听考研真题|2022年英二阅读4:上道德课有利于提升道德吗?

Although ethics classes are common around the world, scientists are unsure if their lessons can actually change behavior; evidence either way is weak, relying on contrived laboratory tests or sometimes unreliable self-reports. 

【生词】ethics n.道德准则，行为准则, 伦理（学）

contrived adj.不自然的, 勉强的, 人为的, 非天然的

【翻译】尽管伦理教育课程在全球范围内已十分普遍，但科学家们仍不确定此类课程是否真能改变行为；无论支持或反对的证据均较为薄弱，主要依赖于人为设计的实验室测试，或有时依赖于不可靠的自我报告。

But a new study published in Cognitionfound that, in at least one real-world situation, a single ethics lesson may have had lasting effects.

【翻译】但一项发表在《认知》杂志上的新研究发现，在至少一种现实场景中，单次伦理教育课程可能产生持久影响。

The researchers investigated one class session’s impact on eating meat. 

【翻译】研究人员探究了某一课程环节对肉类摄入行为的影响。

They chose this particular behavior for three reasons, according to study co-author Eric Schwitzgebel, a philosopher at the University of California, Riverside: students’attitudes on the topic are variable and unstable, behavior is easily measurable, and ethics literature largely agrees that eating less meat is good because it reduces environmental harm and animal suffering. 

【生词】literature n.文学, 著作，文献

【翻译】根据该研究共同作者、加州大学河滨分校哲学家埃里克·施维茨格贝尔的说法，研究者选择这一特定行为基于以下三个原因：学生对该议题的态度具有可变性与不稳定性；该行为易于量化测量；且伦理学文献普遍认为减少肉类摄入是有益的，因其可减轻环境危害与动物痛苦。

Half of the students in four large philosophy classes read an article on the ethics of factory-farmed meat, optionally watched an 11-minute video on the topic and joined a 50-minute discussion. 

【翻译】在四个大型哲学课程中，半数学生阅读了一篇关于工厂化养殖肉类伦理的文章，可选择观看一段时长11分钟的相关主题视频，并参与一场时长50分钟的讨论。

The other half focused on charitable giving instead. Then, unknown to the students, the researchers studied their anonymized meal-card purchases for that semester--nearly 14,000 receipts for almost 500 students.

【生词】charitable adj.慈善的,  宽容的

anonymized adj.已匿名化

【翻译】另一半研究则聚焦于慈善捐赠。随后，研究人员在学生们不知情的情况下，对其当学期匿名化的餐券购买记录进行了分析——涉及近 500 名学生的近 14,000 张收据。

Schwitzgebel predicted the intervention would have no effect; he had previously found that ethics professors do not differ from other professors on a range of behaviors, including voting rates, blood donation and returning library books. 

【生词】intervention n.介入，干涉，干预, 调解，排解

【翻译】施维茨格贝尔曾预测这项干预措施将不会产生任何效果；他此前研究发现，伦理学教授在多项行为指标上与其他教授并无差异，包括投票率、献血率以及归还图书馆书籍等行为。

But among student subjects who discussed meat ethics, meal purchases containing meat decreased from 52 to 45 percent--and this effect held steady for the study’s duration of several weeks. Purchases from the other group remained at 52 percent. 

【翻译】但在讨论肉类伦理的学生受访者中，含肉餐食的购买比例从52% 降至 45%——且这一趋势在为期数周的研究期间保持稳定。而另一组受访者的购买比例则始终维持在 52%。

“That’s actually a pretty large effect for a pretty small intervention,”Schwitzgebel says. 

【翻译】“对于一项规模相当小的干预措施而言，这实际上是一个相当显著的效果，”施维茨格贝尔表示。

Psychologist Nina Strohminger at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the study, says she wants the effect to be real but cannot rule out some unknown confounding variable. 

【生词】confounding adj.混杂的

variable adj.变化的，可变的 n.可变因素，变量,

【翻译】未参与该项研究的宾夕法尼亚大学心理学家尼娜·斯特罗姆金格表示，她希望这一效应是真实存在的，但无法排除某些未知的混杂变量影响。

And if real, she notes, it might be reversible by another nudge: “Easy come, easy go.”

【生词】reversible adj.可逆的

nudge n.推动; vt.（用肘）轻推, 推进

【翻译】她指出，如果这种情况确实存在，或许只需一次轻微的推动即可逆转：“来易去亦易”。

Schwitzgebel suspects the greatest impact came from social influence--classmates or teaching assistants leading the discussions may have shared their own vegetarianism, showing it as achievable or more common. 

【生词】vegetarianism n.素食，素食主义

【翻译】施维茨格贝尔推测，最大的影响源于社会影响——引导讨论的同学或助教若自身践行素食主义，可能会将这种生活方式呈现为可实现的，或认为其更为普遍。

Second, the video may have had an emotional impact. Least rousing, he thinks, was rational argument, although his co-authors say reason might play a bigger role. 

【生词】reason n.原因, 道理, 理智; v.推理, 思考，判断

Now the researchers are probing the specific effects of teaching style, teaching assistants’eating habits and students’video exposure. 

【生词】probe vt.& vi.探索，调查,

exposure n.暴露, 揭发, 报道

【翻译】目前，研究人员正在探究教学风格、助教饮食习惯以及学生接触视频内容的具体影响。

Meanwhile, Schwitzgebel--who had predicted no effect--will be eating his words.

【生词】eating ones words 食言

【翻译】与此同时，此前曾预测不会产生任何影响的施维茨格贝尔，如今将自食其言。