经济学人双语文章翻译

双语《经济学人》和《经济学人》的具体区别如下:《经济学人》是一份英文经济类期刊，它每周出版，主要报道国际经济新闻和趋势，以及政策分析等。《双语经济学人》是一份中英双语的经济类期刊，它每月出版，主要报道国际经济新闻和趋势，以及政策分析等，并配有中文翻译。

Three kingdoms, two empires 三国鼎立，两帝称雄 ★题目翻译： three kingdoms应该是借鉴了中国的《三国演义》，而中文翻译也同样借鉴了“三国鼎立”这个成语，相当于增补了一个动词； 后半部分的two empires则为了和前面对应，同样增补了动词“称雄”♂ 这个增补词语的选择与正文所讲述的内容有关，主要讲了中国三大互联网公司的发展现状，其中阿里巴巴和腾讯发展势头迅猛而百度则被甩开，所以这里取“称雄”作为动词。THERE was a time, not that long ago, when China’s big internet companies were dismissed by investors in Silicon Valley as marginal firms with a tendency to copy Western products. Not any more . Today they are monsters with increasingly hefty international ambitions . 就在不久前，硅谷的投资者还根本不把中国的大型互联网公司放在眼里，认为它们不过是些边缘企业，往往都是照搬西方的产品。时过境迁，今天这些中国互联网公司已经长成了猛兽，在国际市场上的野心不断膨胀。 ★单词 dismiss : V-T If you dismiss something, you decide or say that it is not important enough for you to think about or consider. 不予理会，比如： Mr. Wakeham dismissed the reports as speculation. 韦克厄姆先生把这些报道当作臆测而不予理会。 其他常用含义： 解雇 V-T When an employer dismisses an employee, the employer tells the employee that they are no longer needed to do the job that they have been doing. marginal : ADJ If you describe people as marginal, you mean that they are not involved in the main events or developments in society because they are poor or have no power. 无足轻重的，比如： The tribunals were established for the well-integrated members of society and not for marginal individuals. 这个特别法庭是为社会中的主流人群设立的，而不是为了无足轻重的小人物。 其他常用含义： 边际的 ADJ Marginal activities, costs, or taxes are not the main part of a business or an economic system, but often make the difference between its success or failure, and are therefore important to control. 边际的 hefty : ADJ Hefty means large in size, weight, or amount. 庞大的; 沉重的，比如： She was quite a hefty woman. 她是个相当高大的女人。 其他常用含义: 有力的 ADJ A hefty movement is done with a lot of force. ★翻译tips as-这里把介词翻译成了“认为”，动词化。 with a tendency：译为频度副词“往往”，而不是直译成“有…的趋势”。 Not any more. 英文文章中常见的一句话，“时过境迁”是个值得积累的中文表达，意思是随着时间推移，情况发生了变化。 international ambitions：增译，只译为“国际野心”没有任何含义，在根据语境增译了“市场”，意思就通顺了。Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce group, handles more transactions each year than do eBay and Amazon combined. Jack Ma, its chairman, pledges to serve 2bn consumers around the world within 20 years. Tencent, which specialises in online games and social media, is now the world’s tenth most valuable public firm , worth some $275bn. Pony Ma (no relation), its chairman, wants China to “preside over the global tech revolution of the future”. But as the two firms become global forces, the third member of China’s “ BAT” trio of internet giants, Baidu, an online-search firm that came to dominate the mainland market after Google left the country to avoid censorship, is lagging behind. 中国最大的电商集团阿里巴巴每年处理的交易量超过eBay和亚马逊的总和，董事局主席马云承诺要在20年内为全球20亿消费者提供服务。专注网络游戏和社交媒体的腾讯公司现在是世界第十大最有价值的上市公司，市值约2750亿美元。董事长马化腾（和马云不是亲戚）希望中国能“领导未来的全球科技革命”。中国互联网三巨头“BAT”中的第三位是百度。谷歌为避免审查制度退出中国后，百度便称霸中国大陆的在线搜索市场。另外两大巨头已成为国际大公司，百度却落在人后。 ★单词 马云、马化腾有“二马”之称，在外刊中一般都只使用他们的英文名字，前者Jack Ma，后者Pony Ma public firm ：上市公司。go public 上市 preside over : to be in a position of authority at a time when important things are happening 负责（重要局面），比如： The government seemed to be presiding over large-scale unemployment. 政府似乎正面临着大规模的失业状况。 