时差N小时 抑郁可能对进化有好处

Feeling down? You're not alone.

你有感到很失落吗？不只你这样。

If depression seems pretty common, it is.

抑郁看起来很普遍，事实上也是如此。

One in every ten adults suffers from depression.

每十个成年人里就有一个会患有抑郁症。

And that's what has scientists puzzled.

这让科学家们感到不解。

If depression is a detrimentalcondition, why is it so rampant¹ in the population?

如果抑郁对身体有害，那么为什么人群中抑郁症患者如此之多呢？

Some scientists think they may have the answer.

一些科学家认为他们已经找到了答案。

Depression may have an evolutionary² benefit.

抑郁也许对进化有好处。

It may improve one's chances of fighting off infection.

它能提高人体免疫力。

Scientists have known that depressed³ people display an immunoactive condition known as inflammation,

一些科学家发现抑郁症人群体内会产生免疫活性，也就是炎症，

even when they are not infected.

即便他们未受到感染时也会如此。

For several years they have been finding that genes⁴ linked to depression also affect the function of the immune system.

几年来，科学家们逐渐发现与抑郁有关的基因也会影响免疫系统的功能。

Stress, which can lead to depression, also modifies the immune system.

同样会导致抑郁的压力因素也会改变免疫系统。

These findings suggested that depression was somehow linked to the body's ability to fight disease.

从某种程度上讲，这些调查结果表明抑郁与人体免疫力有关。

Some scientists now propose that depression might have had an evolutionary advantage in the days before modern medicine and antibiotics⁵.

一些科学家提出早在现代药物和抗生素出现之前，抑郁就可能能够给进化带来好处。

Infection was a major cause of death in early human history.

感染是人类早期历史中导致死亡的主要原因之一。

Surviving those infections determined⁶ which genes were passed to the next generation.

能够在这些感染中存活就决定了哪种基因能够传递给下一代。

They suspect that depression helped people, especially children, survive infection.

他们推测抑郁可能会帮助人们特别是儿童抵御感染的侵害。

Fatigue⁷ leads toinactivity and less social contact which helps keep infection from spreading.

疲劳会让人不愿意运动，同时也会减少社交，由此便会阻止感染的传播。

Shunning⁸ food helps avoid food sharing which can also spread infection.

对食物没胃口就会避免与别人分 享食物，这也能够避免感染传播。

Sleeplessness⁹, which is associated with both depression and immune system activation¹⁰,

失眠与抑郁和免疫系统激活也存在联系，

may have been a mechanism¹¹ to keep a person alert to fight off predators¹² after injury.

失眠可能会产生一种让人在受伤后能对感染保持警觉的机制。

If scientists are correct about this link, it could lead to new treatments for depression.

如果科学家们对这些联系的猜测正确的话，那么它们将促成新的治疗抑郁症的方法产生。

They are interested in drugs that treat conditions where the immune system attacks the person's ownbody, known as auto¹³ immune diseases.

他们对用于治疗自体免疫症的药物很感兴趣。

It is possible that medications known to treat auto immune disease may be successful in treating depression also.

那些已知的用于治疗自身免疫性疾病的药物对治疗抑郁症可能同样有效。

1 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。

2 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

3 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

4 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

5 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

6 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

7 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

8 shunning   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• My flight was more a shunning of external and internal dangers. 我的出走是要避开各种外在的和内在的威胁。 来自辞典例句
• That book Yeh-yeh gave me-"On Filial Piety and the Shunning of Lewdness"-was still on the table. 我坐下来，祖父给我的那本《刘芷唐先生教孝戒淫浅训》还在桌子上。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

9 sleeplessness   

n.失眠，警觉

参考例句：

• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness. 现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The doctors were puzzled by this strange continuous sleeplessness. 医生们对他的奇异的不眠感到疑惑。 来自英语晨读30分（高三）

10 activation   

n. 激活，催化作用

参考例句：

• A computer controls the activation of an air bag.电脑控制着气囊的启动。

11 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

12 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》

13 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。