When a new Harry Potter book hits the shelves, kids aren't the only people who rejoice1. Apparently doctors do too!
Doctors in England recently reported that when the last two Harry Potter books came out2, the number of kids being treated for injuries in the hospital emergency room plummeted3.
Dr. Stephen Gwilym and his colleagues at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England, conducted the study. They tracked the number of kids aged 7 to 15 who were treated for muscle or skeletal4 injuries in the hospital's emergency room after the latest Harry Potter books came out. They focused on two weekends: after Order of the Phoenix came out in 2003 and after Half-Blood Prince arrived in stores last year.
The researchers compared those findings5 with the number of kids who visited city emergency rooms on surrounding weekends and on the same dates in previous years.
During the non-Harry Potter weekends, an average of 67.4 children visited the emergency room. On Harry Potter weekends, that number dropped to 36.5.
Kids were so entranced6 by the books that they must not have gone outside to play those weekends, Gwilym and his colleagues say. Either that, or Harry Potter cast a spell on7 his young fans. “At no other point during the three-year surveillance8 period was attendance9 that low,” they wrote in their report.
The researchers conjured up10 the idea for the study when one of the authors saw his children sitting immobile11 for hours while reading Harry Potter.
当一本新的《哈利·波特》摆上书架时，兴高采烈的不光是孩子们，医生们显然也很开心！
英国医生最近有报告称，当《哈利·波特》系列的最新两部小说问世时，因伤在医院急诊室就诊的孩子数量直线下降。
开展这项研究的是英格兰牛津郡约翰·拉德克利夫医院的斯蒂芬·格温林医生和他的同事们。他们跟踪统计了在最近两部《哈利·波特》出版之后，因肌肉或骨骼受伤而到医院急诊室就诊的7至15岁孩子的数目。他们聚焦于两个周末：2003年《哈利·波特与凤凰社》出版之后以及去年《哈利·波特与混血王子》登陆书店之后的两个周末。
研究人员把他们得到的数字与邻近几个周末以及前几年同期到急诊室就诊的孩子数量进行了比较。
在无《哈利·波特》出版的周末，平均有67.4个孩子到急诊室就诊，而在有《哈利·波特》出版的周末，这个数字下降到了36.5。
格温林和他的同事们说，孩子们对《哈利·波特》是如此着迷，他们在那些周末一定没有出去玩耍。要么是出于这个原因，要么是哈利·波特给他的小粉丝们发了一道符咒。“在3年的跟踪期间从未有过如此低的就诊率，”他们在报告中写道。
这项研究计划的产生源于其中一个研究者目睹他的孩子们在读《哈利·波特》时，可以纹丝不动地坐上几个小时。
1. rejoice v. 欣喜，高兴
2. come out 出版，发行
3. plummet v. 骤降，爆跌
4. skeletal adj. 骨骼的
5. finding n. 结果，结论
6. entrance v. 使狂喜，使入迷
7. cast a spell on 用符咒迷惑
spell [spel] n. 符咒，咒语
8. surveillance n. 监视，监督
9. attendance n. 出席率
10. conjure up 唤起 conjure v.想象
11. immobile adj. 不动的，静止的