噪音的非听觉效应
课文学习台
Non-auditory Effects of Noise
区分观点、依据、例子与限制，用自己的话准确重建论述。
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第1段
Many people in industry and the Services, who have practical experience of noise, regard any investigation of this question as a waste of time; they are not prepared even to admit the possibility that noise affects people. On the other hand, those who dislike noise will sometimes use most inadequate evidence to support their pleas for a quieter society. This is a pity, because noise abatement really is a good cause, and it is likely to be discredited if it gets to be associated with bad science.
工业和军队中的许多人跟噪音打交道，他们认为对噪音问题的调查纯属浪费时间；他们甚至不愿承认噪音可能会对人产生影响。另一方面，那些讨厌噪音的人希望有一个较为安静的社会环境，有时不惜使用并不充分的证据来支持该要求。这很可惜，因为减少噪音本来是一项有益的事业；一旦它与不可靠的科学论证联系在一起，就可能失去公信力。
第2段
One allegation often made is that noise produces mental illness. A recent article in a weekly newspaper, for instance, was headed with a striking illustration of a lady in a state of considerable distress, with the caption "She was yet another victim, reduced to a screaming wreck". On turning eagerly to the text, one learns that the lady was a typist who found the sound of office typewriters worried her more and more until eventually she had to go into a mental hospital. Now the snag in this sort of anecdote is of course that one cannot distinguish cause and effect. Was the noise a cause of the illness, or were the complaints about noise merely a symptom? Another patient might equally well complain that her neighbours were combining to slander her and persecute her, and yet one might be cautious about believing this statement.
常见的一种指责是，噪音引发精神方面疾病。例如，最近一家周报刊登了一篇文章，文章上方有一幅引人注目的插图，是一位表情沮丧的女子。图的文字说明：“她又成了一个受害者，被折磨得精神崩溃、惊叫不已。”当人们急切地看完正文后，得知该女子为打字员，办公室打字机发出的声音愈发令她烦恼，最终住进了精神病医院。 这类奇闻的麻烦无疑在于人们无法区分原因和结果。噪音是病因，或者说抱怨噪音是病症呢？另外一位患者可能也会抱怨她的邻居正在联合起来污蔑和迫害她，只不过，人们对这样的声称保持谨慎。
第3段
What is needed in the case of noise is a study of large numbers of people living under noisy conditions, to discover whether they are mentally ill more often than other people are. Some time ago the United States Navy, for instance, examined a very large number of men working on aircraft carriers: the study was known as Project Anehin. It can be unpleasant to live even several miles from an aerodrome; if you think what it must be like to share the deck of a ship with several squadrons of jet aircraft, you will realize that a modern navy is a good place to study noise. But neither psychiatric interviews nor objective tests were able to show any effects upon these American sailors. This result merely confirms earlier American and British studies: if there is any effect of noise upon mental health, it must be so small that present methods of psychiatric diagnosis cannot find it. That does not prove that it does not exist: but it does mean that noise is less dangerous than, say, being brought up in an orphanage—which really is a mental health hazard.
对于噪音问题，需要对大量生活在噪音环境下的人进行研究，以揭示他们与非噪音环境下的人相比是否更易患精神疾病。例如，美国海军前些时候调查了许多在航空母舰上服役的官兵，这次研究以“安内英项目”为人所知。住在离机场几英里外的地方都可能（被噪音吵得）难受。如果你能想像出和几个中队的喷气战机同在一个甲板上该有多吵的话，你会意识到现代海军真是个研究噪音的好地方。可不论是精神病学访谈，还是进行客观的测试，都无法表明噪音对这些美国海军官兵有任何影响。这个结果只不过证实了美国和英国之前的研究结论：如果噪音对精神健康有影响的话，那也是现代精神疾病诊断方法无法检测出来的细微程度。以上研究不能证明噪音对健康没有影响，但可得知，噪音的危害至少比在孤儿院成长所受的危害要小，孤儿院才是损害精神健康的场所。
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