与“星星的孩子”同行

4月2日，今天是第十六个世界提高孤独症意识日（World Autism Awareness Day）。我国今年的主题是“关爱孤独症儿童，关注与支持孤独症人士的照顾者和专业工作者”。

🤔️小作业：

1. prodigy, prodigious是什么意思？

2.「跑调，走调」怎么表达？

3. IQ, EQ的全称是什么？

4.「单数、复数」怎么表达？

无注释原文：

What Prodigies Could Teach Us About Autism

From: The New York Times

Feb. 27, 2016

MANY parents remember a moment when their toddler astounded them. Maybe he outpaced his playgroup at mastering a song. Maybe she knew an esoteric fact about outer space. They might quietly wonder: Is my child a prodigy?

Probably not. A prodigy is defined as a preadolescent child who performs at an adult professional level in a demanding field. True prodigies are incredibly rare. For every Joey Alexander lighting up the Grammys, there are thousands of talented but not prodigious child musicians.

We’ve known about child prodigies for a long time. In the 1700s, a young Mozart was composing symphonies and dazzling audiences. Academic investigations of prodigies go back at least 90 years.

But we still don’t know what makes for a true prodigy. There’s no prodigy blood test or genetics screen. Nor do we know how they do it. How does an 8-year-old ace college courses? How can an 18-month-old recite the alphabet backward? This might not seem like a big deal. Whether a child is “officially” a prodigy has little impact on her life. Parents don’t typically seek treatment for a child because she is achieving too much.

But what if understanding prodigies would help us understand a seemingly unrelated condition, like autism?

No link has yet been proved between autism and prodigy. Prodigies aren’t typically autistic (unlike savants, in whom extraordinary abilities and autism often coincide), and they don’t have the social or communication challenges that characterize autism. But some aspects of prodigy and autism do overlap.

Prodigies, like many autistic people, have a nearly insatiable passion for their area of interest. Lauren Voiers, an art prodigy from the Cleveland area, painted well into the night as a teenager; sometimes she didn’t sleep at all before school began. That sounds a lot like the “highly restricted, fixated interests” that are part of autism’s diagnostic criteria.

Prodigies also have exceptional working memories. In a 2012 study led by one of us, Dr. Ruthsatz, all eight of the prodigies examined scored in the 99th percentile in this area. As the child physicist Jacob Barnett once put it during an interview on “60 Minutes,” “Every number or math problem I ever hear, I have permanently remembered.” Extreme memory has long been linked to autism as well. Dr. Leo Kanner, one of the scientists credited with identifying autism in the 1940s, noted that the autistic children he saw could recite “an inordinate number of nursery rhymes, prayers, lists of animals, the roster of presidents, the alphabet forward and backward.” A study on talent and autism published in 2015 in The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders found that over half of the more than 200 autistic subjects had unusually good memories.

Finally, both prodigies and autistic people have excellent eyes for detail. Simon Baron-Cohen, an autism researcher, and his colleagues have described an excellent eye for detail as “a universal feature of the autistic brain.” It’s one of the categories on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, a self-administered test Dr. Baron-Cohen helped develop that measures autistic traits. The prodigies in Dr. Ruthsatz’s 2012 study got high marks in this trait on the test. One of the subjects, Jonathan Russell, a 20-year-old music prodigy who lives in New York, described how startled he gets when the chimes on the subway are slightly off key.

Beyond the cognitive similarities, many child prodigies have autistic relatives. In the 2012 study, half of the prodigies had an autistic relative at least as close as a niece or grandparent. Three had received a diagnosis of autism themselves when young, which they seemed to have since grown out of.

There might even be evidence of a genetic link between the conditions. In a 2015 study published in Human Heredity, Dr. Ruthsatz and her colleagues examined the DNA of prodigies and their families. They found that the prodigies and their autistic relatives both seemed to have a genetic mutation or mutations on the short arm of Chromosome 1 that were not shared by their neurotypical relatives. Despite a small sample size, the data was statistically significant.

Perhaps prodigies have a very specific and unusual form of autism: They have many of the strengths associated with the condition, but few of the difficulties. This makes prodigies potentially important not just for talent research but also for autism research.

