VOA慢速英语20061010b

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Study Finds Rise in Allergic¹ Diseases in Children WorldwideBy Lawan Davis, Jerilyn Watson and Brianna Blake

Broadcast: Tuesday, October 10, 2006

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty².

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. We begin our program this week with findings from an international study of allergies³ in children ...

VOICE ONE:

Then, walking sharks? Find out about more than fifty kinds of newly found sea creatures in an area of the western Pacific ...

VOICE TWO:

And we tell you about some ancient writing found in Mexico.

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VOICE ONE:

A study has found that the numbers of children with allergic diseases has increased worldwide, especially among younger children.


Eight-year-old boy exhales⁴ into a peak flow meter

An allergy⁵ is an unusually strong reaction to something by the body's defense⁶ system. Hay fever, for example, can result from breathing particles of dust or plants. The breathing disorder⁷ asthma⁸ and the skin disease eczema are both allergic diseases.

Many different things in the environment can cause allergies. But allergic diseases may also involve genetic¹⁰ influences.

VOICE TWO:

Innes Asher of the University of Auckland in New Zealand led the study. Professor Asher's team examined information from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood. That study examined rates of asthma and other allergic diseases around the world. The first part of the study began in nineteen ninety-one.

The researchers repeated the study in two thousand two and two thousand three. They examined information about almost two hundred thousand children ages six and seven. These children lived in thirty-seven countries.

The researchers also looked at the records of more than three hundred thousand children ages thirteen and fourteen. These young people came from fifty-six countries including Brazil, Iran, South Africa and Sweden.

VOICE ONE:

The researchers found that allergic disease rates have risen in the past fifteen years. They said the rises were more often found among younger children. The greatest increase was for eczema in the younger group. Hay fever rates rose among all groups.

Professor Asher says the average increase was about one-half of one percent a year. She says this may seem small, but it could have a major effect on public health services. And the researcher says the problem might be much worse in highly populated countries.

The results of the study appeared in the medical publication The Lancet.

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VOICE TWO:

You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Scientists have reported finding more than fifty new kinds of sea creatures in the western Pacific Ocean. The discoveries include two kinds of sharks that appear to walk.

The sea creatures were identified during two trips to an area known as the Bird's Head Seascape earlier this year. The Bird's Head Seascape is on the northwestern end of Indonesia's Papua province.

VOICE ONE:

The new kinds of shark are a major discovery for the scientists. The sharks grow to about one meter long. Unlike other sharks, they are able to walk with their fins¹¹. They do this in waters that are not deep.

The scientists reported finding twenty-two kinds of fish new to science. They also said they found twenty new kinds of hard corals, and eight new kinds of shrimp¹². Among the fish that, until now, were unknown to science, is a flasher wrasse. The males of this fish species change in color from brown to bright yellow, blue and purple in an effort to influence females to mate with them.

VOICE TWO:

The scientists work for Conservation International, an environmental group based in Washington, D.C. Mark Erdmann led the team. Mister Erdman says the Bird's Head Seascape may be the richest area on earth for ocean life. He says it has more kinds of sea creatures than Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Mister Erdmann is calling for more efforts to protect the waters near the Bird's Head peninsula. He says fishermen who use explosives are threatening the area and its ocean life. He says only about eleven percent of the area is currently protected.

Tree-cutting and increased human development could also harm the undersea wildlife. More than one thousand kinds of fish are native to the Bird's Head Seascape. So are almost six hundred kinds of hard coral.

The area also is home to whales, sea turtles, crocodiles, giant clams¹³, manta rays, dugongs and other animals. Mark Erdmann says that without protection, they will not survive.


Scientists say this stone writing tablet found in Mexico is almost 3,000 years old. But they do not know what it says.

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VOICE ONE:

The oldest writing ever found in the Americas has been discovered on an ancient stone tablet. That is what a research team from Mexico and the United States announced in a report last month in Science magazine.

Road builders in the Mexican state of Veracruz found the stone by accident in the late nineteen nineties. Now, the researchers have found that the writing dates back almost three thousand years to the Olmec civilization. Writing was not thought to exist in the New World until about four hundred years later.

VOICE TWO:

Sixty-two signs are cut into the stone. The team says the signs are organized in a way that follows all the expectations of writing. But the researchers say the writing system does not look like anything that came later. So it might not have been developed further.

Experts say early Egyptians and Chinese had more complex writing systems. But the discovery confirms the widespread influence of the oldest known civilization in the Americas.

The Olmec lived along the Gulf¹⁴ of Mexico, in the area of Mexico and Central America that archeologists call Mesoamerica. The tablet was found at a place called Cascajal.

The Olmec used pictures to tell stories, but earlier discoveries of a possible writing system were disputed. Several experts said the new report provides strong evidence that the Olmec did, in fact, have a writing system.

VOICE ONE:

Stephen Houston of Brown University in Providence¹⁵, Rhode Island, is a member of the team that examined the stone. The anthropology¹⁶ professor says it is not surprising that the Olmec had a writing system. What is surprising, he says, is that no such evidence had been found before.

The Olmec people are best known for creating stone heads more than two meters tall. These huge heads were found in places thought to be religious centers.

Scientists have found that Olmec society was highly developed and the people built the first large cities in what is now Mexico. The Olmec influenced other civilizations that followed.

VOICE TWO:

The stone tablet is thirty-six centimeters long and twenty-one wide. It is thirteen centimeters thick and weighs almost twelve kilograms. The green stone is made of the mineral serpentine¹⁷. The side with the writing appears to have been used repeatedly as a writing surface.

Twenty-nine different symbols are organized in lines on the tablet. Some of the symbols, or glyphs, appear as many as four times. The tablet includes images of everyday life, such as maize¹⁸ and possibly fish. The stone is weather-beaten and the writing is difficult to read after all these years.

Yet the way signs are used together in some places even suggests examples of poetic¹⁹ expression.

VOICE ONE:

But there is one problem with the writing: no one understands what it means.

Professor Houston says he believes the tablet may have been used in ceremonies. He says some of the writing might relate to rulers in Olmec society. One thing it does not appear to be is a financial statement, since none of the marks look like numbers.

Maybe you can understand what the writing says. You can see a picture of the Cascajal tablet at www.unsv.com.

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VOICE TWO:

Plant researchers have developed genetically²⁰ engineered rice that they say can survive flooding for as long as two weeks. Rice plants are generally grown in standing²¹ water. But most will die if they are completely underwater for more than a few days.

The scientists say they found a rice gene⁹ that could lead to more secure food supplies for populations that depend on rice. This gene, when made to become very active, improves the ability of rice plants to survive longer underwater.

Teams from the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and the University of California made the discovery. Their report appeared in Nature magazine. The scientists say the experimental rice is being tested in Laos, Bangladesh and India.

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VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Lawan Davis, Jerilyn Watson and Brianna Blake who was also our producer. Internet users can download transcripts²² and audio files at www.unsv.com. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Please join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 allergic   

adj.过敏的，变态的

参考例句：

• Alice is allergic to the fur of cats.艾丽斯对猫的皮毛过敏。
• Many people are allergic to airborne pollutants such as pollen.许多人对空气传播的污染物过敏，比如花粉。

2 doughty   

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。

3 allergies   

n.[医]过敏症；[口]厌恶，反感；（对食物、花粉、虫咬等的）过敏症( allergy的名词复数 )；变态反应，变应性

参考例句：

• Food allergies can result in an enormous variety of different symptoms. 食物过敏会引发很多不同的症状。 来自辞典例句
• Let us, however, examine one of the most common allergies; hayfever. 现在让我们来看看最常见的变态反应的一种--枯草热。 来自辞典例句

4 exhales   

v.呼出，发散出( exhale的第三人称单数 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气

参考例句：

• He shivers, exhales, gets the ball and races back to his friends. 他浑身一颤，舒了口气，捡起球，跑回到他的朋友们那里。 来自互联网
• A smoker exhales in a pub in Richmond, London. 一名吸菸者在伦敦瑞旗蒙一家酒吧吞云吐雾。 来自互联网

5 allergy   

n.(因食物、药物等而引起的)过敏症

参考例句：

• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。
• The patient had an allergy to penicillin.该患者对青霉素过敏。

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

7 disorder   

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。

8 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

9 gene   

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。

10 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

11 fins   

[医]散热片；鱼鳍；飞边；鸭掌

参考例句：

• The level of TNF-α positively correlated with BMI,FPG,HbA1C,TG,FINS and IRI,but not with SBP and DBP. TNF-α水平与BMI、FPG、HbA1C、TG、FINS和IRI呈显著正相关，与SBP、DBP无相关。 来自互联网
• Fins are a feature specific to fish. 鱼鳍是鱼类特有的特征。 来自辞典例句

12 shrimp   

n.虾，小虾；矮小的人

参考例句：

• When the shrimp farm is built it will block the stream.一旦养虾场建起来，将会截断这条河流。
• When it comes to seafood,I like shrimp the best.说到海鲜，我最喜欢虾。

13 clams   

n.蛤；蚌，蛤( clam的名词复数 )v.（在沙滩上）挖蛤( clam的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The restaurant's specialities are fried clams. 这个餐厅的特色菜是炸蚌。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We dug clams in the flats et low tide. 退潮时我们在浅滩挖蛤蜊。 来自辞典例句

14 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

15 providence   

n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝

参考例句：

• It is tempting Providence to go in that old boat.乘那艘旧船前往是冒大险。
• To act as you have done is to fly in the face of Providence.照你的所作所为那样去行事，是违背上帝的意志的。

16 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

17 serpentine   

adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的

参考例句：

• One part of the Serpentine is kept for swimmers.蜿蜒河的一段划为游泳区。
• Tremolite laths and serpentine minerals are present in places.有的地方出现透闪石板条及蛇纹石。

18 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

19 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

20 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

21 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

22 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句