has so eloquently illustrated, Homo sapiens is exquisitelysensitive to injustice. 強盜銀行家的現象已經有力地證明，人類對于不公平是敏感至極的。 Many people grudgingly tolerated the astronomical incomes of financial traders, and eventhe cosmological ones of banks chief executives, when they thought those salaries wereearned by honest labour. 過去，許多人對于操盤手高到天上去的收入，甚至是銀行高管天文數字一般的薪酬，雖慍慍不平，但尚能忍耐，他們曾以為這些收入是靠誠實勞動賺來的。 Now, so many examples to the contrary have emerged that toleration has vanished. 但如今，隨著大量反例的出現，公眾的忍耐已經不復存在。 Surprisingly, however, the psychological underpinnings of a sense of injusticeinparticular, what triggers willingness to punish an offender, even at a cost to thepunisherhave not been well established. 然而讓人驚訝的是，心理學上對于不公平感的成因尚未能做出很好的解釋，尤其是為何人們不惜付出代價也要懲罰侵犯者。 But a recent experiment by Nichola Raihani of University College, London, and KatherineMcAuliffe of Harvard, just published in Biology Letters, attempts to disentangle the matter. 但是，英國倫敦大學學院的尼古拉雷漢尼和哈佛大學的凱瑟琳麥考利夫最近進行的一項實驗嘗試對這個問題抽絲剝縷，這一實驗的結果發表在了最近的《生物學快報》上。 Dr Raihani and Ms McAuliffe tested two competing hypotheses. 雷漢尼博士和麥考利夫女士對兩種對立的猜想進行了驗證。 One is that the desire to punish is simple revenge for an offence. 第一種猜想認為，懲罰侵犯者的欲望只是一種報復心理。 The other is that it is related to the offence s consequencesspecifically, whether or not theoffender is left better off than the victim. 另一種猜想則認為這與侵犯的結果有關具體來說，即侵犯者的境況是否比受害者更好。 Until recently, the temptation would have been to advertise for undergraduate volunteersfor such a project. 一直到最近，像這樣的項目往往會通過廣告吸引大學生志愿者。 Instead, Dr Raihani and Ms McAuliffe decided to follow a new fashion in psychology andrecruit their human guinea pigs through a system called Mechanical Turk. 但是雷漢尼博士和麥考利夫女士決定采取心理學界新近流行的一種方法，借由一個叫做機械土耳其的系統招收他們實驗的小白鼠。 This arrangement, run by Amazon, a large internet firm, pays people registered with itsmall sums of money to do jobs for others. 這一系統由網絡巨頭亞馬遜公司組織，注冊用戶為別人工作后可以領到小額的酬勞。 That allowed the two researchers not only to gather many more volunteers than would havebeen possible from the average student body, but also to spread the profile of thosevolunteers beyond the halls of academe and beyond the age of 21. 通過這個系統，兩位研究者不僅找到了比普通學生群體更多的志愿者，還得以將志愿者的范圍擴大到了學術界以外和21歲以上的人群。 Dr Raihani and Ms McAuliffe asked their Turkers to play a game. 雷漢尼博士和麥考利夫女士請參與實驗的特客玩了一個游戲。 In it, the volunteers were paired and given small sums of money. 在游戲中，志愿者以兩人一組一一配對，并各自獲得一小筆錢。 One member of a pair could then take a predefined sum from the other, or not, as he chose. 組里的一名志愿者可以選擇是否從另一名組員那里拿走預定數量的錢。 After that the other could, at a certain cost to himself, impoverish his opponent to agreater degree. 之后，另一位組員在自己付出一定代價的前提下，可以大量減少對方的財產。 The first player might receive ten cents, 30 cents or 70 cents. 每一組的游戲者甲最開始可能會收到10美分、30美分或是70美分作為起始財產。 The second player always received 70 cents. 而游戲者乙則總會收到70美分。 The first player was then allowed to take 20 cents of the second player s money. 然后甲被允許先從乙處取走20美分。 Finally, the second player could reduce the first player s total sum by 30 cents, but at a costof ten cents to himselfin other words, he lost money too by doing so. 最后乙可以選擇使甲的財產減少30美分，但是作為代價他自己也必須拿出10美分換句話說，這么做乙自己蒙受了損失。 The crucial point of the game is that in all three cases the second player suffers the sameabsolute loss if the first chooses to take money from him. 這個游戲最關鍵的一點在于，無論甲的起始財產是多少，只要甲選擇拿走乙的錢，乙都要蒙受完完全全的損失。 The offence, in other words, is identical. 也就是說，不論哪種情況，乙所受到的侵犯總是一樣的。 But in the first version of the game he remains ahead if he does not retaliate, in the secondhe comes out equal, and in the third he ends up behind. 但在第一種情況中，如果乙不采取反擊，他還能保持領先，第二種情況下甲乙平局，而第三種情況中，乙則會以落后告敗。 The upshot was that in the first two cases about 15% of second players chose to retaliate ifthey had money taken. 游戲的結果顯示，在前兩種情況中，只要錢被拿走，15%扮演乙的志愿者會選擇反擊。 This was more or less the same as the number in all three versions of the game whoretaliated even though they did not have money taken. 