2014年12月英语四级听力小故事（1）基因与个性

刚刚结束的2014年12月四级考试中，听力第二部分（短文）的第一篇文章提到的神奇小故事，还有印象吗？一对出生仅四个月就分开的双胞胎，之后三十多年没有见面，但他们的人生轨迹却惊人的一致：都结过两次婚，第一任太太的名字是一样的等等。当真如此神奇？不如来看看专业研究人员怎么说吧。

Genes play a greater role in determining key personality traits like social skills and learning ability than the way we are brought up by our parents, researchers claimed.
研究人员表明，在决定诸如社交技能和学习能力的关键性格特征方面，与父母的养育方式相比较，基因扮演着更为重要的角色。

Researchers from Edinburgh University studied more than 800 sets of identical and non-identical twins to learn whether genetics or upbringing has a greater effect on how successful people are in life.
爱丁堡大学的研究人员以800多对同卵双胞胎和异卵双胞胎为对象，研究了成功的人生究竟是受遗传的影响更大还是受成长的影响更大。

Participants were asked a series of questions about how they perceive themselves and others, such as "are you influenced by people with strong opinions?"
受试者需要回答一系列的问题，都是关于他们如何看待自己和他人的，比如“你是否会受到有强烈意见的人的影响”。

Writing in the Journal of Personality, the researchers found that identical twins were twice as likely as non-identical twins to share the same personality traits, suggesting that their DNA was having the greatest impact.
正如《人格期刊》所写，研究人员发现，同卵双胞胎拥有相同性格特征的可能性是异卵双胞胎的两倍，表明他们的DNA（在决定性格特征上）起到了最重要的作用。

Genetics were most influential on people's sense of self-control and also affected their social and learning abilities and their sense of purpose.
人们在自我控制方面、社交和学习能力方面以及使命感上，遗传是最具影响力的因素。

Prof Timothy Bates, who led the study, said: "Previously, the role of family and the environment around the home often dominated people's ideas about what affected psychological wellbeing. However, this work highlights a much more powerful influence from genetics."
带领整个研究团队的提莫斯·贝提斯教授说：“以前常常认为家庭角色和环境是影响人们心理健康的因素，但这次的研究表明，遗传方面的影响更为显著。”

2014年12月英语四级答案汇总

大学英语四级考试