(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report.
Imagine forgetting everything you have ever done in life –jobs you held, a marriage you built, the children you raised, your friends, your travels, everything. For many older people such severe memory loss is a reality.
But in Tennessee, one man works to connect senior citizens with their past to regain their sense of self.
Use guided conversations to tap into the memories of the older people in your life. (International Day of Older Persons)
Doug Oliver and his friend Geneva McElroy are talking about old times.
Oliver: "Tell me something that you and HC (her husband) did together that was just fun and funny at the same time, that you remember..."
McElroy: "Well, we was on our way to church one time, and I can’t think what it was, he told something that my niece ..."
However, the two friends are not just having a simple talk about the past. Mr. Oliver is using a technique called guided conversations to help Ms. McElroy remember her past.
Guided conversations are planned, purposeful talks. They are designed to help those with memory loss. But the point is not only remembering the past, it is also recovering a sense of self-worth.
"They can see what they have done that has or will impact the future and it lifts their mood. Many times they will realize that they are and were important; that they have something to offer."
To understand how guided conversations work it is important to understand an important detail about the brain. Short term and long term memories are stored in different areas of the brain.
Diseases that harm short-term storage areas may not affect long-term storage areas. Alzheimer’s disease, for example, begins in the areas of the brain where short-term memories are kept.
Retired clinical therapist Doug Oliver discusses old times with Geneva McElroy at a senior center in Nashville, Tennessee. (M. Osborne/VOA 2014)
Doug Oliver explains.
"One of the hidden benefits that many elders have, even when they are having trouble with short-term memory, is that their long-term memories are usually intact for a much longer time."
For more than twenty years, Mr. Oliver worked as a mental health care provider. He is retired now.
But he volunteers at a daycare center for senior citizens in the southern U.S. city of Nashville, Tennessee.
This is where he uses the guided conversation memory technique. He finds it useful in fighting depression in older people.
Oliver: "If we were to talk about HC just for a minute. He passed away six months ago, was it?"
McElroy: "No, Oliver. 11 months, a year ago."
Oliver: "Has it been a year already? ..."
McElroy: "Yea, in January."
"Without trying to lift the depression a little bit, people can languish quickly and deteriorate, and so part of the purpose is to take that healthy part of their thinking and get that firing as passionately as you can."
Mr. Oliver says it is important to get patients to connect the past to the present and the future. These connections help a person reach memories that are buried deep away in the brain. To do this, he uses memories of good experiences and bad -- successes and losses.
"[It] Helps them to determine what they learned from those incidences, those memories. How does that apply to them and their families in the present, and what impact do they think they have had on the future."
Catholic Charities operates the senior daycare. The group praises Mr. Oliver’s work. Linda Edwards helps direct the daycare. She says Doug Oliver has a gift for helping seniors feel needed and valued.
Mr. Oliver says sometimes he thinks about quitting. He has an eye disease and cannot see well. For him, getting to the daycare center and home again can be difficult.
"Each time I consider that, I actually step back and say, ‘No. I am where I need to be right now. And I am doing what I should be doing.'"
But Mr. Oliver says he has always been interested in older people and the stories they tell. He says that listening to these stories brings history to life in a very personal way.
And that’s the Health Report. I’m Anna Matteo.
文本来自51voa，译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载
词汇解释
1.regain vt. 恢复；重新获得；收回 vi. 上涨 n. 收复；取回
Troops have regained control of the city.
军队已重新获得对那座城市的控制。
2.self-worth n. 自我价值；自尊；自负
Try not to link your sense of self-worth to the opinions of others.
尽量不要将你的自我价值感和别人的意见联系起来。
3.intact adj. 完整的；原封不动的；未受损伤的
Customs men put dynamite in the water to destroy the cargo, but most of it was left intact.
海关人员把炸药放入水中以摧毁货物，但大部分货物却完好无损。
4.quit vt. 离开；放弃；停止；使…解除 vi. 离开；辞职；停止 n. 离开；[计] 退出 adj. 摆脱了…的；已经了结的
He quit his job as an office boy.
他辞去了办公室勤杂员的工作。
内容解析
1.Use guided conversations to tap into the memories of the older people in your life.
tap into 挖掘；接进
What would you do differently if you had the time and energy to tap into your creativity?
如果你有时间和精力发挥你的创造力，你会有怎样不同的作为？
The Campbell Soup Company says it will try to tap into Japan's rice market.
坎贝尔羹汤公司表示，它将努力开发日本的大米市场。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
设想下你忘记了过去的一切，你有过的工作，建立的婚姻，养大的孩子们，你的朋友，你有过的旅行，一切都忘了。对很多老年人来说，这种严重的记忆缺失就是现实。
而在田纳西州，一名男子努力将老年人与其过去连接起来，从而重建自我意识。
道格·奥利弗和朋友日内瓦·麦克尔罗伊在谈论旧日时光。
奥利弗：“告诉你能记得的和丈夫一起做的趣事吧！”
麦克尔罗伊：“有一次我们在去教堂的路上，他讲了有关我侄女的事，但我不记得具体什么事了。”
然而，这两位朋友不仅是在谈论过去，奥利弗在用一种名为“引导式谈话”的技巧来帮助麦克尔罗伊记起过去。
引导式谈话是计划好的、有目的的谈话。其目的是帮助记忆损失的人，但关键不是仅仅回忆起过去，还要重建自我价值感。
“他们能知道过去做了什么，以及对未来产生影响的事，这能让他们心情变好，很多时候他们会意识到他们现在和过去都是很重要，他们是有贡献的。”
要理解引导式谈话是如何实现的，就得先理解有关大脑的一个重要细节，比如，短期记忆和长期记忆分别存储在大脑里的不同区域。
损害短期储存区的疾病可能不会影响长期储存区域，比如老年痴呆症就从储存短期记忆的区域开始。
奥利弗解释说。
“很多老年人的一项潜在好处是，即使当短期记忆出现了问题，他们的长期记忆通常也能在长期保存很好。”
20多年来，奥利弗一直是一名心理护理人员，他现在退休了。
不过他现在在南部城市田纳西州纳什维尔市一家老年人日托中心做志愿者。
他就在这里使用引导式谈话记忆技术，他发现这个教书在帮助老年人对付抑郁方面很有用。
奥利弗：“让我们来谈谈你丈夫，他6个月前过世了，是吗？”
麦克尔罗伊：“不，奥利弗，11个月前，一年前。”
奥利弗：“有一年了吗？”
麦克尔罗伊：“是的，是一月份去世的。”
“如果不努力消除下他们的抑郁，他们会很快衰弱并恶化，所以其部分目的是把握他们思维中健康的部分，尽情地激发它。”
奥利弗说重要的是让病人的过去、现在和未来连接起来，这种连接帮助人触及埋藏在大脑深处的记忆。要实现这一点，他使用好的经历和不好的经历，也就是成功和损失。
“这种方法帮助人们判定他们从这些记忆中学到什么，这些东西如何在现在影响他们和家人，他们认为未来会有什么影响。”
天主教慈善机构运营这家老年日托中心，该组织赞扬了奥利弗的工作，琳达·爱德华兹帮助管理该日托中心，她说奥利弗让老年人感到被需要和被珍视。
奥利弗说有时他会想到辞职，他有眼疾，无法看清东西。对他来说，往返于日托中心和家中是困难的事。
“每次想到这里，我就会退一步想，‘不，我现在就在应该呆的地方，做着自己应该做的事。’”
但奥利弗说他一直对老年人和他们讲的故事感兴趣，他说听这些故事能以私人的方式将历史带回生活。
这就是健康报道，我是安娜·马特奥。
