Знатокам английского языка. Помогите с переводом
For several decades, researchers tracked more than 2000 people born within minutes of each other in March 1958. Looking at more than 100 different characteristics, including occupation, anxiety levels, aggressiveness, IQ levels and sporting ability, the scientists found that these ‘time twins’ grew up to have absolutely nothing in common with each other. ‘The test conditions could hardly have been more conducive to success’, says the report, ‘but the results are uniformly negative’.
Astrologers have reacted angrily. ‘It is simplistic and highly selective and does not cover all of the research’, says Frank McGillion, a consultant to the Southampton-based Research Group for the Critical Study of Astrology. Elsewhere, Roy Gillett, president of the Astrology Association of Great Britain, said the findings should be treated ‘with extreme caution’, accusing the researchers of trying to ‘discredit astrology’. One would have thought that astrology was quite a discredited pursuit as it was. Still, pointing out that astrology is but hocus-pocus is a case of but stating the obvious. It is a pretty harmless pursuit, which even if responsible for the shrinking of the intellect of the easily led, seems to help people through the day. One criticism of astrology is that its diagnoses and consequent words of advice are so vague as to betray the practice as a matter of guesswork and bet-hedging. Consider some pieces of advice from Peter Watson’s column from the Daily Mail on Wednesday this week. ‘You have some very valid points to make but objectivity and clarity of thought are essential if you’re to convince others that you’re right’, he tells Aries readers. ‘Your emotional responses might overshadow common sense. You mustn’t let that happen because in order to be of any help to others it’s essential that you are calm and clear thinking’, is his advice for Geminis, while for Capricorns he intones: ‘It’s about to become obvious that some menial tasks need to be taken care of.’
To accuse such sentiments of banality or blatant flattery misses the point: it is because such pieces of advice are so universal and commonsensical that they are worth repeating. Sometimes it is important to be reminded that valid points need to be made with clarity, or that you mustn’t let emotions cloud one’s judgment. Star signs may not be symptomatic of the forces of the cosmos going about their work, but they do offer sound, if obvious, advice.
And take it from me, for the Mail also has some wise words to say about us Libras: ‘There’s something very reassuring about feeling confident that your opinions are your own and they are sound. They certainly don’t deserve to be pulled apart by those whose own ideas seem to be all over the place.’