2019年12月四级第1套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

Thinking small, being engaging, and having a sense of humor don't hurt. Those are a few of the traits of successful science crowdfunding efforts that emerge from a recent study that examined nearly 400 campaigns. But having a large network and some promotional skills may be more crucial.

小处着眼、引人入胜以及具备幽默感并无坏处。这些特质源自一项考察了近400个活动的最新研究，揭示了成功科学众筹的部分特征。但拥有广泛的人脉和一些推广技巧可能更为关键。

Crowdfunding, raising money for a project through online appeals, has taken off in recent years for everything from making movies to producing water-saving gadgets. Scientists have tried to tap Internet donors, too, with mixed success. Some raised more than twice their goals, but others have fallen short of reaching even modest targets.

众筹，即通过网络呼吁为项目筹集资金，近年来在从制作电影到生产节水设备等各个领域蓬勃发展。科学家们也尝试吸引互联网捐赠者，但成效不一。有些项目的筹资额超过目标两倍以上，但其他项目甚至未能达到适度目标。

To determine what separates science crowdfunding triumphs from failures, a team led by science communications scholar Mike Schafer of the University of Zurich examined the content of the webpages for 371 recent campaigns.

为了确定什么因素区分了科学众筹的成功与失败，由苏黎世大学科学传播学者迈克·谢弗领导的一个团队考察了371个近期活动的网页内容。

Four traits stood out for those that achieved their goals, the researchers report in Public Understanding of Science. For one, they use a crowdfunding platform that specializes in raising money for science, and not just any kind of project. Although sites like Kickstarter take all corners, platforms such as Experiment.com and Petridish.org only present scientific projects. For another, they present the project with a funny video because good visuals and a sense of humor improved success. Most of them engage with potential donors, since projects that answered questions from interested donors fared better. And they target a small amount of money. The projects included in the study raised $4000 on average, with 30% receiving less than $1000. The more money a project sought, the lower the chance it reached its goal, the researchers found.

研究人员在《公众理解科学》期刊上报告称，那些达成目标的众筹项目凸显出四个特征。首先，它们使用专门用于科学筹资的众筹平台，而非任何类型的项目。尽管像Kickstarter这样的网站接受各种项目，但Experiment.com和Petridish.org等平台只展示科学项目。其次，它们用有趣的视频呈现项目，因为良好的视觉效果和幽默感能提高成功率。大多数项目会与潜在捐赠者互动，因为回答感兴趣捐赠者问题的项目表现更好。此外，它们的目标金额较小。研究中包括的项目平均筹集了4000美元，其中30%收到的捐款少于1000美元。研究人员发现，项目寻求的资金越多，达成目标的可能性就越低。

Other factors may also significantly influence a project's success, most notably, the size of a scientist's personal and professional networks, and how much a researcher promotes a project on their own. Those two factors are by far more critical than the content on the page. Crowdfunding can be part of researchers' efforts to reach the public, and people give because "they feel a connection to the person" who is doing the fundraising—not necessarily to the science.

其他因素也可能显著影响项目的成功，最显著的是科学家个人和专业人脉的广度，以及研究者自行推广项目的程度。这两个因素远比网页上的内容更为关键。众筹可以是研究人员接触公众努力的一部分，人们捐款是因为他们感到与筹款人有联系，而不一定是针对科学本身。