Autism is, of course, notoriously heterogeneous, and an autism diagnosis doesn’t necessarily signify any single underlying biological anomaly. Even autistic siblings often have different genetic risk factors for autism. Some researchers have thus taken to referring to autism not in the singular, but in the plural, as “the autisms.”

We don’t want to give false hope. The potential connection between autism and prodigy does not mean that people with autism are actually all geniuses. Rather, the prodigies may be people who were at risk of having this condition, yet don’t.

Scientists have revolutionized several areas of medicine by identifying “resilience genes” — mutations that protect against specific diseases. Researchers studying H.I.V., heart disease and Type 2 diabetes have turned conventional methodology on its head: Instead of focusing solely on those who have a particular disease, they have investigated high-risk individuals who remained healthy.

In theory, a similar approach could work in the study of prodigy and autism. Prodigies could act as the “high risk” but unaffected group that could advance our understanding of autism. It does not mean we could develop a treatment or cure, but it could offer major insights.

Scientists are making some progress in untangling the underlying biology of brain disorders. The National Institute of Mental Health, for example, has started the Research Domain Criteria initiative, an effort that ignores the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders categories. It instead focuses on integrating data from genetics, cognitive science, behavioral studies and other sources to build a new research framework for brain disorders. As Sarah Morris, the acting director of the project, said, “Ultimately the goal is that with better diagnosis you can get better treatment.”

Pinning down whether the child rattling off outer space trivia is a little advanced for her age or an actual prodigy may be about more than bragging rights. It could help us tackle part of the mystery of autism.

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

天才儿童和自闭症有什么关系

What Prodigies Could Teach Us About Autism

From: The New York Times

Feb. 27, 2016

MANY parents remember a moment when their toddler astounded them. Maybe he outpaced his playgroup at mastering a song. Maybe she knew an esoteric fact about outer space. They might quietly wonder: Is my child a prodigy?

许多父母都会记得某个被自己的宝宝惊呆的时刻。或许是孩子在幼儿游戏班里第一个学会唱一首歌，或许是她竟然知道关于外太空的一项冷知识。这些父母可能会悄悄猜想：难道我的孩子是天才？

prodigy /ˈprɒd.ɪ.dʒi/ 表示“奇才，天才”，英文解释为“someone with a very great ability that usually shows itself when that person is a young child”

toddler /ˈtɒdlə/ 表示“学步的儿童”，英文解释为“A toddler is a young child who has only just learned to walk or who still walks unsteadily with small, quick steps.”举个🌰：

I had a toddler at home and two other children at school. 我有一个刚学步的孩子在家中，另外两个孩子在学校。

🎬电影《相助》（The Help）中的台词提到：She's trying to blame it on a toddler. 她想把错赖在小孩子身上。

astound /əˈstaʊnd/ 表示“使震惊；使惊骇”，英文解释为“to surprise or shock someone very much”举个🌰：

The news astounded me. 听到这个消息，我非常震惊。

outpace /ˌaʊtˈpeɪs/ 表示“（速度上）超过，比…更快”，英文解释为“to move or develop faster than someone or something else”举个🌰：

The company has completely outpaced its rivals in the market. 这家公司在市场上已完全领先对手。

📍2023年政府工作报告Part 10：中西部地区经济增速总体高于东部地区。Overall, the central and western regions outpaced the eastern region in terms of economic growth rate.

esoteric /ˌiː.səˈter.ɪk/ 表示“极不寻常的；只有少数人（尤指内行）才懂的；限于小圈子的”，英文解释为“very unusual and understood or liked by only a small number of people, especially those with special knowledge”举个🌰：

He has an esoteric collection of old toys and games. 他收藏了一批极罕见的老玩具和游戏。

Probably not. A prodigy is defined as a preadolescent child who performs at an adult professional level in a demanding field. True prodigies are incredibly rare. For every Joey Alexander lighting up the Grammys, there are thousands of talented but not prodigious child musicians.