而綜合三種情況來看，乙在錢沒有被拿走的前提下依然選擇向對方進行反擊的現象也大概占15%。 In the third version, though, more than 40% of second players retaliated when money wastaken from themeven though the outcome was still that the first player ended up ahead,with 60 cents to the second player s 40 cents. 但在第三種情況中，一旦錢被拿走，超過40%扮演乙的志愿者會采取反擊即便甲仍然會以60美分比40美分的優勢取得游戲的勝利。 On the face of things, this result suggests that what really gets people s goat is not so muchhaving money taken, but having it taken in a way that makes the taker better off than thevictim. 乍一看，這樣的結果意味著真正讓人感到憤恨的不是自己的錢被拿走，而是拿走錢的人在拿走錢后財產比受害者多。 That will clearly bear further investigation, for example by looking at the case where the firstplayer begins the game better off than the second. 顯然這個結論需要更多的調查加以證明，比如假如從一開始甲的錢就比乙多，結果會如何。 It is intriguing, though, that even such trivial sums of money can provoke thoughts ofrevenge. 有意思的是，就是這么不起眼的幾十美分也能激發人的報復心理。 In light of this, the fate awaiting those astronomically paid bankers could be a particularlynasty one. 從這一點看來，等待著那些拿著超高薪待遇的銀行家們的命運頗為險惡。 詞語解釋 1.sensitive to 對敏感 India is highly sensitive to chinese activities innepal. 印度對中國在尼泊爾的活動高度敏感。 Universities are extremely sensitive to suchchanges in enrolment, which directly affectrevenues. 大學對于注冊學生人數的變化極其敏感，因為這會對大學的收入造成直接影響。 2.in particular 尤其，特別 Progress is needed in three areas in particular. 尤其需要在三個方面取得進展。 Unemployment in particular has risen less than once seemed likely. 特別是失業率的增速似乎可能有所放緩。 3.attempt to 嘗試，企圖 Your letter is a feeble attempt to hide your intolerance. 你的這封信，是一種試圖掩蓋你狹隘心胸的蒼白舉動。 This was an attempt to close that chapter. 這也許是創造新開始的嘗試。 4.relate to 涉及;有關系 Share something I can relate to. 分享一些與我的興趣有關的東西。 Cutting costs is not easy: the bulk relate to promises already made. 削減成本并不是件容易的事：大部分成本與已經做出的承諾有關。
2023復習正是強化復習階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 Snot fair! 太不公平啦! Exactly when is something perceived as not fair? 究竟在什么情況下人們會覺得不公平? AS THE bankster phenomenon has so eloquently illustrated, Homo sapiens is exquisitelysensitive to injustice. 強盜銀行家的現象已經有力地證明，人類對于不公平是敏感至極的。 Many people grudgingly tolerated the astronomical incomes of financial traders, and eventhe cosmological ones of banks chief executives, when they thought those salaries wereearned by honest labour. 過去，許多人對于操盤手高到天上去的收入，甚至是銀行高管天文數字一般的薪酬，雖慍慍不平，但尚能忍耐，他們曾以為這些收入是靠誠實勞動賺來的。 Now, so many examples to the contrary have emerged that toleration has vanished. 但如今，隨著大量反例的出現，公眾的忍耐已經不復存在。 Surprisingly, however, the psychological underpinnings of a sense of injusticeinparticular, what triggers willingness to punish an offender, even at a cost to thepunisherhave not been well established. 然而讓人驚訝的是，心理學上對于不公平感的成因尚未能做出很好的解釋，尤其是為何人們不惜付出代價也要懲罰侵犯者。 But a recent experiment by Nichola Raihani of University College, London, and KatherineMcAuliffe of Harvard, just published in Biology Letters, attempts to disentangle the matter. 但是，英國倫敦大學學院的尼古拉雷漢尼和哈佛大學的凱瑟琳麥考利夫最近進行的一項實驗嘗試對這個問題抽絲剝縷，這一實驗的結果發表在了最近的《生物學快報》上。 Dr Raihani and Ms McAuliffe tested two competing hypotheses. 雷漢尼博士和麥考利夫女士對兩種對立的猜想進行了驗證。 One is that the desire to punish is simple revenge for an offence. 第一種猜想認為，懲罰侵犯者的欲望只是一種報復心理。 The other is that it is related to the offence s consequencesspecifically, whether or not theoffender is left better off than the victim. 另一種猜想則認為這與侵犯的結果有關具體來說，即侵犯者的境況是否比受害者更好。 Until recently, the temptation would have been to advertise for undergraduate volunteersfor such a project. 一直到最近，像這樣的項目往往會通過廣告吸引大學生志愿者。 Instead, Dr Raihani and Ms McAuliffe decided to follow a new fashion in psychology andrecruit their human guinea pigs through a system called Mechanical Turk. 但是雷漢尼博士和麥考利夫女士決定采取心理學界新近流行的一種方法，借由一個叫做機械土耳其的系統招收他們實驗的小白鼠。 This arrangement, run by Amazon, a large internet firm, pays people registered with itsmall sums of money to do jobs for others. 