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Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil. And I’m Beth.
你好。这里是BBC英语六分钟。我是尼尔。我是贝丝。
I'm writing my birthday wish list, Beth.
我正在写生日愿望清单，贝丝。
Listen: I want a new laptop, a gold Rolex watch and a red sports car.
听着：我想要一台新笔记本电脑、一块金劳力士手表和一辆红色跑车。
Phew, that’s quite a lot, Neil! Isn’t that a bit greedy?
唷，这可真不少，尼尔！ 是不是有点贪心了？
So what? Greed is good! We’re genetically built to want things that increase our social status – power and material possessions like money, a nice house, a fast car… all that stuff!
所以呢？ 贪婪是好事！ 我们生来就渴望获得能够提高我们社会地位的东西——权力和物质，比如金钱、漂亮的房子、一辆跑车……所有这些东西！
Hmm, I'm not so sure, Neil. Remember, greed is also one of the seven deadly sins.
嗯，我不太确定，尼尔。 请记住，贪婪也是七宗罪之一。
In this programme, we’ll be discussing greed, the desire to accumulate ‘stuff’, keep it for yourself, and not share it with others.
在本节目中，我们将讨论贪婪，即积累“东西”、为自己保留而不与他人分享的欲望。
And, of course, we’ll be learning some useful new vocabulary too.
当然，我们也会学习一些有用的新词汇。
But first I have a question for you, Beth.
但首先我有一个问题要问你，贝丝。
You reminded me of a famous quote by one of history’s greatest leaders: The world has enough for everyone's need, but not everyone's greed.
你让我想起历史上一位伟大的领导人的名言：世界足以满足每个人的需要，但不能满足每个人的贪婪。
But who said it? Was it: a) The Dalai Lama b) Mahatma Gandhi, or c) Martin Luther King?
但这是谁说的呢？ 是达赖喇嘛，圣雄甘地，还是马丁·路德·金？
I think it was Mahatma Gandhi.
我认为是圣雄甘地。
OK, Beth, I'll reveal the correct answer at the end of the programme.
好的，贝丝，我将在节目结束时揭晓正确答案。
At the neurological level, greed is controlled by the reward centre of the brain.
在神经层面，贪婪由大脑的奖励中心控制。
Greedy people feel good when they choose the stuff they want, and this happens at the unconscious, emotional level of the brain, meaning there’s little conscious awareness about how greedy actions might affect others, or be unfair.
贪婪的人在选择自己想要的东西时感觉良好，而这种情况发生在大脑的无意识、情感层面，这意味着人们很少有意识地意识到贪婪的行为可能会如何影响他人或不公平。
But what does this look like in real life? That’s what University of California psychologist, Professor Paul Piff, investigated using the classic family boardgame, Monopoly.
但这在现实生活中是什么样子的呢？ 这就是加州大学心理学家保罗·皮夫教授使用经典家庭棋盘游戏“大富翁”进行的研究。
The game was rigged to give one ‘rich’ player an advantage by letting them roll two dice instead of one and collecting twice as much money as the ‘poor’ player when passing Go.
该游戏经过精心设计，让一名“富有”玩家掷两个骰子而不是一个，从而在通过围棋时获得“贫穷”玩家两倍的钱。
So, what happened when Professor Piff asked the ‘rich’ players why they had, inevitably, won the fixed game? Listen to the answer he gave to BBC Radio 4 programme, Seven Deadly Psychologies:
那么，当皮夫教授询问“富有”玩家为什么他们不可避免地赢得了固定游戏时，发生了什么？ 听听他在 BBC 广播四台节目《七种致命的心理学》中给出的答案：
…they took credit for their wins.
……他们把胜利归功于自己。
They talked about how they'd controlled their own outcomes, they talked about how it was the decisions they had made that had led to their being ultimately victorious, and not that flip of a coin that randomly got them into that position of privilege in the first place.
他们谈论他们如何控制自己的结果，谈论他们所做的决定如何导致最终的胜利，而不是抛硬币随机地让他们进入了特权地位。
Now, I don't know that this is a perfect model for how privilege, success or wealth operates in everyday life…
现在，我不知道这是特权、成功或财富如何在日常生活中运作的完美模型……
Some people indeed have worked themselves up by their own bootstraps and get what they have because they worked hard…
有些人确实是靠着自己的努力而获得了自己所拥有的一切……
Interestingly, the rich players took credit for winning.
