时间:2018-12-28 作者:英语课 分类:初学者听力文摘精选


英语课

Where Does The Brain Process Moral Decisions?

大脑的哪个部分与做道德决策有关呢?



Yaël And Don Try An Experiment…

雅艾尔和唐在做实验……



Don: Yaël, suppose there’s a trolley 1 that’s about to run over five people. Do you flip 2 the switch that will steer 3 the trolley onto a different track if that means only one person will die?

唐:雅艾尔,假设一辆有轨电车将要撞上五个人。这时扳动转辙器让电车行驶到另一条轨道上,但这意味着只会有一人丧命。你会这么做吗?



Yaël: I sure would.

雅艾尔:我会这么做。



Don: Okay, now what if the only way you can save those five people is by pushing the stranger next to you into the trolley’s path?

唐:好,那么如果拯救这五个人的唯一办法是把你身边的陌生人推到电车的轨道上,你觉得怎么样呢?



Yaël: Yuck, Don. That would be wrong.

雅艾尔: 令人恶心, 唐。这是不对的。

 

Don: You know, Yaël, most people, when asked this question, answered the same way. And moral philosophers and psychologists have been trying to figure out why. After all, in both cases, one person dies to save five.

唐: 雅艾尔,大多数人被问到这个问题的时候,都会这么回答。伦理学家和心理学家一直在尝试弄清为什么会这样。毕竟,在这两种情况下,都是牺牲一人保全五人。

 

Inside The Science

走进科学

 

In one study, scientists discovered that these two scenarios 5 are processed by different parts of the brain. Flipping 6 a switch, because it’s more impersonal 7, activates 8 the part of the brain associated with memory. But the more personal scenario 4 that requires actively 9 killing 10 a person activates the part of the brain associated with emotions.

在一项研究中,科学家们发现这两种场景是由大脑的不同部分处理的。扳动转辙器,因为这是非人性的动作,所以它只激活大脑中和记忆有关的那部分。而杀人这个场景更具人性色彩,所以会激活大脑中和感情有关的那部分。

 

Scientists speculate that a lot of our gut 11 reactions to moral dilemmas 12 may be affected 13 by our upbringing. After all, as children we internalize the emotional reactions of those around us and store them in emotional brain circuits. Then, later, when we encounter a moral problem, these automatic gut feelings guide our decision-making.

科学家们推断,我们面对道德两难处境时的许多本能反应可能与我们受到的教育有关。毕竟,在儿童时代,我们把身边人的情感反应内化并储存在情感大脑回路里。然后,当我们遇到道德问题时,直觉就会自动指导我们做出决断。



Scientists hope that by figuring out how the brain behaves when people wrestle 14 with difficult issues, we’ll be able to understand how people with different backgrounds reach different conclusions on when it’s okay to take a life. And everyone knows we could use a little more understanding.

科学家们希望通过弄清人们思考困难问题时大脑的运转方式,来帮助理解为什么不同背景的人在面对“可以取人性命”的问题时会得出不同的结论。并且,每一个人都知道我们可以多一些理解。



1 trolley
n.手推车,台车;无轨电车;有轨电车
  • The waiter had brought the sweet trolley.侍者已经推来了甜食推车。
  • In a library,books are moved on a trolley.在图书馆,书籍是放在台车上搬动的。
2 flip
vt.快速翻动;轻抛;轻拍;n.轻抛;adj.轻浮的
  • I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书,看来似乎很有趣。
  • Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。
3 steer
vt.驾驶,为…操舵;引导;vi.驾驶
  • If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车,我就来驾车。
  • It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。
4 scenario
n.剧本,脚本;概要
  • But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
  • This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。
5 scenarios
n.[意]情节;剧本;事态;脚本
  • Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者,根据一些事故解说,石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
  • Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样,我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
6 flipping
讨厌之极的
  • I hate this flipping hotel! 我讨厌这个该死的旅馆!
  • Don't go flipping your lid. 别发火。
7 impersonal
adj.无个人感情的,与个人无关的,非人称的
  • Even his children found him strangely distant and impersonal.他的孩子们也认为他跟其他人很疏远,没有人情味。
  • His manner seemed rather stiff and impersonal.他的态度似乎很生硬冷淡。
8 activates
使活动,起动,触发( activate的第三人称单数 )
  • Activates the window and displays it in its current size and position. 激活窗口,保持当前的大小及位置不变。
  • Pulling out the alarm switch activates alarm and pushing it deactivates it. 闹钟的开和关是通过拔出和按入闹铃开关实现的。
9 actively
adv.积极地,勤奋地
  • During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
  • We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。
10 killing
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
11 gut
n.[pl.]胆量;内脏;adj.本能的;vt.取出内脏
  • It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
  • My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。
12 dilemmas
n.左右为难( dilemma的名词复数 );窘境,困境
  • They dealt with their dilemmas by mixing perhaps unintentionally an explosive brew. 他们――也许是无意地――把爆炸性的佐料混合在一起,以此来应付困难处境。 来自辞典例句
  • Ten years later we encountered the same dilemmas in Vietnam. 十年后,我们又在越南遇到了同样进退两难的局面。 来自辞典例句
13 affected
adj.不自然的,假装的
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
14 wrestle
vi.摔跤,角力;搏斗;全力对付
  • He taught his little brother how to wrestle.他教他小弟弟如何摔跤。
  • We have to wrestle with difficulties.我们必须同困难作斗争。
学英语单词
'toons
absolute mean deviation
aggregometer
Agropoli
air-cooled graphite moderated reactor
aldehydic hydrogen
allomerisms
apex of earth motion
apodized aperture
beat-box
Bidens coronata
branded goods
broad-bean plants
Bulsār
candelabras
cheque board scan
cismadinone
Cleveland steamers
cmos gate array
contiguous sea area
cotton core
covariants
dahira obliquifascia
Danjuro
darkness adaption
directed set
divine-mind
dorsal tegmental nucleus
economic recession
epidote amphibolite
femtowebers
framework of fault
get too big for one's boots
hard right
Harmsworth, Harold Sidney
high-moisture grain silage
housekeeping digit
hydrofine
hydroiodination
industrial radiology
Itard-Cholewa sign
kaga
Kovel'
latricia
let something slide
manitology
meristoderm
Montsec
neutral position of brush
NOESY
nondefinable
nonstructural
observe measure s
periodontologists
physical shape
pincloth
polydelphous
polymorphic transition
poure
pure space science
quality circles
qualling
quantum step
Raphidia
recall of witness
regulize
reinforced concrete fence
renal embolism
reticulated veins
round mallet
scifier
selective conversion
self-murderer
sensitive plate processing
shaker convyer
sheet-ice
side tilt car
slimy waste material
small business management
smoothing by free hand
soil depleting crop
solar blind photomultiplier
speed matching
ST_easy-and-difficult_causing-difficulties-for-oneself-or-others
state correspondence error
strip a peg
super highway
tackle pulley
tar cooler box
telegraph selector
the book of fate
thread mill
three-putts
tighter than the barkon a tree
trisomy 18 syndrome
undivined
uniflow cooler
value insured rail traffic
wall of sound
whoopee do
Yemurtla
zookeep