很可能并不是。天才的定义是，一个孩子在步入青春期之前，就在某个要求甚高的领域有了与成人专业人士比肩的表现。真正的天才是极其稀有的。这世上每出现一个点亮格莱美(Grammys)舞台的乔伊·亚历山大(Joey Alexander)，同时就会有成千上万有才华、但称不上是天赋异禀的儿童音乐人。

adolescent /ˌædəˈlesnt/ 作名词，表示“青少年”，英文解释为“a young person who is developing into an adult”。

📍作形容词，表示“青春期的；青少年的”，英文解释为“being or relating to an adolescent”如：an adolescent boy 青春期的男孩；也可以指“（成年人或其行为）孩子气的，幼稚的”，英文解释为“used to describe an adult or an adult's behaviour that is silly and like a child's”如：adolescent humour/behaviour 孩子气的幽默/幼稚的举止。

demanding /dɪˈmɑːn.dɪŋ/ 表示“费时费力的，耗费精力的”，英文解释为“needing a lot of time, attention, or energy”举个🌰：

She's a very demanding child. 她是个特别不让人省心的孩子。

prodigious /prəˈdɪdʒ.əs/ 表示“强大的，巨大的；给人印象深刻的”，英文解释为“extremely great in ability, amount, or strength”举个🌰：

She wrote a truly prodigious number of novels. 她写了数量极多的小说。

We’ve known about child prodigies for a long time. In the 1700s, a young Mozart was composing symphonies and dazzling audiences. Academic investigations of prodigies go back at least 90 years.

我们知道神童的存在已经有好一段时间了。16世纪的时候就有个年幼的莫札特会谱写交响曲，让观众叹为观止。有关天才的学术调查也可追溯到至少90年前。

表示“作曲；创作（乐曲、诗歌）；著（书）”，英文解释为“to produce music, poetry, or formal writing”举个🌰：

The music was specially composed for the film. 这音乐是专门为该电影创作的。

📍be composed of 表示“由…组成，由…构成”，英文解释为“to be formed from various things”举个🌰：

Air is composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen. 空气主要由氮和氧构成。

symphony /ˈsɪm.fə.ni/ 表示“交响乐，交响曲”，英文解释为“a long piece of music for an orchestra, usually with four movements (= parts)”如：Mahler's ninth symphony 马勒的《第九交响曲》。

表示“（美貌、技能等）使倾倒，使赞叹不已，使眼花缭乱”，英文解释为“to impress sb a lot with your beauty, skill, etc.”举个🌰：

He was dazzled by the warmth of her smile. 她那温柔的微笑使他神魂颠倒。

But we still don’t know what makes for a true prodigy. There’s no prodigy blood test or genetics screen. Nor do we know how they do it. How does an 8-year-old ace college courses? How can an 18-month-old recite the alphabet backward? This might not seem like a big deal. Whether a child is “officially” a prodigy has little impact on her life. Parents don’t typically seek treatment for a child because she is achieving too much.

不过我们还是无从得知，是什么造就了真正的天才。世界上没有能找出天才的血液测验或是基因筛查技术。我们也不明白这些人是如何达到这般境地的。一个8岁孩子为何能在大学课堂上领先群伦？一个18个月大的幼儿又怎能倒背字母表如流？这些问题看来可能不是那么重要。毕竟一个孩子是不是“正式认定”的天才，对她的人生影响微乎其微。家长通常也不会因为孩子的成就太高而为其寻求治疗。

ace /eɪs/ 表示“幺点的纸牌，A 纸牌”，英文解释为“one of the four playing cards with a single mark or spot. The ace has the highest or lowest value in many card games.”如：the ace of hearts / clubs / spades / diamonds 红桃/梅花／黑桃／方块 A。

📍在网球中，ace表示“发球得分”，英文解释为“in tennis, a serve (= a hit of the ball that starts play) that is so strong and fast that the other player cannot return the ball”

作动词，ace /eɪs/ 表示“…考得很好”，英文解释为“to do very well in an exam”举个🌰：

I was up all night studying, but it was worth it - I aced my chemistry final. 我熬了个通宵学习，倒是没有白费劲，化学期终考试我考得很好。

表示“背诵；朗诵；当众吟诵”，英文解释为“to say a piece of writing aloud from memory, or to publicly say a list of things”

alphabet /ˈæl.fə.bet/ 表示“字母表”，英文解释为“a set of letters arranged in a fixed order, used for writing a language”如：the Roman/Cyrillic alphabet 罗马/西里尔字母表。

But what if understanding prodigies would help us understand a seemingly unrelated condition, like autism?

