内容简介

如果你刚刚提出了一项新理论并证明了它，那么你应该说 “I proved my theory.” 还是 “I corroborated my theory.”？在写论文或报告时，除了单词 “prove” 和 “corroborate” 外，我们还可以用这些单词来表达 “证明了......”：“demonstrate”、“establish”、“confirm” 和 “verify”。不过这些单词之间往往不能随意替换使用。听节目，跟主持人 Phil 和步理学习这六个表达 “证明一件事” 的单词的用法和区别。

文字稿

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Buli
大家好，欢迎收听 BBC 英语教学的 “你问我答” 节目。This is Question and Answer of the week, where we answer your questions about English language, culture and life. I'm Buli. Phil's here to help me answer a question today about ways to say that you've proved something. Hi Phil!

Phil
Hi Buli, how are you?

Buli
I'm very good, thank you! Let's hear this week's question.

Question
我平时在写论文的时候常常会用到表达证明一个观点的词，比如 “prove”、“demonstrate”、“confirm” 这些单词。还有一些我不常用的，但好像也能用来表达同样的意思，比如 “verify”、“establish” 和 “corroborate”。请问这些用来说 “证明观点” 的不同单词有什么样的区别呢？

Phil
Well, hopefully we can explain the differences.

Buli, have you ever heard of the Ig Nobel prize?

Buli
Ig Nobel prize, is that the prize for unusual research?

Phil
That's the one. I've just been reading about this year's prizes. A team of researchers managed to establish that painting cows with black and white stripes stops them getting bitten by insects. They demonstrated that the white stripes halved the number of times that the cows were bitten. This could prove that insects are affected by the way that light is polarised.

Buli
Wow, that's quite a study. I wonder if anyone's done any other research to corroborate these findings. It would be really interesting if it was confirmed to work with other species as well. Has anyone actually verified their findings?

Phil
Well, as long as they don't try and do it with zebras. I don't think that would prove anything!

Buli
你正在收听的是 BBC 英语教学的 “你问我答” 节目。在刚才的对话中，我和 Phil 使用了不少可以用来表达 “证明了……” 的单词。接下来，我们就来看看这些单词之间的区别。

Phil
Yes. Let's start by looking at 'establish', 'prove' and 'demonstrate'. They all have very similar meanings – you can prove, demonstrate or establish that something is true.

Buli
是的。单词 “prove”、“demonstrate” 和 “establish” 都可以用来表示 “证明某事”。不过，它们之间的区别在于 “prove” 和 “establish” 指的是 “用切实的证据证明了某事”，而 “demonstrate” 则通常是指 “通过演示或展示一件事，向他人表明这件事是真的”。

Phil
When we use these words we often follow them with a clause. For example:

The scientists proved that their theory worked.
（科学家证明了他们理论的正确性。）

The researcher established that these proposals would save a considerable amount of money.
（研究人员证明了这些提案能节省一大笔钱。）

The researchers demonstrated that painting the cows reduced the number of bites.
（研究人员证明了给奶牛刷上颜色能减少蚊虫叮咬。）

Buli
那么 “confirm”、“verify” 和 “corroborate” 这三个单词又该如何使用呢？Phil, how do we use those?

Phil
We tend to use 'confirm', 'verify' and 'corroborate' in relation with something else. If we confirm something is true, we might be saying that something someone else has said is true. Information that corroborates something, agrees with it, or shows that it's possible.

Buli
原来如此。也就是说，“confirm”、“verify” 和 “corroborate” 三个单词通常用于表达 “再次证明一件事是对的” 或者 “证实一件事”，特别是 “证明之前已经被他人提出过的事”。

Phil
While it's possible to follow these verbs with a clause, we often follow them with a noun. For example, you may hear people use them in these contexts.

Have you verified those figures?
（你确认过这些数字了吗？）

Has anyone corroborated these findings?
（有人印证了这些结论吗？）

This confirms our theory.
（这证实了我们的理论。）

Buli
另外，需要注意的是，虽然这三个单词都可以表示 “再次证明一件事”，但它们的具体含义也略有不同。比如，“confirm” 通常指 “验证了一个事实性的说法或理论”；“verify” 通常指 “经过仔细的调查或检验核实了一件事”；而 “corroborate” 则强调 “为证明某事提供了新的证据或实验结果等等”。

Phil
OK. That's it for this week. Remember, if you have a question that you'd like us to answer, you can email us too at: questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk

Buli
你还可以通过微博向我们提问。我们的微博账号是 “BBC英语教学”。Bye!

Phil
Bye!