剑桥雅思13Test2Passage2阅读原文翻译 Oxytocin 催产素
剑桥雅思13阅读第二套题目第二篇文章的主题为催产素。文章一共6段，分别介绍了催产素是什么，人们过去对它的看法，实际上其作用因人而异，之前被研究者忽视的现象，以及其复杂作用背后的原因。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
点击查看这篇雅思阅读具体题目的答案解析与其中出现的高频词汇：
剑桥雅思13Test2Passage2阅读答案解析 Oxytocin 催产素
雅思阅读真题词汇 剑桥雅思13 Test 2 Passage 2 催产素的作用
剑桥雅思13 Test2 Passage2阅读原文翻译
段落A
Oxytocin is a chemical, a hormone produced in the pituitary gland in the brain. It was through various studies focusing on animals that scientists first became aware of the influence of oxytocin. They discovered that it helps reinforce the bonds between prairie voles, which mate for life, and triggers the motherly behaviour that sheep show towards their newborn lambs. It is also released by women in childbirth, strengthening the attachment between mother and baby. Few chemicals have as positive a reputation as oxytocin, which is sometimes referred to as the ‘love hormone’. One sniff of it can, it is claimed, make a person more trusting, empathetic, generous and cooperative. It is time, however, to revise this wholly optimistic view. A new wave of studies has shown that its effects vary greatly depending on the person and the circumstances, and it can impact on our social interactions for worse as well as for better.
催产素是一种化学物质，一种由大脑中脑垂体分泌的荷尔蒙。通过对动物的各种试验，科学家首次意识到催产素的影响。他们发现，它有助于加强草原田鼠配偶之间的亲密度，激发绵羊对新出生羊羔的母性行为。女性在生产时也会分泌该物质，加强母亲和孩子之间的联系。很少有化学物质拥有像催产素这样良好的名声。它有时被称为“爱情荷尔蒙”。据称，只要轻轻嗅一口，就可以让一个人变得更加信赖别人，更有同理心，更加慷慨，也更加富有合作精神。然而，是时候修改这一全盘乐观的观点了。新一批的研究显示，其作用会根据个人和环境的不同而出现很大差异。它可以影响我们的社交互动，即能让它变得更差，也能让它变得更好。
段落B
Oxytocin’s role in human behaviour first emerged in 2005. In a groundbreaking experiment, Markus Heinrichs and his colleagues at the University of Freiburg, Germany, asked volunteers to do an activity in which they could invest money with an anonymous person who was not guaranteed to be honest. The team found that participants who had sniffed oxytocin via a nasal spray beforehand invested more money than those who received a placebo instead. The study was the start of research into the effects of oxytocin on human interactions. ‘For eight years, it was quite a lonesome field,’ Heinrichs recalls. ‘Now, everyone is interested.’ These follow-up studies have shown that after a sniff of the hormone, people become more charitable, better at reading emotions on others’ faces and at communicating constructively in arguments. Together, the results fuelled the view that oxytocin universally enhanced the positive aspects of our social nature.
2005年，催产素在人类行为中的作用首次被发现。在一次开创性的实验中，德国弗莱堡大学的Markus Heinrichs和他的同事邀请志愿者进行一项活动。在该活动中，他们可以对一个并不保证诚信的匿名人物进行投资。该团队发现，相比于那些吸入安慰剂的人来说，那些事先通过喷鼻剂吸入催产素的参与者投的钱更多。该研究开启了对催产素如何影响人类互动的探索。“8年来，它一直都是一个无人问津的领域”，Heinrichs回忆到，“现在，每个人都兴趣盎然”。随后的研究显示，在吸入荷尔蒙之后，人们变得更加宽厚，更能从他人的面部读取情绪，更能在争论中建设性地交流意见。加在一起，这些结果催生出这样一种观念，即催产素全面加强了我们社交属性中的积极方面。
段落C
Then, after a few years, contrasting findings began to emerge. Simone Shamay-Tsoory at the University of Haifa, Israel, found that when volunteers played a competitive game, those who inhaled the hormone showed more pleasure when they beat other players, and felt more envy when others won. What’s more, administering oxytocin also has sharply contrasting outcomes depending on a person’s disposition. Jennifer Bartz from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, found that it improves people’s ability to read emotions, but only if they are not very socially adept to begin with. Her research also shows that oxytocin in fact reduces cooperation in subjects who are particularly anxious or sensitive to rejection.
