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Newsworthy Clips: Study finds a single photo can reveal a lot about personality 研究显示：从照片就能看出性格

 

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Study finds a single photo can reveal a lot about personality  研究显示：从照片就能看出性格

 

Your appearance is telling the world a lot more about you than you may think. And all it takes is a snapshot.

外貌所传达出的讯息，比你原先想象的还多，而且只需要一张快照就够了。

 

A new study finds that people can draw accurate conclusions about your personality – such as how extroverted you are – from a single photograph. And when the picture is spontaneous and unposed, it can reveal a virtual personality profile – how easygoing you are, how open you are to new experiences, even your political orientation and how religious you are. The photo study was published this month in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

一项新研究发现，人们从一张照片就可以准确推论出影中人的性格，例如一个人的外向程度。如果照片的拍摄是临时起意、没有故意摆姿势，还几乎可以从这张照片侧写出一个人的性格──包括随和度、对新事物的接受度、甚至连政治倾向和信仰虔诚度都看得出来。这项照片研究刊登在本月的《性格与社会心理学学报》上。

 

“I think most people’s intuition is you need to get to know someone before you can tell something about their personality,” said Simine Vazire, a Washington University psychologist who took part in the study.

参与这项研究的希蒙．瓦彩尔是华盛顿大学的心理学家，她表示，「我想大部分人直觉上都以为，要知道一个人的性格，必须先了解对方才行。」

 

“But I think it’s pretty amazing how many traits you can pick up accurately from a photograph. You’re not led in the wrong direction by physical appearance.”

「不过，从一张照片居然能够准确辨识出好多种人格特质，实在很奇妙。原来外表并不会误导我们。」

 

For the photo study, Vazire and researchers at the University of Texas, University of Cambridge and University of California, Berkeley, relied on the usual guinea pigs of psychological research: college students enrolled in the introductory psych classes.

在这项照片研究中，瓦彩尔和德州大学、剑桥大学和加州大学柏克莱分校的研究人员，仰赖的依旧是心理研究常找的实验对象：也就是选修心理学概论（译注：或译普通心理学、心理学导论）的大学生。

 

The students’ personalities were assessed through questionnaires that they and their friends filled out. Ten personality traits were measured.

学生和他们的朋友先填一份问卷，以评估学生的性格，量测出十种人格特质。

 

The researchers took two full-length pictures of each student, one a standardized pose with hands by their sides and a neutral facial expression, and a second picture where the students weren’t told how to stand or pose. They used pictures of 113 students.

研究人员帮每个学生拍两张全身照，一张是双手放两侧、脸上没有特殊表情的标准姿势；另一张则没有规定学生的站姿或姿势。这项研究共使用了一百一十三名学生的照片。

 

单词发音

 

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draw [drɔ] v. 推断出；作出；形成 to formulate or devise from evidence or data at hand

extroverted [ˋɛkstroˋvɝtɪd] adj. 外向的

profile [ˋprofaɪl] n.【美】传略，人物简介；概况

bulletin [ˋbʊlətɪn] n. 公报；公告

guinea [ˋgɪnɪ] pig 供作实验或观察的人; 天竺鼠 a person used in a scientific test, especially one to discover how effective a process is

psych [saɪk] = psychology, psychological, psychiatry, psychiatric

questionnaire [͵kwɛstʃənˋɛr] n.（调查情况用的）问卷；（意见）调查表 a list of questions that several people are asked so that information can be collected about something

full-length [ˋfʊlˋlɛŋθ] adj. 全长的；等身的 showing or fitted to the entire length, especially of the human body

 

 

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Group of students who didn’t have their pictures taken were assigned to scrutinize the photos. When their assignments were pooled together, the judges often were able to tell from the posed pictures whether a student was extroverted, had high or low self-esteem, or was highly religious. They also could tell whether a student was emotionally stable or open to new experiences.

