棋下得不好，怪空氣？

江西 侯昌瑋

主題語境：空氣污染的影響 篇幅：359詞 建議用時：7分鐘

1A newly published study shows that chess players perform objectively worse and make more suboptimal(次優的)moves when there is more fine particulate matter (顆粒物)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 (認知).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.雖然這項特殊研究主要圍繞著國際象棋選手，但這些發現對高技能的辦公室工作人員也有強烈的影響，因為這類人也可能在空氣污染多變的條件下，面臨棘手的認知任務。

【點石成金】本句中，連詞while引導的是讓步狀語從句，the findings have strong implications...pollution是主句；主句中，who引導的是定語從句，先行詞為office workers。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

be exposed to 暴露于；面臨

add to 增加；加強

relate to 涉及；與……有關

rule out 排除；不考慮；去掉

correspond to 相一致；相當于

focus on 聚焦于；專注于

in conditions of 在……的條件（情況）下