国家地理:用吐槽的方式谈科学效果更好(2)

Many Americans pay little attention to science. Even people who regularly watch broadcast television news or cable news channels receive only scraps¹ of science information in their media diet, because mainstream² outlets³ devote so little airtime to the subject. On top of that, some Americans may regard science as intimidating⁴ and hard to understand, so they avoid the topic altogether.

许多美国人很少关注科学。即使是那些经常收看广播电视新闻或有线新闻频道的人，在他们的媒体信息中也只会收到少量的科学信息，因为主流媒体很少报道这一块。最重要的是，一些美国人可能认为科学是令人生畏且难以理解的，因此他们直接避开了这个主题。

Yet satirical humor can reach viewers who would never watch NOVA or read -- well, National Geographic⁵. Millions of people watch late-night television programs live, and videos of these shows get tens of millions of views on streaming services or YouTube. In 2016, when Paul, his colleague Barbara Ley, and the University of Delaware Center for Political Communication polled a nationally representative sample of Americans, nearly one in 10 said they learned about science from late-night television shows such as The Late Show and Last Week Tonight. This figure was even higher among young people.

然而，讽刺幽默可以触及从未看过NOVA电视或从未阅读过《国家地理》的观众。数以百万计的人观看深夜电视节目直播，这些节目的视频在流媒体服务或YouTube上获得了数千万的观看次数。2016年，保罗和他的同事芭芭拉·莱伊，与特拉华大学政治传播中心一起对全美进行了抽样调查，近十分之一的人表示，他们从深夜电视节目，如《晚间秀》和《上周今夜秀》中了解到了科学知识。这个比例在年轻人中更高。

Late-night television programs have mined laughs from science for decades. Even before Carl Sagan became known for the 1980 TV series Cosmos⁶, he was a guest of comedian⁷ Johnny Carson, who spoofed the astronomer⁸ with an exaggerated pronunciation of "billion" (as in "100 billion galaxies"). Other scientists who've appeared on late-night programs include Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michio Kaku, and Jane Goodall.

几十年来，深夜电视秀一直寻找科学的笑料。甚至在卡尔·萨根1980年以电视连续剧《宇宙时空之旅》闻名之前，他也曾是喜剧演员约翰尼·卡森座上宾。约翰尼·卡森通过夸张地发音“十亿”这个单词来模仿天文学家（原台词是1000亿条银河）。参加深夜节目秀的其他科学家还有尼尔·戴格拉斯·泰森、尼尔·卡库和简·古道尔。

1 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

2 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

3 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 intimidating   

vt.恐吓，威胁( intimidate的现在分词)

参考例句：

• They were accused of intimidating people into voting for them. 他们被控胁迫选民投他们的票。
• This kind of questioning can be very intimidating to children. 这种问话的方式可能让孩子们非常害怕。

5 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

6 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

7 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

8 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。