佳句篇：
?
Sentence 1.
He helped popularise the idea that some diseases not previously thought to have a bacterial cause were actually infections, which ruffled many scientific feathers when it was first suggested.
解析：
Ruffle弄皺的意思
Ruffle one’s feathers惹怒（想想逆毛流擼貓）
The idea that ...用的是同位語從句，不太多，常用搭配是the evidence that，the concept that 等。That後從句解釋idea, concept或evidence等。
Which的指代問題。Which指代的不是上文任何壹個出現的單詞或詞組，而是Dr. Cochran的這波操作。
Sentence 2.
Ashkenazim generally do well in IQ tests, scoring 12-15 points above the mean value of 100, and have contributed disproportionately to the intellectual and cultural life of the West, as the careers of Freud, Einstein and Mahler, pictured above, affirm.
disproportionately不成比例地
主幹and復合句+非謂語動詞scoring+as引導的從句（插入後置定語）
每個部分都不難，集合到壹起就對理解產生障礙了。
Sentence 3.
But in the Middle Ages, success in Christian society tended to be violently aristocratic (warfare and land), rather than peacefully meritocratic (banking and trade).
這個句子不難，為什麽拿出來是因為這個violently的用法。簡單來講，這壹個單詞乍壹看是作aristocratic的副詞，實則在翻譯（以及理解）當中，我們必須單獨翻譯成壹個實意的成分，而且作副詞處理。
Aristocratic貴族統治
Meritocratic德治
Sentence 4.
That small, reproductively isolated groups of people are susceptible to genetic disease is well known.
主語從句，註意that.
Sentence 5.
Most of the dozen or so disease genes that are common in them belong to one of two types: they are involved either in the storage in nerve cells of special fats called sphingolipids, which form part of the insulating outer sheaths that allow nerve cells to transmit electrical signals, or in DNA repair.
典型長句，如何解析？
Most of the dozen or so ?disease genes that are common in them ?belong to one of two types:
Or so大約
斜體作的是disease genes
they are involved either in the storage in nerve cells of special fats called sphingolipids, which form part of the insulating outer sheaths that allow nerve cells to transmit electrical signals, or in DNA repair.
either or後面是兩個in...
第壹個in後面的which form part of the insulating outer sheaths解釋的是Sphingolipids
that allow nerve cells to transmit electrical signals解釋的是sheaths。
也就是說，（非限制性）定語從句後面緊接另壹個定語從句。
第二個in後面很簡單，但！！！文章最後壹段有解釋，對於 文章結構 至關重要。
Sentence 6&7.
Thus, the theory goes, the pressure ?to keep the sickle-cell gene in the population because of its malaria-protective effects balances the pressure ?to drive it out because of its anaemia-causing effects.
It therefore persists without becoming ubiquitous.
兩句話放壹起。
主幹已加黑。很有意思的句子，工整、對仗，而又解釋非常清楚。
下壹句，persist和ubiquitous用詞極其精準，整句話像外科手術般，精準簡練。作者還是怕讀者壹下子沒讀懂，用簡單而又高效的句子總結下。寫作手法很老練高超，字字璣珠，像極了寶馬M3。
Sentence 8.
Genes that promote intelligence in an individual when present as a single copy create disease when present as a double copy.
乍壹看沒什麽稀奇，再壹看，把壹個comparison分別放在了主語和謂語的修飾成分中，可謂老辣。
作何解？
That promote intelligence對genes做了壹個限定，指的是genes的其中壹種特征，然後用when說明了適用情況。
Create謂語的主語也是genes，但這時候是沒有限定的genes。Create disease做的是限定，其實對應的是promote intelligence。後面同樣用壹個when來說明範圍。
簡單來講，genes的含義做了壹個縮小和限定，又在create的時候恢復了genes的雙重功能含義。
Promote intelligence和create diseases壹個對應，盡管成分差別很大。
兩個when的對比。
可謂神句。
Sentence 9.
An Israeli clinic devoted to treating people with Gaucher's has vastly more engineers, scientists, accountants and lawyers on its books than would be expected by chance.
Than (what) would be expected by chance.
