VOA常速英语2016--感应线圈助力清晰听力

感应线圈助力清晰听力

When psychology 1 professor David Myers went on vacation to Scotland, he was thrilled to visit 800-year-old Iona Abbey. But once the service began, he was lost. As the sound reverberated 2 around those ancient stone walls, it was indecipherable by the time it got to my ears. Then his wife noticed a hearing assistance sign on the wall with a ‘T' on it. The ‘T' stands for telecoil. Myers was wearing hearing aids which contain the inexpensive little magnetic sensor 3. He pressed a button on each hearing aid to activate 4 the feature. And what happened was just amazing. Suddenly crystal clear sound was coming from the center of my head as if the person were three feet in front of my face. The abbey had installed a wire - called a hearing loop or induction 5 loop - which transmits sound via a magnetic signal to the telecoil in a hearing aid or cochlear implant 6. Once it's switched on, the telecoil acts as a personal wireless 7 loudspeaker for the listener. Many new hearing aid models use the technology. These are regular church service sound to a hearing aid wearer. Now here’s the sound again transmitted by a hearing loop. Hearing loops are common throughout Western Europe, especially Britain and Scandinavia, where they provide clearer sound in theaters, churches and at ticket windows. Loops have also been installed at the Brisbane Australia airport, and in Hong Kong's Disneyland. Since he got from Scotland in 1999, Myers has been on a mission to introduce loops across the United States. The area where he lives in Michigan now has hundreds - from senior centers to the Grand Rapids airport. Other states, including Arizona, Wisconsin and Florida, have also installed hearing loops at public spaces in their communities. But hearing assistance systems in this country more commonly use infrared 8 or FM signals to transmit sound. Myers says the problem with that technology is it requires people with hearing loss to do the work. To get up, locate, check out, wear and return special equipment. That equipment is usually either a headset or a neck loop. Janice Schacter says many people with imperfect hearing are reluctant to go through the hassle of putting one on. Schacter in New York city called the hearing program.People with hearing loss actually want dignity. They don't want a big neon sign saying, ‘I have a hearing loss.' Schacter's daughter, now 17, who has severe hearing loss, family outings became a trial. We would go to a Broadway show, and she couldn't hear the sound. Sometimes the sound director would think the music was loud enough and they therefore didn't need to mic the music into the headset. Sometimes the headsets were broken. Schacter's organization has helped get hearing loops installed at New York venues 9 like the Natural History Museum, a branch of the Apple store and most of the information booths in the notoriously noisy subway system. Arielle Schacter says the hearing loop funnels 10 the transit 11 worker's voice right into her ear and blocks out the subway noise behind her. I would have a much more difficult time, I would rely less on hearing and more on lip reading and doing that. And I mean that's not perfect. Her mother is continuing her push to loop New York City - and other places too. Janice Schacter says a charitable foundation in Greece is building an opera house and library in Athens that will have hearing loops. And she's talking to several museums in South Africa about installing loops there.

当心理学家大卫教授来苏格兰度假见证到已有800年历史的爱欧娜修道院时，他十分激动。但当修道院仪式开始时，他突然有些不知所措。声音在修道院古老的石壁上清澈地回响，然而传到我耳朵里时却是不清晰的。然后他妻子注意到墙上有一个T型的助听标识。T代表的是助听器。大卫所戴的助听器里面有成本低廉的小型磁传感器。他按下按钮启动这个磁传感器。所发生的一切都让人震惊。突然之间，脑袋中就回响起清晰可辨的声音，就好像说话人就站在我面前一样。修道院正是安装了一种助听线圈（也叫电磁感应线圈），这种线圈能够通过磁信号将声音传播给助听器或人工耳蜗。线圈开启时，助听器就像无线扩声器一样。如今很多新型助听器都应用到这种技术。下面您将听到通常情况下修道院里带上助听器的人听到的声音。接下来是带上助听线圈后听到的声音。助听线圈在整个西欧使用广泛，尤其是英国和斯堪的纳维亚，因为那里的剧院、教堂和售票窗口处都提供带有助听线圈的听力设备。澳大利亚布里斯班机场和香港的迪士尼乐园也都有这样的助听线圈安装。自大卫1999年从苏格兰回国以来，一直致力于在美国普及这种助听线圈。如今，大卫所住的密歇根已经有很多这种助听线圈，从老年公寓到大急流城机场遍地开花。其他州，比如亚利桑那州、威斯康星州、福罗里达州州，也在公共区域安装助听线圈。但美国的助听系统更广泛使用的还是红外信号和调频信号来传播声音。大卫说，这种技术的问题在于，它要求有听力障碍的人来做这项工作。让他们自己动手、定位、检查、佩戴并归还特殊设备。设备通常指的是耳机或者颈圈。贾妮斯称，这种听力设备的不足之处在于，很多有听力障碍的人并不愿意带上这种设备。贾妮斯是这样评价这种助听模式的。有听力障碍的人实际上挽尊心也很强。他们不希望举着超大的霓虹灯标识，上面写着，“我有听力障碍”。

贾妮斯的女儿今年17岁，有严重的听力障碍，所以家庭集体出行对她的女儿来说就成了一种折磨。我们可能会去百老汇看演出，但是她却听不到声音。有时候音响指导老师可能觉得声音已经很大了，所以也就不会去特意调试助听耳机里的声音。但有时候助听耳机是坏的。贾妮斯所在的机构已经助力将助听线圈安置在纽约的多种场所，比如自然历史博物馆、Apple分店、吵闹的地铁系统周围的游客讯息服务台。阿丽尔称，助听线圈将工作人员的声音过滤到耳朵里，隔绝掉了地铁里的各种噪音。遇到助听线圈不太行得通的时候，我就不会依赖听力，而是通过读唇形。不过效果并不理想。贾妮斯依然在尽力将助听线圈普及到纽约的大街小巷和更多其它地方。贾妮斯说，希腊的某家慈善机构正在雅典建造带有助听线圈的歌剧院和图书馆。而贾妮斯本人也在南非与多家博物馆协商安装助听线圈的事宜。