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美国国家公共电台 NPR Why Killer Viruses And Infectious Disease Outbreaks Are On Th

时间:2020-01-23 03:02来源:互联网 提供网友:nan   字体: [ ]
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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And today, we go on a hunt in an ancient forest in Southeast Asia. It's where deadly viruses hide out, waiting for their chance to leap into a person and then spread around the world. Think Ebola, Zika, bird flu. There are more diseases like these than ever before. NPR is taking the next few weeks to explore why.

MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF, BYLINE1: We got something? We got something - great.

SIEGEL: That's NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff. She joined a team of scientists as they tried to catch the next killer2 virus before it catches us. Here's her story.

DOUCLEFF: We've got bug3 spray. We've got headlamps. We're going into the forest. And it's steep.

KEVIN OLIVAL: And it's steep.

DOUCLEFF: That's Kevin Olival. He's a virus hunter with EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based group of scientists. They fly around the world, looking for killer viruses.

DOUCLEFF: Becomes dense4 right away.

OLIVAL: Oh, thorns.

DOUCLEFF: And he's brought me to a tropical rainforest. We're on the island of Borneo in Malaysia...

OLIVAL: This way.

DOUCLEFF: ...Because this is the type of place where outbreaks are born.

OLIVAL: This way is a little easier.

DOUCLEFF: HIV came from a rainforest. So did Ebola. The next one could come from here. A big reason why - all the crazy animals that live in the forest.

OLIVAL: See the size of this guy?

DOUCLEFF: Oh, wow. What is that?

OLIVAL: It's a roly poly bug.

DOUCLEFF: Whoa. It's huge.

OLIVAL: (Laughter) Yeah.

DOUCLEFF: It's like the size of a chestnut5. That's awesome6.

OLIVAL: A ping - almost a ping-pong ball.

DOUCLEFF: This is one of the richest places on Earth for life. In this Borneo rainforest, in an area about the size of a small farm, there can be more species of plants and animals than in the U.S. and Canada combined.

OLIVAL: It's a hotspot for biodiversity.

DOUCLEFF: There are pygmy elephants, monkeys with noses the size of beer cans and a deer that's as small as a rabbit. That's right - a deer that you could cradle like a baby. Here's the thing. Places that have lots of crazy animals like this have lots of crazy viruses. Olival is trying to find out what viruses are inside these animals. So he's trying to catch them.

OLIVAL: Ooh. That's what it'll sound like when an animal goes in there.

DOUCLEFF: Olival's team has set up metal traps on the ground and up in the trees.

OLIVAL: OK. Just don't step on that trap.

DOUCLEFF: These traps are set up to trap rodents7 and small mammals.

What he really wants to catch is a bat.

OLIVAL: Yeah. To the bat nets we go.

DOUCLEFF: There are a dozen nets strung like huge spider webs high in the trees.

OLIVAL: The nets are open. The traps are baited and open. The rain is coming, unfortunately. So...

DOUCLEFF: So now we just wait, huh?

OLIVAL: Now we wait.

DOUCLEFF: For the bats to go hunting and fly into one of these nets. Then we can take their blood and look for new viruses.

OLIVAL: Michaeleen, we got one.

DOUCLEFF: Oh, there it is. Wow. He's so cute. Oh, look at his wings.

OLIVAL: Little puppy face.

DOUCLEFF: Little puppy face.

OLIVAL: Short-nosed fruit bat.

DOUCLEFF: Short-nosed fruit bat. So he's going into a bag.

OLIVAL: Which he can breathe through.

DOUCLEFF: The bag helps keep the bat calm as we carry him to a makeshift lab near the trapping site.

OLIVAL: So we're going to take the bat out of the bag.

DOUCLEFF: He really does look like a puppy. And he wraps his wings around his body like a little blanket.

OLIVAL: Aw, there he is.

DOUCLEFF: But this bat isn't something you want to snuggle with.

OLIVAL: Just be careful.

DOUCLEFF: This little guy - these bats are arguably one of the most dangerous animals in the world.

OLIVAL: Take your time.

DOUCLEFF: They triggered the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the pandemic of killer pneumonia8 back in 2003 - that was called SARS. And they're behind one of the viruses scientists think could cause the next big one, Nipah.

