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StevenLevitt_2005G-_针对儿童汽车安全座椅的研究_
Once upon a time , there was a dread disease that afflicted children. 从前,有一个可怕的疾病。儿童能得这个病,
Once upon a time:从前(常用于故事的开头) dread:n.恐惧;可怕的人(或物);vi.惧怕;担心;vt.惧怕;担心;adj.可怕的; disease:n.病,[医]疾病;弊病;vt.传染;使…有病; afflicted:v.折磨;使痛苦;(afflict的过去式和过去分词)
And in fact, among all the diseases that existed in this land, it was the worst. It killed the most children. 事实上,在这个国家里所有儿童能够得的疾病中, 这个病杀伤力最大。绝大多数得病的儿童都死了。
diseases:n.[医]病(disease的复数);[医]疾病;[植保]病害;疾病种类;
And along came a brilliant inventor, a scientist, who came up with a partial cure for that disease. 后来出现了一位特别聪明的发明家,也是个科学家。 他研究出了一种解决办法,能在一定程度上控制住这个疾病。
partial:adj.部分的;不完整的;片面的;有偏见的;
And it wasn't perfect. Many children still died, but it was certainly better than what they had before. 但是这个办法不是十全十美的。很多儿童还是死去了。 但是用了这个办法,情况和从前比还是改善了很多。
And one of the good things about this cure was that it was free, virtually free, and was very easy to use. 而且用这个方法的一个优点就是它差不多是免费的, 不光特便宜,还特别容易使用。
virtually:adv.事实上,几乎;实质上;
But the worst thing about it was that you couldn't use it on the youngest children, on infants , and on one-year-olds. 但是这个方法的最大的一个缺点是特别小的小孩子用不了, 婴儿用不了,一岁的小孩子都用不了。
infants:n.婴儿(infant的复数);婴幼儿;
And so as a consequence , a few years later, another scientist -- perhaps maybe this scientist not quite as brilliant as the one who had preceded him, but building on the invention of the first one -- came up with a second cure. 所以几年后, 另一个科学家 — 他可能没有像第一个科学家那么聪明, 但是他在第一个发明的基础上作了创新 — 得出了第二个解决办法。
consequence:n.结果;重要性;推论; preceded:v.在…之前发生(或出现);先于;走在…前面;(precede的过去分词和过去式)
And the beauty of the second cure for this disease was that it could be used on infants and one-year-olds. 这第二个针对这个疾病的治疗方案的好处在于, 它能用在婴儿和一岁大的小小孩身上。
And the problem with this cure was it was very expensive, and it was very complicated to use. 但这个治疗方案有个问题:它特别特别的贵。 而且使用起来很复杂。
complicated:adj.复杂的;难懂的;v.使复杂化;(complicate的过去分词和过去式)
And although parents tried as hard as they could to use it properly, almost all of them ended up using it wrong in the end. 虽然家长们用尽全力试图正确地使用这个方法, 绝大多数家长最终还是用错了。
But what they did, of course, since it was so complicated and expensive, they only used it on the zero-year-olds and the one-year-olds. 好在由于这个方法这么复杂这么贵, 他们只用它来保护婴儿和一岁大的小孩子。
And they kept on using the existing cure that they had on the two-year-olds and up. 等小孩子长到两岁, 家长们还是回去用老办法。
And this went on for quite some time. People were happy. 这种情况持续了很长一段时间。大家都挺满意的。
They had their two cures. Until a particular mother, whose child had just turned two, died of this disease. 家长们就用这两个解决办法。直到有一天,有一个妈妈, 她的孩子刚过两周岁,死于这个疾病。
And she thought to herself, "My child just turned two, and until the child turned two, I had always used this complicated, expensive cure, you know, this treatment . 她就想:“ 我的宝宝才刚两岁。 直至今日,我一直用的是 那个复杂的贵的方法。
treatment:n.治疗;疗法;对待;处理;讨论;
And then the child turned two, and I started using the cheap and easy treatment, and I wonder ..." 然后我的宝宝两岁了,我就换成 用那个便宜的,容易用的解决办法。如果（我没有换成那个便宜的方法）......”
And she wondered, like all parents who lose children wonder, " ... if there isn't something that I could have done, like keep on using that complicated, expensive cure." 她不断地想着如果,就像其他所有那些失去了他们的宝宝的家长们一样,想着: “如果我能为我的宝宝做什么（来救他一命）, 就是我应该继续用那个又复杂又贵的方法。”
And she told all the other people, and she said, "How could it possibly be that something that's cheap and simple works as well as something that's complicated and expensive?" 于是她奔走相告,她说: “ 便宜没好货！ 看看这个这么便宜这么简单的解决办法, 它怎么可能跟那个那么复杂和昂贵的方法一样好呢？”
as well as:也;和…一样;不但…而且;
And the people thought, "You know, you're right. 于是大家都想:“ 嗯,言之有理。
It probably is the wrong thing to do to switch and use the cheap and simple solution ." 我们换用便宜简单的办法, 这没准是个错误。”
solution:n.解决方案;溶液;溶解;解答;
And the government, they heard her story, and the other people, and they said, "Yeah, you're right, we should make a law. 于是政府也出来干预了。 他们听说了这个故事,也听了其他人的意见, 政府说:“ 没错！你们都说得对。我们应该把这个（继续使用昂贵的治疗办法的）提案变成（人人必须遵守的）法律。
We should outlaw this cheap and simple treatment and not let anybody use this on their children." 我们必须把（对儿童）使用那个便宜又简单的治疗方案变成不合法的, 不让任何人再用在他们的孩子身上了。”
outlaw:n.歹徒; vt.宣布…为不合法;
And the people were happy, they were satisfied . 这下子大家都满意了,都高兴了。
satisfied:adj.满意的:满足的:v.使满意:使满足;(satisfy的过去分词和过去式)
