研究发现人类偏爱逆时针行走

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🤔️小作业：

1. According to the passage, which of the following is true about the research findings?

A. The anticlockwise bias was only observed in Spanish participants.

B. The bias was more noticeable in children than in adults.

C. The researchers have identified the exact cause of the bias.

D. The Coriolis effect was proven to influence walking direction.

无注释原文：

Humans prefer to walk anticlockwise, scientists find – but reason is unclear

From: The Guardian

“I'm not an ambi-turner,” laments Derek Zoolander in the eponymous noughties satire about the world's hottest male model and his rare catwalk hangup. “It's a problem I've had since I was a baby … I can't turn left.”

Now research suggests that the fashionista's career-threatening quirk was even more unusual than previously thought. Tests reveal that when people are ambling about, they have a natural tendency to turn to the left and walk in an anticlockwise direction.

“If you simply ask someone to start walking, whether they are wandering around a museum, a supermarket, or even an empty room, it is surprisingly likely that they will drift counterclockwise,” said Dr Iñaki Echeverría Huarte at University of Navarra in Spain.

As with many critical discoveries in science, the revelation owes a debt to serendipity. During the pandemic, the researchers ran experiments to see how many people could share a space while keeping a safe distance. On reviewing the video, they noticed that crowds overwhelmingly walked in an anticlockwise direction.

The surprise set in motion an entire research project. The scientists conducted a series of experiments in which individual pedestrians or small crowds roamed around enclosed spaces. Time and again, the researchers observed the tendency to walk in an anticlockwise direction.

Suspecting that cultural norms might play a role, the team joined forces with Dr Claudio Feliciani at the University of Tokyo. He found the same results in Japan. The finding held when the researchers accounted for people being right-handed, right-footed and right-eye dominant, and was seen in both male and female walkers. The only difference they spotted was a more pronounced bias in children.

“Each of us carries a small personal bias to turn slightly to one side, and when many people share a space, those tiny biases add up into a net counterclockwise rotation,” said Echeverría Huarte. Details are published in Nature Communications.

The scientists are not sure where the bias comes from, but have performed further experiments in virtual reality, and others in which people pretended one leg was broken, in the hope of making headway. Wags on the team joked that the opposite trend might be seen in Australia and that the Coriolis effect, in which Earth's rotation deflects the direction of the wind, was at work.

“We don't know why it happens, but we think that by understanding the reasons, we could better understand how we perceive the world,” Feliciani said. “It can help us make other discoveries which may be more important than this one.”

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注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为AI翻译，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Humans prefer to walk anticlockwise, scientists find – but reason is unclear

From: The Guardian

“I'm not an ambi-turner,” laments Derek Zoolander in the eponymous noughties satire about the world's hottest male model and his rare catwalk hangup. “It's a problem I've had since I was a baby … I can't turn left.”

“我可不是个‘左右通转’的人，”德里克·祖兰德（Derek Zoolander）在2000年代那部以他命名的讽刺电影中哀叹道。影片讲述的是这位全球最炙手可热的男模特，以及他那罕见的T台困扰。“这毛病我打小就有……我左转不了。”

Ambi-turner是电影《超级名模》（Zoolander）里创造的一个搞笑词，用来形容能够自如地向左转或向右转的人。这个词是由两部分组成的：ambi-前缀，意思是“两个、两者都”，turner：意思是“转身的人”。

lament /ləˈment/ 1）作动词，表示“对…感到悲痛，对…表示失望，痛惜”，英文解释为“to express sadness and feeling sorry about something”举个🌰：My grandmother, as usual, lamented the decline in moral standards in today's society. 和往常一样，我奶奶对当今社会世风日下深感痛惜。

2）作名词，表示“挽歌；悼诗；悼文”，英文解释为“a song, poem, or other piece of writing that expresses sadness about someone's death”

eponymous /ɪˈpɒnɪməs/ 表示“（与标题）同名的；以…的名字命名的”，英文解释为“the eponymous character of a book, play, film/movie, etc. is the one mentioned in the title”

noughties /ˈnɔː.tiz/ 表示“世纪初的首个十年（通常指2000至2010年）”，英文解释为“the period of years between 00 and 10 in any century, usually 2000–2010”举个🌰：They were born in the noughties and grew up completely at ease with computer technology. 他们出生在世纪初的首个十年，完全适应电脑技术。

satire /ˈsæt.aɪər/ 表示“讽刺，讥讽；讽刺作品”，英文解释为“a way of criticizing people or ideas in a humorous way, especially in order to make a political point, or a piece of writing that uses this style”

catwalk /ˈkæt.wɔːk/ 1）表示“（时装表演时模特走的）T形台，展示台”，英文解释为“the long, narrow stage that models walk along in a fashion show”

2）表示“临时脚手架”，英文解释为“a narrow path, raised above the ground, often built for workers to walk on outside a building that is being built or repaired”

对比：

📍runway 1）表示“（时装表演）台道；过道，通道”，英文解释为“the long, narrow stage that models walk along in a fashion show”

2）表示“（飞机）跑道”，英文解释为“a long, level piece of ground with a specially prepared smooth, hard surface on which aircraft take off and land”。

hang-up表示“（对自己某方面特点的）焦虑，烦恼”，英文解释为“a permanent and unreasonable feeling of anxiety about a particular feature of yourself”

Now research suggests that the fashionista's career-threatening quirk was even more unusual than previously thought. Tests reveal that when people are ambling about, they have a natural tendency to turn to the left and walk in an anticlockwise direction.

