经济学人271:儿童智力发展 睡前故事

 　　Science and technology

　　科学技术

　　Children's intellectual development

　　儿童智力发展

　　Bedtime stories

　　睡前故事

　　Regular sleeping hours really are good for children—if they are girls

　　有规律的睡眠时间对儿童真的有好处—如果她们是女孩

　　IN THAT mythical¹ era when children were seen and not heard, and did as they were told without argument, everyone knew that regular bedtimes were important.

　　在那个孩子们被看见却不被倾听，没有任何异议顺从地去做被告知的事的神话般的年代，人人都知道有规律的就寝时间很重要。

　　Dream on! most modern parents might reply.

　　大部分现代家长可能会这样回复：怎么可能，做梦吧！

　　But research by Yvonne Kelly of University College, London, shows that the ancient wisdom is right—half the time.

　　但是伦敦大学学院的Yvonne Kelly 的研究表明，古老的智慧有一半是正确的。

　　Daughters, it seems, do benefit from regular bedtimes. Sons do not.

　　有规律的就寝时间对女儿似乎确实有益，对儿子却没有效果。

　　Dr Kelly knew of many studies that had looked at the connection between sleep habits and cognitive² ability in adults and adolescents.

　　博士Kelly熟知很多关于睡眠习惯与成年人、青少年认知能力联系的研究。

　　All showed that inconsistent sleeping schedules went hand in hand with poor academic performance.

　　所有研究都表明，反复无常睡眠安排和糟糕的学业表现是密切相关的。

　　Surprisingly, however, little such research had been done on children.

　　然而令人惊讶的是，几乎没有关于儿童这方面的研究。

　　She and a team of colleagues therefore examined the bedtimes and cognitive abilities of 11,178 children born in Britain between September 2000 and January 2002, who are enrolled³ in a multidisciplinary research project called the Millennium⁴ Cohort Study.

　　因此，她和她同事组成的团队调查了那些注册参加了千禧世代研究多学科研究项目、在2000年9月到2002年1月期间在英国出生的11,178个孩子的就寝时间和认知能力方面的信息。

　　The bedtime information they used was collected during four visits interviewers made to the homes of those participating in the study.

　　他们用的就寝时间的信息是在四次访问期间，采访者去那些参加了这个研究的家里收集的。

　　These happened when the children were nine months, three years, five years and seven years of age.

　　访问会在孩子九个月大，三岁，五岁和七岁时进行。

　　Besides asking whether the children had set bedtimes on weekdays and if they always, usually, sometimes or never made them, interviewers collected information about family routines, economic circumstances and other matters—including including whether children were read to before they went to sleep and whether they had a television in their bedroom.

　　除了问孩子们是否在工作日按时作息以及他们是总是、经常、有时按时作息，还是从未按时作息。采访者也会收集关于家庭的日常生活惯例，经济状况，还有其他事项—包括家长是否会在孩子睡觉前读东西给孩子听，孩子的卧室是否有电视。

　　The children in question were also asked, at the ages of three, five and seven, to take standardised reading, mathematical and spatial-awareness tests, from which their IQs could be estimated.

　　在三岁，五岁和七岁时，孩子们也会被要求去做标准化阅读、数学还有空间感测试，通过这些测试来评估他们的智商。

　　Dr Kelly's report, just published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, shows that by the time children had reached the age of seven, not having had a regular bedtime did seem to affect their cognition, even when other pertinent⁵ variables such as bedtime reading, bedroom televisions and parents' socioeconomic status were controlled for.

　　Kelly 博士的报告刚在《流行病学和公共健康杂志》上发表，其报告显示在儿童到了7岁的时候，即便在睡前阅读，卧室电视还有父母社会经济地位等相关变量被控制的情况下，没有一个有规律的就寝时间似乎的确会影响他们的认知能力。

　　But that was true only if they were female. On the IQ scale, whose mean value is 100 points, girls who had had regular bedtimes scored between eight and nine points more than those who did not.

　　但是只有在女孩身上才有这个影响。在智商测量中，女孩的平均得分是100分，有定期就寝时间的女孩的分数比那些没有定期就寝时间的女孩分数要高8到9分。

　　Boys were not completely unaffected.

　　男孩并不是完全不受影响。

　　Irregular bedtimes left their IQs about six points below those of their contemporaries at the age of three.

　　在他们三岁的时候，无规律的就寝时间让他们智商分数要比他们的同龄人要低大约6分。

　　But the distinction vanished by the time they were seven.

　　但是当他们到了7岁的时候，这个差异消失了。

　　This difference between the sexes is baffling.

　　不同性别之间的不同是令人困惑的。

　　Dr Kelly did not expect it and has no explanation to offer for it.

　　Kelly博士并没有预料到这点，并且不能对此提供任何解释。

　　As scientists are wont⁶ to say, but this time with good reason, more research is necessary.

　　就像科学家们习惯的说的，更多的研究是有必要的，但是这一次有很好的理由。

　　Meanwhile, in the going-to-bed wars most households with young children suffer, the sons of the house have acquired extra ammunition⁷.

　　同时，在大部分有着年幼的孩子的家庭所痛苦的去床上睡觉的战争中，家里的儿子们已经获得了额外的弹药。

　　Mind you, those with the nous to read and understand Dr Kelly's results are probably not suffering from their sleep regimes anyway.

　　注意，无论如何，如果孩子们能够理性地阅读与理解Kelly博士的研究结果，他们或许不会因其睡眠方式而受损。

　　1.good for 对…有益，能担当

　　What makes goji berries good for you?

　　枸杞有何之处对你有益？

　　I could still be good for you.

　　我仍然可以对你有好处。

　　2.benefit from 获益；受益；得力

　　The economy now would benefit from some real engineering.

　　现在一些真正的工程才会令该国经济受益。

　　Humans are not the only species to benefit from foxp2.

　　人类并不是唯一受益于foxp2基因的物种。

　　3.between and 在两者之间

　　For nearly 33 years, the venerable spacecraft has been returning data about the giant outer planets, and the characteristics and interaction of solar wind between and beyond the planets.

　　在过去的33年间，这个脆弱的飞船一直在传回外行星，太阳风的特征及其与行星之间相互作用的数据。

　　Answers to these questions should be based on a between and behavior.

　　回覆这些疑问以前应先界定得体和不得体的举动。

　　4.hand in hand 手拉手，密切合作；携手

　　The general idea is that cultural evolution and individual development go hand in hand.

　　通常的观点是，文化演化和个体发展是携手并进的。

　　The emergence⁸ of a new middle class in brazil has gone hand in hand with an increase in political stability.

　　巴西新兴中产阶级的兴起和其政治稳定的增强是携手并进的。

1 mythical   

adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的

参考例句：

• Undeniably,he is a man of mythical status.不可否认，他是一个神话般的人物。
• Their wealth is merely mythical.他们的财富完全是虚构的。

2 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

3 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

5 pertinent   

adj.恰当的；贴切的；中肯的；有关的；相干的

参考例句：

• The expert made some pertinent comments on the scheme.那专家对规划提出了一些中肯的意见。
• These should guide him to pertinent questions for further study.这些将有助于他进一步研究有关问题。

6 wont   

adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯

参考例句：

• He was wont to say that children are lazy.他常常说小孩子们懒惰。
• It is his wont to get up early.早起是他的习惯。

7 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

8 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。