当心您的爱车成为细菌的温床

Do you know so many of you will climb into your cars today perhaps to shuffle¹ your children to soccer, to football, make their (refer to the cars) run to the grocery store. But do you also know what's climbing into your cars with you? In Part one of our series "hidden germs: planes, trains and automobiles²". We're gonna take a look at the germs living in your cars. ABC's Nacy Coders has more.

"Jack³."
"What?"
"Did you make a mess? "
"No".

New Jersey⁴ mom, Debra Farber uses her SUV for a lot more than just getting from A to B.

"Er, I just wanted to confirm our appointment. "

Sometimes, it's an office. Sometimes it's a closet. Sometimes, a dining-room. "Jack, stop eating like a piglet".

With two kids under three years old, it's often a dining-room. "Jack! "

Like so many American moms, Debra, who works full time in pharmaceutical⁵ sales, lives in her car and it shows.

"Crumbs⁷, raisins⁹, bagels, anything that dog can't eat, it's in the car. And half the time, I 'm like jumping in and out of the car. I don't have time to clean it. I try to get to the carwash, you know, as often as I can but it doesn't always happen. "

Compare that to her husband Steven's brand new BMW, which the kids have only been allowed to ride in a couple of times.

"His car is like a sanitarium. He doesn't even let me drive the car. "

Debra admits she would never let her house get this way.

"This number actually represents millions of Bacteria. "

We asked germ expert Dr. Chuck Gerba to swab every inch of Debra 's car and Steven's to let them know, for better or worse, what's growing in there.

"We found that the cars were the moldiest of all forms of transportation that we looked at. "

He says most people don't realize their cars are perfect breeding grounds.
"From what we saw in cars germs seem to tend to build up because people aren't really cleaning or disinfecting these areas. We never thought about it before, but our germs are traveling with us and everybody that travels in that car carries their germs and leaves them in your car. "

"For a oatmeal's pretty good, it feeds children and bacteria at same time "

Dr. Gerba took the samples back to his lab at the University of Arizona, while Debra waited and worried.

"It's definitely making me nervous. I mean, obviously, I wouldn't want to expose the kids to any harm. So, they both have colds now and I'm sure you'll find plenty of germs in the car. "

Unfortunately, she is right. Dr. Gerba found millions of bacteria on the door handles, car seat and floor of Debra's SUV, compared to just a few hundred in Steven's new Bimmer. He even found MRSA, a staph bacteria that can cause skin infections.

"To germiest areas in your car are your dashboard, your change holder¹⁰ and where you keep your coffee, actually. The reason is the dashboard is because the air flows is over your dashboard and so, the bacteria tend to build up on that surface. "

We headed back to New Jersey to give Debra the bad news.

"On the car seat, Dr. Gerba found not thousands of bacteria but hundreds of thousands from the sample that he took, plus mold all over a Lexus car seat, that's what it looks like. "

"Ugly, very ugly. "

"This is what Dr. Gerba found on the cup holder in your SUV. This is the mold and thousands and thousands of bacteria. "

"I can't even look at the picture. "

"Where you in your drink ( Exactly, exactly )everyday. "

Is there anywhere he didn't find bacteria? "

Actually, the radio dials were quite clean. She is the only one who touches them. As for the rest of the car, Dr. Gerba says Debra, like the rest of us, should consider wiping down some parts with a disinfectant once a week.

"I'm going to wipe down this car as soon as you leave. "

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VOCABULARY
1. shuffle v 1:to mix in a disorderly mass 2: to rearrange the order of (cards in a pack) by mixing two parts of the pack together
2. piglet n: a small usu. young swine
3. crumb⁶ n. a small fragment.
4. raisin⁸ n. a grape dried for food.
5. bagel n. a firm doughnut-shaped roll usu. Made by boiling and then baking
6. sanitarium=SANATORIUM a health resort.
7. staph n: STAPHYLOCOCCUS: any of a genus of spherical¹¹ bacteria including some pathogens of skin and mucous¹² membranes¹³.

1 shuffle   

n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走

参考例句：

• I wish you'd remember to shuffle before you deal.我希望在你发牌前记得洗牌。
• Don't shuffle your feet along.别拖着脚步走。

2 automobiles   

n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• When automobiles become popular,the use of the horse and buggy passed away. 汽车普及后，就不再使用马和马车了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Automobiles speed in an endless stream along the boulevard. 宽阔的林荫道上，汽车川流不息。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

4 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

5 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

6 crumb   

n.饼屑，面包屑，小量

参考例句：

• It was the only crumb of comfort he could salvage from the ordeal.这是他从这场磨难里能找到的唯一的少许安慰。
• Ruth nearly choked on the last crumb of her pastry.鲁斯几乎被糕点的最后一块碎屑所噎住。

7 crumbs   

int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式

参考例句：

• She stood up and brushed the crumbs from her sweater. 她站起身掸掉了毛衣上的面包屑。
• Oh crumbs! Is that the time? 啊，天哪！都这会儿啦？

8 raisin   

n.葡萄干

参考例句：

• They baked us raisin bread.他们给我们烤葡萄干面包。
• You can also make raisin scones.你也可以做葡萄干烤饼。

9 raisins   

n.葡萄干( raisin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• These raisins come from Xinjiang,they taste delicious. 这些葡萄干产自新疆，味道很甜。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mother put some raisins in the cake. 母亲在糕饼中放了一些葡萄干。 来自辞典例句

10 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

11 spherical   

adj.球形的；球面的

参考例句：

• The Earth is a nearly spherical planet.地球是一个近似球体的行星。
• Many engineers shy away from spherical projection methods.许多工程师对球面投影法有畏难情绪。

12 mucous   

adj. 黏液的，似黏液的

参考例句：

• Healthy,skin,mucous membranes,and cilia are natural barriers to many viruses.健康的皮肤，粘膜和纤毛是许多病毒的天然屏障。
• Seromucous glands contain both mucous and serous cells.浆粘液腺既含有粘液性细胞，又含有浆液性细胞。

13 membranes   

n.（动物或植物体内的）薄膜( membrane的名词复数 )；隔膜；（可起防水、防风等作用的）膜状物

参考例句：

• The waste material is placed in cells with permeable membranes. 废液置于有渗透膜的槽中。 来自辞典例句
• The sarcoplasmic reticulum is a system of intracellular membranes. 肌浆网属于细胞内膜系统。 来自辞典例句