可是，如果了解天才可以帮我们了解另一种看来毫不相干的病症呢？譬如说自闭症？

autism /ˈɔː.tɪ.zəm/ 表示“孤独症；自闭症”，英文解释为“a condition that starts in young children and typically causes behaviour that is unusually centred on the self while limiting the development of social and communication skills”举个🌰：

Autism is four times more common in boys than in girls. 男孩子患自闭症的发病率是女孩子的4倍。

No link has yet been proved between autism and prodigy. Prodigies aren’t typically autistic (unlike savants, in whom extraordinary abilities and autism often coincide), and they don’t have the social or communication challenges that characterize autism. But some aspects of prodigy and autism do overlap.

自闭症与天才之间的关联，目前尚未得到证实。天才通常不是自闭症患者（他们不像那些有学者症候群的人，常在身负奇才的同时患有自闭症)，也没有这种病症特有的社交或沟通障碍。但这两者确实在某些方面有所交集。

autistic /ɔːˈtɪs.tɪk/ 表示“患自闭症的；与自闭症相关的”，英文解释为“affected by or relating to the condition of autism, which affects the development of social and communication skills and can affect behaviour”举个🌰：

One child in 5,000 is autistic. 每5,000名儿童中就有一名自闭症患者。

savant /ˈsæv.ənt/ 表示“（尤指在其他方面缺乏能力的）博学之士，学者，专家”，英文解释为“a person with a high level of knowledge or skill, especially someone who is less able in other ways”

📍有一种说法叫自闭症特才，You can refer to someone as an autistic savant if they seem to be less intelligent than normal people but are unusually good at doing one particular thing.

Prodigies, like many autistic people, have a nearly insatiable passion for their area of interest. Lauren Voiers, an art prodigy from the Cleveland area, painted well into the night as a teenager; sometimes she didn’t sleep at all before school began. That sounds a lot like the “highly restricted, fixated interests” that are part of autism’s diagnostic criteria.

天才和许多自闭症患者一样，对自己感兴趣的领域有着几乎无法满足的渴求。萝伦·沃耶尔(Lauren Voiers)是来自克里夫兰地区的艺术天才，她在青少年时就常作画至深夜，有时甚至在第二天上学前，整夜都没阖眼。这听起来很像自闭症诊断标准的其中一项：“拥有高度局限、异常执迷的兴趣。”

insatiable /ɪnˈseɪʃəbəl, -ʃɪə-/ 表示“（尤指欲望或需求）无法满足的，贪得无厌的”，英文解释为“(especially of a desire or need) too great to be satisfied”举个🌰：

Like so many politicians, he had an insatiable appetite/desire/hunger for power. 同许多政客一样，他对权力贪得无厌。

fixated /fɪkˈseɪ.tɪd/ 表示“过分迷恋的；异常依恋的；固恋的”，英文解释为“unable to stop thinking about something”如：a nation fixated on the past 固恋过去的国家。

diagnostic /ˌdaɪ.əɡˈnɒs.tɪk/ 表示“诊断的；用于诊断的”，英文解释为“identifying a particular illness using a combination of signs and symptoms”如：a diagnostic test 诊断性测试。

criterion /kraɪˈtɪərɪən/ 表示“（判断的）标准，准则，原则”，复数形式为criteria，英文解释为“A criterion is a factor on which you judge or decide something.”举个🌰：

The most important criterion for entry is that applicants must design and make their own work. 参加的最重要标准就是申请人必须设计并制作自己的作品。

Prodigies also have exceptional working memories. In a 2012 study led by one of us, Dr. Ruthsatz, all eight of the prodigies examined scored in the 99th percentile in this area. As the child physicist Jacob Barnett once put it during an interview on “60 Minutes,” “Every number or math problem I ever hear, I have permanently remembered.” Extreme memory has long been linked to autism as well. Dr. Leo Kanner, one of the scientists credited with identifying autism in the 1940s, noted that the autistic children he saw could recite “an inordinate number of nursery rhymes, prayers, lists of animals, the roster of presidents, the alphabet forward and backward.” A study on talent and autism published in 2015 in The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders found that over half of the more than 200 autistic subjects had unusually good memories.

