棋下得不好，怪空气？

江西 侯昌玮

主题语境：空气污染的影响 篇幅：359词 建议用时：7分钟

1A newly published study shows that chess players perform objectively worse and make more suboptimal(次优的)moves when there is more fine particulate matter (颗粒物)in the air.

2“We find that when individuals are exposed to higher levels of air pollution,they will make more mistakes, and they will make larger mistakes,”says Juan Palacios, a co-author of a newly published paper detailing the study's findings.

3Scholars have produced many studies exploring the effects of air pollution on cognition (认知).The current study adds to that literature by analyzing the subject in a particularly controlled setting.The researchers studied the performance of 121 chess players in three seven-round tournaments in Germany in 2017, 2018, and 2019.The scholars used three web-connected sensors inside the tournament venue to measure carbon dioxide,PM2.5 concentrations,and temperature,all of which can be affected by external conditions,even in an indoor setting.Because each tournament lasted eight weeks, it was possible to examine how air-quality changes related to changes in players'performance.

4To evaluate the matter of performance of players, meanwhile, the scholars used soft-ware programs that assess each move made in each chess match, identify optimal decisions, and flag significant errors.During the tournaments, the researchers examined and ruled out alternate potential explanations for the dip in players' performance, such as increased noise.They also found that carbon dioxide and temperature changes did not correspond to performance changes.Ultimately,the analysis confirms that the findings are driven by the direct exposure to air particles.

5The researchers also found that when air pollution was worse, the chess players performed even more poorly when under time constraints.The tournament rules required that 40 moves have to be made within 110 minutes; for moves 31-40 in all the matches, an air pollution increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter led to an increased probability of error of 3.2 percent,with the magnitude of those errors increasing by 17.3 percent.

6And while the focus of this particular study is tightly focused on chess players,the findings have strong implications for high-skilled office workers who might also be faced with tricky cognitive tasks in conditions of variable air pollution.

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Ⅰ.Difficult sentence in the text

And while the focus of this particular study is tightly focused on chess players, the findings have strong implications for high-skilled office workers who might also be faced with tricky cognitive tasks in conditions of variable air pollution.虽然这项特殊研究主要围绕着国际象棋选手，但这些发现对高技能的办公室工作人员也有强烈的影响，因为这类人也可能在空气污染多变的条件下，面临棘手的认知任务。

【点石成金】本句中，连词while引导的是让步状语从句，the findings have strong implications...pollution是主句；主句中，who引导的是定语从句，先行词为office workers。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

be exposed to 暴露于；面临

add to 增加；加强

relate to 涉及；与……有关

rule out 排除；不考虑；去掉

correspond to 相一致；相当于

focus on 聚焦于；专注于

in conditions of 在……的条件（情况）下