人类标准体温逐渐下降

2023-02-28江苏

疯狂英语·新策略 2023年1期

江苏郭梅

研究表明，自19 世纪以来，人类的平均体温在持续下降，人类每十年平均体温就会下降0.03℃，传统意义上的37℃的标准体温已经不适用于所有人。

主题语境：科研篇幅：354词建议用时：7分钟

The idea that the standard human body temperature is about 98.6℉(37℃) was first presented by the German physician Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich in 1851. Since then, it's become so widely accepted that it serves as a touchstone for health—a diagnostic tool used by physicians as a basic indicator whether someone is sick or well.

Recent studies have shown that temperature records of groups of people have tended to run low compared to the accepted norm, so the Stanford team, led by Julie Parsonnet,MD, a professor of medicine and of health research and policy, decided to do a more indepth study to compare modern measurements with historical records to try to identify body temperature trends and,perhaps,uncover the reason why this cooling is happening.

For their research, the Stanford team looked at three distinct datasets (数据集) from three historical periods. One was military service records, medical records, and pension records from Union Army veterans of the American Civil War that were compiled from 1862 to 1930. The second was from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected between 1971 and 1975, and the third was from adult patients visiting Stanford Health Care from 2007 to 2017.

In all, the team went through 677,423 temperature measurements, making sure that temperatures recorded were accurate rather than the result of poorly designed thermometers. They did this by looking at the change in temperature of each group over time to ensure that the curves (曲线)showing a decrease were consistent between the datasets.

At the end of the day, the team found that men born in the 21st century had an average body temperature of 1.06℉(0.6℃) lower than those born in the early 19th century,while modern women showed an average decrease of 0.58℉(0.03℃) compared to those born in the 1890s. Together, this means that human body temperature has fallen by 0.05℉(0.03℃)per decade.

Reading Check

1.What's Wunderlich's achievement?

A.He was the inventor of the thermometer.

我右手边的墙上是一个小女孩的关节造影，她的父母在那次车祸中双双辞世，她被推进手术室，诊断结果她右大腿肌肉坏死严重，只能高位截肢，我为她做了右髋关节离断术，这意味着她以后右腿将无法安装假肢。她的高烧不退，当我走到她的病床边，她问我，能否握着我的手睡觉，我点点头，她稚嫩的手指勾着我的手，手上还挂着一只小娃娃。她说见到小娃娃就好像见到了死去的爸爸妈妈，她不时地睁开眼确定我在她身边，才又睡去。

B.He set up standards for human health by body temperature.

C.He discovered humans'body temperature trends.

D.He put forward the theory of normal human living temperature.

2.How did the Stanford team get their findings on body temperature?

A.By having interviews.

B.By conducting field research.

C.By analyzing historical records.

D.By doing experiments in the lab.

3.What could have affected the accuracy of Parsonnet's study?

A.The quality of thermometers.

B.The backgrounds of the subjects.

C.The sorting of the collected datasets.

D.The number of adult patients involved.

4.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A.Modern women's body temperatures have risen over the past century.

B.The 19th century saw the greatest increase in men's body temperatures.

C.The 21st century has seen the greatest decrease in men's body temperatures.

D.Men's body temperatures have fallen faster than women's over the years.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentence in the text

Since then,it's become so widely accepted that it serves as a touchstone for health—a diagnostic tool used by physicians as a basic indicator whether someone is sick or well. 自此，它被广泛看作是人们健康的标准——成为医生们诊断某人健康与否的基本指标的一种诊断工具。

【点石成金】本句是一个复合句。that引导结果状语从句；名词health 后面的部分作同位语，过去分词短语used by physicians as a basic indicator if someone is sick or well作名词tool的定语；whether引导的是一个同位语从句。