Live music and MP3 players can ruin your hearing unless you take steps now to preserve it.
Wear earplugs1: Coldplay and Dave Matthews Band wear ear protection. You should too. A pair of cheap foam earplugs will do the trick2, but it's better to invest in3  higher-fidelity4  Etymotic ER20 plugs, which reduce volume without cutting out5  too much high end.
现场音乐和MP3播放器会损坏你的听力，除非你现在就采取保护措施。
戴耳塞：酷玩乐队和戴夫·马修斯乐队都戴保护听力的耳塞，你也应该如此。一副便宜的泡沫耳塞就很管用，但最好多花点钱购买高保真的音特美ER20耳塞，它可以在不过多牺牲高端音色的情况下降低音量。

Turn it down: Don't crank up6 your portable music player too loud, especially to compensate7 for other noise around you. If you're on a subway, the ambient8  noise could be as high as 105 decibels9. To hear your tunes, you might turn the music up to 110, a level that is safe only for thirty minutes.
调低音量：不要把你的随身听音量调得太大，特别是当你想抵消周围的其它噪音时更要小心。假如你在地铁里，环境噪音可高达105分贝；为了听见耳机里的音乐，你也许会把音量调高到110分贝，但这种高分贝音量持续30分钟以上就不安全了。

Get better headphones: Those that shut out10  external noise allow you to turn down the tunes. In-ear phones like Etymotic's ER6 and Shure's E4C go deep into the ear canal11 to block pretty much12 all outside noise—plus they sound great (a cheaper alternative is Sony's MDR-EX71). Bose's noise-canceling QuietComfort 2 fits over the ears and removes a lot of low-end noise.
买更好的耳机：那些能隔绝外界噪音的耳机使你可以放心地调低乐曲的音量。像音特美ER6和舒尔E4C一类的内置式耳机可以深入耳道，从而阻挡几乎一切外界噪音——而且音质超靓（想便宜的话，选索尼MDR-EX71）。博思的抗噪音耳机QuietComfort 2塞在耳朵上很舒适，且能消除大部分的低端噪音。

Give your ears a rest: “There's nothing wrong with going to a rock concert on Friday night,” says Marshall Chasin. “Just don't mow your lawn on Saturday.” Your ears need about eighteen hours after exposure to sustained high volumes before they return to normal.
让耳朵休息：“周五晚上去听摇滚音乐没有错，”马歇尔·切辛说，“不过周六就别割草坪了。”听力持续经受高分贝噪音后要大约18小时才能恢复正常。

Quit smoking: It doubles the risk of noise-induced13 hearing loss. “After a loud show, the way you get better is through blood supply to your inner-ear nerve cells,” says Chicago audiologist14  Michael Santucci. “If you do something cardiovascularly15 restrictive, like smoking, your blood supply won't be as good. You're being exposed to two toxins16, the cardiovascular toxin and the noise toxin.”
戒烟：吸烟可使噪音引发的听力受损增加一倍。“在一场喧闹的演出之后，要向内耳神经细胞输送血液，你的听觉才能慢慢恢复。”芝加哥耳病专家迈克尔·桑特奇说，“如果你再做某些对心血管有限制作用的行为，比如吸烟，你的血液供应就会不畅。你将同时遭受两种毒素的危害：心血管毒素和噪音毒素。”

1. earplug   n. 耳塞
2. do the trick 获得成功，奏效
3. invest in... 投资于…，买进
4. high-fidelity 高保真的 fidelity
 n. 保真度
5. cut out 祛除，剥夺
6. crank up 增大，增强
7. compensate   v. 抵消
8. ambient  adj. 周围的，环境的
9. decibel  n. 分贝
10. shut out 遮挡，把…排除在外
11. ear canal 耳道
12. pretty much 几乎，大部分
13. induce   v. 导致，引起
14. audiologist   n. 耳病专家
15. cardiovascularly
  adv. 心血管方面地
16. toxin  n. 毒素