VOA标准英语2011--Trauma Center Treats Sea Turtles

Trauma¹ Center Treats Sea Turtles

This month, on beaches up and down the U.S. East Coast, tens of thousands of newly-hatched loggerhead sea turtles are emerging from the sand and crawling into the Atlantic. Very few of these baby turtles will survive, but a hospital in Georgia is trying to improve their chances.
Jekyll Island, Georgia, is best known as a summer vacation spot. But it’s also an important rehabilitation² destination for hundreds of sick or injured sea turtles that wash up on Atlantic coast beaches each year.
“Twenty percent of the cases are boat strike-related injuries," says Terry Norton, a veterinarian who is director of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. "We get fishing line and fishhook-related injuries. There’s a disease called fibropapilloma, caused by the herpes virus, that can cause tumors on the skin. We get some real debilitated³ turtles.”
Many have survived encounters with predators⁴ like sharks that can bite off a turtle’s flipper⁵ or crack its shell.
The operating room at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center looks like one you’d see at a major medical center for humans.
There are bright surgical⁶ lights, stainless⁷ steel tables and an x-ray machine. The doctors and nurses wear blue surgical scrubs. This morning, Norton is treating Ziva, a 68-kilo female loggerhead turtle.
“This is a turtle with a boat strike injury to the head and to her shell," he says. "She actually had a little abscess in the skull⁸. These little Velcro patches are for putting weights because she floats asymmetrically⁹ so that helps her dive a little better and get around a little better.”
Norton estimates that Ziva is 10-to-12 years old, which is young for a turtle. He says rehabilitating¹⁰ these injured or sick juveniles¹¹ is vital to maintaining the worldwide sea turtle population.
“They become sexually mature at 35 years of age. That makes it really significant when there’s adult mortality. It took a lot of turtles to reach that point. It takes about 4,000 hatchlings and eggs to get to that one animal, so all these mature animals are very important to the population.”
Unfortunately, Ziva’s injuries are so extensive that she’ll never recover enough to be released back into the ocean. Instead, she’ll go to an aquarium¹² to become a turtle ambassador as part of an educational exhibit.
Since sea turtles are found worldwide, Norton’s staff works with conservation groups in India, Pakistan, Costa Rica and St. Kitts, teaching them how to protect and care for injured turtles.
Ten of thousands of the tourists who visit Jekyll Island each year come to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center to learn about the life cycle of turtles.
A highlight of their visit is the rehabilitation pavilion, where sea turtles, land turtles and even alligators¹³ can be seen recovering after their treatments.
“Out here they are all in quarantine areas…so since we are similar to a hospital setting, we try to keep as much under control as we can," says David Zailo, one of the center’s guides. "By separating the animals from one another, it’s easier to treat them. It’s easier to mark down what they feed and it's easier to mark down their progress as they’re healing.”
Visitors who really want to get close to turtles can join the center’s staff for an early morning turtle walk on a nearby protected stretch of beach.
Earlier this summer, dozens of female loggerheads - each about one meter in diameter - lumbered¹⁴ out of the ocean, dug nests in the sand and laid hundreds of eggs.
Now, those eggs are hatching and a lucky few visitors will get to see the baby loggerheads crawl across the beach and into the ocean, to begin their perilous¹⁵ journey to adulthood¹⁶.

1 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

2 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

3 debilitated   

adj.疲惫不堪的，操劳过度的v.使（人或人的身体）非常虚弱( debilitate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Prolonged strike action debilitated the industry. 长时间的罢工削弱了这个行业的活力。
• This is especially important when dealing with the geriatric or debilitated patient. 这对老年和虚弱病人尤其重要。 来自互联网

4 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 flipper   

n. 鳍状肢，潜水用橡皮制鳍状肢

参考例句：

• The seal's flipper is homologous with the human arm. 海豹的鳍肢与人类的手臂同源。
• It's almost like a flipper action as she kicks down. 她向下踢腿时有鱼鳍的效果。

6 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。

7 stainless   

adj.无瑕疵的，不锈的

参考例句：

• I have a set of stainless knives and forks.我有一套不锈钢刀叉。
• Before the recent political scandal,her reputation had been stainless.在最近的政治丑闻之前，她的名声是无懈可击的。

8 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

9 asymmetrically   

参考例句：

• They were asymmetrically arranged. 他们不对称地排列在一起。 来自互联网
• A continent lying chiefly within the Antarctic Circle and asymmetrically centered on the South Pole. 主要位于南极圈内，以南极为不对称中心的大陆。 来自互联网

10 rehabilitating   

改造（罪犯等）( rehabilitate的现在分词 )； 使恢复正常生活； 使恢复原状； 修复

参考例句：

• a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
• She was more concerned about protecting the public than rehabilitating the criminal. 她比较关心保护百姓，而不大关心改造罪犯。

11 juveniles   

n.青少年( juvenile的名词复数 )；扮演少年角色的演员；未成年人

参考例句：

• Do you think that punishment for violent crimes should be the same for juveniles and adults? 你对暴力犯罪的惩罚对于青少年和成人应一样吗？ 来自生活英语口语25天快训
• Juveniles Should we not exactly in need of such strength and conviction? 少年的我们难道不正是需要这种力量和信念吗？ 来自互联网

12 aquarium   

n.水族馆，养鱼池，玻璃缸

参考例句：

• The first time I saw seals was in an aquarium.我第一次看见海豹是在水族馆里。
• I'm going to the aquarium with my parents this Sunday.这个星期天，我要和父母一起到水族馆去。

13 alligators   

n.短吻鳄( alligator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Two alligators rest their snouts on the water's surface. 两只鳄鱼的大嘴栖息在水面上。 来自辞典例句
• In the movement of logs by water the lumber industry was greatly helped by alligators. 木材工业过去在水上运输木料时所十分倚重的就是鳄鱼。 来自辞典例句

14 lumbered   

砍伐（lumber的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• A rhinoceros lumbered towards them. 一头犀牛笨重地向他们走来。
• A heavy truck lumbered by. 一辆重型卡车隆隆驶过。

15 perilous   

adj.危险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• The journey through the jungle was perilous.穿过丛林的旅行充满了危险。
• We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis.历经一连串危机，我们如今已安然无恙。

16 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。