没有拍照的学生则被指派负责仔细端详这些照片。汇整学生对照片的看法后，这些评审通常能够从摆姿势的照片中判别这个学生外向与否、高自尊或低自尊，和是否非常虔诚，他们同时也能看出此人是否情绪稳定，及是否能接受新事物。

 

They were right most of the time for nine of the 10 character traits. The only trait judges could never reliably nail down was conscientiousness.

他们对十项人格特质的判断，有九项通常都正确无误，唯一无法正确判定的只有勤勉认真这一项。

 

“You can get almost as much information as you could by meeting them in person,” Vazire said. Even so there’s always plenty of room for error in our assignments of other people.

瓦彩尔指出，「看照片所获得的信息几乎和见到本人一样多。」即使如此，我们在评断别人时，还是有很多出错的可能。

 

“I would counsel people to be humble about their judgments,” she said. “But these things aren’t random.”

「我会建议大家对自己的判断要谦虚、不要自满，」她表示，「不过这些真的不是胡乱猜中的。」

 

−by Alan Bavley

 

 

 

Seafood testing could last years  海产检验恐将实施多年

 

The danger posed by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to the U.S. food supply is worse than previously thought and could make testing of seafood necessary for decades to come, officials and scientists say.

美国官员及科学家表示，墨西哥湾漏油事件对美国食物供应所造成的危害，比之前所想的更严重，所以未来数十年可能都必须进行海产检验。

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it was more than doubling the area in the Gulf where commercial and recreational fishing are temporarily off-limits as the oil slick spreads to the south and east.

美国海洋暨大气总署指出，浮油向南方及东方扩散，所以将墨西哥湾暂时禁止商业与休闲渔业活动的地区扩大一倍以上。

 

Since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded April 20, opening gusher of oil from the ocean floor, testing has not found “substantial” quantities of contaminated seafood, said Roy Crabtree, the regional administrator for NOAA’s Southeast regional office.

美国海洋暨大气总署东南部地区主管洛伊．克莱布屈表示，自从「深海地平线」钻油平台在四月二十日爆炸、造成海床原油喷出外泄以来，检验中并未发现「大量」遭污染的海产。

 

Oil contains harmful chemicals that can cause cancer if ingested by humans in high concentrations, said LuAnn White of the Tulane University Center for Applied Environmental Public Health. She said, however, that monitoring efforts by the federal government and the seafood industry make the possibility of significant levels of toxic contamination “extremely unlikely …. in anything that gets to market.”

杜兰大学应用环境公共卫生中心的卢安．怀特指出，人体若摄入高浓度的原油所含有害化学物质，就会导致癌症。不过她也表示，联邦政府与海产业的监控措施，使得「任何进入市场的货品出现……」高浓度有毒污染情况的机会，「极不可能发生」。

 

 

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scrutinize [ˋskrutn͵aɪz] v. 详细检查；细看

reliably [rɪˋlaɪəblɪ] adv. 可靠地；确实地

counsel [ˋkaʊns!] v. 劝告; 忠告; 提议

pose [poz] v. 造成，引起

recreational [͵rɛkrɪˋeʃən!] adj. 消遣的；娱乐的；休养的

off-limits [ˋɔfˋlɪmɪts] adj.【美】禁止进入的；禁区的

oil slick 浮油 a layer of oil that is floating over a large area of the surface of the sea, usually because an accident has caused it to escape from a ship or container

slick [slɪk] n.（漂有浮油的）光滑水面；浮油

rig [rɪg] n. 钻井架，钻塔

gusher [ˋgʌʃɚ] n. 迸出物

ingest [ɪnˋdʒɛst] v. 咽下；摄取；吸收

 

 

 

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Crabtree said government agencies are “doing everything we can” to ensure that no contaminated products make their way to American’ plates. Yet he said that concerns over the spill’s effect on ocean wildlife had intensified after recent reports of massive plumes of oil just beneath the surface, plus the continued movement of oil toward a current that could carry polluted water quickly toward the Florida Keys.