天才还拥有超凡的工作记忆。本文两位作者之一鲁思萨茨博士在2012年发表的一篇报告指出，她研究的所有八位天才，都在工作记忆这方面得到百分等级99的高分。就像神童物理学家雅各·巴奈特(Jacob Barnett)上《60分钟》(60 Minutes)节目受访时说过的，“我听过的每个数字或是数学问题，都永远记住了。”极端的记忆力也是一向和自闭症关联的。里奥·坎纳(Leo Kanner)博士是在1940年代最早诊断出自闭症的科学家之一。他注意到有些自闭症儿童可以背诵“数量惊人的童谣、祷词、动物名称、总统名册、顺序或倒序字母表”。《自闭症与发育障碍期刊》(Autism and Developmental Disorders)在2015刊载了关于天分与自闭症的一份论文也指出，他们研究的超过200位患者中，有半数以上的人拥有非比寻常的极佳记忆力。

percentile /pəˈsen.taɪl/ 表示“百分位（数）；百分位（数）之一”，英文解释为“one of the points into which a large range of numbers, results, etc. is divided to make 100 groups of the same size”举个🌰：

That score puts you in the 97th percentile. 那个分数使你处于百分位排名的第97位。

表示“过度的”，英文解释为“much more than usual or expected”举个🌰：

She has always spent an inordinate amount of time on her appearance. 她总是花很多时间打扮自己。

nursery rhyme /ˈnɜː.sər.i ˌraɪm/ 表示“儿歌，童谣”，英文解释为“a short and usually very old poem or song for young children”如：a book of nursery rhymes 儿歌集。

表示“花名册; 名单；候选名单；值勤表，勤务簿”，英文解释为“A roster is a list, especially of the people who work for a particular organization or are available to do a particular job. It can also be a list of the athletes who are available for a particular team；A list of people's names, often with the jobs they have been given to do”

Finally, both prodigies and autistic people have excellent eyes for detail. Simon Baron-Cohen, an autism researcher, and his colleagues have described an excellent eye for detail as “a universal feature of the autistic brain.” It’s one of the categories on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, a self-administered test Dr. Baron-Cohen helped develop that measures autistic traits. The prodigies in Dr. Ruthsatz’s 2012 study got high marks in this trait on the test. One of the subjects, Jonathan Russell, a 20-year-old music prodigy who lives in New York, described how startled he gets when the chimes on the subway are slightly off key.

最后，天才与自闭症患者都有明察秋毫的好眼力。西蒙·巴伦-柯恩(Simon Baron-Cohen)是研究自闭症的学者，他与同事曾称绝佳的眼力是“自闭症大脑的普遍特征”。这也是“自闭症谱系商数”(Autism-Spectrum Quotient)里的评量类别之一。这个量表是巴伦-柯恩建立的，用来检测自闭症的各项特征，大家可以用它来自行检测。巴伦-柯恩的其中一位研究对象乔纳森·拉塞尔(Jonathan Russel)住在纽约，是个20岁的音乐天才。他曾诉说自己在听到地铁的铃声稍微走音的时候，是如何饱受惊吓。

spectrum /ˈspɛktrəm/ 1）表示“范围；各层次；系列；幅度”，英文解释为“a complete or wide range of related qualities, ideas, etc.”如：a broad spectrum of interests 广泛的兴趣范围，举个🌰：

quotient /ˈkwəʊʃənt/ 1）表示“程度”，英文解释为“a particular degree or amount of something”，2）表示“（数学）商”，英文解释为“the result of dividing one number by another” 举个🌰：

This is a car with a high head-turning quotient (= a lot of people turn to look at it). 这部车的回头率很高。

