评论
打印
One of the most widely used intelligence tests is something called Raven's Progressive Matrices.
“瑞文推理能力测验”是目前使用最为普遍的智力测试。
It requires no language skills or specific body of acquired knowledge. It's a measure of abstract reasoning skills.
这种测试不需要任何语言技能，也不需要掌握已知的任何知识，它测试的是抽象的推理智能。
A typical Raven's test consists of forty-eight items,
标准的瑞文测试包括48项，
each one harder than the one before it, and your IQ is calculated by how many items you get right.
越是后面的测试项目，难度越大，你的IQ得分取决于你回答对了多少测试项目。
If I gave you the hardest question on the Raven's, I'm guessing you wouldn't get it correct, nor would I.
但必须承认，我是找不到这个正确答案的, 相信大部分人都不知道正确答案。
Christ Langan almost certainly could, however.
但是，克里斯.兰根的答案几乎全都正确。
When we say that people like Langan are really brilliant,
我们说某某人像兰根那样非常有才气，
what we mean is that they have the kind of mind that can figure out puzzles like that last hardest Raven's question.
指的就是他们具有解答最后这道题这样的本事。
Over the years, an enormous amount of research has been done,
多年以来，许多研究都试图解答一个问题，
trying to figure out how a person's performance on an IQ test like the Raven's translates to real life success.
这就是那些能够在瑞文这样的智力测试中获得高分的人，他们怎样在实际生活中获得成功。
People at the bottom of the scale, with IQs bellow seventy, are considered mentally disabled.
那些处在分值底端的人们——他们的IQ不满70％通常认为智商有缺陷。
A score of 100 is average; you probably need to be just above that mark to be able to handle college.
普通人的智商是100:如果你达不到这个分值，可能要上大学的想法永远都只是做白日梦。
To get into and succeed in a reasonably competitive graduate program, meanwhile, you probably need an IQ of at least 115.
并且，如果你要在竞争激烈的大学顺利毕业，你的IQ可能就得达到115 以上。
In general, the higher your score, the more education you'll get, the more money you'll make, and, believe it or not, the longer you'll live.
一般情况下，你的分值越高，你受的教育就越多，你挣的钱也越多，并且不管你是否相信——你的寿命也会越长。
But there is a catch. This relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point.
但是成功和智商之间的相互关系只在一定范围内存在，这一点令人难以理解。
Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120,
如果一个人的IQ达到了120左右，
having additional IQ points doesn't seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage.
那么再增加智商并不会在现实世界给他带来明显的优势。
''It is amply proved that someone with an IQ of 170 is more likely to think well than someone whose IQ is 70,''
“IQ为170的人比IQ为70的人思维更加敏捷，这是很明显的，”
the British psychologist Liam Hudson has written, ''and this holds true where a comparison is much closer, between IQs of, say, 100 and 130.
英国心理学专家利亚姆.哈德森写道，“相近智商之间的对比——比如说，IQ在100到130之间的对比，结果也是这样。
But the relation seems to break down when one is making comparisons between two people both of whom have IQs which are relatively high.
但是在两个具有很高智商的人之间对比，这个规律似乎就失效了……
A mature scientist with an adult IQ of 130 is as likely to win a Nobel Prize as one whose IQ is 180.
一个IQ为130的资历丰富的科学家和IQ为180的人一样，都有可能获得诺贝尔奖。”
