研究表明：酒后外语更流利？
一项新的研究发现：一杯酒下肚，饮酒者的外语技能会有所提升。因为酒精让精神的放松程度超过了其对我们大脑的负面影响——至少喝完第一杯酒以后是这样的。
Take a quick tipple and you could find yourself speaking a second tongue more naturally, according to new research. The foreign language skills of participants in the study were found to be improved after a drink of alcohol, which suggests the way booze can put us at ease outweighs the negative effects on our brain – at least for the first drink, anyway.
研究发现：一杯酒下肚，参与者的外语技能有所提升。这表明酒精让我们放松的程度超过了其对我们大脑的负面影响 —— 至少喝完第一杯酒以后是这样的。
The international team of researchers is warning against reading too much into their experiment, but it could reveal some interesting insights into the anxiety associated with speaking another language, and how alcohol can help us overcome it.
虽然该国际研究者团队一直提醒大家切莫过度解读，但是在关于说外语所产生的焦虑，以及饮酒如何帮助我们克服这种焦虑等方面，这项实验确实能提供不少有趣的见解。
"Our study shows that acute alcohol consumption may have beneficial effects on the pronunciation of a foreign language in people who recently learned that language," says one of the team, Inge Kersbergen from the University of Liverpool in the UK.
英国利物浦大学的 Inge Kersbergen 是该研究团队的成员，他表示：“我们的研究表明，快速摄入酒精可能对初学外语的人在发音上有所帮助。”
The study involved 50 native German speakers studying Dutch at a Dutch university, who had recently learned to speak, read, and write in the new language.
该实验的研究对象包括50名在一所荷兰大学学习荷兰语的母语为德语的人士，他们都是最近才开始学习荷兰语的口语、阅读和写作的。
Based on random selections, participants were either given alcohol or water as a control beverage. The amount of alcohol varied based on body size, but was the equivalent of just under a pint (460 millilitres) of 5 percent beer for a 70 kg (154 lb) male.
在实验中，研究人员随机抽取部分调查对象让其饮酒；其他调查对象则喝水，作为对照组。酒精含量视参与者的体型而定，但在比例上相当于70公斤（154磅）的男性喝掉不到1品脱（460毫升）5度的啤酒。
They then chatted to a researcher for five minutes, before an audio recording was assessed by two native Dutch speakers who weren't told whether alcohol had been consumed or not. The participants were also asked to rate their own Dutch language skills over the course of the chat.
随后，他们与一名研究人员进行五分钟的闲聊，谈话录音交由两位荷兰人评估，评委不清楚录音中的学生是否喝了啤酒。研究人员还要求参与者对聊天过程中自己的荷兰语水平做出评价。
While the alcohol didn't affect how the students rated themselves, those people who had been given the alcoholic drink were given better ratings by the observers, especially for their pronunciation.
虽然酒精没有影响学生的自我评价，但评委却认为，喝过啤酒的实验者的荷兰语更好，尤其是发音更标准。
原文：节选自Science Alert；译文：英语曰曰曰（yue）
新闻的最后，人家说了，实验对象摄入的酒精剂量很低，酒精摄入量增加可能不会对饮酒者的外语发音产生有益影响。
换句话说，如果你饮酒过量，这种作用可能就会消失，因为没人能听懂喝醉后口齿不清地胡言乱语。