OLIVAL: We're about to collect specimens9 from this bat. Mask is on. Gloves are on.

DOUCLEFF: One reason why bats are so dangerous is they have this weird10 ability to carry a lot of deadly viruses...

OLIVAL: Watch your finger.

DOUCLEFF: ...In their spit, their pee, their poop. And because they fly, they can spread these viruses over huge distances. So when there are bats up in the sky, there could be Ebola in that poop that lands on your shoulder.

OLIVAL: Do you guys want a leather glove?

DOUCLEFF: What Olival is trying to do is figure out what other viruses are in these bats. It's part of a $200 million project sponsored by the U.S. government. The goal is to catch the next killer virus before it catches us by setting up an early alert system for outbreaks.

OLIVAL: Right now, he's collecting a throat swab.

DOUCLEFF: The team is taking samples from all over the bat.

OLIVAL: They just took the blood sample. And now they're putting a piece of cotton on it to stop the bleeding.

(SOUNDBITE OF BAT CHIRPING)

DOUCLEFF: He's starting not to like it.

(SOUNDBITE OF BAT CHIRPING)

DOUCLEFF: Now the bat is fighting on the paper towel and kicking. Oh they're giving him a treat. They're giving him fruit juice.

OLIVAL: A little reward for his hard efforts.

DOUCLEFF: It is really cute. He just sucked the fruit juice out of the pipette like a little bottle. Aw, he's hungry.

OLIVAL: Yeah.

DOUCLEFF: They put the samples in test tubes and store them in liquid nitrogen. Then they let the bat go.

OLIVAL: OK. Good job.

(SOUNDBITE OF CAR DOOR CLOSING)

DOUCLEFF: The next morning, we meet up with Olival at a quiet spot. He's going to show us what his team has found in all these bats and animals in Borneo. He opens his laptop.

OLIVAL: I've just pulled up all our data from Malaysia today, all the viruses that we found.

DOUCLEFF: Wow. Look at them.

OLIVAL: Yeah.

DOUCLEFF: Line after line of new viruses.

OLIVAL: We found 48 new viruses here in Sabah and about 16 that were already known.

DOUCLEFF: OK. Wow. It's kind of scary to be honest (laughter) - just seeing that giant list. It's like, whoa.

There's a new polio-like virus in orangutans, a bunch of new herpes viruses in monkeys, many, many SARS-like viruses in bats. And that's just in Malaysia. The project Olival works with has been sampling in rainforests around the world. And they found nearly a thousand new viruses in 20 countries. Now, we've been saying new viruses. But what we mean is new to us.

OLIVAL: They've been in the forest for thousands of years. But they're new to science.

DOUCLEFF: And that's key. All these viruses have been circulating in bats, monkeys, rodents for tens of thousands of years - maybe longer. And no one has cared. No one has noticed. A virus is just a natural part of the ecosystem12 of the rainforest, coexisting with the animals and not bothering us.

OLIVAL: Exactly. It's just sitting out there in the forest.

DOUCLEFF: So then how does it become a problem?

OLIVAL: Well, these things - they don't just magically jump out of the forest. It's because we are getting in there.

DOUCLEFF: Getting into the forest. To see what he means, we just take a short walk from where we're sitting.

It's incredible. We just came over this overlook. And as far as the eye can see are palm trees, row after row after row of palm trees and nothing else. And it just hits you right in the gut11.

This forest is being eaten away by palm-oil plantations13 - you know, that vegetable oil we put in crackers14, pizza dough15, ice cream, even lipstick16? Before the palm-oil boom in the '80s, this was all pristine17 forest filled with all these crazy animals and their viruses. But then people came along and started cutting down the forest, destroying their homes. The animals had no place to go.

So they come and live on the plantations, near the workers' homes, even in the schoolyard where the workers' kids play. If a kid gets too close, he could pick up a new virus. You can see this all over the world. Forests get cut down, and animals show up in our backyards, on our farms, pee on our crops, giving their viruses a chance to jump into us and infect us. And it's getting worse.

OLIVAL: We're changing the environment in ways that is really unprecedented18 in human history.

DOUCLEFF: And it's not just palm oil in Malaysia.

OLIVAL: Soybeans in the Amazon. It's suburban19 development the U.S. It's - every part of this planet has been modified by people in some way.

