美国有线新闻 CNN 冠状病毒新变种威胁东京奥运会

Where would you find the most populated city in the world? Japan, Brazil, India or China. Greater Tokyo, the capital of Japan has a population of about 38 million people.

世界上人口最多的城市在哪里？日本、巴西、印度还是中国？答案是日本首都东京，该市人口约3800万。

Friday, July 23rd is the planned kick off date for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. They're still being called that even though it's 2021 and the same pandemic that postponed¹ the games in the first place is threatening to cancel them altogether. To be clear, that hasn't happened yet.

2020年东京夏季奥运会原定于7月23日星期五开幕。虽然奥运已推迟至2021年举行，但其名称仍为2020年东京奥运会，而最初导致奥运会推迟的疫情现在可能致其取消。不过要澄清一下，这还没有发生。

The show is scheduled to go on this summer in Japan but there are new strains of coronavirus that have cropped up around the world and they're causing new headaches in the efforts to fight the disease. It's common for viruses to mutate or change.

奥运会计划于今年夏季在日本举行，但世界各地都出现了新的冠状病毒毒株，这为抗击疫情的努力带来了新的麻烦。病毒变异很常见。

At least one of the new COVID strains or variants² is believed to spread faster than the original one but it's not believed to be more deadly. The survival rate for the new and older strains is estimated to be more than 99 percent.

据悉，至少有一种新冠肺炎新毒株或变种比原始病毒毒株传播得更快，但并非更致命。新毒株和旧毒株的存活率估计都在99%以上。

Health officials don't know yet if the newly approved emergency vaccines³ work against the new strains. But as they race to find answers and treatments for all variants of coronavirus, concerns about the disease in Japan are bringing some Olympic sized questions.

卫生官员尚不清楚新批准的紧急疫苗是否对新毒株有效。但是，当他们竞相寻找冠状病毒所有变种的答案和治疗方法时，日本对疫情的担忧引起了一些涉及奥运会规模的问题。

1 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

2 variants   

n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体

参考例句：

• Those variants will be preserved in the'struggle for existence". 这些变异将在“生存竞争”中被保留下来。 来自辞典例句
• Like organisms, viruses have variants, generally called strains. 与其他生物一样，病毒也有变种，一般称之为株系。 来自辞典例句

3 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。