Part I
Professor: Have you ever heard the one about alligators living in New York sewers? The story goes like this: a family went on vacation in Florida and bought a couple of baby alligators as presents for their children, then returned from vacation to New York, bringing the alligators home with them as pets. But the alligators would escape and find their way into the New York sewer system where they started reproducing, grew to huge sizes and now strike fear into sewer workers.
Have you heard this story? Well, it isn't true and it never happened. But despite that, the story has been around since the 1930s. Or how about the song ‘twinkle, twinkle little star', you know, ‘twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are'. Well, we've all heard this song. Where am I going with this? Well, both the song and the story are examples of memes. And that's what we would talk about, the theory of memes.
但是鳄鱼逃跑并进入了纽约的下水道系统，它们在那里开始繁殖，长大后变得巨大，现在下水道工人很恐惧它们。
1. one |wʌn|
pron. you can use one to refer to a question, joke, remark, or subject of discussion. （指代问题、笑话、评论、讨论的主题等）一个
E.g.: Have you heard the one about the Englishman, the Irishman and the Scotsman?
你听没听过那个关于英格兰人、爱尔兰人和苏格兰人的笑话？
2. sewer|ˈsu:ə(r)|
noun. an underground pipe that is used to carry sewage away from houses, factories, etc. 污水管；下水道；阴沟
E.g.: the city's sewer system
城市排水系统
3. strike |straɪk|
verb. if something strikes fear into people, it makes them very frightened or anxious. 使感到(恐惧或惊慌)
E.g.: If there is a single subject guaranteed to strike fear in the hearts of parents, it is drugs.
如果只有一样东西定能让父母感到恐惧，那就是毒品。
4. around |əˈraʊnd|
adv. present in a place; available 出现；现有；可用
E.g.: There was more money around in those days.
那年头比现在富裕。
5. twinkle |ˈtwɪŋkl|
verb. to shine with a light that keeps changing from bright to faint to bright again 闪耀；闪烁
E.g.: At night, lights twinkle in distant villages across the valleys.
夜间，山谷那头的遥远村落里灯光闪闪。
Part II
A meme is defined as a piece of information copied from person to person. By this definition, most of what you know, ideas, skills, stories, songs are memes. All the words you know, all the scientific theories you've learned, the rules your parents taught you to observe, all are memes that have been passed on from person to person. So what? You may say. Passing on ideas from one person to another is nothing new.
Well, the whole point of defining this familiar process as transmission of memes is so that we can explore its analogy with the transmission of genes. As you know, all living organisms pass on biological information through the genes. What's a gene?
A gene is a piece of biological information that gets copied or replicated, and the copy or replica is passed on to the new generation, so genes are defined as replicators. Genes are replicators that pass on information about properties and characteristics of organisms. By analogy, memes also get replicated, and in the process pass on cultural information from person to person, generation to generation, so memes are also replicators.
好吧，将这个熟悉的过程定义为模因传递的全部意义在于，我们可以用来探索它与基因传递的类比。
1. analogy |əˈnælədʒi|
noun. a comparison of one thing with another thing that has similar features; a feature that is similar 类比；比拟；比喻
E.g.: The teacher drew an analogy between the human heart and a pump.
老师打了个比喻，把人的心脏比作水泵。
2. replica|ˈreplɪkə|
noun. a very good or exact copy of sth 复制品；仿制品
E.g.: The weapon used in the raid was a replica.
抢劫案中使用的武器是一件仿制品。
3. property |ˈprɒpəti|
noun. (formal) a quality or characteristic that sth has 性质；特性
E.g.: Compare the physical properties of the two substances.
比较一下这两种物质的物理特性。
Part III
To be a successful replicator, there are three key characteristics: longevity, fecundity and fidelity. Let's take a closer look.
First, longevity. A replicator must exist long enough to be able to get copied, and transfer its information. Clearly, the longer a replicator survives, the better its chances of getting its message copied and passed on, so longevity is a key characteristic of a replicator. If you take the alligator story, it can exist for a long time in individual memory, let's say, my memory. I can tell you the story now or ten years from now, the same with the twinkle, twinkle song, so these memes have longevity because they are memorable for one reason or another.
