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2021 届高考英语中英双语阅读素材：一个又矮又胖的水管工是如何统治世界的？等
How a squat plumber took over the world?
一个又矮又胖的水管工是如何统治世界的
Part 1
At the closing ceremony of the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, Japan ’ s then Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe stepped out of a giant green pipe waving a familiar red hat.
Before the 2020 Tokyo games were postponed, Japan celebrated its upcoming stint
as Olympic host by dressing the leader as the country’s most beloved cultural export
of the past 30 years: Mario.
在 2016 年巴西奥运会的闭幕式上，时任日本首相安倍晋三手里挥舞着一顶人们熟悉的红帽子，从
一根巨大的绿色管子里走了出来。在 2020 年东京奥运会被推迟之前，日本在庆祝即将举办的奥运会时，
把国家领导人打扮成这个国家过去 30 年来最受欢迎的文化输出形象：马里奥。
It was a typically playful move from Japan —— rivaling the UK parachuting “the
Queen” from a helicopter in 2012 — but the appearance of a world leader dressed
as a video game character left me unmoved.
这是日本经典的俏皮动作——可以和 2012 年在直升机上跳伞的英国“女王”相媲美——但世界领导
人装扮成电子游戏里的角色出现在大众面前，这种事情让我无动于衷。
While my friends grew up with Nintendo consoles, and Mario bouncing across
psychedelic landscapes, I was a PlayStation kid, an aficionado of Sony’ s less cute
characters. I would have chosen Lara Croft over Princess Peach in a heartbeat.
虽然任天堂游戏机陪伴着我的朋友们长大，他们操纵着马里奥在令人迷幻的场景中跳来跳去，但我
主玩索尼游戏机，是一个索尼游戏系列里不怎么可爱的角色的狂热爱好者。我过去常会毫不犹豫地选择
劳拉·克劳馥而不是桃公主。
Part 2
Even when I belatedly joined the cult of Nintendo, relishing the surprising
complexity and chaotic pleasures of multiplayer classics such as Mario Kart and
Super Smash Bros, I remained unconvinced by Mario, the company’s patron saint.
He is not an obvious hero, neither cute animal nor chiselled action hero: a squat
Italian plumber with a bottlebrush moustache. He struck me as devoid of
personality, rendered with a Plasticine sterility.
即使当我最终加入到任天堂的狂热中，享受着多人游戏中令人惊讶的混乱而复杂的游戏乐趣时，例
如《马里奥赛车》和《超级马里奥兄弟》，我仍然对这个任天堂公司的守护神“马里奥”的存在感到怀疑。
他并不是一个公认的英雄人物，也不是可爱的动物或者轮廓鲜明的动作英雄：他只是一个有着密匝匝的
小胡子的意大利矮胖水管工。他给我的印象是缺乏个性，像橡皮泥一样没有特点。
Why did everyone love Mario? How had this bland figure led a Japanese
company to decades of global success and become synonymous with the entire
gaming medium?
为什么每个人都喜欢马里奥呢？这个平淡无奇的人物是如何带领一家日本公司在全球取得了数十
年成功，并成为整个游戏媒介的代名词的？
Today, Mario is everywhere. He has appeared in more than 200 titles, from
platformers to role-playing games, painting software to sports titles including
football, baseball, athletics, golf: the seventh Mario Golf game was announced last
week, alongside news that Mario will be colonizing yet another Nintendo IP when
the familiar furniture — pipes, coins, hats — is incorporated into lockdown hit
Animal Crossing.
如今，马里奥无处不在。他出现在 200 多款游戏中，从平台游戏到角色扮演类游戏，从绘画软件
到体育游戏；包括足球，棒球，田径，高尔夫：第七款马里奥高尔夫游戏在上周发布。同时有消息称，
马里奥将进军另一款任天堂 IP 中，将熟悉的元素——管道，金币，帽子——整合到封闭期间最受欢迎
的游戏《动物之森》中。
Part 3
Nintendo’ s influential designer Shigeru Miyamoto came up with the blueprint
for Mario when he was developing 1981 ’ s Donkey Kong, in which a hero called
Jumpman dodges obstacles to reach the top of a construction site where a gorilla is
holding his girlfriend hostage.
任天堂颇具影响力的设计师宫本茂在 1981 年开发的游戏《大金刚》中为“马里奥”这一角色设计了
蓝图，在《大金刚》中，名为 Jumpman 的英雄需要不断躲避各种障碍，攀爬到一个建筑工地的顶部，
因为他的女朋友被一只大猩猩挟持作为人质关在那里。
Mario’s characteristics were determined by technical limitations and accidents:
his red and blue overalls were selected to contrast with a black background, while
his large nose and moustache were an effort to infuse personality into a character
comprised of a handful of pixels. According to company lore, his name was inspired
by Mario Segale, the irate landlord at Nintendo of America’s warehouse.
