社會地位與健康
2023復(fù)習(xí)正是強化復(fù)習(xí)階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經(jīng)濟學(xué)人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 Social status and health 社會地位與健康 Misery index 貧困指數(shù) Low social status is bad for your health. Biologistsare starting to understand why 社會地位低對身體不好，生物學(xué)家開始理解此中的奧秘 ONCE upon a time the overstressed executive bellowing orders into a telephone, cancellingmeetings, staying late at the office and dying of a heart attack was a stereotype ofmodernity. 曾今，人們對現(xiàn)代化的一個根深蒂固的印象是，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)們在巨大壓力的折磨之下，對著電話狂吼，下達命令，取消會議，待在辦公室到很晚，最后死于心臟病。 That was before the Whitehall studies, a series of investigations of British civil servants begunin the 1960s. 可是，自1960年代開始的英國白廳對英國政治家們展開的一系列調(diào)查之后，這種印象開始改變， These studies found that the truth is precisely the opposite. 因為調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)事實卻完全不是那么回事。 Those at the top of the pecking order actually have the least stressful and most healthylives. 實際上處于社會高層的人們承受的壓力最小，生活最健康。 Cardiac arrestand, indeed, early death from any causeis the prerogative of underlings. 心跳驟停而且，確實是，不管是出于什么原因的早死那都是做下屬的才有的事。 Such results have since been confirmed many times, both in human societies and in otherprimate species with strong social hierarchies. 在人類社會，還有等級嚴格的其他的靈長類物種中，都已多次驗證這種結(jié)果的正確性。 But whereas the pattern is well-understood, the biological mechanisms underlying it arenot. 但是，雖然這種模式很容易理解，潛在的生物學(xué)機制卻并不這么認為。 A study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however,sheds some light on the matter. 雜志《國家科學(xué)院》最新出版的專題里，對此現(xiàn)象有相關(guān)闡述。 In it, a group of researchers led by Jenny Tung and Yoav Gilad at the University of Chicagolooked at the effects of status on rhesus macaques. 專題里，詹妮東和要吉拉德領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的研究小組在芝加哥大學(xué)，研究地位之于恒河猴的影響。 Experience has shown that these monkeys display the simian equivalent of the Whitehallstudies findings. 實驗經(jīng)過表明，這些猴子所表現(xiàn)出來的是英國白廳研究發(fā)現(xiàn)的猴子版本。 The high risk of disease among those at the bottom of the heap in both cases suggests thatbiochemical responses to low status affect a creature s immune system. 社會地位低的患病風險高，這既適用于人類界也同樣適用于猴子。這暗示了社會地位低的物種的生物化學(xué)反應(yīng)影響其免疫系統(tǒng)。 Those responses must, in turn, depend on changes in the way the creatures genes areexpressed. 反過來，這種生物化學(xué)反應(yīng)又取決于物種生物基因的變化方式。 To investigate this phenomenon means manipulating social hierarchies, but that would behard if it were done to human beings. 若要調(diào)查這種現(xiàn)象，那就意味著需要控制社會等級，在人類身上進行，很困難。 You can, however, do it to monkeys, and the researchers did. 但是，你可以在猴子身上做實驗，而且研究人員也是這么做的。 Unhappy minds in unhealthy bodies 不健康的身體，不快樂的心情 Dr Tung and Dr Gilad took 49 middle-ranking female macaques and split them into groups offour or five. 博士東和吉拉德，用49個中等地位等級的女性猴子做實驗，并把他們分為四到五組。 The researchers were able to control where in a group an individual ranked by the order inwhich it was introduced into its group. 根據(jù)猴子們加入研究群體的時間順序，研究人員給她們的地位等級編號。 The hierarchies thus established, the team conducted tests on cells in the monkeys blood,in an attempt to determine the effect of a macaque s rank on her biochemistry and, inparticular, on how rank influences the activity of various genes. 等級于是得以建立。研究團隊采集猴子血液做細胞研究，試圖搞清楚恒河猴的地位等級對其生物化學(xué)的影響，特別是地位等級是如何對各種基因活動起作用的。 The answer is, a lot. 研究結(jié)果有很多。 Dr Tung and Dr Gilad looked at the expression in each animal of 6,097 genes. 每個動物有6097個基因，博士東和吉拉德觀察每個動物的基因，尋找社會等級與基因活動之間的相互關(guān)系。 