英语听力—环球英语 467：Making a Life-Saving Medicine

　　Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight¹. I’m Joshua Leo.
Voice 2
And I’m Christy VanArragon. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
It was a fearful picture. Children, unable to walk. Children, unable to breathe. Every summer, people saw this image repeated – the polio disease had returned. What caused this terrible disease? How could it be prevented? Today’s Spotlight is on Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine².
Voice 2
Polio is a very serious disease. It is often spread by infected human waste. Usually, people become sick with polio after drinking or touching³ dirty water or waste. Many children become infected by swimming in infected water. Polio affects a person’s nerves. It can make a person unable to move. In the worst cases, a person may not be able to breathe. Polio was a big concern in the United States and Europe in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Many people became sick every summer. These epidemics⁴ were getting worse. And people were very afraid. Many scientists had tried to develop vaccines⁵, but none were successful. Jonas Salk wanted to stop the disease quickly.
Voice 1
Jonas Salk was a doctor and scientist in the United States. In the 1940’s, he developed an important influenza⁶ vaccine. Vaccine medicines prepare a person’s body to fight a particular virus, or disease. Usually scientists would make a weak version of the virus and inject it into a person’s body. The body then creates antibodies against this virus. These cells fight specific viruses. The body can fight this weak virus and prepare to fight the normal virus when the time comes.
Voice 2
But this can be dangerous. Sometimes, a person becomes sick with the virus they are trying to prevent. So Salk and his partner Thomas Francis wanted to make their vaccine differently. They used a version of the influenza vaccine that was dead. The body was still able to create antibodies against the virus, but there was no risk of infection. This was successful for influenza. And it prepared the way for Salk’s work on polio.
Voice 1
Salk then went on to study how vaccines affect people. He also spent time researching the polio virus. Salk wrote a few papers about polio. Daniel O’Connor read some of these papers. He worked for the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis⁷. This group worked to fight the polio virus. O’Connor asked to meet Salk. When they met, O’Connor liked Salk. O’Connor decided⁸ to give most of the group’s money to Salk’s research for a polio vaccine.
Voice 2
Some scientists were not happy that Salk received the money for his research. Many other scientists had been studying polio longer than Salk. Some people thought that these scientists deserved the money. But Jonas Salk just kept working hard trying to find a cure.
Voice 1
First, Salk had to get enough of the polio virus to study. This was difficult. Viruses need living cells to grow. They do not live on their own. But a group of scientists had found a way to grow the virus. Salk used their method to move on with his research. Salk decided to make the polio vaccine like he made the influenza vaccine. He would use a killed virus instead of a weakened one.
Voice 2
Jonas Salk first tested his polio vaccine on a group of children in 1952. They already had polio. After the vaccine, these children had many more antibodies in their bodies. This was a good sign. The vaccine helped the children fight the virus.
Voice 1
Salk was now ready to test the vaccine on people who did not have the disease. First, he tested it on himself and his family. It was safe. It seemed to work. In 1954 he tested the vaccine with over four hundred thousand [400,000] children. The children were split up into three groups. One group received the vaccine. Another group received a placebo⁹, a vaccine that does nothing. And the last group was not given anything.
Voice 2
The vaccine tests went well. Soon news groups wanted to know about this new polio vaccine. Even though the test was not complete, Salk talked to the press. People were very excited about a possible cure to the disease, and Salk was excited too. But some other scientists were not happy with Salk. They said that Salk did not follow the right process of releasing information.
Voice 1
The scientists said that Salk should have waited until the test was complete to discuss the vaccine. He should have published his research in a medical journal so other scientists could see it first. The scientists claimed that Salk just wanted to become famous for discovering the cure for polio. This hurt Salk. He said he only had the best goals in mind. He wanted to help people.
Voice 2
In 1955, Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was declared to be a success. By the end of 1955 seven million children had received vaccine injections. By the summer of 1961, the cases of polio had dropped by ninety–six [96] percent. Soon many other countries were using polio vaccines too.
Voice 1
The success made Jonas Salk famous. He was given a national award for medicine. He was also nominated for a Nobel Prize. But Salk also faced challenges. Some scientists still did not like him. Jonas Salk could not join the National Academy of Sciences, an important scientific group. And many scientists did not think he deserved the recognition he received.
Voice 2
But Salk’s success did let him continue work on curing diseases. In 1963, Jonas Salk opened the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. It was a place where the best scientists could work together to cure diseases and create vaccines.
Voice 1
Because of Salk, and other scientists’, work, polio is gone in many countries around the world. But it still affects many people in Nigeria, India, and Pakistan. Aid groups are spreading the polio vaccine to those who still need it. Today, Salk’s vaccine is not used as much. This version of the vaccine uses the weakened virus instead of a killed one. Instead of an injection, it can be given as a pill in the mouth. It is easier for aid groups to give people, and it works better. Using the polio vaccine, doctors and aid groups hope to stop polio forever in the next few years. This goal would never have been possible without the important work of Jonas Salk.
 

1 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

2 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

3 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

4 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

5 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。

6 influenza   

n.流行性感冒，流感

参考例句：

• They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。

7 paralysis   

n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症)

参考例句：

• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。
• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。

8 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。

9 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。