學(xué)術(shù)英語(yǔ)-社科Unit2-翻譯

Everyfieldofstudyhasitsownlanguageanditsownwayofthinking.Mathematicianstalkaboutaxioms,integrals,andvectorspaces.Psychologiststalkabout

ego,id,andcognitivedissonance.Lawyerstalkabout

venue,torts,andpromissoryestoppel.

每個(gè)研究領(lǐng)域都有它自己的語(yǔ)言和思考方式。數(shù)學(xué)家談?wù)摱ɡ?、積分以及向量空間。心理學(xué)家談?wù)撟晕摇⒈灸?、以及認(rèn)知的不一致性。律師談?wù)摲缸锏攸c(diǎn)、侵權(quán)行為以及約定的禁止翻供。Economicsisnodifferent.Supply,demand,elasticity,comparativeadvantage,consumersurplus,deadweightloss—thesetermsarepartoftheeconomist’slanguage.Inthecomingchapters,youwillencountermanynewtermsandsomefamiliarwordsthateconomistsuseinspecializedways.Atfirst,thisnewlanguagemayseem

needlesslyarcane.

But,asyouwillsee,itsvalueliesinitsabilitytoprovideyouanewandusefulwayofthinkingabouttheworldinwhichyoulive.經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家也一樣。供給、需求、彈性、比較優(yōu)勢(shì)、消費(fèi)剩余、最低損耗，這些術(shù)語(yǔ)是經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)語(yǔ)言的一部分。在接下來(lái)的章節(jié)里，你會(huì)遇到很多新術(shù)語(yǔ)以及一些熟悉的詞匯，這些術(shù)語(yǔ)和詞匯被經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家們用在經(jīng)濟(jì)這一領(lǐng)域。起初，這些新的語(yǔ)言可能看起來(lái)不必要的神秘，但是，你會(huì)看到，他的價(jià)值在于他能提供給你一種新的和有用的思考方式，讓你思考你生活的世界。Economiststrytoaddresstheirsubjectwithascientist’sobjectivity.They

approach

thestudyoftheeconomyinmuchthesamewayasaphysicistapproachesthestudyofmatterandabiologistapproachesthestudyoflife:They

devise

theories,collectdata,andthenanalyzethesedatainanattempttoverifyorrefutetheirtheories.經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家們?cè)噲D從科學(xué)的角度來(lái)闡釋他們的學(xué)科。他們演繹經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)和物理學(xué)家演繹物質(zhì)、生物學(xué)家演繹生命一樣：他們?cè)O(shè)計(jì)理論，收集數(shù)據(jù)，然后分析這些數(shù)據(jù)，試圖能夠證明或者反駁他們的理論。Tobeginners,itcanseemoddtoclaimthateconomicsisascience.Afterall,economistsdonotworkwithtesttubesortelescopes.Theessenceofscience,

however,isthescientificmethod—thedispassionatedevelopmentandtestingoftheoriesabouthowtheworldworks.Thismethodofinquiryisasapplicabletostudyinganation’seconomyasitistostudyingtheearth’s

gravity

oraspecies’evolution.AsAlbertEinsteinonceputit,“Thewholeofscienceisnothingmorethantherefinementofeverydaythinking.”對(duì)于初學(xué)者來(lái)說(shuō)，宣稱經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)是科學(xué)似乎看起來(lái)很奇怪。畢竟，經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家們并不和試管或者顯微鏡一起工作。然而，科學(xué)的精華是科學(xué)的方法——世界如何運(yùn)作這一理論的逐漸發(fā)展和試驗(yàn)。這種觀察的方法運(yùn)用于研究一個(gè)國(guó)家的經(jīng)濟(jì)，就像它運(yùn)用于研究地球的重力或者一個(gè)物種的演變。就像愛(ài)因斯坦曾經(jīng)提出的：科學(xué)的全部無(wú)非就是日常思考的精煉。AlthoughEinstein’scommentisastrueforsocialsciencessuchaseconomicsasitisfornaturalsciencessuchasphysics,mostpeoplearenotaccustomedtolookingatsocietythroughtheeyesofascientist.Let’sthereforediscusssomeofthewaysinwhicheconomistsapplythelogicofsciencetoexaminehowaneconomyworks.盡管愛(ài)因斯坦的觀點(diǎn)對(duì)于社會(huì)科學(xué)例如經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)是正確的，就像它對(duì)于自然科學(xué)例如物理學(xué)一樣是正確的，大部分人并不習(xí)慣于通過(guò)科學(xué)的角度來(lái)看待社會(huì)。因此，就讓我們來(lái)討論一些方法，通過(guò)這些方法，經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家們運(yùn)用科學(xué)邏輯來(lái)觀察經(jīng)濟(jì)如何運(yùn)作。THESCIENTIFICMETHOD:OBSERVATION,THEORY,ANDMOREOBSERVATION科學(xué)的方法：觀察、理論以及更多的觀察IsaacNewton,thefamousseventeenth-centuryscientistandmathematician,