省略了what。。。妳能理解嗎？
還有這個books，這個同語境關聯強烈。
好的表達：
1. ruffle one’s feather
2. Tremble at the thought
3. Affirm作不及物動詞（Ashkenazim generally do well in IQ tests, scoring 12-15 points above the mean value of 100, and have contributed disproportionately to the intellectual and cultural life of the West, as the careers of Freud, Einstein and Mahler, pictured above, affirm. ）
4. aristocratic v.s. meritocratic
5. Exact a price類似用法 exert influence
附原文及翻譯：
Natural genius? 天生我才？
The high intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews may be a result of their persecuted past
德系猶太人的高智商或許是因為曾經遭受迫害的後果
THE idea that some ethnic groups may, on average, be more intelligent than others is one of those hypotheses that dare not speak its name. But Gregory Cochran, a noted scientific iconoclast, is prepared to say it anyway. He is that rare bird, a scientist who works independently of any institution. He helped popularise the idea that some diseases not previously thought to have a bacterial cause were actually infections, which ruffled many scientific feathers when it was first suggested. And more controversially still, he has suggested that homosexuality is caused by an infection.
某些少數民族的平均智商高於其他民族這壹說法，是很多不敢公開的假設之壹。不過著名的科學狂人Gregory Cochran 決意要做第壹個吃螃蟹的人。他很特別，總是獨立工作而不屬於任何機構。某些曾被診斷並非病菌引起的疾病，其實病源來自傳染病。這壹觀點因他的推動受到了關註。此觀點壹經提出，就受到了許多科學家的反對。這還不算，更具爭議的是，他認為同性戀也是由傳染病引起的。
Even he, however, might tremble at the thought of what he is about to do. Together with Jason Hardy and Henry Harpending, of the University of Utah, he is publishing, in a forthcoming edition of the Journal of Biosocial Science, a paper which not only suggests that one group of humanity is more intelligent than the others, but explains the process that has brought this about. The group in question are Ashkenazi Jews. The process is natural selection.
然而就算是Cochran，也為自己接下來要做的事捏了壹把汗。他準備同Utah大學的Jason Hardy與Henry Harpending壹同，在最新壹期的《生物社會科學雜誌》發表壹篇論文，文中不僅提出了某壹少數民族比其他民族更聰明這壹觀點，還解釋了這壹結果產生的過程。文中兩大主角就是德系猶太人和自然選擇。
History before science
不管是否科學，先來看看歷史
Ashkenazim generally do well in IQ tests, scoring 12-15 points above the mean value of 100, and have contributed disproportionately to the intellectual and cultural life of the West, as the careers of Freud, Einstein and Mahler, pictured above, affirm. They also suffer more often than most people from a number of nasty genetic diseases, such as Tay-Sachs and breast cancer. These facts, however, have previously been thought unrelated. The former has been put down to social effects, such as a strong tradition of valuing education. The latter was seen as a consequence of genetic isolation. Even now, Ashkenazim tend to marry among themselves. In the past they did so almost exclusively.
德系猶太人不僅在IQ測試上表現不俗，正常人壹般在100分左右，而他們大多都能得個112-115分，而且雖然人數不多，但他們在歐洲知識、文化生活中的地位卻舉足輕重。想想弗洛伊德、愛因斯坦、馬勒，我們就會點頭稱是了。但同時，他們中患有如泰-薩克斯病、乳腺癌這類嚴重的遺傳疾病的比率明顯高於其他種族。這些事實，最初被人們認為是毫無聯系的。前者被說成是社會原因引起的，如濃烈的價值觀教育的傳統；後者則被說成是基因隔離的結果，不過即使是現在，德系猶太人還是願意同本族人結婚，在過去，就更是如此了。
Dr Cochran, however, suspects that the intelligence and the diseases are intimately linked. His argument is that the unusual history of the Ashkenazim has subjected them to unique evolutionary pressures that have resulted in this paradoxical state of affairs.
但Cochran博士對以上兩點表示質疑，並認為德系猶太人的天賦異稟與痛病纏身聯系密切。他認為正是異常的歷史環境強加給了德系猶太人獨有的進化壓力，才導致了這些看似奇怪的現象。
Ashkenazi history begins with the Jewish rebellion against Roman rule in the first century AD. When this was crushed, Jewish refugees fled in all directions. The descendants of those who fled to Europe became known as Ashkenazim.
德系猶太人的歷史源於公元1世紀。猶太人在反對羅馬人的統治失敗後，猶太難民四散而逃，逃亡歐洲的猶太後裔就是如今的德系猶太人。
In the Middle Ages, European Jews were subjected to legal discrimination, one effect of which was to drive them into money-related professions such as banking and tax farming which were often disdained by, or forbidden to, Christians. This, along with the low level of intermarriage with their gentile neighbours (which modern genetic analysis confirms was the case), is Dr Cochran's starting point.
