雅思练习总结（二十三）

雅思练习总结（二十三）

本文章是雅思练习总结（二十三），总结了文章《Do literate women make better mothers?》，内容包括原文精翻，文章脉络总结，单词扩展学习3个部分

1 文章原文及翻译

Do literate women make better mothers?

翻译：会读会写的妈妈是否会成为更好的妈妈呢？

Children in developing countries are healthier and more likely to survive past the age of five when their mothers can read and write. Experts in public health accepted this idea decades ago, but until now no one has been able to show that a woman’s ability to read in itself improves her children’s chances of survival.

翻译：如果一位发展中国家的母亲能够读写，那么她的孩子会更加健康，并更有可能活过五岁。公共卫生专家们几十年前就坚持着这一观点，但至今没有人能够证明女性的阅读能力本身就能提高其子女的存活率。

Most literate women learnt to read in primary school, and the fact that a woman has had an education may simply indicate her family’s wealth or that it values its children more highly. Now a long-term study carried out in Nicaragua has eliminated these factors by showing that teaching reading to poor adult women, who would other wise have remained illiterate, has a direct effect on their children’s health and survival.

翻译：大多数会读写的妇女是在小学时学会的阅读。但是一位妇女受过教育可能仅仅表明其出身的家庭较为富裕或更重视子女。而在尼加拉瓜进行的一项长期研究表明，教贫穷的成年妇女读书而不是一直让他们停留在文盲的状态，会直接影响其子女的健康和生存。

In 1979, the government of Nicaragua established a number of social programmes, including a National Literacy Crusade. By 1985, about 300,000 illiterate adults from all over the country, many of whom had never attended primary school, had learnt how to read, write and use numbers.

翻译：1979 年，尼加拉瓜政府启动了一系列社会项目，其中包括全国扫盲运动。到 1985 年，全国约有 30 万名成年文盲（其中许多人从未上过小学）学会了阅读、书写和使用数字。

During this period, researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the Central American Institute of Health in Nicaragua, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and the Costa Rican Institute of Health interviewed nearly 3,000 women, some of whom had learnt to read as children, some during the literacy crusade and some who had never learnt at all. The women were asked how many children they had given birth to and how many of them had died in infancy. The research teams also examined the surviving children to find out how well-nourished they were.

翻译：在此期间，利物浦热带医学院、尼加拉瓜中美洲卫生研究所、尼加拉瓜国立自治大学和哥斯达黎加卫生研究所的研究人员采访了近 3,000 名妇女，这些妇女中其中一部分在孩童时期学会了识字，一部分在扫盲运动期间学会了识字，另一部分妇女从未学过识字。研究人员询问这些妇女生了多少个孩子，其中有多少孩子在婴儿期夭折。研究小组还对幸存的孩子进行了检查，以了解他们的发育状况。

The investigators’ findings were striking. In the late 1970s, the infant mortality rate for the children of illiterate mothers was around 110 deaths per thousand live births. At this point in their lives, those mothers who later went on to learn to read had a similar level of child mortality (105/1000). For women educated in primary school, however, the infant mortality rate was significantly lower, at 80 per thousand.

翻译：调查人员的发现令人震惊。20 世纪 70 年代末，文盲母亲所生子女的婴儿死亡率约为每千名活产婴儿死亡 110 人。同一时期，在后来学会读书识字的母亲们诞下的婴儿死亡率也差不多（每千名婴儿死亡 105 人）。然而，对于在小学时接受过教育的女性来说，婴儿死亡率要低得多，为每千名婴儿死亡 80 人。

In 1985, after the National Literacy Crusade had ended, the infant mortality figures for those who remained illiterate and for those educated in primary school remained more or less unchanged. For those women who learnt to read through the campaign, the infant mortality rate was 84 per thousand, an impressive 21 points lower than for those women who were still illiterate. The children of the newly-literate mothers were also better nourished than those of women who could not read.

翻译：1985 年，全国扫盲运动结束后，文盲妇女和小学时接受过教育的妇女诞下的婴儿死亡率基本保持不变。通过扫盲运动学会识字的妇女的婴儿死亡率为千分之八十四，比文盲妇女的婴儿死亡率低了 21 个百分点。刚学会识字的母亲养育的孩子也比文盲妇女的孩子营养更好。

Why are the children of literate mothers better off? According to Peter Sandiford of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, no one knows for certain. Child health was not on the curriculum during the women’s lessons, so he and his colleagues are looking at other factors. They are working with the same group of 3,000 women, to try to find out whether reading mothers make better use of hospitals and clinics, opt for smaller families, exert more control at home, learn modern childcare techniques more quickly, or whether they merely have more respect for themselves and their children.

