摘要：考研英语作为一门考研公共课，虽然大家都学了英语十几年，却仍经常有总分过线挂在英语上的情况，因此英语复习不单单是单词、做题。阅读作为考研英语的大头，仅仅做考研真题或许没法满足你的阅读量，因此帮帮之后会不定时推出一篇英文美文，这些文章都与考研英语阅读同源，多读必有好处。

　　The Math Behind Successful Relationships

　　成功关系背后蕴含的数学原理

　　Nearly 30 years ago, a mathematician and a psychologist teamed up to explore one of life’s enduring mysteries: What makes some marriages happy and some miserable?

　　大约30年前，一位数学家和一位心理学家共同开始探讨一个永恒的人生谜题：为何有的婚姻幸福，而有的婚姻不幸福？

　　The psychologist, John Gottman, wanted to craft a tool to help him better counsel troubled couples. The mathematician, James Murray, specialized in modeling biological processes. It was a match made in heaven.

　　心理学家约翰·戈特曼想要设计一种工具，以便更好地为那些陷入婚姻危机的夫妻提供咨询。数学家詹姆斯·穆雷则专注于生物学过程的建模。两人简直就是天造地设的一对拍档。

　　The pair decided to create a mathematical model to quantify how couples interact and influence each other during an argument. The results helped Dr Gottman visualize the dynamics of a marriage and measure the impact of therapy.

　　他们决定开发一套数学模型来量化夫妻间在争论时的互动以及对彼此的影响。戈特曼根据研究结果将婚姻状态以可视化形式呈现出来，并以此衡量婚姻咨询治疗的效果。

　　The approach also proved to be shockingly accurate at predicting which couples would divorce. “We got actual numbers we could compute,” Dr Gottman said. “We could see how the partners influence each other.”

　　结果还表明，这一算法可以高度准确地预测哪些夫妇将会离婚。戈特曼说：“我们能得出可供计算的准确数值，我们可以看到夫妻间是如何相互影响的。”

　　Their subjects initially included 130 couples who had applied for marriage licenses in King County, where, at the time, the professors taught at the University of Washington in Seattle. Some of the couples were newlyweds, others were about to be married, and each pair was videotaped for three 15-minute conversations.

　　他们最初的研究对象是130对在华盛顿金县申请结婚登记的夫妻。当时，两人都在华盛顿大学西雅图分校任教。他们的研究对象一部分是新婚夫妇，另一些则是即将结婚的情侣他们会和每对伴侣进行三次长达15分钟的交流并全程录像。

　　In one exchange, the couples were instructed to talk about their day. In another they were told to talk about something positive. And in the third, they were asked to talk about something contentious. The topic didn’t matter—it could be about money, sex, food, in-laws or anything else—as long as they disagreed.

　　在第一次交流中，研究人员让夫妇二人谈论他们一天的经历，第二次要求谈论积极的话题，第三次则是谈论有争议性的话题。话题是什么不重要（可以是钱、性、食物、姻亲或其他任何话题），只要是双方意见不一致即可。

　　The contentious exchange proved to be the most predictive. The couple’s interactions were scored by two independent observers who rated every emotion in the exchange.

　　结果证明，具有争论性的交流（即第三次交流）是最具预测价值的。有两位独立观察员对夫妻的互动过程进行评估，对互动过程中的每一种情绪分别打分。

　　Altogether, 16 different emotions were coded. At one end of the spectrum, contempt, the most corrosive emotion, according to Dr Gottman, was scored -4. At the other end, shared humor, one of the best ways to defuse tension, he said, was scored +4.

　　评分体系一共覆盖了16种情绪。戈特曼表示，最低分为-4分，代表最具毁灭性的情绪，即轻蔑；最高分为+4分，表现为共有的幽默，是最能缓解矛盾的情绪。

　　“They both have to be laughing together,” Dr Gottman said. “A lot of contempt happens with one person laughing and the other person looking stunned. That’s a minus 4.”

　　戈特曼表示：“只有两人一起笑出来才能得最高分，而如果只有一个人在笑，另外一个人神情惊愕，便会产生很多轻蔑的情绪，就只能得-4分。”

　　(全文共334个词，华尔街日报)

　　►重难点词汇：

　　miserable  adj. 悲惨的；痛苦的；卑鄙的

　　specialize  vi. 专门从事；详细说明；特化 vt. 使专门化；使适应特殊情况；详细说明

　　dynamics  n. 动力学，力学

　　instruct  vt. 指导；通知；命令；教授

　　contempt  n. 轻视，蔑视；耻辱

　　corrosive  adj. 腐蚀的；侵蚀性的 n. 腐蚀物

　　defuse  vt. 平息；去掉…的雷管；使除去危险性

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