新概念英语第四册31-02

接下来课文...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 '. ...

mental illness: 精神疾病

weekly newspaper: 周刊报纸

head with: 头版头条 carry the news on the front page

considerable :极度的

reduce（在这里）＝made

the tears streaming down 泪流满面 shoot out 夺眶而出

reduce to tears: 被弄哭 reduce to laughter: 逗笑

reduce to a skeleton: 搞成皮包骨

接下来课文...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?

text 文字说明

turning to 转向

on: as soon as

anecdote 轶闻（大多数情况下 unreal）

symptom=sign