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经济学人精读|海龟误食塑料，原来不是因为长得像食物

本文摘自《经济学人》 2020.3.14期Science technology版块文章《Why turtles eat plastic》，介绍了海龟为什么吃塑料袋的新研究

正文共有六段。 我建议你先自主阅读原文，然后精读笔记。

在文章的末尾，总结这次学习文章中可以使用的语句。 读者也可以自己总结。 我会定期总结内容，做成word分享，希望大家也继续学习

1

turtleshaveanunfortunatehabitofdevouringplasticobjectsfloatinginthesea.thesethengetsnaredintheiralimentarycanals、 cannotbebrokendownbytheanimals’digestiveenzymesandmayultimatelykillthem.itiswidelyassumedthatthispenchantforplasticssisamattion tingplasticbags，for instance，look similar to jellyfish， whichmanytypesofturtleslovetoeat.yetlotsofplasticobjectsthatendupinsideturtleshavenoresemblancetojellyfish.josephpfalllerof oresuspectsthatsomethingmorecomplicatedisgoingon.ashewritesincurrentbiology，hethinksthattheodorofmarinemicrorganismsmsmsmswhichichichichorolongatesmatesmsmsmsmsthoresmsthorat

have an unfortunate habit of :有不幸的习惯

devour : to eat all of sth quickly，especiallybecauseyouareveryhungry【词汇积累】

getsnaredintheiralimentarycanals :保留在消化系统中，可以记住be snared in这个短语。 snare意味着陪伴、缠绕，be snared in意味着缠绕，alimentary canals意味着消化系统【短语积累】

(be broken down )降解，A be broken down into sth，a降解……，文中指塑料在消化系统中不降解【短语积累】

超现实：最终

itiswidelyassumedthat……:assume释义被认为是tothinkoracceptthatsthistruebutwithouthavingproofofit【句式】

penchant for :喜欢某事的【词汇积累】

sthisamatterofMistakenidentity:amatterof代表“…的问题”，mistaken identity搞错身份，搞错身份。 海龟喜欢吃塑料是【词汇的积累】

jellyfish :水母

end up inside turtles :最终落入海龟的腹部

have no resemblance to jellyfish :不像水母。 have no resemblance to sth不像什么。 look similar to sth表示与某事相似。 【短语积累】

odor :气味

colonize:~居住在sth (某地区)，大量生长toliveorgrowinlargenumbersinaparticulararea。 Colonize后面的名词可以表示地点。 【词汇积累】

inducesturtlestofeed:inducesbtodosth诱惑某人做某事。 这里的意思和下一段的lure sb to do sth类似。 lure animals to their doom引诱动物死亡。 doom是表示倒霉、毁灭和死亡的【短语的积累】

海龟有吞食漂浮在海上的塑料的不幸习惯。 这些塑料留在消化系统中，不能被消化酶分解，最终成为可能

会杀死他们。人们普遍认为这种对塑料的喜爱是因为把塑料认错了的原因。例如，漂浮的塑料袋和水母看上去很像，而很多海龟都喜欢吃水母。然而，很多最终被吞食到海龟肚中的塑料物和水母并不相像。因此Joseph Pfaller怀疑这之中还有更复杂的原因。在当代生物学中，他写道海洋微生物在漂浮的塑料物处繁殖，其气味吸引海龟来食用。

2

The idea  that the smell of  plastic flotsam  might  lure animals to their doom   first emerged in 2016 . Researchers at the University of California, Davis, noticed that  certain chemicals, notably dimethyl sulphide , which are released into the air by  micro-organism-colonized plastics , are those which many seabirds  sniff to track down food . These chemicals  mark good places to hunt  because they indicate  an abundance of  the  algae and bacteria  that lie at the bottom of marine food chains. The researchers also found that birds which  pursue their food  in this way are five or six times more likely to eat plastic than those which do not.

