2021年12月四级第1套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

The human thirst for knowledge is the driving force behind our successful development as a species. But curiosity can also be dangerous, leading to setbacks or even downfalls. Given curiosity's complexity, scientists have found it hard to define.

人类对知识的渴求是我们作为一个物种成功发展的驱动力。但好奇心也可能是危险的，导致挫折甚至失败。鉴于好奇心的复杂性，科学家们发现很难定义它。

While pinning down a definition has proven tricky, the general consensus is it's some means of information gathering. Psychologists also agree curiosity is intrinsically(内在地) motivated.

虽然确定一个定义已被证明是棘手的，但普遍共识是它是某种信息收集的方式。心理学家也同意好奇心是内在动机的。

Curiosity covers such a large set of behaviors that there probably isn't any single "curiosity gene" that makes humans wonder about and explore their environment. That said, curiosity does have a genetic component. Genes and the environment interact in many complex ways to shape individuals and guide their behavior, including their curiosity.

好奇心涵盖了如此广泛的行为，以至于可能没有任何单一的“好奇心基因”让人类好奇并探索他们的环境。尽管如此，好奇心确实有遗传成分。基因和环境以多种复杂的方式相互作用，塑造个体并指导他们的行为，包括好奇心。

Regardless of their genetic makeup, infants have to learn an incredible amount of information in a short time, and curiosity is one of the tools humans have found to accomplish that gigantic task.

无论遗传构成如何，婴儿必须在短时间内学习大量信息，而好奇心是人类发现来完成这一巨大任务的工具之一。

Hundreds of studies show that infants prefer novelty. It's what motivates non-human animals, human infants and probably human adults to explore and seek out new things before growing less interested in them after continued exposure.

数百项研究表明，婴儿更喜欢新奇事物。这是激励非人类动物、人类婴儿以及可能的人类成年人探索和寻找新事物的原因，然后在他们持续接触后变得不那么感兴趣。

But curiosity often comes with a cost.

但好奇心往往伴随着代价。

In some situations, the stakes are low and failure is a healthy part of growth. For instance, many babies are perfectly proficient crawlers, but they decide to try walking because there's more to see and do when they stand upright. But this milestone comes at a small cost. A study of 12- to 19-month-olds learning how to walk documented that these children fell down a lot. Seventeen times per hour, to be exact. But walking is faster than crawling, so this motivates expert crawlers to transition to walking.

在某些情况下，风险很低，失败是成长的健康部分。例如，许多婴儿是熟练的爬行者，但他们决定尝试行走，因为直立时能看到和做到更多。但这个里程碑伴随着小代价。一项对12至19个月大婴儿学习行走的研究记录了这些孩子经常摔倒。确切地说，每小时17次。但行走比爬行快，这激励熟练的爬行者过渡到行走。

Sometimes, however, testing out a new idea can lead to disaster. For instance, the Inuit people of the Arctic regions have created incredible modes to deal with the challenges of living in northern climates, but what we forget about are the tens of thousands of people that tried and failed to make it in those challenging landscapes.

然而，有时测试一个新想法可能导致灾难。例如，北极地区的因纽特人创造了不可思议的模式来应对生活在北方气候中的挑战，但我们忘记了成千上万的人尝试并失败于在这些挑战性景观中生存。