2021年经济学人 奥运VS药物（5）

Like steroids, EPO's effects can be striking.

EPO和类固醇一样，效果也很显著。

Studies on it are less comprehensive, but one (albeit not conducted on elite¹ athletes) suggested improvements in maximum rate of oxygen consumption of 12%, and a 54% increase in the time it took participants to be exhausted² by hard exercise.

对它的研究并不全面，但有一项(虽然不是针对精英运动员进行的)研究表明，最大耗氧量提高了12%，参与者因剧烈运动而精疲力竭的时间增加了54%。

Dr Schumacher reckons improvements of the performances of top-flight athletes on a bike or a running track are more likely to be in the single digits³.

舒马赫博士认为，顶级运动员在自行车或跑道上的表现改善更有可能是个位数。

But if that sounds modest, it should not. A 5% improvement would be enough to knock more than six minutes off a top marathon-runner's time.

听起来挺谦虚的，不过并不是这样。5%的进步就足以让一个顶级马拉松运动员少跑6分钟以上。

History offers another lens. The "heroic age" of doping, when testing was poor and abuse often blatant⁴, lasted from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

历史提供了另一个视角。兴奋剂的“英雄时代”从20世纪70年代持续到了21世纪初，当时的兴奋剂检测水平很低，运动员滥用兴奋剂的行为也常常明目张胆。

Sprinters competed with eyes yellowed from steroid abuse.

短跑运动员的眼睛因类固醇滥用而发黄。

Female athletes sported strikingly masculine physiques.

女运动员表现出惊人的阳刚之气。

Cyclists made seemingly rocket-assisted climbs up steep Alpine⁵ passes.

骑自行车的运动员好似是坐着火箭爬上了陡峭的高山隘口。

Sport is littered with "fossil" records from that era.

体育运动充斥着那个时代的“化石”记录。

Of 16 pertinent⁶ women's trackand-field events, for example, the world records in eight have stood since the 1980s.

例如，在16项相关的女子田径项目中，有8项的世界纪录是自上世纪80年代以来保持的。

Eye-popping performance alone does not prove records were set by doped athletes.

单凭令人瞠目的成绩并不能证明这些记录是由服用兴奋剂的运动员创造的。

But it does cast doubt. Florence Griffith Joyner's 100-metre-sprint time of 10.49 seconds was set in 1988.

但这确实引起了人们的怀疑。弗洛伦斯·格里夫菲斯·乔伊纳的100米短跑成绩是10.49秒，是在1988年创造的。

In three decades no other woman has matched it—leading some observers to think it may have been helped by steroids.

三十年来，没有其他女性能与之匹敌，观察人士认为类固醇可能起到了帮助作用。

The current fastest woman in the world, Shelly-Ann FraserPryce, from Jamaica, has managed just 10.63 seconds—and that with assistance from special, high-tech⁷ shoes.

目前世界上跑得最快的女子是来自牙买加的谢莉-安·弗雷泽·普赖斯，她只跑了10.63秒，而且还要借助特殊的高科技鞋。

A list of the ten fastest climbs up Alpe d'Huez, a mountain often part of the Tour de France, includes only one rider, Miguel Indurain, who has had a clean career.

阿尔普迪埃是环法自行车赛的一部分，在该路线爬坡最快的十大车手里，只有“米格尔·安杜兰”这一个车手的职业生涯是清白的。

The others have all, at some stage, been convicted of, or admitted to, doping.

其他车手都曾在某个阶段被判过使用兴奋剂，或者承认使用兴奋剂。

1 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

2 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

3 digits   

n.数字( digit的名词复数 )；手指，足趾

参考例句：

• The number 1000 contains four digits. 1000是四位数。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The number 410 contains three digits. 数字 410 中包括三个数目字。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 blatant   

adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的

参考例句：

• I cannot believe that so blatant a comedy can hoodwink anybody.我无法相信这么显眼的一出喜剧能够欺骗谁。
• His treatment of his secretary was a blatant example of managerial arrogance.他管理的傲慢作风在他对待秘书的态度上表露无遗。

5 alpine   

adj.高山的；n.高山植物

参考例句：

• Alpine flowers are abundant there.那里有很多高山地带的花。
• Its main attractions are alpine lakes and waterfalls .它以高山湖泊和瀑布群为主要特色。

6 pertinent   

adj.恰当的；贴切的；中肯的；有关的；相干的

参考例句：

• The expert made some pertinent comments on the scheme.那专家对规划提出了一些中肯的意见。
• These should guide him to pertinent questions for further study.这些将有助于他进一步研究有关问题。

7 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。