剑桥雅思17Test2Passage3阅读原文翻译 Insight or evolution 洞见还是进化
剑桥雅思17阅读第二套题目第三篇文章描述了人类创新究竟是来自于洞见还是进化。具体内容包括有关科学发现与创新的大众看法，这种观点所存在的缺陷，针对这种缺陷所提出的进化论式观点等。整篇文章较为抽象，阅读难度很大。下面是每一自然段对应的翻译。
点击查看这篇雅思阅读中出现的常考词汇与对应的答案解析：
雅思阅读真题词汇 剑桥雅思17 Test 2 Passage 3 洞见还是进化
剑桥雅思17Test2Passage3阅读答案解析 Insight or evolution 洞见还是进化
剑桥雅思17 Test2 Passage3阅读原文翻译
老烤鸭原创翻译，请勿抄袭转载
第1段
Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of such intellectual stars as naturalist Charles Darwin and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. Our view of such unique contributions to science often disregards the person’s prior experience and the efforts of their lesser-known predecessors. Conventional wisdom also places great weight on insight in promoting breakthrough scientific achievements, as if ideas spontaneously pop into someone’s head – fully formed and functional.
人们普遍认为，科学发现来自于智力超群的天才，如博物学者查尔斯·达尔文和理论物理学家阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦。我们关于这些独特科学贡献的看法往往忽视了这个人之前的经历，以及他们鲜为人知的前辈的努力。传统的观念十分重视洞察力在推动科学研究突破上的作用，仿佛想法会自然而然地突然出现在一个人的脑子里-完全成型且可用。
第2段
There may be some limited truth to this view. However, we believe that it largely misrepresents the real nature of scientific discovery, as well as that of creativity and innovation in many other realms of human endeavor.
这一观点可能不无道理。然而，我们认为它在很大程度上错误地呈现了科学发现的真正本质，也同样歪曲了许多人类努力探索的其他领域里的创造和创新。
第3段
Setting aside such greats as Darwin and Einstein – whose monumental contributions are duly celebrated – we suggest that innovation is more a process of trial and error, where two steps forward may sometimes come with one step back, as well as one or more steps to the right or left. This evolutionary view of human innovation undermines the notion of creative genius and recognizes the cumulative nature of scientific progress.
抛开达尔文和爱因斯坦这样的伟人不提，他们的伟大贡献确实值得称赞，我们认为创新更多的是实验与犯错的过程。在往前走两步的同时伴随着后退一步，当然也有可能是往左或者往右走一两步。这种进化论式的人类创新观念动摇了创造性天才的认知，并认可科学进步是逐渐积累的本质。
第4段
Consider one unheralded scientist: John Nicholson, a mathematical physicist working in the 1910s who postulated the existence of ‘proto-elements’ in outer space. By combining different numbers of weights of these proto-elements’ atoms, Nicholson could recover the weights of all the elements in the then-known periodic table. These successes are all the more noteworthy given the fact that Nicholson was wrong about the presence of proto-elements: they do not actually exist. Yet, amid his often fanciful theories and wild speculations, Nicholson also proposed a novel theory about the structure of atoms. Niels Bohr, the Nobel prize-winning father of modern atomic theory, jumped off from this interesting idea to conceive his now-famous model of the atom.
想想下面这位名不见经传的科学家，John Nicholson。作为一名20世纪10年代的数学物理学家，他提出外太空中存在“元初元素”的假说。通过合并不同数量的元初元素原子的重量，Nicholson能够复原当时所知的元素周期表中所有元素的重量。考虑到Nicholson在元初元素的存在上犯了错误（它们并不存在），这些成就就更加引人注目。然而，在他往往充满幻想的观念和缺乏依据的推测中，Nicholson也提出了一个有关原子结构的新颖理论。诺贝尔奖获得者、现代原子理论之父Niels Boher从这一有趣的想法出发，构想出如今著名的原子模型。
第5段
What are we to make of this story? One might simply conclude that science is a collective and cumulative enterprise. That may be true, but there may be a deeper insight to be gleaned. We propose that science is constantly evolving, much as species of animals do. This article is from laokaoya website. In biological systems, organisms may display new characteristics that result from random genetic mutations. In the same way, random, arbitrary or accidental mutations of ideas may help pave the way for advances in science. If mutations prove beneficial, then the animal or the scientific theory will continue to thrive and perhaps reproduce.
我们该如何看待这个故事呢？一个人可能很轻易地得出以下结论：科学是一项集体性的、积累的事业。这或许是正确的，但也可能需要更进一步的认识。我们认为，科学是不断发展进化的，正如大多数动物那样。在生物系统中，有机物可能会由于基因突变而展现出新的特点。同样的，观念上随机、任意或者偶然的突变会为科学进步铺平道路。如果突变被证明是有益的，那么动物或者科学理论会继续茁壮成长，或许还能够繁衍生息。
第6段
Support for this evolutionary view of behavioral innovation comes from many domains. Consider one example of an influential innovation in US horseracing. The so-called ‘acey-deucy’ stirrup placement, in which the rider’s foot in his left stirrup is placed as much as 25 centimeters lower than the right, is believed to confer important speed advantages when turning on oval tracks. It was developed by a relatively unknown jockey named Jackie Westrope. Had Westrope conducted methodical investigations or examined extensive film records in a shrewd plan to outrun his rivals? Had he foreseen the speed advantage that would be conferred by riding acey-deucy? No. He suffered a leg injury, which left him unable to fully bend his left knee. His modification just happened to coincide with enhanced left-hand turning performance. This led to the rapid and widespread adoption of riding acey-deucy by many riders, a racing style which continues in today’s thoroughbred racing.