The idea first emerged in 2016 ： 某个想法第一次出现于…… 【句式】

plastic flotsam ： 塑料漂浮物，flotsam表示漂浮物，这里这个词组代替了上文中的plastic objects floating in the sea 【词汇积累】

certain chemicals, notably dimethyl sulphide ： 特定的化学物质，尤其是二甲硫化物，这里notably与especially意义相近 【同意替换】

micro-organism-colonized plastics ： 布满微生物的塑料物

sniff to track down food ： track down food追踪食物，sniff表示闻，即通过闻气味的方式追踪食物，下文中还有 pursue their food ， 同样表示追踪食物 【同意替换】

mark good places to hunt ： 标志了优良的捕猎场所，mark，标记，信号笔也是mark

an abundance of ……： 丰富的…… 【词组积累】

algae and bacteria ： algae and bacteria ： 藻类和细菌

塑料的味道可能会引诱动物步入死亡，这个想法初次出现于2016年，研究者们发现某些特定的化学物质，尤其是二甲硫化物，这种由布满微生物的塑料释放到空气中的物质，很多海鸟通过闻它来追踪食物。这些物质标志了优良的捕猎场所，因为他们表明那里存在着丰富的藻类和细菌，是海洋食物链的底层。研究者们也发现以这种方式追踪食物的鸟类误食塑料的机率是其他鸟类的5到6倍。

3

Since turtles  are known to break the surface periodically   and sniff the air  when navigating towards their feeding areas, Dr Pfaller  theorized that  they are following these same chemicals, and  are  likewise  fooled into thinking  that floating plastic objects are  edible .

are known to break the surface periodically and sniff the air ： break the surface表示露出水面，通常是break the surface of water，are known to表示某件事为人所知 【词组积累】

theorize that ： theorize是theory的动词形式，表示形成理论，建立理论 【词汇积累】

are fooled into thinking ： be fooled into doing意为被骗做某事，误以为……做某事 【词组积累】

edible ： 可食用的

因为海龟在前往捕食场所时会露出水面呼吸空气，Pfaller认为它们也以这种同样的物质作为导航指向，并有可能被误导，认为漂浮塑料是可食用的。

4

To test that idea, he and his colleagues  set up an experiment involving loggerhead turtles , a species frequently killed by plastic. They arranged for 15 of the animals, each around five months old, to be exposed, in random order, to four odours delivered through a pipe to the air above an experimental arena . The odors were: the vapor from  deionized water ; the smell of  turtle-feeding pellets  made of shrimp and fish meal; the smell of a clean plastic bottle  chopped up into ten pieces ; and the smell of a similarly chopped bottle that had been kept in the ocean for five weeks to allow algae and bacteria to grow on it.

set up an experiment involving loggerhead turtles ：建立了一个以蠵龟为对象的实验，这里involving是which involves，以简洁的方式说明实验对象为蠵龟 【句式】

experimental arena ： 实验平台

deionized water ： 去离子水

turtle-feeding pellets ： 海龟饲料球

chopped up into ten pieces ： 切成十个碎片，chop up意为切断 【词组积累】

为了验证这个想法，他和同事们建立了一个实验，使用蠵龟作为实验对象，这是一种经常被塑料杀死的种类。他们安排了15只，每只的年龄都在5个月左右，他们以随机次序暴露于4种气味，通过管道传送至实验平台。这些气味是：去离子水蒸气味，由虾和鱼肉制成的海龟饲料球的气味，切成10片的干净的塑料瓶的气味，以及被放在海里5周，拥有海藻和细菌生成于上的相同的塑料碎片的气味。

5

Two of the smells  proved far more attractive to  the animals than the others. When sniffing both the odor of food pellets and that of five-week-old bottles turtles kept their nostrils out of the water more than three times as long, and took twice as many breaths as they did when what was on offer was the smell of fresh bottle-plastic or deionized-water vapor.  On the face of it , then, the turtles were responding to the smell of old bottles as if it were the smell of food.

