come to accept traffic fatalities as a way of life.

他们之所以参与这个项目是受到一些残酷无情的统计数据的驱使。每年，全世界有100多万人死于交通事故。如果一年内那么多人死于非典的话，大家很可能会恐惧得发疯了，然而我 们对交通亊故死亡率却习以为常了。

In addition, another 25 million people around the world are permanently disabled by traffic accidents, and many of them — as well as the fatalities — are children.

另外，还有2 500万人因交通事故永远残废了，而且他们当中(包括死去的)很多是孩子。

Taking It Easy After a Ticket? 接到罚中处之泰然？

When Redelmeier and Tibshirani and fellow researcher Leonard Evans set out to see if traffic tickets really do any good, they found an enormous resource in the Canadian province of Ontario. The full driving record of every licensed driver there was made available to them, warts and all, giving the researchers a huge data base of more than 10 million licensed drivers, 8,975 of whom were involved in a fatal accident during the 11-year period covered by the research, from 1988 through 1998.

当热德尔美尔、提波施拉尼和他们的共同研究人员伦纳德 ?伊凡斯研究交通罚单是否真能起到好作用时，他们在加拿大的安大略省发现了数量巨大的司机资料。他们在那儿能看到每个有驾照的人的全部记录，这样他们就有了一个良莠俱存的超过一千万个持照司机的巨大数据库。其中8 975个司机在此项研究覆盖的1988-1998共11年中曾出过重大交通事故

\convictions, and then the same month in the year before,\

statistician. \fatal accident than there were a year before, and that suggests there's a protective effect of having a ticket.\

统计学家提波施拉尼说:“我们看了一下出重大事故前一个月的交通罚单数和前一年同一个月的罚单数，发现出重大事故前一个月的罚单要比前一年同一个月的罚单少，这说明罚单有保护作用。”

In other words, when the number of citations went down, the number of fatal

accidents went up the following month, and when the number of tickets went up, the number of fatal accidents dropped the following month. The analysis shows that fatal accidents declined by 35 percent because of citations.

换言之，当罚单数下降时，重大事故率在接下来这个月就会上升；而当罚单数上升时，重大事故率在接下来这个月就会下降。分析表明罚单能使重大事故率下降35%。

Apparently, people just drove more cautiously following a traffic citation, but that only lasted a maximum of four months, the researchers say. After that brief respite, it was back to business as usual for most motorists.

显然，人们在拿到交通罚单后开车会更谨慎，但这种谨慎最长只会持续4个月。对多数司机来说，经过这短暂的歇息，一切又都恢复到从前了。

Citations’ Effects Consistent 罚单的持续作用

The scientists also turned up some surprising results. 科学家们还出示了一些令人吃惊的研究结果。

\report in their research paper. Most occurred during the summer months when the streets were dry (65 percent) rather than wet (18 percent) or covered with snow (17 percent).

“多数撞车不是因为酒后驾车，也不是发生在十字路口，”他们在研究报告中这样报道。多数事故发生在夏季，当时的道路干燥（65%）而不湿滑（18%），也没有雪覆盖（17%）。

They also found that the \was remarkably consistent among subgroups of licensed drivers,\apply to women as well as men, regardless of age, prior driving record, and other personal data.

他们还发现“在有驾照的那组司机中拿到罚单后的事故减少率的持续性是显著的\，因此同样的结论适用于妇女和男人，而与年龄因素、以前的驾驶记录和其他个人资料无关。

Men, however, were involved in far more fatal accidents than women (73 percent to 27 percent) and the most accident-prone age was between 30 and 50. Alcohol was detected in only 7 percent of the accidents.

但是，男人要比女人更容易出严重交通亊故(73%比27%)，而且最容易出事故的年龄是在30-50岁之间。酒后驾车只占事故的7%。

The researchers also addressed the commonly held belief that traffic citations cause more accidents than they prevent because so many people are killed during police chases. They found that only 24 deaths could be linked to writing citations during the 11-year period. That included 17 suspects, five bystanders and two police officers. \a spot check for alcohol or a speeding violation,\were killed in separate events when they were hit by a car while writing a ticket for another motorist.