在中世紀，歐洲的猶太人在法律上地位很不平等，結果之壹就是他們不得不從事與金錢相關的職業，如被人看不起或不準基督徒涉足的銀行或征稅工作，此外，他們只能與鄰居中社會地位較低的非猶太人通婚（這種狀況通過現代基因學分析得到了證實）。上述就是Cochran 博士論文的起點。
He argues that the professions occupied by European Jews were all ones that put a premium on intelligence. Of course, it is hard to prove that this intelligence premium existed in the Middle Ages, but it is certainly true that it exists in the modern versions of those occupations. Several studies have shown that intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, is highly correlated with income in jobs such as banking.
他認為歐洲猶太人從事的職業都是些需要壹定智商的職業，雖不能證明這些職業在中世紀時就是這樣了，但在當代它們確實如此。壹些研究表明，智力水平（按智力測試的標準來算）與工資水平（如那些從事銀行工作的人）聯系密切。
What can, however, be shown from the historical records is that European Jews at the top of their professions in the Middle Ages raised more children to adulthood than those at the bottom. Of course, that was true of successful gentiles as well. But in the Middle Ages, success in Christian society tended to be violently aristocratic (warfare and land), rather than peacefully meritocratic (banking and trade).
這些歷史記錄證明了，那些在歐洲工作地位較高的猶太家庭子女存活率要高於那些地位較低的猶太家庭。情況對於那些其他種族的也是壹樣的。但在中世紀，基督教社會中所謂的成功多是貴族通過戰爭與土地強爭豪取，而非通過量才而用（如從事銀行或貿易工作）和平地獲得。
Put these two things together—a correlation of intelligence and success, and a correlation of success and fecundity—and you have circumstances that favour the spread of genes that enhance intelligence. The questions are, do such genes exist, and what are they if they do? Dr Cochran thinks they do exist, and that they are exactly the genes that cause the inherited diseases which afflict Ashkenazi society.
把智力與成功的關聯以及成功與生殖力的關系合二為壹，妳就具備了有利於智商提高的基因傳播的條件。問題是這種智商基因確實存在嗎？假如它果真存在的話，那究竟是什麽呢？科克倫博士認為它們的確存在，而且正是那種引起折磨德系猶太人遺傳疾病的基因。
That small, reproductively isolated groups of people are susceptible to genetic disease is well known. Constant mating with even distant relatives reduces genetic diversity, and some disease genes will thus, randomly, become more common. But the very randomness of this process means there should be no discernible pattern about which disease genes increase in frequency. In the case of Ashkenazim, Dr Cochran argues, this is not the case. Most of the dozen or so disease genes that are common in them belong to one of two types: they are involved either in the storage in nerve cells of special fats called sphingolipids, which form part of the insulating outer sheaths that allow nerve cells to transmit electrical signals, or in DNA repair. The former genes cause neurological diseases, such as Tay- Sachs, Gaucher's and Niemann-Pick. The latter cause cancer.
眾所周知，越是人口稀少並且生育範圍狹小的種族就越易患遺傳疾病。總是於同族人通婚，就算不是近親，也會較少遺傳的多樣性，同時也會使某些致病基因沒有規律地在該種族內部泛濫起來。而這種無規律性意味著人們不知道何類致病基因會被大量傳播。但對德系猶太人來說，Cochran 醫生指出，情況卻並非如此。他們當中最常見的十幾種疾病基因基本上可以歸結於兩類：壹類參與神經細胞中鞘脂類特殊脂肪）的儲存。鞘脂組成壹部分絕緣外層鞘，允許神經細胞發射電子信號。另壹類參與DNA 的修復。前者基因會引發神經性疾病，如泰薩二氏病、腦苷脂沈積病和神經鞘磷脂沈積病；而後者會導致癌癥。
That does not look random. And what is even less random is that in several cases the genes for particular diseases come in different varieties, each the result of an independent original mutation. This really does suggest the mutated genes are being preserved by natural selection. But it does not answer the question of how evolution can favour genetic diseases. However, in certain circumstances, evolution can.
上述看起來並非毫無規律。而且更趨於規律的表現就是，在壹些病例中，特殊疾病的致病基因來自於不同的變體，而每個變體都是獨立的原基因變異的結果。這就印證了變異基因是自然選擇保留下來的結果，可它卻不能回答自然選擇為什麽會成了遺傳疾病的幫兇，但在壹些特殊的條件下，進化能夠產生這樣的結果。
West Africans, and people of West African descent, are susceptible to a disease called sickle-cell anaemia that is virtually unknown elsewhere. The anaemia develops in those whose red blood cells contain a particular type of haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen. But the disease occurs only in those who have two copies of the gene for the disease-causing haemoglobin (one copy from each parent). Those who have only one copy have no symptoms. They are, however, protected against malaria, one of the biggest killers in that part of the world. Thus, the theory goes, the pressure to keep the sickle-cell gene in the population because of its malaria-protective effects balances the pressure to drive it out because of its anaemia-causing effects. It therefore persists without becoming ubiquitous.