They were searching for correlations between social rank and gene activity, and in 987genes they found one. 在987個基因中，他們找到了一個。 Some genes were more active in high-ranking individuals; others were more active inlow-ranking ones. 某些基因在等級高的個體中更活躍，而其他的基因則活躍于等級低的個體中。 The relationship was robust enough to work the other way round, too. 這一結(jié)果很牢靠，倒過來看也成立。 Given a blood sample and no other information, it was possible to predict an individual sstatus within her group with an accuracy of 80%. 只提供血液樣本而沒有其他相關(guān)信息，就可以預(yù)測個體在群體里的地位等級，且精確度達到80%。 The next question was what all these genes actually do. 下一個問題，所有這些基因，真正起的是什么作用。 Sure enough the answer, for a substantial fraction of them, was that they regulateaspects of the immune system. 答案很顯然，對大部分基因而言，它們起著調(diào)節(jié)著免疫系統(tǒng)的作用。 In particular, low-status individuals showed high levels of activity in genes associated withthe production of various immune-related cells and chemical signalling factors, as well asthose to do with inflammation. 這非常明顯地體現(xiàn)在，社會地位低的個體，產(chǎn)生各種與免疫相關(guān)的細胞和化學(xué)信號基因的活動更為明顯，還有那些有關(guān)于炎癥的基因。 Although the researchers did not explicitly examine the health of their simian charges,chronic, generalised inflammation is a risk factor, in people, for a long list of ailmentsranging from heart trouble to Alzheimer s disease. 雖然研究人員沒有仔細分析參與實驗的猴子們的健康狀況，但是慢性的、全身性的炎癥對猴子們來說是危險因素，人類的部分，就是從心臟病到老年癡呆癥等一大長系列疾病。 Finally, the team investigated the mechanisms behind these differences in gene expression. 最后，研究小組用基因表達調(diào)查造成這些不同的機理原因。 In keeping with previous work, they found that high-and low-rank individuals showeddifferent levels of responsiveness to a class of hormones called glucocorticoids, whichregulate immune-system activity and response to stress. 與之前工作結(jié)果一致，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)地位高和地位低的個體，對被稱為糖皮質(zhì)激素的一組基因，表現(xiàn)出的反應(yīng)級別不一樣。糖皮質(zhì)激素控制免疫系統(tǒng)活動和對壓力的反應(yīng)。 They also found changes in the mix of cells within the animals immune system itself. 同時他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在動物免疫系統(tǒng)自身，混合細胞有發(fā)生改變。 But what is new, and intriguing, is that they discovered, for the first time, evidence that aphenomenon called epigenetic change is at work. 但是最為新奇的是，他們頭一次發(fā)現(xiàn)了后天改變在起作用的證據(jù)。 Epigeneticscurrently one of molecular biology s hottest topicsis a process by which genesare activated or deactivated by the presence or absence of chemical structures calledmethyl and acetyl groups. 表現(xiàn)遺傳學(xué)目前分子生物學(xué)最熱的話題之一是這樣一個過程，基因的激活或是失效取決于被稱為甲基和乙酰基的化學(xué)結(jié)構(gòu)的存在或是消失。 Dr Tung and Dr Gilad found that methylation patterns were systematically different in high-and low-ranking animals. 博士東和吉拉德發(fā)現(xiàn)甲基模式在地位高級和地位低級的動物之間是不一樣的，且這種不一樣是系統(tǒng)性的不一樣。 Crucially, these changes are generally passed on to the daughter cells produced when a celldivides, and are thus perpetuated throughout an animal s life. 至關(guān)重要的一點是，這些變化一般在細胞分裂的同時傳遞給子細胞，因此這些變化將貫穿動物的一生。 To the extent that epigenetic marking is involved in creating social status, then, statusmay be being maintained by the animal s cells as they replicate. 從此意義上講，后天標記參與社會地位的形成，社會地位的維持靠動物細胞的復(fù)制。 Destiny s child? 命運的產(chǎn)物? Those who believe in progress will, however, be pleased to know that epigenetics is notnecessarily destiny. 但是，相信事物是發(fā)展變化的人們會很高興，因為表現(xiàn)遺傳學(xué)并不是上天注定，難以改變的。 Methyl groups may help maintain the status quo, but if that status quo is interrupted byoutside events they can be wiped away and a new lot put in place. 甲基或許可以幫助維持現(xiàn)狀，但是如果外來事件打斷了它，那么甲基將被移除，新的一批上任。 Dr Tung and Dr Gilad discovered this because a few of their monkeys did change statuswithin their groups. 