【英语趣味课堂】器官捐献-Organ Donation

Todd: So, Greg, you have a new book out, and you're book has lots of controversial¹ topics, and one of the topics is organ donation². So first can you explain what organ donation is?

Greg: Sure. Organ donation is when a person living or dead allows his or her organs to be used in another person.

 

Todd: So for example like you donate a liver³, or kidney⁴ or something like that.

 

Greg: That's right.

 

Todd: And usually they have to get it... the person who dies, they have to get it soon.

 

Greg: Yes, that 100% right.

 

Todd: So is this something that's common in most countries?

 

Greg: Well, actually some countries do not allow organ and tissue⁵ donation, or they allow only some organs, some tissues⁶ and not allow others.

 

Todd: You know, your book is about controversial topics. What is controversial about organ donation?

 

Greg: Oh, there's a lot of controversial aspects to organ donation. Again, as I mentioned there are differences in every country. Some countries do not allow organ donation. Some allow some organs and won't others and there are also cases where say maybe a thousand people need a kidney but there's only fifty kidneys⁷. Who is gonna get it? Should the kidney go to the sickest person but who might die? Should it go to the oldest person? Should it go to the youngest person? Should it go to the richest person? How do you decide? What's a fair way to decide?

 

Todd: Now, also I think in your book you were talking about medical tourism. Can you explain what that is?

 

Greg: Medical tourism is when people go to a country for the purpose of medical treatment which they can't get in their country either cause the treatment is not allowed or it's too expensive. You know, relating back to the question of controversy⁸, there are lot of countries in the world which are very poor, and people are willing to sell their organs actually, so you have rich Arabs, rich Americans, rich Japanese, rich British people, people from any rich country, can't get an organ in their own country, and they'll go to a poor country to buy organs from poor people. Is that right? In some places it's illegal. There are also laws in many countries that say someone must, before they die, give permission for the body parts to be used, but those body parts are sometimes taken from people after their death without permission.

 

Todd: Yeah, that's pretty controversial stuff⁹. That's pretty deep.

 

Greg: Yeah.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

a new book out

 

So, Greg, you have a new book out.

 

A new book is written then published. When it arrives in bookstores, we say there is a new book out.  Notice the following:

 

I'm going to surf Amazon to see if there are any interesting new books out.

The world's best selling book writer, the late Agatha Christie, hasn't had a new book out in over 30 years.

controversial aspects

 

 

There are a lot of controversial aspects to the book.

 

When we discuss a topic that people have strong feelings about, we say the topic is controversial. Here, 'aspects' means parts; as in controversial parts of something. Notice the samples:

 

There are controversial aspects to the new national health plan.

The Prime¹⁰ Minister avoided discussing controversial aspects of her economic strategy¹¹.

relating back

 

Relating back to the question of controversy.

 

When we relate back to something, we return to an earlier topic in the conversation. Here are some samples:

 

Relating back to the first question, I think the answer is yes.

Why he joined Real Madrid relates back to the first question; why did he leave Liverpool?

give permission

 

They must give permission for the body parts to be used.

 

When we give permission to do something that means it is OK. Notice the sample sentences:

 

My dad gave me permission to use his car on Saturday.

Permission has been given to hold the festival on the school's football field.

That's pretty deep

 

Controversial stuff. That's pretty deep.

 

Here, 'deep' means strong feelings we have about serious experiences in our lives or just serious topics in general. Here are two samples:

 

She talked about losing her father at an early age. That's pretty deep.

In class today we talked about the origin of man. Everyone from different cultures, and religions had different opinions. It was pretty deep and controversial.

 

1 controversial   

adj.引起争论的，有争议的

参考例句：

• The topic of argument is controversial.这个议题是很有争议的。
• Immigration is a controversial issue in many countries.在很多国家，移民都是一个颇有争议的问题。

2 donation   

n.捐赠，捐献，捐助；捐赠物

参考例句：

• She made a personal donation to the fund.她以个人名义向基金会捐款。
• Then next big donation of musical instruments came from Germany.第二笔音乐乐器的大型捐助来自德国。

3 liver   

n.肝；肝脏

参考例句：

• He has a weak liver.他的肝脏不好。
• The largest organ in the body is the liver.人体最大的器官是肝脏。

4 kidney   

n.肾，腰子，类型

参考例句：

• Several of the patients had received kidney transplant.病人中有几位已接受了肾移植手术。
• The operation to transplant a kidney is now fairly routine.肾脏移植手术如今已相当常见。

5 tissue   

n.组织；薄纱，薄纸，手巾纸

参考例句：

• As we age we lose muscle tissue.肌肉组织会随着我们日趋衰老而萎缩。
• Athletes have hardly any fatty tissue.运动员几乎没有什么脂肪组织。

6 tissues   

n.组织( tissue的名词复数 )；薄纸；棉纸；一套

参考例句：

• The teacher showed the students the pictures of brain tissues. 老师给学生们看脑组织的图片。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Give some face tissues to me. 给我些面巾纸。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 kidneys   

肾形矿脉； 肾，肾脏( kidney的名词复数 )； （可食用的动物的）腰子

参考例句：

• The function of the kidneys is to excrete wastes from the body. 肾的功能是排泄人体里的废物。
• She got a very dangerous disease of kidneys. 她得了一种很危险的肾病。

8 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

9 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

10 prime   

adj.首要的，主要的；最好的，第一流的

参考例句：

• The prime minister spoke of the general insecurity in the country.总理谈到了全国普遍存在的不安全。
• He met with the Prime Minister of Japan for an hour.他和日本首相会见了一个小时。

11 strategy   

n.方法，策略，战略

参考例句：

• The only way to take the enemy position is by strategy,not by forceful attack.只可智取，不可强攻。
• Tactics differs from strategy.战术有别于战略。