For many years this went along, and everything was fine. 接下来很多很多年大家都这么做了,看起来万事大吉。
But then along came a lowly economist, who had children himself, and he used the expensive and complicated treatment. 但是后来,一个不起眼的经济学家, 自己也有孩子的,跳出来了。 他用了这个又复杂又昂贵的方法,
lowly:adj.卑贱的;地位低的;谦逊的;adv.谦逊地;位置低下地;低声地;
But he knew about the cheap and simple one. 他也知道那个又便宜又简单的方法。
And he thought about it, and the expensive one didn't seem that great to him. So he thought, "I don't know anything about science, but I do know something about data, so maybe I should go and look at the data 他想来想去,这个贵的办法怎么看 也不像是那么完美。所以他就想: “ 我不懂那些科学上的东西,但是我知道怎么看统计数据。 说不定我应该去看看多年来的统计数据,
and see whether this expensive and complicated treatment actually works any better than the cheap and simple one." 看看到底这个又复杂又昂贵的方法 是不是真的比那个又便宜又简单的方法好。”
And lo and behold , when he went through the data he found that it didn't look like the expensive, complicated solution was any better than the cheap one. 结果一看之下,当他翻遍了所有的数据 他发现这个又复杂又昂贵的方法 并不比那个便宜的方法有效。
behold:v.看;注视;把...视为;int.瞧;看呀;
At least for the children who were two and older -- the cheap one still didn't work on the kids who were younger. 至少对于两岁和两岁以上的孩子 — 当然这个便宜的方法两岁以下的还是不能用。（所以也没法比。）
And so he went forth to the people and he said, "I've made this wonderful finding, it looks as if we could just use the cheap and simple solution. 所以他就跳出来和大家说: “ 我有个了不得的发现。 原来（对两岁和两岁以上的儿童）我们可以就用这个便宜简单的方法,
And by doing so we could save ourselves 300 million dollars a year, and we could spend that on our children in other ways." 同时一年我们还可以省下三亿美元。 用这些钱我们可以为我们的孩子们做更多的事。”
And the parents were very unhappy, and they said, "This is a terrible thing because how can the cheap and easy thing be as good as the hard thing?" And the government was very upset , 结果家长们都不高兴了,他们说: “ 这真是耸人听闻！这个便宜简单的方法 怎么可能和那个复杂的方法媲美呢？”
upset:adj.沮丧; v.打乱; n.苦恼; (意外的)混乱;
and in particular the people who made this expensive solution were very upset because they thought, "How can we hope to compete with something that's essentially free? 接下来政府也生气了,尤其是那些靠这个贵的方法挣钱的人们 特别生气。因为他们想: “ 我们怎么可能和一个基本上是免费的方法竞争呢？
in particular:尤其,特别; compete:v.竞争;对抗;参加比赛(或竞赛); essentially:adv.本质上;本来;
We would lose all of our market." 我们肯定会全失去整个市场。”
And people were very angry, and they called him horrible names. 这样大家都愤怒了,他们称这个经济学家坏人,
horrible:可怕的,极讨厌的,
And he decided that maybe he should leave the country for a few days, and seek out some more intelligent , open-minded people in a place called Oxford, and come and try and tell the story at that place. 他想说不定他应该离开这个国家几天, 去一个叫牛津的地方, 去找其他一些更聪明更开明的人谈谈, 看看他们能不能听进这个故事。
seek:v.寻求;寻找;谋求; intelligent:adj.有才智的;悟性强的;聪明的;有智力的 open-minded:adj.虚心的;思想开明的;无偏见的;
And so, anyway, here I am. It's not a fairy tale . 所以,我来到了这里。这不是个童话故事,
fairy tale:adj.童话的;童话式的;
It's a true story about the United States today, and the disease I'm referring to is actually motor vehicle accidents for children. 这是在美国真实发生的事。 我说的这个疾病其实 是车祸,发生在儿童身上的车祸。
United:adj.联合的; v.联合,团结; (unite的过去分词和过去式) referring:v.引用;提到;将…归因于…;把…提交;(refer的现在分词) motor vehicle:n.机动车;
And the free cure is adult seatbelts , and the expensive cure -- the 300-million-dollar-a-year cure -- is child car seats. 这个免费的治疗方案是用成人用的安全带,而这个贵的治疗方案 — 这个三亿美元一年的治疗方案 — 是儿童汽车安全座椅。
seatbelts:n.座位安全带;
And what I'd like to talk to you about today is some of the evidence why I believe this to be true: that for children two years old and up there really is no real benefit -- proven benefit -- of car seats, in spite of the incredible energy that has been devoted toward expanding the laws and making it socially-unacceptable 我今天想给你们看看 一些证据来支持我认为正确的观点: 那就是对于两岁和两岁以上的孩子, 安全汽车座椅其实没有什么用,没有证据显示有用。 尽管大多数人竭尽全力 试图推广使用安全座椅的法律, 试图推广让孩子只用安全带是错的这个观点。
evidence:n.证据,证明;迹象;明显;v.证明; in spite of:尽管;不管,不顾; incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的; devoted:adj.专心致志; v.献身; (devote的过去分词和过去式) expanding:v.扩大,增加,增强细谈;详述;(expand的现在分词)
to put your children into seatbelts. And then talk about why, what is it that makes that true? 然后我会谈到为什么, 为什么人们死心塌地地相信这个错误观点？
And then finally talk a little bit about a third way , about another technology which is probably better than anything we have, but which there hasn't been any enthusiasm for adoption precisely because people are so enamored with the current car seat solution. OK. 最后,我希望和你们介绍一个（在车祸中保护儿童的）新方法。 这个新技术很可能比我们有的这两个方法都好, 但是人们还不是太有热情去用。 那是因为人们对于汽车安全座椅这个主意 还是特别迷恋。好的。
finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地; third way:n.第三条道路(介乎两种极端立场之间的行动方案或政策); technology:n.技术;工艺;术语; enthusiasm:n.热心,热忱,热情; adoption:n.采用;收养;接受; enamored:adj.迷恋的;倾心的;v.迷住,使迷恋(enamor的过去分词形式);
So, many times when you try to do research on data, it records complicated stories. It's hard to find in the data -- it doesn't turn out to be the case when you look at seatbelts versus car seats. 多数情况下当你试图研究统计数据时, 这些数据包含了十分复杂的背景故事。想要发现你要找的东西是很困难的 — 好在当你比较安全带和儿童汽车座椅时没这个问题。
versus:prep.对;与...相对;对抗;
So the United States keeps a data set of every fatal accident that's happened since 1975. 美国政府保存了一份数据 包含了 1975 年以来每起车祸死亡的案子。
fatal:adj.致命的;灾难性的;毁灭性的;导致失败的;
So in every car crash in which at least one person dies, they have information on all of the people. 也就是说（1975 年以来）每起车祸,只要有一个人死亡, 他们就记录下所有车祸中涉及到的人的信息。
So if you look at that data -- it's right up on the National Highway 所以当你研究这些数据时 — 这些数据就在
Transportation Safety Administration's website. 国家高速交通系统安全局的网页上。
Transportation:n.运输;运输系统;运输工具;流放;
You can just look at the raw data, and begin to get a sense of the limited amount of evidence that's in favor of car seats for children aged two and up. 你可以通过看这些原始数据, 发现对于两岁以上的儿童,支持儿童汽车座椅（比安全带好） 的证据是非常少的。
limited:adj.有限的; n.高级快车; v.限制; (limit的过去分词和过去式)
So here is the data. Here I have, among two- to six-year-olds -- anyone above six, basically no one uses car seats, so you can't compare . 29.3 percent of the children who are unrestrained in a crash in which at least one person dies, themselves die. 这就是统计数据。这里显示两岁到六岁的儿童 — 当孩子六岁后他们就不用安全座椅了,所以没的可比 — 当车祸中有至少一个人死亡时,如果没有用任何保护措施, 这些车祸中的儿童死亡率是 29.3%。
basically:adv.主要地,基本上; compare:v.比较;对比;n.比较; unrestrained:adj.自然的;无限制的;放纵的;
If you put a child in a car seat, 18.2 percent of the children die. 如果孩子坐在汽车安全座椅里,死亡率是 18.2%。
If they're wearing a lap-and-shoulder belt, in this raw data, 19.4 percent die. And interestingly , wearing a lap-only seatbelt, 16.7 percent die. And actually, the theory tells you that the lap-only seatbelt's got to be worse 如果孩子戴了腰上和肩膀上的安全带, 在这份原始数据中, 死亡率是 19.4%。 有趣的是,使用仅仅是腰部的安全带, 死亡率只有 16.7%。 实际上,原则上来讲 腰部安全带应该比腰部和肩部都有保护的安全带效果差。
interestingly:adv.有趣地;
than the lap-and-shoulder belt. And that just reminds you that when you deal with raw data, there are hundreds of confounding variables that may be getting in the way . 这个数据提醒了我们 当我们看真实的原始数据时, 需要考量成百上千的因素,它们都有可能影响最后的结果。
reminds:v.提醒;使想起;(remind的第三人称单数) confounding:v.使困惑惊讶;使惊疑;证明…有错;战胜;(confound的现在分词) variables:n.[数]变量; in the way:妨碍;挡道;
So what we do in the study is -- and this is just presenting the same information, but turned into a figure to make it easier. 所以我们换了个角度来看, 我们还是用这些数据,但是作成图表所以看起来方便些。
So the yellow bar represents car seats, the orange bar lap-and-shoulder, and the red bar lap-only seatbelts. 这些黄色的条带代表使用汽车安全座椅的（儿童的死亡率）, 橙色的条带代表使用腰肩安全带的（儿童的死亡率）, 红色的条带代表了使用腰部安全带的（儿童的死亡率）。
represents:v.代表;维护…的利益;相当于;(represent的第三人称单数)
And this is all relative to unrestrained. 这些条带都已经和没用任何保护措施的（儿童的死亡率）取过比例了。
relative:adj.相对的;有关系的;成比例的;n.亲戚;相关物;[语]关系词;亲缘植物;
The bigger the bar, the better. Okay. 条带越高越好。
So this is the data I just showed, OK? 所以这（左边的图）就是我刚才给你们看的数据。
So the highest bar is what you're striving to beat. 这条最高的条带,就是大家拼命不承认的。
striving:n.努力;奋斗;v.努力;奋斗;力争;力求;(strive的现在分词)
So you can control for the basic things, like how hard the crash was, what seat the child was sitting in, et cetera . The age of the child. 如果我们（在这个研究中）考量所有基本的因素,比如这个车祸本身有多严重, 车里的孩子坐在哪个位置上,等等,还有孩子的实际年龄,
et cetera:na.以及其他;
And that's that middle set of bars. 那么结论就是中间这组条带。
And so you can see that the lap-only seatbelts start to look worse once you do that. 你可以看到腰部安全带 开始看起来不如（原始数据里显示的）安全了。
And then finally, the last set of bars, which are really controlling for everything you could possibly imagine about the crash. 最后,最右边的这组条带, 是在我们真正考虑了所有可能的影响因素之后的结论。 你可以想象不同的车祸,
Fifty, seventy-five, 100 different characteristics of the crash. 五十种,七十五种,一百种不同的车祸,
characteristics:n.特征;特点;品质;(characteristic的复数)
And what you find is that the car seats and the lap-and-shoulder belts, when it comes to saving lives, fatalities look exactly identical . 而最后你发现使用汽车安全座椅和使用腰肩安全带, 当我们比较谁能救命时,平均的死亡率是完全一样的。
fatalities:n.灾祸;命运;意外的的死亡事故(fatality的复数); identical:adj.同一的;完全相同的;n.完全相同的事物;
