VOA慢速英语2009年-Development Report - New Ways for Poor Cou

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Two new discoveries could offer easier ways to identify infectious diseases in developing countries.
　
Red Maasai hair sheep, native to East Africa, in a photo from the International Livestock¹ Research Institute

The first involves sheep. Researchers have found that hair sheep are a good source of blood for use in tests to diagnose infectious diseases in people.

In developed countries, microbiologists do these tests with blood from wool sheep or horses. But for developing countries, that costs too much. So tests often use human blood instead.

Ellen Yeh from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California was one of the authors of the study. She explains the problems with using human blood.

ELLEN YEH: "First off, there is the infectious disease risk because if you use human blood there's a lot of transmissible diseases. In particular, in Africa, you'd be worried about things like H.I.V. The other big problem with using human blood for making these blood agar plates is that they're actually not accurate."

Doctor Yeh says tests with human blood can produce the wrong results, so they are not dependable.

The study found that blood from hair sheep is an excellent substitute. It produced the same results as tests using wool sheep and horses.

Also, hair sheep require less care than wool sheep. They could better handle hot, dry climates because they do not have a lot of wool. It also means they do not need to be sheared³.

ELLEN YEH: "Having to shear² the sheep for wool is actually very costly⁴ and labor⁵ intensive. The other advantages of hair sheep include that it's more resistant⁶ to parasites⁷, so they're less prone⁸ to infection."

The scientists also tested an easier, cheaper way to prepare and process the blood. They found this new method effective. The blood can be collected directly into bags, much like with human donors⁹.

The study appeared last month in the online journal PLoS One, from the Public Library of Science.

The same journal also published a report in July on an experimental device called the CellScope. The CellScope is a cell phone microscope. Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, developed it.

They attached small microscope lenses to a holder¹⁰ fitted to a mobile phone. The phone's camera was able to take color images of malaria¹¹ parasites and tuberculosis¹² bacteria in blood and sputum. The team used a special dye and special lighting¹³ to make the images bright.

The pictures could also be sent wirelessly¹⁴ to distant experts for diagnosis¹⁵.

Dan Fletcher heads the team that developed the CellScope. He notes that many poor areas of the world have few hospitals, yet have mobile phone networks that are well developed.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. Transcripts¹⁶ and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

2 shear   

n.修剪，剪下的东西，羊的一岁；vt.剪掉，割，剥夺；vi.修剪，切割，剥夺，穿越

参考例句：

• Every spring they shear off the sheep's wool and sell it.每年春天他们都要剪下羊毛去卖。
• In the Hebrides they shear their sheep later than anywhere else.在赫伯里兹，剪羊毛的时间比其他任何地方都要晚。

3 sheared   

v.剪羊毛( shear的过去式和过去分词 )；切断；剪切

参考例句：

• A jet plane sheared the blue sky. 一架喷气式飞机划破蓝空。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The pedal had sheared off at the pivot. 踏板在枢轴处断裂了。 来自辞典例句

4 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

7 parasites   

寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫

参考例句：

• These symptoms may be referable to virus infection rather than parasites. 这些症状也许是由病毒感染引起的，而与寄生虫无关。
• Kangaroos harbor a vast range of parasites. 袋鼠身上有各种各样的寄生虫。

8 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

9 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

11 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

12 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

13 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

14 wirelessly   

不用电线的，用无线电波传送的

参考例句：

• I heard it on the wireless. 我是从无线电收音机里听到的。
• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio. 收音机里有许多无线电线路。

15 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

16 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