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第1段
1 .<-NARRATOR:->Listen to part of a lecture in a sociology class.
旁白：请听一段社会学课上的演讲。
第2段
1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Have you ever heard the one about alligators living in New York sewers?
教授：你是否有听过生活于纽约下水道的短吻鳄的故事？
2 .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.
内容是这样的：有一家人在佛罗里达度假之后，给家里的小孩儿带回了几只短吻鳄作为礼物，回到纽约后，把这几只小短吻鳄当做宠物养着。
3 .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.
然而短吻鳄会逃走并进入纽约下水道系统，在那里开始繁殖长成大短吻鳄，现在下水道工人也心有余悸。
4 .Have you heard this story?
你听过这个故事吗？
5 .Well, it isn't true and it never happened, but despite that, the story has been around since the 1930s.
好吧，这不是真实的，从未发生过，尽管如此，该故事自20 世纪30 年代就已传开来了。
第3段
1 .Or how about the song "twinkle, twinkle little star", you know, [sings] "twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are."
或是这首歌“闪闪的星星”，是这样唱的：“一闪一闪亮晶晶，满天都是小星星”。
2 .Well we've all heard this song.
是的，我们都听过这首歌。
3 .Where am I going with this?
我的用意在哪儿呢？
4 .Well, both the song and the story are examples of memes, and that's what we would talk about, the theory of memes.
这个故事和这首歌都是用来介绍模因的两个例子，这就是我们要讲的，模因理论。
第4段
1 .A meme is defined as a piece of information copied from person to person.
模因被定义为人与人之间所复制的一则信息。
2 .By this definition, most of what you know, ideas, skills, stories, songs are memes.
根据这个定义，我们所知道的，想法，技巧，故事和歌曲都可以是模因。
3 .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.
所有你所学的单词和科学理论，你父母教你要遵守的规则，这些都是人与人之间所传递的模因。
第5段
1 .So what? You may say.
那又怎样？你可能这么认为
2 .Passing on ideas from one person to another is nothing new.
想法在人与人之间传递的事情已经不是什么新鲜事了。
3 .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.
将这种人们熟悉的过程定义为模因的传递的重点在于我们能够探索它与基因传递的类比。
4 .As you know, all living organisms pass on biological information through the genes.
众所周知，所有生物都是通过基因将生物信息传递下去。
5 .What's a gene?
那么什么是基因呢？
6 .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.
基因是不断复制和重复的生物信息，所有复制和重复的信息被传递到下一代中去。
7 .So genes are defined as replicators.
因此基因被定义为复制器。
8 .Genes are replicators that pass on information about properties and characteristics of organisms.
基因是将包含生物性质和特征的信息传递到下一代的复制器。
9 .By analogy, memes also get replicated and in the process pass on culture information from person to person, generation to generation.
通过类比，模因也是在被复制的过程中将文化信息从一个人传递到另一人，一代又一代传递下去。
10 .So memes are also replicators.
因此模因也是复制器。
第6段
1 .To be a successful replicator, there are three key characteristics: longevity, fecundity and fidelity.
成功的复制器必须具备三个关键特征：寿命长，繁殖力好和准确性强。
2 .Let's take a closer look.
我们进一步看看。
第7段
1 .First, longevity. A replicator must exist long enough to be able to get copied, and transfer its information.
首先是寿命。复制器存活的时间必须足够长才能被复制并传递它的信息。
2 .Clearly, the longer a replicator survives, the better its chances of getting its message copied and passed on.
很明显，复制器存活的越久，其信息得到复制和传递的几率就越大。
3 .So longevity is a key characteristic of a replicator.
因此寿命长是复制器的关键特征。
4 .If you take the alligator story, it can exist for a long time in individual memory—let's say, my memory.
就短吻鳄的故事来说，它能在个人记忆中存在很久的时间，比如说我的记忆。
5 .I can tell you the story now or ten years from now, the same with the twinkle, twinkle song.
现在甚至十年后我都可以跟你讲这个故事，闪闪的星星这首歌也是一样的。
6 .So these memes have longevity because they are memorable for one reason or another.
由于各种原因我们记住了这些模因，他们因此具有长的寿命。
第8段
1 .Next, fecundity. Fecundity is the ability to reproduce in large numbers.
第二个特征是繁殖力强。繁殖能力指的是大量繁殖后代的能力。
2 .For example, the common housefly reproduces by laying several thousand eggs, so each fly gene gets copied thousands of times.
比如，普通的苍蝇通过产下几千颗蛋繁殖后代，这样每只苍蝇的基因就被复制了上千遍。
3 .Memes, well, they can be reproduced in large numbers as well.
同样，模因也能大量繁殖。
4 .How many times have you sung the "twinkle, twinkle song" to someone?
你对别人唱过多少次“闪闪的星星”这首歌？
5 .Each time you replicated that song—and maybe passed it along to someone who did not know it yet, a small child maybe.
通过不断重复，有时候你可能将歌声传到某些从未听过的人耳里，也许是一个小孩儿。
第9段
1 .And finally, fidelity. Fidelity means accuracy of the copying process.
最后一个特征是保真度。保真度指的是复制过程的精确度。
2 .We know fidelity is an essential principle of genetic transmission.
我们知道保真度是基因传递中一个必要的原则。
3 .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.
如果复制的基因跟原来的基因有一点不同，这就叫基因突变，而这通常是不好的事情。
4 .An organism often cannot survive with a mutated gene—and so a gene usually cannot be passed on, unless it's an exact copy.
如果出现基因突变，生物通常无法存活下去，因此基因经常不能传递下去，除非是准确的复制。
5 .For memes however, fidelity is not always so important.
然而，对于模因来说，准确性却不是很重要的因素。
6 .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.
比如，你对某人讲述了今天我跟你说的短吻鳄的故事，你不能做到一字不漏。
7 .Still, it will be basically the same story, and the person who hears the story will be able to pass it along.
但是故事的基本内容不变，因此听到故事的人也能继续传递下去。
第10段
1 .Other memes are replicated with higher fidelity, though—like the twinkle, twinkle song?
其他模因被较高的准确性进行复制，比如“闪闪红星”这首歌？
2 .It had the exact same words 20 years ago as it does now.
现在人们传唱的歌词跟20 年前的一模一样。
3 .Well, that's because we see songs as something that has to be performed accurately each time.
这是因为我们认为歌曲的传唱是每次都必须要精确地执行。
4 .If you change a word, the others will usually bring you in line. They'll say, "that's not how you sing it", right?
如果改变了一个单词，其他人会带你走上正轨，他们会说“你唱错了”，是吧？
第11段
1 .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 inside about how they spread, persist or change.
从这些例子你现在明白了怎么将各种文化信息当做是复制器，模因来看待。依据寿命长，繁殖力强和准确性高的标准来分析模因。我们可以从中获得关于他们是如何传递，保持或改变的。