墨尔本PTE素材库—Vision Needed to Curb Nearsightedness Epidemic

Vision Needed to Curb Nearsightedness Epidemic

中文批注

这篇文章的内容其实和我们日常生活息息相关，主要内容是关于近视眼。就如文中所说，基本在亚洲，已经有90%左右的青少年多多多少有一些近视眼的问题，这个比例真的相当的吓人啊~大家要保护要眼睛~

文中有不少生词，小编建议这篇文章适合拿来做阅读的练习，如果要做summarize from spoken text的话略微有些难度，不过还是可以拿来做summarize written text的练习哒！有生词不用担心，AIL小编都替大家整理好啦！大家学起来吧~

澳大利亚语言学院 (AIL) 会定期给大家整理一些PTE的素材，加进PTE素材库，给大家多一些练习的素材，进而从根本上提升自己的英语能力~

[Key Vocabulary]

Anthropology: n. 人类学，人类学家

Archaeology: n. 考古学，考古学的

Dim: adj. 暗淡的，昏暗的，模糊的，看不清的；Vt. 使黯淡，使变模糊

Epidemic: adj. 流行的，传染性的；n. 传染病，流行病

Myopia: n. [眼科] 近视，目光短浅，缺乏远见

Nearsightedness: n. 近视眼，目光短浅

Myope: n. 近视的人

Cohort: n. 一群，步兵大队，支持者

Exposure: n. 暴露，曝光，揭露

Dosage: n. 剂量，用量

Implicate: Vt. 使卷入，涉及，影响

Microscope: n. 显微镜

Accommodate: Vt. 容纳，使适应，供应，调解

Ambient: adj. 周围的，外界的，环绕的；n. 周围环境

Magnitude: n. 大小，量级，[地震] 震级

Full Transcript

In urban Asian areas myopia among teenagers is topping 90 percent—but foresight may be able to bring those numbers way down.

“So we’re inside, we’re in fake lighting, we’re not spending as much time outside in the context in which our visual system evolved.”

Amanda Melin, assistant professor of anthropology & archaeology and of medical genetics at the University of Calgary. And all that sitting inside in dim light staring at screens has led to an epidemic of myopia—nearsightedness—among young people.

“The myopia epidemic is particularly strong in Asia and in urban Asian environments, where it is increasing to be upwards of 90 percent of teenagers are myopes.”

Melin spoke February 20th at a press briefing at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston.

“So to be sure there’s a genetic component, my father had glasses I have glasses. But we’re increasingly realizing that the environments in which we’re spending our time are playing a major role.

“And so a cohort study where some school age children were given 40 minutes or more time outside, those children had a 23 to 50 percent less likely chance of developing myopia than students at schools who were not given that same amount of outdoor exposure. And it looks to be dosage dependent, so the longer time you spend outside the less chance you have of developing myopia.

“So the exact mechanisms are not really known, so we really need a lot more research into this. But another major factor that’s being implicated is near-work activities, so spending our time looking at computers, into microscopes, these things. And then as soon as we leave our work, what are we doing, we’re on our mobile devices, that’s also a very close activity.

“When we’re engaged in near-focus tasks our eyes are actually working really hard, because the muscles have to accommodate the lens to focus that close. When we look off into a distance that’s when our eyes are relaxing, so there could be something with that as well.

“When you’re outside, the ambient light is…orders of magnitude brighter outside in outdoor lighting environments, so that probably has a very important role…we need to think about perhaps policies in place to get kids and young adults outside a bit more.”

—Steve Mirsky

(Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/vision-needed-to-curb-nearsightedness-epidemic/)