博士東和吉拉德能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)了這一點，是因為，參與實驗的幾個猴子確實改變了她們在群體中的地位等級。 When that happened, changes in gene expression appropriate to the new status quicklyfollowed. 地位等級一旦發(fā)生改變，與之相應(yīng)的基因表達隨即改變。 Those who do break free from their lowly station, then, may begin to reap the healthbenefits almost immediately. 那些確實改變了它們之前卑賤地位的猴子們，身體狀況幾乎都立刻獲得改善。 As with any animal study, this one cannot simply be mapped straight onto humans. 不管以什么動物為研究對象，結(jié)果都不能直接簡單地運用于人類，這個也不例外。 But it does provide pointers that researchers who work on people can use. 但它確實給研究人類的學(xué)者們提供了一些建議。 In particular, the experiment ensured that social rank was the only factor being changed,providing strong evidence that the chain of causality runs from low social status, througha disrupted immune system to worse health, and not the other way around. 該實驗的獨特之處是，它確保了實驗中社會等級是唯一發(fā)生改變的因素。它為因果關(guān)系鏈的正確模式提供了一個強有力的證據(jù)，正確模式是低等的社會等級通過被破壞了的免疫系統(tǒng)損害健康。 The best medicine, then, is promotion. Prosper, and live long. 而不是反過來的順序。晉升是療效最好的藥物。因為成功，所以活得長久。 詞語解釋 1.start to 開始 When and why did things start to change? 那么這種情況是什么時候開始改變的? It was the best start to august trading since 1934. 這是1934年以來8月份最好的股市開局。 2.response to 對的反應(yīng) Public response to the discounting appeared mixed. 公眾對這次價格戰(zhàn)的反應(yīng)褒貶不一。 Albert oversaw monaco s response to the g20. 阿爾貝親自負責摩納哥對g20的回應(yīng)。 3.depend on 依賴;相信;信賴 Few non-profits pay well and many depend on volunteers. 沒有幾個非營利機構(gòu)工資豐厚，很多還要依靠志愿者。 You can depend on this newspaper. 你可以依賴這家報紙。 4.split into 分成 Its evolution can be crudely split into three periods. 它的發(fā)展可以大致分成三個階段。 The group eventually split into three segments, relegating distinct roles and tasks. 幫會最終分裂成三個陣營，歸入不同的任務(wù)和角色。
2023復(fù)習(xí)正是強化復(fù)習(xí)階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經(jīng)濟學(xué)人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 Social status and health 社會地位與健康 Misery index 貧困指數(shù) Low social status is bad for your health. Biologistsare starting to understand why 社會地位低對身體不好，生物學(xué)家開始理解此中的奧秘 ONCE upon a time the overstressed executive bellowing orders into a telephone, cancellingmeetings, staying late at the office and dying of a heart attack was a stereotype ofmodernity. 曾今，人們對現(xiàn)代化的一個根深蒂固的印象是，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)們在巨大壓力的折磨之下，對著電話狂吼，下達命令，取消會議，待在辦公室到很晚，最后死于心臟病。 That was before the Whitehall studies, a series of investigations of British civil servants begunin the 1960s. 可是，自1960年代開始的英國白廳對英國政治家們展開的一系列調(diào)查之后，這種印象開始改變， These studies found that the truth is precisely the opposite. 因為調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)事實卻完全不是那么回事。 Those at the top of the pecking order actually have the least stressful and most healthylives. 實際上處于社會高層的人們承受的壓力最小，生活最健康。 Cardiac arrestand, indeed, early death from any causeis the prerogative of underlings. 心跳驟停而且，確實是，不管是出于什么原因的早死那都是做下屬的才有的事。 Such results have since been confirmed many times, both in human societies and in otherprimate species with strong social hierarchies. 在人類社會，還有等級嚴格的其他的靈長類物種中，都已多次驗證這種結(jié)果的正確性。 But whereas the pattern is well-understood, the biological mechanisms underlying it arenot. 但是，雖然這種模式很容易理解，潛在的生物學(xué)機制卻并不這么認為。 A study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however,sheds some light on the matter. 雜志《國家科學(xué)院》最新出版的專題里，對此現(xiàn)象有相關(guān)闡述。 In it, a group of researchers led by Jenny Tung and Yoav Gilad at the University of Chicagolooked at the effects of status on rhesus macaques. 