马里奥的角色特征是由当时技术限制和意外决定的：选中的红蓝相间的工作服与黑色的背景能形成
对比，他的大鼻子和密匝匝的胡子则是为了给像素角色增添个性而被设计的。根据公司的说法，他名字
的灵感来源于马里奥·西格尔，一名喜欢发脾气的任天堂在美国办公场所的房东。
Mario was first cast as a carpenter, then a plumber for Mario Bros, which
featured him and his twin brother Luigi fighting off monsters which oozed up from
the sewers of New York. Soon a polished formula was established, with nefarious
king Bowser, hapless Princess Peach and a cast of surrounding characters drawn in
broad brushstrokes.
马里奥在《马里奥兄弟》中最初身份是一名木匠，后来才是水管工。在游戏中他和他的孪生兄弟路
易吉一起对抗从纽约下水道出现的怪物。很快一个游戏模式被建立起来，包括邪恶的鲍瑟王，不幸的桃
公主，还有其他一系列用粗线条构成的角色。
Powers included mushrooms that made Mario grow and shrink, or items that
turned him into a bee, ghost, flying squirrel, and, in the new release Super Mario 3D
World, a cat. Mario appeared in ropey educational games, low-budget cartoons and
an execrable 1993 liveaction film — though an upcoming animated movie,
co-produced by the studio behind the Minions films, might be better.
马里奥吃掉蘑菇道具后可以获得一些特殊能力，比如变大变小，或者变成蜜蜂、幽灵、飞鼠，以及
在新发行的《超级马里奥 3D 世界》中，变成一只猫。其出现在过劣质的教育类游戏，低成本卡通片以
及一部 1993 年上映的糟糕的真人电影中---不过，一部与《小黄人》系列电影的制造方联合制作的动
画片即将上映，据说效果可能会更好点。
Part 4
Miyamoto designed Mario to be flexible enough to appear in any game. This
explains why there is no depth to his character beyond the impulsivity that sends
him off rescuing princesses and the persistence that means he always restarts
undaunted after a fall with a cheery, cod-Italian “Here we go again!”
宫本茂将“马里奥”这个角色设计的如此灵活以至于他可以出现在任何游戏里。这就解释了他的人设
属于冲动后的深不见底；有着在救公主的路上的坚持，在失败后会毫不气馁地站起来，大喊一句：“我
又回来了！”
Nintendo excels at two things: creating games with an unwaveringly warm,
colourful, family-friendly tone, and pushing for constant innovation in its hardware
and software. To play a Nintendo game is to encounter a delightful new idea around
every corner. Perhaps, then, Mario’s emptiness is carefully calibrated to make him a
pliable vehicle for the company’s design ideas.
任天堂公司擅长做两件事情：一是创造温暖、丰富多彩、适合家庭游玩的游戏;二是不断推进其硬
件和软件的创新。玩任天堂的游戏，你能在其中的每一个角落体验到令人愉快的想法。或许，马里奥这
个角色的“空虚感”是经过精心调整的，为了让他成为公司设计理念的灵活载体。
In 2010, Miyamoto said “ when we create games, the gamer really is the main
character ...it may not really matter who the main character is onscreen. ” This
approach is the key to Nintendo ’ s success. Until he is in the hands of the player,
Mario means nothing. But for generations of gamers who associate him with the
cherished memories of childhood play, he becomes unstoppable. With the love of
fans, the mightiest of power-ups, Mario becomes resistant to changing tastes,
pandemics, economic depressions, and any other game overs the world might
throw his way.
2010 年，宫本茂曾表示，“当我们创造游戏时，要明白玩家才是真正的主角……屏幕上的主角是谁
其实可能并不重要。”这种想法是任天堂成功的关键。在马里奥被玩家操纵之前，他没有任何意义。但
对于那些将他与童年游戏的珍贵记忆联系在一起的人们来说，他魅力无穷。在粉丝对他的热爱---这种
最强大的升级道具的帮助下，马里奥开始通过他的方式来抵抗品味改变，流行性疾病，经济萧条以及全
世界的其它游戏。
The interpretation of dreams
梦境解读
01
Dreams are clearly important. All humans have them, as do animals from cats to elephants.
Neuroscientists believe they are involved in the processing of memories. Yet studying
them is limited by the fact that dreamers themselves cannot talk to anyone while they
are asleep. Researchers must rely on the unreliable recollections of people who have woken
up. Now, though, a team of scientists led by Ken Paller, a neuroscientist at Northwestern
University, think they may have found a way around that problem.
