Colombia declared world’s shortest man

傅红

导读：哥伦比亚宣称Hernandez是目前世界上最矮的人，24岁只有40厘米高，10公斤重。可他仍然快乐地生活着。

Edward Nino Hernandez， 24， weighs only 10kg. His mother said he had not grown since he was two years old.

Mr Hernandez， who works part-time as a dancer， told the Press： “I feel happy because Im the only one in the world.”

The record holder before him was He Pingping from China， who was 4cm （1.5in） taller and died in March - before Mr Hernandez was discovered.

Mr Hernandez is not expected to keep the title for long， however， as Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal is expected to take the title when he turns 18 in October.

Khagendra， now known as the worlds shortest living teenager， is only 56cm （22in） tall. The shortest man on record was Gul Mohammed of India， who was just 57cm tall - 1cm taller than Khagendra.

Mr Hernandezs mother， Noemi， said doctors in the Colombian capital， Bogota， never explained why he had grown only 40cm since birth.

She said doctors at the National University studied him until he was three and then lost interest. Her youngest child， 11-year-old Miguel Angel， is himself only 93cm （37in） tall.

Mr Hernandez left school in the eighth grade and now earns some money dancing at department stores. He is also playing the role of a drug dealer in a film now.

Although he liked the attention， he said there were some drawbacks.

“It bothers me that people are always touching me and picking me up.”

Vocabulary

title n. 頭衔

drawback n. 不利条件