這一系統由網絡巨頭亞馬遜公司組織，注冊用戶為別人工作后可以領到小額的酬勞。 That allowed the two researchers not only to gather many more volunteers than would havebeen possible from the average student body, but also to spread the profile of thosevolunteers beyond the halls of academe and beyond the age of 21. 通過這個系統，兩位研究者不僅找到了比普通學生群體更多的志愿者，還得以將志愿者的范圍擴大到了學術界以外和21歲以上的人群。 Dr Raihani and Ms McAuliffe asked their Turkers to play a game. 雷漢尼博士和麥考利夫女士請參與實驗的特客玩了一個游戲。 In it, the volunteers were paired and given small sums of money. 在游戲中，志愿者以兩人一組一一配對，并各自獲得一小筆錢。 One member of a pair could then take a predefined sum from the other, or not, as he chose. 組里的一名志愿者可以選擇是否從另一名組員那里拿走預定數量的錢。 After that the other could, at a certain cost to himself, impoverish his opponent to agreater degree. 之后，另一位組員在自己付出一定代價的前提下，可以大量減少對方的財產。 The first player might receive ten cents, 30 cents or 70 cents. 每一組的游戲者甲最開始可能會收到10美分、30美分或是70美分作為起始財產。 The second player always received 70 cents. 而游戲者乙則總會收到70美分。 The first player was then allowed to take 20 cents of the second player s money. 然后甲被允許先從乙處取走20美分。 Finally, the second player could reduce the first player s total sum by 30 cents, but at a costof ten cents to himselfin other words, he lost money too by doing so. 最后乙可以選擇使甲的財產減少30美分，但是作為代價他自己也必須拿出10美分換句話說，這么做乙自己蒙受了損失。 The crucial point of the game is that in all three cases the second player suffers the sameabsolute loss if the first chooses to take money from him. 這個游戲最關鍵的一點在于，無論甲的起始財產是多少，只要甲選擇拿走乙的錢，乙都要蒙受完完全全的損失。 The offence, in other words, is identical. 也就是說，不論哪種情況，乙所受到的侵犯總是一樣的。 But in the first version of the game he remains ahead if he does not retaliate, in the secondhe comes out equal, and in the third he ends up behind. 但在第一種情況中，如果乙不采取反擊，他還能保持領先，第二種情況下甲乙平局，而第三種情況中，乙則會以落后告敗。 The upshot was that in the first two cases about 15% of second players chose to retaliate ifthey had money taken. 游戲的結果顯示，在前兩種情況中，只要錢被拿走，15%扮演乙的志愿者會選擇反擊。 This was more or less the same as the number in all three versions of the game whoretaliated even though they did not have money taken. 而綜合三種情況來看，乙在錢沒有被拿走的前提下依然選擇向對方進行反擊的現象也大概占15%。 In the third version, though, more than 40% of second players retaliated when money wastaken from themeven though the outcome was still that the first player ended up ahead,with 60 cents to the second player s 40 cents. 但在第三種情況中，一旦錢被拿走，超過40%扮演乙的志愿者會采取反擊即便甲仍然會以60美分比40美分的優勢取得游戲的勝利。 On the face of things, this result suggests that what really gets people s goat is not so muchhaving money taken, but having it taken in a way that makes the taker better off than thevictim. 乍一看，這樣的結果意味著真正讓人感到憤恨的不是自己的錢被拿走，而是拿走錢的人在拿走錢后財產比受害者多。 That will clearly bear further investigation, for example by looking at the case where the firstplayer begins the game better off than the second. 顯然這個結論需要更多的調查加以證明，比如假如從一開始甲的錢就比乙多，結果會如何。 It is intriguing, though, that even such trivial sums of money can provoke thoughts ofrevenge. 有意思的是，就是這么不起眼的幾十美分也能激發人的報復心理。 In light of this, the fate awaiting those astronomically paid bankers could be a particularlynasty one. 從這一點看來，等待著那些拿著超高薪待遇的銀行家們的命運頗為險惡。 詞語解釋 1.sensitive to 對敏感 India is highly sensitive to chinese activities innepal. 印度對中國在尼泊爾的活動高度敏感。 Universities are extremely sensitive to suchchanges in enrolment, which directly affectrevenues. 大學對于注冊學生人數的變化極其敏感，因為這會對大學的收入造成直接影響。 2.in particular 尤其，特別 Progress is needed in three areas in particular. 尤其需要在三個方面取得進展。 Unemployment in particular has risen less than once seemed likely. 特別是失業率的增速似乎可能有所放緩。 3.attempt to 嘗試，企圖 Your letter is a feeble attempt to hide your intolerance. 你的這封信，是一種試圖掩蓋你狹隘心胸的蒼白舉動。 This was an attempt to close that chapter. 這也許是創造新開始的嘗試。 4.relate to 涉及;有關系 Share something I can relate to. 分享一些與我的興趣有關的東西。 Cutting costs is not easy: the bulk relate to promises already made. 削減成本并不是件容易的事：大部分成本與已經做出的承諾有關。
