考研英语美文赏读（34）：家庭和学校背景对一个人的影响有多大？

　　摘要：考研英语作为一门考研公共课，虽然大家都学了英语十几年，却仍经常有总分过线挂在英语上的情况，因此英语复习不单单是单词、做题。阅读作为考研英语的大头，仅仅做考研真题或许没法满足你的阅读量，因此帮帮之后会不定时推出一篇英文美文，这些文章都与考研英语阅读同源，多读必有好处。

　　►Families and schools have a substantial influence on whether young people go to university but no effect on how well students perform once they get there, according to the first study of genetic and environmental influences on higher education.

　　首份关于遗传和环境对高等教育的影响的研究显示，家庭和学校背景对年轻人是否进入大学存在显著影响，但对他们入学后的学业表现没有影响。

　　Researchers at King’s College London studied 3,000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins and 3,000 other people in the UK, in an effort to disentangle the factors that determine university enrolment and performance.

　　伦敦国王学院的研究人员对英国3000对同卵和异卵双胞胎、以及另外3000人进行了研究，试图找到是哪些因素决定一个人是否进入大学和入学后的学业表现。

　　Results were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

　　该研究结果发表在《科学报告》杂志上。

　　Genetic factors account for 51 per cent of differences between school leavers in whether or not they go on to university. What the researchers call “shared environment” — mainly school and family background — accounts for 36 per cent, while “non-shared environment”, reflecting individual circumstances, contributes the remaining 13 per cent.

　　高中毕业生能否进入大学，遗传因素占51%的原因。研究人员所说的“共同环境”——主要指学校和家庭背景——占36%，而反映个体状况的“非共同环境”占13%。

　　Although the King’s study did not look specifically at students’ socio-economic background, the findings support the view that teenagers from poor and disadvantaged families are less likely than their more privileged counterparts to proceed to a university education for which their genes are well suited.

　　虽然该研究没有特别分析学生的社会经济背景，但研究的发现支持如下观点：与出身较好的同龄人相比，来自贫困和弱势家庭的青少年接受大学教育的可能性更低，即使他们的基因条件非常有利。

　　Researchers suggested that admissions policies should take more account of these social factors into account.

　　研究人员建议，招生政策应该更多地考虑到这些社会因素。

　　“You would expect heritability — the genetic influence — to increase in a fairer and more equitable society,” said Emily Smith-Woolley, one member of the research team at King’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience

　　伦敦国王学院精神病学、心理学和神经学研究所这个研究小组的成员之一埃米莉·史密斯-伍利表示，“你会发现，在较为公平和平等的社会里，遗传力——即基因影响——的作用更大。”

　　An earlier study by King’s researchers showed that shared environment played a big role in secondary education, accounting for 40 per cent of differences in whether students choose to take A-levels.

　　国王学院的研究人员所做的一项早期研究表明，在中等教育阶段，共同环境扮演了重要角色，对学生是否选择参加英国高考发挥了40%的影响。

　　Once someone gets to university, the contribution of “shared environment” declines to less than 1 per cent. Achievement, measured by the student’s final degree class, is determined 46 per cent by genetics and 53 per cent by non-shared or individual environment.

　　一旦进入大学，“共同环境”的影响则下降到不足1%。以学生的最终学位等级来衡量，学业表现的46%由基因决定，53%由非共同环境（即个人状况）决定。

　　“Unlike secondary school, where students tend to share educational experiences, university provides young people with greater opportunity to be independent and to carve out their interests based on their natural abilities and aptitudes,” said Ziada Ayorech, another King’s researcher.

　　国王学院另一位研究人员齐亚达·阿约雷希表示：“在中学阶段，学生们的教育经历往往相同，大学则为年轻人提供了更多机会，让他们能够独立，能够根据自己的天赋天资打造自己的兴趣。”

　　“Students’ unique environments — such as new friends and new experiences — appear to be explaining differences in university achievement and the role of shared environment becomes less significant.”

　　“学生各自所处的独特环境——比如新朋友和新经历——似乎可以解释大学阶段表现的差异以及共同环境为什么变得没那么重要。”

　　Apart from studying the overall contribution of genes to educational achievement, scientists are beginning to identify some of the thousands of specific DNA variations responsible.

　　有成千上万的特定DNA变异在影响一个人的学业表现，除了研究基因对学业表现的整体贡献外，科学家还开始识别其中一些起作用的DNA变异。

　　The latest — and still unpublished — research suggests that up to 15 per cent of variance in achievement may be predictable through a “polygenic score” based on detailed DNA analysis, said Dr Smith-Woolley.

　　史密斯-伍利博士表示，最新（且尚未发表）的研究表明，高达15%的学业表现差异或许都可以通过基于详细DNA分析的“多基因分数”进行预测。

　　But science is still a long way from producing a useful genetic test for guiding young people to the best educational options.

　　但要达到能够生成有用的基因测试、引导年轻人在教育方面找到最佳选择的水平，科学还有很长的路要走。

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