英语音频杂志：双生子

 　　Twins

　　

　　by Richard Sidaway

　　What do the singer Alanis Morissette, the supermodel Gisele Bundchen and the ex-Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan all have in common? The answer is, they all have a brother or sister who was born on the same day as them – a twin. And what links actresses Julia Roberts, Geena Davis and Holly¹ Hunter? They all have twin children.

　　You probably either have some twins in your family or you know/knew some at school – there are more of them about these days. This is because women are older when they have their first child and because more women are having fertility² treatment. Both of these things increase the probabilities³ of two babies developing from the same egg.

　　The USA seems like a particularly good place to have a similar sibling⁴. At the University of Minnesota they have been studying 8,000 pairs of twins since they were born. In the state of Ohio, there is a festival for twins every year in a place called… Twinsburg. And in New York there is even a restaurant which employs 37 sets of identical⁵ twins!

　　Scientists love twins. Because they share the same genes⁶, any differences between them must be because of environmental factors. Science now understands more about heart disease⁷, cancer, and getting old from studying twins.

　　Sometimes twins are separated at birth and only meet again when they are grown up. Even so, they sometimes make choices in life which are strangely similar. One pair only met each other after 40 years apart and found that their wives had the same name. And so did their children and their pets!

　　Is there a difference between being physically⁸ identical and only being born on the same day? I knew a pair of non-identical twins when I was a boy. They were proud to be completely different from each other. One was very short-sighted from an early age and wore glasses. He picked up the local accent and was obsessed⁹ with trains. His brother spoke¹⁰ with a posh accent and was very musical. The first became a train driver and moved to Scotland¹¹. His brother went to a music college in London and became a concert pianist.

　　I have recently been the teacher of two pairs of identical twins - I often have difficulty telling which is which. Luckily they don’t seem to mind. One day, I gave them a list of questions to see what they felt about being so close. Each twin answered the questions in a separate room.

　　Both pairs said they did many everyday activities together - studying, shopping, watching TV, or just spending time together. Both pairs had similar tastes in music and food, and even thought their voices sounded the same sometimes. Both pairs also commented that they would like more time to themselves…

　　When I asked them what they were good at in school, one pair wrote the same five subjects almost in the same order. The other pair only had three subjects in common - one was interested in the Arts and the other more in science subjects.

　　I also asked them if they ever had the same thoughts as their twin. The first pair said yes –for example, one of them often started talking about what the other one was thinking. Strangely, the other pair disagreed about whether this was true. One of the twins said that her sister would take the words out of her mouth, while the other said this never happened to her.

　　The most interesting thing for me was studying the results of the psychological¹² part of the test. I asked them to describe their personality using twelve different pairs of sentences. I found that each twin gave almost identical answers to her sister!

　　

　　Glossary

　　have in common: when two things or people are the same in some way

　　there are more of them about these days: you can see more of them now than in the past

　　increase the probabilities of: it is more possible that it will happen

　　grown up: adult

　　after 40 years apart: they were separated for forty years

　　short-sighted: when you have difficulty seeing things far away from you

　　picked up the local accent: started speaking with the same pronunciation as people who live near him

　　was obsessed with: thought continually about the same thing

　　telling which is which: to distinguish one person from another

　　had similar tastes in: liked the same things as someone else

　　time to themselves: time alone

　　take the words out of her mouth: to say exactly what another person is going to say

1 holly   

n.[植]冬青属灌木

参考例句：

• I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
• People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。

2 fertility   

n.肥沃；繁殖力

参考例句：

• A green manure is a crop grown mainly to improve soil fertility.种植绿肥作物主要是为使土壤更加肥沃。
• She is taking drugs to increase her fertility.她为了增强她的生殖能力而在服药。

3 probabilities   

可能性，可能发生的事( probability的名词复数 )； 概率

参考例句：

• When we want something, we always have to reckon with probabilities. 当我们需要某件东西时，我们总得考虑或然性。 来自哲学部分
• Therefore, individual-preference curves should be substituted for statistical probabilities in decision trees. 因此，在决策树中个人的偏好曲线应当取代统计机率。

4 sibling   

n.同胞手足(指兄、弟、姐或妹)

参考例句：

• Many of us hate living in the shadows of a more successful sibling.我们很多人都讨厌活在更为成功的手足的阴影下。
• Sibling ravalry has been common in this family.这个家里，兄弟姊妹之间的矛盾很平常。

5 identical   

adj.完全一样的，完全相同的；同一的

参考例句：

• She wore the identical dress on both occasions.她在两种场合穿的是同一件衣服。
• He is identical in character with his wife.他的品性和他的夫人相同。

6 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

7 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

8 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

9 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 Scotland   

n.苏格兰

参考例句：

• He has been hiking round Scotland for a month.他围着苏格兰徒步旅行了一个月。
• Scotland is to the north of England.苏格兰在英格兰之北。

12 psychological   

adj.心理的，精神上的

参考例句：

• Work also provides psychological well-being.工作还能使人身心健康。
• The psychological advantage of direct control is impressive.直接控制所收到的心理效果很大。