Being rich doesn't actually increase your happiness quotient. 有钱不见得提升你的快乐指数。

📍所谓的IQ，EQ的Q就是quotient.

startled /ˈstɑː.təld/ 表示“吃惊的，受惊吓的”，英文解释为“surprised and slightly frightened”举个🌰：

He was startled when dozens of strangers showed up at his office. 当几十个陌生人出现在他的办公室时，他吓了一跳。

chime /tʃaɪm/表示“铃声；（尤指）钟声”，英文解释为“a ringing sound, especially one that is made by a bell”如：door chimes 门铃声。

off-key /ˌɒfˈkiː/ 表示“（唱歌或演奏音乐）跑调，走调，音调不准”，英文解释为“If you sing or play music off-key, you produce notes that are slightly higher or lower than they should be.”

Beyond the cognitive similarities, many child prodigies have autistic relatives. In the 2012 study, half of the prodigies had an autistic relative at least as close as a niece or grandparent. Three had received a diagnosis of autism themselves when young, which they seemed to have since grown out of.

除了认知能力上的相似性，很多天才儿童还有患自闭症的亲戚。在2012年的那项研究中，有半数的天才都有一名患自闭症的亲戚，而且关系至少近至甥侄或祖父母。其中有三名天才在小时候曾被诊断为自闭症，不过他们长大后似乎摆脱了这种病。

niece /niːs/ 表示“侄女；外甥女”，英文解释为“the daughter of your brother or sister; the daughter of your husband's or wife's brother or sister”；

相对应的：

📍nephew /ˈnɛvjuː/ 表示“侄子；外甥”，英文解释为“the son of your brother or sister; the son of your husband's or wife's brother or sister”。

There might even be evidence of a genetic link between the conditions. In a 2015 study published in Human Heredity, Dr. Ruthsatz and her colleagues examined the DNA of prodigies and their families. They found that the prodigies and their autistic relatives both seemed to have a genetic mutation or mutations on the short arm of Chromosome 1 that were not shared by their neurotypical relatives. Despite a small sample size, the data was statistically significant.

甚至还有证据表明，二者之间可能存在基因上的联系。在2015年发表于《人类遗传》(Human Heredity)期刊的一篇论文中，鲁思萨茨博士和她的同事曾对多位天才及其家人的DNA进行研究。他们发现，这些天才及其患有自闭症的亲戚的1号染色体短臂位置，似乎都有一种或多种基因突变，这在他们其他的神经发育正常的亲戚身上是没有的。尽管这个抽样基数很小，但从统计学角度讲，这个数据很值得关注。

heredity /hɪˈred.ə.ti/ 表示“遗传”，英文解释为“the process by which characteristics are given from a parent to their child through the genes”举个🌰：

Diet and exercise can influence a person's weight, but heredity is also a factor. 节食和运动可以影响一个人的体重，而遗传也是一个因素。

表示“（生物物种的）变异，突变”，英文解释为“a process in which the genetic material of a person, a plant or an animal changes in structure when it is passed on to children, etc., causing different physical characteristics to develop; a change of this kind”如：cells affected by mutation 受到突变影响的细胞。

chromosome /ˈkrəʊ.mə.səʊm/ 表示“染色体”，英文解释为“any of the rod-like structures found in all living cells, containing the chemical patterns that control what an animal or plant is like”如：X and Y chromosomes X染色体和Y染色体。

neurotypical /ˌnjʊə.rəʊˈtɪp.ɪ.kəl/ 表示“（人）神经典型的，神经正常的”，英文解释为“not suffering from or associated with an unusual brain condition, especially autism”

Perhaps prodigies have a very specific and unusual form of autism: They have many of the strengths associated with the condition, but few of the difficulties. This makes prodigies potentially important not just for talent research but also for autism research.

或许天才们患有一种非常少见的特殊类型自闭症：他们拥有许多与自闭症有关的优势，但却很少有这类患者遭遇的那些困难。果真如此的话，天才就不仅对于人才研究而言非常重要，对自闭症研究也是如此。

Autism is, of course, notoriously heterogeneous, and an autism diagnosis doesn’t necessarily signify any single underlying biological anomaly. Even autistic siblings often have different genetic risk factors for autism. Some researchers have thus taken to referring to autism not in the singular, but in the plural, as “the autisms.”