如西非人以及他們的後代易患壹種叫做鐮狀細胞性貧血的疾病，這種病在西非之外幾乎都沒人聽說過。貧血癥發於那些紅血球中含有壹種特殊的血紅蛋白，其蛋白質中含有氧氣的人。但這種鐮狀細胞性貧血癥只會發生在同時有兩組這種致病的血紅蛋白（父母都有這種血紅蛋白）的人身上。而那些只有壹組的人不但不會患這種貧血癥，也不會患瘧疾，該病被稱為非洲的頭號殺手。因此，我們可以這樣說，抵禦瘧疾的特性使得鐮狀細胞在得以人體中存活下來，同時這種細胞導致貧血癥的特性也會被人體排斥，只有在為保持這兩種狀態而產生的壓力達到平衡時，才不會有任何壹個特性占據上風。
Dr Cochran argues that something similar happened to the Ashkenazim. Genes that promote intelligence in an individual when present as a single copy create disease when present as a double copy. His thesis is not as strong as the sickle-cell/malaria theory, because he has not proved that any of his disease genes do actually affect intelligence. But the area of operation of some of them suggests that they might.
Cochran博士認為，德系猶太人也面臨著同樣的情況，他們的某些基因如果以單組出現就可以提高智力，壹旦以雙組出現就會引起疾病。顯然，該理論並不如他的鐮狀細胞/瘧疾理論那樣具有說服力，因為他尚未證明任何壹種致病基因確實能夠影響智力，但是某些基因的活動區域顯示它們或許真能影響智力。
The sphingolipid-storage diseases, Tay-Sachs, Gaucher's and Niemann-Pick, all involve extra growth and branching of the protuberances that connect nerve cells together. Too much of this (as caused in those with double copies) is clearly pathological. But it may be that those with single copies experience a more limited, but still enhanced, protuberance growth. That would yield better linkage between brain cells, and might thus lead to increased intelligence. Indeed, in the case of Gaucher's disease, the only one of the three in which people routinely live to adulthood, there is evidence that those with full symptoms are more intelligent than the average. An Israeli clinic devoted to treating people with Gaucher's has vastly more engineers, scientists, accountants and lawyers on its books than would be expected by chance.
鞘脂儲存類疾病，如泰薩二氏病、腦苷脂沈積病和神經鞘磷脂沈積病，都涉及到連接神經細胞的凸起的多余生長和分叉。顯然，這種生長和分叉太多的話就會引起疾病。但是，也有可能，僅有單份致病基因的人會出現比較有限的、但仍然加強了的凸起生長。這將有助於加強腦細胞之間的連接，或許因此導致智力提高。實際上，在腦苷脂沈積病的例子中，在三分之壹能夠活到成年的患者中，確實有證據表明完全發病的人擁有高於平均值的智商。根據壹家專門治療腦苷脂沈積病的以色列診所的醫療記錄，患者中的工程師、科學家、會計和律師的比例多於常人。
Why a failure of the DNA-repair system should boost intelligence is unclear—and is, perhaps, the weakest part of the thesis, although evidence is emerging that one of the genes in question is involved in regulating the early growth of the brain. But the thesis also has a strong point: it makes a clear and testable prediction. This is that people with a single copy of the gene for Tay-Sachs, or that for Gaucher's, or that for Niemann-Pick should be more intelligent than average. Dr Cochran and his colleagues predict they will be so by about five IQ points. If that turns out to be the case, it will strengthen the idea that, albeit unwillingly, Ashkenazi Jews have been part of an accidental experiment in eugenics. It has brought them some advantages. But, like the deliberate eugenics experiments of the 20th century, it has also exacted a terrible price.
為什麽基因修復系統失靈會提高智力，現在還不清楚原因何在。雖然，陸續有證據表明產生問題的基因之壹參與了調節大腦的早期發育，但是這仍是該論題最薄弱的環節。不過，該理論也有令人信服的地方：它對於擁有單份泰薩二氏病或腦苷脂沈積病或神經鞘磷脂沈積病基因的人會比普通人更聰明做出了明確而可檢驗的預測。Cochran 博士和他的同事認為，這些人的智商因此會比平均水平高出5 個點。盡管有人不願接受，假如確實如此的話，它將有力地證明，德系猶太人在不經意間經歷了優生實驗，而這為他們帶來了智商上的優勢。但是，如同發生在20 世紀的人為的優生實驗壹樣，它同樣讓他們付出了可怕的代價。