近日，英国科学家的一项最新研究表明，孩子的学业成绩70%可以用遗传基因解释。研究人员分析了6000对双胞胎从小学到义务教育阶段的学业成绩，发现孩子的不同外部环境（如不同的朋友和老师）对成绩的影响只占5%。

Genes are key to academic success, study suggests

Parents always worry about whether their children will do well in school, but their kids probably were born with much of what they will need to succeed.

父母总是担心他们的孩子是否会在学校取得好成绩，但他们的孩子可能天生就有很多成功所需要的东西。

A new study published in npj Science of Learning by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and King's College London explains the substantial influence genes have on academic success, from the start of elementary school to the last day of high school.

德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校和伦敦国王学院的研究人员在《Science of Learning》杂志上发表的一项新研究解揭示了从小学开始到高中最后一天，基因对学业成功的重大影响。

substantial

substantial表示“大量的；很大程度的，多的”，英文解释“Substantial means large in amount or degree.”，如：

a substantial salary 丰厚的薪水

a substantial number of .. 相当多的，大量的...

注意区分：substantial & consequential

还记得昨天

「马云」宣布将在教师节退休

Alibaba是全球最具影响力的电商和数字支付公司之一，one of the world's most consequential e-commerce and digital payments companies, 可以用来替换important, significant等表示“重要的，意义重大的”，以及consequential/consequent的另一个含义，“间接的；随之发生的；结果的，作为直接结果的”。

For many years, research has linked educational achievement tolife trajectories, such as occupational status, health or happiness.

多年来，研究将教育成就与生活轨迹联系起来，例如职业地位，健康或幸福。

But if performing well in school predicts better life outcomes, what predicts how well someone will do throughout school?

但如果在学校表现良好可以预测更好的生活结果，那么什么能够预测某个人在整个学校的表现如何呢？

“Around two-thirds of individual differences in school achievement are explained by differences in children's DNA,” said Dr. Margherita Malanchini, a psychology postdoctoral fellow at the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

“大约三分之二的学业成就个体差异可以通过儿童DNA的差异来解释，”UT奥斯汀人口研究中心的心理学博士后研究员Margherita Malanchini说。

表达积累

博士后 postdoctoral (fellow)

博士生 Ph. D. candidate

研究生 graduate student; post-graduate (student)

博士后科研流动站 center for post-doctoral studies

博导 supervisor of Ph. D. candidate; doctoral advisor

在职博士生 on-job doctorate

在职研究生 on-job postgraduate

自费留学 go to study abroad at one's own expense

自费研究生 self-supporting / self-sponsored graduate student

义务教育 compulsory education

涨知识

· 博士后是指在获得博士学位后，在高等院校或研究机构从事科学研究的工作职务，一般是在博士后流动站或博士后科研工作站进行研究的人员。需要注意的是，博士后不是学位，而表示的是一段工作经历。

· 虽然国内通常将硕士研究生称为“研究生”，而博士研究生称为“博士”，但实际上研究生分为硕士研究生和博士研究生。(百度百科)

“But less is known about how these factors contribute to an individual's academic success overtime.”

“但人们对于这些因素如何促成个人的学业成功知之甚少。”

Dr. Malanchini and co-authors analyzed test scores from primary through the end of compulsory education of more than 6,000 pairs of twins.

Marnchnchini和论文共同作者们分析了6000多对双胞胎从小学到义务教育结束的考试成绩。

They found educational achievement to be highly stable throughout schooling, meaning that most students (who started off well in primary school) continued to do well until graduation.

研究人员发现，在整个学校教育过程中，成绩非常稳定，这意味着大多数从小学起步的学生在毕业前一直表现良好。

Genetic factors explained about 70% of this stability, while the twins shared environment contributed to about 25%, and their non-shared environment, such as different friends or teachers, contributed to the remaining 5%.

遗传因素解释了约70％的稳定性，而双胞胎共享环境解释了剩下的约25％，而他们的非共享环境（不同的环境），如不同的朋友或教师，对他们成绩的影响只占5%。

“That's not to say that an individual was simply born smart,” the scientists said.

研究人员解释说，这并不是说个人只是天生聪明。

“Even after accounting for intelligence, genes still explained about 60% of the continuity of academic achievement.”

“即使考虑到智力，基因仍然解释了大约60％的学习成绩的连续性。”

“Academic achievement is driven by a range of cognitive and non-cognitive traits,” Dr. Malanchini said.

“学业成就是由一系列认知和非认知特征驱动的，”Malanchini博士说道。

“Previously, studies have linked it to personality, behavioral problems, motivation, health and many other factors that are partly heritable.”

“以前，研究已将其与个性，行为问题，动机，健康以及许多其他部分可遗传的因素联系起来。”

However, at times grades did change, such as a drop in grades between primary and secondary school. Those changes can be explained largely by non-shared environmental factors.

“Our findings should provide additional motivation to identify children in need of interventions as early as possible, as the problems are likely to remain throughout the school years,” said Dr. Kaili Rimfeld, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London.

伦敦国王学院精神病学、心理学和神经科学研究所的博士后研究员Kaili Rimfeld博士说，“我们的研究结果应该提供额外的动力来尽早识别需要干预的儿童，因为这些问题很可能在整个学年都存在。”

中文来源：生物谷Bioon.com 仅供参考

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