Name: 聽力損失的原因是什麼？⏲️ 6分鐘英語 (What causes hearing loss? ⏲️ 6 Minute English)
Uploaded: 2026-01-24T17:17:26.000Z
Duration: 6 min 14 s

Six Minute English from BBCLearningEnglish.com hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English.

BBCLearningEnglish.com 的 Six Minute English，大家好，這裡是 BBC Learning English 的 Six Minute English。

As we get older, many of us notice our sense of hearing getting worse.

隨著年齡增長，我們很多人會發現聽力越來越差。

Maybe we need to concentrate harder or ask people to speak more loudly.

也許我們需要更專心聽，或者請別人說大聲一點。

Thought maybe my ears were getting worse, but I had a checkup and everything was fine, thankfully.

覺得我的耳朵可能變差了，但幸好我去檢查了一下，一切都很好。

In the UK alone, hearing loss affects 18 million people and that number is increasing.

在英國，光是聽力損失就影響了1800萬人，而且這個數字還在增加。

In this program, we'll discover why we lose hearing with age and, as usual, learn some useful new vocabulary.

在這個節目裡，我們會一起了解為什麼我們會隨著年齡增長而聽力變差，而且一如往常，學習一些實用的新詞彙。

And you can also find a transcript of this episode on our website, bbclearningenglish.com but now listen up, Georgie, because I have a question for you.

你也可以在我們的網站 bbclearningenglish.com 上找到這集的逐字稿，不過現在，Georgie，請仔細聽，因為我有一個問題要問你。

Did you know that the three smallest bones in the human body, the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup, are all located in the ear?

你知道嗎？人體最小的三塊骨頭，錘骨、砧骨和鐙骨，都位於耳朵裡？

Is it A, the hammer, B, the anvil, or C, the stirrup bone?

是 A，錘骨，B，砧骨，還是 C，鐙骨呢？

Ok, well, we'll find out the answer later on.

To understand why our hearing gets worse with age, it's useful to know a little about how the ear works in the first place.

想要了解為什麼我們的聽力會隨著年齡增長而變差，最好先稍微瞭解一下耳朵是怎麼運作的。

這是倫敦皇家國家耳鼻喉醫院的耳鼻喉科醫生 Mr. Nish Mehta，他在 BBC Radio 4 的節目 Inside Health 中為初學者上課。

Nish Mehta, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Royal National ENT Hospital in London, giving a beginner's class to BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Health.

而耳朵確實是聽覺的感官器官。

So the ear is split up into three main parts.

It's the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear.

外耳是你看得到的部分，就在你的頭的兩側。

The outer ear is the bit that you see, it's on the side of your head.

你可以把它想像成衛星接收器。

It collects the sounds and it funnels them in towards the sense organ that then gets transmitted to the middle ear.

它會收集聲音，並將聲音導引到感官器官，然後傳送到中耳。

The middle ear's main job is to amplify those sounds.

That's done by having an eardrum which catches it and then vibrates sympathetically to the vibration of the noise that you heard.

這是透過鼓膜來完成的，鼓膜會接收聲音，然後隨著你聽到的噪音振動而同步振動。

And then that's passed on to the three smallest bones in the body the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup.

然後再傳遞給身體裡最小的三塊骨頭：錘骨、砧骨和鐙骨。

The ear is made up of outer, middle and inner parts.

耳是由外耳、中耳和內耳組成的。

So specific parts of the body, your ears, eyes, tongue, nose and skin, which allow you to experience the outside world.

所以身體的特定部位，像是耳朵、眼睛、舌頭、鼻子和皮膚，讓我們能體驗外面的世界。

The visible part, the outer Ear or pinna, acts like a satellite dish collecting sounds which it funnels into the middle ear.

可見部分，也就是外耳或耳廓，就像衛星接收器一樣收集聲音，並將聲音導引到中耳。

The verb funnel means to move or direct something through a narrow space.

動詞「導引」的意思是透過狹窄的空間移動或引導某物。

Once in the middle ear, the eardrum amplifies the sounds before transmitting them to tiny hairs in the inner ear, which then sends electrical signals to the brain.

進入中耳後，鼓膜會放大聲音，然後傳遞到內耳的微小毛髮，接著將電訊號傳送到大腦。

It's an incredible system, but unfortunately one that can go wrong at any stage.

這是個很棒的系統，但很可惜，任何階段都可能出問題。

Here, James Gallagher, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Inside Health, asks Nish Mehta when problems tend to start.

在這裡，BBC Radio 4《Inside Health》節目的主持人 James Gallagher 詢問 Nish Mehta 問題通常在什麼時候開始。

We're going to spend a lot of today, Nish, thinking about age related hearing loss.

