Are People Who Speak More Than One Language Smarter? Có phải người nói nhiều thứ tiếng thông minh hơn không?

Are People Who Speak More Than One Language Smarter? Có phải người nói nhiều thứ tiếng thông minh hơn không?

In the early nineteen fifties, researchers found that people scored lower on intelligence tests if they spoke more than one language. Research in the nineteen sixties found the opposite. So which is it? Researchers presented their newest studies in February at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.	Vào đầu những năm 50, các nhà nghiên cứu thấy rằng những người bị điểm thấp trong các bài kiểm tra trí thông minh nếu họ nói nhiều hơn một ngôn ngữ. Những nghiên cứu trong thập niên sáu mươi của thế kỷ hai mươi phát hiện điều ngược lại. Thế thì, điều gì đúng? Các nhà nghiên cứu đã trình bày các công trình mới nhất của họ hồi tháng Hai tại một cuộc họp của Hiệp hội Nghiên cứu Khoa học Tiên tiến Hoa Kỳ.
The latest evidence shows that being bilingual does not necessarily make people smarter. But researcher Ellen Bialystok says it probably does make you better at certain skills. She says:	Các bằng chứng mới nhất cho thấy là song ngữ không nhất thiết phải làm cho người ta thông minh hơn. Nhưng nhà nghiên cứu Ellen Bialystok nói biết nhiều ngôn ngũ có thể làm cho bạn giỏi hơn ở những kỹ năng nhất định. Bà nói:
"Imagine driving down the highway. There are many things that could capture your attention and you really need to be able to monitor all of them. Why would bilingualism make you any better at that?" And the answer, she says, is that bilingual people are often better at controlling their attention -- a function called the executive control system. She says it is possibly the most important cognitive system we have. It is where all of our decisions about what to attend to, what to ignore and what to process are made. Ms. Bialystok is a psychology professor at York University in Toronto, Canada.	"Hãy tưởng tượng bạn đang lái xe trên đường cao tốc. Có rất nhiều điều mà có thể khiến bạn chú ý và bạn thực sự cần có khả năng quan trắc tất cả chúng Tại sao song ngữ sẽ làm cho bạn có chút nào đó giỏi hơn trong việc này?" Và câu trả lời, bà nói, là những người song ngữ thường giỏi kiểm soát sự chú ý của họ hơn - một chức năng được gọi là hệ thống quản lý điều hành. Bà nói rằng nó có thể là hệ thống nhận thức quan trọng nhất mà chúng ta có. Đó là nơi mà đưa các quyết định về việc chúng ta định làm gì, bỏ qua cái gì nên tiến hành cái gì. Bà Bialystok là một giáo sư tâm lý học tại Đại học York ở Toronto, Canada.
She says the best method to measure the executive control system is called the Stroop Test. A person is shown words in different colors. The person has to ignore the word but say the color. The problem is that the words are all names of colors. She explains: "So you would have the word 'blue' written in red, but you have to say 'red.' But blue is just lighting up all these circuits in your brain, and you really want to say 'blue.' So you need a mechanism to override that so that you can say 'red.' That's the executive control system."	Bà nói rằng phương pháp tốt nhất để đo hệ thống kiểm soát điều hành được gọi là thử nghiệm Stroop. Một người được cho xem các từ được viết trong các màu sắc khác nhau. Người này phải bỏ qua từ nhưng phải nói màu sắc. Vấn đề là tất cả những từ này đều là tên của các màu sắc. Bà giải thích: "Vì vậy, bạn sẽ có từ 'xanh da trời' được viết bằng màu đỏ, nhưng bạn phải nói "đỏ." Nhưng màu xanh da trời đã làm sáng lên tất cả các mạch điện trong não bạn, và bạn thực sự muốn nói "xanh da trời. ' Vì vậy, bạn cần một cơ chế để ghi đè lên đó để bạn có thể nói "đỏ." Đó là hệ thống quản lý điều hành."
Her work shows that bilingual people continually practice this function. They have to, because both languages are active in their brain at the same time. They need to suppress one to be able to speak in the other. This mental exercise might help in other ways, too. Researchers say bilingual children are better able to separate a word from its meaning, and more likely to have friends from different cultures. Bilingual adults are often four to five years later than others in developing dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Foreign language study has increased in the United States. But linguist Alison Mackey at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. points out that English-speaking countries are still far behind the rest of the world.	Công trình nghiên của bà cho thấy rằng những người song ngữ liên tục thực hành chức năng này. Họ phải làm thế, bởi vì cả hai ngôn ngữ đang hoạt động đồng thời trong não họ. Họ cần phải trấn áp ngôn ngữ này để có thể nói ngôn ngữ kia. Bài tập thể dục tinh thần này có thể có tác dụng về nhiều phương diện khác nữa. Các nhà nghiên cứu cho rằng trẻ em song ngữ có thể dễ dàng tách biệt một từ ra khỏi ý nghĩa của nó, và dễ làm bạn bè với người từ các nền văn hóa khác nhau hơn. Người lớn song ngữ thường phát triển chứng mất trí hoặc bệnh Alzheimer chậm hơn 4-5 năm so với những người khác. Việc học ngoại ngữ đã tăng lên tại Hoa Kỳ. Nhưng nhà ngôn ngữ học Alison Mackey tại Đại học Georgetown ở Washington, DC chỉ ra rằng các nước nói tiếng Anh vẫn (học ngoại ngữ) thua xa phần còn lại của thế giới.
	Translated by hanh hien

