9月4日午间英语新闻：大脑会删除2岁前的记忆？网友：那些糗事，忘记也罢…

> What passing gas can say about your health
经常放屁特别臭需要警惕吗？

Dr. Mark Corkins, division chief of pediatric gastroenterology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, said, “There are two sources of ‘gas,’ and not all gas is gas. Part of what we pass is air. We all swallow some air, and some people swallow a lot of air. Now that seems to be odorless.”
田纳西大学健康科学中心儿童胃肠科主任马克·科尔金斯称，“‘屁’有两种来源，一部分是空气。人们会‘吃下’一些空气，这些经肠道排出的空气是没有气味的。”

Real gas, on the other hand, is primarily the byproduct of the fermentation of food in the colon, said Corkins, who is also a professor of pediatrics. “Our colon has (billions of) bacteria living in it. … If we don’t digest (food), the bacteria will.”
科尔金斯称，真正的“屁”主要是食物在结肠中发酵的气体。“人的结肠里有（数十亿）细菌……这些细菌会帮助消化未消化的食物。”

Some odors are more pungent than others for these reasons, experts said, but there aren’t any smells that are red flags.
专家称，由于以上原因，有些“屁”闻起来更臭，但气味不是危险信号。

Gas isn’t as much of an indicator of gut health as bowel movement frequency and texture. But dietary choices can lead to more or less gas.
排便频率和质地是衡量肠道健康的指标，放屁却不是。但饮食选择可能会导致放屁多或放屁少

Gut flora are important because they help the body make vitamins and produce some of the short chain fatty acids that feed our colon lining, so a little gas (from those processes) is good, Corkins said. “Otherwise, we’re not feeding our flora, which actually is a symbiotic relationship,” he added.
肠道菌群对健康很重要，有助于身体合成维生素，并产生一些短链脂肪酸，为结肠内壁提供营养，所以（在这些过程中）肠道产生适当气体有益健康。

But what can especially lead to gas, or excessive amounts of it, is eating foods that are more difficult to digest and therefore more likely to ferment, experts said. The old classic is beans, and there’s a protein in beans that tends to be difficult to digest.
但专家表示，食用不易消化的食物容易导致排气或过量排气，因为这些食物在肠道内更易发酵。最常见的易导致胀气的食物就是豆制品，豆类中含有一种不易消化的蛋白质。

“The other thing is making sure that your bowel habits are regular,” said Dr. William Chey, a professor of gastroenterology at the University of Michigan. “Individuals that have constipation are much more prone to getting bloating and flatulence. The reason for that is, if things move very slowly through the GI tract, they have more time to interact with the bacteria in the GI tract, particularly the colon. And that’s going to produce more gas.”
杰说：“保持规律排便也很关键。便秘的人更容易腹胀和胀气。如果食物在胃肠道中移动得很慢，就有更多的时间与胃肠道中的细菌作用，尤其是结肠。这会导致肠道产生更多气体。”

重点词汇：

1、odorless
英/ ˈəʊdələs /
美/ ˈoʊdərləs /
adj.没有气味的

2、byproduct
英/ ˈbaɪˌprɒdʌkt /
美/ ˈbaɪˌprɑːdʌkt /
n.副产品

3、fermentation
英/ ˌfɜːmenˈteɪʃ(ə)n /
美/ ˌfɜːrmenˈteɪʃn /
n.发酵

4、pungent
英/ ˈpʌndʒənt /
美/ ˈpʌndʒənt /
adj.辛辣的；刺激性的；刺鼻的；苦痛的；尖刻的

5、texture
英/ ˈtekstʃə(r) /
美/ ˈtekstʃər /
n.质地，纹理；口感；（音乐或文学的）谐和统一感，神韵
v.使（织物、墙面等）具浮凸结构（或特征）

6、digest
英/ daɪˈdʒest /
美/ daɪˈdʒest /
v.理解，领悟；消化
n.文摘，摘要；分解物，提炼物

> Childhood amnesia: Why can't we remember the early years?
大脑会删除2岁前的记忆？网友：那些糗事，忘记也罢……

Childhood amnesia is the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories (memories of situations or events) before the age of 2 to 4 years. It may also refer to the scarcity or fragmentation of memories recollected from early childhood, particularly occurring between age 2 and 6.
“童年失忆症”指的是成年人无法回忆起自己2岁或者4岁之前的情景记忆；也指在2-6岁之间，童年早期记忆的碎片化。

Childhood amnesia is a normal part of brain development. Episodic memories involve the hippocampus, a part of the brain found in the temporal lobe, which is not fully developed at birth. The hippocampus should be ready at about the age of 4. Memories that are not repeatedly re-told and strengthened become lost over time.

童年失忆症是大脑发育的正常现象，情景记忆涉及海马体，是大脑颞叶的一部分。而婴儿刚出生时，海马体尚未发育完全，会慢慢随着婴儿长大逐步发育，在四岁左右渐趋成熟。没有被反复讲述和强化的记忆会随着时间的推移而消失。

For a long time, scientists thought childhood amnesia occurred because the brains of young children simply couldn't form lasting memories of specific events. More studies provided evidence that at some point in childhood, people lose access to their early memories.
长期以来，科学家们认为童年失忆症是因为幼儿的大脑根本无法形成对特定事件的持久记忆。更多的研究提供了证据，表明在童年的某个时候，人们失去了对早期记忆的访问。

And they found that children as old as 7 could still recall more than 60 percent of those early events, while children who were 8 or 9 recalled less than 40 percent.
研究者们发现，7岁的孩子仍然可以回忆起自己3岁时期60%以上的事件，而8、9岁的孩子只能回忆起不到40%。

On average, this fragmented period wanes off at around 4.7 years. Around 5-6 years of age in particular is thought to be when autobiographical memory seems to stabilize and be on par with adults.
平均而言，童年失忆症的覆盖范围在4.7年左右。当儿童到了5、6岁之后，他们的自传记忆逐渐稳定，几乎与成年人相当。

重点词汇：
1、amnesia
英/ æmˈniːziə /
美/ æmˈniːʒə /
n.健忘症，[内科] 记忆缺失

2、hippocampus
英/ ˌhɪpəˈkæmpəs /
美/ ˌhɪpəˈkæmpəs /
n.海马体；马头鱼尾兽（希腊神话中的生物）

3、wane
英/ weɪn /
美/ weɪn /
v.（月亮）缺，亏；衰落，减少；消逝
n.减弱，衰落（on the wane）；衰退期；（木板或木材的）缺棱，钝棱

4、autobiographical
英/ ˌɔːtəˌbaɪəˈɡræfɪk(ə)l /
美/ ˌɔːtəˌbaɪəˈɡræfɪk(ə)l /
adj.自传的，自传体的