还记得小学时班上那个说话结巴的孩子吗?
Well, he was in good company–a whopping threemillion people in the United States alone areaffected by this problem.
其实，他的同伴可不少--光是在美国，就有多达三百万的人有这个毛病。
It isn't life threatening, but it certainly can be lifehampering, as anyone who has a stutter can tellyou.
当然，结巴并不会危及生命，但是，相信任何一个结巴的人都会告诉你：
There's something very interesting about stuttering, though, which you might not expect: itcan be effected by what you hear.
它确实会给生活带来不少麻烦。然而，关于结巴，还有个有趣的现象是出乎你意料的：结巴跟你的耳朵关系密切。
For a long time stutterers have understood that talking along in a group, such as when yourecite the pledge of allegiance, can make the problem diminish.
实际上，结巴会受所听内容的影响。一些结巴患者经过长期实践发现，如果连续地说上一段话结巴现象就会缓和不少，比如说在不停地背诵效忠誓言。
With the age of electronics, it was found that hearing your own voice played back to you almostas soon as you speak helps a stutter as well.
人们发现，如果在说话时能够几乎同步地听到自己所说的内容会有助于减缓口吃。
That's called the “Delayed Auditory Feedback” effect.
这就是所谓的“延时听觉反馈”效应。
Altering the pitch of the playback gives an extra boost to the effect as well; that's called“Frequency Altered Feedback.”
并且，改变所听内容的音调会加强这一效应，这就是“移频听觉反馈”。
Now, researchers at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina have created a smalldevice that combines both these effects in a portable earpiece.
目前，位于美国北卡罗来纳州格林维尔市东卡罗莱纳大学的研究者们已经研发出一种便携式耳机，这种耳机将上文所说的两种效应结合在了一起。
The device fits inside your ear, picks up the sound of you speaking, alters the pitch a little,and plays it back to you.
你只需将耳机放入耳朵，它便会收集你的话语并适当地改变音调，最后在回放给你听。
The first tests lookpromising: many of the volunteers who had a stutter found that theirproblem was helped by wearing such an electronic earpiece.
第一批测试看起来效果不错：很多参与实验的口吃志愿者都发现，佩戴上这种电子耳机后，口吃情况有所好转。
Scientists who study stuttering sound a more cautious note: such effects, while real, haveshown a tendency to be short-term.
然而，研究口吃的科学家们给出了一个更为谨慎的结论：这些效果固然真实，但持续时间不够长久。
Still, even if it isn't a “fix,” tiny microelectronic devices like this may indeed be a help-and wemay be seeing more and more of them in the future.
但是，即便这一效果不长，像这样的微电子设备确实对口吃有所帮助--相信在以后会有越来越多这样的产品出现。
