一、背景速览

里根、查尔顿·赫斯顿、托尼·班尼特、丹尼·格洛弗在世时就公开了自己得了痴呆症；撒切尔夫人、诺曼·洛克威尔、肖恩·康纳利一直没说，直到去世后家属才公布。写这篇的是 Cedars-Sinai 医学中心的记忆障碍专家 Zaldy S. Tan，他没有劝人公开，只提醒一句：保密是有代价的，而这笔代价常常由患者自己付。

二、英文节选

Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, Tony Bennett, and Danny Glover have something in common. So do Margaret Thatcher, Norman Rockwell, and Sean Connery.

All had been afflicted with Alzheimer's or dementia—the progressive neurologic disease characterized by memory and functional loss—but with an important difference. The first group chose to make a public announcement of their diagnosis during their life, and the second chose to keep their dementia diagnosis private, their condition revealed by their survivors only after their death.

Maintaining the confidentiality of one's health information is a fundamental right, but when a public figure receives a life-limiting diagnosis, does disclosure matter? Some choose to do so as a form of farewell to their supporters and fans, others to raise public awareness of the illness that has afflicted them.

三、中文译文

里根、查尔顿·赫斯顿、托尼·班尼特、丹尼·格洛弗有一个共同点。玛格丽特·撒切尔、诺曼·洛克威尔、肖恩·康纳利也是。

他们都患有阿尔茨海默病或其他形式的痴呆症，也就是一种以记忆丧失和功能退化著称的进行性神经疾病，不过两群人之间有个重要差别。前一组在生前就选择公开自己的诊断，后一组选择把痴呆症诊断藏起来，直到去世之后由家属对外披露。

为个人健康信息保密是一项基本权利，可当一位公众人物拿到一份限制寿命的诊断书时，说不说出去会有区别吗？有人公开，是把它当作对支持者和影迷的告别；也有人公开，是为了让更多人了解折磨自己的这种病。

四、高频词短语

【dementia】　/dɪˈmenʃə/　n. 痴呆症

Her grandmother was diagnosed with dementia last year.

她祖母去年确诊了痴呆症。

【afflict】　/əˈflɪkt/　v. 使受折磨（多用被动）

The disease afflicts millions of older adults worldwide.

这种病折磨着全球数以百万计的老年人。

【disclosure】　/dɪsˈkləʊʒə/　n. 公开，披露

He put off the disclosure of his illness for two years.

他把病情瞒了两年才公开。

【stigma】　/ˈstɪɡmə/　n. 污名，羞耻感

The stigma around mental illness is fading slowly.

围绕心理疾病的污名正在慢慢消退。

【fend for oneself】　v. 独自应付，自己照顾自己

After his wife died, he had to fend for himself.

妻子走后，他只能自己照顾自己。

五、长难句速拆

原句：So pervasive is the secrecy surrounding a dementia diagnosis that I now ask every family caregiver of my patient a telling question: If you became unavailable, who would take care of your loved one?

这句把语序倒过来了。正常说法是 The secrecy surrounding a dementia diagnosis is so pervasive that...，作者把 so pervasive 提到句首，be 动词跟着跑到主语前面，就成了 So pervasive is the secrecy。这么一倒，先把「太普遍了」砸给读者，再说普遍的是什么。that 后面是结果：我如今要问每位家属一个能说明问题的问题。这里 ask 带了双宾语，ask sb a question，偏偏两个宾语都很长，every family caregiver of my patient 和 a telling question，中间隔开容易看串。冒号后面是问题的原话，给 telling question 作解释，别当成另起一句；telling 在这儿不是「告诉」，是「说明问题的、能看出门道的」。

六、考场应用

文中 While I understand and respect people's desires for privacy, the potential upside of destigmatizing dementia are significant. 是全文的转折定位句。While 在这里表让步，是「虽然」，不是「当……时」；前半句先认下对方，后半句才是作者的主张。作者态度题的答案基本落在这一句上：他不反对保密，只是认为过度保密的损失更大。把「作者反对患者隐瞒病情」做成干扰项，是出题人在这类文章里最常用的手法。

第一段的句式可以直接搬进作文：先 Maintaining the confidentiality of one's health information is a fundamental right 认下对方的合理处，再接 but when..., does disclosure matter? 用问句把话题往前推。写隐私与公共知情这类题，这样开头既不站高台也不含糊。示范一句：Keeping one's health information private is a basic right, but when does silence start to hurt the person it protects?

雅思 Task 2 写老龄化、医疗投入类题目，本文的数字能直接用：全球 5700 万痴呆患者，每年新增近 1000 万，2050 年预计 1.52 亿，美国 740 万 65 岁以上人群。引用时留意原文写的是 an estimated 152 million，转述要把 estimated 这个限定带上。

再看一句：It took a brain autopsy for Robin Williams to get diagnosed with Lewy body disease, a form of dementia that produces visual hallucinations, sleep disturbance, and tremors. 

这句的主语是个空壳 it，真正的主语藏在后面。这句你打算怎么翻？

七、来源

来源：TIME（Zaldy S. Tan）｜ 2026 年 9 月 12 日

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