盤點左撇子名人

In the past hundred years, the U.S. presidency has veered more and more to the left--not in policy, but in handedness. Barack Obama is the latest to join a long list of left-handed presidents from the 20th century: James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Henry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were all southpaws.

在過去的一百年中，美國的總統(tǒng)們越來越“左傾”，這不是指他們的政見，而是他們的用手習慣。二十世紀以來一長串左撇子總統(tǒng)名單中，奧巴馬是最近加入的一個。在他之前，加菲爾德總統(tǒng)、胡佛總統(tǒng)、杜魯門總統(tǒng)、里根總統(tǒng)、老布什總統(tǒng)和克林頓總統(tǒng)都是左撇子。

What makes lefties so electable? Some experts think left-handed people have a greater aptitude for language skills, which may help them craft the rhetoric necessary for political office. And as for the bout of recent left-handed presidents, some think it's because teachers only recently stopped working to convert lefties to righties at an early age.

怎么會有那么多左撇子總統(tǒng)當選呢?一些專家認為，左撇子人群的語言運用能力更強，這種能力或許可以使他們在組織一些政治措辭時更為游刃有余。而至于近些年左撇子總統(tǒng)出現(xiàn)更為集中的問題，有些人認為這和教師最近停止對左撇子兒童進行右手使用糾正訓練有關。

No.2 Bill Gates 比爾·蓋茨

Claiming the nation's richest man among their number is a source of considerable pride for America's society of southpaws. In fact, the Microsoft titan and philanthropist is one of a surprising number of U.S. business moguls to be left-handed, including Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller and former IBM head Lou Gerstner. But the club seems to be a guys-only fraternity-- research suggests that while left-handed men tend to earn more than their right-handed colleagues, there is no similar advantage for women. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research floated the idea that left-handed men favor "divergent" thinking, a form of creativity in which the brain moves "from conventional knowledge into unexplored association." Maybe that's what it takes to develop a net worth estimated at billion.

包括美國第一首富在內的這一人群，是美國左撇子最引以為豪的。事實上，這位微軟巨頭兼慈善家僅僅只是美國商界左撇子巨賈中的一位，如福特、洛克菲勒和前IBM總裁郭士納都是左撇子。不過美國商界的左撇子團體似乎是一個“女士止步”的男士聯(lián)誼會，研究表面，盡管男性的左撇子商人要比右撇子盈利更多，但是這條規(guī)律卻不適合于女性。美國國家經濟研究所指出，左撇子男士更青睞于“發(fā)散性”思維，這是一種創(chuàng)造性的思維方式，使大腦“從傳統(tǒng)的知識轉移到未曾探知的聯(lián)想中去”。也許正是這樣的一種思維方式創(chuàng)造了一張價值約估為570億美元的“網絡”。

No.3 Oprah Winfrey 奧普拉·溫弗瑞

The talk-show queen doesn't need much more to set her apart from the rest--what with her estimated .7 billion fortune and a magic ability to sell books just by glancing at them--but she also has the distinction of being a member of the left-handed club. Since men are more likely to be left-handed than women, that makes Oprah doubly impressive. She's in good company: Other show-biz ladies of the southpaw persuasion include Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie (her husband Brad Pitt is also a lefty).

擁有約27億美元的身價和僅需她瞄一眼就能把書賣到脫銷的神奇力量，這位脫口秀女王已無需更多特質來使她鶴立雞群了，但是她同樣也是左撇子俱樂部中的一員。由于左撇子男性本身要比女性多，這無疑使奧普拉更為引人注目。其他與她同為女性左撇子的名人也都非常出眾，包括烏比·戈德堡、茱莉亞·羅伯茨和安吉麗娜·朱莉(朱莉的老公布拉德·皮特也是左撇子)。

No. 4 Napoleon Bonaparte 拿破侖·波拿巴

Legend has it that Napoleon objected to the time-honored military practice of marching on the left side of the road with weapons at the ready in the right hand: it put lefties like him at a strategic disadvantage. Once in power, the story goes, the French emperor--whose queen, Josephine, was also a southpaw--ordered his armies to switch sides. Civilians in countries he conquered had to do the same. Hence, supposedly, the rules of the road as we know them were born, which also explains why the British (who, along with the Prussians, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo) still drive on the left.

據(jù)傳，拿破侖反對士兵站在道路的左邊而右手拿著武器這一經歷了時間考驗的軍事慣例，這項慣例讓像他這樣的左撇子在戰(zhàn)術上非常不利。據(jù)傳說中記載，這位法國國王(他的王后約瑟芬也是左撇子)掌權之后，命令軍隊士兵改變左右列隊位置。所有他所征服的國家百姓也都必須這樣做。據(jù)說，因此也就產生了我們現(xiàn)在所知的道路法規(guī)，這也解釋了為什么英國人是靠馬路左邊開車的。(英國人和普魯士人在滑鐵盧打敗了拿破侖)

No. 5 Marie Curie 居里夫人

Not only was atomic scientist Marie Curie left-handed, but she was the matriarch of a whole family of accomplished, southpaw scientists. Curie, who discovered the principles of radioactivity and won two Nobel Prizes, was married to fellow lefty Pierre Curie, who was instrumental in helping Marie's atomic research and shared one of her Nobel awards. Historians believe their daughter, Irene, was also left-handed. Irene went on to win a Nobel Prize of her own with her husband--who, you guessed it, was also left-handed.

原子科學家居里夫人不僅僅自己是左撇子，她作為女家長，他們一家子都是建樹斐然的左撇子科學家。居里夫人發(fā)現(xiàn)了放射原理，兩次獲得了諾貝爾獎，她嫁給了同為左撇子的科學家皮耶爾·居里，他對居里夫人的原子研究給予了很大的幫助，還和他的夫人分享了一座諾貝爾獎。歷史學家相信，他們的女兒伊雷娜也是左撇子。伊雷娜也和她的丈夫一起獲得了她自己的諾貝爾獎，而她的丈夫嘛......你猜對了，也是個左撇子。

Lefty scientists are hardly unusual. In addition to the Curie clan, Einstein, Newton and Alan Turing--founder of modern computer science--all were left-handed as well.

左撇子科學家其實并不少見。除了居里夫人一家之外，愛因斯坦、牛頓和現(xiàn)代電腦科學的創(chuàng)始人阿蘭·圖靈都是左撇子。