It is a finding certain to be hotly disputed – at least among half the population. According to the latest research, women are brighter than men.
这个发现肯定会引起社会各界的热议，至少会有一半的人参与其中。根据最新的调查，女性开始比男性聪明了。

For the first time in IQ testing, psychologists have found that female scores have risen above those of men.
这是心理学家首次发现，在IQ测试中发现女性的分数高于男性。

Since IQ testing began a century ago, women have been as much as five points behind, leading psychologists to suggest embedded genetic differences.
自100多年前IQ测试诞生开始以来，女性的平均分数总比男性低5分，这种情况也让心理学家认为这由男女基因不同导致。

But that gap has been narrowing in recent years and this year women have moved ahead, according to James Flynn, a world-renowned authority on IQ tests.
但是近几年男女的差距正逐年缩小，而根据IQ测试知名权威专家James Flynn的观点，女性已经开始处于领先地位。

‘In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen but women’s have risen faster,’ said Mr Flynn. ‘This is a consequence of modernity. The complexity of the modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ.’
“在过去100年中，男性和女性的IQ都出现了不同程度的提高，但女性的提高速度显然更快。”James Flynn表示。人类的IQ提高，是伴随着社会的不断发展而必然出现的结果，“现代世界越来越复杂，人类的大脑需要通过提高IQ来适应这一变化。”

One possible explanation is that women’s lives have become more demanding as they multitask between raising a family and doing a job.
一个合理的解释是女性的生活要求越来越高，因为她们需要同时处理工作与家庭的各种事务。

Another is that women have a slightly higher potential intelligence than men and are only now realising it.
而另一个解释则认为女性自身拥有着更高的智商潜能，只是人们现在才意识到而已。

Mr Flynn, who will publish his findings in a book, said more data was needed to explain the trend. ‘The full effect of modernity on women is only just emerging,’ he added.
Flynn将在他的书中发表这个发现，但是仍然需要更多的数据来支持此项发现。“现代化对于女性的影响只是刚刚开始而已。”他补充道。

He collated IQ examination results from countries in western Europe and from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Estonia. These showed that in westernised countries the gap in scores between men and women had become minimal.
他对西欧、美国、加拿大、新西兰、阿根廷、爱沙尼亚等多个国家的测试结果进行对比分析。结果表明在西方国家男女分数的差距正在减少。

The data for making exact comparisons was sparser and could be carried out for only a handful of countries. It included Australia, where male and female IQs were found to be almost identical. In New Zealand, Estonia and Argentina, women scored marginally more than men.
但是能体现这一现象的数据还不够充分，仅有几个国家存在这样的情况。包括澳大利亚在内的一些国家发现男女的IQ测试中的表现旗鼓相当。而在新西兰，爱沙尼亚和阿根廷则发现女性的得分已经开始高于男性。

Mr Flynn said: ‘As the world gets more complex, and living in it demands more abstract thought, so people are adapting.’
Flynn说：“世界开始变得越来越复杂，而我们的生活也需要运用更多的抽象思维，所以人们正在渐渐适应。”

He added: ‘I suspect that the same trends are happening in Britain, too, although the data is too sparse to be sure.'
他又补充道：“我也怀疑同样的趋势正发生在英国，但是数据量还不足以证明是否如此。”