经济学人272:安全行驶 时刻看路

 　　Science and technology

　　科学技术

　　Safe driving

　　安全行驶

　　Keep your mind on the road

　　时刻看路

　　Hands-free texting is more distracting to drivers than using a mobile phone

　　语音发短信比手机通話更容易让驾驶人分心

　　CARS, to paraphrase¹ some in America's gun lobby, do not kill people.

　　套用美国步枪协会的说法，汽车不会杀人。

　　People kill people.

　　人杀人。

　　And among the people more likely than others to kill people are those distracted by their use of mobile phones and other portable electronic devices while they are driving.

　　在人群中，那些在开车时，使用手机或者其他便携式电子设备的人，比其他人更容易杀人。

　　Actually holding a phone to your ear while driving is illegal in many places.

　　事实上在许多地方，开车的时候将手机放在耳朵上是违法的。

　　But not having both hands on the wheel is only part of the problem.

　　但是没有把双手放在方向盘上仅仅只是一部分问题。

　　Another part, probably more serious, is the dissipation of attention involved.

　　另一部分，可能更加严重，是注意力不集中。

　　If further evidence of this were needed, it has just been provided in a study published by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, in Washington,

　　如果需要更多的证据，这可以由在华盛顿特区的美国汽车协会的交通安全基金会发表的一份研究报告提供。

　　DC. David Strayer and his colleagues at the University of Utah, the study's authors, looked at exactly how distracting various mental activities are to drivers.

　　犹他州的大卫·斯特雷耶和他的同事，这份研究报告的作者，清楚地看到了精神活动是如何使驾驶员分心。

　　In a world where cars are often fitted with hands-free electronic devices, what they found is worrying.

　　在一个汽车配备了免提式电子设备的世界里，这就是他们所担心的事情。

　　Dr Strayer divided 102 volunteers into three groups.

　　斯特雷耶博士将102名志愿者分为了三组。

　　Each participant performed eight tasks under the scrutiny² of his team and while wearing an electrode-laden hat to record what is known as their Event-Related Brain Potentials.

　　每一位参与者要在他的队伍的监督下完成八个任务，并且是戴了一个用于记录大脑的事件相关电位的，布满电极的帽子。

　　The eight tasks were: doing nothing; listening to the radio; listening to an audio book; conversing³ with a passenger; calling a friend using a hand-held phone; calling a friend using a hands-free phone; using speech to send a text message; and, as an example of a difficult task few people engage in behind the wheel, verifying a set of mathematical equations while memorising nouns interjected between the maths problems.

　　这八个任务是：什么都不做；听广播；听音频书；与一位乘客交谈；用一个手持式电话呼叫一位朋友；使用免提式电话呼叫一位朋友；用语音发送一条短信；作为一个困难的任务的一个例子，少数人加入这个团体；当熟记插入到这些算术问题中的名词时，证明一系列算术等式。

　　The first group of volunteers performed these tasks sitting at a computer.

　　第一组人在电脑前完成这些任务。

　　The second sat in simulators resembling the interior of a car, and followed another car on a screen.

　　第二组坐在一个汽车模拟器里，在屏幕上他的前方有一辆车。

　　The third drove real cars.

　　第三组开真正的车。

　　Besides their ERPs, the volunteers' reaction times were assessed, their level of concentration was tested by studying their responses to lights shone in the periphery⁴ of their visual fields, and their subjective⁵ views of which tasks demanded most attention were recorded.

　　除了他们的大脑的事件相关电位外，他们的反应时间也会被评估，他们的集中程度也会通过研究他们对视野边缘的灯光闪烁的反应进行测试，还有他们对哪种任务更加需要集中精力的判断也被记录下来。

　　Dr Strayer then consolidated⁶ these various results into a single number that represented the overall mental distraction⁷ a task created.