如今，研究表明，这位时尚达人的怪癖——一个足以断送其职业生涯的奇特习惯——比人们此前想象的还要罕见。测试结果显示，当人们悠然漫步时，他们天生就倾向于向左转，沿着逆时针方向行走。

quirk /kwɜːk/ 1）表示“怪癖；古怪之处”，英文解释为“an unusual habit or part of someone's personality, or something that is strange and unexpected”举个🌰：You have to get used to other people's quirks and foibles. 你得习惯别人的怪癖和小缺点。

2）表示“（尤指偶发的）怪事，奇事”，英文解释为“a strange thing that happens, especially by accident”举个🌰：By a strange quirk of fate they had booked into the same hotel. 真是天缘奇遇，他们住进了同一家旅馆。

amble /ˈæm.bəl/ 表示“漫步，缓行”，英文解释为“to walk in a slow and relaxed way”举个🌰：He was ambling along the beach. 他沿着沙滩漫步。

anticlockwise = counterclockwise 表示“逆时针方向（地）”，英文解释为“If something is moving anticlockwise, it is moving in the opposite direction to the direction in which the hands of a clock move.”举个🌰：Rotate the head clockwise and anticlockwise. 使头顺时针转转，再逆时针转转。

📺美剧《新闻编辑室》（The Newsroom）第二季中的台词提到：You can't turn your arm clockwise and turn your leg counterclockwise at the same time. 顺时针转胳膊的同时逆时针转腿 是行不通的。

“If you simply ask someone to start walking, whether they are wandering around a museum, a supermarket, or even an empty room, it is surprisingly likely that they will drift counterclockwise,” said Dr Iñaki Echeverría Huarte at University of Navarra in Spain.

“如果你只是让人迈开步子走，不管是在博物馆里、超市中，还是在一个空荡荡的房间里闲逛，他们都很可能不知不觉地逆时针偏移，这着实令人惊讶，”西班牙纳瓦拉大学（University of Navarra）的伊尼亚基·埃切维里亚·瓦尔特（Iñaki Echeverría Huarte）博士说道。

drift /drɪft/ 1）表示“（尤指在外力作用下）飘，漂流，漂移”，英文解释为“to move slowly, especially as a result of outside forces, with no control over direction”举个🌰：No one noticed that the boat had begun to drift out to sea. 没有人注意到船已经开始漂向大海了。 The talk drifted aimlessly from one subject to another. 谈话漫无目的地从一个主题转向另一个主题。

As with many critical discoveries in science, the revelation owes a debt to serendipity. During the pandemic, the researchers ran experiments to see how many people could share a space while keeping a safe distance. On reviewing the video, they noticed that crowds overwhelmingly walked in an anticlockwise direction.

和科学史上许多重大发现一样，这一发现也源于一次机缘巧合。疫情期间，研究人员进行了一项实验，想看看在保持安全距离的前提下，一个空间内能容纳多少人。回看视频时，他们惊讶地发现，人群几乎无一例外地沿着逆时针方向行走。

revelation /ˌrev.əˈleɪ.ʃən/ 表示“被透露的事实；被泄露的秘密；出乎意料的事物，令人惊喜的发现”，英文解释为“A revelation is a surprising or interesting fact that is made known to people.”如：the seemingly everlasting revelations about his private life 有关他私生活的似乎永无休止的披露。

📍词根“-ation”表示“行为或过程”，前缀“revel-”（reveal, 揭示的变体，表示揭露）。想象你正在揭示一个秘密，这就是“revelation”。

📍come as/be a revelation表示“让人大开眼界；令人耳目一新；出乎意料地使人惊喜”，英文解释为“to be an extremely pleasant surprise”举个🌰：This book came as a complete revelation to me. 这本书使我茅塞顿开。

🎬 电影《惊天魔盗团2》（Now You See Me 2）中的台词提到：And the stunning revelation that FBI agent Dylan Rhodes ... 还有惊天大揭露联调局特工迪伦·罗兹…

The surprise set in motion an entire research project. The scientists conducted a series of experiments in which individual pedestrians or small crowds roamed around enclosed spaces. Time and again, the researchers observed the tendency to walk in an anticlockwise direction.

