Most people experience a decline in reading speed as they get older.
随着年龄的增长，大多数人的阅读速度都会下降。
他们的语速比我们的快些。因为英文句子是由单词构成的，单词往往有很多个音节。而汉语句子是由字构成的，一个字就是一个音节。因此，在说一句话，表达一个意思的时候，外国人要发出更多的音节，但是他们说一句话的速度和我。
That&39;re otherwise healthy.
即使其他心理因素往往保持相当强，只要你在其他方面的健康情况也是如此。
Which makes it tough to pin down what's causing reading to slow down，specifically.
这使得我们很难确定到底是什么原因导致阅读速度变慢。
Like most people on average，tend to have their overall mental processing slow a bit as you get older，but your memory for word meaning stays pretty consistent into old age.
就像大多数人一样，随着年龄的增长，他们的整体思维过程往往会缓慢一些，但你对单词含义的记忆在年老时仍然保持相当稳定。
It's also possible that declining vision could slow you down.
也有可能是视力下降会让你的速度变慢。
But studies show that's a separate factor，in other words，people slow down their reading even if their vision is fine.
但研究表明，还会有一个单独的因素，换句话说，即使视力良好，人们也会放慢阅读速度。
Researchers have also proposed that maybe people slow down on purpose，that even if they don&39;re slowing down to be a little more cautious about what they're taking in so as to avoid mistakes.
研究人员还提出，也许人们是故意放慢速度的，即使他们没有意识到这一点，他们放慢速度是为了对他们所接受的东西更加谨慎，以避免犯错。
But studies haven't borne that out either.
出现英文阅读速度比中文更快的情况也许是因为你对文本易读性天性比较敏感。但阅读速度与文本的可读性有着更大的关系,对双语者来说读一篇语句不通的中文文章肯定比读一篇行文流畅的英文文章要慢。你所说的阅读速度的巨大差别的。
但研究也没有证实这一点。
In a 2018 study，researchers have both young and old people read at their own pace，then they tested their comprehension after making them double their speed.
2018年的一项研究中，研究人员让年轻人和老年人按照自己的节奏阅读，然后让他们的阅读速度翻倍，测试他们的理解能力。
If older adults deliberately set a slower pace than the younger people in the study，they should make fewer mistakes when forced to speed up.
在这项研究中，如果老年人故意设定比年轻人更慢的速度，他们在被迫加快速度时应该少犯错误。
The older group did pace themselves a little more slowly and made more mistakes overall，as expected.
年龄较大的一组确实放慢了自己的节奏，总体上犯了更多的错误，正如预期的那样。
But doubling their speed made everyone young and old equally worse.
但速度的加倍让每个人的情况都一样糟糕，无论老少。
So it seems like the mistakes weren't a result of their self-paced speed.
所以，看起来这些错误并不是他们自己定步调的结果。
So if we ruled out things like declining vision or going slower on purpose，why does reading speed decrease?
希望有一天你的英文阅读速度会与中文阅读速度不相上下。
所以，如果我们排除视力下降或故意放慢速度等因素，为什么阅读速度会下降？
It kind of depends on how old you are.
这取决于你的年龄。
Early on，between young adulthood and middle age，reading slows because all kinds of processing slows.
在早期，从青年到中年，阅读速度变慢是因为各种处理过程都变慢了。
Generally，we get a little bit worse at processing incoming information，and our executive function gets a little worse.
一般来说，我们处理传入信息的能力会变差，我们的执行功能也会变差。
If you control for things like working，memory，and processing speed，middle-age adults can read just as quickly as younger adults.
如果你控制工作、记忆和处理速度等因素，中年人的阅读速度和年轻人一样快。
One something in particular that can trip you up a little more is an effect called visual crowding.
有一件事尤其会让你更容易犯错，那就是视觉拥挤效应。
Most people can identify a letter sitting on its own more quickly than a letter surrounded by other letters.
大多数人能更快地识别一个单独的字母，而不是一个被其他字母包围的字母。
That's especially true for your peripheral vision.
这对你的周边视觉来说尤其如此。
阅读需要你的眼睛从一个单词移动到另一个单词时， 对周边视觉有一些预期。
2017年发表在科学报告 (ScientificReports)上的一项研究发现年龄拥挤与阅读速度之间存在关系。
The researchers reported that older adults experience a bigger crowding effect.
