黑人妈妈生下纯白婴儿 概率仅百万分之一

 　　A mother has beaten odds¹ of a million-to-one by giving birth to a baby who appears to be of a different race.

　　一位妈妈中了百万分之一的大奖：她生的宝宝和她完全是不同的人种。

　　Catherine Howarth, 32, from Milton Keynes, is Nigerian by heritage, and so was, at first, a little taken aback when she saw her son Jonah for the first time.

　　32岁的凯瑟琳·霍沃斯来自英国的米尔顿凯恩斯，她是地道的黑人。所以当她第一次看见刚出生的儿子乔纳通体纯白时，感到十分震惊。

　　With his pale skin, green eyes and light brown hair, Jonah, now three months old, looks like any other new-born baby - but, when seen in his mother's arms, his uniqueness is obvious.

　　宝宝乔纳现在3个月大了，他皮肤雪白、绿眼睛、浅色头发，看上去和任何其他新生婴儿毫无差别，但当他躺在妈妈怀里和妈妈一起出现时，就显得异常特别了。

　　Recalling the moment she delivered Jonah in Milton Keynes Hospital on June 1, his mother told the Sunday Mirror: ‘The midwife looked at me and looked back down at Jonah and then at me again and couldn’t believe it.'

　　在接受《星期日镜报》采访时，这位妈妈回想起自己6月1日在米尔顿凯恩斯生下乔纳时的情景：“助产士反复地打量我和乔纳，感觉难以置信。”

　　‘Some children get darker after a few weeks when the skin colour they will have for life starts to become obvious. But you can see from the colour at the tips of their ears what that Jonah was fully² white.

　　“有些孩子在出生几周后肤色就会变深，慢慢地他们一生的肤色就会越来越明显，从宝宝耳朵边缘的肤色就可以看出他们一生的肤色。而乔纳的肤色是纯白的。”

　　‘We have been told I must have been carrying a recessive³ gene⁴. My parents were from Nigeria and, for as far back as anyone can remember; my family have all been black.’

　　“医生告诉我一定是因为我身上有隐性基因，我的父母都来自于非洲尼日利亚、我的家族全是黑种人，这一点大家都可以见证。”

　　Husband Richard, 34, who works as a medical recruitment consultant⁵, was equally as shocked when he first saw his son, who is the couple’s first child together.

　　孩子的爸爸理查德今年34岁，他是一名医疗招聘顾问。理查德在第一次看到自己儿子的时候也震惊了，而这个宝宝是夫妇俩的第一个孩子。

　　However, he was primarily just happy that Jonah was strong and healthy, after he got the umbilical cord tangled⁶ round his neck during labour – a potentially dangerous complication.

　　在分娩过程中，乔纳曾脐带绕脖，这可能会导致危险。不过经历了这些之后，乔纳还是很强壮健康，所以爸爸也很高兴。

　　‘The colour of Jonah’s skin is of no concern - Jonah being a healthy and happy baby is what matters.’

　　“乔纳的肤色无所谓，只要他是一个健康快乐的宝宝、就比什么都重要。”

　　The couple have been told that they are unlikely to have another white baby if they have further children, due to the extremely rare combination of genes⁷ needed.

　　不过医生分析，如果夫妇二人打算再要孩子，再生出一个纯白婴儿几乎是不可能的，因为这需要十分罕见的基因结合。

1 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 recessive   

adj.退行的，逆行的，后退的，隐性的

参考例句：

• Blue eyes are recessive and brown eyes are dominant.蓝眼睛是隐性的；而褐色眼睛是显性的。
• Sickle-cell anaemia is passed on through a recessive gene.镰状细胞贫血通过隐性基因遗传给后代。

4 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

5 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

6 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

7 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