研究者们还澄清了一种普遍的想法：交通罚单引起的交通事故比防止的多，因为很多人是在警察追他们时丧生的。他们发现在过去的11年中只有24起死亡事故和罚单有关，这包括17个被追的司机、5个路人和2位警察。 “最典型的一例是一个26岁的男子，因想逃避酒精和超速违规的现场检查而被警察穷追不舍，”他们报告说。有2位警察死于与这互不相关的事件中，当时他们正在给另一个摩托车驾驶员开罚单。

Who Really Pays? 到底谁付出代价？

The researchers admit there are a few gaps in their findings. The statistics do not include Ontario drivers who may have been involved in a fatal accident somewhere outside that province. Nor can they say that every traffic ticket leads to a reduction in accidents. But the statistics suggest a correlation between the number of citations and the number of fatalities.

研究者们承认在他们的研究中有一些漏洞。统计数字不包括有可能在省外某地出

严重交通事故的安大略省司机。他们也不能说每张交通罚单都能降低事故率。但是数据显示交通罚单的数量和死亡率之间呈相关性。

They also point out that the innocent are often made to pay the price for careless drivers.

他们还指出为粗心大意的司机付出代价的经常是那些无辜受害者。

\subsequent care for decades. Most crashes are unintended, unexpected, and could have been prevented by a small difference in driver behavior.\

“和其他常见病不一样，受害人通常很年轻，需要以后几十年连续不断的照顾。大多数事故是无意的，意料之外的，只要司机在驾驶上稍有不同就能避免。” So the next time you see that cop in your rear-view mirror, give him, or her, a broad smile.

因此下次你要是在后视镜里看见那位警察，一定要对他/她热情微笑。 Yeah, right.

His Politeness Is Her Powerlessness

Deborah Tannen

There are many different kinds of evidence that women and men are judged differently even if they talk the same way. This tendency makes mischief in

discussions of women, men and power. If a linguistic strategy is used by a woman, it is seen as powerless; if it is used by a man, it is seen as powerful. Often, the labeling of “women’s language” as “powerless language” reflects the view of women’s behavior through the lens of men’s.

各种各样的证据表明：即使女性和男性说话方式相同，人们对他们的看法还是不同。这种倾向导致有关女性、男性和无能耐的讨论纷争不断。女性说话讲究方式方法被认为是低微无能，而换成男性则被认为是有能力的表现。视女性的语言为低微无能者的语言常常反映出男性看女性行为的视觉角度。

Because they are not struggling to be one-up, women often find themselves framed as one-down. Any situation is ripe for misinterpretation. This ambiguity accounts for much misinterpretation by experts as well as nonexperts, by which women?s ways of thinking, uttered in a spirit of rapport, are branded powerless. Nowhere is this inherent ambiguity clearer than in a brief comment in a newspaper article in which a couple, both psychologists, were jointly interviewed. The journalist asked them the meaning of “being very polite.” The two experts responded

simultaneously, giving different answers. The man said, “Subservience.” The woman said, “Sensitivity.”Both experts were right, but each was describing the view of a different gender.

女性不为高人一等而拼搏，往往就被认为是低人一等。在任何情况下都极容易发生误会。这也说明了为什么专家和非专家常常把女性以友善语言表述出来的思维方式曲解成低微无能的表现。没有什么能比一家报社刊登的采访片段更能清楚地说明这种根深蒂固的歧义。采访对象是一对心理学家夫妇，当记者问他们“表现得非常有礼貌”的含义时，这两位专家同时给出不同的答案。男性回答说：“服从”。女性回答说：“敏感”。两位专家都是正确的，只不过每个人描述的是不同性别的观点。

Experts and nonexperts alike tend to see anything women do as evidence of

powerlessness. The same newspaper article quotes another psychologist as saying, “A man might ask a woman, ?Will you please go to the store?? where a woman might say, ?Gee, I really need a few things from the store, but I?m so tired.?” The woman?s style is called “covert,” a term suggesting negative qualities like being “sneaky” and

“underhanded.” The reason offered for this is power. The woman doesn?t feel she has the right to ask directly.

