阅读短文,然后根据短文内容回答所提问题。The World Health Organization (世卫组织) says air pollution makes seven million people lose their lives around the world each year. Even if (即使) polluted air does not kill people, it can make them very ill.
However, breathing dirty air does more than hurt people's body. It can also affect (影响) their brain and their ability (能力) to think.
A new study shows that air pollution can cause (引起) a"huge" reduction (降低) in our intel- ligence (智商). The researchers (研究者) reported that long- term exposure (暴露) to air pollution can affect a person's men tal abilities (智力的) in two areas: language (语言) and math. Xi Chen, the researcher of the Yale School of Public Health led the study. He and his team found that breathing pol- luted air can reduce a person's education (教育) level by about one year.
Chen said that the affect usually is worse for those over 64 years of age, for men and for those with little or no education. "The older persons—— they are more affected. And we find, quite interestingly men are more affected than women. And people working outdoors are more affected than people working indoors. "
The researchers found that the influence of pollution on language ability is even more serious (严重) as people age, especially among men and the less educated. Why are a person's language skills more affected than math? There's an important part in our brain: white matter (脑及脊髓的白质).
White matter is more connected (连接) with a person's language skills. Studies have shown that air pollution has a great affect on the white matter in the brain.
Chen said that air pollution did affect the math skills just not as much as their language skills.