新概念英语第四册30-01

第31课

New words and expressions 生词短语

pollution : 污染

plea n.:要求 make plea for aid/money 要求援助/资助.

on the plea of sth. :以...为借口.

I am absent on the plea of stomachache.我以肚痛为借口而不去上班.

plea v.: plea for sth.

abatement n.: 减少 abate vi. 减少 (指harm, danger等危害,力量减弱)

The danger of the poisonous gas abated. The wind abated. 风力减弱了.

decrease reduce 用于数量减少 wane vi.: 只做不及物动词 (月缺) wax vi. :月满

crescent n.:月牙

diminish 可以指数量也可以指 power

The illness diminishes my strength/energy. 一场大病使我体弱无力.

Lesson31

Many people in industry and the Services, who have practical experience of noise, regard any investigation of this question as a waste of time; they are not prepared even to admit the possibility that noise affects people. On the other hand, those who dislike noise will sometimes use most inadequate evidence to support their pleas for a quieter society. This is a pity, because noise abatement really is a good cause. and it is likely to be discredited if it gets to be associated with bad science .

One allegation often made is that noise produces mental illness. A recent article in a weekly newspaper, for instance, was headed with a striking illustration of a lady in a state of considerable distress, with the caption 'She was yet another victim, reduced to a screaming wreck '. On turning eagerly to the text, one learns that the lady was a typist who found the sound of office typewriters worried her more and more until eventually she had to go into a mental hospital. Now the snag in this sort of anecdote is of course that one cannot distinguish cause and effect. Was the noise a cause of the illness, or were the complaints about noise merely a symptom? Another patient might equally well complain that her neigh-bours were combining to slander her and persecute her, and yet one might be cautious about believing this statement.

What is needed in the case of noise is a study of large numbers of people living under noisy conditions, to discover whether they are mentally ill more often than other people are. The United States Navy, for instance, recently examined a very large number of men working on aircraft carriers: the study was known as Project Anehin. It can be unpleasant to live even several miles from an aerodrome; if you think what it must be like to share the deck of a ship with several squadrons of jet aircraft, you will realize that a modern navy is a good place to study noise. But neither psychiatric interviews nor objective tests were able to show any effects upon these American sailors. This result merely confirms earlier American and British studies: if there is any effect of noise upon mental health it must be so small that present methods of psychiatric diagnosis cannot find it. That does not prove that it does not exist; but it does mean that noise is less dangerous than, say, being brought up in an orphanages--which really is a mental health hazard.

D.E.BROADBENT Non-auditory Effects of Noise from Science Survey

参考译文

在工业部门工作和部队服役的许多人对噪音都有实际的体会，他们认为对于噪音问题进行任何研究均是浪费时间，他们甚至不愿承认噪音对人体有影响。另一方面，那些不喜欢噪音的人有时会用很不适当的证据来支持他们希望有一个较为安静的社会环境的要求。这是一件令人遗憾的事情，因为减少噪音确实是件好事，但如果与拙劣的科学掺杂在一起的话，则这一好事可能令人产生怀疑。

人们经常提出的一种指责是，噪音会引起精神病。例如最近有一份周刊发表了一篇文章，篇首附有一幅醒目的插图，图中是一位神情无忧伤的女士，图下的说明是“她是又一位受害者，成了不断发出尖叫的残废人。”当急切地读完正文后，读者得悉这名女士是一位打字员，她发觉办公室内打字机的声音越来越使她烦躁不安，最后不得不住进精神病院。当然，这一奇闻怪事的疑难之处在于无法确定因果关系。噪音是病因呢抑或对于噪音的抱怨只是精神病的一种症状？另一名病人可能同样有理由抱怨她的邻居联合在一起对她进行诽谤和迫害，不过人们对这种说法是不会轻易相信的。

对于噪音问题，有必要对众多生活在噪音环境中的人进行研究，以发现他们的精神病发病率是否高于其他人们。例如，美国海军最近为一大批航空母舰上的工作人员作了体格检查，这个检查你做安乃欣研究项目。噪音甚至使住在远离机场几英里以外的人也会感到不舒服；如果你能想象到站在甲板上几个中队喷气式飞机中间将是一种什么情况的话，那你就会意识到现代化的海军是研究噪音的理想场所。但是，无论是精神病医师的调查访问或者是客观检查，均未能发现噪音对舰上的美国水兵有任何影响。这一结果只是进一步证实美国和英国早期的研究结论：若噪音对精神健康有任何影响，其影响必然是微乎其微，用目前的精神病论断方法均难以发现。这不能证明噪音对精神的影响并不存在，但这确实说明噪音的危害性，比如说要比在孤儿院中生活成长的要小一些，孤儿院才确实是一种精神健康的危害！