2018年英语专八真题听力 演讲

Language and Humanity

语言和人类

Good morning, everyone.

大家早上好。

In today's lecture, we're going to discuss the relationship between language and humanity.

在今天的课上，我们将讨论语言和人类之间的关系。

As we all know, language is very powerful.

众所周知，语言是非常强大的。

It allows you to put a thought from your mind directly in someone else's mind.

它可以让你把你的想法直接放在别人的大脑里。

Languages are like genes talking, getting things they want.

语言就像会说话的基因，得到他们想要的东西。

And you just imagine the sense of wonder in a baby when it first discovers that, merely by uttering a sound,

你可以想象，当一个婴儿第一次发现，仅仅通过发出一个声音，

it can get objects to move across a room as if by magic, and maybe into its mouth.

它就能让物体像中了魔法一样在房间里移动，甚至可能进入它的嘴里。

Now we need to explain how and why this remarkable trait,

现在我们需要解释这个显著的特征，

you know, human's ability to do things with language, has evolved,

也就是人类用语言做事的能力，是如何进化的，为什么进化，

and why did this trait evolve only in our species?

为什么这个特征只在我们人类身上进化？

In order to get an answer to the question, we have to go to tool use in the chimpanzees.

为了得到这个问题的答案，我们必须研究黑猩猩的工具使用。

Chimpanzees can use tools, and we take that phenomenon as a sign of their intelligence.

黑猩猩可以使用工具，我们把这种现象作为它们智力的标志。

But if they really were intelligent, why would they crack open nuts with a rock?

但如果他们真的聪明，他们为什么要用石头砸开坚果呢？

Why wouldn't they just go to a shop and buy a bag of nuts that somebody else had already cracked open for them?

他们为什么不去商店买一袋别人已经打开的坚果呢？

Why not? I mean, that's what we do.

为什么不呢？我是说，我们就是这么做的。

The reason the chimpanzees don't do that is that they lack what psychologists and anthropologists call social learning.

黑猩猩不这样做的原因是它们不能进行心理学家和人类学家所称的社会学习。

That is, they seem to lack the ability to learn from others by copying or imitating or simply watching.

也就是说，他们似乎缺乏通过复制、模仿或仅仅是观看来向别人学习的能力。

As a result, they can't improve on others' ideas, learn from others' mistakes, or even benefit from others' wisdom.

因此，他们不能就别人的想法加以改进，不能从别人的错误中学习，甚至不能从别人的智慧中获益。

And so they just do the same thing over and over and over again.

所以他们只是一遍又一遍地做同样的事情。

In fact, we could go away for a million years and come back and these chimpanzees would be doing the same thing with the same rocks to crack open the nuts.

事实上，我们可以过100万年再来看，这些黑猩猩会用同样的石头来敲开坚果。

Okay, so what this tells us is that, contrary to the old saying, "monkey see, monkey do,"

好的，这告诉我们，与“猴子看，猴子做（有样学样）”这句老话相反，

the surprise really is that all of the other animals really cannot do that -- at least not very much.

所有其他动物都不能做到这一点——至少学到的不是很多。

But by comparison, we humans can learn.

但相比之下，我们人类可以学习。

We can learn by watching other people and copying or imitating what they can do.

我们可以通过观察其他人，复制或模仿他们的行为来学习。

We can then choose, from among a range of options available, the best one.

然后，我们可以从一系列可供选择的选项中选择最好的一个。

We can benefit from others' ideas. We can build on their wisdom.

我们可以从别人的想法中获益。我们可以依靠他们的智慧。

And as a result, our ideas do accumulate, and our technology progresses.

因此，我们的想法不断积累，我们的技术不断进步。

And this cumulative cultural adaptation, as anthropologists call this accumulation of ideas,

这种累积的文化适应，正如人类学家所称的，

is responsible for everything around you in your bustling and teeming everyday life.

是思想的积累，与熙熙攘攘的日常生活中你周围的一切都有关。

I mean the world has changed out of all proportion to what we would recognize even 1,000 or 2,000 years ago.

我的意思是，世界在飞速变化，与我们在1000年或2000年前所认识到的世界已经完全不一样了。

And all of this is because of cumulative cultural adaptation.

所有这些都是由于累积的文化适应。

For instance, the chairs you're sitting in today, the lights in this lecture hall,

例如，你们今天坐的椅子，这个演讲厅的灯，

my microphone, the iPads and the smart phones that you carry around with you -- all are a result of cumulative cultural adaptation.

我的麦克风，ipad和你们随身携带的智能手机——所有这些都是累积文化适应的结果。

But, our acquisition of social learning would create an evolutionary dilemma, and the solution to the dilemma,

但是，我们对社会学习能力的习得会造成一个进化困境，而这个困境的解决方案，

it's fair to say, would determine not only the future course of our psychology,

公平地说，不仅会决定我们心理的未来走向，

but the future course of the entire world.

