新奇事件簿 语言障碍阻碍全球科学进步

New research says that language barriers are holding back science around the world. English is widely accepted to be the language of science, but one-third of research is not published in English. This means a lot of important research is not seen or read by scientists and researchers. The research is from the University of Cambridge. Researchers said important science is being missed at the international level. They said science journals should publish basic summaries of a study's key findings in multiple languages. They also said universities around the world should translate their research into different languages, especially Chinese, French, Portuguese¹ and Spanish.

最新研究称，语言障碍阻碍全世界科学进步。英语被广泛地认可为科学语言，但是三分之一的研究并不是用英语发表的。这意味着许多重要的研究没有被科学家和研究人员看到或读到。这项研究来自剑桥大学。研究人员表示，重要的科学在国际水平遭遇损失。他们说，科学期刊应该以各种语言刊登一项研究重要结果的摘要。他们还说，全世界的大学应该把他们的研究翻译成不同的语言，尤其是中文，法语，葡萄牙语和西班牙语。

Many international companies are now asking all their staff to communicate only in English. They hope this will reduce language barriers. The German carmaker Volkswagen has just announced that English and not German is its official language. VW executives said the switch to English was to attract employees. The Japanese carmaker Honda has also announced that all its staff must use English by 2020. Researcher Tatsuya Amano said: "I believe the scientific community needs to start seriously tackling this issue." He used the example that important research about avian flu in China initially² went unnoticed by the World Health Organization because it was published in journals in Chinese.

许多跨国公司现在要求所有职员只能用英语沟通。他们希望这样可以减少语言障碍。德国汽车制造商大众汽车刚刚宣布英语而非德语为他们的官方语言。大众高管们表示，将官方语言改为英语是为了吸引雇员。日本汽车制造商本田也宣布2020年之前所有职员必须都会说英语。研究员Tatsuya Amano表示：“我认为科学界需要开始认真解决这个问题。”他举例说，中国关于禽流感的重要研究最初并未被世界卫生组织注意到，因为研究发表在中国的杂志上。

1 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。

2 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。