英语词汇实用小百科 自闭症autism

Xiaohua: Welcome to Round Tables’ Word of the Week. This week we are talking about autism as this past Wednesday, April the 2nd, was International Autism Awareness¹ Day.

John: That’s right. So generally speaking, autism is a developmental disorder² that usually shows itself around the age of 3 years old. It’s characterized by low social interaction and poor communication.

Xiaohua: 自闭症在中文里面又叫孤独症，它是一种由于神经系统失调导致的发育障碍。这种病症的特征包括不正常的社交能力、沟通能力等等。

John: The Latin word autismus, the English translation is autism, was actually coined by the Swiss psychiatrist³ Eugen Blueler in 1910 as he was defining symptoms of schizophrenia.

Xiaohua: 说到autism这个字的词源，实际上是来自于拉丁语的autismus，而这个词最早是在1910年一位瑞士的精神科医生在定义精神分裂症的时候用到了这个词汇autismus。

John: Yeah, and so, he derived⁴ it from the Greek word autos that meaning is “self” and used it to mean “morbid self-admiration.”

Xiaohua: 在希腊语里面auto是“自己”、“自我”的意思，这位医生把auto定义为病态的自恋，也就是说病人沉浸在自己的幻想世界中。

John. And so the word autism itself first took its modern sense in 1938 when Hans Asperger adopted Blueler’s terminology⁵ “autistic psychopaths” to in a lecture in Germany about child psychology⁶.

Xiaohua: 再晚一些，在1938年维也纳大学医院的一位Hans Asperger医生借用了之前的瑞士医生对autismus的定义。

Yeah, and that’s some of the history of the word. But in terms of autism itself, it seems for a lot of Chinese people all the impression they got is from this film 海洋天堂. And in that film, this autistic adult already has really repetitive behavior and sometimes he’s intolerant to any little change in the outside environment.

John: Autistic people in general are actually very difficult to get along with mostly because they are prone⁷ to explosions, I guess you might say, where something is not exactly how it should be or not exactly how they are used to and also you couple that with an inability for their brain to filter sensory⁸ input⁹. So, for autistic people, especially more severe cases, you do see a lot of unwillingness¹⁰ to communicate in some ways, but also a tendency towards blow-ups or just losing control emotionally.

Xiaohua: 由于自闭症患者在分析外界信息方面具有一定的困难，所以经常会表现为重复某一种刻板的行为。而且当外部的环境突然改变了，他们可能会无法理解，由此发生情绪失控的情况。

John: Right. It’s important also to mention that autism, it exists on a spectrum¹¹. Actually the way it’s referred to now is “autism spectrum disorder.” What you have, you have very extreme cases on the one end and then very light cases on the other end. Just because someone is diagnosed with Asperger’s or autism doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to be impossible to help or impossible to get along with, really you have to look at case by case.

Xiaohua: 自闭症是一种谱系障碍，意思就是说它是一大类很多种发育障碍的统称。有些患者经过治疗是可以比较好的融入社会的。

And that wraps up Round Table’s Word of the Week.

1 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

2 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

3 psychiatrist   

n.精神病专家；精神病医师

参考例句：

• He went to a psychiatrist about his compulsive gambling.他去看精神科医生治疗不能自拔的赌瘾。
• The psychiatrist corrected him gently.精神病医师彬彬有礼地纠正他。

4 derived   

vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 terminology   

n.术语；专有名词

参考例句：

• He particularly criticized the terminology in the document.他特别批评了文件中使用的术语。
• The article uses rather specialized musical terminology.这篇文章用了相当专业的音乐术语。

6 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

7 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

8 sensory   

adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的

参考例句：

• Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
• The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。

9 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

10 unwillingness   

n. 不愿意，不情愿

参考例句：

• Her unwillingness to answer questions undermined the strength of her position. 她不愿回答问题，这不利于她所处的形势。
• His apparent unwillingness would disappear if we paid him enough. 如果我们付足了钱，他露出的那副不乐意的神情就会消失。

11 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。