其他含义： 1）to be the head of a company or organization 掌管，管辖，领导 2）to be in charge of a meeting or activity 主持 BAT trio ： 1）trio：a set or group of three people or things三人组，三件套。主要是强调“三”这个概念，和原文中的trio of internet giants合起来就是常说的“三巨头”。Trio还有一个意思是“三重唱，三重奏”，与之相关的独唱（奏）、二重唱（奏）、四重唱（奏）分别是solo，duet，quartet 2）BAT-中国国内三大互联网公司，B-Baidu百度、A-Alibaba阿里巴巴、T-Tencent腾讯。 美国也有类似的三巨头，称为“GAF”,即：G-Google谷歌、A-Amazon亚马逊/A-Apple苹果、F-Facebook脸书。 bn=billion 十亿；mn=million 百万；tn=trillion 万亿/兆 ★长难句解析 Alibaba(主语), China’s biggest e-commerce group（同位语）, handles（谓语） more transactions（宾语） each year（时间状语） /than do eBay and Amazon combined(状语). 不好理解的点在于than后面的部分，do代替了前面的handle，combined作后置定语修饰eBay and Amazon表示二者加起来的。涉及比较的句子中，如果谓语动词是实义动词，那么than后面的比较对象的动词一般用do/did/does替代，并提到名词前面。 But as the two firms become global forces（状从）, the third member of China’s “BAT” trio of internet giants（主语）, Baidu（同位语）, an online-search firm（同位语）/ that came to dominate the mainland market after Google left the country to avoid censorship（定语从句，after是定从嵌套的状从）/, is lagging behind（主句谓语）. 这一句主语部分较长，官方的译文并没有严格按照英文的顺序进行翻译，而是根据中文的表达逻辑进行了调整。 1）先翻译the third member of China’s “BAT” trio of internet giants, Baidu将短语译成了句子。先翻这一句是因为前面分别介绍了阿里巴巴和腾讯，从这一句开始都是讲百度，所以先把句子的主要对象引出来，再去翻译它的情况。 2）an online-search firm that came to dominate the mainland market after Google left the country to avoid censorship 把定语从句和先行词也单独译成了一句。这一句主要按照时间顺序翻译，先说谷歌退出中国，再说百度占领市场，并且先行词和定从中的market进行了结合，避免重复介绍百度，同时说清楚了它所占领的是什么市场。 3）介绍了百度之前的情况之后，在翻译现在和另外两家公司的对比，But as the two firms become global forces以及is lagging behind两部分。 这一个长句的翻译很好的体现了中英文表达上逻辑的不同，这一句主要是按照以时间为线索，先介绍主体，再介绍主体过去和现在的情况。All three firms differ from their Western peers in important ways. First, Western companies usually prefer to focus on a few core areas, whereas Chinese internet firms typically try to do everything from cloud computing to digital payments. When this works, as with Tencent’s wildly successful app, WeChat, the results can be impressive. 这三家公司与西方同行在几个重要方面有所不同。首先，西方公司通常会聚焦几个核心领域，而中国互联网公司一般涉猎广泛，从云计算到数字支付无不尝试。这样的尝试一旦成功，结果便会非常可观，腾讯大获成功的应用微信即是如此。 ★单词 as with ：正如，如同…一样 ★翻译tips When this works, as with Tencent’s wildly successful app, WeChat, the results can be impressive. this-Chinese internet firms typically try to do everything from cloud computing to digital payments as…WeChat 插入语放到了后面翻译，先翻译从句和主句 Second, with the exception of political censorship , the internet sector in China is lightly regulated. Facebook, Apple and Google, in contrast, face increasing scrutiny. Chinese internet firms can achieve market domination of a sort that would attract close attention in other markets. 第二，抛开要接受政治审查这一点，中国互联网行业的监管较为宽松；而Facebook、苹果和谷歌则面临日益严格的审视。以中国互联网企业能达到的市场支配地位，换在其他市场，会受到监管机构的密切关注。 ★单词 censorship : N-UNCOUNT Censorship is the censoring of books, plays, movies, or reports, especially by government officials, because they are considered immoral or secret in some way. (官方对书刊、剧本、电影或新闻报道的) 审查，比如： The government today announced that press censorship was being lifted. 该政府今日宣告说正在撤销新闻审查。 