For Many People, First the Doctor's Office, Then the Web - Với nhiều người, Bác sĩ trước, Lên mạng sau

For Many People, First the Doctor's Office, Then the Web - Với nhiều người, Bác sĩ trước, Lên mạng sau

A new survey finds that more than eighty percent of Internet users in the United States search for health information online. The survey is from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation. Susannah Fox from the Pew Internet Project says doctors are still the main source of health information. But the survey found that searching online is one of the leading ways that people look for a second opinion. She said people are fact-checking what they have heard from a doctor. However, people are still very likely to turn to a health professional when they are planning a treatment.Forty-four percent of people are actually looking for doctors or other providers when they search for health information online. Another finding of the survey: Two-thirds of Internet users look online for information about a specific disease or medical condition. The Internet has also become an important source of emotional support for people with health problems. Susannah Fox says one in five Internet users has gone online to find other people who have the same condition. She said even more people with serious or rare diseases go online to find other people who share their health concerns. A disease is considered rare if it affects fewer than two hundred thousand people worldwide. The rise of social networking has made it easier for people with rare diseases to connect with each other and feel less alone. Social networking is also changing the way some doctors and patients communicate with each other. Dr. Jeff Livingston operates a medical center for women in Irving, Texas. His office uses password-protected software to share information with patients. He says they provide patients full access to their medical care. Dr. Livingston says the software has increased efficiency, reduced costs and improved relations with patients. He says: "It has just revolutionized the way we do health care." His medical center also has a Facebook page, a MySpace page and a Twitter feed.For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presutti. We would like to hear your stories about going online to search for health information. There's a lot of information out there. How do you know if you can trust what you find? You can post your comments on our website, voaspecialenglish.com.

More Young Women Find a Calling in Catholic Order - Nhiều thiếu nữ hưởng ứng Thiên chúa giáo

More Young Women Find a Calling in Catholic Order - Nhiều thiếu nữ hưởng ứng Thiên chúa giáo

The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia's is a Catholic religious order in Tennessee. St. Cecilia's looks and sounds much like it did when it first opened 150 years ago.

But there is also something new: the voices and laughter of young woman studying to become Dominican sisters. The current group of first-year students is the largest in many years. Sister Catherine Marie is a spokesperson for St. Cecilia's.

