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Lesson 25
Non-auditory effects of noise
噪音的非听觉效应
What conclusion does the author draw about noise and health in this
piece?
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 neighbours 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. Some time ago the United States Navy, for instance,
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
orphanage -- which really is a mental health hazard.
D.E.BROADBENT Non-auditory effects of noise from Science Survey
New words and expressions 生词与短语
auditory
adj. 听觉的
inadequate
adj. 不适当的
plea
n. 要求
abatement
n. 减少
discredit
v. 怀疑
allegation
n. 断言
caption
n. 插图说明
wreck
n. 残废人
snag
n. 疑难之处，障碍
anecdote
n. 轶闻
slander
v. 诽谤
persecute
v. 迫害
squadron
n. 中队
psychiatric
adj. 精神病学的
diagnosis
n. 诊所
orphanage
n. 孤儿院
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发表于 2016-7-11 22:47:52