And the standard error bands are relatively small around these estimates as well. 同时死亡率的分散程度都很小。
standard error:n.(衡量估计准确性的)标准误差; bands:n.乐队;法官; relatively:adv.相当程度上;相当地;相对地; estimates:n.估计;估价;估计的成本;v.估价;估算(estimate的第三人称单数和复数)
And it's not just overall . It's very robust to anything you want to look at. 而且还不是仅仅对所有的车祸都是这样, 当你比较任何一种类型车祸,这个结论都适用。
overall:v.全部; n.外套; adj.全面的; robust:adj.强健的;健康的;粗野的;粗鲁的;
One thing that's interesting: if you look at frontal-impact crashes -- when the car crashes , the front hits into something -- indeed what you see is that the car seats look a little bit better. 有个现象很有趣:当你比较那些撞车头的车祸 — 也就是当车祸发生时,是车头撞上了任何别的东西 — 汽车安全座椅实际上还是稍微好些。
car crashes:n.车祸;
And I think this isn't just chance. 而我觉得这必有原因。
In order to have the car seat approved , you need to pass certain federal standards , all of which involve slamming your car into a direct frontal crash. 原因就是为了能够得到许可生产一种汽车安全座椅, 你需要达到一些国家定的标准, 在测试的时候,假想的车祸都是直接撞车头的。
approved:adj.被正式接受的,被正式认可的; v.赞成; (approve的过去分词和过去式) federal:adj.联邦的;同盟的;联邦政府的;联邦制的;adv.联邦政府地; standards:n.标准,水平,规格(standard的复数) involve:v.包含;需要;牵涉;牵连;影响;(使)参加; slamming:v.(使…)砰地关上;使劲一推;猛烈抨击;(slam的现在分词) frontal:adj.额的;正面的,前面的;n.额骨,额部;房屋的正面;
But when you look at other types of crashes, like rear-impact crashes, indeed, the car seats don't perform as well. 但是当你看其它种类的车祸的时候,比如车后面被撞了, 汽车座椅就不是那么有用了。
perform:v.表演;执行;履行;演出;工作,运转(好/不好);
And I think that's because they've been optimized to pass, as we always expect people to do, to optimize relative to bright-line rules about how effected the car will be. 我认为这是因为它们都是针对撞车头的测试来设计的, 就像大家通常会做的, 针对明文规定的政策来准备对策, 对车辆安全的问题也是一样。
optimized:adj.最佳化的;尽量充分利用;
And the other thing you might argue is, well, car seats have got a lot better over time. 你还可以提出另一个观点: 汽车座椅应该会变得越来越安全。
And so if we look at recent crashes -- the whole data set's almost 30 years' worth of data -- you won't see it in the recent crashes. The new car seats are far, far better. 如果我们看最近发生的车祸数据 — 这里整个的数据是过去三十年的 — 你应该会发现新数据显示汽车座椅更安全。新的汽车安全座椅比旧的设计好得多了。
But indeed, in recent crashes the lap-and-shoulder seatbelts, actually, are doing even better than the car seats. 但是事实上,最新的数据显示腰肩安全带 事实上比汽车安全座椅更好。
They say, "Well, that's impossible, that can't be." 人们会说:“ 这不可能,这不合理。”
And the line of argument, if you ask parents, is, "But car seats are so expensive and complicated, and they have this big tangle of latches , how could they possibly not work better than seatbelts because they are so expensive and complicated?" 如果你问家长们,他们的观点是: “ 汽车座椅那么贵,那么复杂, 它们有一大团这样那样的搭扣。 它们怎么可能会不如安全带有用呢？ 它们是这么贵这么复杂！”
tangle:n.纠纷;混乱状态;vt.使纠缠;处于混乱状态;vi.缠结;乱作一团; latches:n.[计]门闩线路; v.用插销插上;
It's kind of an interesting logic , 这是个挺有趣的逻辑。
logic:n.逻辑;逻辑学;逻辑性;adj.逻辑的;
I think, that people use. And the other logic, they say, "Well, the government wouldn't have told us [to] use them if they weren't much better." 我想一般人都会相信。另一个逻辑家长们用的,是: “ 如果安全带更安全的话, 政府不会无缘无故地就不让我们给孩子用的。”
But what's interesting is the government telling us to use them is not actually based on very much. 但讽刺的是政府让我们用安全座椅, 实际上是有点无缘无故的。
It really is based on some impassioned pleas of parents whose children died after they turned two, which has led to the passage of all these laws -- not very much on data. 这真是本着某些激动的家长的苦苦恳求。 他们的孩子长过了两岁,之后在车祸中过世了。 他们的恳求使得政府通过了这些法律,并不是通过真的研究得出的结论。
impassioned:adj.充满激情的;感激的;v.使充满激情(impassion的过去式和过去分词); pleas:抗辩;恳求;托辞;
So you can only get so far, I think, in telling your story by using these abstract statistics . 通过看这些抽象的统计数据, 我想我只能 证明这么多。
abstract:n.摘要; adj.抽象的; vt.摘要; vi.做摘要; statistics:n.统计数字;统计资料;统计学;(statistic的复数)
And so I had some friends over to dinner, and I was asking -- we had a cookout -- I was asking them what advice they might have for me about proving my point. They said, "Why don't you run some crash tests?" 所以当我的朋友们来家里吃晚饭时 — 我们有一次露天烧烤的时候 — 我问他们的意见,我该怎么做来进一步证明我的推论。 他们说:“ 你为什么不自己做些碰撞测试呢？”
cookout:n.(美)野外郊游时烹调的野餐;野烹食物;adj.野外烹饮聚会的;
And I said, "That's a great idea." 我说:“ 这是个好主意。”
So we actually tried to commission some crash tests. 所以我们试着委托人做些碰撞测试。
commission:n.委员会;佣金;犯;委任;委任状;vt.委任;使服役;委托制作;
And it turns out that as we called around to the independent crash-test companies around the country, none of them wanted to do our crash test because they said -- some explicitly , some not so explicitly -- "All of our business comes from car-seat manufacturers . 结果我们给国内那些作汽车碰撞测试的机构 打了一圈电话, 没有一个愿意替我们做测试的。 他们说 — 有些是明白说的,有些是含含糊糊说的 — “ 我们的生意都是来自那些生产汽车安全座椅的商家的。
