英语听力精选进阶版 6398

Do you think of yourself as a bit of an expert at board games like chess or Go?

Maybe you're not quite as good as you think. New research from the University of Manchester and the University of Oxford¹ suggests complex games like these are impossible to learn fully². They might even be too complex for the human mind to understand.

Researchers studied two-player games, to try and understand the strategies which people use to make decisions during the game. Some games with two players are simple, with only a small number of possible moves. Noughts³ and crosses is like this. Players quickly work out the best strategy but that means the game soon becomes boring.

It gets more interesting when there are many possible moves. That's why people are so fascinated by complex games like chess, or the board game Go, or some card games. But what the researchers found was that with difficult games, players find it hard to work out the best strategy and their actions become less rational.

This research is part of the field called game theory: the study of human strategic decision-making. Much thinking on how people play complex games is based on something called 'the equilibrium⁴ point', which is when players have a perfect knowledge of what they're doing and of what their opponents are doing.

But complex games mean people don't have this perfect knowledge, and it can make their playing seem chaotic⁵ and hard to predict. When you add more than two players then of course the game becomes even harder to understand. Trading on the stock market is an example of a complex multi-player game – with important consequences for all of us.

Economists⁶ base financial predictions of the stock market on equilibrium theory, assuming that traders are infinitely⁷ intelligent and rational. So the researchers at Manchester and Oxford believe their work can help us make better economic predictions in future.

Quiz 测验

1. According to the article, what might be too complex for the human mind to understand?

Complex games.

2. Which example of a simple game is given in the article?

Noughts and crosses.

3. Which word, used in the article, means the person you're playing against in a game?

Opponent.

4. What is the name of the study of human strategic decision-making?

Game theory.

5. Is the following true, false or not given in the article? Understanding how people play complex games can help us make better predictions about the stock market.

True.

Glossary 词汇表

board games 棋类游戏

chess （国际）象棋

Go 围棋

strategies 策略

moves 移动（棋子）

noughts and crosses 画圈打叉的连三子棋

work out 猜出来，推断出来

card games 纸牌游戏

actions （下棋）行为

less rational 不太理智的

game theory 博弈论

opponents 对手

chaotic 混乱的

hard to predict 难预测

the stock market 股票市场

multi-player game 有众人参与的游戏

base （动词）以什么为依据

predictions 预测

traders 交易人

infinitely 极其；永远

1 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 noughts   

零，无，没有( nought的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A million is written with six noughts. 一百万写出来有六个零。
• Using binary notation is in fact just manipulating ones and noughts. 使用二进制标号法实际上只运用1和0两个数。

4 equilibrium   

n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静

参考例句：

• Change in the world around us disturbs our inner equilibrium.我们周围世界的变化扰乱了我们内心的平静。
• This is best expressed in the form of an equilibrium constant.这最好用平衡常数的形式来表示。

5 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

6 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 infinitely   

adv.无限地，无穷地

参考例句：

• There is an infinitely bright future ahead of us.我们有无限光明的前途。
• The universe is infinitely large.宇宙是无限大的。