专家和非专家都习惯把女性的任何行为看为低微无能的表现。以上同一篇报刊文章援引另一位心理学家的话说：“一个男人会这样问一个女人：?请你去一趟商店好吗？?同样的情况下女人会说：?哎，我真的需要从商店买点东西，但是我实在太累了。?”女性的这种表达方式被称为“隐蔽的”，该词含有“鬼祟”和“秘密”等贬义，而这样表达的原因归咎于一个“权”字，女人觉得她没有权利直接提出要求。

Granted, women have lower status than men in our American society. But this is not necessarily why they prefer not to make outright demands. The explanation for a

woman?s indirectness could just as well be her seeking connection. If you get your way as a result of having demanded it, the payoff is satisfying in terms of status: You?re one-up because others are doing as you told them. But if you get your way because others happened to want the same thing, or because they offered freely, the payoff is rapport. You?re neither one-up nor one-down by being happily connected to others whose wants are the same as yours. Furthermore, if indirectness is understood by both parties, then there is nothing covert about it: That a request is being made is clear. Calling an indirect communication covert reflects the view of someone for

whom the direct style seems “natural” and “logical” － a view more common among men.

的确，在我们（美国）社会里，女性的地位比男性低，但这不等于说她们不愿意提出直截了当的要求。女性的这种间接方式很可能是因为她们在努力寻找某种关系。如果愿意在自己的要求下得到满足，结果就是社会地位的胜利：你高人一等，因为别人按你的意志行事。而如果你的愿望得到满足是因为他人的愿望恰好和你的一致，或者是因为对方心甘情愿，结果就是融洽和谐。当你和对方的需求一致而一拍即合时，你既不高人一等，也不低人一等。而且如果双方都了解这种间接方式，那就不存在什么隐蔽：提出的要求很明确。称间接的沟通方式为隐蔽反映出那些青睐直接沟通方式的人的观点，即直接的方式才是“自然的”、“合乎逻辑的”，这种观点在男性中更普遍。

Indirectness itself does not reflect powerlessness. It?s easy to think of situations where indirectness is the prerogative of others in power. For example, a wealthy

couple who knows that their servants will do their bidding need not give direct orders, but simply state wishes: The woman of the house says, “It?s chilly in here,” and the servant sets about raising the temperature. The man of the house says, “It?s dinner time,” and the servant sees about having dinner served. Perhaps the ultimate

indirectness is getting someone to do something without saying anything at all: The hostess rings a bell and a maid brings the next course;or a parent enters the room where children are misbehaving and stands with hands on hips, and the children immediately stop what they?re doing.

间接方式本身并不反映低微无能。我们不难想象出权势者中有特权的人是怎样使用间接方式的。例如，一位有钱的夫妇用不着直接向听命于他们的用人发号施令，而只须简单地说明其愿望，房子的女主人说：“这儿冷，”用人就会去调高室温；房子的男主人说：“是晚饭的时间，”用人就会摆桌上菜。或许终极的间接是什么都不用说就能使某人做某事：女主人按一下铃，女仆端上下一道菜；家长走进有孩子正在嬉闹的房间，双手叉腰一站，他们就会戛然而止。

Entire cultures operate on elaborate systems of indirectness. For example, I discovered in a small research project that most Greeks assumed a wife who asked, “Would you like to go to the party?” was hinting that she wanted to go. They felt that she wouldn?t bring it up if she didn?t want to go. Furthermore, they felt, she would not state here preference outright because that would sound like a demand. Indirectness was the appropriate means for communicating her preference.

所有文化都靠以“间接”二字所形成的复杂而精巧的体制去运作。例如，我在做一个小规模的研究项目时发现：当妻子问“你想去参加那个聚会吗？”，大多数希腊人认为他们的妻子是在暗示她想去。他们认为如果妻子不想去，她就不会提