克莱布屈表示，政府部门「竭尽所能」确保不让受污染产品出现在美国人的餐盘中。然而他指出，最近报导海面下不远处出现巨大油污团，再加上油污持续流向恐会将污染海水迅速带往佛罗里达列屿的洋流，更让人们大为忧心漏油事件对于海洋生物所造成的影响。

 

“We’re incorporating some of this uncertainty into our plans,” he said. “We’re trying to get more information about what’s actually happening underneath the water.”

「我们将这种不确定性也纳入计划之中，」克莱布屈说道，「我们正在想办法取得更多水下真正状况的信息。」

 

Most of the thickest oil has stayed offshore. Officials have put down more than 1 million feet of inflatable barriers to keep oil out to sea.

大部分最厚的油污并未流进岸边，官员已安排放置一百万呎以上的充气式拦油索，以将浮油阻隔于外海。

 

Lisa Suatoni, an ocean scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council environmental group, agreed that short-term risk to humans from seafood seemed minimal because of the monitoring.

自然资源保护委员会环保小组的海洋科学家莉萨．苏托妮也同意，进行监控使海产带给人类的短期危害的风险降到最低。

 

She said, however, that the globs of oil under water and chemicals being used to disperse oil could have a lasting impact on the ocean’s food chain.

然而她指出，水下油污块及用来驱散油污的化学物质，可能会对海洋食物链造成长久冲击。

 

“For some animals, even if they don’t die from the exposure, they can squirrel away those chemicals and survive,” Suatoni said. “Anything that eats them could then get a concentrated does of that [chemical].”

「对一些生物来说，即使没有因暴露在油污中而死亡，但仍有可能在体内累积这些化学物质而且存活下来，」苏托妮说道，「吃了这些生物的话，就有可能摄入高浓度的化学物质。」

 

Suatoni said the oil could make its way to the shallow ocean shelf, which is a habitat for fish such as snapper, and remain there for an extended period. The long-term consequences are what worry her the most, she said.

苏托妮指出，油污可能漂流到鲷鱼等类栖息的浅海棚地区，久久不散，所以最让她担心的就是长期后果。

 

“We may have to do this monitoring for a long, long time, and that’s expensive.”

「监控可能必须进行很长一段时间，而且所费不赀。」

 

−by Brain Winter

 

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make one's way to 想方设法进入 to go forward; advance

plume [plum] n. 污染团; 羽状物（如烟云，雪尘等）a tall, thin mass of smoke, dusk or similar substance

inflatable [ɪnˋfletəb!] adj.（需）充气的

glob [glɑb] n.（一团）东西 a round mass of a thick liquid or a sticky substance

squirrel [ˋskwɝəl] v. 把……藏起来，储存[（+away）]

ocean shelf 海棚 a shallow undersea area of land that juts out below the water’s surface

shelf [ʃɛlf] n. 沙洲；暗礁

snapper [ˋsnæpɚ] n.【鱼】真鲷

 

 

 

 

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spontaneous [spɑnˋtenɪəs] adj. 自发的; 自动的; 一时冲动的 happening or done in a natural, often sudden way, without any planning or without being forced

unposed [ʌnˋpozd] adj. 不做作的 without moving into and staying in a particular position in order to be photographed

easygoing [ˋizɪ͵goɪŋ] adj. 脾气随和的 relaxed and not easily upset or worried

nail down 确定 to understand something completely, or to describe something accurately

conscientiousness [͵kɑnʃɪˋɛnʃəsnɪs] n. 按良心办事; 认真; 尽责 the quality of putting a lot of effort into your work

contaminated [kənˋtæmənetɪd] adj. 受污染的 spoiling the purity of something or making it poisonous

toxic [ˋtɑksɪk] adj. 毒（性）的，有毒的 poisonous

offshore [ˋɔfˋʃor] adj. 离岸的；向海的 away from or at a distance from the coast

disperse [dɪˋspɝs] v. 驱散; 解散; 疏散 to spread across or move away over a large area

squirrel [ˋskwɝəl] away 贮存 to store something in order to use it in the future

 

 

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill... Oil Rig Explosion April 2010

 

 

BP Oil Rig Explosion