VOA慢速英语(翻译+字幕+讲解):研究表明空气污染有损智力
日期:2018-10-16 15:36

(单词翻译:单击)

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听力文本

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Study: Air Pollution Reduces Intelligence
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health and Lifestyle report.
Air pollution is a killer.
The World Health Organization says it kills an estimated seven million people around the world each year. Even if polluted air does not kill us, it can make us very sick.
However, breathing dirty air may do more than hurt your body. It can also affect your brain and your ability to think.
A new study shows that air pollution can cause a "huge" reduction in our intelligence. The study was a project involving researchers at Peking University in China and Yale University in the United States.
The researchers reported that long-term exposure to air pollution can affect a person's mental abilities in two areas: language and mathematics.
The researchers studied about 25,000 people from across China. Between 2010 and 2014, these Chinese men, women and children were given language and math tests. Then researchers compared the test results with measurements of pollution in the air, namely nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide.
Xi Chen of the Yale School of Public Health led the study. He and his team found that breathing polluted air can reduce a person's education level by about one year.
Chen said that the effect generally is worse for those over 64 years of age, for men and for those with little or no education.
"The older persons — they are more affected. And we find, quite interestingly, males are more affected than females. And people working outdoors are more affected than people working indoors."
He noted that the youngest people in the study were 10 years old, while the oldest was 90. They came from 25 of China's 33 provinces. In his words, this range of ages and locations across the country provided a "good representative sample."
The researchers noted that the effect of pollution on verbal ability is even more serious as people age, especially among men and the less educated.

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Why were language skills more affected than math?
Xi Chen told VOA that there are two main kinds of tissue in the brain: white matter and gray matter. White matter, he said, is more connected with a person's language skills, while gray matter is connected to our ability to solve math problems. Other studies, he noted, have shown that air pollution has a great effect on the white matter in the brain, but not the gray matter.
"Our findings are very consistent with the hypothesis that the white matter is the key to explain this result. In our brains, we have two main tissues: one is white matter. The other is gray matter. And we know that gray matter is more responsible for people's math skills. But white matter is more related to people's language skills. So, that's why we find a much larger effect on language skills."
Chen said that air pollution did affect the math skills of the study participants, just not as much as their language skills.
The study was carried out in a single country. But the findings may be important to people all over the world, especially those living in highly polluted areas.
In May 2018, the WHO reported that nine of every 10 people worldwide are breathing polluted air.
WHO experts note that of the seven million deaths from air pollution, "more than 90% of air pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa.
In 2018, the WHO found that India had the world's 14 most polluted cities.
The study we described earlier found that people who work outdoors fall into a high-risk group. However, that does not mean those who work inside buildings are safe from air pollution.
Researcher Xi Chen spoke about the smallest pieces of air pollution, called particulate matter 2.5 or simply PM2.5.
These particulates are only 2.5 micrometers long; sometimes they are even smaller. So you can easily breathe them in, and they are found indoors.
"Everyone is actually affected. And there are some studies already showing that the very small particulate matter can go directly into the brain affecting office workers. So, no matter whether you stay outdoors or indoors, everyone is affected. Some studies show that PM2.5 – which is very small particulate matter — 70 percent of outdoor PM2.5 can go directly into the building."
Chen urges government policymakers to make serious changes.
"So, the longer term affects suggests to the policymakers that we need to engage in cleaning up the sky instead of investing in short-term avoidances, for example the face masks or air filters."
Xi Chen and his team reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
And that's the Health and Lifestyle report.
I'm Anna Matteo.

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重点解析

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重点讲解:
1. be consistent with (观点等)一致的,吻合的,不矛盾的;
The results are entirely consistent with our earlier research.
这些结果与我们早些时候的研究完全吻合fRT&uDEv%vaJDq0)4
2. fall into 属于;被划分为;
The problems generally fall into two categories.
问题大致分成两类%^%2g&WeQBb%erC*d&qR
3. be safe from 不会受伤的;不会受损的;
We were safe from attack in the underground shelter.
我们在地下掩蔽所里,没有遭到攻击的危险a4sUGS#wWYgH
4. clean up 清理,清除(污染物);
Experts are trying to devise ways to clean up the huge slick.
专家们正想方设法清除这片面积巨大的浮油iXu=_2w4&KuoyIa

