If you want to boost your child’s results at school, you could do a lot worse than ensuring that they do plenty of exercise. Scientists have already shown that physical activity can make you brainier. But a team in America has used scans to show that an important part of the brain actually grows in children who are fit. These youngsters tend to be more intelligent and have better memories than those who are inactive。

　　如果您想让您家的孩子在学校的表现更加优异一些，那么就让他们锻炼身体吧，研究表明，身材苗条、匀称的孩子的脑子”更聪明“。这个可不是纸上谈兵，医学扫描已经显示出身材匀称孩子的一部分大脑发育比过胖的儿童要快，而这部分身材匀称的孩子恰恰是在学校成绩好、各方面表现优异的学生。

　　Scientists also found that one of the most important parts of their brains was 12 per cent larger than those of unfit youngsters. They believe that encouraging children to take exercise from a very young age could help them do better at school later. Researchers from the University of Illinois, in the U.S., studied the brains of 49 children aged nine and ten using a magnetic resonance imaging scan, a technique which provides very detailed pictures of organs and tissues in the body。

　　实验证明，聪明孩子的大脑中重要部分的体积要比身材过胖、或者不健康的孩子大12%。研究者相信，趁孩子年幼的时候多多鼓励他们运动可以帮助他们后天在学校的生活中发展更好。美国一所大学运用”磁共振“来进行实验，实验对象为49名9---10岁的儿童，这种技术可以精确的显示出人体器官以及各个组织的具体情况。

　　They also tested the fitness levels of the children by making them run on a treadmill. The scientists found that the hippocampus, a part of the brain responsible for memory and learning, was around 12 per cent larger in the fitter youngsters。

　　我们了解到，大脑海马区(hippocampus)是帮助人类处理长期学习与记忆声光、味觉等事件的大脑区域，发挥所谓的“叙述性记忆(declarative memory)”功能。实验中，研究人员运用跑步机来测试孩子们的体力以及耐力，用”磁共振“将体力好的孩子的脑部与体力不好的孩子的脑部做了对比。结果显示，体力好的孩子中的”大脑海马区“部分比体力不好的孩子的部分要大12%。

　　Professor Art Kramer, who led the study published in the journal Brain Research, said the findings had important implications for encouraging individuals to take part in sport from a young age. ‘We knew that experience and environmental factors and socioeconomic status all impact brain development,’ he said.‘If you get some lousy genes from your parents, you can’t really fix that, and it’s not easy to do something about your economic status. But here’s something that we can do something about。

　　倡导做实验的教授说，研究的结果证实了让孩子在年幼的时候加强锻炼身体的重要性。我们知道”经验“”环境“以及社会因素都会对大脑的发展产生影响。如果不幸遗传到了父母不大优良的基因，或者经济条件又不是那么优越的情况下，我们更应该鼓励孩子多运动，从后天锻炼自己的身体上来寻求进步。

　　Vocabulary

　　lousy adj. 讨厌的；污秽的；极坏的

　　hippocampus n. 海马；海马体；位于左右脑之间，它虽然很小，但却是收发信息的门户站。它将信息转化为记忆，发送、储存到大脑不同部位。