VOA慢速英语2009年-SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Alcohol Linked to On

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty¹.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we tell about deaths around the world linked to drinking alcohol. We tell about a new discovery that chimps³ get the disease AIDS. And we tell better news about overfishing around the world.

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VOICE ONE:
　
A study has found that almost 4 percent of all deaths are linked to alcohol

A Canadian study says drinking alcohol is linked to one in every twenty-five deaths around the world. Alcohol was linked to deaths caused by accidents, injuries and violence. It was also linked to medical conditions like heart disease, liver disease and cancer.

The study was released in a series of articles published in the Lancet. It found that almost four percent of deaths around the world in two thousand four were linked to drinking alcohol. The study also found that alcohol drinking disabled a large number of people around the world. It was responsible for more than four and one-half percent of all the years people lived with disability. The study concludes that the worldwide health effects from drinking are about the same as that of smoking nine years ago.

VOICE TWO:

One of the researchers was Jurgen Rehm. He works at the Center for Addiction⁴ and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada. Mister Rehm says the average person around the world has about twelve alcoholic⁵ drinks a week. One drink equals a bottle or can of beer, a medium glass of wine or a very small glass of liquor.

However, the amount of alcohol that people drink is different around the world. For example, people in Europe drink the most alcohol, about twenty-two drinks a week. People drink the lowest amount in eastern Mediterranean⁶ countries, about one drink a week.

And alcohol drinking is rare in many parts of the world, including Muslim countries and India. Mister Rehm said the high death rate is even more surprising because the large majority of adults around the world do not drink alcohol at all. This is often because of religious or cultural reasons.

VOICE ONE:

The study found that alcohol-related deaths were highest in Europe -- one in ten. Within Europe, the former Soviet⁷ Union countries had the highest rate. In Russia, about one in seven deaths were linked to alcohol. The report said these risks are also increasing in developing countries, especially Asian countries like China and Thailand.

Earlier studies have shown a positive effect of moderate drinking, especially of wine, on heart health. But Mister Rehm said heavier drinking can lead to heart disease. Drinking large amounts of alcohol over long periods of time has also been linked to a number of cancers. These include cancers of the head and neck, esophagus, breast and colon⁸.

VOICE TWO:

The researchers say two kinds of alcohol drinking affect health. They are the amount a person drinks on average and heavy drinking at one time, called "binge drinking." Jurgen Rehm said having one or two drinks a day is not as harmful as having seven drinks at once. And he said it is better to drink alcohol with meals.

Mister Rehm suggested that countries where alcohol is a problem should take action. He says they should make alcohol more costly⁹ and harder to get. This would result in people drinking smaller amounts that are not as harmful.

Another recent study showed the effects of alcohol drinking on road deaths. Researchers studied one hundred seventy-eight countries. They found that between thirty and forty percent of road deaths are caused by drinking alcohol. Experts from the World Health Organization said drunk driving is more than a law enforcement issue. It is also a public health concern.

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VOICE ONE:

Many scientists have long believed that non-human primates¹⁰ were the source of the human immunodeficiency virus, H.I.V. They believe the simian¹¹ immunodeficiency virus, S.I.V., probably crossed from chimpanzees to humans in the last one hundred years. H.I.V. in humans can cause AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome¹². It weakens the body's natural defense¹³ system against disease. Scientists have believed that S.I.V. did not cause a similar immune system problem for primates. Now, researchers say they have evidence that chimpanzees with S.I.V. suffer a condition like AIDS.

VOICE TWO:
　
Chimpanzees

Beatrice Hahn is a professor of medicine and microbiology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. She is an expert in the development and genetics of immune deficiency viruses in primates. Her team spent nine years studying ninety-four chimps in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. The chimps are among a group that Jane Goodall and her team have been studying since the nineteen sixties.

Doctor Hahn and her team gathered liquid and solid waste from chimpanzees in the park. They tested the material for genetic¹⁴ information to identify the virus in two chimp² communities.

Seventeen chimps were found to be infected with S.I.V. Seven of them died of the disease or disappeared and were believed to have died.

