是什么导致了听力下降？ ⏲️ 6分钟英语：英语精读讲义

6 Minute English from bbclearningenglish.com.

6 Minute English 来自 bbclearningenglish.com。

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

大家好，这里是 BBC Learning English 的 6 Minute English。

I'm Neil.

我是 Neil。

And I'm Georgie.

我是 Georgie。

As we get older, 語法

随着我们年龄的增长，

many of us notice our sense of hearing getting worse. 用詞

许多人发现自己的听力正在变差。

Maybe we need to concentrate harder

也许我们需要更集中注意力，

or ask people to speak more loudly. 語法

或者要求别人说大声点。

Has that happened to you, Neil? 語氣意圖

Neil，你有遇到过这种情况吗？

Not really.

其实没有。

A while ago, 短語搭配

前阵子，

I thought maybe my ears were getting worse,

我以为我的耳朵可能变差了，

but I had a check-up and everything was fine, 短語搭配

但我做了个检查，一切正常，

thankfully.

谢天谢地。

Oh, that's great.

噢，那太好了。

In the UK alone, 表達脈絡

仅在英国，

hearing loss affects 18 million people and that number is increasing. 用詞

听力受损就影响了 1800 万人，并且这个数字还在增加。

In this program,

在本期节目中，

we'll discover why we lose hearing with age 用詞

我们将探讨为什么听力会随着年龄增长而衰退，

and as usual,

并像往常一样，

learn some useful new vocabulary.

学习一些有用的新词汇。

And you can also find a transcript of this episode on our website,

你还可以在我们的网站找到本集节目的文本，

bbclearningenglish.com.

也就是 bbclearningenglish.com。

But now,

但是现在，

listen up, Georgie, 短語動詞

仔细听好，Georgie，

because I have a question for you.

因为我有一个问题要问你。

Did you know that the three smallest bones in the human body,

你知道人体中最小的三块骨头，

the hammer, 文化背景

也就是锤骨、

the anvil and the stirrup,

砧骨和镫骨，

are all located in the ear?

都位于耳朵里吗？

But which one of those is the smallest?

但这三块中哪一块是最小的呢？

Is it A, the hammer,

是 A，锤骨，

B, the anvil,

B，砧骨，

or C, the stirrup bone?

还是 C，镫骨？

Mm, that one's a difficult one.

嗯，这个很难猜。

I'm going to say the anvil bone. 語氣意圖

我猜是砧骨。

Okay.

好的。

Well, we'll find out the answer later on. 短語動詞

我们稍后会揭晓答案。

To understand why our hearing gets worse with age, 表達脈絡

为了理解为什么我们的听力会随着年龄增长而变差，

it's useful to know a little about how the ear works in the first place. 短語搭配

首先了解一点耳朵是如何运作的会很有帮助。

Here's Mr. Nish Mehta,

这位是 Nish Mehta 先生，

an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Royal National ENT Hospital in London, 文化背景

他是伦敦皇家耳鼻喉医院的耳鼻喉外科医生，

giving a beginners class to BBC Radio 4 program Inside Health.

正在给 BBC Radio 4 的 Inside Health 节目上入门课。

Hearing is an amazing sense.

听觉是一种惊人的感官。

It's a special sense.

它是一种特殊的感官。

And the ear is really the hearing organ.

而耳朵正是听觉器官。

So, the ear is split up into three main parts. 短語動詞

耳朵分为三个主要部分。

there's the outer ear, 用詞

有外耳、

the middle ear, and the inner ear.

中耳和内耳。

The outer ear is the bit that you see, on the side of your head. 用詞

外耳就是你能看到的、在头部两侧的部分。

We call that the pinna. 用詞

我们称之为耳廓。

Think of that as the satellite dish. 講解

可以把它看作卫星天线。

It collects the sounds and it funnels them in towards the sense organ. 用詞

它收集声音并将声音汇聚导入感觉器官。

That then gets transmitted to the middle ear. 語法

然后声音被传输到中耳。

The middle ear's main job is to amplify those sounds. 講解

中耳的主要工作是放大这些声音。

That's done by having an eardrum,

这是通过鼓膜来实现的，

which catches it and then vibrates sympathetically to the vibration of the noise that you heard. 用詞

它捕捉声音，然后随着你听到的声音的振动产生共振。

And then that's passed on to the three smallest bones in the body, 短語動詞

随后这会被传递给人体中最小的三块骨头，

the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup.