研究人员报告说老年人会经历更大的拥挤效应。
That means letters don't need to be as close for people to start making mistakes because of crowding，and this was related to their reading speed.
这意味着字母不需要太近人们就会因为太拥挤而出错这与他们的阅读速度有关。
The researchers found that adults over 50 read more slowly than those in their twenties。
同样，年轻的群体也有较小的拥挤区。
and the younger group，likewise，had a smaller crowding zone. That means older adults might be more distracted by other things on the page，skipping ahead to irrelevant things，instead of focusing on the part they need to process next.
So that might be part of what slows us down.
所以这可能是让我们慢下来的原因之一。
The shift in reading comprehension with age might also be related to a specific kind of memory called your phonological loop.
随着年龄的增长，阅读理解能力的转变也可能与一种叫做语音循环的特殊记忆有关。
Imagine a conversation where you're not really paying close attention，and then you notice the other person is waiting for you to respond.
想象一下，在一场对话中，你并没有真正地集中注意力，然后你注意到对方正在等待你的回应。
So you quickly think of the last few words they said，so you can rephrase it as a question.
所以，你很快想到他们说的最后几个词，你可以把它改写成一个问句。
That's the phonological loop in action.
这就是语音循环的作用。
It's like a buffer of a few moments of auditory information，your mind keeps ready in case you need to go back.
这就像一小段听觉信息的缓冲器，你的大脑保持准备，以防你需要回去。
Like if you need to repeat a phone number to yourself before you dial.
比如你在拨号之前需要重复一个电话号码。
And that&39;re reading.
这在你阅读的时候非常有用。
Researchers in the year 2000 found this was part of the decline in reading comprehension with age.
普通人的阅读速度是每小时4-5万字。经常阅读的人甚至每小时5到6万字，而不经常阅读的人有时一个小时也读不完2万字。正常来说，一个每天阅读的人一分钟阅读量在700字左右，快的可以达到1000字，但这仅有博览群书并有。
研究人员在2000年发现，这是随着年龄增长阅读理解能力下降的一部分。
Basically，once they controlled for how much people can keep in their phonological loop，readers in their forties and fifties showed about the same reading comprehension as those over 60.
基本上，一旦他们控制了人们可以保持多少语音循环，四五十岁的读者表现出的阅读理解能力与60岁以上的人是一样的。
这表明语音循环是关键因素。
It stores less as you age.
随着年龄的增长，它储存的东西会越来越少。
So at the very least，you can take comfort in the fact that this is a typical part of healthy aging.
所以，至少，你可以感到安慰的事实是，这是健康老化的一个典型部分。
But another reason why this research is important is because of that keyword &34;.
但这项研究之所以重要的另一个原因是“健康”这个关键词。
Because focusing on the details of your reading ability might also help distinguish typical aging from Alzheimer's disease.
不是。我做过托福的听力，里面提到过正常的英语阅读速度是每分钟300词，经过训练可以达到700，最快的极限是1200.不过楼主中文的3000字已经可以胜任高考阅卷了。我作为纯中国人，远远达不到这个速度。
因为专注于阅读能力的细节也可能有助于区分典型的衰老和阿尔茨海默氏症。
Like we said before，this phenomenon is surprising，because most people keep a fairly consistent level of word knowledge and memory as they age.
就像我们之前说的，这一现象令人惊讶，因为随着年龄的增长，大多数人的词汇知识和记忆都保持在一个相当稳定的水平。
But that&39;s disease.
但阿尔茨海默氏症患者却不是这样。
For them，meanings are impaired too.
可以尝试去报一个辅导班。在辅导班中会有老师来帮助你加快阅读的速度。帮助你系统的系的练习，现在正规的辅导班一般都会有外教，因此你可以多多进行英语对话练习，对你的阅读能力也会有很大的提高。在日常生活中多多使用外语。
对他们来说，意义也被削弱了。
They perform worse at naming words that fall in specific categories，like things at a grocery store.
他们在命名特定类别的单词时表现更差，比如杂货店里的东西。
