VOA标准英语2014--环境奖获得者通过狼来理解人性
时间：2019-01-14 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2014年(五月)
Environmental Prize Winner Looks to Wolves to Understand Humans 环境奖获得者通过狼来理解人性
LOS ANGELES — Economists 1 are learning about the workings of the financial world by studying packs of wolves and schools of fish. That's according to Simon Levin, a Princeton University scientist and winner of this year's Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. Professor Levin has been honored in Los Angeles for his work at the intersection 2 of biology and business.
Levin is a trained mathematician 3 who uses math to study biological systems. He says individuals in groups show similar behavior, whether they're wolves in the wild or traders on Wall Street.
“Individuals are competing for limited resources, enter into cooperative arrangements, exploitative arrangements, parasitic 4 arrangements, so they really are the same sort of phenomena," Levin said. "So with some colleagues, I began looking at economic systems two decades ago."
In early 2008, Levin co-authored an article called “Ecology for Bankers” in the journal Nature, accurately 5 predicting the financial collapse 6 sparked by the problems in the housing mortgage market. He says the complex financial and banking 7 systems were showing signs of strain that, in the world of biology, would signal a coming crisis.
“The systems were becoming more and more interconnected, and when ecological 8 systems become so interconnected, they run the risk of collapse," he said.
He is now turning his attention to threats in the natural world as the oceans and climate systems face increasing strains caused by human activity.
“So we study fish schools, we study bird flocks. Of course, we study groups of animals like wolves or wildebeest to understand how they are organized and to understand how they’ve dealt with the problems of collectives," said Levin.
Levin says complex systems need resilient responses to cope with emerging threats, and that is a challenge in our interconnected world, where global links create added stresses on fragile organizations.
“So we need a system that first of all has generalized responses that buy us time and secondly 9 has adaptive responses specific to the particular threats. I think that's how we have to be dealing 10 with threats to our society, whether it's to the financial system or bioterrorism," he said.
Levin says there are no easy answers as we cope with threats in complex global systems, from climate change to financial crisis, but he says we humans have an advantage over our animal cousins because we can study the risks and devise effective responses.
- The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
- Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
- Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。
- The man with his back to the camera is a mathematician.背对着照相机的人是位数学家。
- The mathematician analyzed his figures again.这位数学家再次分析研究了他的这些数字。
- Will global warming mean the spread of tropical parasitic diseases?全球变暖是否意味着热带寄生虫病会蔓延呢？
- By definition,this way of life is parasitic.从其含义来说，这是种寄生虫的生活方式。
- It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
- Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。
- The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
- The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。
- John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
- He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。
- The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
- Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.
- Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
- Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。