中国的电影审查制度就用 film censorship；电影分级制度可以说film/motion picture rating system；（电影电视中）广告植入 product placement of a sort ：一种，一类，sort可看做等于market domination 其他含义：of sorts/of a sort 勉强称得上的，勉强算的，比如： I have a conversation of sorts with a very drunk man at the bus stop.The third difference is that they can succeed on a rapid and massive scale because the state-dominated economy is so inefficient. Often there is not even a physical infrastructure to leapfrog —so-called third-tier cities, for example, often lack big retail centres. Nationwide there is one shopping mall per 1.2m people. 第三个区别是，由于国家主导的经济效率低下，中国互联网企业可以快速取得大规模成功。企业发展过程中通常甚至都没有挡路的实体机构，比如在所谓的三线城市，往往都缺少大型零售中心。中国每120万人才有一个大型购物中心。 ★单词 physical ：实体的。实体店-physical store leapfrog : V-T/V-I If one group of people leapfrogs into a particular position or leapfrogs someone else, they use the achievements of another person or group in order to make advances of their own. (利用别人成就) 超越，比如： It is already obvious that all four American systems have leapfrogged over the European versions. 显然，美国的全部4套系统已经超越了欧洲的版本。 third-tier ：三线城市；second-tier：二线城市。或者也可以说tier two/tier three city ★翻译tips: a physical infrastructure to leapfrog： 1)infrastructure 通常译为“基础设施”，既可以是可数名词也可以是不可数名词，原文前面加了a，所以译文将其具体化成“实体机构”，主要是指国有的机构。 2）按照顺序应该是“对企业来说甚至没有可以让其超越的实体机构”，译文直接转换了角度，将“企业去超越实体机构”转换成“挡路的实体机构”，更符合中文表达习惯。A huge home market has not stopped the trio from fighting bloody turf wars among each other. The outcome to this battle is rapidly becoming clear. Tencent and Alibaba are surging ahead; a series of own goals has left Baidu far behind. The common jibe about Baidu among local experts is that it is becoming the Yahoo of China, a once-dominant search giant that sank owing to a lack of innovation and a series of management blunders . 国内市场如此巨大，却仍未能阻止这三巨头相互厮杀抢夺地盘。这场战斗的结果正迅速明朗。腾讯和阿里巴巴遥遥领先，百度则因自己一连串的乌龙球而远远落后。国内专家最常用来挖苦百度的一个说法就是它正在变成中国的雅虎。雅虎一度是占据市场主导地位的搜索巨头，却因缺乏创新和一系列管理失误而沉沦。 ★单词 turf wars : a fight or argument over the areas or things you think belong to you 地盘之争 turf：N-UNCOUNT 1）Someone's turf is the area which is most familiar to them or where they feel most confident. 地盘; 活动范围，比如： Their turf was St.Louis: its streets, theaters, homes, and parks. 他们的地盘是圣路易斯：它的街道、剧院、住宅和公园。 2）草皮 own goal ： 1）a goal that you accidentally score against your own team without intending to in a game of football, hockey etc. 乌龙球（足球、曲棍球等比赛中） 2）an action or remark that has the opposite effect from what you intended （不利于自己的）错事，蠢话，自打嘴巴 ，比如： The minister’s admission turned out to be a spectacular own goal. 这位部长的招认结果成了引人注目的自打嘴巴。 leave behind ：把…落在后面（常用被动），比如： In class, a child with poor eyesight can soon be left behind. 在课堂上，视力不好的孩子很快就会落在别人的后面。 近义词：lag behind 落后于（与be left behind同义），比如： Britain is lagging behind the rest of Europe. 英国落后于欧洲其他国家。 blunder ： 1）N-COUNT A blunder is a stupid or careless mistake. 愚蠢错误，比如： I think he made a tactical blunder by announcing it so far ahead of time. 我认为他如此提早宣布消息是犯了战术上的错误。——可以替换mistake 2）V-I If you blunder, you make a stupid or careless mistake. 犯愚蠢错误，比如： No doubt I had blundered again. 不用说我又犯了个蠢错。 3）V-I If you blunder into a dangerous or difficult situation, you get involved in it by mistake. 误入 (危险境地或困境)，比如： People wanted to know how they had blundered into war, and how to avoid it in the future. 人们想弄清他们怎么会错误地卷入战争，将来如何才能避免这样的事。 4）V-I If you blunder somewhere, you move there in a clumsy and careless way. 跌跌撞撞地走，比如： He had blundered into the table, upsetting the flowers. 他撞上了桌子，打翻了花。 ★翻译tips The common jibe about Baidu among local experts is that it is becoming the Yahoo of China, a once-dominant search giant that sank owing to a lack of innovation and a series of management blunders. 1）The common jibe about Baidu among local experts：国内专家最常用来挖苦百度的一个说法——jibe-词性转换，译为动词；增译“一个说法” 2）a once-dominant search giant that sank owing to a lack of innovation and a series of management blunders. 同位语，介绍Yahoo的情况，译文中以“雅虎”为主语重启一句。Its revenue growth fell to 6.3% in 2016, down from 35% in 2015 and 54% in 2014. The firm gets some nine-tenths of its revenues from online ads, but this income is plunging as marketers redirect spending from search ads on Baidu to social-media networks like WeChat and mobile-commerce platforms run by Alibaba. Meanwhile, Baidu is burning cash trying to keep its various big bets on artificial intelligence (AI), online video, virtual and augmented-reality technologies, and “online to offline” (O2O) services going. One of China’s most respected business consultants is pessimistic about its future: “There is very little chance they’ll be relevant in five years.” 百度的收入增长率在2016年下降至6.3%，远低于2015年的35%和2014年的54%。公司收入约九成都来自在线广告，但由于商家把花在百度搜索广告的钱转投至微信这样的社交媒体网络以及阿里巴巴运营的移动商务平台，百度的收入大幅下滑。同时，百度还在烧钱维系它的几个大赌注：人工智能（AI）、在线视频、虚拟和增强现实技术，以及“线上到线下”（O2O）服务。中国最受尊敬的商业顾问之一对百度的未来持悲观态度：“五年以后很可能就没百度什么事了。” ★单词 burn cash ：花钱，烧钱。跟中文的“烧钱”意思相通。 ★翻译tips There is very little chance they’ll be relevant in five years. 五年以后很可能就没百度什么事了 正说反译，原句中未出现not之类的否定词，而在翻译中则用到了“没”这个中文中的否定词。

双语经济学人是经济学人的一个子版，它提供一份由英文和汉语组成的双语期刊，旨在为汉语读者提供中文经济学资讯。它由经济学人集团编辑发行，每月发行一期，以把经济学人集团的全球财经新闻、评论与分析翻译成汉语提供给汉语读者。与经济学人的不同之处在于，双语经济学人的内容着重于中国经济与文化，以及世界经济与金融的发展对中国的影响。与经济学人集团的其他期刊不同，双语经济学人通过翻译文章和视频来深入报道中国经济及其他主题，以及世界经济与金融的发展，让汉语读者可以更加了解国际经济形势。

这篇文章有几个非常有意思的句子和表达，我贴出来，大家一起赏析一下： 佳句篇：   Sentence 1. He helped popularise the idea that some diseases not previously thought to have a bacterial cause were actually infections, which ruffled many scientific feathers when it was first suggested. 解析： Ruffle弄皱的意思 Ruffle one’s feathers惹怒（想想逆毛流撸猫） The idea that ...用的是同位语从句，不太多，常用搭配是the evidence that，the concept that 等。That后从句解释idea, concept或evidence等。 Which的指代问题。Which指代的不是上文任何一个出现的单词或词组，而是Dr. Cochran的这波操作。Sentence 2. Ashkenazim generally do well in IQ tests, scoring 12-15 points above the mean value of 100, and have contributed disproportionately to the intellectual and cultural life of the West, as the careers of Freud, Einstein and Mahler, pictured above, affirm. disproportionately不成比例地 主干and复合句+非谓语动词scoring+as引导的从句（插入后置定语） 每个部分都不难，集合到一起就对理解产生障碍了。Sentence 3. But in the Middle Ages, success in Christian society tended to be violently aristocratic (warfare and land), rather than peacefully meritocratic (banking and trade). 这个句子不难，为什么拿出来是因为这个violently的用法。简单来讲，这一个单词乍一看是作aristocratic的副词，实则在翻译（以及理解）当中，我们必须单独翻译成一个实意的成分，而且作副词处理。 Aristocratic贵族统治 Meritocratic德治Sentence 4. That small, reproductively isolated groups of people are susceptible to genetic disease is well known. 主语从句，注意that.Sentence 5. Most of the dozen or so disease genes that are common in them belong to one of two types: they are involved either in the storage in nerve cells of special fats called sphingolipids, which form part of the insulating outer sheaths that allow nerve cells to transmit electrical signals, or in DNA repair. 