听力文摘：可以救人的吸血蝙蝠

Anyone who reads gothic fiction will tell you that vampires¹ are bad news. People who read modern medical journals, however, might disagree–in fact, they think vampires just might help save lives.

读过哥特小说的人都会说吸血蝙蝠是个讨厌的东西。而那些读现代医学杂志的人也许不同意这样的观点，他们认为吸血蝠能帮助拯救生命。

The kind of vampire² I’m talking about is Desmodus rotundus, commonly known as the “vampire bat.” Yep, these little creatures are real; and even though they almost never turn into suave³ Romanian counts to drool over, they do drool a lot themselves. That’s because their saliva⁴ is an essential part of their dining habits.

我说的是圆形叶口蝠，俗称“吸血蝙蝠”。是的，这些小家伙是真实的，尽管它们几乎没有垂涎于温雅的罗马利亚人，但它们却经常流口水，因为唾液是它们饮食习惯中的必不可少的一部分。

When a vampire bat latches⁵ onto, say, a steer⁶, it needs to keep the blood flowing from the puncture⁷ made by its teeth. That’s achieved by a natural anti-coagulant in the vampire bat’s saliva. Despite what you see in the movies, vampire bats almost never drink human blood. But people do suffer from other blood problems–a leading one being stroke.

当吸血蝙蝠缠在，比如一直公牛身上时，必须保持血液从牙齿咬开的孔流过。这是通过蝙蝠唾液里一种天然的抗凝血剂来实现的。尽管你会在电影里看到，吸血蝙蝠几乎从来不吸人的血。但人类患有其它血液疾病——最重要的就是中风。

Stroke is caused by a clotting⁸ in the blood which stops the flow and can starve areas of the brain of oxygen. Doctors have generally broken up clots⁹ with a compound called tPA. TPA works okay, but it has dangerous side effects, and can even hurt brain cells.

中风是由于血液凝结成块阻碍其流动，从而导致大脑部分缺氧。医生们已经找到了分解血液凝块的化合物，就是tPA。TPA很有效，但具有危险的副作用，甚至会损伤脑细胞。

A better idea? Bring in the bats, says researcher Robert Medcalf, a biochemist from Australia. Vampire bat spit contains a different compound, DSPA, which does the good things tPA does with far fewer side-effects. DSPA is now being tried on patients who have suffered a stroke; the data should be in within a year. If it works, doctors might have found an unlikely friend–the vampire bat.

有更好的主意吗？澳大利亚生物化学家，Robert Medcalf对蝙蝠进行研究。吸血蝙蝠的唾液中含有一种不同的化合物，DSPA，它能够帮助减少tPA引起的副作用，DSPA现在正在患有中风病人身上测试，结果将于一年内揭晓。如果有效的话，医生们也许多一位意想不到的朋友——吸血蝙蝠。

1 vampires   

n.吸血鬼( vampire的名词复数 )；吸血蝠；高利贷者；（舞台上的）活板门

参考例句：

• The most effective weapon against the vampires is avampire itself. 对付吸血鬼最有效的武器就是吸血鬼自己。 来自电影对白
• If vampires existed, don`t you think we would`ve found them by now? 如果真有吸血鬼，那我们怎么还没有找到他们呢？ 来自电影对白

2 vampire   

n.吸血鬼

参考例句：

• It wasn't a wife waiting there for him but a blood sucking vampire!家里的不是个老婆，而是个吸人血的妖精！
• Children were afraid to go to sleep at night because of the many legends of vampire.由于听过许多有关吸血鬼的传说，孩子们晚上不敢去睡觉。

3 suave   

adj.温和的；柔和的；文雅的

参考例句：

• He is a suave,cool and cultured man.他是个世故、冷静、有教养的人。
• I had difficulty answering his suave questions.我难以回答他的一些彬彬有礼的提问。

4 saliva   

n.唾液，口水

参考例句：

• He wiped a dribble of saliva from his chin.他擦掉了下巴上的几滴口水。
• Saliva dribbled from the baby's mouth.唾液从婴儿的嘴里流了出来。

5 latches   

n.（门窗的）门闩( latch的名词复数 )；碰锁v.理解( latch的第三人称单数 )；纠缠；用碰锁锁上（门等）；附着（在某物上）

参考例句：

• The virus latches onto the red blood cells. 这种病毒附着在红细胞上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The opposite end latches onto the pathogen. 相对的一端锁在病原体上。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 预防生物武器

6 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

7 puncture   

n.刺孔，穿孔；v.刺穿，刺破

参考例句：

• Failure did not puncture my confidence.失败并没有挫伤我的信心。
• My bicycle had a puncture and needed patching up.我的自行车胎扎了个洞，需要修补。

8 clotting   

v.凝固( clot的现在分词 )；烧结

参考例句：

• The study was also based only on the one anti-clotting drug. 所用抗血栓药物也仅限于一种。 来自互联网
• A plasma protein that is converted into thrombin during blood clotting. 凝血原酶一种血浆蛋白质，在血液凝聚时转化成凝血''。'酵'。''''。'素'。''。 来自互联网

9 clots   

n.凝块( clot的名词复数 )；血块；蠢人；傻瓜v.凝固( clot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• When you cut yourself, blood clots and forms a scab. 你割破了，血会凝固、结痂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Milk clots when it turns sour. 奶变酸就凝块。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》