即锤骨、砧骨和镫骨。

The ear is made up of outer, middle, and inner parts. 短語動詞

耳朵由外耳、中耳和内耳部分组成。

It's one of our sense organs. 用詞

它是我们的感觉器官之一。

Specific parts of the body, your ears, eyes, tongue, nose, and skin,

身体的特定部分，比如你的耳朵、眼睛、舌头、鼻子和皮肤，

which allow you to experience the outside world.

让你能够体验外部世界。

The visible part, the outer ear or pinna,

可见的部分，即外耳或耳廓，

acts like a satellite dish, 習語

就像卫星天线一样起作用，

collecting sounds which it funnels into the middle ear.

收集声音并将其汇聚到中耳。

The verb funnel means to move or direct something through a narrow space.

动词 funnel 的意思是将某物移入或导入一个狭窄的空间。

Once in the middle ear, 語法

一旦进入中耳，

the eardrum amplifies the sounds before transmitting them to tiny hairs in the inner ear, 語法

鼓膜在将声音传输到内耳的微小毛细胞之前会放大声音，

which then sends electrical signals to the brain. 用詞

然后这些毛细胞会将电信号发送到大脑。

It's an incredible system, but unfortunately,

这是一个不可思议的系统，但遗憾的是，

one that can go wrong at any stage. 短語動詞

这是一个在任何阶段都可能出问题的系统。

Here, James Gallagher, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Inside Health,

接下来，BBC Radio 4 的 Inside Health 节目主持人 James Gallagher，

asks Nish Mehta when problems tend to start.

问 Nish Mehta 问题通常是从什么时候开始的。

We're going to spend a lot of today, Nish,

Nish，今天我们将花很多时间，

thinking about age-related hearing loss. 用詞

来探讨与年龄相关的听力受损。

Okay? When does that start?

好的。那是从什么时候开始的呢？

Wear and tear of your hearing starts from around the age of eight. 習語

听力的磨损大约从八岁就开始了。

Okay? So, Okay, so we're doomed already! 習語

对吗？所以，好吧，所以我们已经完蛋了！

We're already on a downward spiral. 習語

我们已经处于不断恶化的状态了。

But we've got a lot of redundancy in the system. 用詞

但是我们的系统中有很强的冗余性。

And the speed at which our hearing declines

而我们听力下降的速度

is partly based on the genetics that you're born with 講解

部分取决于你天生的基因，

and then partly based on the environment that you're exposed to. 用詞

然后部分取决于你所处的环境。

So, someone who has really strong genetics to protect them from hearing,

所以，一个拥有非常强大基因来保护听力的人，

but spends their life on a pneumatic drill, 文化背景

但一辈子都在操作气动钻机，

may have a much faster decline than someone the other side.

其听力下降的速度可能比另一边的人快得多。

You can imagine that your brain is doing so much computation behind the scenes 習語

你可以想象，你的大脑在后台做了多少计算

just to listen to someone speaking and understand the words that they're saying.

仅仅是为了听人说话并理解他们说的词。

So, whilst hearing is going, the brain tends to increase its listening effort. 用詞

所以，在听力逐渐丧失的同时，大脑往往会增加其倾听的努力。

And so, often, it's a very slow process for you to realize that you're struggling with hearing. 短語搭配

因此，通常情况下，意识到自己在听力上遇到困难是一个非常缓慢的过程。

Wear and tear of our hearing starts as young as eight. 短語搭配

我们听力的磨损早在八岁就开始了。

Wear and tear means the damage that comes from ordinary everyday use.

Wear and tear 指的是日常普通使用造成的损坏。

When Nish says this, James exclaims, "We're doomed."