当然，自闭症的种类极其繁多，一例自闭症诊断不一定就能指向某种潜在的生物学异常。就算是几个兄弟姐妹都患有自闭症，往往也是由不同的基因风险导致。所以一些研究人员在提及自闭症这个词时，往往喜欢用复数形式，而非单数。

副词词性 notoriously 众所周知地，声名狼藉地；形容词性：notorious 表示“臭名昭著的，声名狼藉的”，英文解释为“famous or well-known for something bad”，如：a notorious computer hacker 声名狼藉的电脑黑客。

heterogeneous /ˌhet.ər.əˈdʒiː.ni.əs/ 表示“各种各样的；混杂的”，英文解释为“consisting of parts or things that are very different from each other”举个🌰：

Switzerland is a heterogeneous confederation of 26 self-governing cantons. 瑞士是一个由26个不同的自治州组成的联邦。

1）表示“表示；意味着”，英文解释为“If an event, a sign, or a symbol signifies something, it is a sign of that thing or represents that thing.”举个🌰：

These were not the only changes that signified the end of boyhood. 这些不是表示男孩时代已结束的唯一变化。

2）表示“（用符号或手势）表达”，英文解释为“If you signify something, you make a sign or gesture in order to communicate a particular meaning.”举个🌰：

Two jurors signified their dissent. 两个陪审员表达了他们的异议。

🎬电影《不死鸟》（Phoenix）中的台词提到：What do the circles signify? 圆圈是什么意思？

🎬电影《我，机器人》（I, Robot）中的台词提到：What does this action signify? 这个动作是什么意思？

1）表示“暗含的；深层的；潜在的”，英文解释为“real but not immediately obvious”举个🌰：

And what might be the underlying significance of these supposedly random acts? 这些看似偶然的行为，其暗含的意义可能是什么呢？

2）表示“以…为基础的”，英文解释为“used to describe something on which something else is based”举个🌰：

The price of the investment fell below the value of the underlying assets. 这一投资项目的价格已经跌至低于标的资产价值。

We don’t want to give false hope. The potential connection between autism and prodigy does not mean that people with autism are actually all geniuses. Rather, the prodigies may be people who were at risk of having this condition, yet don’t.

我们不想让人产生不切实际的期待。自闭症和天才之间存在潜在的联系，并不意味着患自闭症的人实际上都是天才。实际上，天才有可能是存在患自闭症的风险但并未真的患病的人。

Scientists have revolutionized several areas of medicine by identifying “resilience genes” — mutations that protect against specific diseases. Researchers studying H.I.V., heart disease and Type 2 diabetes have turned conventional methodology on its head: Instead of focusing solely on those who have a particular disease, they have investigated high-risk individuals who remained healthy.

通过确认“抗逆基因”的存在，科学家们已经给好几个医学领域带来革命性的改变。“抗逆基因”是指为防止身体患上特定的疾病而出现的突变。艾滋病、心脏病和二型糖尿病的研究人员已经调转传统治疗的方向：不是只盯着已经患上某种疾病的人，而是对仍处在健康状态的高风险个体进行调查。

表示“使发生革命性剧变；在…方面引起突破性变革”，英文解释为“to completely change something so that it is much better”举个🌰：

Newton's discoveries revolutionized physics. 牛顿的发现使物理学发生了革命性剧变。

resilience /rɪˈzɪliəns/ 表示“快速恢复的能力；适应力”，英文解释为“the ability of people or things to feel better quickly after sth unpleasant, such as shock, injury, etc.”

methodology /ˌmeθ.əˈdɒl.ə.dʒi/ 表示“一套方法；方法论；教学法”，英文解释为“a system of ways of doing, teaching, or studying something”举个🌰：

The methodology and findings of the research team have been criticized. 这个研究小组的研究方法和研究结果受到了批评。

In theory, a similar approach could work in the study of prodigy and autism. Prodigies could act as the “high risk” but unaffected group that could advance our understanding of autism. It does not mean we could develop a treatment or cure, but it could offer major insights.