allegedly

became

intrigued

onedaywhenhesawanapplefallfromanappletree.ThisobservationmotivatedNewtontodevelopatheoryofgravitythatappliesnotonlytoanapplefallingtotheearthbuttoanytwoobjectsintheuniverse.產(chǎn)品。當(dāng)然，現(xiàn)實(shí)的世界有很多國(guó)家組成，每個(gè)國(guó)家生產(chǎn)上千種不同的產(chǎn)品。但是通過(guò)假設(shè)兩個(gè)國(guó)家和兩種產(chǎn)品，我們可以更好的思考。一旦我們理解了假設(shè)中的兩個(gè)國(guó)家兩種產(chǎn)品的國(guó)際交易，那么我們可以更好地理解我們生活的這一更加復(fù)雜的世界的國(guó)際交易。Theartinscientificthinking—whetherinphysics,biology,oreconomics—isdecidingwhichassumptionstomake.Suppose,forinstance,thatweweredroppingabeachballratherthanamarblefromthetopofthebuilding.Ourphysicistwouldrealizethattheassumptionofnofrictionisfarlessaccurateinthiscase:Frictionexertsagreaterforceonabeachballthanonamarble.Theassumptionthatgravityworksinavacuumisreasonableforstudyingafallingmarblebutnotforstudyingafallingbeachball.科學(xué)思考的藝術(shù)，不論是在物理學(xué)、生物學(xué)或者經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)上，取決于做什么樣的假設(shè)。例如，假定從樓頂上落下的是沙灘排球而不是大理石。我們的物理學(xué)家就會(huì)認(rèn)識(shí)到?jīng)]有摩擦力的假設(shè)在這種情況下是很不精確的：比起空氣對(duì)大理石的摩擦，空氣對(duì)沙灘排球的摩擦?xí)a(chǎn)生更大的力。重力在真空中作用這一假設(shè)對(duì)于研究降落的大理石來(lái)說(shuō)是合理的，但是對(duì)于研究沙灘排球就不合理。Similarly,economistsusedifferentassumptionstoanswerdifferentquestions.Supposethatwewanttostudywhathappenstotheeconomywhenthegovernmentchangesthenumberofdollarsincirculation.Animportantpieceofthisanalysis,itturnsout,ishowpricesrespond.Manypricesintheeconomychangeinfrequently;the

newsstand

pricesofmagazines,forinstance,arechangedonlyeveryfewyears.Knowingthisfactmayleadustomakedifferentassumptionswhenstudyingtheeffectsofthepolicychangeoverdifferenttimehorizons.Forstudyingtheshort-runeffectsofthepolicy,wemayassumethatpricesdonotchangemuch.Wemayevenmaketheextremeand

artificial

assumptionthatallpricesarecompletelyfixed.Forstudyingthelong-runeffectsofthepolicy,however,wemayassumethatallpricesarecompletelyflexible.Justasaphysicistusesdifferentassumptionswhenstudyingfallingmarblesandfallingbeachballs,economistsusedifferentassumptionswhenstudyingtheshort-runandlong-runeffectsofachangeinthequantityofmoney.相似地，經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家用不同的假設(shè)來(lái)回答不同的問(wèn)題。假設(shè)我們要研究當(dāng)政府改變流通中的貨幣時(shí)，會(huì)對(duì)經(jīng)濟(jì)產(chǎn)生什么樣的影響。結(jié)果表明，這個(gè)分析很重要的一條是價(jià)格是如何回應(yīng)的。經(jīng)濟(jì)中很多價(jià)格會(huì)經(jīng)常變動(dòng)，報(bào)攤上的雜志價(jià)格變動(dòng)會(huì)隔幾年。懂得這一事實(shí)，可以讓我們?cè)谘芯坎煌瑫r(shí)期政策改變的影響時(shí)，做出不同的假設(shè)。對(duì)于研究政策的短期影響時(shí)，我們可以假設(shè)價(jià)格不會(huì)變動(dòng)很大。我們甚至可以做極端人為的假設(shè)——所有價(jià)格都完全不變。然而，對(duì)于研究政策的長(zhǎng)期影響，我們可以假設(shè)所有價(jià)格都是完全彈性的。就像物理學(xué)家研究大理石降落和沙灘排球降落用不同的假設(shè)一樣，經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家在研究貨幣量變化的短期和長(zhǎng)期影響時(shí)，用不同的假設(shè)。ECONOMICMODELS經(jīng)濟(jì)模型Highschoolbiologyteachersteachbasic

anatomy

withplastic

replicas

ofthehumanbody.Thesemodelshaveallthemajororgans—theheart,the

liver,thekidneys,andsoon.Themodelsallowteacherstoshowtheirstudentsinasimplewayhowtheimportantpartsofthebodyfittogether.Ofcourse,theseplasticmodelsarenotactualhumanbodies,andnoonewouldmistakethemodelforarealperson.Thesemodelsarestylized,andtheyomitmanydetails.Yetdespitethislackofrealism—indeed,becauseofthislackofrealism—studyingthesemodelsisusefulforlearninghowthehumanbodyworks.高中生物老師用人體的塑料復(fù)制品講授基礎(chǔ)解剖學(xué)。這些模型都有主要的器官：心臟、肝臟、腎臟等等。這些模型讓老師用簡(jiǎn)單的方式展示給他們的學(xué)生身體上這些重要的部分是如何互相協(xié)調(diào)的。當(dāng)然，這些塑料模型不是真實(shí)的人體，沒(méi)有人會(huì)把這些模型誤認(rèn)為是真的人。這些模型是設(shè)計(jì)的，他們忽略了很多細(xì)節(jié)。然而，盡管缺乏真實(shí)性，但是正是對(duì)這些模型的研究，對(duì)學(xué)習(xí)人體如何工作很有幫助。Economistsalsousemodelstolearnabouttheworld,butinsteadofbeingmadeofplastic,theyaremostoftencomposedofdiagramsandequations.Likeabiologyteacher’splasticmodel,economicmodelsomitmanydetailstoallowustoseewhatistrulyimportant.Justasthebiologyteacher’smodeldoesnotincludeallofthebody’smusclesand

capillaries,aneconomist’smodeldoesnotincludeeveryfeatureoftheeconomy.經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家也用模型來(lái)學(xué)習(xí)世界，但是