典型长句，如何解析？ Most of the dozen or so  disease genes that are common in them  belong to one of two types: Or so大约 斜体作的是disease genes they are involved either in the storage in nerve cells of special fats called sphingolipids, which form part of the insulating outer sheaths that allow nerve cells to transmit electrical signals, or in DNA repair. either or后面是两个in... 第一个in后面的which form part of the insulating outer sheaths解释的是Sphingolipids that allow nerve cells to transmit electrical signals解释的是sheaths。 也就是说，（非限制性）定语从句后面紧接另一个定语从句。 第二个in后面很简单，但！！！文章最后一段有解释，对于 文章结构 至关重要。Sentence 6&7. Thus, the theory goes, the pressure  to keep the sickle-cell gene in the population because of its malaria-protective effects balances the pressure  to drive it out because of its anaemia-causing effects. It therefore persists without becoming ubiquitous. 两句话放一起。 主干已加黑。很有意思的句子，工整、对仗，而又解释非常清楚。 下一句，persist和ubiquitous用词极其精准，整句话像外科手术般，精准简练。作者还是怕读者一下子没读懂，用简单而又高效的句子总结下。写作手法很老练高超，字字玑珠，像极了宝马M3。Sentence 8. Genes that promote intelligence in an individual when present as a single copy create disease when present as a double copy. 乍一看没什么稀奇，再一看，把一个comparison分别放在了主语和谓语的修饰成分中，可谓老辣。 作何解？ That promote intelligence对genes做了一个限定，指的是genes的其中一种特征，然后用when说明了适用情况。 Create谓语的主语也是genes，但这时候是没有限定的genes。Create disease做的是限定，其实对应的是promote intelligence。后面同样用一个when来说明范围。 简单来讲，genes的含义做了一个缩小和限定，又在create的时候恢复了genes的双重功能含义。 Promote intelligence和create diseases一个对应，尽管成分差别很大。 两个when的对比。 可谓神句。Sentence 9. An Israeli clinic devoted to treating people with Gaucher's has vastly more engineers, scientists, accountants and lawyers on its books than would be expected by chance. Than (what) would be expected by chance. 省略了what。。。你能理解吗？ 还有这个books，这个同语境关联强烈。好的表达： 1. ruffle one’s feather 2. Tremble at the thought 3. Affirm作不及物动词（Ashkenazim generally do well in IQ tests, scoring 12-15 points above the mean value of 100, and have contributed disproportionately to the intellectual and cultural life of the West, as the careers of Freud, Einstein and Mahler, pictured above, affirm. ） 4. aristocratic v.s. meritocratic 5. Exact a price类似用法 exert influence附原文及翻译： Natural genius? 天生我才？ The high intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews may be a result of their persecuted past 德系犹太人的高智商或许是因为曾经遭受迫害的后果 THE idea that some ethnic groups may, on average, be more intelligent than others is one of those hypotheses that dare not speak its name. But Gregory Cochran, a noted scientific iconoclast, is prepared to say it anyway. He is that rare bird, a scientist who works independently of any institution. He helped popularise the idea that some diseases not previously thought to have a bacterial cause were actually infections, which ruffled many scientific feathers when it was first suggested. And more controversially still, he has suggested that homosexuality is caused by an infection. 某些少数民族的平均智商高于其他民族这一说法，是很多不敢公开的假设之一。不过著名的科学狂人Gregory Cochran 决意要做第一个吃螃蟹的人。他很特别，总是独立工作而不属于任何机构。某些曾被诊断并非病菌引起的疾病，其实病源来自传染病。这一观点因他的推动受到了关注。此观点一经提出，就受到了许多科学家的反对。这还不算，更具争议的是，他认为同性恋也是由传染病引起的。 