VOA标准英语2014--环境奖获得者通过狼来理解人性

 

Environmental Prize Winner Looks to Wolves to Understand Humans 环境奖获得者通过狼来理解人性

LOS ANGELES — Economists¹ are learning about the workings of the financial world by studying packs of wolves and schools of fish.  That's according to Simon Levin, a Princeton University scientist and winner of this year's Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.  Professor Levin has been honored in Los Angeles for his work at the intersection² of biology and business.

Levin is a trained mathematician³ who uses math to study biological systems.  He says individuals in groups show similar behavior, whether they're wolves in the wild or traders on Wall Street.

“Individuals are competing for limited resources, enter into cooperative arrangements, exploitative arrangements, parasitic⁴ arrangements, so they really are the same sort of phenomena," Levin said. "So with some colleagues, I began looking at economic systems two decades ago."

In early 2008, Levin co-authored an article called “Ecology for Bankers” in the journal Nature, accurately⁵ predicting the financial collapse⁶ sparked by the problems in the housing mortgage market.  He says the complex financial and banking⁷ systems were showing signs of strain that, in the world of biology, would signal a coming crisis.

“The systems were becoming more and more interconnected, and when ecological⁸ systems become so interconnected, they run the risk of collapse," he said.

He is now turning his attention to threats in the natural world as the oceans and climate systems face increasing strains caused by human activity.  

“So we study fish schools, we study bird flocks.  Of course, we study groups of animals like wolves or wildebeest to understand how they are organized and to understand how they’ve dealt with the problems of collectives," said Levin.

Levin says complex systems need resilient responses to cope with emerging threats, and that is a challenge in our interconnected world, where global links create added stresses on fragile organizations.

“So we need a system that first of all has generalized responses that buy us time and secondly⁹ has adaptive responses specific to the particular threats.  I think that's how we have to be dealing¹⁰ with threats to our society, whether it's to the financial system or bioterrorism," he said.

Levin says there are no easy answers as we cope with threats in complex global systems, from climate change to financial crisis, but he says we humans have an advantage over our animal cousins because we can study the risks and devise effective responses.

1 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》

2 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

3 mathematician   

n.数学家

参考例句：

• The man with his back to the camera is a mathematician.背对着照相机的人是位数学家。
• The mathematician analyzed his figures again.这位数学家再次分析研究了他的这些数字。

4 parasitic   

adj.寄生的

参考例句：

• Will global warming mean the spread of tropical parasitic diseases?全球变暖是否意味着热带寄生虫病会蔓延呢？
• By definition,this way of life is parasitic.从其含义来说，这是种寄生虫的生活方式。

5 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

6 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

7 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

8 ecological   

adj.生态的，生态学的

参考例句：

• The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
• Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.

9 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

10 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。