异类之不一样的成功启示录 第156期:记忆与语言的关系

 　　Take the following list of numbers: 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 7, 6. Spend 20 seconds memorizing that sequence before saying them out loud again.

　　看看下面的数字：4、8、5、3、9、7、6，将它们大声读出来，然后背过脸去，用20秒来仔细回忆，然后再按正确的顺序大声读出来。

　　If you speak English, you have about a 50 percent chance of remembering that sequence perfectly¹.

　　如果英语是你的母语，那么复述正确的机率将是50%。

　　If you're Chinese, though, you're almost certain to get it right every time. What is that?

　　如果你是中国人，那么正确率几乎可以达到100%。为什么会这样？

　　Because as human beings, we store digits² in a memory loop that runs for about two seconds.

　　因为人类存储数字的记忆循环（memory loop）是2秒钟，

　　We most easily memorize whatever we can say or read within that two-second span.

　　我们可以很容易地记住我们在2秒钟内所说的话或所读到的内容。

　　And Chinese speakers get that list of numbers—4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 7, 6—right every time,

　　当中国人在读“4、8、5、3、9、7、6”这一串数字时，每次刚好都是2秒钟。

　　because unlike English speakers, their language allows them to fit all those seven numbers into two seconds.

　　与英语不同，汉语中7个数字的发音只需要2秒钟的时间。

　　That example comes from Stanislas Dehaene's book The Number Sense.

　　这个例子选自斯塔尼斯拉斯·德阿纳（Stanislas Dehaene）的《数感》（The Number Sense）一书，

　　An as Dehaene explains: Chinese number words are remarkably³ brief.

　　在书中，德阿纳解释道：中国的数字非常简易。

　　Most of them can be uttered in less than one quarter second. For instance, four is "si" and seven "qi".

　　大多数数字的发音只有四分之一秒（举个例子来说，“4”的读音是“si”，而“7”的读音是“qi”），

　　Their English equivalence, four, seven, are longer: pronouncing them takes about one third of a second.

　　他们相当于英语中的“four”和“seven”，seven听起来似乎还要长，这些数字的发音需要三分之一秒。

　　The memory gap between English and Chinese apparently⁴ is entirely⁵ due to this difference in length.

　　英语和汉语语言长度上的差异，造成了英语和汉语在记忆上的时间差距。

　　In languages as diverse as Welsh, Arabic, Chinese, English and Hebrew,

　　语言被区分成很多种，如威尔士语、阿拉伯语、汉语、英语和希伯来语。

　　there is a reproducible corelation between the time required to pronounce numbers in a given language and the memory span of its speakers.

　　讲话者的记忆能力通常同他输出数字时所需时间长短有因果关联。

　　In this domain⁶, the prize for efficacy goes to the Cantonese dialect of Chinese, whose brevity grants residents of Hong Kong a rocketing memory span of about ten digits.

　　在这个领域里，最佳记忆力的奖项要颁发给讲粤语的中国人。语言上的优势使得香港人获得了超群的记忆能力，他们甚至可以用1秒钟记住10个数字。

　　It turns out that there is also a big difference in how number naming systems in Western and Asian languages are constructed.

　　这也同样表明，在数字符号体系方面，西方国家和亚洲国家有很大的差别。

　　In English, we say 14, 16, 17, 18, and 19.

　　在英语中，我们把“14、16、17、18、19”称做“fourteen、sixteen、seventeen、eighteen、nineteen”。

1 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

2 digits   

n.数字( digit的名词复数 )；手指，足趾

参考例句：

• The number 1000 contains four digits. 1000是四位数。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The number 410 contains three digits. 数字 410 中包括三个数目字。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

4 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

5 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。

6 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。