Even he, however, might tremble at the thought of what he is about to do. Together with Jason Hardy and Henry Harpending, of the University of Utah, he is publishing, in a forthcoming edition of the Journal of Biosocial Science, a paper which not only suggests that one group of humanity is more intelligent than the others, but explains the process that has brought this about. The group in question are Ashkenazi Jews. The process is natural selection. 然而就算是Cochran，也为自己接下来要做的事捏了一把汗。他准备同Utah大学的Jason Hardy与Henry Harpending一同，在最新一期的《生物社会科学杂志》发表一篇论文，文中不仅提出了某一少数民族比其他民族更聪明这一观点，还解释了这一结果产生的过程。文中两大主角就是德系犹太人和自然选择。 History before science 不管是否科学，先来看看历史 Ashkenazim generally do well in IQ tests, scoring 12-15 points above the mean value of 100, and have contributed disproportionately to the intellectual and cultural life of the West, as the careers of Freud, Einstein and Mahler, pictured above, affirm. They also suffer more often than most people from a number of nasty genetic diseases, such as Tay-Sachs and breast cancer. These facts, however, have previously been thought unrelated. The former has been put down to social effects, such as a strong tradition of valuing education. The latter was seen as a consequence of genetic isolation. Even now, Ashkenazim tend to marry among themselves. In the past they did so almost exclusively. 德系犹太人不仅在IQ测试上表现不俗，正常人一般在100分左右，而他们大多都能得个112-115分，而且虽然人数不多，但他们在欧洲知识、文化生活中的地位却举足轻重。想想弗洛伊德、爱因斯坦、马勒，我们就会点头称是了。但同时，他们中患有如泰-萨克斯病、乳腺癌这类严重的遗传疾病的比率明显高于其他种族。这些事实，最初被人们认为是毫无联系的。前者被说成是社会原因引起的，如浓烈的价值观教育的传统；后者则被说成是基因隔离的结果，不过即使是现在，德系犹太人还是愿意同本族人结婚，在过去，就更是如此了。 Dr Cochran, however, suspects that the intelligence and the diseases are intimately linked. His argument is that the unusual history of the Ashkenazim has subjected them to unique evolutionary pressures that have resulted in this paradoxical state of affairs. 但Cochran博士对以上两点表示质疑，并认为德系犹太人的天赋异禀与痛病缠身联系密切。他认为正是异常的历史环境强加给了德系犹太人独有的进化压力，才导致了这些看似奇怪的现象。 Ashkenazi history begins with the Jewish rebellion against Roman rule in the first century AD. When this was crushed, Jewish refugees fled in all directions. The descendants of those who fled to Europe became known as Ashkenazim. 德系犹太人的历史源于公元1世纪。犹太人在反对罗马人的统治失败后，犹太难民四散而逃，逃亡欧洲的犹太后裔就是如今的德系犹太人。 In the Middle Ages, European Jews were subjected to legal discrimination, one effect of which was to drive them into money-related professions such as banking and tax farming which were often disdained by, or forbidden to, Christians. This, along with the low level of intermarriage with their gentile neighbours (which modern genetic analysis confirms was the case), is Dr Cochran's starting point. 在中世纪，欧洲的犹太人在法律上地位很不平等，结果之一就是他们不得不从事与金钱相关的职业，如被人看不起或不准基督徒涉足的银行或征税工作，此外，他们只能与邻居中社会地位较低的非犹太人通婚（这种状况通过现代基因学分析得到了证实）。上述就是Cochran 博士论文的起点。 He argues that the professions occupied by European Jews were all ones that put a premium on intelligence. Of course, it is hard to prove that this intelligence premium existed in the Middle Ages, but it is certainly true that it exists in the modern versions of those occupations. Several studies have shown that intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, is highly correlated with income in jobs such as banking. 他认为欧洲犹太人从事的职业都是些需要一定智商的职业，虽不能证明这些职业在中世纪时就是这样了，但在当代它们确实如此。一些研究表明，智力水平（按智力测试的标准来算）与工资水平（如那些从事银行工作的人）联系密切。 