independent:adj.独立的; n.无党派议员(或候选人等); crash-test:v.撞击实验; explicitly:adv.明确地;明白地; manufacturers:n.生产者;制造者;生产商;(manufacturer的复数)
We can't risk alienating them by testing seatbelts relative to car seats." 我们不能冒着得罪他们的风险,（为你）测试安全带和安全座椅比（哪个更好）。”
alienating:使疏远;离间;转让(alienate的现在分词);
Now, eventually , one did. Under the conditions of anonymity , they said they would be happy to do this test for us. 直至今日,最终一家机构,还是帮了我们一把。他们说只要是匿名的, 他们乐意替我们做这个测试。
eventually:adv.最后,终于; anonymity:n.匿名;匿名者;无名之辈;
So anonymity, and 1,500 dollars per seat that we crashed. 所以（条件是）不能透露他们的名字,而且每个撞毁的车座椅我们得付一千五百美元,
And so we went to Buffalo , New York, and here is the precursor to it. 我们去纽约州的水牛城（做了这个测试）。 这里就是我们的先锋部队了,
Buffalo:n.[畜牧][脊椎]水牛;[脊椎]野牛(产于北美);水陆两用坦克; precursor:n.先驱,前导;
These are the crash-test dummies waiting for their chance to take the center stage. 这些是用来做测试的假人, 排队等着上台。
dummies:仿制品(dummy的名词复数);
And then here's how the crash test works. 这里你看到的是我们怎么做这些测试。
Here, they don't actually crash the entire car, you know -- it's not worth ruining a whole car to do it. 这里,他们并不真的撞坏整辆汽车,要知道 — 为这类测试撞毁整辆车不值得。
ruining:v.毁坏;破坏;毁灭;(ruin的现在分词)
So they just have these bench seats, and they strap the car seat and the seatbelt onto it. 所以他们用的是这些双人长座椅, 然后把汽车座椅或者安全带装在这些座椅上。
strap:v.用带子系(或捆、扎、扣)好;包扎;给…打绷带;n.带子;
So I just wanted you to look at this. 我想让你看看这个图像,
And I think this gives you a good idea of why parents think car seats are so great. Look at the kid in the car seat. 我想着给你一个很好的理由为什么家长们觉得 汽车安全座椅好。看看这个（假）孩子,坐在汽车安全座椅中,
Does he not look content , ready to go, like he could survive anything? And then if you look at the kid in back, it looks like he's already choking before the crash even happens. 难道他看起来不是舒舒服服,整装待发么？ 难道他看起来不是什么天灾人祸都能挺过去么？然后你再看看这个坐在后排的（仅仅用了安全带的假）孩子, 看起来他已经（被安全带勒的）喘不过来气了,更别提发生车祸了。
content:n.内容,目录;满足;容量;adj.满意的;vt.使满足; choking:adj.窒息的;闭紧的;v.(使)窒息;使停止呼吸;说不出话来;(choke的现在分词)
It's hard to believe when you look at this that that kid in back is going to do very well when you get in a crash. 当你看这段碰撞测试录像的时候,令人难以置信的是, 坐在后排的（只用了安全带的假）孩子安然无恙。
So this is going to be a crash where they're going to slam this thing forward into a wall at thirty miles an hour and see what happens. OK? 碰撞发生的时候, 这整个装置会被使劲摔到前面的墙上, 速度是三十英里每小时（四十八公里每小时）,然后我们看发生了什么。
So let me show you what happens. 这里请允许我展示给你们看发生了什么。
These are three-year-old dummies, by the way . 对了,这两个是模拟三岁大的孩子的假人,
by the way:顺便说一下;
So here -- this is the car seat. Now watch two things. — 这里是（坐在）安全座椅（里的孩子）。现在注意两件事,
Watch how the head goes forward, and basically hits the knees, and this is in the car seat. 注意假人的头部向前猛冲, 基本上撞在他自己的膝盖上。这是发生在孩子坐在汽车安全座椅里的情况。
And watch how the car seat flies around in the rebound up in the air. 第二是注意在反弹的时候,汽车座椅整个飞起来,飞在空中,
rebound:n.回弹;篮板球;v.回升;弹回;使弹回;(rebind的过去式和过去分词);
The car seat's moving all over the place. 整个汽车座椅飞来飞去。
Bear in mind there're two things about this. 请记住在这个汽车安全座椅测试中有两个关键:
Bear in mind:vi.记住;考虑到;
This is a car seat that was installed by someone who has installed 1,000 car seats, who knew exactly how to do it. 一个是这个汽车座椅是由一个会装汽车座椅的人装上的, 他已经装了超过一千个汽车座椅了。
installed:v.安装;设置;使就职(install的过去分词和过去式)
And also it turned out these bench seats are the very best way to install car seats. 而且这个座椅是装在双人长椅上。 双人长椅是最适合装汽车座椅的,
Having a flat back makes it much easier to install them. 因为这种椅子的后背是平的,汽车座椅容易装牢固。
And so this is a test that's very much rigged in favor of the car seat, 所以说这个测试其实是偏帮着汽车安全座椅的。
rigged:v.操纵,控制;(给船只)装帆;(秘密地)安装,装配;(rig的过去分词和过去式)
OK? So that kid in this crash fared very well. 同意吧？所以这个汽车座椅中的假孩子的结果不错,
fared:n.法依笛(服装品牌);
The federal standards are that you have to score below a 1,000 to be an approved car seat on this crash, in some metric of units which are not important. 按照国家标准 这类碰撞测试你得得到危险系数少于一千, 才能得到执照生产这个汽车安全座椅。 这里就不介绍危险系数是怎么评的了。
metric:adj.米制的;公制的;按公制制作的;用公制测量的;
And this crash would have been about a 450. 这个汽车座椅的得分是 450。
So this car seat was actually an above-average car seat from Consumer Reports, and did quite well. 从消费者评分来看, 这个汽车座椅其实高于一般水平,所以也表现很好。
above-average:平均以上;在一般水准以上; Consumer:n.[经]消费者;[生,生态]消费者;