專題里，詹妮東和要吉拉德領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的研究小組在芝加哥大學(xué)，研究地位之于恒河猴的影響。 Experience has shown that these monkeys display the simian equivalent of the Whitehallstudies findings. 實驗經(jīng)過表明，這些猴子所表現(xiàn)出來的是英國白廳研究發(fā)現(xiàn)的猴子版本。 The high risk of disease among those at the bottom of the heap in both cases suggests thatbiochemical responses to low status affect a creature s immune system. 社會地位低的患病風險高，這既適用于人類界也同樣適用于猴子。這暗示了社會地位低的物種的生物化學(xué)反應(yīng)影響其免疫系統(tǒng)。 Those responses must, in turn, depend on changes in the way the creatures genes areexpressed. 反過來，這種生物化學(xué)反應(yīng)又取決于物種生物基因的變化方式。 To investigate this phenomenon means manipulating social hierarchies, but that would behard if it were done to human beings. 若要調(diào)查這種現(xiàn)象，那就意味著需要控制社會等級，在人類身上進行，很困難。 You can, however, do it to monkeys, and the researchers did. 但是，你可以在猴子身上做實驗，而且研究人員也是這么做的。 Unhappy minds in unhealthy bodies 不健康的身體，不快樂的心情 Dr Tung and Dr Gilad took 49 middle-ranking female macaques and split them into groups offour or five. 博士東和吉拉德，用49個中等地位等級的女性猴子做實驗，并把他們分為四到五組。 The researchers were able to control where in a group an individual ranked by the order inwhich it was introduced into its group. 根據(jù)猴子們加入研究群體的時間順序，研究人員給她們的地位等級編號。 The hierarchies thus established, the team conducted tests on cells in the monkeys blood,in an attempt to determine the effect of a macaque s rank on her biochemistry and, inparticular, on how rank influences the activity of various genes. 等級于是得以建立。研究團隊采集猴子血液做細胞研究，試圖搞清楚恒河猴的地位等級對其生物化學(xué)的影響，特別是地位等級是如何對各種基因活動起作用的。 The answer is, a lot. 研究結(jié)果有很多。 Dr Tung and Dr Gilad looked at the expression in each animal of 6,097 genes. 每個動物有6097個基因，博士東和吉拉德觀察每個動物的基因，尋找社會等級與基因活動之間的相互關(guān)系。 They were searching for correlations between social rank and gene activity, and in 987genes they found one. 在987個基因中，他們找到了一個。 Some genes were more active in high-ranking individuals; others were more active inlow-ranking ones. 某些基因在等級高的個體中更活躍，而其他的基因則活躍于等級低的個體中。 The relationship was robust enough to work the other way round, too. 這一結(jié)果很牢靠，倒過來看也成立。 Given a blood sample and no other information, it was possible to predict an individual sstatus within her group with an accuracy of 80%. 只提供血液樣本而沒有其他相關(guān)信息，就可以預(yù)測個體在群體里的地位等級，且精確度達到80%。 The next question was what all these genes actually do. 下一個問題，所有這些基因，真正起的是什么作用。 Sure enough the answer, for a substantial fraction of them, was that they regulateaspects of the immune system. 答案很顯然，對大部分基因而言，它們起著調(diào)節(jié)著免疫系統(tǒng)的作用。 In particular, low-status individuals showed high levels of activity in genes associated withthe production of various immune-related cells and chemical signalling factors, as well asthose to do with inflammation. 這非常明顯地體現(xiàn)在，社會地位低的個體，產(chǎn)生各種與免疫相關(guān)的細胞和化學(xué)信號基因的活動更為明顯，還有那些有關(guān)于炎癥的基因。 Although the researchers did not explicitly examine the health of their simian charges,chronic, generalised inflammation is a risk factor, in people, for a long list of ailmentsranging from heart trouble to Alzheimer s disease. 雖然研究人員沒有仔細分析參與實驗的猴子們的健康狀況，但是慢性的、全身性的炎癥對猴子們來說是危險因素，人類的部分，就是從心臟病到老年癡呆癥等一大長系列疾病。 Finally, the team investigated the mechanisms behind these differences in gene expression. 最后，研究小組用基因表達調(diào)查造成這些不同的機理原因。 In keeping with previous work, they found that high-and low-rank individuals showeddifferent levels of responsiveness to a class of hormones called glucocorticoids, whichregulate immune-system activity and response to stress. 與之前工作結(jié)果一致，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)地位高和地位低的個體，對被稱為糖皮質(zhì)激素的一組基因，表現(xiàn)出的反應(yīng)級別不一樣。