听考研真题|2023年英二阅读4:青少年:一半是火焰,一半是海水

Teenagers are paradoxical. 

【生词】paradoxical adj.矛盾的, 反常的

【翻译】青少年是非常矛盾的。

That's a mild and detached way of saying something that parents often express with considerably stronger language. 

【生词】detached adj.超然的，冷漠的, 客观的

【翻译】这是一种温和且客气的表达方式，用以传达父母通常会用更为强烈的措辞来表述的观点。

But the paradox is scientific as well as personal. In adolescence, helpless and dependent children who have relied on grown-ups for just about everything become independent people who can take care of themselves and help each other.

【生词】adolescence n.青春（期）

At the same time, once cheerful and compliant children become rebellious teenage risk-takers.

【生词】cheerful 高兴的，兴高采烈的

compliant adj.遵从的, 依从的

rebellious adj.反叛的, 造反的, 难控制的

【翻译】与此同时，那些原本开朗且听话的孩子，一旦进入叛逆的青少年阶段，便会变得敢于冒险。

A new study published in the journal Child Development, by Eveline Crone of the University of Leiden and colleagues, suggests that the positive and negative sides of teenagers go hand in hand.

【生词】hand in hand 手拉手，密切合作

The study is part of a new wave of thinking about adolescence. 

For a long time scientists and policy makers concentrated on the idea that teenagers were a problem that needed to be solved.

The new work emphasizes that adolescence is a time of opportunity as well as risk.

【翻译】这项新研究强调，青春期既是机遇的时期，也伴随着风险。

The researchers studied prosocial and rebellious traits in more than 200 children and young adults, ranging from 11 to 28 years old.

【生词】prosocial adj.亲社会的，忠实（或拘泥）于既定社会道德准则的

【翻译】研究人员对200 多名年龄在 11 至 28 岁之间的儿童及年轻成年人进行了亲社会性与反叛性特质研究。

The participants filled out questionnaires about how often they did things that were altruistic and positive like sacrificing their own interests to help a friend, or rebellious and negative like getting drunk or staying out late.

【生词】questionnaire n.调查问卷

altruistic adj.利他的，无私心的

Other studies have shown that rebellious behavior increases as you become a teenager and then fades away as you grow older. 

【翻译】其他研究表明，叛逆行为在青少年时期会增加，随后随着年龄增长逐渐减弱。

But the new study shows that interestingly the same pattern holds for prosocial behavior. 

Teenagers were more likely than younger children or adults to report that they did things like unselfishly help a friend.

Most significantly, there was a positive correlation between prosociality and rebelliousness. 

【翻译】最显著的是，亲社会性与叛逆性之间存在正相关关系。

The teenagers who were more rebellious were also more likely to help others. The good and bad sides of adolescence seem to develop together.

Is there some common factor that underlies these apparently contradictory developments? 

【生词】underlie vt.位于或存在于（某物）之下, 构成…的基础

One idea is that teenage behaviorist related to what researchers call "reward sensitivity". 

【生词】sensitivity n.敏感，感受性

【翻译】一种观点认为，青少年的行为模式与研究人员所称的“奖赏敏感性”相关。

Decision-making always involves balancing rewards and risks, benefits and costs. "Reward sensitivity" measures how much reward it takes to outweigh risk.

【翻译】决策过程始终涉及对回报与风险、收益与成本的权衡。“回报敏感性”用于衡量需要多少回报才能使回报大于风险。

Teenagers are particularly sensitive to social rewards winning the game, impressing a new friend, getting that boy to notice you. 

【翻译】青少年对社交层面的正向反馈尤为敏感——比如赢得游戏、给新朋友留下好印象，或是让男生注意到自己。

Reward sensitivity like prosocial behavior and risk-taking, seems to go up in adolescence and then down again as we age. 

【翻译】对奖励的敏感性——例如亲社会行为与冒险倾向——在青春期似乎会增强，随后随着年龄增长再次减弱。

Somehow, when you hit 30, the chance that something exciting and new will happen at that party just doesn't seem to outweigh the effort of getting up off the couch.