【正文】 這些改變有沒有讓我們的思維食譜更健康、更均衡呢?還是說，我們喂養(yǎng)自己思維的方式變得和我們喂養(yǎng)身體的方式一樣糟、每天只吃垃圾食品?
　　If our mental menu is nutritious, we should see people get smarter and sharper. If our mental menu is unwholesome, we should expect to see a spreading epidemic of stupidity that would parallel the epidemic of obesity.
　　如果我們的思維食譜是有營養(yǎng)的，那么我們應(yīng)該會看到人們變得更聰明、更敏銳。
　　Letamp。s start by examining our reading habits.
　　我們首先來看看我們的閱讀習慣吧。rsquo。
　　The better you are at reading, the better you are at thinking.
　　你的閱讀能力越強，你的思考能力就越強。
　　Educators call this principle the Matthew effect.
　　教育家們把這個原則稱為馬修效應(yīng)。
　　And all of these studies were controlled for general intelligence and verbal abilities.
　　而且所有這些研究都覆蓋了所有智力水平和所有詞匯能力等級。rsquo。
　　No other type of content consumption has been shown to provide these benefits.
　　我們還沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)其他的內(nèi)容消費方式能有這樣的益處。rsquo。
　　When you wanna strengthen your mind, the best way to do it is to read challenging literature.
　　如果你想鍛煉自己的思維，最好的辦法就是閱讀有挑戰(zhàn)性的文學作品。
　　Sentence length has been steadily declining for decades from an average of 40 words per sentence to an average of 14.
　　句子長度一直在穩(wěn)步下降，從曾經(jīng)的平均40個單詞下降到了平均14個單詞。rsquo。rsquo。再就沒法下降了，除非我們都開始用推特體講話。
　　Books written before 1950 had an average paragraph length of over a hundred words. Books written after 1950 had an average paragraph length of 71 words.
　　1950年以前寫的書的平均段落長度超過100個單詞。
　　And if you look at just books written after 2020, the average paragraph has dropped to 58 words.
　　而如果你只看2020年以后寫的書，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)平均段落長度已經(jīng)下降到58個單詞。
　　The reading grade started at for bestsellers in the 1700s and then declined inexorably. By 2020 it was down to grade .
　　，自那以后它就在無情地下跌。
　　Now remember. This has nothing to do with taste. The data is not talking about the aesthetic taste of consuming book. There are enjoyable books written at every reading grade at every genre.
　　而且，請注意，這和口味沒有關(guān)系。每個等級、每個門類的書里都有引人入勝的好書。rsquo。rsquo。從這一點來看，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，暢銷書曾經(jīng)是能夠為大學等級的讀者帶來挑戰(zhàn)的東西，而現(xiàn)在連5年級的學生都能夠輕易讀懂暢銷書。而1940年代正好是研究者們開始研發(fā)并推廣所謂的”。的時候。這個”。就是一個可讀性分數(shù)。
　　At the time when the average American could read at the 8th grade level but enjoyed reading at the 6th grade level, that is for recreation. People liked to read texts that are two grades beneath their actual reading level.
　　當普通美國人可以閱讀8級的書，但卻更喜歡讀6級的書時，那其實是在為娛樂而讀。
　　Unfortunately, research by Professor Lev Vygotsky found that reading is most nutritious when itamp。s slightly above your current reading level. Reading books that are at your present level or below does not improve prehension.
　　不幸的是，列夫。閱讀那些與你當前水平持平、或者低于你當前水平的書，并不會提高你的理解能力。
　　And this is unfortunate because it means thereamp。s a negative correlation between taste and nutrition.
　　這是很悲劇的，因為這說明口味與營養(yǎng)之間是呈負相關(guān)的。
　　So as publishers started to use the readability scores to guide their publishing it was inevitable they were going to start making the material tastier but less nutritious because thatamp。s what we the consumers wanted.
　　所以，當出版商開始用可讀性分數(shù)來指導出版工作，他們就不可避免地在讓書變得更可口卻更沒有營養(yǎng)，因為這就是消費者想要的。
　　The publishers of newspapers and magazines hired readability consultants to purposefully simplify their written content. And as a result, in the past 60 years, the reading level of newspapers and magazines has dropped by 2 to 4 grades.
　　報紙與雜志的出版商更是專門聘請了可讀性顧問來簡化他們的內(nèi)容。
　　Decreasing the reading grade of the works allow the newspapermagazine publishers to greatly increase the audience but it also reduced the nutritional value of reading.
　　降低材料的閱讀等級讓報紙與雜志的出版商能夠大副提升讀者數(shù)，但同時也降低了這些閱讀材料的營養(yǎng)價值。rsquo。
　　Whatamp。s especially troubling is that our textbooks have also been dumbed down.
　　而真正讓人擔憂的是，我們的教科書也變得越來越蠢了。
　　The literature text that was required of 12th graders is nowadays simpler than the average 8th grade reading book before World War II.
　　現(xiàn)在2020年級被要求讀的文學作品，比二戰(zhàn)前8年級讀的書還要簡單。
　　60% of 18 to 24 year olds used to read literature in 1982. By 2020, this had dropped to 43%.
　　1982年的時候，18歲到24歲的人中有60%會讀文學作品。
　　The percentage of adults who read for pleasure is decreasing by 7 percent every year.
　　成年人把讀書作為娛樂活動的比例每年都下降7%。
　　Itamp。s accepted that the declining popularity of written media has been caused by the rise of screen media.
　　人們普遍接受的是，紙媒的流行程度日趨下降是因為屏幕媒體變得越來越流行。rsquo。rsquo。這意味著，美國人不光只能讀懂更簡單的書、只能翻更簡單的雜志、只能看更簡單的教科書，而且他們還看得越來越少了。rsquo。
　　This is what the mean verbal SAT scores look like after you correct for the fact that the test makers have been adjusting the scores upward to hide the decline.
　　上面這是SAT語言能力分數(shù)的平均值，我們在其中剔除了出卷人為了掩蓋下降而對分數(shù)做出的調(diào)整。而1962年電視的市場滲透率達到了90%，并且教科書被簡化了。
　　Hereamp。s a parison of the reading ability of adults in 1949 and 2020, the world before TV and after TV.
　　這里有一張1949年月2020年成人閱讀能力的對比，分別代表電視出現(xiàn)之前與之后的世界。
　　The number of reading at even the 6th level dropped from 83% to 52%.
　　就連能讀6級材料的人也從83%下降到了52%。
　　And this is despite the fact that in 1949 the average American had 8 and a half years of education and now the average adult has 12 and a half