一半的孩子戴眼镜
Why do so many Chinese children wear glasses?
Name: ________________ Date: ________
走进一间中国的中学教室，你会发现，很多学生都戴着眼镜。这不只是你的感觉。根据国家卫生健康委员会的数据，二零二零年，中国儿童和青少年的近视率超过了百分之五十二，也就是说，一半以上的孩子看远处都不清楚。年级越高，近视的人越多，高中生里大部分都近视。
为什么会这样？很多人首先想到的是学习：作业多，看书的时间长，书离眼睛又太近。后来，手机和平板电脑也加入了进来。
不过，科学家发现，还有一个重要的原因常常被忽视：孩子们在户外的时间太少了。在广州，有研究人员做过一个实验：让一些学校的学生每天在户外多活动四十分钟。三年以后，比起别的学校，这些学生中新出现的近视明显更少。
原因可能和阳光有关。户外的光远远比教室里的光强，对眼睛的发育有好处，而且在外面，眼睛会更多地看远处。
所以，现在很多学校开始让学生课间去操场上活动，国家也要求减少作业，保证学生每天有两个小时的运动时间。医生最常给家长的建议，听起来很简单：多让孩子出去玩。
你小时候，每天在外面玩多长时间？
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 根据 | gēnjù | according to; based on; basis; foundation |
| 以上 | yǐshàng | the above; the foregoing |
| 年级 | niánjí | grade; year (in school) |
| 作业 | zuòyè | work; operation |
| 又 | yòu | again (it already happened again); and also |
| 后来 | hòulái | afterwards; later |
| 重要 | zhòngyào | important |
| 常常 | chángcháng | often; frequently |
| 以后 | yǐhòu | later; afterwards; in the future |
| 别的 | biéde | other; else |
| 中 | zhōng | China; Chinese (short form) |
| 戴 | dài | to wear (a hat, glasses, jewelry, etc.) |
English (for the teacher)
Walk into a Chinese secondary school classroom and you’ll find that lots of the students wear glasses. It isn’t just your impression. According to the National Health Commission, in 2020 the myopia rate among Chinese children and teenagers was over 52 per cent: more than half of them can’t see far-away things clearly. The higher the year, the more short-sighted students there are, and most senior high school students are short-sighted.
Why is this? The first thing many people think of is study: lots of homework, long hours of reading, and books held too close to the eyes. Later, phones and tablets joined in too.
But scientists have found another important cause that is often overlooked: children spend too little time outdoors. In Guangzhou, researchers ran an experiment, giving students at some schools forty extra minutes of outdoor activity every day. Three years later, compared with other schools, those students had clearly fewer new cases of short sight.
The reason may be sunlight. Outdoor light is much stronger than classroom light, which is good for how eyes develop, and outside, the eyes look into the distance more.
So now many schools have students go out and move about on the playground between lessons, and the state has asked for less homework and two hours of exercise a day for every student. The advice doctors give parents most often sounds very simple: let your children go out and play more.
When you were little, how long did you play outside every day?