原文译文

　　Neuroscience

　　神经科学

　　Growing up in a city weakens the brain’s navigational skills

　　在城市长大削弱了大脑的方向感

　　Country folk can find their way more easily

　　乡下人更容易找到路

　　1. RURAL FOLK can blame Aesop—of the moralizing fables—for centuries of stories that mock them as bumpkins. The ancient Greek storyteller’s tale of the Country Mouse and the Town Mouse was only the first to emphasise their supposed simpler tastes and habits when compared with more sophisticated urbanites. So listen for the cheers from Somerset to Kansas as neuroscientists announce that, in fact, it is city living that can dull the wits—at least when it comes to finding one’s way in the world.

　　农村人可以批判《伊索寓言》因其称他们为乡巴佬。古希腊故事家的故事《乡下老鼠和城里老鼠》是第一个强调与高雅的城里人比起来，农村人的品味和习惯更简单。所以，听听从萨默塞特(Somerset)到堪萨斯州(Kansas)的欢呼吧，因为神经科学家们宣布，事实上，城市生活可能会让头脑迟钝——至少在找路的时候是这样。

　　2. Growing up in a city, a vast global survey has found, has a lifelong negative impact on a person’s ability to navigate. When looking for a half-rememberedrestaurant in a poorly-lit side street, it seems Country Mouse would be a more useful companion.

　　一项大规模的全球调查发现，在城市长大，会对一个人的方向感产生终生的负面影响。当你在光线昏暗的小街道上寻找一家记忆模糊的餐馆时，“乡下老鼠”似乎是更有用的伙伴。

　　3. In the new study, posted to the online repository bioRxiv, scientists led by Antoine Coutrot at Nantes University in France and Hugo Spiers at University College London describe how they used a dataset gathered from 4m players of a computer game called “Sea Hero Quest”, which tests way-finding skills by asking players to memorise a map showing the location of checkpoints and then measuring how well players can steer a boat to find them, guided only by their mental map.

　　在一项发布到在线存储库bioRxiv的新研究中,以法国南特大学的Antoine Coutrot和伦敦大学学院的Hugo Spiers为首的一群科学家讲述他们如何使用一个从一款叫做航海英雄的游戏上的四百万用户中手机到的数据库的。这款游戏主要是测试玩家的寻路技巧的，这首先要求玩家记住特定点的位置，然后测试他们如何根据自己的记忆驾船找到这些点。

　　4. The game was released in 2016 and all players have since been asked for basic information about themselves, including their age, gender, home country, and whether or not they grew up in a city.

　　这款游戏于2016年上市，所有玩家都被要求提供基本信息，包括年龄、性别、祖国、以及是否在城市长大。

　　5. From that database, Dr Spiers and his colleagues examined a subset of 442,000 players from 38 countries: those who had answered all the questions and who had played the game until they reached the later levels. He found that the strongest indicator of a high score was a player’s age—older people performed relatively poorly, which chimes with what researchers know about age-related cognitive decline. But the benefit of rural living was strong enough to offset some of that. Data from American players showed that a 70-year-old who grew up in the countryside had the navigational abilities of an average 60-year-old across the dataset.

　　Spiers博士和他的同事们对那个数据库中来自38个国家的442000名玩家进行了测试：这些玩家回答了游戏设置的所有问题，并且一直玩游戏直到他们达到更高的水平。他发现游戏得分高的指标是玩家的年龄——年纪大的人得分较低，这与研究人员所认为的认知能力随着年龄增大下降相一致。但农村生活的益处足以抵消一部分。来自美国玩家的数据显示，在农村长大的70岁老人的方向感与60岁的普通人相当。

　　6. The gap between the navigation skills of rural and city people was largest in America (about six times wider than for Romania), and the researchers think they know why. They gave each country a complexity score by analyzing how the streets were laid out in its largest cities. And they found that countries dominated by simple layouts of grid-basedcities (most common in America and Argentina) dragged downnavigation skills more than growing up in a city based around more complicated networks of streets, such as Prague.

　　美国农村人和城里人的导航技能差距最大(大约是罗马尼亚的六倍)，研究人员认为他们知道这其中的原因。他们通过分析各大城市的街道布局，给每个国家打了一个复杂的分数。他们发现，和成长在像布拉格这样的街道网络复杂的城市的人们比起来，以简单的网格城市布局为主导的国家(在美国和阿根廷最常见)的人们的导航技能受到更大的损坏。

　　7. The study does not show why cities have this impact on people growing up in them. It cannot rule out that an external factor, such as the effect of air pollution on a developing brain, might play a role. But Dr Spiers says that the brain’s navigational abilities probably weaken in the less challenging city environment because they are not being used as much. Although cities may appear more elaborate, they also feature more clues to help residents find their way, such as numbered streets. As many city-dwellers on a visit to the countryside can attest, one field tends to look much the same as another, so there are fewer external landmarks to help guide the way.

