Dangers Await Babies with Altitude
Research has hinted that newborns in mountain communities are lighter than average. But it wasnt clear whether this is due to reduced oxygen levels at high altitudes or because their mothers are under-nourished many people who live at high altitudes are relatively poor compared with those living lower down.
Sure enough, Giussani found that the average birthweight of babies in La Paz was significantly lower than in Santa Cruz. This was true in both high and low-income families. Even babies born to poor families in Santa Cruz were heavier on average than babies born to wealthy families in lofty La Paz. We were very surprised by this result, says Giussani.
His team also found that high-altitude babies tended to have relatively larger heads compared with their bodies4. This is probably because a fetus starved of oxygen will send oxygenated blood to the brain in preference to the rest of the body.5
词汇: altitude n.纬度，高度 stroke n.中风
1. grow into adults with a high risk of heart disease and strokes：长大成人后得心脏病和中风的风险很大
3. This may trigger the release or suppression of hormones that regulate growth of the unborn child：这可能会触发调节未出生儿成长的荷尔蒙的释放或抑制。这里的 release是名词。
5. a fetus starved of oxygen will send oxygenated blood to the brain in preference to the rest of the body：一个缺乏氧的胚胎会首先把充氧的血液输送到脑部，然后才送到身体的其他部位。 starved of是分词短语，修饰 fetus，in preference to表示的是第二位的选择，如： I chose to study English in preference to Russian in university.读大学时，我选了英语，而不是俄语。练习：
2. Giussanis team members are all British researchers and professors from Cambridge University. A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
4. The weight of a newborn has to do with the supply of oxygen even when he was still in his mothers womb. A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
6. High-altitude babies have longer but thinner limbs than average. A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned