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VOA慢速英语 2007 0116b

时间:2007-07-05 03:12:36

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(单词翻译)

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty1.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about Alzheimer's disease. One century after its discovery, the cause of the disease is still unknown.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In November of nineteen ninety-four, Ronald Reagan wrote a letter to the American people. The former president shared the news that he had Alzheimer's disease. Mister Reagan began what he called his journey into the sunset of his life. That ten year journey ended on June fifth, two thousand four, at the age of ninety-three.


Ronald Reagan

In his letter, America's fortieth President wrote about the fears and difficulties presented by Alzheimer's disease. He said that he and his wife Nancy hoped their public announcement would lead to greater understanding of the condition among individuals and families affected2 by it.

VOICE TWO:

Ronald Reagan was probably the most famous person to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. In the United States, about four million five hundred thousand people have the disease. Many millions more are expected to have it in years to come.

Doctors describe Alzheimer's as a slowly increasing brain disorder3. It affects memory and personality -- those qualities that make a person an individual. There is no known cure. Victims slowly lose their abilities to deal with everyday life. At first they forget simple things, like where they put something or a person's name.

As time passes, they forget more and more. They forget the names of their husband, wife or children. Then they forget who they are. Finally, they remember nothing. It is as if their brain dies before the other parts of the body. Victims of Alzheimer's do die from the disease, but it many take many years.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Alzheimer's disease is the most common kind of a disability or mental sickness called dementia. Dementia is the loss of thinking ability that is severe enough to interfere4 with daily activities. It is not a disease itself. Instead, dementia is a group of signs of some conditions and diseases.


Daughter feeding her mother, who has Alzheimer's

Some kinds of dementia can be cured or corrected. This is especially true if they are caused by drugs, alcohol, infection sight or hearing problems, heart or lung problems or head injury. Other kinds of dementia can be corrected by changing levels of hormones5 or vitamins in the body. However, brain cells of Alzheimer's victims die and are not replaced.

Victims can become angry and violent as the ability to remember and think decreases. Often they shout and move about with no purpose or goal. Media reports often tell about older people found walking in places far from their homes, not knowing where they are or where they came from. Generally, these people are suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Alzheimer's disease generally develops differently in each person. Yet some early signs of the disease are common. Often, the victims may not recognize changes in themselves. Others see the changes and the struggle to hide them.

Probably the most common early sign is short-term memory loss. The victim cannot remember something that happened yesterday, for example. Also, victims of the disease have increasing difficulty learning and storing new information. Slowly, thinking becomes much more difficult. The victims cannot understand a joke, or cannot cook a meal, or perform simple work.

VOICE ONE:

Another sign of Alzheimer's disease is difficulty solving simple problems, such as what to do if food on a stove is burning. Also, people have trouble following directions or finding their way to nearby places.

Another sign is struggling to find the right words to express thoughts or understand what is being discussed. Finally, people with Alzheimer's seem to change. Quiet people may become noisier and aggressive. They may easily become angry and lose their ability to trust others.

VOICE TWO:

Alzheimer's disease normally affects people more than sixty-five years old. But a few rare cases have been discovered in people younger than fifty. The average age of those found to have the disease is about eighty years old.

Alzheimer's is found in only about two percent of people who are sixty-five. But the risk increases to about twenty percent by age eighty. By ninety, half of all people are found to have some signs of the disease.

VOICE ONE:

Alzheimer's disease affects people of all races equally. Yet women are more likely to develop the disease than men. This is partly because women generally live longer than men.

There is no simple test to show if someone has Alzheimer's disease. Doctors who suspect Alzheimer's must test the patient for many other disabilities first. Alzheimer's is considered the cause if the tests fail to show the presence of other disabilities. The only way to tell for sure if a person has Alzheimer's is to examine the victim's brain after death.

VOICE TWO:

Recently, scientists reported progress in efforts to identify persons who will develop Alzheimer's disease. For example, one study examined brain and spinal7 cord fluid from sixty-eight people. It found twenty-three proteins that showed evidence of the disease. Study organizers said the protein test was correct in about ninety percent of patients involved in the study. The results were confirmed with brain examinations after the patients died.

Another study found evidence of Alzheimer's by using a chemical known as F-D-D-N-P. This study used a process called positron emission8 tomography to make brain images of eighty-three adults. American scientists said the test was ninety-eight percent correct in showing differences between Alzheimer's and normal memory problems.

Scientists say all these results must be repeated with larger groups of patients. But they said that being able to find the presence of the disease in such ways would make early treatment possible.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In his book The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks calls Alzheimer's disease, a thief of hearts and souls and memories. British writer Iris9 Murdoch died of the disease. She said it was a dark and terrible place.