SISTER CATHERINE MARIE: "There are 270 of us, and our growth of late has been rather extensive. This year, we had 27 young women enter. Last year, it was 23.Great blessings to us."

Sister Catherine suspects these women want to look deeper into their faith. Studies have shown that Americans are interested in spiritual issues; yet their involvement in organized religion is falling.She says the Dominican Order was founded during a period of social unrest.

SISTER CATHERINE MARIE: "There was a whole lot going on in the world that was very irreligious. And yet from this emerged an idealism and a wholehearted desire to give of self."

That desire led Sister Kelly Edmunds to join St. Cecilia's. She remembers how students at the University of Sydney reacted to Dominican sisters who served there.

SISTER KELLY EDMUNDS: "Just to watch them walking down the main boulevard of campus wearing their habits ... it was just such a powerful witness! And I had friends in engineering who were like, they knew I was Catholic. So they would say to me, 'Who are these nuns on campus?' And so it was a really great witness to me of the power of religious life."

Sister Victoria Marie came to St. Cecila's after completing a study program in civil engineering.




SISTER VICTORIA MARIE: "So it was a big shift in my life to go from utility to relationship, from what am I going to do?To who am I going to be for the Lord?"

A religious worker does not spend all day at work or in prayer. Sister Kelly was surprised by how much time she has to simply enjoy life.

SISTER KELLY EDMUNDS: "Just to be outside and to enjoy the beauty of ... the beauty of the world and creation. And so we play a lot of sport, we go for walks, we just enjoy each other's company outdoors."

Yet the women do spend a lot of time at religious services, in the classroom and doing work. Sister Victoria admits it can be very busy.

SISTER VICTORIA MARIE: "For a couple weeks after I entered I thought, I just want to lay on the couch for the day, and I don't think they do that here, you know?"

Sister Kelly does not believe her spirituality is something unusual. She believes the Catholic Church is in a period of renewal.

SISTER KELLY EDMUNDS: "It's a really great ... a springtime for the Church, I suppose. And there's a lot of hope and a lot of life."

The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia are active in Australia and across the United States. They teach more than 13,000 students at more than 30 schools. I'm Shirley Griffith.

Scientists Use Radar to Study Bats, Birds and Insects - Các nhà Khoa học sử dụng Ra-da để nghiên cứu chim

Scientists Use Radar to Study Bats, Birds and Insects - Các nhà Khoa học sử dụng Ra-da để nghiên cứu chim

Tom Kunz puts electronic devices on bats and birds to follow their movement. Recently, the Boston University biologist started using information gathered by radar.

TOM KUNZ: "The technology has improved to the extent that we can now see things that we couldn't see before."

Weather experts commonly ignore radar images of birds and bats when they predict weather conditions. But Kunz says biologists can learn a lot from radar station readings.

TOM KUNZ: "From an integrated and networked dataset, we can actually determine where and when bats and birds are moving across the landscape."
Kunz spoke at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Another speaker was Winifred Frick, who has studied bats. Both she and Kunz raised the same question.

WINIFRED FRICK: "Do you think we could estimate the number of bats in a bat cloud? Oh, sure! So that actually initiated this collaboration."

Their work led to a method for counting masses of bats in the wild. Frick says knowing this information could help with studies of animal behavior and the seasonal movement of birds and other creatures.

WINIFRED FRICK: "We can look at the number of different sites all at once. That will give us a really good picture about the health of these populations. And this particular species, Brazilian free-tailed bats, does an enormous job for agriculture in terms of eating agricultural crop pests."

New radar information is available to researchers every five minutes. They also can study twenty years of older information. Frick says this information can be found on the Internet.

WINIFRED FRICK: "See this whole front of bats kind of emerging here."
Frick says the use of radar to study bats, birds and insects shows great promise. She hopes that, one day, weather reports will provide information not just about clouds, but also the clouds of bats flying from one place to another. I'm Shirley Griffith.