支持这一行为创新进化观点的证据来自许多领域。以美国赛马中一个颇具影响的创新为例。所谓“左低右高”的马镫设置，即骑手左脚马镫比右边低25厘米，被认为可以在椭圆赛道转弯时带来重要的速度优势。它由一位相对默默无闻的骑手Jackie Westrope发明。Westrope有计划地进行过方法周密的调查或大量查看过影视记录，以击败其竞争对手吗？他事先预见了左低右高的骑行方式所赋予的速度优势吗？并没有。他的腿受过伤，左膝盖无法完全弯曲。其调整凑巧提升了左转弯的表现。这导致许多骑手迅速而广泛的采用了左低右高的骑行方式。这种风格一直延续到今天的纯种马比赛中。
第7段
Plenty of other stories show that fresh advances can arise from error, misadventure, and also pure serendipity – a happy accident. For example, in the early 1970s, two employees of the company 3M each had a problem: Spencer Silver had a product – a glue which was only slightly sticky – and no use for it, while his colleague Art Fry was trying to figure out how to affix temporary bookmarks in his hymn book without damaging its pages. The solution to both these problems was the invention of the brilliantly simple yet phenomenally successful Post-It note. Such examples give lie to the claim that ingenious, designing minds are responsible for human creativity and invention. Far more banal and mechanical forces may be at work; forces that are fundamentally connected to the laws of science.
还有许多其他故事表明，崭新的进步可能诞生于错误、不幸的遭遇，以及纯粹的意外 – 一场美好的事故。例如，20世纪70年代早期，3M公司的两名员工各自遇到了一个问题：Spencer Silver有种产品 – 一种只有少量黏性的胶水 – 却找不到用途，而其同事Art Fry则在努力探索如何将临时性的书签粘在赞美诗集上文章来自老烤鸭雅思而不破坏书页。这两个问题的解决方案即简单到令人惊叹却也大获成功的便利贴的发明。这些例子证明了并非是那些天才的、善于设计的头脑产生了人类的创新。更为平平无奇的、机械的力量可能在发挥作用。这些力量与科学规律在根本上联系在一起。
第8段
The notions of insight, creativity and genius are often invoked, but they remain vague and of doubtful scientific utility, especially when one considers the diverse and enduring contributions of individuals such as Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Curie, Pasteur and Edison. These notions merely label rather than explain the evolution of human innovations. We need another approach, and there is a promising candidate.
洞见、创造与天才的概念经常被引用，但它们依然模糊不清，对科学研究的有用性也存疑，尤其是当人们考虑到诸如柏拉图、莱昂纳多·达芬奇、莎士比亚、贝多芬、伽利略、牛顿、开普来、居里、巴斯德和爱迪生这些人多样而持久的贡献。这些理念仅仅标注了人类创新的进化，而非对其进行解释。我们需要另外一种方法，而眼前就有一个充满希望的备选。
第9段
The Law of Effect was advanced by psychologist Edward Thorndike in 1898, some 40 years after Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking work on biological evolution, On the Origin of Species. This simple law holds that organisms tend to repeat successful behaviors and to refrain from performing unsuccessful ones. Just like Darwin’s Law of Natural Selection, the Law of Effect involves an entirely mechanical process of variation and selection, without any end objective in sight.
效果定律由心理学家Edward Thorndike在1898年提出，即查尔斯·达尔文发表其有关生物进化的开天辟地的作品《物种起源》40多年后。这一定律认为有机物倾向于重复成功的行为，并克制表现不成功的那些。正如达尔文的自然选择定律一样，效果定律涉及一套有关变化与选择的完全机械的过程，没有任何终极目标。
第10段
Of course, the origin of human innovation demands much further study. In particular, the provenance of the raw material on which the Law of Effect operates is not as clearly known as that of the genetic mutations on which the Law of Natural Selection operates. The generation of novel ideas and behaviors may not be entirely random, but constrained by prior successes and failures – of the current individual (such as Bohr) or of predecessors (such as Nicholson).
当然，人类创新的起源需要更进一步的研究。尤其是效果定律所作用的原材料的起源并不如自然选择所描述的基因突变那么清晰地为人所知。新颖观点与行为的产生可能并不是完全随机的，而是受到之前成功与失败的制约 – 它们要么是生活在当下的个人的（如Bohr），要么是其先行者们的（如Nicholson）。
第11段
The time seems right for abandoning the naive notions of intelligent design and genius, and for scientifically exploring the true origins of creative behavior.
如今正是抛弃智慧设计与天才的幼稚观念，转而科学地探索创造性行为真正起源的好时候。
剑桥雅思17Test2Passage1阅读原文翻译 The Dead Sea Scrolls 死海古卷
剑桥雅思17Test2Passage2阅读原文翻译 A second attempt at domesticating the tomato 第二次驯化番茄
