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It appears that when it comes to choosing our friends, much of our choice depends on genes. We are more genetically similar to our friends than we are to strangers.
The theme song to Friends, a 1990s American situation comedy about a bunch of best mates. Two of the characters were related, but if they've been real life friends, the rest of them could have been as biologically close as cousins. Researchers from the University of California have analyzed gene variation in around 2,000 people, comparing pairs of unrelated friends with pairs of unrelated strangers. They found that the friends had about 0.1% more DNA in common on average than strangers did. It's a small fraction that makes a big difference.
It's sort of like their family members. And in fact the number of genes they share in common is so large. And that is almost that they share a common ancestor. It's like their fourth cousins.
The friends were most alike when it came to their sense of smell, but the study suggests that we could be attracted to people with similar traits because it helps us to survive.
If you are the first person that has a mutation and you don't have any friends, you need surround yourself with other people who also have that trait. This is not just the case that people with the best trait, it's the people who have similar genes.
When it comes to our immunities though, the friends, genes were more different than that of the strangers. The scientists say this trend could also give us an evolutionary edge though because if your friends can fight different diseases than you, you are less likely to spread those diseases. It gives a new meaning perhaps to being their bio-friends.
Question 20. What does our choice of friends probably depend on according to the lecture?
Question 21. What do the researchers from the University of California find?
Question 22. Why are we attracted to people with similar traits according to the study?
在結交朋友時，我們的選擇似乎取決于基因。我們與朋友的基因比陌生人更相似。
《老友記》是20世紀90年代美國一部關于一群好朋友的幽默劇。其中兩名角色是親戚關系，但是如果他們在現實生活中也是朋友，那么其他幾名角色在生理上就有可能像堂親一樣親近。加利福尼亞大學的研究人員分析了約2000人的基因差異，將沒有血緣關系的朋友和沒有血緣關系的陌生人相比較。他們發現朋友之間比陌生人之間平均多0.1%的共同DNA。這一個小小的數據卻造成了大大的不同。
這有點像家庭成員。其實他們所享有的共同基因數量非常龐大。那幾乎意味著他們有共同的祖先。就像他們的第四代堂親。
朋友之間的嗅覺是最相似的，但是研究表明我們被具有相似特性的人吸引，是因為這有助于我們的生存。
如果你是第一個出現突變的人，而你沒有朋友，那么你身邊就需要跟你有著相同特性的人。事實并不是人們要有最好的特性，而是要有相似的基因。
不過談到特殊情況時，也就是朋友之間的基因差異比陌生人還大。科學家稱這個趨勢可能會給我們帶來進化優勢，因為如果你的朋友比你更能抵抗不同的疾病，那么你就更不可能會傳播這些疾病。這或許會讓他們的生物朋友有一個新含義。
問題20 根據這篇演講，我們對朋友的選擇可能取決于什么？
問題21 加利福尼亞大學的研究人員發現了什么？
問題22 根據研究，為什么我們會被具有相似特性的人吸引？
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