梦显然很重要。人类都会做梦，从猫到大象，动物也是如此。神经科学家们相信，梦境与个体的记忆处理有关。
然而研究它们的局限性在于，睡眠者处于睡眠状态时，他们无法和任何人进行沟通。研究者们只能凭借清醒后
的人们对自己梦境不是很可靠的回忆来进行研究。不过现在，由西北大学的神经学教授肯·帕勒带领的一组科
学家认为，他们或许已经找到了应对这个问题的方法。
Dr. Paller's starting point was the fact that lucid dreams—in which sleepers
are aware they are dreaming—seem to be associated with only one kind of sleep, known as
"rapid eye movement" (REM) sleep. During REM sleep, brain activity looks similar to that
seen during waking hours. Past research has shown that it is possible for people to be
influenced by events taking place in the outside world during REM sleep. So Dr. Paller
speculated that it might be possible to reach out to people in such states, and to get
answers back.
帕勒博士研究出发点基于这样一个事实：清醒的梦境（睡眠者能够意识到自己正在做梦）似乎只
与一种睡眠情况相关，它被称为“快速眼动”睡眠。在“快速眼动”睡眠期间，其大脑活动与清
醒时的大脑活动相似。过去的研究表明，在“快速眼动”睡眠期间，人们可能会受到外界事件的
影响。因此，帕勒博士推测，接触处于这种睡眠状态的人，去获得研究者想要的答案是可能的。
02
As described in Current Biology, Dr. Paller, along with colleagues in France, Germany
and the Netherlands, gathered 35 volunteers. All were trained to be mindful of their
mental state, and to analyse whether they thought they were awake or in a dream. In
some labs (though not all) that training was accompanied by a distinctive sound. That
same sound was repeated, as a cue, while the participants were in REM sleep. Participants
were also trained to make distinct left/right eye movements to indicate they were aware
they were dreaming, and in response to questions. They practised interpreting numbers
conveyed as flashes of light, taps on their arm, or even as spoken words.
据《当代生物学》报导，帕勒博士与来自法国，德国和荷兰的同事们一起招募了 35 名志愿者。志
愿者们都进行了能时刻清楚自己精神状态的训练，并且能够判断自己究竟是处于现实世界还是梦
境中。在一些实验室中（不是所有的），这种训练还伴随着一种独特的声音。当参与者处于“快
速眼动”睡眠状态时，相同的声音会被作为一种暗示重复出现。参与者们还接受了左/右眼不同运
动的训练，以表明他们意识到自己正在做梦，并且对问题做出回应。他们被训练去辨别以闪光，
拍打手臂，甚至是口头语言等形式传递的数字。
Thus prepared, the volunteers were wired up with electrodes and sent back to the land
of Nod. Sometimes the researchers would initiate contact with their dreamers by playing
the sound cue and waiting for an eye signal in response. At other times, the
participants themselves sent an eye signal of their own accord. Once it was clear that
contact had been made, the researchers asked their questions, and waited for answers.
一切准备就绪后，志愿者们被接上电极，然后被送入各自的梦乡。在实验过程中，有时研究人员
会通过播放声音提示来开始与志愿者们进行联系，并等待志愿者运动眼球作为信号进行回应。在
其他时间，志愿者会主动发送一个眼球运动信号，一旦确定了与志愿者产生了联系，研究人员就
会提问，并等待答案。
03
Interviewed upon waking, the participants reported that the questions had
been incorporated into their dreams. One said an audio question was heard through a
car radio; another that flashes of light sent by the researchers manifested as a
flickering light. One of the numerical questions even manifested as the street number
of a house. Intriguingly, participants occasionally “remembered” a mathematics
problem different from the one they had been asked—despite having given the
correct answer, via eye movements, at the time.
醒来后接受采访时，志愿者们报告说，这些问题已经融入到他们的梦中。其中一个志愿者说他听
到了通过汽车的收音机发出的问题；另一个志愿者接收到的是研究人员发出的闪光，表现为闪烁
不定的光。有一个关于数字的问题甚至是一所房子的街道号码。有趣的是，尽管通过眼球运动给
出了正确的答案，参与者偶尔会“记住”一个与他们被问到的问题不同的数学问题
The method often did not work. Participants signalled that they were engaged in lucid
dreaming in just 26% of the sessions. Of that group, 47% answered at least one question
put to them correctly. But it proves a point. Dr. Paller and his colleagues say their
findings refute the notion that attempting communication with dreamers is pointless.
And that, in turn, may help researchers shed some light on what dreams are for, and how
they work.
然而这种方法常常行不通。志愿者们表示，他们仅在 26％的时间里处于清醒梦的状态；整个小组
中，47％的志愿者至少正确地回答了一个他们被问到的问题。但这可以证明一点：帕勒博士和他
的同事们指出，他们的发现反驳了尝试与睡眠者进行交流是毫无意义的观点。反过来说，这可能
会帮助研究者们阐明梦的作用和原理。
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