It has been more than a century since a German doctor, Alois Alzheimer, told about a dementia patient whose brain was studied after death. Her brain had sticky structures and nerve cells that appeared to be mixed together. Later studies showed these tangled10 nerves are made of a protein called tau. The tau protein changes so that it sticks together in groups. The sticky structures were shown to be amyloid plaques12.

VOICE TWO:

Scientists are still not sure what causes Alzheimer's disease. The leading theory blames amyloid plaques. Reports say about one hundred different drugs are being tested to treat or slow the progress of the disease.

Some American scientists have found a way to reduce amyloid plaque11 development. Researchers in New York say they reduced the amount of amyloid protein in the brains of mice by fifty percent. They say they did this by stopping interaction between amyloid and a protein known as apo E. Apo E moves cholesterol13 and other fats around the brain.

VOICE ONE:

Not all scientists are sure that amyloid plaques cause Alzheimer's disease. Some say the plaques could be an effect of the disease, not the cause. Reports say some people who die of Alzheimer's do not have any plaques in their brains. Others who have the sticky structures showed no signs of Alzheimer's.

Many scientists now say doctors are considering other possibilities. These include studies of enzymes15 that act on proteins to produce the plaques, and using antibodies against amyloid. Yet amyloid and enzymes are important for health and scientists do not want to destroy them completely.

VOICE TWO:

Other scientists are working with a gene6 called apoE4. Scientists in nineteen ninety-three discovered that its presence increases the chance of developing Alzheimer's disease. They now say that apoE4 is present in fifty to seventy percent of the patients with the disease.

Some scientists are attempting to change the protein that apoE4 makes. Others are working to block an enzyme14 that divides the apoE4 protein into different pieces that kill nerve cells.

Many more studies are being done to find the cause and treatment for Alzheimer's...a disease that continues to affect millions of people around the world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Brianna Blake. This is Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.
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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 doughty Jk5zg     
adj.勇猛的,坚强的
参考例句:
  • Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质:脾气倔强,性格刚强。
  • The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。
2 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
3 disorder Et1x4     
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 interfere b5lx0     
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰
参考例句:
  • If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话,可能弊多利少。
  • When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件,棘手的事情就来了。
5 hormones hormones     
n. 荷尔蒙,激素 名词hormone的复数形式
参考例句:
  • This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
  • The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。
6 gene WgKxx     
n.遗传因子,基因
参考例句:
  • A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
  • The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。
7 spinal KFczS     
adj.针的,尖刺的,尖刺状突起的;adj.脊骨的,脊髓的
参考例句:
  • After three days in Japan,the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.在日本三天,就已经使脊椎骨变得富有弹性了。
  • Your spinal column is made up of 24 movable vertebrae.你的脊柱由24个活动的脊椎骨构成。
8 emission vjnz4     
n.发出物,散发物;发出,散发
参考例句:
  • Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施,降低污染物排放总量。
  • Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后,指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。
9 iris Ekly8     
n.虹膜,彩虹
参考例句:
  • The opening of the iris is called the pupil.虹膜的开口处叫做瞳孔。
  • This incredible human eye,complete with retina and iris,can be found in the Maldives.又是在马尔代夫,有这样一只难以置信的眼睛,连视网膜和虹膜都刻画齐全了。
10 tangled e487ee1bc1477d6c2828d91e94c01c6e     
adj. 纠缠的,紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了,我梳不动。
  • A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。
11 plaque v25zB     
n.饰板,匾,(医)血小板
参考例句:
  • There is a commemorative plaque to the artist in the village hall.村公所里有一块纪念该艺术家的牌匾。
  • Some Latin words were engraved on the plaque. 牌匾上刻着些拉丁文。
12 plaques cc23efd076b2c24f7ab7a88b7c458b4f     
(纪念性的)匾牌( plaque的名词复数 ); 纪念匾; 牙斑; 空斑
参考例句:
  • Primary plaques were detectable in 16 to 20 hours. 在16到20小时内可查出原发溶斑。
  • The gondoliers wore green and white livery and silver plaques on their chests. 船夫们穿着白绿两色的制服,胸前别着银质徽章。
13 cholesterol qrzzV     
n.(U)胆固醇
参考例句:
  • There is cholesterol in the cell of body.人体细胞里有胆固醇。
  • They are determining the serum-protein and cholesterol levels.他们正在测定血清蛋白和胆固醇的浓度。
14 enzyme cPozF     
n.酵素,酶
参考例句:
  • Above a certain temperature,the enzyme molecule will become unfolded.超过一定温度,酶分子将会展开。
  • An enzyme that dissolves the fibrin of blood clots.能溶解血凝块中的纤维的酶。
15 enzymes 7881ad8ce9c83424f7874e70266ed2d8     
n. 酶,酵素
参考例句:
  • It was said that washing powders containing enzymes remove stains more efficiently. 据说加酶洗衣粉除污更有效。
  • Among the enzymes which are particularly effective are pepsin, papain. 在酶当中特别有效的是胃朊酶、木瓜酶。

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