Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. ( 10 points)
It was only after I started to write a weekly column about the medical journals, and began to read scientific papers from beginning to end, that I realised just how bad much of the medical literature frequently was. I came to recognise various signs of a bad paper: the kind of paper that purports to show that people who eat more than one kilo of broccoli a week were 1.17 times more likely than those who eat less to suffer late in life from pernicious anaemia.
直到我开始撰写一个关于医学期刊的周专栏,并开始从头到尾阅读科学论文,我才意识到许多医学文献常常是多么糟糕。我逐渐能够识别出劣质论文的各种迹象:那种声称每周食用超过一公斤西兰花的人比食用较少者晚年患恶性贫血的可能性高1.17倍的论文。医学期刊中充斥着大量这类无稽之谈,当被广播媒体和大众媒体报道时,既制造了健康恐慌,又引发了短暂的饮食狂热。
Why is so much bad science published? A recent paper, titled "The Natural Selection of Bad Science", published on the Royal Society's open science website, attempts to answer this intriguing and important question. It says that the problem is not merely that people do bad science, but that our current system of career advancement positively encourages it. What is important is not truth, but publication, which has become almost an end in itself. There has been a kind of inflationary process at work: Never mind the quality, then, count the number.
为什么会发表如此多的劣质科学研究?最近一篇题为《劣质科学的自然选择》的论文发表在英国皇家学会的开放科学网站上,试图回答这个引人入胜且重要的问题。该论文指出,问题不仅仅在于人们从事劣质科学研究,而在于我们当前的职业晋升体系积极地鼓励这种行为。重要的不是真理,而是发表论文,这几乎已经成
(46)There is a great deal of this kind of nonsense in the medical journals which, when taken up by broadcasters and the lay press, generates both health scares and short-lived dietary enthusiasms. (47)nowadays anyone applying for a research post has to have published twice the number of papers that would have been required for the same post only 10 years ago.
为目的本身。一种通货膨胀式的过程一直在发挥作用:如今任何申请研究职位的人必须发表的论文数量是10年前同一职位所需数量的两倍。那么,不必在意质量,只需计算数量。
This is the famed citation index, that is to say the number of times a paper has been quoted elsewhere in the scientific literature, the assumption being that an important paper will be cited more often than one of small account.
人们曾试图遏制这种趋势,例如,试图在评估申请人论文时将某种质量衡量标准和数量标准结合起来。这就是著名的引用索引,即一篇论文在科学文献中被引用的次数,其假设是重要论文会比不重要的论文被更频繁地引用。如果不是因为科学家可以轻易安排在其未来的出版物中引用自己,或者让同事为他们这样做以换取类似的好处,这本该是合理的。
Boiling down an individual's output to simple metrics, such as number of publications or journal impacts, entails considerable savings in time, energy and ambiguity. Unfortunately, the long-term costs of using simple quantitative metrics to assess researcher merit are likely to be quite great.
将个人的学术成果归结为简单的指标,如发表数量或期刊影响力,在时间、精力和模糊性方面节省了大量成本。不幸的是,使用简单的量化指标来评估研究人员的价值,其长期代价可能会相当高昂。如果我们真正认真地确保我们的科学既有意义又可重复,我们必须确保我们的机构鼓励那种类型的科学研究。
(48)Attempts have been made to curb this tendency, for example, by trying to incorporate some measure of quality as well as quantity into the assessment of an applicant's papers.
(49)This would be reasonable if it were not for the fact that scientists can easily arrange to cite themselves in their future publications, or get associates to do so for them in return for similar favours.
(50)If we are serious about ensuring that our science is both meaningful and reproducible, we must ensure that our institutions encourage that kind of science.
(46) There is a great deal of this kind of nonsense in the medical journals which, when taken up by broadcasters and the lay press, generates both health scares and short-lived dietary enthusiasms.
参考译文:医学期刊里充斥着大量这类无稽之谈,这些无稽之谈一旦被广播媒体和非专业的大众报刊拿去传播,就会既制造健康恐慌,又掀起一阵阵昙花一现的饮食热潮。
(47) nowadays anyone applying for a research post has to have published twice the number of papers that would have been required for the same post only 10 years ago.
参考译文:如今,任何申请研究职位的人,其发表的论文数量都必须达到仅仅10年前申请同一职位所要求篇数的两倍。
(48) Attempts have been made to curb this tendency, for example, by trying to incorporate some measure of quality as well as quantity into the assessment of an applicant's papers.
参考译文:人们已经做出种种努力来遏制这种倾向,例如,设法把对质量(而不只是数量)的某种衡量标准,纳入对申请者论文的评估当中。
(49) This would be reasonable if it were not for the fact that scientists can easily arrange to cite themselves in their future publications, or get associates to do so for them in return for similar favours.
参考译文:如果不是因为存在这样一个事实,这种做法本来是合理的:科学家可以轻而易举地安排在自己日后的论文里引用自己,或者让同行替他们这样做,作为回报再给对方类似的好处。
(50) If we are serious about ensuring that our science is both meaningful and reproducible, we must ensure that our institutions encourage that kind of science.
参考译文:如果我们真心想确保自己的科学既有意义又能被重复验证,我们就必须确保我们的(科研)制度鼓励的正是这种科学。
逐句解析 句前 (N) 即考卷划线句题号,与卷面下划线句一一对应——满分 10 分、每句约 2 分,阅卷把每句切成意群按采 分点给分(★ 为采分点意群)。 【来源】The Spectator《旁观者》2017.06.06-篇题为Why is so much bad science published(为 什么这么多劣质科学文章被发表)的文章。 【主旨】现行科研评价体系催生大量劣质科学 全篇是一篇带批判态度的社科评论:作者从亲身读医学论文谈起,指出医学文献里充斥伪科学,进 而追问 Why is so much bad science published?,答案是 our current system of career advancement positively encourages it——评价体系重发表数量、轻真理质量,连引用指数也能 被操纵。定调要害是 What is important is not truth, but publication,全文凡涉及 quality/ quantity、citation、metrics 的褒贬取义都得贴着这个批判基调。
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