英语听力文摘 English Digest 542、糜鹿也有关节炎？！

 　　Did You Know That Moose Can Have Arthritis¹?

 

　　It’s easy to tell, even at a glance, that people and moose are pretty different. Moose, at least males, have big, wing shaped antlers. People have no antlers. Moose are herbivores, eating only plants.

 

　　We eat mostly junk food. Despite their salad only diet, moose can weigh as much as 1400 pounds. Even the fattest humans top the scales at only around 1000 pounds. The list goes on.

 

　　And yet, in some ways, people and moose are similar. For example, both suffer from arthritis.

 

　　And that’s interesting because how and why moose develop arthritis may be able to tell us something about the pathology of the human variety.

 

　　For example, researchers working in Michigan’s upper peninsula have been studying moose there for decades. And one thing they’ve found is while arthritis in moose is partly genetic², it’s also triggered by the environment.

 

　　Specifically, the researchers have observed that moose that suffer from arthritis seem to have not had access to proper nutrition early in life.

 

　　Perhaps they were born during a drought when there weren’t enough berries and other plants to eat. Whatever the case, even if those moose had plenty to eat later on, their very early nutritional³ deficits⁴ appear to have doomed⁵ them to an adult life of aching joints⁶.

 

　　The takeaway for scientists who study arthritis, and doctors who treat it in people, is that how and what we eat, even as babies, may lay the foundation for chronic⁷ arthritis and other health problems later in life.

 

　　And thanks to the moose, those scientists are also beginning to better understand the sorts of diets that could lower those risks.

1 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。

2 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。

3 nutritional   

adj.营养的，滋养的

参考例句：

• A diet lacking in nutritional value will not keep a person healthy.缺乏营养价值的饮食不能维持人的健康。
• The labels on food products give a lot of information about their nutritional content.食品上的标签提供很多关于营养成分的信息。

4 deficits   

n.不足额( deficit的名词复数 )；赤字；亏空；亏损

参考例句：

• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Many of the world's farmers are also incurring economic deficits. 世界上许多农民还在遭受经济上的亏损。 来自辞典例句

5 doomed   

命定的

参考例句：

• The court doomed the accused to a long term of imprisonment. 法庭判处被告长期监禁。
• A country ruled by an iron hand is doomed to suffer. 被铁腕人物统治的国家定会遭受不幸的。

6 joints   

接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

7 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。