NEO-Vol 008 学习语言延缓痴呆Be Bilingual to delay dementia

Good Thursday Evening, this is NEO, the eighth episode brought to you by Lewis, from Yangzhou. 大家周四晚上好，我是靖磊，在扬州给大家带来第八期新闻英语在线节目。For today's program, I shall bring you language learners an exciting news 'cause you may find the correlation between language learning and our physical health from the program today. 在今天的节目中，我将给大家分享一则令人兴奋的内容，尤其针对语言学习爱好者，接下来你会了解到语言学习和我们身体健康之间存在的关系。A new study shows that being bilingual may delay dementia by five or more years. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland discovered that people who spoke two languages did not show any signs of three types of dementia for more than four years longer than those who were monolingual. A co-author of the report, Dr. Thomas Bak, said: "Bilingualism can be seen as a successful brain training, contributing to cognitive reserve, which can help delay dementia." This means that speaking two languages keeps the brain in better health and helps to keep diseases like Alzheimer's at bay for longer than if someone spoke just one language. Dr Bak's research found that bilingualism and the delaying of dementia had little to do with social status, gender, occupation or educational background. Bak's team evaluated the medical records of 648 people from India who had been diagnosed with dementia. Of these patients, 391 were bilingual or trilingual and many were illiterate. Dr Bak wrote: "The fact that bilingual advantage is not caused by any differences in education is confirmed by the fact that it was also found in illiterates, who have never attended any school." He suggested that learning a language later in life could keep the brain healthier. He said language learning was "socially more enjoyable, and it forces your brain to train permanently". News Review:Language Points: In this part you shall hear a list of useful phrases and expressions selected from the article. 本部分是从新闻中挑出来的实用短语和表达，供大家参考学习. 1. Delay dementia 延缓痴呆 2. Co-author of the report 报告的联合作者 3. Contribute to cognitive reserve 有助于认知储备 4. Keep diseases at bay 避免疾病 5. Gender, occupation background 性别 职业背景 6. Evaluate the medical records 评估医疗记录 7. Be diagnosed with dementia 被确诊为痴呆 8. Socially more enjoyable 普遍地更愉悦化 9. Force your brain to train permanently 迫使大脑一直接受训练