人类标准体温逐渐下降

郭梅

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， its 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.

However， it turns out that this well⁃established fact isnt， in fact， correct—or， to put it more accurately， human beings have been getting cooler over the years.

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 in⁃depth 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  （曲線） 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. Whats Wunderlichs achievement？

A. He was the inventor of the thermometer.

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 Parsonnets 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 womens body temperatures have risen over the past century.

B. The 19th century saw the greatest increase in mens body temperatures.

C. The 21st century has seen the greatest decrease in mens body temperatures.

D. Mens body temperatures have fallen faster than womens over the years.

[Language][Study]

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

Since then， its 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與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。

Ⅱ. Text⁃centered chunks

turn out 结果是；证明是

serve as 用作；充当

tend to 倾向于

go through 整理；翻阅