糖皮質(zhì)激素控制免疫系統(tǒng)活動和對壓力的反應(yīng)。 They also found changes in the mix of cells within the animals immune system itself. 同時他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在動物免疫系統(tǒng)自身，混合細胞有發(fā)生改變。 But what is new, and intriguing, is that they discovered, for the first time, evidence that aphenomenon called epigenetic change is at work. 但是最為新奇的是，他們頭一次發(fā)現(xiàn)了后天改變在起作用的證據(jù)。 Epigeneticscurrently one of molecular biology s hottest topicsis a process by which genesare activated or deactivated by the presence or absence of chemical structures calledmethyl and acetyl groups. 表現(xiàn)遺傳學(xué)目前分子生物學(xué)最熱的話題之一是這樣一個過程，基因的激活或是失效取決于被稱為甲基和乙酰基的化學(xué)結(jié)構(gòu)的存在或是消失。 Dr Tung and Dr Gilad found that methylation patterns were systematically different in high-and low-ranking animals. 博士東和吉拉德發(fā)現(xiàn)甲基模式在地位高級和地位低級的動物之間是不一樣的，且這種不一樣是系統(tǒng)性的不一樣。 Crucially, these changes are generally passed on to the daughter cells produced when a celldivides, and are thus perpetuated throughout an animal s life. 至關(guān)重要的一點是，這些變化一般在細胞分裂的同時傳遞給子細胞，因此這些變化將貫穿動物的一生。 To the extent that epigenetic marking is involved in creating social status, then, statusmay be being maintained by the animal s cells as they replicate. 從此意義上講，后天標記參與社會地位的形成，社會地位的維持靠動物細胞的復(fù)制。 Destiny s child? 命運的產(chǎn)物? Those who believe in progress will, however, be pleased to know that epigenetics is notnecessarily destiny. 但是，相信事物是發(fā)展變化的人們會很高興，因為表現(xiàn)遺傳學(xué)并不是上天注定，難以改變的。 Methyl groups may help maintain the status quo, but if that status quo is interrupted byoutside events they can be wiped away and a new lot put in place. 甲基或許可以幫助維持現(xiàn)狀，但是如果外來事件打斷了它，那么甲基將被移除，新的一批上任。 Dr Tung and Dr Gilad discovered this because a few of their monkeys did change statuswithin their groups. 博士東和吉拉德能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)了這一點，是因為，參與實驗的幾個猴子確實改變了她們在群體中的地位等級。 When that happened, changes in gene expression appropriate to the new status quicklyfollowed. 地位等級一旦發(fā)生改變，與之相應(yīng)的基因表達隨即改變。 Those who do break free from their lowly station, then, may begin to reap the healthbenefits almost immediately. 那些確實改變了它們之前卑賤地位的猴子們，身體狀況幾乎都立刻獲得改善。 As with any animal study, this one cannot simply be mapped straight onto humans. 不管以什么動物為研究對象，結(jié)果都不能直接簡單地運用于人類，這個也不例外。 But it does provide pointers that researchers who work on people can use. 但它確實給研究人類的學(xué)者們提供了一些建議。 In particular, the experiment ensured that social rank was the only factor being changed,providing strong evidence that the chain of causality runs from low social status, througha disrupted immune system to worse health, and not the other way around. 該實驗的獨特之處是，它確保了實驗中社會等級是唯一發(fā)生改變的因素。它為因果關(guān)系鏈的正確模式提供了一個強有力的證據(jù)，正確模式是低等的社會等級通過被破壞了的免疫系統(tǒng)損害健康。 The best medicine, then, is promotion. Prosper, and live long. 而不是反過來的順序。晉升是療效最好的藥物。因為成功，所以活得長久。 詞語解釋 1.start to 開始 When and why did things start to change? 那么這種情況是什么時候開始改變的? It was the best start to august trading since 1934. 這是1934年以來8月份最好的股市開局。 2.response to 對的反應(yīng) Public response to the discounting appeared mixed. 公眾對這次價格戰(zhàn)的反應(yīng)褒貶不一。 Albert oversaw monaco s response to the g20. 阿爾貝親自負責摩納哥對g20的回應(yīng)。 3.depend on 依賴;相信;信賴 Few non-profits pay well and many depend on volunteers. 沒有幾個非營利機構(gòu)工資豐厚，很多還要依靠志愿者。 You can depend on this newspaper. 你可以依賴這家報紙。 4.split into 分成 Its evolution can be crudely split into three periods. 它的發(fā)展可以大致分成三個階段。 The group eventually split into three segments, relegating distinct roles and tasks. 幫會最終分裂成三個陣營，歸入不同的任務(wù)和角色。