　　这项研究没有说明为什么城市会对在城市中长大的人产生这种影响。这研究不能排除外部因素的作用，如空气污染对大脑发育的影响。但Spiers博士说，大脑的方向感在不太具有挑战性的城市环境中可能会减弱，因为它们没有被充分利用。虽然城市可能看起来更复杂，但它们也提供了更多帮助居民找到路的线索，比如编号的街道。正如许多城市居民在乡村旅行时可以证明的那样，一个地方看起来和另一个地方非常相似，所以很少有外部的路标来帮助人们·指引方向。

　　Street smart

　　街头智慧

　　8. Neuroscientists already know that living and working in more complex environments can influence the function and structure of the brain. Brain scans of London taxi drivers who have gained an encyclopaedic memory of the city’s streets by learning “The Knowledge” show that they tend to have an enlarged hippocampus—a region of the brain acting as a neural GPS, sensing position and trajectoryon an internal map of the environment.

　　神经科学家已经知道，生活和工作在更复杂的环境中会影响大脑的功能和结构。通过学习“知识”，伦敦出租车司机对城市街道有了百科全书式的记忆。对他们的大脑扫描显示，他们的海马区往往更大——海马区是大脑的一个区域，充当神经GPS，感知内部环境的位置和轨迹。

　　9. The detrimental effect of city living on navigation (taxi drivers aside) is probably most acute in people under 16-18, Dr Spiers says, because their still-developing brains respond and change the most according to external stimuli. And while people who live in cities with young children should not be alarmed, the study does raise some interesting ideas for urban planners: keep their city designs not so simple perhaps. And for everyone else, it might be an idea to turn off Google Maps.

　　Spiers博士说，城市生活对方向感的不利影响(除了出租车司机)在16-18岁的人群中可能最为严重，因为他们仍在发育的大脑对外界刺激的反应和变化最大。虽然那些带着小孩生活在城市里的人不应该感到恐慌，但这项研究确实为城市规划者提供了一些有趣的想法：或许让城市的设计不要那么简单。对其他人来说，关掉谷歌地图可能是个好主意。

　　精读解析

　　P1—P2：调查显示，城市生活对人们大脑的方向感会产生负面影响。

　　P3—P7：调查的具体内容：调查是以一款叫做航海英雄的游戏的数据为出发点的，调查发现，农村长大的人的方向感比城市长大的人强；成长在城市布局比较复杂的城市的人方向感比城市布局简单的人强。

　　P8—P9：城市生活对导航能力的不利影响给人们的启示：城市布局复杂化；不要过度依赖谷歌地图等科技产物。

　　when it comes to当涉及到, 当谈到

　　【例句】

　　Yet the majority of these employees have no voice, especially when it comes to their own safety.  

　　然而，这些雇佣员工大多数没有发言权，特别是当涉及到自己的安全时。

　　Aesop /'i:sɔp/ n. 伊索；伊索寓言(约六世纪古希腊寓言作家,相传原为奴隶,善讲故事讽刺权贵,有《伊索寓言》传世)

　　bumpkin /'bʌm(p)kɪn/ n. 土包子，乡巴佬

　　【例句】

　　Meanwhile, local rivals, long dismissed by Hollywood moguls as unsophisticated bumpkins, are getting into their stride.

　　同时，一直被好莱坞巨头长期忽略并视为傻乎乎乡巴佬的本土对手现在却越来越娴熟。

　　sophisticated /sə'fɪstɪkeɪtɪd/ adj. 老练的; 老于世故的；精密的, 尖端的；高雅的, 有教养的

　　【例句】

　　It is the most sophisticated multistage rocket.

　　它是最先进的多级火箭。

　　urbanite /'ɜːb(ə)naɪt/ n. 都市人

　　【例句】

　　Urbanites like me create roughly twice as much trash as our rural counterparts.

　　像我这样的城市居民制造的垃圾是我们的农村同行的大约两倍。

　　neuroscientist神经科学家

　　【例句】

　　"Many neurotransmitters are built from the foods we eat," says neuroscientist Eric Chudler of the University of Washington.  

　　华盛顿大学的神经科学家埃里克•查德勒说："许多神经递质是靠我们所吃的食物形成的。"

　　dull the wits让头脑迟钝，在这里，dull作动词，表示使迟钝的意思

　　half-remembered 记不大清的；记忆模糊的

　　【例句】

　　Each week I went through half-remembered phrases, getting bogged down in the intricate grammar and impossible inflections.

　　每周我都复习那些记不大清的词组，艰难地整理复杂的语法和纷繁的屈折。

　　poorly-lit光线不足的；昏暗的

　　【例句】

　　Away from the flashy stores are poorly-lit streets where locals eat in plain shopfront restaurants.   

　　离华丽商店的不远处是灯光暗淡的街道，当地人便在街道周围简陋朴素的餐厅店堂里吃饭。

　　subset /'sʌbset/ n. 子集；小团体

　　【例句】

　　The researchers also gave a subset of volunteers a short survey about drinking habits and health risks.

　　研究人员还对小部分志愿者进行了饮酒习惯以及健康风险的简短调查。

　　chime with与……相一致

　　【例句】

　　The only politician whose views chime with the liberal young is the hedonistic mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

　　在所有政府官员中当中，唯一讨好年轻人的政客是伦敦市长鲍里斯·约翰逊，他属于那种“无知者无畏”的人。

　　offset /'ɒfset/ vt. 抵消, 补偿

　　【例句】

　　Then we will offset the penalty clause.

