VOA慢速英语2012 SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - A Death in the Family May Cause Real Heart Break

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - A Death in the Family May Cause Real Heart Break

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m SHIRLEY Griffith.
MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter. Today, we tell about an American study of heart attack survivors¹. We tell about a scientist recognized for his work in plate tectonics. And we tell how modern-day musicians rated some of the most famous instruments ever made.
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Learning about the death of a loved one can be among life’s most stressful events. A recent study showed that the risk of heart attack increases in the days and hours after getting news of such a death. Researchers studied nearly two thousand heart attack survivors. The subjects were asked whether someone close to them had died in the six months before their heart attack.
Elizabeth Mostofsky is with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
ELIZABETH MOSTOFSKY: “We found that the risk of having a heart attack was twenty-one times higher in the day following the loss of a loved one, compared to other times. And that risk remained elevated in the subsequent days and weeks.”
MARIO RITTER: Elizabeth Mostofsky says earlier research explored the risk of dying from any cause over a year or more after the death of a husband, wife or child. The earlier research did not include the death of other close family members or friends.
Ms. Mostofsky and her team studied information from the days immediately after receiving the news. She says several things could explain why the intense feelings after the death of a loved one could lead to a heart attack.
ELIZABETH MOSTOFSKY: “Grief causes feeling of depression, anger, and anxiety, and several studies have shown that these emotions can cause increased heart rate, higher blood pressure, and blood clotting². And those in turn, can increase the chances of having a heart attack.”
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Ms. Mostofsky says the family and friends of those mourning for a loved one should know about the increased risk of heart attack.
ELIZABETH MOSTOFSKY: “People should be making sure that the bereaved³ person is taking care of himself or herself, including taking regular medications, because they are at that heightened level of vulnerability at this time in their life.”
Her research paper was published in “Circulation,” the journal of the American Heart Association.
(MUSIC)
MARIO RITTER: A few weeks ago, we talked about the science of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics explains why the Earth’s surface moves. It also tells how those changes cause earthquakes and volcanic⁴ activity. Today, we tell about a scientist who helped prove the theory of continental⁵ drift. Walter C. Pitman, the third, is an adjunct professor of geophysics at Columbia University. Now in his eighties, he works at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory⁶ in Palisades, New York.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: When Walter Pitman was a teenager, he enjoyed visiting his father’s workplace at Bell Labs research center. He remembers asking the researchers about their work.
WALTER PITMAN: “I worked there in the summertime sweeping⁷ floors but I was in amongst all these people. It was wonderful.”
Walter Pitman studied electrical engineering and physics in college. He then went to work for an electronics company. He was not excited about the work, until one project – doing research on submarines – fueled a love for oceanography.
Mister Pitman returned to school. For his doctoral studies, he went back to sea on a research vessel⁸. He hoped to gather evidence that all the continents had once been joined. He thought they had been moving apart on large plates for hundreds of millions of years.
MARIO RITTER: Walter Pitman helped prove the idea that Earth’s continents move. He did this by recording⁹ and studying magnetic patterns at the bottom of the ocean.
WALTER PITMAN: “It was electrifying¹⁰. I didn’t imagine ever being involved in anything so astonishing and so very, very important to the geologic¹¹ sciences at such a young age in my career. I was very fortunate to be there when it all happened.”
The science of plate tectonics explains how the continents move around the oceans. It also explains how continents can strike each other and break apart, creating earthquakes and mountain chains.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Later, Mr. Pitman turned his attention to the surface of the ocean, and sea level changes. He and William Ryan, another Columbia University geophysicist, proposed what is known as the Black Sea Deluge¹² Theory. They suggested that the Black Sea was once a landlocked freshwater lake. Then about seven thousand five hundred years ago, melting ice from glaciers¹³ raised water levels in the Mediterranean¹⁴ Sea.
WALTER PITMAN: “You’re talking about a huge mass of water coming in to fill a very small basin. And that water as it would come through the Bosporus is going to cut the Bosporus deeper. The deeper it cuts, the faster it flows. The faster it flows, the faster it cuts. There is a feedback mechanism¹⁵. So soon you start with a trickle¹⁶ and within a very short period of time, it’s a roaring, raging flume of water and we’re very sure that’s what it (the Biblical flood) was, you know.”
MARIO RITTER: Mr. Pitman and other researchers are currently studying the climate of the Arctic Ocean. And they are exploring its effects on water cycles over the past two million years. Their research could help scientists predict the effects of climate change, which is causing sea levels to rise.
WALTER PITMAN: “I’ve had an incredible, incredibly good time at this kind of endeavor. There are bad spots, of course there are bad spots. But the science is always fascinating. You might, you know, stop reading for the day or something like that and say, ‘Wow, that was so great. I learned something about how the Earth works.’ That is really pure pleasure.”
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This is the sound of the greatest violin ever made. (violin music #1 in full then fade gently out completely)
Or maybe it is this one. (violin music #2 in full then fade)
It could be a Stradivarius, or an Amati, or a Guarneri made hundreds of years ago. But it might also have been made just last year by someone whose name is not nearly so famous. And that leads us to ask the following. Can you tell, just by listening, which is the best violin? If so, what makes it great?
MARIO RITTER: It all began over three hundred years ago in the town of Cremona in northern Italy. If you wanted to buy a really good musical instrument, you probably visited Antonio Stradivari, Girolamo Amati, or Andrea Guarneri. Many people said they made the best violins that money could buy. Today, many still think of those violins as the greatest of all time. Those that still exist can sell for millions of dollars.
For years, scientists and musicians have sought to discover the secrets of the master violin makers¹⁷. They know that most of the time, spruce, willow¹⁸ or maple¹⁹ wood was used. Some people have thought that chemicals like borax were added to the wooden parts. Others have said that honey, or even the white of an egg was painted on the parts before they were put together.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Still other researchers say that a special kind of glue was used to connect the parts. Some think the secret is in the varnish²⁰, the nearly clear liquid that was used as a final cover to protect the wood. Or maybe the wood was special because it grew at a time when the weather was colder than it is today. In the end, no one knows for sure.
And some people say we should not spend a lot of time thinking about the materials and processes used long ago. They instead think that some modern violins sound just as good and cost a lot less. Claudia Fritz at the University of Paris is one of those people. She led a study that was published in “The Proceedings²¹ of the National Academy of Sciences.”
At a musical competition in Indiana, she asked twenty-one really good violin players to test six different instruments. She did not tell them that only three of the violins were very old and costly²². Together, the three were worth about ten million dollars. The other three were made by modern luthiers, or instrument makers, and cost a hundred times less.
MARIO RITTER: Ms. Fritz asked each of the players to wear welders’ goggles²³, thick, dark eyeglasses, so they could not see the instruments very well while holding them. She thought that some people might be able to identify an old violin by its smell. So she put a little sweet-smelling perfume on the part of the instrument that fits under a player’s chin.
The test began in a hotel room. All the subjects in the experiment were permitted to play all six violins, and then say which one they would like to own. Then each player was given only two violins to test. One was very old. The other was modern. They were asked which of the two sounded better. The results of the test led Ms. Fritz to believe that there is no secret to how the old, great violins were made.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Of the twenty-one players, only eight chose an old violin as the best. Even a recently made violin was judged to be much better sounding than the world famous Stradivarius. Ms. Fritz says the difference between the old and new instruments is only in the mind of the player. Modern luthiers were happy that she found what they believed.
But some professional musicians think the test had little value. One noted²⁴ that violins are meant to be heard in a concert hall, not a hotel room.
MARIO RITTER: Researchers have performed tests like this many times in the past. But Ms. Fritz says those tests asked average listeners to try to predict which violin was made by a master. Her test was given to concert violinists who play at the highest level. They are the ones you would expect to have the best “ear” for great sound.
There is an old saying that, “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder²⁵.” If that is true, then perhaps your opinion of how an instrument sounds to your ear is really what matters.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake and Jim Tedder²⁶. June Simms was our producer. I’m SHIRLEY Griffith.
MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