Nish，我們今天大部分時間都要來討論跟年齡有關的聽力損失。

Wear and tear of your hearing starts from around the age of eight.

聽力磨損大約從八歲就開始了。

We're already on a downward spiral, but we've got a lot of redundancy on the system.

我們已經在走下坡了，但系統有很多備援。

And the speed at which our hearing declines is partly based on the genetics that you're born with, and

而我們聽力衰退的速度，一部分取決於你天生的基因，

then partly based on the environment that you're exposed to.

另一部分則取決於你接觸的環境。

So someone who has really strong genetics to protect them from hearing, but

所以，如果有人天生基因很強，能保護聽力，但

spends their life on a pneumatic drill may have a much faster decline than someone the other side.

一輩子都在操作氣動鑽，聽力衰退的速度，可能比在另一邊的人快很多。

You can imagine that your brain is doing so much computation behind the scenes just to listen to someone speaking and understand the words that are saying.

你可以想像，光是聽別人說話、理解他們講的詞彙，你的大腦就在幕後做了多少運算。

So whilst hearing is going, the brain tends to increase its listening effort, and

所以，當聽力開始衰退時，大腦會試圖增加聽力上的努力，

so often it's a very slow process for you to realise that you're struggling with hearing.

所以你常常需要很長一段時間，才會意識到自己在聽力上遇到困難。

Wear and tear of our hearing starts as young as eight.

我們的聽力磨損，最早可以從八歲就開始。

Wear and tear means the damage that comes from ordinary everyday use.

磨損的意思是，來自於日常一般使用的損害。

When Nish says this, James exclaims, we're doomed.

當 Nish 說出這句話時，James 驚呼，我們完蛋了。

An informal way of saying we're destined to fail.

這是一種非正式的說法，意思是我們註定要失敗。

From the age of eight, our hearing is on a downward spiral, a situation which gets worse and worse.

從八歲開始，我們的聽力就走下坡，情況只會越來越糟。

Human hearing has evolved with redundancy in the system.

人類的聽力演化出了系統中的冗餘機制。

A technical phrase meaning that there are many ways to achieve the same outcome so that a backup system can take over if other systems fail.

這是一個技術術語，意思是達成相同結果有很多方法，這樣一來，如果其他系統故障，備用系統就能接管。

Here, for example, the brain works harder to compensate for a weaker sound signal reaching the inner ear.

在這裡，例如，大腦會更努力地工作，以補償傳入內耳的較弱聲音訊號。

And there are other ways hearing loss can be helped as well, including hearing aids, surgery or even just removing extra earwax.

聽力損失還有其他方法可以改善，包括助聽器、手術，甚至只是清除多餘的耳垢。

After that fascinating journey into the world of hearing, I think it's time to reveal the answer to your question, Neil.

經過這趟進入聽力世界的精彩旅程後，我想是時候揭曉你的問題答案了，Neil。

I asked you which is the smallest bone in the body and they are all in the ear.

我問你，身體裡最小的骨頭是什麼，而它們都在耳朵裡。

是 A，錘骨，B，砧骨，還是 C，鐙骨？

You did, but I'm afraid you obviously weren't listening in biology class because you are wrong.

你是說了，但我恐怕你顯然沒有認真聽生物課，因為你說錯了。

Okay, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with sense organs, specific parts of the body like your ears and eyes, which allow you to experience the world.

好的，我們來複習一下學到的詞彙，從感官器官開始，像是你的耳朵和眼睛這些身體的特定部位，它們讓你體驗這個世界。

To funnel means to move or direct something through a narrow space and a funnel.

funnel 的意思是透過一個狹窄的空間和一個漏斗來移動或引導某樣東西。

The noun is a cone shaped tool which does this.

名詞是指一個錐形的工具，用來做這件事。

Wear and tear refers to the damage that comes from using something every day.

wear and tear 指的是日常使用所造成的損壞。

If you say we're doomed, you mean we're going to be defeated or fail.

如果你說 we're doomed，意思就是我們會失敗或完蛋。

And a downward spiral is a situation which continuously gets worse and worse.

而 downward spiral 是一種情況，會持續變得越來越糟。

And finally, redundancy in the system refers to having more than one way to achieve an objective so that a backup can take over if other methods fail.

最後，系統中的 redundancy 指的是有多種方法可以達成目標，這樣在其他方法失敗時，備份就可以接手。

You'll be sad to hear that once again, our six minutes are up, but

很遺憾要告訴你，我們又到了六分鐘的時間，但是

why not head over to our website, bbclearningenglish.com to try the quiz and worksheet for this episode.

為什麼不直接到我們的網站 bbclearningenglish.com，來試試這個單元的測驗和練習呢。

6 Minute English from BBCLearningEnglish.com.

BBCLearningEnglish.com 的六分鐘英語。