（New York Times) New research on children and television has put SpongeBob Squarepants on the hot seat.

一项关于儿童与电视的新研究让卡通片"海绵宝宝"的作者如坐针毡。

Researchers report that 4-year-olds who had just watched the fast-paced fantasy cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants" — which follows the undersea adventures of a yellow sponge — did worse on tests of attention and problem-solving than young children who watched a slower-paced educational program or spent time drawing.

研究者报道说，"海绵宝宝"讲述了一个黄色海绵的海底探险故事，刚看完这种快节奏幻想卡通片的4岁儿童在注意力和解决问题能力测试方面要比其他观看过慢节奏教育片或学画画的同龄儿童表现差。

Officials from Nickelodeon, the network that produces "SpongeBob," dismissed the significance of the study, saying in a statement that preschool-age children are not the show’s intended audience. "SpongeBob" is designed for 6- to 11-year-olds, according to the network, which questioned the study’s small sample size of white middle- and upper-middle-class children.

对此，制作"海绵宝宝"的Nickelodeon公司在一份声明中否认了这项研究的重要结论，并表示本片的目标受众并不是学龄前儿童。根据该公司网站，"海绵宝宝"是为6至11岁儿童设计的，而这项研究的受试者的样本范围很小，只局限于中产阶级和上层中产阶级家庭的白人儿童。

Vocabulary:
undersea adj.海面下的
dismiss v.解散
intend v. 打算