从理论上讲，天才和自闭症的研究也可以采用类似的方法。天才可以被看作尚未患上自闭症的“高风险”人群，可以帮助我们提高对自闭症的了解。我们不见得一定能从中找到一种治疗或治愈自闭症的方法，但我们可以加深对它的了解，这是非常重要的。

Scientists are making some progress in untangling the underlying biology of brain disorders. The National Institute of Mental Health, for example, has started the Research Domain Criteria initiative, an effort that ignores the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders categories. It instead focuses on integrating data from genetics, cognitive science, behavioral studies and other sources to build a new research framework for brain disorders. As Sarah Morris, the acting director of the project, said, “Ultimately the goal is that with better diagnosis you can get better treatment.”

在理清大脑功能失调的潜在生理因素方面，科学家们取得了一些进展。比如，美国国家心理健康研究院(The National Institute of Mental Health)开始进行一项名为“研究区域标准”(Research Domain Criteria)的创举。他们无视《精神障碍诊断和统计手册》(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)所做的分类，而专注于将基因研究、认知科学、行为研究及其他方面的数据进行集成，创建一个研究大脑功能失调的新研究框架。正如该项目代理主任莎拉·莫里斯(Sarah Morris)所说的，它的“最终目标是，有了更好的诊断，就可以更好地进行治疗。”

1）untangle /ʌnˈtæŋ.ɡəl/ 表示“解开，松开（缠结的线绳、金属线等）”，英文解释为“to remove the knots from an untidy mass of string, wire, etc. and separate the different threads”

2）表示“整理，理清（复杂问题）”，英文解释为“to make a complicated subject or problem, or its different parts, clear and able to be understood”举个🌰：

It took years to untangle the legal complexities of the case. 理清该案牵涉到的复杂法律问题花了很多年的时间。

integrate /ˈɪn.tɪ.ɡreɪt/ 1）表示“使合并，使成为一体”，英文解释为“to combine two or more things in order to become more effective”举个🌰：

You need to integrate exercise into your normal life. 你必须让锻炼成为你日常生活的一部分。

2）表示“（使）融入（某社会或群体）；（使）成为一体”，英文解释为“to mix with and join society or a group of people, often changing to suit their way of life, habits, and customs”举个🌰：

He seems to find it difficult to integrate socially. 他似乎觉得很难与别人打成一片。

Pinning down whether the child rattling off outer space trivia is a little advanced for her age or an actual prodigy may be about more than bragging rights. It could help us tackle part of the mystery of autism.

搞清楚一个口若悬河地讲述外太空知识的孩子，是相对于同龄孩子稍微有些智力超前，还是一个真正的天才，也许不只是为了明确是否值得夸耀那么简单。它还能帮助我们解开一部分自闭症的谜团。

1）表示“（使）（某人）明确说明；（使）（某人）作出决定”，英文解释为“to make someone provide details about something or make a decision about something”举个🌰：

I've tried asking her, but she's proving difficult to pin down to a particular date. 我已经问过她了，可她很难确定具体日期。

2）表示“使（某人）动弹不得；困住（某人）”，英文解释为“to stop someone from escaping by surrounding and shooting at them if they try to escape”

表示“快速大声说（或读）出；不假思索地说出（做出）”，英文解释为“If you rattle off something, you say it or do it very quickly and without much effort. To say or read aloud very quickly a list of names or things, or something you have learned”举个🌰：

She rattled off the names of the people who were coming to the party. 她一口气说出了要来参加聚会者的名字。

trivia /ˈtrɪv.i.ə/ 表示“琐事；细枝末节”，英文解释为“details or information that are not important”，也可以解释为“冷知识”（Trivia is unimportant facts or details that are considered to be amusing rather than serious or useful.）举个🌰：

She has an encyclopedic knowledge of sports trivia. 她对体育运动的细枝末节无所不知。

表示“吹嘘，夸耀”，英文解释为“to speak too proudly about what you have done or what you own”举个🌰：

She's always bragging about how much money she earns. 她老是吹嘘自己挣钱如何如何多。

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