What can, however, be shown from the historical records is that European Jews at the top of their professions in the Middle Ages raised more children to adulthood than those at the bottom. Of course, that was true of successful gentiles as well. But in the Middle Ages, success in Christian society tended to be violently aristocratic (warfare and land), rather than peacefully meritocratic (banking and trade). 这些历史记录证明了，那些在欧洲工作地位较高的犹太家庭子女存活率要高于那些地位较低的犹太家庭。情况对于那些其他种族的也是一样的。但在中世纪，基督教社会中所谓的成功多是贵族通过战争与土地强争豪取，而非通过量才而用（如从事银行或贸易工作）和平地获得。 Put these two things together—a correlation of intelligence and success, and a correlation of success and fecundity—and you have circumstances that favour the spread of genes that enhance intelligence. The questions are, do such genes exist, and what are they if they do? Dr Cochran thinks they do exist, and that they are exactly the genes that cause the inherited diseases which afflict Ashkenazi society. 把智力与成功的关联以及成功与生殖力的关系合二为一，你就具备了有利于智商提高的基因传播的条件。问题是这种智商基因确实存在吗？假如它果真存在的话，那究竟是什么呢？科克伦博士认为它们的确存在，而且正是那种引起折磨德系犹太人遗传疾病的基因。 That small, reproductively isolated groups of people are susceptible to genetic disease is well known. Constant mating with even distant relatives reduces genetic diversity, and some disease genes will thus, randomly, become more common. But the very randomness of this process means there should be no discernible pattern about which disease genes increase in frequency. In the case of Ashkenazim, Dr Cochran argues, this is not the case. Most of the dozen or so disease genes that are common in them belong to one of two types: they are involved either in the storage in nerve cells of special fats called sphingolipids, which form part of the insulating outer sheaths that allow nerve cells to transmit electrical signals, or in DNA repair. The former genes cause neurological diseases, such as Tay- Sachs, Gaucher's and Niemann-Pick. The latter cause cancer. 众所周知，越是人口稀少并且生育范围狭小的种族就越易患遗传疾病。总是于同族人通婚，就算不是近亲，也会较少遗传的多样性，同时也会使某些致病基因没有规律地在该种族内部泛滥起来。而这种无规律性意味着人们不知道何类致病基因会被大量传播。但对德系犹太人来说，Cochran 医生指出，情况却并非如此。他们当中最常见的十几种疾病基因基本上可以归结于两类：一类参与神经细胞中鞘脂类特殊脂肪）的储存。鞘脂组成一部分绝缘外层鞘，允许神经细胞发射电子信号。另一类参与DNA 的修复。前者基因会引发神经性疾病，如泰萨二氏病、脑苷脂沉积病和神经鞘磷脂沉积病；而后者会导致癌症。 That does not look random. And what is even less random is that in several cases the genes for particular diseases come in different varieties, each the result of an independent original mutation. This really does suggest the mutated genes are being preserved by natural selection. But it does not answer the question of how evolution can favour genetic diseases. However, in certain circumstances, evolution can. 上述看起来并非毫无规律。而且更趋于规律的表现就是，在一些病例中，特殊疾病的致病基因来自于不同的变体，而每个变体都是独立的原基因变异的结果。这就印证了变异基因是自然选择保留下来的结果，可它却不能回答自然选择为什么会成了遗传疾病的帮凶，但在一些特殊的条件下，进化能够产生这样的结果。 West Africans, and people of West African descent, are susceptible to a disease called sickle-cell anaemia that is virtually unknown elsewhere. The anaemia develops in those whose red blood cells contain a particular type of haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen. But the disease occurs only in those who have two copies of the gene for the disease-causing haemoglobin (one copy from each parent). Those who have only one copy have no symptoms. They are, however, protected against malaria, one of the biggest killers in that part of the world. Thus, the theory goes, the pressure to keep the sickle-cell gene in the population because of its malaria-protective effects balances the pressure to drive it out because of its anaemia-causing effects. It therefore persists without becoming ubiquitous. 