　　这样就能补偿那个罚金条款造成的损失了。

　　drag down拖下去; 把身体拖垮；拖垮；贬低

　　【例句】

　　It should give us energy, not drag us down.

　　它应该给予我们能量而不是拖垮我们。

　　To reach such depths, however, divers must be dragged down, and quite briskly, by weights.

　　然而，要达到这样的深度，潜水者非得由重物快速拖下去。

　　grid-based基于网格的

　　【例句】

　　Grid-based approach can be helpful or even necessary for achieving balanced design layouts.   

　　基于网格的做法对达到均衡的设计布局很有帮助或者甚至很有必要。

　　rule out排除；取消；划去；反对；阻止

　　【例句】

　　This should let you rule out certain areas and focus on one or two.   

　　这样应该就可以让您排除某些方面，而将注意力放在一两个方面。

　　encyclopaedic /en,saikləu'pi:dik,-kəl/ adj. 如百科辞典的,百科全书式的

　　【例句】

　　Unlike the Louvre or London's National Gallery, it is not encyclopaedic.

　　普拉多不像卢浮宫和伦敦国家美术馆那样包罗万象。

　　hippocampus /ˌhɪpə(ʊ)'kæmpəs/ n. 〈希神〉〈罗神〉马头鱼尾的怪兽,海马

　　【例句】

　　And these alterations were found in the hippocampus of the traumatized fathers-and of their offspring.

　　这些改变在遭受心理创伤的老鼠及其后代的海马体中发现。

　　enlarge /ɪn'lɑːdʒ/ v. 使增大；扩大；扩展

　　【短语】

　　enlarge on

　　进一步详细论述(问题等)

　　【例句】

　　We'll gradually enlarge our selling amount later.

　　以后我们会逐渐扩大我们的销售额。

　　trajectory /trə'dʒekt(ə)rɪ/ n. 弹道,轨迹;轨道；轨线;常角轨道

　　【例句】

　　And that tells us something about these trajectories.

　　这就解释了这些轨迹的走向。

　　street smartn. 熟悉都市生活方式和世态的；街头智慧

　　【例句】

　　However, different people have different ways of being smart. Some people are considered street smart.

　　但是不同的人聪明的方式不同。有人被认为是街头聪明（世故）。

　　detrimental /ˌdetrɪ'ment(ə)l/ adj. 有害的, 不利的

　　【例句】

　　Smoking is detrimental to your health.

　　吸烟有害健康。

　　stimuli /'stimjulai/ n. 刺激；剌激物；促进因素（stimulus的复数）

　　【例句】

　　Their brains are more open to incoming stimuli in the surrounding environment.

　　他们的脑子对周围事物的信息更开放。

　　In the new study, posted to the online repository bioRxiv, scientists led by Antoine Coutrot at Nantes University in France and Hugo Spiers at University College London describe how they used a dataset gathered from 4m players of a computer game called “Sea Hero Quest”, which tests way-finding skills by asking players to memorise a map showing the location of checkpoints and then measuring how well players can steer a boat to find them, guided only by their mental map.

　　这个句子的主干是：In the new study, scientists describe how they used a dataset. 前面的posted to the online repository bioRxiv是一个插入定语，修饰the new study，再后面的led by Antoine Coutrot at Nantes University in France and Hugo Spiers at University College London是一个动词的过去分词引起的后置定语，修饰前面的scientists, 再后面的gathered from 4m players of a computer game called “Sea Hero Quest”也是一个动词的过去分词引导的后置定语，修饰的是前面的dataset，再后面的which tests way-finding skills by asking players to memorise a map showing the location of checkpoints and then measuring how well players can steer a boat to find them, guided only by their mental map.是一个which引导的非限定性定语从句，修饰的是“Sea Hero Quest”，解释说明这款游戏具体是怎么玩的，而这部分主要是由并列连词and连接的两个部分：tests way-finding skills by asking players to memorise a map showing the location of checkpoints 这部分，showing是动词的现在分词形式修饰前面的名词map, 第二部分measuring how well players can steer a boat to find them, guided only by their mental map. 这部分有一个how引起的宾语从句，充当measure的宾语。

　　Brain scans of London taxi drivers who have gained an encyclopaedic memory of the city’s streets by learning “The Knowledge” show that they tend to have an enlarged hippocampus—a region of the brain acting as a neural GPS, sensing position and trajectory on an internal map of the environment.

　　这个句子的主干是：Brain scans show that they tend to have an enlarged hippocampus. 主干部分有一个that引导的宾语从句，充当show的宾语。中间的of London taxi drivers who have gained an encyclopaedic memory of the city’s streets by learning “The Knowledge”这部分，修饰的是brain scans，而这部分有一个who引导的定语从句，修饰的是taxi drivers，破折号后面的a region of the brain acting as a neural GPS是对前面的hippocampus的解释说明，再后面的sensing position and trajectory on an internal map of the environment.也是解释说明hippocampus的。