经济学人:噪音污染:嘘!小点声儿!

 　　Noise pollution

　　噪音污染

　　Shhhh!

　　嘘！小声点！

　　Why quiet carriages don’t work, and how they might be made to?

　　安静车厢的推广之途屡屡受挫。原因何在，如何改之？

　　QUIET carriages on trains are a nice idea: travellers voluntarily switch phones to silent, turn stereos off and keep chatter¹ to a minimum. In reality, there is usually at least one inane² babbler to break the silence.

　　在列车上设 “安静车厢”是个不错的想法：旅客们自觉将手机调成静音，关掉随身听，轻声地交谈。而在现实中，通常至少会蹦出一个无脑的大嘴巴打破车厢的宁静气氛。

　　A couple of problems prevent peaceful trips. First, there is a sorting problem: some passengers end up in the quiet carriage by accident and are not aware of the rules. Second, there is a commitment problem: noise is sometimes made by travellers who choose the quiet carriage but find an important call hard to ignore.

　　安静之旅基于以下一些原因无法实现。首先是车厢分类问题：一些乘客阴差阳错的坐到了安静车厢，而没有留意乘车守则。其次是乘车义务问题：选择就坐安静车厢的乘客在途中接到一通无法忽视的重要电话，无奈之下发出了声响。

　　The train operators are trying to find answers. Trains in Queensland Australia, are having permanent signs added to show exactly what is expected; a British operator has invested in signal-jamming technology to prevent phone calls. Microeconomics suggests another approach: putting a price on noise.

　　列车运营商正试图找寻解决之道。 澳大利亚昆士兰州的火车里常设标识，提醒乘客遵守乘车守则；英国的一家列车运营商引用信号干扰技术来避免电话骚扰。而微观经济学则提出了另一种方法——金钱同噪音挂钩。

　　Fining people for making a din³ would surely dissuade⁴ the polluter and is a neat solution in theory, but it requires costly⁵ monitoring and enforcement. Another tack⁶ would be to use prices to separate quiet and noisy passengers—in effect, creating a market for silence. A simple idea would be to sell access to the quiet carriage as an optional extra when the ticket is bought. Making the quiet coach both an active choice and a costly one would dissuade many of those who do not value a peaceful ride.

　　开噪音罚单肯定会减少噪声污染者，并且从理论上讲乃一剂良方，但此方案需耗费大量监管和执行费。另一种方案是从票价上区分喜静的和喜闹的乘客，实际上是开辟“花钱买清静”的交易。一种简单的区分方法是，售票时提供安静车厢选项，乘客可选择支付额外费用在安静区就坐。如此一来，“安静座位”不仅可由乘客主动选择，高票价还可将大量不珍惜安静旅途的人拒之门外。

　　Charging may also solve the commitment problem. This is particularly tricky⁷, as attitudes to noise can change during the journey. Some passengers would pay the quiet premium⁸ but still chatter away when some vital news arrives. Schemes that reward the silent—a ratings system among fellow passengers, for example—could help. The idea is that losing your hard-won reputation offsets⁹ the short-term gain from using the phone. But such a system also fails the simplicity¹⁰ test.

　　收费也有可能解决义务问题。乘客对待噪音的态度在旅途中或多或少会有所改变，这就使得义务问题变得尤为复杂——有些乘客虽然愿意额外花钱到安静车厢就坐，而在看到某些重要新闻时，仍旧按耐不住自己开始喋喋不休。旨在奖励安静乘车旅客的奖励计划或大有裨益。例如，同车乘客打分系统，理念是以来之不易的声誉换取接电话来带的片刻享受。但该系统也不会通过易用性测试。

　　A 2010 book by George Akerlof and Rachel Kranton argues that “norms”—feelings about how everyone should behave—also play a role in decision-making. Charging a price, even if just a token amount, means the quiet carriage becomes a service that fellow passengers have bought, not just a preference they have expressed. Perhaps different norms would come into play, encouraging calm. If not, a personal bubble is always an option: noise-cancelling headphones start at around $50.

　　乔治·阿克尔洛夫和瑞秋·克拉顿在2010年出版的一书中认为，人类对个体该如何行止的感觉就是“行为规范”，这种规范也影响决策过程。即便是象征性收取少量金额，单凭收费这一行为，就意味着安静车厢不再是同行乘客的偏好之选，而是他们所购买的一项服务。或许在鼓励人们保持车厢安静时，应该引入不同的行为规范。若此方案也行不通，那么在列车上出售$50起价的降噪耳机，创造“个人空间”总是不二之选。

1 chatter   

vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战

参考例句：

• Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
• I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。

2 inane   

adj.空虚的，愚蠢的，空洞的

参考例句：

• She started asking me inane questions.她开始问我愚蠢的问题。
• Such comments are inane because they don't help us solve our problem.这种评论纯属空洞之词，不能帮助我们解决问题。

3 din   

n.喧闹声，嘈杂声

参考例句：

• The bustle and din gradually faded to silence as night advanced.随着夜越来越深，喧闹声逐渐沉寂。
• They tried to make themselves heard over the din of the crowd.他们力图让自己的声音盖过人群的喧闹声。

4 dissuade   

v.劝阻，阻止

参考例句：

• You'd better dissuade him from doing that.你最好劝阻他别那样干。
• I tried to dissuade her from investing her money in stocks and shares.我曾设法劝她不要投资于股票交易。

5 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

6 tack   

n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝

参考例句：

• He is hammering a tack into the wall to hang a picture.他正往墙上钉一枚平头钉用来挂画。
• We are going to tack the map on the wall.我们打算把这张地图钉在墙上。

7 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

8 premium   

n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的

参考例句：

• You have to pay a premium for express delivery.寄快递你得付额外费用。
• Fresh water was at a premium after the reservoir was contaminated.在水库被污染之后，清水便因稀而贵了。

9 offsets   

n.开端( offset的名词复数 )；出发v.抵消( offset的第三人称单数 )；补偿；（为了比较的目的而）把…并列（或并置）；为（管道等）装支管

参考例句：

• The following paragraphs deal with intra-source offsets and the so-called \"bubble\" concept. 下面讨论污染源内部的补偿和所谓的“泡泡”概念。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The preceding paragraphs were concerned with inter-source offsets. 前文牵涉到污染源之间的补偿。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

10 simplicity   

n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯

参考例句：

• She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。