You know, radio is a great thing.
要知道，收音机是伟大的发明。
Here I am! Flying high abovethe earth, but my voice is coming across just as if I were sitting in front of you.
现在，我在演播厅，可是，我的声音让你觉得我就在你面前。
Communicating by voice alone has its drawbacks, though.
但是，光凭声音沟通是有缺点的。
For example, I can't use hand gestures to clarify what I mean.
比如，我现在无法用手势来表达自己。
And, as it turns out, that makes a big difference.
这说明手势对沟通很重要。
Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand wanted to know how much a relevant hand gesture helps to communicate an idea.
新西兰奥塔拉大学的研究，想知道相关的手势对表达想法有多少帮助。
They had volunteers watch video clips of a woman saying different simple phrases, such as “the square box,” or “peel the banana.”
志愿者被要求观看视频短片，短片中有个女人在说各种简单短语，比如，“方盒子”、“剥香蕉”。
In some, she simply said the phrase without moving her hands.
第一组志愿观看的视频中，她只是说出来，而不做任何手势。
Peel the banana. In others, shemade the kind of hand gesture most of us would make when saying that-a sort of banana-peeling mime that matches the content of the phrase.
但是，第二组志愿观看的视频中，她模仿默剧，做剥香蕉手势。
In a third group, she made gestures with her hands that were unrelated to what she was saying.
在第三组志愿观看的视频中，她做了一些和剥香蕉毫不相干的手势。
The results?
结果是什么呢？
People who got the matching content hand gestures remembered those phrasesmore effectively than folks who got just the words alone.
第二组志愿者比第一组记得更好；而第一组比第三组记得更好！
What does this show us?
这说明什么呢？
We already knew that all the hand-waving we do when we speak isn'tjust nervous energy; it serves various functions.
我们在说话时所做的手势，除了情绪表达还有更多其它用处。
Apparently, one of them is to help the listener remember what you've said.
很显然，手势有助于听者记忆。