So the next one, now this is the kid, same crash, who's in the seatbelt. He hardly moves at all, actually, relative to the other child. The funny thing is, 接下来,现在我们看到的是这个用安全带的假孩子,同样的测试, 他其实几乎没怎么飞起来, 尤其是和那个坐在汽车安全座椅中的假孩子比。有趣的是,
the cam work is terrible because they've only set it up to do the car seats, and so they actually don't even have a way to move the camera so you can see the kid that's on the rebound. 这个摄像机的效果很差,因为摄像机是他们为了给安全座椅们录像而装的, 所以根本没法把摄像机挪到后边 你也就看不到反弹的时候这个假孩子的情况。
Anyway, it turns out that those two crashes, that actually the three-year-old did slightly worse. So he gets about a 500 out of, you know, on this range, relative to a 400 and something. 总而言之,在这两起碰撞测试中, 这个用安全带的三岁大的假人表现稍差,得分是 500, 一般的范围是 400 到 1000。
slightly:adv.些微地,轻微地;纤细地;
But still, if you just took that data from that crash to the federal government, and said, "I have invented a new car seat. 但是如果你单把 500 这个危险系数, 给政府看,跟他们说:“ 我设计了一个新的汽车安全座椅,（危险系数是500。）
I would like you to approve it for selling," 我希望你能批准我销售这个座椅。”
then they would say "This is a fantastic new car seat, it works great." 他们会说:“ 这个汽车座椅非常好,表现很好。”
fantastic:奇异的,空想的
It only got a 500, it could have gotten as high up as a 1,000. （因为）它的危险系数才 500, 比 1000 少就够了。
And this seatbelt would have passed with flying colors into being approved as a car seat. 所以说这个安全带可以被当作汽车安全座椅一样批准使用, 毫无问题。
with flying colors:成功地;出色地;
So in some sense what this is suggesting is that it's not just that people are setting up their car seats wrong, which is putting children at risk. It's just that fundamentally , the car seats aren't doing much. 所以一定程度上,这个事实告诉我们, 并不是大家装汽车座椅的时候装错了, 让孩子冒风险。根本是 安全座椅并不更安全。
fundamentally:adv.从根本上;基础地;重要地
So here's the crash. So these are timed at the same time . 这里是另一个碰撞测试,全发生在同一时刻。
at the same time:同时;另一方面;与此同时;
So you can see that it takes much longer with the car seat -- at rebound it takes a lot longer, but there's just a lot less movement for child who's in the seatbelt. 你可以看到汽车座椅费了长的多的时间回到原位 — 在反弹的时候汽车座椅需要长的多的时间（恢复原位）。 另外使用安全带的假孩子移动得少的多。
So I'll show you the six-year-old crashes as well. 我再给你们看一个用模拟六岁大的孩子的假人作的测试。
The six-year-old's in a car seat, and it turns out -- that looks terrible, but that's great. That's like a 400, OK? 这个假装是六岁大的孩子坐在汽车安全座椅中,结果 — 看起来真恐怖,但是数据其实不错,400 分。
So that kid would do fine in the crash. 所以他可以没事。
Nothing about that would have been problematic to the child at all. 没有什么问题会发生在他身上。
problematic:adj.问题的;有疑问的;不确定的;
And then here's the six-year-old in the seatbelt, and in fact they get exactly within, you know, within one or two points of the same. So really, for the six-year-old, the car seat did absolutely nothing whatsoever . 这里是假装六岁大的假人用了安全带, 事实上他们两个得到了几乎完全一样的分数, 只差了一两分。所以说对于六岁大的孩子, 汽车安全座椅一点作用都没有。
absolutely:adv.绝对地;完全地; whatsoever:pron.无论什么;
That's some more evidence, so in some sense -- 这里是更多的数据。所以在很大程度上 —
I was criticized by a scientist who said, "You could never publish a study with an n of 4," meaning those four crashes. 我曾被一个科学家批评说:“ 就凭着四个例子,你永远也不可能 发表你的研究结果。” 指的是我只做了四次的碰撞实验。
criticized:v.批评;挑剔;指责;评论;评价;(criticize的过去式和过去分词) publish:v.出版;发表;公布;
So I wrote him back and I said, "What about an n of 45,004?" 所以我写信回复他,我说:“ 如果我有四万五千零四个例子,那又怎么样？”
Because I had the other 45,000 other real world crashes. 因为我有另外四万五千个实际发生的车祸例子。
And I just think that it's interesting that the idea of using real-world crashes, which is very much something that economists think would be the right thing to do, 我只是觉得,（这个研究手段的差异）很有趣: 使用真实事例, 对于经济学家来说是理所当然的,
real-world:adj.现实生活的;工作的;
is something that scientists don't actually, usually think -- they would rather use a laboratory , a very imperfect science of looking at the dummies, than actually 30 years of data of what we've seen with children and with car seats. 却是科学研究工作者们选择不去做的 — 科学家们宁愿作实验, 用问题百出的实验科学,就像我们使用假人做研究, 而不用三十年来我们看到的, 关于儿童（安全）和汽车安全座椅（的表现）的真实数据。
would rather:宁愿,宁可; laboratory:n.实验室,研究室; imperfect:adj.有缺点的; n.未完成体; v.有瑕疵地;
And so I think the answer to this puzzle is that there's a much better solution out there that's gotten nobody excited because everyone is so delighted with the way car seats are presumably working. 所以我认为这个谜团的答案, 其实是已经存在的另一个更好的解决办法, 只是没人感兴趣,因为每个人都 还是对汽车安全座椅的所谓表现挺满意。
puzzle:n.谜;疑问;智力游戏;不解之谜;v.迷惑;使困惑; delighted:adj.高兴的; v.使高兴; (delight的过去分词和过去式) presumably:adv.大概;推测起来;可假定;