DOUCLEFF: And with all these changes has come a new era of infectious diseases. Over the past 60 years, the number of new viral diseases has quadrupled. Many have come from animals in forests that have been chopped up, logged, turned into shopping malls.

OLIVAL: And so it's really the human impact on the environment that's causing these things to jump.

DOUCLEFF: And cause outbreaks.

OLIVAL: Yeah - cause pandemics.

DOUCLEFF: A pandemic, a deadly disease that bursts through international borders and could hurt millions. Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONSTER RALLY SONG, "ORCHIDS")

SIEGEL: You can see an animation20 of how an animal virus transforms into a deadly human virus at npr.org/pandemic.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONSTER RALLY SONG, "ORCHIDS")

 


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 byline sSXyQ     
n.署名;v.署名
参考例句:
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
2 killer rpLziK     
n.杀人者,杀人犯,杀手,屠杀者
参考例句:
  • Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
  • The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。
3 bug 5skzf     
n.虫子;故障;窃听器;vt.纠缠;装窃听器
参考例句:
  • There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
  • The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。
4 dense aONzX     
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的
参考例句:
  • The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
  • The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
5 chestnut XnJy8     
n.栗树,栗子
参考例句:
  • We have a chestnut tree in the bottom of our garden.我们的花园尽头有一棵栗树。
  • In summer we had tea outdoors,under the chestnut tree.夏天我们在室外栗树下喝茶。
6 awesome CyCzdV     
adj.令人惊叹的,难得吓人的,很好的
参考例句:
  • The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
  • That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.
7 rodents 1ff5f0f12f2930e77fb620b1471a2124     
n.啮齿目动物( rodent的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Rodents carry diseases and are generally regarded as pests. 啮齿目动物传播疾病,常被当作害虫对待。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Some wild rodents in Africa also harbor the virus. 在非洲,有些野生啮齿动物也是储毒者。 来自辞典例句
8 pneumonia s2HzQ     
n.肺炎
参考例句:
  • Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
  • Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。
9 specimens 91fc365099a256001af897127174fcce     
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人
参考例句:
  • Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
  • The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 weird bghw8     
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
参考例句:
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
11 gut MezzP     
n.[pl.]胆量;内脏;adj.本能的;vt.取出内脏
参考例句:
  • It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
  • My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。
12 ecosystem Wq4xz     
n.生态系统
参考例句:
  • This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
  • We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。
13 plantations ee6ea2c72cc24bed200cd75cf6fbf861     
n.种植园,大农场( plantation的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Soon great plantations, supported by slave labor, made some families very wealthy. 不久之后出现了依靠奴隶劳动的大庄园,使一些家庭成了富豪。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
  • Winterborne's contract was completed, and the plantations were deserted. 维恩特波恩的合同完成后,那片林地变得荒废了。 来自辞典例句
14 crackers nvvz5e     
adj.精神错乱的,癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 );薄脆饼干;(认为)十分愉快的事;迷人的姑娘
参考例句:
  • That noise is driving me crackers. 那噪声闹得我简直要疯了。
  • We served some crackers and cheese as an appetiser. 我们上了些饼干和奶酪作为开胃品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
15 dough hkbzg     
n.生面团;钱,现款
参考例句:
  • She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
  • The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。
16 lipstick o0zxg     
n.口红,唇膏
参考例句:
  • Taking out her lipstick,she began to paint her lips.她拿出口红,开始往嘴唇上抹。
  • Lipstick and hair conditioner are cosmetics.口红和护发素都是化妆品。
17 pristine 5BQyC     
adj.原来的,古时的,原始的,纯净的,无垢的
参考例句:
  • He wiped his fingers on his pristine handkerchief.他用他那块洁净的手帕擦手指。
  • He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.他本不想去玷污那清白的过去。
18 unprecedented 7gSyJ     
adj.无前例的,新奇的
参考例句:
  • The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
  • A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。
19 suburban Usywk     
adj.城郊的,在郊区的
参考例句:
  • Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
  • There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。
20 animation UMdyv     
n.活泼,兴奋,卡通片/动画片的制作
参考例句:
  • They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
  • The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。
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TAG标签:   NPR  美国国家电台  英语听力
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