破解“生男魔咒”：英国家族二百年首次迎来女性后代

 　　When little Myla Lawrie was brought home from hospital four months ago, a veritable sea of pink greeted her, with clouds of balloons filling the sitting room, along with cards, bunting and ribbons in every shade of girliness.

　　四个月前，小麦拉·劳里(Myla Lawrie)从医院被抱回家时，迎接她的是一片粉红色的“海洋”——起居室内飘满粉红色的气球，点缀着粉粉的卡片、幔幕和缎带，到处洋溢着粉嫩女孩的气息。

　　For this was a very special event in the Lawrie family. When Myla was born in October, she was the first girl to be born in her family since 1809.

　　对劳里家族而言，这是一件特别的大事件。小麦拉出生在十月，她是1809年以来劳里家族降生的第一个女孩。

　　The last time a midwife announced "It's a girl", the Napoleonic war was still being fought, the motorcar was yet to be invented, and "mad" King George III was on the English throne.

　　上一次产婆宣布“生了个女孩”的时候，还是拿破仑战争时期，那时候人们还没发明汽车，“疯癫的”君主乔治三世还在位统治英国。

　　生男魔咒

　　No wonder her proud parents — Hannah, a 26-year-old midwife, and Mark, a 33-year-old professional golfer turned coach, from Maidstone in Kent — wanted to celebrate.

　　有了这些理由，小麦拉的双亲如此引以为傲，也就不足为奇了。她的母亲是24岁的助产士汉娜，父亲名叫马克，是一名职业高尔夫球员，两人都来自英国肯特州的梅德斯通。如今，他们想为这个新生命的到来庆祝一番。

　　"When Mark and I first got together, he told me how everyone in his family, for five generations, had produced boys," explains Hannah. "He warned me that the chances of us ever having a daughter were pretty remote."

　　汉娜说：“我和马克刚在一起的时候，他就告诉了我他们家族成员已连续五代都只生男孩。他提醒我说，我们拥有一个女儿的希望十分渺茫。”

　　True to form, when Hannah became pregnant in 2012, no one was surprised when Mason, who's now three, was born.

　　事情不出所料，当2012年汉娜怀孕时，毫无悬念地迎来了他们的儿子——马森。现在马森已经三岁了。

　　Looking back over the family tree, Hannah could see why everyone was so convinced. The last girl to be born in the Lawrie family was Mason's great-great-great Aunt Bessie, born more than 200 years ago in the same year as Charles Darwin.

　　回顾劳里家族的家谱，汉娜明白了为什么每个劳里家族的后代都对此深信不疑，劳里家族诞生的最后一名女性是马克的高曾姑母贝茜，她生于200多年前，和达尔文同年。

　　Bessie and her brother had had sons, and so the pattern had continued, all the way down to Mark and his brother Glenn. Mark has two other boys, ten-year-old Ben and seven-year-old Zac, from a previous relationship, while Glenn had one son, Reece, who's 14.

　　贝茜和她的兄弟们生的都是男孩，于是这一现象开始流传下去，一直延续到马克和他的哥哥格伦身上。马克和前任还有两个儿子，十岁的本和七岁的扎克。格伦也育有一子，十四岁的瑞斯。

　　"I even questioned whether there could be a genetic¹ condition that meant Mark produced only male sperm²," says Hannah.

　　汉娜说，我甚至曾咨询过，是否因为遗传的关系，所以马克只能产生雄性精子。

　　"I asked numerous doctors and consultants³ in the hospital where I work if this was the case, but was told time and again that it wasn't. Every time a baby is conceived, the chances of it being a girl are 50/50, they told me — but in Mark's family, for some reason, it never was."

　　我还问了很多和我同院的大夫是否是这种情况，但每每得到的回答都是否定的。每一次受孕时，生男生女的机率都是各一半，但在马克的家族，不知为何却从来不是这样。

　　Desperate to improve their chances of having a girl, Hannah came across the Shettles Method, developed by an American doctor in the Sixties, which claims the timing⁴ of conception can help determine the baby's sex.

　　为了提高生女儿的几率，汉娜采取了“薛德思法（Shettles Method:由薛德思博士提出的一种帮助选择婴儿性别的怀孕方式）”。该方法是由一名美国医生在六十年代提出的，主张怀孕的时间有助于决定婴儿性别。

　　This is based on evidence that male sperm (Y chromosome) are faster, weaker and have a shorter lifespan than female sperm (X chromosome), which are slower but survive for longer. This means that having sex before ovulation, rather than during, should increase the likelihood of conceiving a girl, as only the female sperm will survive long enough to penetrate⁵ the egg.

　　该观点基于雄性精子（即Y染色体）与雌性精子（即X染色体）相比游动速度更快，但生命周期更短且活性更低。雌性精子虽然游动得较慢，但存活时间更长。这就意味着，排卵之前而非排卵期进行房事，会提高生女孩的机率，因为只有雌性精子具有足够的存活时间与卵子结合。

　　Hannah used ovulation kits⁷ to work out when she was ovulating. Love-making was allowed only early on in Hannah's cycle. As soon as the kit⁶ showed she was approaching ovulation, intercourse⁸ was banned for the rest of the month.

