2008年英语四级阅读训练附译文和总结(8)

An active lifestyle and a healthy, fish－rich diet are not only good for your heart, they may also help tackle the memory loss associated with old age, two leading neuroscientists said on Wednesday.
As people live longer, finding ways of halting the decline in mental agility is becoming increasingly important, said Professor Ian Robertson, director of the Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin.
"The biggest threat to being able to function well and properly is our brains," he told journalists.
"There is very strong evidence, particularly in the over-50s, that the degree to which you maintain your mental faculties depends on a handful of quite simple environmental factors," he said.
Those who remained physically fit, avoided high stress levels and enjoyed a rich and varied social life are better equipped to stay alert as they age. Mental stimulation, learning new things and simply thinking young also help.

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随着人类的寿命越来越长，寻找能够抑制人类精神敏锐度下降的方法正变得越来越重要，爱尔兰都柏林三一学院神经科学协会负责人伊恩·罗伯逊教授说。

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“有强有力的证据表明，一个人到底能够保持怎样的智力水平取决于一些非常简单的环境因素，对于那些过了50岁的人来说，更是如此。”他说。

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fish-rich 这个词是复合词，rich可以解释为“充足的”意思，所以此词可以意为：鱼类非常充足的(饮食);再来看一个词，neuroscientist,这里neuro-是一个词根，意为：神经的，所以这个词可以解释为神经方面的科学家。再来看一句句子：The biggest threat to being able to function well and properly is our brains," he told journalists.看到这样的话先分析一下句子的成分，它的主干是：The biggest threat is our brains. 而to being able to function well and properly 是用来修饰threat.还有句句子，There is very strong evidence, particularly in the over-50s, that the degree to which you maintain your mental faculties depends on a handful of quite simple environmental factors," he said. 这句话如果把语序调整为 There is very strong evidence... that you maintain your mental faculties to which degree...是不是好理解一点呢?这句中还有个词50s,这种形式既可以解释为年代，也可以解释为年龄，具体要根据上下文来理解哦!