几年后，相反的研究结果开始出现。以色列海法大学的Simone Shamay-Tsoory发现，当志愿者进行竞争性游戏时，那些吸入荷尔蒙的人会在击败其他玩家时表现出更多的愉悦，而在其他人文章来自老烤鸭雅思获胜时则会更加嫉妒。此外，使用催产素也会因为个人性格而出现截然不同的结果。纽约西奈山医学院的Jennifer Bartz发现，它确实能够提升人们阅读情绪的能力，但这一点只有在他们本来不怎么擅长社交的情况下才成立。她的研究还显示，催产素事实上减少了那些对拒绝特别紧张或者敏感的实验对象之间的合作。
段落D
Another discovery is that oxytocin’s effects vary depending on who we are interacting with. Studies conducted by Carolyn DeClerck of the University of Antwerp, Belgium, revealed that people who had received a dose of oxytocin actually became less cooperative when dealing with complete strangers. Meanwhile, Carsten De Dreu at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands discovered that volunteers given oxytocin showed favouritism: Dutch men became quicker to associate positive words with Dutch names than with foreign ones, for example. According to De Dreu, oxytocin drives people to care for those in their social circles and defend them from outside dangers. So, it appears that oxytocin strengthens biases, rather than promoting general goodwill, as was previously thought.
另外一项发现是，催产素的效果也会因我们进行互动的人的不同而出现差异。比利时安特卫普大学Carolyn DeClerck所进行的研究表明，摄入催产素的人在与完全陌生的人打交道时变得不那么配合。与此同时，荷兰阿姆斯特丹大学的Carsten De Dreu发现，被给予催产素的实验者展现出偏好行为，例如，荷兰男性会更快的将积极词汇与荷兰姓名而非外国姓名联系在一起。根据De Dreu的研究，催产素驱使人们关心那些处于他们社交圈中的人，并保护他们远离外部危险。所以，催产素似乎强化了偏见，而不是像之前所认为的那样，整体提升人们的善念。
段落E
There were signs of these subtleties from the start. Bartz has recently shown that in almost half of the existing research results, oxytocin influenced only certain individuals or in certain circumstances. Where once researchers took no notice of such findings, now a more nuanced understanding of oxytocin’s effects is propelling investigations down new lines. To Bartz, the key to understanding what the hormone does lies in pinpointing its core function rather than in cataloguing its seemingly endless effects. There are several hypotheses which are not mutually exclusive. Oxytocin could help to reduce anxiety and fear. Or it could simply motivate people to seek out social connections. She believes that oxytocin acts as a chemical spotlight that shines on social clues – a shift in posture, a flicker of the eyes, a dip in the voice – making people more attuned to their social environment. This would explain why it makes us more likely to look others in the eye and improves our ability to identify emotions. But it could also make things worse for people who are overly sensitive or prone to interpreting social cues in the worst light.
从一开始就有这些微妙之处的迹象。Bartz最近指出，在将近一半的现有研究结果中，催产素只影响了特定的个体或者只在特定的环境中发挥作用。研究者曾一度忽视了这些发现，而现在对催产素作用更为细致的理解正推动调查研究沿着一条新的路径前进。对于Bartz来说，理解荷尔蒙作用的关键在于确定其核心功能，而非归纳整理其似乎无穷无尽的影响。现在有几种并不完全互相排斥的理论假设。催产素能够帮助缓解紧张和恐惧。或者，它只是简单的推动人们去寻找社交联系。她认为，催产素就像照耀社交提示（姿势的改变，眼睛的眨动，嗓音变低）的聚光灯一样，使得人们更加适应他们的社交环境。这解释了为什么它让我们更有可能去注视别人的眼睛，提升我们识别情绪的能力。但它对于那些过度敏感，或者倾向于用最坏的方式解读社交线索的人来说，则会使情况变得更加糟糕。
段落F
Perhaps we should not be surprised that the oxytocin story has become more perplexing. The hormone is found in everything from octopuses to sheep, and its evolutionary roots stretch back half a billion years. ‘It’s a very simple and ancient molecule that has been co-opted for many different functions,’ says Sue Carter at the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. ‘It affects primitive parts of the brain like the amygdala, so it’s going to have many effects on just about everything.’ Bartz agrees. ‘Oxytocin probably does some very basic things, but once you add our higher-order thinking and social situations, these basic processes could manifest in different ways depending on individual differences and context.’
或许，我们并不应该为催产素的故事变得更加复杂而感到吃惊。从章鱼到绵羊的万事万物中都能找到荷尔蒙的存在，它的进化源头可以追溯到50亿年前。“它是一种十分简单又古老的分子，整合了许多不同的功能”，美国芝加哥伊利诺伊大学的Sue Carter说，“它影响着像杏仁体这样大脑中最为基本的部分，所以它会对几乎所有事情产生许多影响”。Bartz同意这种说法。“催产素可能起着一些十分基本的作用，不过一旦你加入我们更为高阶的思考和社交情景，这些基本过程就会因个体差异和背景而以不同的方式显现出来”。
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