2 clotting   

v.凝固( clot的现在分词 )；烧结

参考例句：

• The study was also based only on the one anti-clotting drug. 所用抗血栓药物也仅限于一种。 来自互联网
• A plasma protein that is converted into thrombin during blood clotting. 凝血原酶一种血浆蛋白质，在血液凝聚时转化成凝血''。'酵'。''''。'素'。''。 来自互联网

3 bereaved   

adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去（希望、生命等）( bereave的过去式和过去分词)；（尤指死亡）使丧失（亲人、朋友等）；使孤寂；抢走（财物）

参考例句：

• The ceremony was an ordeal for those who had been recently bereaved. 这个仪式对于那些新近丧失亲友的人来说是一种折磨。
• an organization offering counselling for the bereaved 为死者亲友提供辅导的组织

4 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

5 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

6 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

7 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

8 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

9 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

10 electrifying   

v.使电气化( electrify的现在分词 )；使兴奋

参考例句：

• The dancers gave an electrifying performance. 舞蹈演员们的表演激动人心。
• The national orchestra gave an electrifying performance of classic music. 国家交响乐团举行了一次古典音乐的震撼性演出。 来自辞典例句

11 geologic   

adj.地质的

参考例句：

• The Red Sea is a geologic continuation of the valley.红海就是一个峡谷在地质上的继续发展。
• Delineation of channels is the first step of geologic evaluation.勾划河道的轮廓是地质解译的第一步。

12 deluge   

n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥

参考例句：

• This little stream can become a deluge when it rains heavily.雨大的时候，这条小溪能变作洪流。
• I got caught in the deluge on the way home.我在回家的路上遇到倾盆大雨。

13 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

14 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。

15 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

16 trickle   

vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散

参考例句：

• The stream has thinned down to a mere trickle.这条小河变成细流了。
• The flood of cars has now slowed to a trickle.汹涌的车流现在已经变得稀稀拉拉。

17 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 willow   

n.柳树

参考例句：

• The river was sparsely lined with willow trees.河边疏疏落落有几棵柳树。
• The willow's shadow falls on the lake.垂柳的影子倒映在湖面上。

19 maple   

n.槭树，枫树，槭木

参考例句：

• Maple sugar is made from the sap of maple trees.枫糖是由枫树的树液制成的。
• The maple leaves are tinge with autumn red.枫叶染上了秋天的红色。

20 varnish   

n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰

参考例句：

• He tried to varnish over the facts,but it was useless.他想粉饰事实，但那是徒劳的。
• He applied varnish to the table.他给那张桌子涂上清漆。

21 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

22 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。

23 goggles   

n.护目镜

参考例句：

• Skiers wear goggles to protect their eyes from the sun.滑雪者都戴上护目镜使眼睛不受阳光伤害。
• My swimming goggles keep steaming up so I can't see.我的护目镜一直有水雾，所以我看不见。

24 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

25 beholder   

n.观看者，旁观者

参考例句：

• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 看起来觉得美就是美。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It has been said that art is a tryst, for in the joy of it maker and beholder meet. 有人说艺术是一种幽会，因为艺术家和欣赏者可在幽会的乐趣中相遇在一起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

26 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网