这篇文章来自《麻省理工科技评论》MIT Technology
Review，有中文版，报道客观用词地道，推荐给学英语和爱好生物基因/计算机科学的小伙伴~
100,000 Happy Moments
What makes people happy? A huge database is making it
possible to discern the answer at last.
by Emerging Technology from
the arXiv,February 5, 2018
【discern-词汇用法】及物动词，但不用于进行时，因为是瞬间动词，其他瞬间动词还有turn、become等。意思是to know, recognize or understand something, especially something
that is not obvious察觉、认知（特别是不易察觉的东西），同义词是detect；to see or hear something, usually with difficulty（艰难地）看到听到。可以用于know、learn、understand等的同义替换。
Thescience of happiness is of increasing interest to psychologists and to societyin general. The questions at the heart of this discipline are: what makes ushappy, and what sustains this happiness over time?
【开头】特别精彩，特别适合雅思等写作开头，特别符合书面语正式、简洁的要求~
【be of +n】等于be +adj，用名词表明是主语的性质，用形容词只是修饰了主语的一个特点，加上名词有客观的意味，因此用be of +n是相对正式高级的表达。
【increasing】是more and more的同义替换，一个词更精简，动名词形式有一种ing正在进行的动感，正式高级的用词符合新闻报道的书面语体；还记得常用句型“越来越多的人……”吗？ an increasing number of individuals……
【sth be of interest to sb】等于sb be interested in sth 等于sth interest（s）sb ，注意介词用的to；此外语法上用and连接两个并列宾语成分，宾语前的介词也要再重复一次，表明并列的是动词后的宾语部分；因此be of increasing interest to psychologists and （没有to）society
in general是有语法错误的。
【第二句】sustain sth over time 长久保持sth。开门见山，第一句引入，第二句直奔主题。
A varietyof factors seem to play important roles. Psychologists think about 50 percentof our happiness is the result of our genes—we seem to be pre-programmed for acertain level of happiness. By contrast, they think our environment—our lifecircumstances—contributes only 10 percent to our happiness levels.
The rest isunder our control. Some 40 percent of our happiness levels are the result ofthe choices we make. These are things like investing in long-termrelationships, doing meaningful work, and bonding with loved ones.
【逻辑】这两段讲研究结果：十分开心来源于基因4环境1选择4。在阐述的过程中，主要应该学习总分的逻辑结构和衔接词：By
contrast，短语，表与前面的对比；The rest，不算严格意义的衔接词，此处承上100%happiness-40%gene-10%environment同时启下；Those，前指词，指代choices
we make（注意最后一句中的like是举例的意思，相当于such as）。
逻辑框架是总分结构：
（总）A variety of factors seem to play important roles.
（分1）Psychologists think……gene……
（衔接+分2）By contrast,they think our environment……
（衔接）The restis under our control.
（分3）Some 40 percent……
（衔接+分3-1）Thoseare……
Indeed,the relatively new discipline of positive psychology steers people toward thesebehaviors. And an increasing number of apps help people make choices to boosttheir happiness levels.
【steer-发音】/s/与爆破音/t/相继出现，组成辅音连缀，所以爆破音应当减少送气，即原本的/t/发音与/d/相似，一个相似而且大家熟悉的例子就是student。
【steer-词汇用法】本意是Guide or control the
movement of (a vehicle, vessel, or aircraft), for example by turning a wheel or
operating a rudder掌控方向。
作动词时是及物动词He steered the boat into the harbour.，也是不及物动词The ship steered into
port.。
抽象意义就是to take control of a situation and influence the way in which it
develops 掌控形势或者引导、影响发展趋势，例句She steered the team to victory.她带领队伍获胜。
【an increasing number of】越来越多的……第一段的分析中也提到了。
【boost】是increase的同义替换，词义是boost something to make
something increase, or become better or more successful，使……增加，使……进步，使……成功。
例句：to boost exports/profits增加出口/盈利
The movie helped boost her
screen career. 这部电影使她演员事业腾飞。
to boost somebody’s confidence/morale 增加自信/创造奇迹
Getting that job did a lotto boost his ego (= make him feel more confident).
如果经常看《经济学人》或者政府工作报告的小伙伴肯定对这个词很不陌生，因为boost常与经济economy搭配，比如十九大里的“发展平台经济、共享经济”，就被翻译为We will boost the platform economy and the sharing economy.
But thestudy of these choices and behaviors is in its infancy. Happiness is not auniform state that can be switched on and off on demand. Instead, it is a stateor set of states that can be triggered by a rich tapestry of conditions andpermutations of them. And yet there has been relatively little work that teasesapart the nature of these conditions and how they arise.
【infancy】名词，本意是The state or period of babyhood
or early childhood 婴幼儿时期，抽象为The early stage in the development or growth of something 发展早期、刚刚开始，上面的句子可以翻译为关于上述选择和行为的研究仍处于初期。
【tapestry】名词，本意是有花纹的织毯，抽象意义是Used in reference to an intricate or complex sequence of events.复杂交织地发生的事件。
【permutations】名词，Each of several possible ways in which a set or number of things
can be ordered or arranged.将一系列事物进行排序或安排的几种可能性；排列组合。
【trigger】名词，一个义项是枪的扳机，另一个义项something that is the cause of a particular reaction or
development, especially a bad one造成某种反应或发展的原因，特别是负面的。常见搭配是trigger (for something) 、trigger (to something/to do something)，例句Intense sunlight may be a trigger to skin cancer.强烈日晒可能导致皮肤癌。本文中使用被动语态，事件be
triggered by 原因，可以做reason、cause、lead to 的同义替换。
【第二、三句-语法和深度】这两句都是名词性从句中由that引导的定语从句，that在从句中做主语，不可以省略，指代主句中的state。第三句中的tapestry在这里是一个隐喻metaphor，将复杂的情形比作色彩、样式复杂的织毯，化抽象为具体。
这两句的意思是：幸福并不是根据需求或开或关的统一状态。与此相反，它是经过如织毯一般多样的情形排列组合而成的一种或一系列状态。
如果把这句话的主语从happiness换成其他抽象名词，也是适用的，比如life生活，affection情感、understanding理解、growth成长等。只要满足并非一蹴而就，原因或进程复杂多样，就可以完全代入借用到任何写作、口语的主题中，堪称百搭。
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