翻译：为什么识字的母亲的孩子生活得更好？利物浦热带医学院的彼得·桑迪福德 (Peter Sandiford) 表示，没有人能确切知道答案。儿童健康不在妇女课程的课程范围内，因此他和他的同事正在研究一些其他的间接因素。他们与曾经作为调研对象的 3,000 名妇女合作，试图找出识字的母亲是否更好地利用医院和诊所，选择小家庭，在家中发挥更多控制力，更快地学习现代育儿技术，或者她们是否只是更尊重自己和孩子。

The Nicaraguan study may have important implications for governments and aid agencies that need to know where to direct their resources. Sandiford says that there is increasing evidence that female education, at any age, is ‘an important health intervention in its own right’. The results of the study lend support to the World Bank’s recommendation that education budgets in developing countries should be increased, not just to help their economies, but also to improve child health.

翻译：尼加拉瓜研究可能对需要知道将资源投入何处的政府和援助机构具有重要意义。桑迪福德说，越来越多的证据表明，无论年龄大小，女性教育都是“一项重要的健康干预措施”。这项研究的结果支持了世界银行的建议，即发展中国家应该增加教育预算，这不仅是为了促进经济发展，也是为了改善儿童健康。

‘We’ve known for a long time that maternal education is important,’ says John Cleland of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.‘But we thought that even if we started educating girls today, we’d have to wait a generation for the pay-off. The Nicaraguan study suggests we may be able to bypass that.’

翻译：伦敦卫生与热带医学院的约翰·克莱兰德说：“我们早就知道母亲教育很重要。但我们认为，即使我们现在开始教育女孩，我们也必须等待一代人才能看到回报。尼加拉瓜的研究表明，我们或许能够绕过这一步。”

Cleland warns that the Nicaraguan crusade was special in many ways, and similar campaigns elsewhere might not work as well. It is notoriously difficult to teach adults skills that do not have an immediate impact on their everyday lives, and many literacy campaigns in other countries have been much less successful.‘The crusade was part of a larger effort to bring a better life to the people,’ says Cleland. Replicating these conditions in other countries will be a major challenge for development workers.

翻译：但是 克莱兰德 也警告说，尼加拉瓜的扫盲运动在许多方面都很特别，其他地方的类似运动可能效果并不好。众所周知，向成年人传授一些不会立即影响他们日常生活的技能非常困难，其他国家的许多扫盲运动也没有那么成功。克莱兰德说：“这次扫盲运动是为人民带来更好生活的更大努力的一部分。”在其他国家复制这些条件将是发展工作者面临的一项重大挑战。

2 文章结构分析

文章的主要内容可总结为

1. 第一段、第二段是欲扬先抑，先说人们认为，母亲能够读写会让孩子更健康，并降低过早夭折的概率，但是没有研究证据可以表明这一点，因为妇女在小学时受过教育只能说明她出身不错，而且家里很重视子女的教育，但尼加拉瓜进行的一项长期研究表明，教贫穷的成年妇女读书而不是一直让他们停留在文盲的状态，会直接影响其子女的健康和生存。

2. 第三段、第四段是对研究的内容进行了详细说明，先说了背景，1970 年代末期 到 1985 年，尼加拉瓜启动了一系列社会项目，在项目结束时，全国约有 30 万名成年文盲（其中许多人从未上过小学）学会了阅读、书写和使用数字，而国际联合调查组则采访了 3000 名尼加拉瓜妇女，这些妇女可分为 3 类，一类是扫盲计划后依然无法读写的，参与计划后成功扫盲的，本来就会读写的（在小学时接受过教育）

3. 第五段、第六段是试验结果的阐述，在扫盲计划之前，未接受过教育的妇女们的孩子夭折率都是 11% 左右（110名孩童夭折每千人），而小学时受过教育的妇女孩子的夭折率则为 8% 左右（80名孩童夭折每千人）。但是在扫盲计划后，那些在计划中接受了教育的妇女们，他们的孩子夭折率降低到了与小学时受过教育的妇女们相近的水平，并且这些脱盲成功的妇女们养育的孩子们也比文盲妇女们成长的更好

4. 第七段是结果分析，目前这种现象没有确切的科学解释，因为脱盲计划不包含对子女教育的内容，研究人员们就有一次集合了上次研究的原班人马（3000 名妇女），以调查一些可能的因素：是否更好地利用医院和诊所，选择小家庭，在家中发挥更多控制力，更快地学习现代育儿技术，或者她们是否只是更尊重自己和孩子。

5. 第八段、第九段、第十段是研究的意义分析，桑迪福德 看到了女性教育的意义，这项研究的结果支持了世界银行的建议，即发展中国家应该增加教育预算，这不仅是为了促进经济发展，也是为了改善儿童健康；而 克莱兰德 则认为尼加拉瓜的研究表明，长期以来被重视的女性教育没必要非在孩童时开展，这么早的话见效得等一代人，但由于后期接受教育也可以起到效果相近的作用，所以可以绕过这部分成长期。但是 克莱兰德 也并非完全乐观，他认为，尼加拉瓜扫盲运动的成功是比较特殊的，因为让成年人在工作之余学习跟工作无关的技能是很困难的，虽然扫盲运动会让人民受益匪浅，但过程艰难

文章整体结构如下