英国新闻听力 小头畸形症婴儿母亲的生活

Now, teams of scientists around the world are still trying to figure out whether the mosquito-borne Zika virus is indeed behind the birth of hundreds of babies with unusually small heads in Brazil, a country struggling to cope with the increasing cases of microcephaly.80% of the cases concentrated in northeastern Brazil, one of the poorest parts of the country. Julia Carneiro reports from there.

Little Sophia has her body balanced on an exercise ball and physiotherapist Jamy Liao is moving her back and forth¹.She is performing exercises to help stimulate² her development. She is just a month old and meanwhile her mother is watching on.

Yanka is the youngest mother here. She is eighteen years old and Sophia is her second child. She was seven-month pregnant³ when she found out her baby had microcephaly.

That’s when her father left me. As soon as we found out, he told me I disgusted him that he despised⁴ me. Then he left me.

Yanka looks a teenager. She still is.And Sophia is wrapped in a blanket with the word “princess”.The baby’s head is smaller than normal and has wavy⁵ folds of skin.The doctors tell me it’s because her brain didn’t grow enough. So her scalp is a bit loose.

I wasn’t shocked when I heard she had microcephaly.But when she was born, I didn’t see any problems in her head. I didn’t see her malformation.I saw her and I fell in love with her.

Six mothers are seated in the waiting area.They all brought their babies for physiotherapy sessions and they’ve been coming here twice a week so by now they are like old friends and are laughing and socializing. This is the special unit set up to treat microcephaly cases. It’s a women only environment here until the fathers hardly ever bring the babies.

Like Yanka, others were left by their partners after having children with microcephaly.

A psychologist tells me, most of the mothers don’t get any financial or emotional support from their partners.Often they aren’t officially abandoned. But in fact they are left alone.I would say only ten percent of the women we see here get the support they need from their husbands.

That’s been very striking⁶.

如今，全世界许多科学家都还在努力研究蚊媒寨卡病毒是不是导致巴西数百名头极小的婴儿出生的原因。巴西在竭力应对不断增多的小头畸形症病例。80%的病例集中于巴西东北部——这个国家最贫穷的地区之一。茱莉亚?卡内萝前方报道。

小索菲亚利用健身球平衡着身体，理疗医师杰米?廖扶着她前后移动。她正在通过运动刺激发育。小索菲亚只有一个月大，她的妈妈在旁边观看。杨卡是这里最年轻的一位妈妈，今年18岁，索菲亚是她的二女儿。她怀孕7个月的时候发现孩子患有小头畸形症。

当时她爸爸离开了我。我们查出来后，他就立马说我让他感到恶心，他厌恶我。然后就离开了我。

杨卡看起来像个十几岁的青少年，她确实还是。索菲亚被裹在一个毯子里，上面写着“公主”。这个孩子的头比一般人小，头皮褶皱。医生告诉我，那是因为她的大脑没有发育完全，所以头皮有点松。

当听到她有小头畸形症后，我没有感到吃惊，她出生后我没觉得她的头有什么问题，看不出来畸形。我一见到她就爱上了她。

等候区坐着6位妈妈，都带着孩子来接受理疗，一周两次，所以现在她们像老朋友一样相谈甚欢。这是专为治疗小头畸形症设置的部门。这个环境里只有女人，爸爸们几乎没带孩子来过这里。

和杨卡一样，其他人也是在查出孩子有小头畸形症后被另一半遗弃。一位心理学家告诉我，大多数这样的母亲从另一半那里得不到任何经济和精神支持。她们通常也没有被正式抛弃，而是一个人孤立无援。我敢说这里只有10%的女人可以从丈夫那里得到她们需要的支持。这个数字很惊人。

1 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

2 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

3 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

4 despised   

鄙视，看不起某人（某事）( despise的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She despised gossip in any form. 她对任何形式的流言飞语都嗤之以鼻。
• He despised people who were lavish with their praises. 他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。

5 wavy   

adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• She drew a wavy line under the word.她在这个词的下面画了一条波纹线。
• His wavy hair was too long and flopped just beneath his brow.他的波浪式头发太长了，正好垂在他的眉毛下。

6 striking   

adj.显著的，惹人注目的，容貌出众的

参考例句：

• There is a striking difference between Jane and Mary.简和玛丽之间有显著的差异。
• What is immediately striking is how resourceful the children are.最令人注目的是孩子们的机智聪明。