And if you think from a design perspective , about going back to square one , and say, "I just want to protect kids in the back seat." 如果你从头设计, 回到一片空白的阶段, “ 你只是想要保护后座上的孩子”。
perspective:n.观点;远景;透视图;adj.透视的; back to square one:从头再来;退回起点;
I don't there's anyone in this room who'd say, "Well, the right way to start would be, let's make a great seat belt for adults. 我不认为在座的诸位会说: “ 好的,我们应该这么做, 让我们给成人设计特别安全的安全带,
seat belt:n.(汽车或飞机上的)安全带;
And then let's make this really big contraption that you have to rig up to it in this daisy chain ." 然后让我们拿一些链子拼凑一下, 就给孩子用这个奇形怪状的装置。”
contraption:n.奇妙的装置;精巧的设计; daisy chain:n.(给女学生戴的)雏菊花环;菊花链拓扑;
I mean, why not start -- who's sitting in the back seat anyway except for kids? 我的意思是,为什么不从这个角度开始想 — 怎么保护后座上坐的人,如果这个人不是个孩子？
But essentially, do something like this, which I don't know exactly how much it would cost to do, but there's no reason I could see why this should be much more expensive than a regular car seat. 基本上,我们会这么做, 我并不知道这个装置会有多贵, 但是我不认为 这个会比一个普通的汽车安全座椅更贵多少。
It's just actually -- you see, this is folding up -- it's behind the seat. 这个基本上是一个 — 你可以看到,这个可以折叠起来 — 翻到后座里去。
You've got a regular seat for adults, and then you fold it down, and the kid sits on top, and it's integrated . 平时这就是一个正常的后座,成人能用的,一翻下来, 孩子们就可以坐在它上面。这个装置是可以装在车里的。
fold:v.折叠;包;可叠平(以便贮存或携带);裹;n.褶;褶层;折叠部分;褶痕; integrated:adj.综合的; v.整合; (integrate的过去式和过去分词)
It seems to me that this can't be a very expensive solution, and it's got to work better than what we already have. 我认为这不会是个很昂贵的办法, 而且这个办法应该比我们现有的方法好的多。
So the question is, is there any hope for adoption of something like this, which would presumably save a lot of lives? 现在的问题变成,到底有没有希望,来开始使用这样的一个东西, 一个可能能救很多条性命的东西？
And I think the answer, perhaps, lies in a story. 我想,答案尽在下面这个故事里。
The answer both to why has a car seat been so successful, and why this may someday be adopted or not, lies in a story that my dad told me, relating to when he was a doctor in the U.S. Air Force in England. And this is a long time ago. 这个答案可以解释为什么汽车安全座椅那么成功, 也可以解释为什么我的新发明可能某一天会被应用,当然也可能不会。 这个答案包含在下面这个我爸爸讲给我听的故事里,当是他是一个大夫, 在英国的美国空军驻地工作。这是很久以前的事了。
adopted:adj.被收养的;被采用的;v.采用;接受;(adopt的过去式和过去分词); Air Force:n.空军;
You were allowed to do things then you can't do today. 那时候（作为一个大夫）,你还可以有很多自主权。
So my father would have patients come in who he thought were not really sick. 有的病人来找我爸爸治疗, 但是我爸爸诊断出他们没病。
patients:n.接受治疗者,病人;(patient的复数)
And he had a big jar full of placebo pills that he would give them, and he'd say, "Come back in a week if you still feel lousy ." 他有一大罐安慰药片,他可以给这些病人, 他会说:“ 要是吃了药一周后还不舒服,再来找我。”
placebo:n.安慰剂;为死者所诵的晚祷词; pills:n.药丸; v.起球; (pill的第三人称单数和复数) lousy:adj.非常糟的;极坏的;恶劣的;
OK, and most of them would not come back, but some of them would come back. 绝大部分的病人不会再来。 当然有一部分还是会回来找他,
And when they came back, he, still convinced they were not sick, had another jar of pills. In this jar were huge horse pills. 他如果还是觉得这些人没病, 他就会使用另一罐安慰药片。这罐药都是特别大片的药
convinced:adj.坚信; v.使确信; (convince的过去分词和过去式)
They were almost impossible to swallow . 它们大到没法吞咽。
swallow:v.吞下;咽下;吞没;相信;n.吞;咽;燕;一次吞咽的量;
And these, to me, are the analogy for the car seats. 这些药片对我来说就像是汽车安全座椅。
analogy:n.类比;类推;类似;
People would look at these and say, "Man, this thing is so big and so hard to swallow. If this doesn't make me feel better, you know, what possibly could?" 人们看到它们,自然而然地会说:“ 天啊,这东西这么大, 这么难以下咽,如果这个还治不好我的病, 你想想,那没什么药能了。”
And it turned out that most people wouldn't come back because it worked. But every once in a while , there was still a patient convinced that he was sick, and he'd come back. And my dad had a third jar of pills. 结果绝大部分回来的病人都没再来找。 因为这次大药片起了安慰作用。但是时不时地, 还是会有一个病人第三次回来,觉得他还是有病, 这次我爸爸就会拿出他的第三个药罐。
every once in a while:有时;偶然;偶尔;时而;
And the jar of pills he had, he said, were the tiniest little pills he could find, so small you could barely see them. 这罐药,他告诉我, 是他能找到的最小的安慰药片, 小到你几乎看不清它们。
barely:adv.仅仅,勉强;几乎不;公开地;贫乏地;
And he would say, listen, I know I gave you that huge pill, that complicated, hard-to-swallow pill before, but now I've got one that's so potent , that is really tiny and small and almost invisible , it's almost like this thing here, which you can't even see." 他会对病人说,你看,我知道我上次给了你那些大药片, 那些看起来挺高深的,难以下咽的药片（结果没用）。 但是这次,我得到了这些特别强效的药片, 它们特别小,你几乎看不见, （就像我给你们看的我的发明一样,你一般都注意不到。）”
potent:adj.有效的;强有力的,有权势的;有说服力的; invisible:adj.看不见的;n.看不见的人或物;