这个意外的发现，催生了一个完整的研究项目。科学家们进行了一系列实验，让单个行人或小群体在封闭空间内自由漫步。一次又一次，研究人员都观察到了人们逆时针行走的倾向。

put/set sth in motion表示“使…开始运转，启动”，英文解释为“to start a machine or process”举个🌰：Once the printing processes have been put in motion, they're not so easy to stop. 印刷工序一旦启动，就不容易停止了。

pedestrian /pəˈdes.tri.ən/ 表示“行人，步行者”，英文解释为“a person who is walking, especially in an area where vehicles go”举个🌰：A few pedestrians sheltered from the rain in doorways. 几个行人站在门口躲雨。

roam /rəʊm/ 表示“闲逛（于）；漫步（于）；漫游（于）”，英文解释为“to move about or travel, especially without a clear idea of what you are going to do”举个🌰：After the bars close, gangs of youths roam the city streets. 酒馆关门后，成群结伙的年轻人在城里街道上游荡。

Suspecting that cultural norms might play a role, the team joined forces with Dr Claudio Feliciani at the University of Tokyo. He found the same results in Japan. The finding held when the researchers accounted for people being right-handed, right-footed and right-eye dominant, and was seen in both male and female walkers. The only difference they spotted was a more pronounced bias in children.

研究人员怀疑文化规范可能在其中扮演了角色，于是与东京大学（University of Tokyo）的克劳迪奥·费利恰尼（Claudio Feliciani）博士联手。他在日本也发现了同样的现象。即便考虑了人们是右撇子、右脚主导和右眼主导等因素，这一发现依然成立，并且在男性和女性步行者中均得到验证。他们发现的唯一区别是，儿童的这种偏向更为显著。

norm /nɔːm/ 通常复数，表示“规范；行为标准”，英文解释为“standards of behaviour that are typical of or accepted within a particular group or society”，如：social/cultural norms 社会/文化规范。

📍the norm 表示“常态，正常行为”，英文解释为“a situation or type of behaviour that is expected and considered to be typical”举个🌰：One child per family is fast becoming the norm in some countries. 每个家庭一个孩子在一些国家正迅速普遍起来。

pronounced /prəˈnaʊnst/ 表示“明显的；明确的”，英文解释为“very noticeable or certain”举个🌰：She's a woman of very pronounced views which she is not afraid to air. 她是个从不讳言其观点的女人。

“Each of us carries a small personal bias to turn slightly to one side, and when many people share a space, those tiny biases add up into a net counterclockwise rotation,” said Echeverría Huarte. Details are published in Nature Communications.

“我们每个人都有一个微小的个人偏向，会不自觉地朝一侧转动，当许多人共享一个空间时，这些微小的偏向便累积起来，最终形成一个净逆时针旋转，”埃切维里亚·瓦尔特解释道。研究详情已发表在《自然通讯》（Nature Communications）上。

The scientists are not sure where the bias comes from, but have performed further experiments in virtual reality, and others in which people pretended one leg was broken, in the hope of making headway. Wags on the team joked that the opposite trend might be seen in Australia and that the Coriolis effect, in which Earth's rotation deflects the direction of the wind, was at work.

科学家们尚不确定这种偏向从何而来，但他们已在虚拟现实中进行了进一步的实验，还让参与者假装一条腿断了，以期取得突破。团队中的好事者打趣说，在澳大利亚可能会看到相反的趋势，并且科里奥利效应（Coriolis effect）——地球自转使风向偏转——可能也在其中作祟。

wag /wæɡ/ 作动词，表示“（使）（尤指尾巴或手指）摆动，摇”，英文解释为“(especially of a tail or finger) to move from side to side or up and down, especially quickly and repeatedly, or to cause this to happen”举个🌰：The little dog's tail wagged in delight. 那条小狗欢快地摇着尾巴。

作名词，wag /wæɡ/ 表示“幽默的人；爱开玩笑的人”，英文解释为“a humorous person who likes to make jokes”

“We don't know why it happens, but we think that by understanding the reasons, we could better understand how we perceive the world,” Feliciani said. “It can help us make other discoveries which may be more important than this one.”

“我们不知道为什么会这样，但我们认为，通过理解其中的原因，我们可以更好地理解人类感知世界的方式，”费利恰尼说。“这或许能帮助我们做出其他更重要的发现。”

perceive /pəˈsiːv/ 1）表示“感知，察觉，注意到，意识到”，英文解释为“to see something or someone, or to notice something that is obvious”举个🌰：He perceived a tiny figure in the distance. 他注意到远处有个很小的身影。

2）表示“认为；看待；视为”，英文解释为“to come to an opinion about something, or have a belief about something”举个🌰：How do the French perceive the British? 法国人是如何看待英国人的？

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述Bitcoin的文章中提到：Scarcity is a trait of many things that are perceived to have value. 稀缺性正是许多被视为有价值的事物共有的特征。

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