A proved far more attractive to B ： A的气味对B更具吸引力

On the face of it ： 从表面上看起来，乍一看起来。表示初步判断，没有经过更细致的检测 【词组积累】

两种气味比其他两种更具吸引力，当闻到食物球气味和放置于海里5周的塑料瓶碎片的气味时，海龟探出鼻子呼吸的时间长度是原来的3倍，呼吸次数是其他两种气味的两种。初步看起来，海龟对于放置于海中较久时间的塑料瓶，会把它们当做食物的味道。

6

Though they have not yet tested whether dimethyl sulphide is the culprit, Dr Pfaller and his colleagues think  it is the most likely candidate.  In an unpolluted ocean,  pretty well  anything which had this smell would be edible—or, at least, harmless. Unfortunately, five-week-old plastic bottles  and their like  are not.

it is the most likely candidate. ： 这是最有可能的犯罪凶手，candidate是候选人，最理想的对象，这里指的是最理想的culprit 【词汇积累】

pretty well ： 差不多，几乎 【词汇积累】

A and their like ： their like指的是A这种物质的同类物质 【词汇积累】

尽管它们没有检测二甲硫化物是不是罪魁祸首，但Pfaller和他的同事们认为它是最有可能的元凶。在一片未受污染的海域，几乎任何拥有这种气味的东西都是可食用的，或者，至少是无害的。不幸的是，5周时间的塑料瓶，以及同类的物质并非无害。

总结

devour ： to eat all of sth quickly, especially because you are very hungry 【词汇积累】

penchant for ： 喜好某事 【词汇积累】

sth is   a matter of mistaken identity ： a matter of表示“……的问题”，mistaken identity认错身份，弄错身份。文中是指海龟喜欢吃塑料是认错 【词汇积累】

colonize ： ~ sth（在某一地区）聚居，大批生长to live or grow in large numbers in a particular area。Colonize 后面的名词可表示地点。 【词汇积累】

plastic flotsam ： 塑料漂浮物，flotsam表示漂浮物，这里这个词组代替了上

文中的plastic objects floating in the sea 【词汇积累】

theorize that ： theorize是theory的动词形式，表示形成理论，建立理论 【词汇积累】

it is the most likely candidate. ： 这是最有可能的犯罪凶手，candidate是候选

人，最理想的对象，这里指的是最理想的culprit 【词汇积累】

pretty well ： 差不多，几乎 【词汇积累】

A and their like ： their like指的是A这种物质的同类物质 【词汇积累】

get snared in their alimentary canals ： 残留在消化系统中，可以记住be snared in这个词组。snare意为伴住，缠住，be snared in意为被缠住，alimentary canals表示消化系统 【词组积累】

be broken down ： 被分解，A be broken down into sth，A被分解成……，文中指的是塑料物在消化系统中无法被分解 【词组积累】

have no resemblance to jellyfish ： 和水母不像，have no resemblance to sth与某物不相像，look similar to sth则表示与某物相似。 【词组积累】

induces turtles to feed ： induce sb to do sth诱使某人做某事，这里和下一段中的 lure sb to do sth 是相似的意思， lure animals to their doom 引诱动物步入死亡，doom表示厄运，毁灭和死亡 【词组积累】

an abundance of ……： 丰富的…… 【词组积累】

are known to break the surface periodically and sniff the air ： break the surface表示露出水面，通常是break the surface of water，are known to表示某件事为人所知 【词组积累】

are fooled into thinking ： be fooled into doing意为被骗做某事，误以为……做某事 【词组积累】

chopped up into ten pieces ： 切成十个碎片，chop up意为切断 【词组积累】

On the face of it ： 从表面上看起来，乍一看起来。表示初步判断，没有经过更细致的检测 【词组积累】

It is widely assumed that  ……： 人们普遍认为，assume释义为认为，to think or accept that sth is true but without having proof of it 【句式】

The idea first emerged in 2016 ： 某个想法第一次出现于…… 【句式】

set up an experiment involving loggerhead turtles ：建立了一个以蠵龟为对象的实验，这里involving是which involves，以简洁的方式说明实验对象为蠵龟 【句式】

certain chemicals, notably dimethyl sulphide ： 特定的化学物质，尤其是二甲硫化物，这里notably与especially意义相近 【同意替换】

sniff to track down food ： track down food追踪食物，sniff表示闻，即通过闻气味的方式追踪食物，下文中还有 pursue their food ， 同样表示追踪食物 【同意替换】

《经济学人》精读文章——Natural Genius?

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 ly 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ly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 67.

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 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 ly 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，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。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。

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