VOA标准英语2014--家长通过Facebook找到肾脏捐赠者

 

Parents Find Kidney Donor¹ for Daughter Through Facebook  家长通过Facebook找到肾脏捐赠者

WASHINGTON — Most people use Facebook to stay in touch with friends. Increasingly, however, social media are proving to be useful in fulfilling other more urgent needs. The desperate parents of a 2-year-old girl with a crippling kidney disease have found a donor by posting an appeal on Facebook.

Arianna lives in the northern U.S. state of Minnesota. When she was about seven weeks old, she was diagnosed with a rare genetic² kidney disorder³. Her father, Jeremy Booth, said that since then, dialysis has kept her alive.

"She is on dialysis treatment every night.  They last about 10 to 12 hours.  She gets on as soon as she goes to bed and she gets taken off when she wakes up in the morning," said Booth.

Tired of seeing her daughter suffer, Ashley Booth posted a plea for help on Facebook. Some 2,400 kilometers south, in Florida, Christy Harding, also a mother of a young girl, saw the appeal. Harding decided⁴ to offer her own kidney if it would match.

"I can't imagine waiting for that phone call to say - yes, somebody has made the decision to save your daughter's life," said Harding.

When the Booths received a call confirming that Harding was a match and willing to donate her kidney, Arianna's mother was overwhelmed with emotion.

"I wanted to cry. I wanted to smile. My son was standing⁵ there and tears were coming down my eyes and he said, 'Mom, who is it? What's wrong?' And I said, 'Nothing. These are happy tears. Arianna is finally going to get a kidney,’" said Booth.

The surgery is scheduled for early May.

1 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

2 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。

3 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。