也会决定整个世界的未来走向。

And most importantly for this, it'll tell us why we have language.

最重要的是，它会告诉我们为什么我们有语言。

And the reason that dilemma arose is, it turns out, that social learning is visual theft.

之所以会出现这种困境，是因为，社会学习是视觉盗窃。

What I mean is, if I can learn by watching you, I can steal your best ideas,

我的意思是，如果我能通过观察你来学习，我就能窃取你最好的想法，

and I can benefit from your efforts, without having to put in the same time and energy that you did into developing them.

我就能从你的努力中获益，而不用像你那样投入时间和精力去获得它们。

Social learning really is visual theft.

社交学习真的是视觉盗窃。

And in any species that acquired it, it would encourage you to hide your best ideas, lest somebody steal them from you.

在任何获得这种能力的物种中，它都会鼓励你隐藏最好的想法，以免有人从你那里偷走它们。

And so some time around 200,000 years ago, our species confronted this crisis.

大约在20万年前，我们人类面临着这场危机。

And we chose to develop the systems of communication that would allow us to share ideas and to cooperate amongst others.

我们选择了开发出交流系统让我们可以分享想法，与他人展开合作。

Choosing this option would mean that a vastly greater fund of knowledge and wisdom would become available to any one individual than would ever arise from within an individual family or an individual person on their own.

做出这一选择将意味着，任何个人都能获得比单独的家庭或个人所能获得的多得多的知识和智慧。

Well, language is the result.

结果语言出现了。

Language evolved to solve the crisis of visual theft.

语言的演变是为了解决视觉盗窃的危机。

Language is a piece of social technology for enhancing the benefits of cooperation --

语言是一种社会技术，可以增进合作的好处——

for reaching agreements, for striking deals and for coordinating our activities.

达成共同意见，完成交易，协调我们的活动。

And you can see that, in a developing society that was beginning to acquire language,

你可以看到，在一个开始学习语言的正在发展的社会中，

not having language would be like a bird without wings.

没有语言就像没有翅膀的鸟。

As I said at the beginning, language really is the voice of our genes.

正如我一开始所说的，语言确实是我们基因的声音。

But, as we spread out around the world, we developed thousands of different languages.

但是，我们散落到世界各地，发展出数千种不同的语言。

Currently, there are about seven or eight thousand different languages spoken on Earth. And then another problem occurred.

目前，地球上大约有七千到八千种不同的语言。然后另一个问题出现了。

It seems that we use our language, not just to cooperate,

似乎我们使用语言，不仅仅是为了合作，

but to draw rings around our cooperative groups and to establish identities,

而且是为了围绕我们的合作群体建立联系，建立身份，

and perhaps to protect our knowledge and wisdom and skills from being stolen from outside.

也许是为了保护我们的知识、智慧和技能不被外界窃取。

And we know this because when we study different language groups and associate them with their cultures,

我们之所以知道这一点，是因为当我们研究不同的语言群体并将他们与他们的文化联系起来时，

we see that different languages slow the flow of ideas between groups.

我们发现不同的语言阻碍了群体之间的思想交流。

Okay, this tendency we have, this seemingly natural tendency we have, goes towards isolation,

好了，我们的这种倾向，这种看起来很自然的倾向，趋向于孤立，

towards keeping everything to ourselves,

趋向于把所有的东西都留给我们自己，

whereas our modern world is communicating with itself and with each other more than it has at any time in its past.

而我们的现代世界更多的是在和自己交流，和彼此交流，比过去任何时候都要多。

And that communication, that connectivity around the world, that globalization now raises a burden.

这种交流，这种世界各地的联系，这种全球化现在带来了负担。

Because these different languages impose a barrier, as we've just seen,

因为正如我们刚才看到的，

to the transfer of goods and ideas and technologies and wisdom.

这些不同的语言对商品，思想，技术和智慧的转移造成了障碍。

And they impose a barrier to cooperation. What will be the solution?

他们给合作设置了障碍。解决方案是什么?

In a world in which we want to promote cooperation and exchange, and in a world that might be dependent more than ever before on cooperation to maintain and enhance our levels of prosperity,

当前我们希望促进合作与交流，可能比以往任何时候都更加依赖合作以维持和提高我们的繁荣水平，

I think it might be inevitable that we have to confront the idea that our destiny is to be one world with one language.

我认为我们不可避免地要面对这样一个观点：我们的宿命是同一个世界，用同一种语言。

What do you think of the solution? Okay.

你认为这个解决办法怎么样？好。

In today's lecture, I have presented to you how language shapes our humanity,

在今天的演讲中，我向你们展示了语言如何塑造我们人类，

what kind of dilemma social learning has created,

社会学习创造了什么样的困境，

and the possible solutions to the dilemma.

以及可能的解决方案。

In our next lecture, I am going to talk about lingua franca and its functions.

下一讲，我将讲通用语及其功能。

扫码听力原文