VOICE ONE:

Each day, a team of researchers followed one of the ninety-four chimps. Doctor Hahn says the scientists discovered that infected chimps were ten to sixteen times more likely to die in any given year than uninfected chimps. She says infected females were three times less likely to have babies. Four babies were born to infected mothers, but all of these babies died during their first year.

The scientists found the strongest evidence of AIDS in studies of tissue from the chimps that died. Animal doctor Karen Terio of the University of Illinois carried out some of those examinations. She says the chimpanzee tissue showed a severe loss of immune system cells. She said they looked similar to tissue from human patients who had died of AIDS.

VOICE TWO:

Doctor Hahn notes that chimpanzees are ninety-eight percent genetically¹⁵ identical to humans. She says the discovery that chimps can develop AIDS may help researchers understand the disease in humans.

Doctor Hahn says she suspects chimps first got infected with S.I.V. much longer than one hundred years ago. She believes the chimp virus infection is not quite as damaging as H.I.V. is in humans. The difference is the way the virus damages tissue. She suspects that chimps may be a step ahead of humans in how their bodies deal with the virus. The research was published in the journal Nature.

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VOICE ONE:
　
A worker processes herring in Gloucester, Massachusetts

Three years ago, a study of overfishing led to sharp debate. It warned that the world's ocean fish could be almost gone by the middle of the century. Now, a new study offers more hope. It shows that the risk of fisheries collapse¹⁶ has recently decreased in some areas, but not all.

Boris Worm at Dalhousie University in Canada and Ray Hilborn at the University of Washington in Seattle were lead authors of the new study. They led a team that studied ten areas. In five of them, the rate at which fish are being taken out of the sea has dropped to a level that should let the populations recover. Three areas still had overfishing, but corrective measures have begun.

Yet, in all, almost two-thirds of fish populations studied worldwide still need rebuilding. Only two areas did not have an overfishing problem in either the new study or the earlier one. They are New Zealand and the American state of Alaska.

VOICE TWO:

The new study found that overfishing has been reduced in Canada's Newfoundland-Labrador area and in Iceland and southern Australia. It also found improvements in the northeastern United States and the California Current that flows south along the West Coast. The study found that better controls are still needed in the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Bay of Biscay between France and Spain.

Several methods can help reduce overfishing. They include using nets that let smaller fish escape and agreeing not to fish in certain areas. The study showed that these measures helped fish populations grow in Kenya. The findings from two years of research appeared in the journal Science.

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VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Marisel Salazar, Caty Weaver¹⁷ and Jeri Watson. Brianna Blake was the producer. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. For transcripts¹⁸, MP3s and podcasts of our shows, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also post comments about our programs. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 chimp   

n.黑猩猩

参考例句：

• In fact,the color of gorilla and chimp are light-color.其实大猩猩和黑猩猩的肤色是较为浅的。
• The chimp is the champ.猩猩是冠军。

3 chimps   

（非洲）黑猩猩( chimp的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Chimps are too scarce, and too nearly human, to be routinely slaughtered for spare parts. 黑猩猩又太少，也太接近于人类，不可以作为人器官备用件说杀就杀。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命
• And as nonprimates, they provoke fewer ethical and safety-related concerns than chimps or baboons. 而且作为非灵长类，就不会产生像用黑猩猩或狒狒那样的伦理和安全方面的顾虑。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

4 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

5 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

6 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

7 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

8 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

9 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

10 primates   

primate的复数

参考例句：

• Primates are alert, inquisitive animals. 灵长目动物是机灵、好奇的动物。
• Consciousness or cerebration has been said to have emerged in the evolution of higher primates. 据说意识或思考在较高级灵长类的进化中已出现。

11 simian   

adj.似猿猴的；n.类人猿，猴

参考例句：

• Ada had a wrinkled,simian face.埃达有一张布满皱纹、长得像猿猴的脸。
• Curiosity is the taproot of an intellectual life,the most valuable of our simian traits.好奇是高智生命的根源，也是我们类人猿特征中最有价值的部分。

12 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

13 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

14 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

15 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

16 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

17 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

18 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句