英语听力文摘 English Digest 473、疫苗如何培育的？

Save the Eggs

Vaccine makers crack the eggshell and inject the virus into the white stuff surrounding the yolk¹. Then they reseal the egg, the embryo² becomes infected, and the virus is allowed to copy itself trillions of times over. And they use eggs because eggs are easy to infect and are relatively³ cheap. Right?

M: Well，yeah，But...

W: But the problem with using eggs to make flu vaccines is that normally there are plenty of eggs to go around, but when there’s a sudden outbreak  the eggs can run out pretty fast. And that’s one of the reasons why researchers are experimenting with a new way to grow flu vaccines.

Instead of infecting eggs, they’re trying to grow flu viruses in cultured human and animal cells. When an epidemic occurs, doctors could simply grow a large colony of cells, and then more easily develop enough vaccine.

And this method may not only save time, but also potentially produce more effective vaccines. Since the vaccine grown in cells may be better than caccine grown in the eggs at mimicking⁴ the flu virus that infects people.

疫苗生产商打碎蛋壳，把病毒注入蛋黄周围的蛋清里边。然后他们再把鸡蛋密封起来，这样鸡胚就被感染了，病毒就可以上万亿次的繁殖。他们使用鸡蛋培育疫苗是因为鸡胚很容易被感染而且还很便宜，是吧？

是的，但是...

使用鸡蛋培育流感疫苗的问题是，正常来说要有很多鸡蛋才行，但假如疾病突然发生，鸡蛋很快就会用完。那也是为什么研究员们正尝试培育流感疫苗新方法的原因之一。

他们正试图在人类和动物细胞里培育流感疫苗，而不是去感染鸡蛋。当传染病发生时，医生可以仅仅是培育一大群细胞，然后很轻易地生产足够的疫苗。

而且这种方法不仅节约时间，还能尽可能多地生产有效的疫苗，因为细胞里生长的疫苗在仿制流感病毒方面要比鸡蛋里的好。

 

1 yolk   

n.蛋黄，卵黄

参考例句：

• This dish would be more delicious with some yolk powder.加点蛋黄粉，这道菜就会更好吃。
• Egg yolk serves as the emulsifying agent in salad dressing.在色拉调味时，蛋黄能作为乳化剂。

2 embryo   

n.胚胎，萌芽的事物

参考例句：

• They are engaging in an embryo research.他们正在进行一项胚胎研究。
• The project was barely in embryo.该计划只是个雏形。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 mimicking   

v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的现在分词 )；酷似

参考例句：

• She's always mimicking the teachers. 她总喜欢模仿老师的言谈举止。
• The boy made us all laugh by mimicking the teacher's voice. 这男孩模仿老师的声音，逗得我们大家都笑了。 来自辞典例句