如西非人以及他们的后代易患一种叫做镰状细胞性贫血的疾病，这种病在西非之外几乎都没人听说过。贫血症发于那些红血球中含有一种特殊的血红蛋白，其蛋白质中含有氧气的人。但这种镰状细胞性贫血症只会发生在同时有两组这种致病的血红蛋白（父母都有这种血红蛋白）的人身上。而那些只有一组的人不但不会患这种贫血症，也不会患疟疾，该病被称为非洲的头号杀手。因此，我们可以这样说，抵御疟疾的特性使得镰状细胞在得以人体中存活下来，同时这种细胞导致贫血症的特性也会被人体排斥，只有在为保持这两种状态而产生的压力达到平衡时，才不会有任何一个特性占据上风。 Dr Cochran argues that something similar happened to the Ashkenazim. Genes that promote intelligence in an individual when present as a single copy create disease when present as a double copy. His thesis is not as strong as the sickle-cell/malaria theory, because he has not proved that any of his disease genes do actually affect intelligence. But the area of operation of some of them suggests that they might. Cochran博士认为，德系犹太人也面临着同样的情况，他们的某些基因如果以单组出现就可以提高智力，一旦以双组出现就会引起疾病。显然，该理论并不如他的镰状细胞/疟疾理论那样具有说服力，因为他尚未证明任何一种致病基因确实能够影响智力，但是某些基因的活动区域显示它们或许真能影响智力。 The sphingolipid-storage diseases, Tay-Sachs, Gaucher's and Niemann-Pick, all involve extra growth and branching of the protuberances that connect nerve cells together. Too much of this (as caused in those with double copies) is clearly pathological. But it may be that those with single copies experience a more limited, but still enhanced, protuberance growth. That would yield better linkage between brain cells, and might thus lead to increased intelligence. Indeed, in the case of Gaucher's disease, the only one of the three in which people routinely live to adulthood, there is evidence that those with full symptoms are more intelligent than the average. An Israeli clinic devoted to treating people with Gaucher's has vastly more engineers, scientists, accountants and lawyers on its books than would be expected by chance. 鞘脂储存类疾病，如泰萨二氏病、脑苷脂沉积病和神经鞘磷脂沉积病，都涉及到连接神经细胞的凸起的多余生长和分叉。显然，这种生长和分叉太多的话就会引起疾病。但是，也有可能，仅有单份致病基因的人会出现比较有限的、但仍然加强了的凸起生长。这将有助于加强脑细胞之间的连接，或许因此导致智力提高。实际上，在脑苷脂沉积病的例子中，在三分之一能够活到成年的患者中，确实有证据表明完全发病的人拥有高于平均值的智商。根据一家专门治疗脑苷脂沉积病的以色列诊所的医疗记录，患者中的工程师、科学家、会计和律师的比例多于常人。 Why a failure of the DNA-repair system should boost intelligence is unclear—and is, perhaps, the weakest part of the thesis, although evidence is emerging that one of the genes in question is involved in regulating the early growth of the brain. But the thesis also has a strong point: it makes a clear and testable prediction. This is that people with a single copy of the gene for Tay-Sachs, or that for Gaucher's, or that for Niemann-Pick should be more intelligent than average. Dr Cochran and his colleagues predict they will be so by about five IQ points. If that turns out to be the case, it will strengthen the idea that, albeit unwillingly, Ashkenazi Jews have been part of an accidental experiment in eugenics. It has brought them some advantages. But, like the deliberate eugenics experiments of the 20th century, it has also exacted a terrible price. 为什么基因修复系统失灵会提高智力，现在还不清楚原因何在。虽然，陆续有证据表明产生问题的基因之一参与了调节大脑的早期发育，但是这仍是该论题最薄弱的环节。不过，该理论也有令人信服的地方：它对于拥有单份泰萨二氏病或脑苷脂沉积病或神经鞘磷脂沉积病基因的人会比普通人更聪明做出了明确而可检验的预测。Cochran 博士和他的同事认为，这些人的智商因此会比平均水平高出5 个点。尽管有人不愿接受，假如确实如此的话，它将有力地证明，德系犹太人在不经意间经历了优生实验，而这为他们带来了智商上的优势。但是，如同发生在20 世纪的人为的优生实验一样，它同样让他们付出了可怕的代价。