自信才能学习好

 Smart kids tend on balance to do well in school. That may seem obvious, but there are a lot of exceptions to that rule. Some kids with high IQs don't ever become academic superstars, while less gifted kids often shine. Why would this be?

聪明的孩子通常在学校的各方面表现良好。那些看起来似乎是显而易见的，但对于这个规律有许多例外。一些智商高的的孩子从来没成为过学习尖子生，然而不那么有天赋的孩子却经常出色。为什么出现这种情况呢？

Psychologists have focused on things like self-esteem and confidence--how good kids think they are--to explain these outcomes. And the assumption has always been that such psychological traits are shaped mostly by parenting--by parents' beliefs and expectations and modeling. But surprisingly this idea had never been scientifically tested.

心理学家曾经着重于研究自尊和自信，通过孩子觉得他们怎么样的问题来解释这些结果。而且这个假设总是：这种心理上的性状大多是由家庭教育，由家长的信仰,期望和树立的榜样的影响而形成的。但令人吃惊的是这个想法从未被科学的证实过。

Until now. Behavioral geneticist Corina Greven of King's College London and her colleagues decided² to do the first rigorous analysis of the heritability of confidence--and its relationship to IQ and performance.

直到现在，伦敦大学国王学院的行为遗传学家Corina Greven和她的的同事们决定做第一个严格的遗传信心的分析，以及它和智商，成绩的关系。

To do so, they studied more than 3700 pairs of twins, both identical and fraternal twins, from age seven to ten. Comparing genetically³ identical twins to non-identical siblings⁴ allows scientists to sort out the relative contributions of genes⁵ and environment, and when they did this they came up with surprising but unmistakable findings.

为了做这些，他们研究了超过3700对双胞胎，清一色的兄弟双胞胎，年龄在7到10岁之间。通过比较基因完全相同的双胞胎与不相同的兄弟姐妹，科学家理清了基因的作用和环境的关系，当他们做这些时，他们想出了令人吃惊但无误的研究结果。

Contrary of accepted wisdom, the researchers found (and report in the June issue of Psychological Science) that kids' confidence is heavily influenced by heredity--at least as much as IQ is. Indeed, as-yet-unidentified confidence genes appear to influence school performance independent of IQ genes, with shared environment having only a negligible influence.

同公认的智慧相反，研究者发现（并且发表在六月的心理科学杂志上）孩子的信心至少和智商一样严重的被遗传所影响，实际上，还未被识别的自信基因看起来对成绩的影响独立于智力基因，共同的成长环境只有微不足道的影响。

The fact that confidence is heritable does not mean it is unchanging, of course. Siblings share a lot of influences living in basically the same home and community, but there are always worldly influences pulling them apart. A genetic¹ legacy⁶ of self-confidence merely opens up many possible futures⁷.

信心是遗传的这个事实并不意味着它是不可改变的，当然，兄弟姐妹住在基本上同一个家同一个社区，受许多同样的影响，但有些世俗的影响会把他们区分开。自信基因的传承只是开辟了许多可能的未来。

1 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

4 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

5 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

6 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

7 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。