当 Nish 说这个的时候，James 惊呼：“我们要完蛋了。”

An informal way of saying, "We're destined to fail." 短語搭配

这是一种非正式的说法，意思是“我们注定要失败。”

From the age of eight, our hearing is on a downward spiral,

从八岁开始，我们的听力就处于恶性循环中，

a situation which gets worse and worse.

这是一种越来越糟的情况。

But don't worry just yet.

但先别担心。

Human hearing has evolved with redundancy in the system,

人类听力的进化在系统中带有冗余机制，

a technical phrase meaning that there are many ways to achieve the same outcome,

这个技术术语的意思是有很多方法可以达到相同的结果，

so that a backup system can take over if other systems fail. 語法

这样如果其他系统失败，备用系统就能接管。

Here, for example, the brain works harder

例如在这个例子中，大脑会更努力地工作

to compensate for a weaker sound signal 短語搭配

以补偿到达内耳的

reaching the inner ear.

较弱的声音信号。

And there are other ways hearing loss can be helped as well,

还有其他方法可以帮助解决听力损失，

including hearing aids, surgery, or even just removing extra earwax.

包括助听器、手术，甚至只是清除多余的耳屎。

Not a job I would like very much. 語氣意圖

我可不太喜欢这个工作。

After that fascinating journey into the world of hearing,

在完成了这段奇妙的听力世界之旅后，

I think it's time to reveal the answer to your question, Neil. 表達脈絡

我觉得是时候揭晓你问题的答案了，Neil。

I asked you, "Which is the smallest bone in the body?"

我问你，“人体内最小的骨头是哪块？”

and they are all in the ear.

它们全都在耳朵里。

Is it A, the hammer,

是 A，锤骨，

B, the anvil,

B，砧骨，

or C, the stirrup bone?

还是 C，镫骨？

I said the anvil, didn't I? 語氣意圖

我选了砧骨，不是吗？

You did, but I'm afraid you obviously weren't listening in biology class 語氣意圖

是的，但恐怕你生物课上显然没认真听，

because you are wrong.

因为你答错了。

It is, in fact, the stirrup bone. 表達脈絡

事实上，它是镫骨。

Ah.

啊。

Okay, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned,

好的，让我们回顾一下学过的词汇，

starting with sense organs,

首先是 sense organs（感觉器官），

specific parts of the body like your ears and eyes,

指身体的特定部分，如耳朵和眼睛，

which allow you to experience the world.

让你能够体验世界。

To funnel means to move or direct something through a narrow space.

To funnel 的意思是将某物移动或引导过一个狭窄的空间。

And a funnel, the noun, is a cone-shaped tool which does this.

而 funnel 这个名词，是一个呈圆锥形的工具，能做到这一点（漏斗）。

Wear and tear refers to the damage that comes from using something everyday.

Wear and tear 指的是每天使用某物所带来的损坏（磨损）。

If you say, "We're doomed,"

如果你说“We're doomed（我们要完蛋了）”，

you mean we're going to be defeated or fail.

意思是我们要被击败或失败了。

And a downward spiral is a situation which continuously gets worse and worse.

而 downward spiral 是指情况不断变得越来越糟（恶性循环）。

And finally,

最后，

redundancy in the system refers to having more than one way to achieve an objective,

redundancy in the system 指的是有不止一种方法来实现目标，

so that a backup can take over if other methods fail.

这样如果其他方法失败，备用方案就可以接管（系统冗余）。

You'll be sad to hear that once again our 6 Minutes are up. 講解

你会很遗憾地听到我们的 6 分钟又一次结束了。

But why not head over to our website, 短語動詞

但为什么不去我们的网站看看呢，

bbclearningenglish.com,

bbclearningenglish.com，

to try the quiz and worksheet for this episode.

试试本期节目的测验和练习表。

Goodbye for now.

暂时说到这啦。

Goodbye.

再见。

6 Minute English from bbclearningenglish.com.

6 Minute English 来自 bbclearningenglish.com。