And it turned out that never, in all the times my dad gave out this pill, the really tiny pill, did anyone ever come back still complaining of sickness. 结果再也没有人回头来找他。 每次我爸爸给出这第三种药片,这种小药片, 再没有人回头来找他说他们有病了。
complaining:adj.抱怨的;v.抱怨;控诉;(complain的现在分词)
So my dad always took that as evidence that this little, teeny , powerful pill had the ultimate placebo effect. And in some sense, if that's the right story, 所以我爸爸总是拿这个说嘴, 说这种小小的强力药片 反而有最强的安慰剂的效果。某种程度上,如果我爸爸的故事真的说明问题,
teeny:adj.极小的;微小的; ultimate:adj.最终的;极限的;根本的;n.终极;根本;基本原则;
I think integrated car seats you will see, very quickly, becoming something that everyone has. The other possible conclusion is, well, maybe after coming to my father three times, 我认为你也会开始看到这种内置的安全座椅,很快地 变成人手一件的东西。当然另一个可能性是 这些病人来找了我爸爸三趟,三趟都拿了安慰剂回去,
conclusion:n.结论;结局;推论;
getting sent home with placebos , he still felt sick, he went and found another doctor. 还是觉得不舒服, 他就去找别的大夫了。
placebos:n.安慰剂(placebo的复数);
And that's completely possible. And if that's the case, then I think we're stuck with conventional car seats for a long time to come. 这是有可能的。如果这个可能性是真的, 我想我们在接下来很长一段时间里,只好继续用传统的汽车安全座椅。
conventional:adj.符合习俗的,传统的;常见的;惯例的;
Thank you very much. 谢谢大家。
(Applause) （掌声）
(Audience: I just wanted to ask you, when we wear seatbelts we don't necessarily wear them just to prevent loss of life, it's also to prevent lots of serious injury . （听众发问:我只想问一个问题,当我们使用安全带时 我们不光是为了防止车祸造成的死亡, 也是为了防止车祸造成的受伤。
necessarily:adv.必要地;必定地,必然地; injury:n.伤害,损害;受伤处;
Your data looks at fatalities. It doesn't look at serious injury. 你研究了死亡率,但是没有研究受重伤的可能性。
Is there any data to show that child seats are actually less effective , or just as effective as seatbelts for serious injury? Because that would prove your case.) 有没有任何数据是表明儿童汽车安全座椅在防止受伤这方面 比安全带效果差,或者至少不比安全带好的？ 因为这会加强你的论据。）
effective:adj.有效的,起作用的;实际的,实在的;给人深刻印象;
Yeah, that's a great question. In my data, and in another data set 是的,这是个好问题。在我的数据里,另一组数据里,
I've looked at for New Jersey crashes, 我调查了新泽西州的车祸案例。
I find very small differences in injury. 两种防范措施在减少受伤这方面差异很小。
So in this data, it's a statistically insignificant difference in injury between car seats and lap-and-shoulder belts. 在今天大家看到的这组数据中,使用安全座椅和使用安全带之间,在减少受伤这方面, 统计上来看没有任何显著差异。
statistically:adv.统计地;统计学上; insignificant:adj.无关紧要的;
In the New Jersey data, which is different because it's not just fatal crashes, but all crashes in New Jersey that are reported. 在新泽西州的统计数据中,不同的数据, 因为我们看到的不仅仅是致命的车祸。 而在新泽西州的所有车祸。
It turns out that there is a 10% difference in injuries , but generally they're minor injuries. 结果表明两种防范措施有一成的差别, 但是总的来说这些车祸造成的都是小伤。
injuries:n.伤害,损伤;挫伤;(injury的复数) generally:adv.通常;普遍地,一般地; minor:adj.未成年的; n.未成年人; vi.副修;
Now, what's interesting, I should say this as a disclaimer , there is medical literature that is very difficult to resolve with this other data which suggests that car seats are dramatically better. 有趣的是,我得说,尽管我不认同, 有篇医学论文用新泽州的数据很难解释, 这篇医学论文说汽车安全座椅的安全性要好得多（比一成多）。
disclaimer:n.不承诺,免责声明;放弃,拒绝; literature:n.文学;文献;文艺;著作; resolve:vt.决定; vi.解决; n.坚决; dramatically:adv.戏剧地;引人注目地;adv.显著地,剧烈地;
And they use a completely different methodology that involves -- after the crash occurs , they get from the insurance companies the names of the people who were in the crash, and they call them on the phone, and they asked them what happened. 这篇论文用了非常不同的实验手段,包括 — 在车祸发生后,他们从保险公司那里得到了 车祸中牵连的人的名字, 他们给这些人打了电话, 详细问了事情发生的经过。
methodology:n.方法学,方法论; involves:v.包含;需要;牵涉;牵连;影响;(使)参加,加入(involve的第三人称单数) occurs:v.重现(occur的第三人称单数); insurance:n.保险;保险业;保险费;保费;adj.胜券在握的;
And I really can't resolve, yet, and I'd like to work with these medical researchers to try to understand how there can be these differences which are completely at odds with one another, 我实在是解释不了。 我希望能有机会和这些医学工作者一起工作, 来弄明白为什么（我们的结果）会有那么大的差异, 会有这些天差地别的结果。
odds:n.几率;胜算;不平等;差别;
But it's obviously a critical question. 但这（个受伤率的议题）明显是个关键的问题。
critical:adj.鉴定的;[核]临界的;批评的,爱挑剔的;危险的;决定性的;评论的;
The question is even if -- are there enough serious injuries to make these cost-effective ? It's kind of tricky . 这个问题就是,即使（汽车安全座椅稍好一点）—,我们有没有那么多车祸受伤的情况, 使得我们的花费值回票价？这是个难以判断的问题。
cost-effective:adj.划算的;成本效益好的(等于cost-efficient); tricky:adj.难办的;难对付的;狡猾的;诡计多端的;
Even if they're right, it's not so clear that they're so cost-effective. 即使这些人的结果是对的,我们还是不清楚 这些汽车安全座椅是不是值得。