印刷媒體：提升閱讀理解力的秘訣 The Lasting Benefits of Print Media for Reading Comprehension 完整註解
閱讀前你該知道的事
隨著數位時代的崛起，實體書本的市場正面臨的巨大的危機。數位閱讀的便捷性和即時性，使得越來越多人選擇電子書和線上文章。慶幸的是，最近的研究表明，休閒數位閱讀依然對閱讀能力有幫助，但是僅限於高中以上的學生，而且效果沒有實體書本來的好。
閱讀前你該知道的詞彙
reading comprehension 「閱讀能力」
literacy「讀寫能力、語言能力」
print 「印刷、實體書籍」
print reading「實體書的閱讀」
digital 「數位」
digital reading 「電子書等非實體書籍的閱讀」
leisure 「休閒」
leisure reading 「休閒閱讀 reading for fun」
positive link/relationship 「正相關」
negative link/relationship 「負相關」
閱讀全文 >> The Lasting Benefits of Print Media for Reading Comprehension
When I was in elementary school, I had a freakish talent, more like a parlor trick. You could give me any book from the classroom or school library shelves, and I would open it to a random page, take a whiff, and, shutting it, pronounce the year of the print run. More often than not, I got within a year or two. On one occasion, when I hit the bullseye, my challenger stared at the copyright page and spluttered an expletive far too advanced for his tender years.
the year of the print run 指的就是那一批印刷的「年份」
hit the bullseye 常用片語，指「精準命中目標」
當我在小學的時候，我有一個奇怪的 (freakish) 才能，更像是一個小把戲 (parlor trick)。你可以從教室或學校圖書館的書架上給我任何一本書，我會隨機翻開一頁，聞一聞 (take a whiff)，然後合上書，並說出這本書的印刷年份。大多數情況下，我能猜得相差一兩年。有一次我猜中年份，挑戰我的人盯著版權頁，驚訝地爆出一句對他那個幼小 (tender) 年紀來說過於高級的髒話 (expletive)。
I can’t recall when this bizarre proclivity began or when, just as suddenly, it vanished. (I’d fail miserably if put to the test today.) What was the secret? The scent of the glue? The binding? The film of dust on uncut pages? (We’re talking about school library stacks, after all.) I still don’t know. I can only conclude that, even to have dreamt up this exercise, I must have had constant access to large numbers of books as a child. Perhaps I should have spent more time reading than sniffing them.
sniff 「聞」。跟上一段的 whiff 是類似意思
我不記得這種奇異的嗜好 (proclivity) 是什麼時候開始的，也不記得它什麼時候突然消失的（如果今天再讓我測試，我肯定會慘敗）。我至今仍然不知道這其中的秘密是什麼？是膠水的氣味？裝訂 (binding) 的方式？還是毛邊本面上的灰塵？（畢竟 after all 我們說的是學校圖書館裡成疊的書籍）。我只知道，光是要能想到這種測驗遊戲，我小時候一定有大量的書籍可以閱讀。也許我應該花更多時間在閱讀上面，而不是聞書。