　　汉娜用排卵试纸来确定自己何时排卵，只在她排卵前进行房事，一旦试纸显示汉娜开始排卵，这个月的其余时间就禁止性爱。

　　Hannah admits it was far from romantic, but says she wanted to give it their best shot.

　　汉娜承认这样做一点都不浪漫，但为了生个女儿，他们不容有失。

　　Hannah fell pregnant straight away but was convinced the technique hadn't worked and that she was expecting another boy. The couple even sorted out all Mason's clothes into age order ready for when the new baby was born.

　　汉娜又怀孕了，尽管采取了这种方法，但她仍认为该方法不会奏效。这对夫妇甚至已经开始把马森的衣服按年龄分类，为下一个儿子的到来做准备了。

　　Then, at the 20-week scan, they received the astonishing news that they were expecting a girl.

　　而后，在20周的B超检查时，他们得到了令人惊喜的消息——他们将拥有一个女儿。

　　"I was in a state of disbelief," says Hannah. "I kept asking the sonographer if she was sure."

　　汉娜说：“我简直不敢置信，反复问超声波性别检验师是否确定这回事。”

　　With three big brothers to look after her, Myla is never going to be short of protectors. Hannah says they are all very protective, but especially Mason, who tells people who pick up his precious sister to put her back immediately.

　　在三个哥哥的照料下，小麦拉一点都不缺人照顾，汉娜说，三个哥哥都对麦拉照顾有加，尤其是马森，一有谁把他妹妹抱起来，马森会让他马上放下小宝宝。

　　Hannah's biggest worry now is that her daughter will turn out to be a tomboy.

　　现在汉娜最大的顾虑就是怕她的女儿会长成一个“假小子”。

　　Mark teases her, saying she's bound to end up a professional golfer, but Hannah already has plans to sign her up to ballet classes on her second birthday.

　　马克打趣她说，麦拉一定会接他的班，当一名职业高尔夫球手。不过，汉娜早已有了培养计划，她已经预备在女儿两岁后就送她去学芭蕾舞。

　　"I really enjoyed dancing when I was a child, and I'd love for Myla to do the same," she says.

　　“我小时候，真的特别喜欢跳舞，所以我希望麦拉也能这样。”汉娜说。

　　Hannah is also looking forward to the days when Mark and the boys go off to play 18 holes, and she is able to enjoy shopping trips with her daughter.

　　汉娜也期待着当马克和儿子们打高尔夫的时候，女儿能陪她一起购物逛街。

　　One thing she's certain of, though, is that her family is complete.

　　如今，汉娜的心愿已经达成，她的家庭是圆满的了。

　　"If I'd had another boy, I might have had another shot at a girl. But now that I've got one of each, I've got everything I've ever wanted."

　　“要是这胎还是一个男孩的话，我也依旧会努力生个女孩，可现在，我已经儿女双全了，我的梦已经圆了。”

　　Hannah will never know if her ovulation kits did the trick. But whether by luck, or science, the 200-year Lawrie family boy spell has finally been broken.

　　排卵试纸到底有没有起作用，汉娜已不得而知。但科学也好，运气也罢，重要的是，200年来，劳里家族的“生男魔咒“终于被打破了

　　Vocabulary

　　veritable: 真正的，名副其实的

　　midwife: 助产士，产婆

　　ovulation: 排卵

　　intercourse: 性交

　　sonographer: 超声波检验医师

　　tomboy: 假小子

　　be bound to: 必然

1 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

2 sperm   

n.精子，精液

参考例句：

• Only one sperm fertilises an egg.只有一个精子使卵子受精。
• In human reproduction,one female egg is usually fertilized by one sperm.在人体生殖过程中，一个精子使一个卵子受精。

3 consultants   

顾问( consultant的名词复数 )； 高级顾问医生，会诊医生

参考例句：

• a firm of management consultants 管理咨询公司
• There're many consultants in hospital. 医院里有很多会诊医生。

4 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

5 penetrate   

v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解

参考例句：

• Western ideas penetrate slowly through the East.西方观念逐渐传入东方。
• The sunshine could not penetrate where the trees were thickest.阳光不能透入树木最浓密的地方。

6 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。

7 kits   

衣物和装备( kit的名词复数 )； 成套用品； 配套元件

参考例句：

• Keep your kits closed and locked when not in use. 不用的话把你的装备都锁好放好。
• Gifts Articles, Toy and Games, Wooden Toys, Puzzles, Craft Kits. 采购产品礼品，玩具和游戏，木制的玩具，智力玩具，手艺装备。

8 intercourse   

n.性交；交流，交往，交际

参考例句：

• The magazine becomes a cultural medium of intercourse between the two peoples.该杂志成为两民族间文化交流的媒介。
• There was close intercourse between them.他们过往很密。