【英语时差8,16】青霉素的历史（上）

 Today, a fever is an uncomfortable nuisance, but a hundred-plus years ago, fevers were often fatal. The difference between then and now is the class of drugs known as antibiotics¹. As the name implies, “anti-biotics” work “against life,” or, more specifically, against living cells. While other drugs, such as aspirin², ease the symptoms of a disease, antibiotics attack the living bacteria that are causing the symptoms. The modern discovery of antibiotics is usually attributed to Alexander Fleming, who was the first to isolate³ and name “penicillin.” But the basis for Fleming’s work had begun over fifty years before. In 1874, another English scientist, William Roberts, noticed that some fungi⁴ were immune to bacteria. Later on, the French scientist Louis Pasteur noticed that bacteria stopped growing if they became infected with a microscopic⁵ fungus⁶ called “penicillium.”

1 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

2 aspirin   

n.阿司匹林

参考例句：

• The aspirin seems to quiet the headache.阿司匹林似乎使头痛减轻了。
• She went into a chemist's and bought some aspirin.她进了一家药店，买了些阿司匹林。

3 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

4 fungi   

n.真菌，霉菌

参考例句：

• Students practice to apply the study of genetics to multicellular plants and fungi.学生们练习把基因学应用到多细胞植物和真菌中。
• The lawn was covered with fungi.草地上到处都是蘑菇。

5 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

6 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。