　　斯特雷耶博士将这些不同的结果结合在一起形成一个单独的数字，用于表示一个任务所产生的综合精神分散。

　　Doing nothing provided a baseline value of 1.0 and juggling⁸ maths and word-memory provided an upper bound of 5.0.

　　什么都不做的情况设为基础值-1.0，然后尽量使用数学和字存储器产生一个更高的范围-5.0。

　　As might be expected, listening to the radio or to a book were the least distracting activities.

　　可能像预期的那样，听广播或者音频书是是最不容易使人分心的活动。

　　Talking to a passenger and talking on the phone were intermediate.

　　与一位乘客交谈和打电话是中等程度。

　　The most distracting, at 3.06, was hands-free texting.

　　最使人分心的活动的分数为3.06，是语音发短信。

　　On a scale where 5.0 is the most distracted it is possible to be, that is worryingly high.

　　在某种程度上，可能存在最使人分心的，程度为5.0的活动,那么3.06就相当高。

　　In attention to the road is not the only cause of traffic accidents, but it is an important one.

　　不集中注意力观察道路情况不是造成交通事故的唯一的原因， 但是它是最重要的。

　　In America, various studies have suggested that it contributes to between a quarter and a half of accidents.

　　在美国，许多研究表明这种情况所造成的交通事故的比率在1/4到1/2之间。

　　Those who think that hands-free texting is low on the list of potential driving hazards might therefore wish to think again.

　　那些认为语音发短信所造成的风险很小的人可能要因此重新考虑一下。

　　1.mobile phone 移动电话

　　Get a mobile phone and use text messages.

　　弄部手机发文本信息好了。

　　The mobile phone has been almost as revolutionary.

　　移动电话带来的改变更是革命性的。

　　2.fit with 给…装配…

　　Many of the rome sundials will fit with this pedestal base.

　　罗马日晷许多人会适应这个底座。

　　The pattern has to be very liquid so that it can fit with the individual.

　　模式必须灵活机动，这样它才能适应个人需要。

　　3.listen to 听从；听取

　　Chapter 3 listen to the teacher.

　　第三课听老师话。

　　Now the question is whether governments will listen to her.

　　目前的问题是各国政府会不会听从她的呼吁。

　　4.a set of 一套，一伙

　　Their method didn't produce a set of clear principles.

　　他们的方法并没有带来一套清晰的原则。

　　This chemical activates⁹ a set of protein molecules¹⁰ called receptors.

　　这种化学物质会激活一套被称为受体的蛋白质分子。

1 paraphrase   

vt.将…释义，改写；n.释义，意义

参考例句：

• You may read the prose paraphrase of this poem.你可以看一下这首诗的散文释义。
• Paraphrase the following sentences or parts of sentences using your own words.用你自己的话解释下面的句子或句子的一部分。

2 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

3 conversing   

v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I find that conversing with her is quite difficult. 和她交谈实在很困难。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They were conversing in the parlor. 他们正在客厅谈话。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 periphery   

n.(圆体的)外面；周围

参考例句：

• Geographically, the UK is on the periphery of Europe.从地理位置上讲，英国处于欧洲边缘。
• The periphery of the retina is very sensitive to motion.视网膜的外围对运动非常敏感。

5 subjective   

a.主观(上)的，个人的

参考例句：

• The way they interpreted their past was highly subjective. 他们解释其过去的方式太主观。
• A literary critic should not be too subjective in his approach. 文学评论家的看法不应太主观。

6 consolidated   

a.联合的

参考例句：

• With this new movie he has consolidated his position as the country's leading director. 他新执导的影片巩固了他作为全国最佳导演的地位。
• Those two banks have consolidated and formed a single large bank. 那两家银行已合并成一家大银行。

7 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

8 juggling   

n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词

参考例句：

• He was charged with some dishonest juggling with the accounts. 他被指控用欺骗手段窜改账目。
• The accountant went to prison for juggling his firm's accounts. 会计因涂改公司的帐目而入狱。

9 activates   

使活动，起动，触发( activate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• 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。

10 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。