<-NARRATOR:->Listen to a conversation between a student and a professor.

旁白：听下面一段学生和老师间的对话。

<-MALE STUDENT:->Hi, Professor Anderson. That was a really interesting lecture in class today.

学生：你好，汉德森教授！今天你的课真的是太精彩了！

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Thanks, Tom.Yeah, animals' use of deception… ways they play tricks on other animals ... that's a fascinating area. One we're really just starting to understand.

教授：谢谢，汤姆。嗯，动物对欺骗的使用，以及他们如何欺骗别的动物，是一个很有趣的研究领域，而且我们也才刚刚起步。

<-MALE STUDENT:->Yeah.You know, selective adaptations over time are one thing... oh, like uh, nonpoisonous butterflies that have come to look like poisonous ones...But the idea that animals of the same species intentionally deceive each other... I'd never heard that before.

学生：是的，一段时间内的选择性适应就是其中一个方面，譬如，嗯，无毒的蝴蝶，会在一段时间内，渐渐看上去跟有毒的类型一个样了。但是，某些动物会刻意欺骗他们同类的这个想法，我之前从来没有听说过。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Right, like . . .[thinking of another example] uh, like-there are male frogs who lower their voices and end up sounding bigger than they really are.

教授：好吧，我举一个例子，比如，雄性青蛙在鸣叫的时候，会降低鸣叫的音高，使得最终发出的声音比实际的要大。

<-MALE STUDENT:->[uttered as a statement, not a question]So they do that to keep other frogs from invading their territory.

学生：这样的话，他们就能保卫自己的领地，使得别的青蛙不敢侵犯吗？

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Right. Bigger frogs have deeper voices, so if a smaller frog can imitate that deep voice,well...

教授：对的，个头越大的青蛙，鸣叫的声音音高也就越低，所以，如果小个儿的青蛙能够模仿这种叫声的话，嗯…

<-MALE STUDENT:->Yeah, I can see how that might do the trick.But uh...anyway ... what I wanted to ask was, when you started talking about game theory, well, I know a little bit about it, but I'm not clear about its use in biology.

学生：好的，我能猜到他们是怎样做到的。但是，我真正想知道的是，你提到过的博弈论，嗯，我虽然知道一点，但我不知道它在生物学上的应用。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Yeah...it's fairly new to biology.Basically, it uses math to predict what an individual will do under certain circumstances.For example- [brief pause, thinking of example]a business sells ... oh, computers, say.And they want to sell their computers to a big university. But there's another company bidding, too. So what should they do?

教授：是这样的，这个理论对于生物学还是非常新的。基本上说，它依靠数学计算来预计某个个体在某一种特定环境下的反应。比如说，做生意吧，比如买电脑。如果电脑商想要把电脑卖给一个规模大的大学，而另一个公司也在竞标。这样的话，他们会怎么做呢？

<-MALE STUDENT:->[continuing the line of thought not venturing a guess]Well, try to offer the lowest price so they can compete, but still make money.

学生：嗯，在能够赚钱的前提下，相互竞争，给出尽量低的价格。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Right, they're competing-like a game, like the frogs.There're risks with pricing too high, the other company might get the sale ... there's also the number and type of computers to consider.Each company has to find a balance between the costs and benefits.Well, game theory creates mathematical models that analyze different conditions like these to predict outcomes.

教授：答对了，他们会竞争，就像一场游戏一样，就像我们刚才讲的青蛙一样。如果给的标价太高，另一家公司就会拿下订单；而且，他们还要考虑出售电脑的数量和种类。每家公司都要在成本和盈利之间争取平衡。而博弈论呢，可以帮助他们建立起数学模型，并以之分析不同条件下可能的结果会是怎样的。

<-MALE STUDENT:->OK, I-I get that. But how does it apply to animals?

学生：好的，我懂了！但这个理论是怎样用在动物上的呢？

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Well...You know, if you're interested in this topic, it would be perfect for your term paper.

教授：嗯，如果你真的对这个东西感兴趣的话，它很适合作为你的学期论文题目。

<-MALE STUDENT:->[Unenthusiastically] The literature review?

学生：您说的是哪个文献综述作业吗？

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Yeah. Find three journal articles about this . . . or another topic that interests you...and discuss them.If there's a conflict in the conclusions or something...that'd be important to discuss.

教授：是的，它要你找出三本不同杂志上相关的、令你感兴趣的观点，然后你对这些观点进行讨论。如果三本杂志上的说法有冲突的话，那么这个矛盾的地方就有必要讨论了。

<-MALE STUDENT:->[Pessimistic, doesn’t think he can do it]Well, from what I've looked at dealing with game theory... I can't say I understand much of the statistics end.

学生：嗯，从我现在知道的关于博弈论的文献来看的话，里面涉及的许多统计学结论我都不太明白。

<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Well, I can point you to some that present fairly basic studies... that don't assume much background knowledge.You'll just need to answer a few specific questions... what was the researchers' hypothesis ... what did they want to find out.And how did they conduct their research... and then the conclusions they came to.Learning to interpret the statistics will come later.

教授：嗯，我可以交给你一些非常简单的基础知识，不需要太多背景你就能懂的那种。你特别有必要搞清楚这样几个问题：研究者的假设是什么？他们想要得出什么样的结果？他们是怎么进行他们的研究的？他们得出了怎样的结论。之后才涉及到你如何解读那些统计数据的问题。