英语听力精选进阶版 14199（在线收听）

BBC Learning English 

Video Words in the News  

17 April 2013 

Lab-grown organ breakthrough 

Transcript: 

In this jar, hope for many who need a transplant. 

In a Boston laboratory, a rat kidney has been stripped of its cells, leaving just 

this white scaffold. 

Then the organ was reseeded with fresh cells and put into another rat. It 

filtered the animal's blood and produced urine.  

The results are promising but human trials are still a long way off. 

Vocabulary: 

transplant 

a new organ put into someone's body when the old organ fails 

kidney 

organ that takes away waste from the blood and produces urine 

stripped of 

had its parts removed 

scaffold 

structure that helps something to keep its shape 

reseeded 

here, had some new cells added, which multiply to fill the whole organ 

Exercise: 

Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from 

news reports.  

Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence 

correctly. 

transplant / kidney / stripped of / scaffold / reseeded 

1.  Madonna was said to have been angered that she and her entourage were 

__________ their VIP status on their way out of the country, the UK's Daily 

Telegraph reported. They had to line up with other passengers at the airport 

and were frisked by security officials, the report said.  

2.  Scientists have developed a new way of generating stem cells which could 

boost research and drug screening. Edinburgh University has produced 

material that acts as a "tiny __________" to which cells can cling as they 

grow. 

3.  Carrying excess weight around the abdomen is linked to an increased risk of 

__________ disease, a study suggests. 

4.  George Best is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers to have 

graced the British game. But the Manchester United icon's lifelong battle 

with alcoholism led to drink-driving, bankruptcy, a liver __________ and 

eventually death, aged 59, in 2005. 

5.  "Even if the lungs aren't going to be resuscitatable, and you've tried 

everything you can, designer drugs, we aren't going to throw those lungs 

away. We are going to decellularize those lungs in a bioreactor and we are 

going to __________ it with your stem cells which we are already trying to 

do and we are going to grow you new lungs," he said. 

Answers: 

1.   Madonna was said to have been angered that she and her entourage were 

stripped of their VIP status on their way out of the country, the UK's Daily 

Telegraph reported. They had to line up with other passengers at the airport 

and were frisked by security officials, the report said. 

2.  Scientists have developed a new way of generating stem cells which could 

boost research and drug screening. Edinburgh University has produced 

material that acts as a "tiny scaffold" to which cells can cling as they grow. 

3.   Carrying excess weight around the abdomen is linked to an increased risk of 

kidney disease, a study suggests. 

4.   George Best is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers to have 

graced the British game. But the Manchester United icon's lifelong battle 

with alcoholism led to drink-driving, bankruptcy, a liver transplant and 

eventually death, aged 59, in 2005. 

5.   "Even if the lungs aren't going to be resuscitatable, and you've tried 

everything you can, designer drugs, we aren't going to throw those lungs 

away. We are going to decellularize those lungs in a bioreactor and we are 

going to reseed it with your stem cells which we are already trying to do 

and we are going to grow you new lungs," he said.