It’s every parent’s worst nightmare: there’s a fire in the house, the alarms are beeping, but the children are sleeping on oblivious. Now scientists say they have found a better way to rouse slumbering youngsters.
每个为人父母的人最恐怖的噩梦是：房子着火了，报警器“哔哔”地响着，但孩子们还流连梦乡，对火情毫无察觉。科学家们说，他们现在找到了一个更好的办法去叫醒睡着的孩子。
Researchers in the US have discovered that playing a child a recording of their mother’s voice is about three times more likely to wake them than a traditional alarm. What’s more, it does so faster and is linked to a quicker escape.
美国的研究人员发现，相比于播放传统的警报声，孩子妈妈声音的录音把孩子们叫醒的可能性高了大约三倍。而且，听到妈妈声音的孩子醒得更快，后续逃跑得也更快。
“If we can get something that can be generically developed and just taken straight out of the packet then that is our goal,” said Dr Gary Smith, a co-author of the research.
这项研究的合著者加里·史密斯博士说：“如果我们能找到一种易于开发、即取即用的东西，那么这就是我们的目标了。”
Writing in The Journal of Pediatrics, Smith and colleagues from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio report how they compared the effects of four different smoke alarms on 176 children aged between 5 and 12 years old.
来自俄亥俄州全国儿童医院的史密斯和他的同事们在《儿科学期刊》上发表了一篇研究。他们在研究中报告，他们招募了 176 个 5 到 12 岁的小孩作为实验对象，并比较了四种烟雾警报声的效果。
While one alarm featured a high-pitched beep—the sort commonly found in households—the other three featured the voice of the child’s mother calling either the child’s name, giving instructions such as: “Wake up! Leave the room!”, or both.
其中一种警报的特征是高音调的“哔哔”声——那种经常在家里听到的声音，而其他的三种警报都以孩子妈妈的声音为特征：其中一种喊着孩子的名字，一种给孩子下诸如“醒醒！快离开这个房间！”的指令，第三种既喊名字又下指令。
The results show that vocal alarms appear to be more effective than high-pitched beeps. About 90% of children woke for a voice alarm compared with just over 53% for the traditional alarm.
研究结果表明，人声警报似乎比高音调的“哔哔”声更有效。约 90% 的小孩被人声警报叫醒，而传统警报仅叫醒了超过 53%的小孩。
In addition, the children shook off their slumbers faster, with a median value of two seconds for the voice alarm compared with more than two and a half minutes for the traditional alarm. Similarly, escape times were longer in the cases of the beeping alarms.
另外，当警报是妈妈的声音时，孩子更快地从睡梦中被叫醒了，叫醒所需的时间中位数是 2 秒。相比之下，传统警报所需时间的中位数超过 2.5 分钟。同样地，当警报是“哔哔”声时，逃跑所需的时间更长。
Rick Hylton of the National Fire Chiefs Council welcomed the study, but said people should not worry about how effective their current alarms are.
英国国家消防长官委员会的里克·希尔顿表达了对这个研究成果的认可，但他表示，人们不应该因此对他们现有烟雾警报的有效性感到担忧。
————— 文章来源 / 卫报
nightmare/ˈnaɪtmer/
n. 噩梦
e.g.
I had a terrible nightmare last night.
The whole journey was a nightmare.
beep/biːp/
v. 发出嘟嘟（或滴滴）的声音（beep n.）
e.g.
watches that keep beeping every hour
oblivious/əˈblɪviəs/
adj. 毫无知觉的，未察觉的
e.g.
be oblivious of sth.
rouse /raʊz/
v. 唤醒，叫醒
e.g.
I roused her from a daydream.
slumber/ˈslʌmbər/
v. 睡觉（slumber n.）
e.g.
I fell into a gentle slumber.
youngster/ˈjʌŋstər/
n. 儿童，少年
be linked to sth.
和某物有关联，和某物联系在一起
generically /dʒəˈnerɪkli/
adv. 通用地，一般地（generic adj.）
packet /ˈpækɪt/
n. 小包装，小盒装
e.g.
a packet of sugar
co-author /ˌkoʊ ˈɔːθər/
n. 合著者（co-author v.）
e.g.
Daniel and Roxy co-authored this article.
pediatrics/ˌpiːdiˈætrɪks/
n. 儿科学 （pediatric adj., pediatrician n.）
e.g.
She specializes in pediatrics.
nationwide /ˌneɪʃnˈwaɪd/
adj. 全国性的，全国范围的
e.g.
a nationwide chain of stores
smoke alarm
烟雾警报
high-pitched /ˌhaɪ ˈpɪtʃt/
adj. 声调高的，尖声的
e.g.
low-pitched
I just heard a high-pitched whistle.
feature/ˈfiːtʃər/
v. 以……为特色，以……为特征（feature n.）
e.g.
The movie features Tom Hiddleston.
vocal/ˈvoʊkl/
adj. 声音的，使用嗓音的
e.g.
a piece of vocal music
shake off
摆脱，脱离某种状态
e.g.
I hope I can shake off this cold before the weekend.
in the case of …
在……的情况下
chief/tʃiːf/
n. 长官，首领
e.g.
police / army chief