显然，复制因子存活的时间越长，其信息被复制和传递的机会就越大，因此寿命是复制因子的一个重要特征。
1. longevity |lɒnˈdʒevəti|
noun. (formal) long life; the fact of lasting a long time 长寿；长命；持久
E.g.: We wish you both health and longevity.
我们祝愿您二位健康长寿。
2. fecundity|fɪˈkʌndəti|
noun. the quality of being fecund 多产; 富饶; 肥沃
E.g.: In cultures that lack water, black sometimes indicates fecundity, because after a rain soil becomes rich and black.
在缺水的文化中，黑色有时表示多产，因为经过雨水的土壤变得肥沃和变黑。
3. fidelity |fɪˈdeləti|
noun. (formal) the quality of being accurate 准确性；精确性
E.g.: the fidelity of the translation to the original text
对原文翻译的准确性
4. say |seɪ|
verb. to suggest or give sth as an example or a possibility 比方说；假设
E.g.: You could learn the basics in, let's say , three months.
比方说，三个月你就可以掌握基本知识。
Part IV
Next, fecundity. Fecundity is the ability to reproduce in large numbers. For example, the common housefly reproduces by laying several thousand eggs, so each fly gene gets copied thousands of times. Memes, well, they can be reproduced in large numbers as well. How many times have you sung the ‘twinkle, twinkle song' to someone? Each time you replicated the song, and maybe passed it along to someone who did not know it yet, a small child maybe.
And finally, fidelity. Fidelity means accuracy of the copying process. We know fidelity is an essential principle of genetic transmission. If a copy of a gene is a bit different from the original, that's called a genetic mutation. And mutations are usually bad news. An organism often cannot survive with a mutated gene, and so a gene usually cannot be passed on, unless it's an exact copy.
比方说，普通家蝇通过产下数千个卵来进行繁殖，因此每个家蝇的基因都会被复制数千次。
1. lay |ɪnˈrəʊl|
verb. if a bird, an insect, a fish, etc. lays eggs, it produces them from its body （鸟、昆虫、鱼等）下（蛋），产（卵）
E.g.: The cuckoo lays its eggs in other birds' nests.
杜鹃在其他鸟的巢中产蛋。
2. mutation|mju:ˈteɪʃn|
noun. a process in which the genetic material of a person, a plant or an animal changes in structure when it is passed on to children, etc., causing different physical characteristics to develop; a change of this kind （生物物种的）变异，突变
E.g.: genetic mutations
基因变异
Part V
For memes, however, fidelity is not always so important. For example, if you tell someone the alligator story I told you today, it probably won't be word for word exactly as I said it. Still, it will be basically the same story, and the person who hears the story will be able to pass it along. Other memes are replicated with higher fidelity though, like the twinkle, twinkle song. It had the exact same words 20 years ago as it does now. Well, that's because we see songs as something that has to be performed accurately each time. If you change a word, the others will usually bring you in line. They'll say, ‘that's not how you sing it', right?
So, you can see how looking at pieces of cultural information as replicators, as memes, and analyzing them in terms of longevity, fecundity and fidelity, we can gain some insight about how they spread, persist or change.
嗯，那是因为我们把歌曲视为每次都必须准确演奏的东西。
1. word for word
in exactly the same words or (when translated) exactly equivalent words 一字不差地；（翻译时）逐字地
E.g.: She repeated their conversation word for word to me.
她一字不差地把他们的谈话对我复述了一遍。
2. in line
doing what other people want or expect: in a state of agreement or cooperation 使（某人）听从吩咐，配合
E.g.: He says he'll cooperate, but I don't know how much longer we can keep him in line.
他说他会合作，但我不知道我们能让他配合多久。
3. persist|pəˈsɪst|
verb. to continue to exist 维持；保持；持续存在
E.g.: If the symptoms persist, consult your doctor.
如果症状持续不消除，就得去看医生。
10个月宝宝每天需要喝多少奶粉？
