刚刚结束的2014年12月四级考试中,听力第二部分(短文)的第一篇文章提到的神奇小故事,还有印象吗?一对出生仅四个月就分开的双胞胎,之后三十多年没有见面,但他们的人生轨迹却惊人的一致:都结过两次婚,第一任太太的名字是一样的等等。当真如此神奇?不如来看看专业研究人员怎么说吧。

Genes play a greater role in determining key personality traits like social skills and learning ability than the way we are brought up by our parents, researchers claimed.
研究人员表明,在决定诸如社交技能和学习能力的关键性格特征方面,与父母的养育方式相比较,基因扮演着更为重要的角色。

Researchers from Edinburgh University studied more than 800 sets of identical and non-identical twins to learn whether genetics or upbringing has a greater effect on how successful people are in life.
爱丁堡大学的研究人员以800多对同卵双胞胎和异卵双胞胎为对象,研究了成功的人生究竟是受遗传的影响更大还是受成长的影响更大。

Participants were asked a series of questions about how they perceive themselves and others, such as "are you influenced by people with strong opinions?"
受试者需要回答一系列的问题,都是关于他们如何看待自己和他人的,比如“你是否会受到有强烈意见的人的影响”。

Writing in the Journal of Personality, the researchers found that identical twins were twice as likely as non-identical twins to share the same personality traits, suggesting that their DNA was having the greatest impact.
正如《人格期刊》所写,研究人员发现,同卵双胞胎拥有相同性格特征的可能性是异卵双胞胎的两倍,表明他们的DNA(在决定性格特征上)起到了最重要的作用。

Genetics were most influential on people's sense of self-control and also affected their social and learning abilities and their sense of purpose.
人们在自我控制方面、社交和学习能力方面以及使命感上,遗传是最具影响力的因素。

Prof Timothy Bates, who led the study, said: "Previously, the role of family and the environment around the home often dominated people's ideas about what affected psychological wellbeing. However, this work highlights a much more powerful influence from genetics."
带领整个研究团队的提莫斯·贝提斯教授说:“以前常常认为家庭角色和环境是影响人们心理健康的因素,但这次的研究表明,遗传方面的影响更为显著。”