第1自然段

Children in developing countries are healthier and more likely to survive past the age of five when their mothers can read and write. Experts in public health accepted this idea decades ago, but until now no one has been able to show that a woman’s ability to read in itself improves her children’s chances of survival.

第1自然段：发展中国家的孩子们在母亲具备阅读和写作能力时更健康，更有可能超过五岁生存。公共卫生专家们几十年前就接受了这个观点，但直到现在还没有人能够证明妇女的阅读能力本身会提高她们孩子的生存机会。

第2自然段

Most literate women learnt to read in primary school, and the fact that a woman has had an education may simply indicate her family’s wealth or that it values its children more highly. Now a long-term study carried out in Nicaragua has eliminated these factors by showing that teaching reading to poor adult women, who would otherwise have remained illiterate, has a direct effect on their children’s health and survival.

第2自然段：大多数有文化的妇女在小学学会读书，而一个妇女接受教育可能仅仅说明她家庭富裕或者她家庭更重视孩子。如今，在尼加拉瓜进行的一项长期研究通过显示将读书教给贫困的成年妇女（否则他们将一直是文盲）对于她们孩子的健康和生存有直接影响，消除了这些因素的影响。

第3自然段

In 1979, the government of Nicaragua established a number of social programmes, including a National Literacy Crusade. By 1985, about 300,000 illiterate adults from all over the country, many of whom had never attended primary school, had learnt how to read, write and use numbers.

第3自然段：1979年，尼加拉瓜政府建立了一系列社会计划，包括全国扫盲运动。到1985年，全国各地约有30万文盲成年人，其中许多人从未上过小学，已经学会了阅读、写作和使用数字。

第4自然段

During this period, researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the Central American Institute of Health in Nicaragua, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and the Costa Rican Institute of Health interviewed nearly 3,000 women, some of whom had learnt to read as children, some during the literacy crusade and some who had never learnt at all. The women were asked how many children they had given birth to and how many of them had died in infancy. The research teams also examined the surviving children to find out how well-nourished they were.

第4自然段：在此期间，来自利物浦热带医学学院、尼加拉瓜中美洲卫生研究所、尼加拉瓜国立自治大学和哥斯达黎加卫生研究所的研究人员采访了近3000名妇女，其中一些是小时候学会读书的，一些是在扫盲运动期间学会的，还有一些是从未学过的。这些妇女被问及她们生了多少个孩子，其中多少个孩子在婴儿时期死亡。研究小组还检查了存活下来的孩子，以了解他们的营养状况。

第5自然段

The investigators’ findings were striking. In the late 1970s, the infant mortality rate for the children of illiterate mothers was around 110 deaths per thousand live births. At this point in their lives, those mothers who later went on to learn to read had a similar level of child mortality (105/1000). For women educated in primary school, however, the infant mortality rate was significantly lower, at 80 per thousand.

第5自然段：研究人员的发现令人震惊。在20世纪70年代末，文盲母亲的婴儿死亡率约为每千个活产110个死亡。在此阶段，后来学会读书的母亲的婴儿死亡率相似（每千个活产105个）。然而，接受过小学教育的妇女的婴儿死亡率明显较低，每千个活产为80个。

第6自然段

In 1985, after the National Literacy Crusade had ended, the infant mortality figures for those who remained illiterate and for those educated in primary school remained more or less unchanged. For those women who learnt to read through the campaign, the infant mortality rate was 84 per thousand, an impressive 21 points lower than for those women who were still illiterate. The children of the newly-literate mothers were also better nourished than those of women who could not read.

第6自然段：1985年，在全国扫盲运动结束后，仍然文盲的妇女和接受过小学教育的妇女的婴儿死亡率基本保持不变。对于通过扫盲运动学会读书的妇女，婴儿死亡率为每千个活产84个，比仍然文盲的妇女低21个百分点。新读书的母亲的孩子也比不能读书的妇女的孩子更营养。

第7自然段

Why are the children of literate mothers better off? According to Peter Sandiford of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, no one knows for certain. Child health was not on the curriculum during the women’s lessons, so he and his colleagues are looking at other factors. They are working with the same group of 3,000 women, to try to find out whether reading mothers make better use of hospitals and clinics, opt for smaller families, exert more control at home, learn modern childcare techniques more quickly, or whether they merely have more respect for themselves and their children.

第7自然段：为什么有文化的母亲的孩子更好呢？根据利物浦热带医学学院的彼得·桑迪福德（Peter Sandiford）的说法，没有人确切知道。在妇女的课程中没有涉及儿童健康问题，因此他和他的同事正在研究其他因素。他们正在与同一组3000名妇女合作，试图找出阅读的母亲是否更好地利用医院和诊所、选择较小的家庭、在家庭中更有控制力、更快地学习现代育儿技巧，或者她们只是更尊重自己和孩子。

第8自然段

The Nicaraguan study may have important implications for governments and aid agencies that need to know where to direct their resources. Sandiford says that there is increasing evidence that female education, at any age, is ‘an important health intervention in its own right’. The results of the study lend support to the World Bank’s recommendation that education budgets in developing countries should be increased, not just to help their economies, but also to improve child health.

第8自然段：尼加拉瓜的研究可能对需要确定资源分配方向的政府和援助机构具有重要意义。桑迪福德表示，越来越多的证据表明女性教育在任何年龄都是“一项重要的健康干预措施”。研究结果支持世界银行建议发展中国家增加教育预算，不仅帮助其经济，也改善儿童健康。

第9自然段

‘We’ve known for a long time that maternal education is important,’ says John Cleland of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. ‘But we thought that even if we started educating girls today, we’d have to wait a generation for the pay-off. The Nicaraguan study suggests we may be able to bypass that.’

第9自然段：伦敦卫生与热带医学学院的约翰·克利兰（John Cleland）表示：“很久以来，我们就知道母亲的教育很重要。但我们曾认为，即使我们从今天开始教育女孩，我们也需要等待一代人才能看到回报。尼加拉瓜的研究表明我们可能可以绕过这个问题。”

第10自然段

Cleland warns that the Nicaraguan crusade was special in many ways, and similar campaigns elsewhere might not work as well. It is notoriously difficult to teach adults skills that do not have an immediate impact on their everyday lives, and many literacy campaigns in other countries have been much less successful. ‘The crusade was part of a larger effort to bring a better life to the people,’ says Cleland. Replicating these conditions in other countries will be a major challenge for development workers.