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参考译文

研究表明空气污染有损智力
这里是VOA慢速英语健康生活报道ft[iWKZvub89sPQLt2
空气污染是杀手l3_p(DTc_hnRxQI
世界卫生组织表示,空气污染导致全球每年约700万人死亡t9vYCG&L)BhA^i;7。即使空气污染不会导致我们死亡,其也能令我们严重生病)vat6mlnK+Uh
但是,吸入污染空气不只会伤害身体qKKVp3ibN9N^Jy5。还会影响大脑和思考能力Epw[AZ=X2jn=+Fw
一项新研究表明,空气污染可能导致智能水平“大幅”下降6;=v.eGNn0z&。该研究由中国北京大学和美国耶鲁大学的研究人员共同完成Ds3#Y+jE(|F8kB2
研究人员发现,长期接触空气污染会对一个人的两种智力能力造成影响:分别是语言能力和数学能力(l^^hg^wXyT&(Fur(x
研究人员对中国各地的2.5万人进行了研究Mqv7fsMnM4o。2010年至2014年间,参加研究的中国男性、女性和儿童接受了语言和数学测试_KdX!uId8|*-^。随后,研究人员将测试成绩与空气污染测量结果进行对比,主要是二氧化氮和二氧化硫的测量结果pdhWo#3T[h2DE
耶鲁大学公共卫生学院的陈希领导了这项研究H#|zt0cbEUpLRcGC。他和团队发现,吸入污染空气会导致人们的教育水平降低一年^PWI-GKOx@Q[nkx
陈希表示,对64岁以上的老年人、男性以及受教育程度较低的人来说,这种影响尤为严重g*Bq.M%U]w
“老年人受到的影响更大5+%JYAmnu#*,g。我们发现,值得注意的是男性比女性更易受影响O7-)E27rCwr5h2|Ot。户外工作者比室内工作者受到的影响更大HdKmN*J,Qx。”
他指出,研究参与者最小10岁,最大90岁&5M+,By1HZC-7Hc9E~BF。这些参与者来自中国33个省中的25个省O6Li_bgJJevN~。用他的话说,研究涵盖的年龄范围和地点提供了“很好的代表性样本MhXMZC6TJN^R8。”
研究人员指出,随着人们年龄的增长,污染对语言能力的影响甚至会更严重,这在男性和受教育程度较低人群中表现尤为明显9M]XSC|LNcadqF!8
为什么语言能力比数学能力更易受到影响?
陈希对VOA表示,大脑中有两种主要组织:白质和灰质toI|523YKPKiXcrq56。他说,白质与我们的语言技能有更多的联系,而灰质则与我们解决数学问题的能力有关G2KaeUnFg5M2y]Ju=KxT。他指出,其他研究表明,空气污染对大脑中白质有极大的影响,但对灰质没有太大影响3kt~wV8A~7;
“我们的研究结果与白质是解释这种结果的关键这一假设非常一致Q8|qvBGA4H(-7j[RQK。我们的大脑中有两种主要组织:一种是白质T%czh(GROMPwjXsJ9#。另外一种是灰质J*Ny!URSso。我们知道,灰质主要负责人们的数学技能a;3nxjb-]ZHG。而白质与人们的语言技能有更多关联~kFqtow_b1q。因此,这就是我们发现污染对语言技能有更大影响的原因V,L4m#dk&BR6MM;s0DE[。”
陈希表示,空气污染也对研究参与者的数学技能造成了影响,不过影响程度不及语言技能.g7oN.ANpuon=rKZF%
这项研究只在一个国家展开|CRI5O[e9v5&vl_U。但是研究结果可能对全世界民众来说都非常重要,尤其是那些生活在高污染地区的人]aChE~FA97gN[@KtA9y
2018年5月,世卫组织发布报告称,全球每10人中有9人呼吸污染空气.MdvR.~+]A
世卫组织专家指出,在因空气污染死亡的700万人中,超9成空气污染相关死亡案件发生在亚洲和非洲的中低收入国家#Lk271HH0NXWEGm*|v
2018年,世卫组织发现全球14个受污染最严重的城市都在印度2v)e~HdHA6,i
我们之前介绍的那项研究发现,户外工作者属于高危人群JD[QDydN2]qFxMtu,Qv。但是,这并不意味着室内工作者不会受到空气污染的影响FJa3WRD@PVRfe
研究员陈希谈到了空气污染中的最小颗粒物——颗粒物质2.5,简称PM2.5&S|.m;]MDpf*TdE
这些颗粒的直径只有2.5毫米,有时甚至会更小H.NR3qpF9-。人们很容易吸入,而这些颗粒存在于室内Zawo|6k|ri*+
“实际上所有人都会受到影响c9K&m5[#4EB7%~L+V。一些研究已经证明,这种极小的颗粒物质可以直接进入大脑,影响办公室工作人员T^g;@lhYNzMHcZPWL_。所以,无论你是在户外还是在室内,所有人都会受到影响CV%|c[!_CUNmtzCqhY。一些研究表明,就PM2.5这种极小颗粒物质来说,有70%的室外PM2.5颗粒可以直接进入办公楼内|r;J(aoE&[xMs9x。”
陈希敦促政府政策制定者进行重大变革lo6e~Z@40hFzz
“长期影响告诉政策制定者,我们要开始清理天空,而不是投资面具或空气过滤器这些短期预防措施,wL|=A7j=_0s。”
陈希和团队将研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上BB_~Xg^];LT1V]G
以上是健康生活报道r~0Xs6S#b]Y
我是安娜·马迪奥28IDIBjlR6

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译文为可可英语翻译,未经授权请勿转载!

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重点单词
  • intelligencen. 理解力,智力 n. 情报,情报工作,情报机关
  • sheltern. 庇护所,避难所,庇护 v. 庇护,保护,隐匿
  • verbaladj. 动词的,口头的,用言辞的,用文字的 n. 动名
  • reductionn. 减少,缩小,(化学)还原反应,(数学)约分
  • slickadj. 光滑的(巧妙的,完全的,老一套的,第一流的)
  • samplen. 样品,样本 vt. 采样,取样 adj. 样
  • consistentadj. 始终如一的,一致的,坚持的
  • solvev. 解决,解答
  • relatedadj. 相关的,有亲属关系的
  • exposuren. 面临(困难),显露,暴露,揭露,曝光