人類標準體溫逐漸下降

江蘇 郭 梅

研究表明，自19 世紀以來，人類的平均體溫在持續下降，人類每十年平均體溫就會下降0.03℃，傳統意義上的37℃的標準體溫已經不適用于所有人。

主題語境：科研 篇幅：354詞 建議用時：7分鐘

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 (數據集) 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.What's Wunderlich's achievement?

A.He was the inventor of the thermometer.

我右手邊的墻上是一個小女孩的關節造影，她的父母在那次車禍中雙雙辭世，她被推進手術室，診斷結果她右大腿肌肉壞死嚴重，只能高位截肢，我為她做了右髖關節離斷術，這意味著她以后右腿將無法安裝假肢。她的高燒不退，當我走到她的病床邊，她問我，能否握著我的手睡覺，我點點頭，她稚嫩的手指勾著我的手，手上還掛著一只小娃娃。她說見到小娃娃就好像見到了死去的爸爸媽媽，她不時地睜開眼確定我在她身邊，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，它被廣泛看作是人們健康的標準——成為醫生們診斷某人健康與否的基本指標的一種診斷工具。

【點石成金】本句是一個復合句。that引導結果狀語從句；名詞health 后面的部分作同位語，過去分詞短語used by physicians as a basic indicator if someone is sick or well作名詞tool的定語；whether引導的是一個同位語從句。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

turn out 結果是；證明是

serve as 用作；充當

tend to 傾向于

go through 整理；翻閱