本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist 2016年第41期，Science and Technology版块。

Senescience

Oct 8th 2016

Alfred Nobel[1]’s fortune should, according to his will, endow[2] “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred[3] the greatest benefit to mankind”. But the committees that select the recipients of Nobel prizes often pick discoveries made, or books written, decades earlier. Partly as a result of that, winners’ ages have been inching steadily upwards. Since 2000 only 8% of those winning prizes in chemistry, physics and medicine have been under 50. This compares with 36% of those who received awards in those subjects in the 20th century. As of 2015 (the 2016 award had not been made when The Economist went to press*[4]) no one under 50 has yet won the economics prize—though this is not a real Nobel prize, and is therefore not covered by the will’s prescriptions. The peace prize is the lone exception[唯一的例外] to the trend. Its recipient in 2014, 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai[5], is the youngest Nobel laureate[6] ever.

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[1]Alfred Nobel 阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔

1895年，诺贝尔立嘱将其遗产的大部分（约920万美元）作为基金，将每年所得利息分为5份，设立物理、化学、生理或医学、文学及和平5种奖金（即诺贝尔奖），授予世界各国在这些领域对人类作出重大贡献的人。

[2]endow：to give a large amount of money to pay for creating a college, hospital, etc. or to provide an income for it 向（院校、医院等）捐款，捐赠，资助

The state of Michigan has endowed three institutes to do research for industry.

密歇根州已经向3家研究所提供资助进行产业研究。

This hospital was endowed by the citizens of Strasbourg in the 16th century.

这所医院是16世纪斯特拉斯堡市民捐建的。

[3]confer：to give an official title, honour, or advantage to someone 授予（称号、荣誉）；赋予（优势）

An honorary doctorate was conferred on him by Columbia University.

爱丁堡大学授予他荣誉博士学位。

[4]*2016年10月10日，瑞典皇家科学院诺贝尔奖评审委员会宣布，将2016年诺贝尔经济学奖授予来自哈佛大学的Oliver Hart和麻省理工大学的Bengt Holmstrom，以表彰两人在契约理论方面的贡献。

奥利弗·哈特（Oliver Hart），1948年出生。

本特·霍姆斯特罗姆（Bengt Holmstrom），1949年出生。

[5]Malala Yousafzai 马拉拉·尤萨夫扎伊 ，1997年7月12日出生，是巴基斯坦的一位以争取女性教育而闻名的活动家。

2014年，她获得诺贝尔和平奖，是所有诺贝尔奖项中的最年轻获奖人。

[6]laureate ['lɔːriət]

a person who has been given a very high honour because of their ability in a subject of study （在某研究领域）获得桂冠的人，获得殊荣的人

a Nobel laureate

诺贝尔奖获得者

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以上言论不代表本人立场。

原文摘自The economist，仅外语学习之用。

其中生词解释来源于Cambridge Dictionaries

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