词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Helen Fisher: 'Why We Love'

Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: February 12, 2004

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- enough about politics, today we talk about love!

RS: We were searching for a topic for Valentine's Day -- it's this Saturday, you know. Then our friend Ali in Iran happened to tell us about the newest book by one of his favorite American authors, anthropologist¹ Helen Fisher.

AA: It contains the findings of her research to identify the areas of the brain that "light up" 鈥?or become neurologically more active -- when a person is madly in love.

FISHER: "Well, I'd come to think that humanity had evolved three distinctly different brain circuits for mating and reproduction. One is the sex drive. The second is romantic love, that obsession² of first love. And the third is attachment³, that sense of calm that you can feel with a long-term partner. And I wanted to see how these three brain systems interacted. So I decided⁴ that I would start by trying to study the brain circuitry of romantic love."

RS: "How do you go about doing that?"

FISHER: "Well, I started out by reading the last twenty-five years of psychological research and culling⁵ out of that research every one of the traits of romantic love. Then I created a questionnaire that I gave to over four-hundred Americans and Japanese to see whether these traits really were associated with romantic love, things like focused attention, elation⁶, heightened energy, obsessive⁷ thinking about the sweetheart, craving⁸ for emotional union with the sweetheart. And I began to see that there was a constellation⁹ of characteristics that represented this feeling ... "

RS: ... a feeling that Helen Fisher calls "romantic love."

FISHER: "And I also looked at poetry from around the world. And I found that everywhere in the world, people talk about being 'madly in love.' And they have forever. My oldest poetry comes from the ancient Sumerians, four-thousand years ago.

"So then I decided what I would do is try and put people who were madly in love into a functional¹⁰ MRI brain scanner. And then we would show them a photograph of their sweetheart, and also a neutral photograph, somebody who when they looked at that picture, it called forth¹¹ no positive or negative feelings. So that way we were able to capture the brain while it was looking at the sweetheart and feeling that romantic passion, and also capture the same brain while it was looking at a neutral photograph. And then we'd compare the differences between, and what we ended up finding was those parts of the brain that become active when you are feeling mad, passionate¹², romantic love."

AA: "You're an anthropologist ... "

FISHER: "I am."

AA: " ... so I imagine you have your ears open whenever you're on the subway in the New York, or you're in the store or whatever you're doing ... "

FISHER: "Sure."

AA: " ... And if you're ever around younger couples, older couples, what sort of language are you hearing out in the world today?"

FISHER: "'I love you.' I mean, that's so basic. But it's not even what they say, it's how they act. It's the smiling and the cuddling and the preening¹³ and the staring and sense of oneness that you can see that -- it's not as much the words as it is all the activity that goes with the words. You know that ninety percent of emotional communication is non-verbal. I mean, if I said 'I love you' [no inflection] it certainly wouldn't have much meaning. But if I said 'I love you' [highly inflected] it would be entirely¹⁴ different. So it's the inflection of the words, it's the inflection that's the same around the world."

AA: "But you said in your book here, 'Smart men court with words.'"

FISHER: "Yes, they do. You're right, because women love words. And I think this women's facility for language comes from millions of years of holding that baby in front of their faces, cajoling them, reprimanding them, educating them with words. Words were women's tools. And as a result, if you want to court a woman, it's very appealing to a woman if you talk to her. And in the courtship -- you know, there's all kinds of men who've never written a line of poetry since they courted their wife. But during their courting days they wrote bad poetry, and the wife loved it and married them for it."

AA: "Last question, if you don't mind my asking, what are you going to be doing this Valentine's Day?"

FISHER: "You know, I haven't talked to my boyfriend about this yet. But my book comes out today, and today I asked him to take me out to a very fancy restaurant and go dancing!"

RS: "Oooh, sounds like fun!"

FISHER: "Can't wait!"

RS: Helen Fisher, speaking to us last week from New York. Her third book is called "Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love."

AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is [email protected], and we'd love you to visit us on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster.

RS: Wishing you a happy Valentine's Day! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

1 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

2 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

3 attachment   

n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附

参考例句：

• She has a great attachment to her sister.她十分依恋她的姐姐。
• She's on attachment to the Ministry of Defense.她现在隶属于国防部。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 culling   

n.选择，大批物品中剔出劣质货v.挑选，剔除( cull的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The mathematicians turned to culling periodic solutions. 数学家们转而去挑选周期解。 来自辞典例句
• It took us a week to find you, a week of culling out prejudice and hatred. 我们花了一个星期的时间找到你们，把偏见和憎恨剔除出去。 来自演讲部分

6 elation   

n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意

参考例句：

• She showed her elation at having finally achieved her ambition.最终实现了抱负，她显得十分高兴。
• His supporters have reacted to the news with elation.他的支持者听到那条消息后兴高采烈。

7 obsessive   

adj. 着迷的, 强迫性的, 分神的

参考例句：

• Some people are obsessive about cleanliness.有些人有洁癖。
• He's becoming more and more obsessive about punctuality.他对守时要求越来越过分了。

8 craving   

n.渴望,热望

参考例句：

• a craving for chocolate 非常想吃巧克力
• She skipped normal meals to satisfy her craving for chocolate and crisps. 她不吃正餐，以便满足自己吃巧克力和炸薯片的渴望。

9 constellation   

n.星座n.灿烂的一群

参考例句：

• A constellation is a pattern of stars as seen from the earth. 一个星座只是从地球上看到的某些恒星的一种样子。
• The Big Dipper is not by itself a constellation. 北斗七星本身不是一个星座。

10 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

11 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

12 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

13 preening   

v.（鸟）用嘴整理（羽毛）( preen的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Will you stop preening yourself in front of the mirror? 你别对着镜子打扮个没完行不行？
• She was fading, while he was still preening himself in his elegance and youth. 她已显老，而他却仍然打扮成翩翩佳公子。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

14 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。