有趣的是，富有的玩家将胜利归功于自己。
If you take credit for something, you accept praise and recognition for doing something, whether or not that praise and recognition is deserved.
如果你因某件事而获得功劳，你就接受了对某件事的赞扬和认可，无论这种赞扬和认可是否值得。
In fact, it was the fixed game that determined who would win and lose, not anything the players did.
事实上，决定输赢的是固定的比赛，而不是球员所做的任何事情。
Professor Piff uses the expression, the flip of a coin, to describe something which is based solely on random chance, like when you flip a coin into the air.
皮夫教授使用“抛硬币”这个表达来描述完全基于随机概率的事物，例如将硬币抛向空中。
Whether it lands on heads or tails is pure luck.
无论是正面还是反面，纯属运气。
Yet the winning players claimed they won thanks to their own skill and ability.
然而赢家声称他们的胜利归功于自己的技巧和能力。
Here, Professor Piff uses another idiom, to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, meaning to improve your situation through your own hard work, without help from anyone else.
在这里，皮夫教授用了另一个成语，自力更生，意思是通过自己的努力来改善处境，不需要任何其他人的帮助。
Worryingly, the experiment showed how feeling financially better off than others can easily change into feeling better than others.
令人担忧的是，该实验表明，感觉经济状况比其他人好很容易变成感觉比其他人好。
And the reason behind these feelings could be what money buys you, especially one thing: space.
这些感觉背后的原因可能是金钱给你带来的东西，尤其是一件事：空间。
If you’re rich you own a big house.
如果你有钱，你就拥有一栋大房子。
At work you have your own spacious private office.
在工作中，您拥有宽敞的私人办公室。
You live in your own private bubble.
你生活在个人空间中。
Here’s Professor Piff again talking with BBC Radio 4’s, Seven Deadly Psychologies: People who are well off are just more socially independent.
皮夫教授再次与 BBC 广播四台的《七种致命的心理学》进行对话：富裕的人在社会上更加独立。
They don't need others in their lives as much, and when you don't need others, well, your empathy might suffer as a result.
他们的生活中不太需要别人，而当你不需要别人时，你的同理心可能会因此受到影响。
People who are well off, and rich enough to do what they want, rely on other people less.
那些富裕、足够富有、可以做自己想做的事的人，对他人的依赖就会更少。
As a result, they may lack empathy, the ability to share someone else’s feelings by imagining what it would be like to be them.
因此，他们可能缺乏同理心，无法换位思考来理解别人的感受。
Maybe it’s not greed itself that’s bad, but the things we’re greedy for.
也许贪婪本身并不是坏事，而是我们贪婪的东西才是坏事。
Being greedy for social justice or a clean environment is good, right? Something to be admired by the world leader in your question, Neil…
贪图社会正义或清洁环境是好的，对吧？ 在你的问题中，世界领导人感到钦佩，尼尔……
Yes, I asked you who said, The world has enough for everyone's need, but not everyone's greed.
是的，我问你是谁说的：世界足以满足每个人的需要，但不能满足每个人的贪婪。
You said it was Mahatma Gandhi which was… the correct answer, Beth.
你说这是圣雄甘地，这是……正确的答案，贝丝。
OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from this programme, starting with stuff, an informal word for material possessions.
好的，让我们回顾一下从本课程中学到的词汇，从玩意儿开始，这是一个表示物质财富的非正式用词。
To take credit for something means to allow people to believe that something you did deserves praise or recognition.
因某事而获得荣誉意味着让人们相信你所做的某事值得赞扬或认可。
The phrase, a flip of a coin refers to an action or decision based on luck or random chance.
“掷硬币”一词指的是基于运气或随机概率的行动或决定。
If you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you improve your situation through your own efforts, without help from anyone else.
如果你自力更生，你就可以通过自己的努力改善自己的处境，而不需要任何其他人的帮助。
Someone who is well off is rich enough to be able to have most of what they want.
富裕的人足够富有，能够拥有他们想要的大部分东西。
And finally, empathy means experiencing someone else’s feelings by putting yourself in their place.
最后，同理心意味着设身处地为他人着想来体验他人的感受。
Once again, our six minutes are up! Join us again soon for more trending topics and useful vocabulary, here at 6 Minute English. Goodbye for now! Bye!
六分钟时间又到了！ 很快会再见面，想要了解更多热门话题和有用的词汇，请访问 六 分钟英语。暂时再见了！ 再见！
