E聊吧第41期:海綿寶寶不該給寶寶看?

（New York Times) New research on children and television has put SpongeBob Squarepants on the hot seat.

一項關於兒童與電視的新研究讓卡通片"海綿寶寶"的作者如坐鍼氈。

Researchers report that 4-year-olds who had just watched the fast-paced fantasy cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants" — which follows the undersea adventures of a yellow sponge — did worse on tests of attention and problem-solving than young children who watched a slower-paced educational program or spent time drawing.

研究者報道說，"海綿寶寶"講述了一個黃色海綿的海底探險故事，剛看完這種快節奏幻想卡通片的4歲兒童在注意力和解決問題能力測試方面要比其他觀看過慢節奏教育片或學畫畫的同齡兒童表現差。

Officials from Nickelodeon, the network that produces "SpongeBob," dismissed the significance of the study, saying in a statement that preschool-age children are not the show’s intended audience. "SpongeBob" is designed for 6- to 11-year-olds, according to the network, which questioned the study’s small sample size of white middle- and upper-middle-class children.

對此，製作"海綿寶寶"的Nickelodeon公司在一份聲明中否認了這項研究的重要結論，並表示本片的目標受衆並不是學齡前兒童。根據該公司網站，"海綿寶寶"是爲6至11歲兒童設計的，而這項研究的受試者的樣本範圍很小，只侷限於中產階級和上層中產階級家庭的白人兒童。

Vocabulary:
undersea adj.海面下的
dismiss v.解散
intend v. 打算