The Ghost In Your Genes - 9 基因外遗传现象

The email was sent by Olov Bygren. He was studying the population records of an obscure town in northern Sweden, Overkalix. What made these records unique was their detail. They recorded births and deaths over hundreds of years, but they also had accurate details of the harvests. More significantly, Overkalix's isolated¹ location on the Arctic Circle meant that it was particularly vulnerable to famine.

In the 19th century, this was a very isolated area, they could not have help from outside. As it was so poor, they really had a hard time when there was a famine, and they really had a good, good time when the, the harvests were good.

Bygren appeared to be seeing links between generations that confounded his expectations.

I sent Marcus Pembrey an email telling him that we had some, some data, which could interest him.

I was terribly excited to get this completely out of the blue, and for the first time, it seemed that there were some data that we could then start to explore, so that was the beginning of our collaboration².

Overkalix offered Pembrey a unique opportunity to see if the events that happened in one generation could affect another decades later.

While Pembrey and Bygren sifted⁴ through their Overkalix data, someone else had stumbled on another group of people that caught them by surprise. Rachel Yehuda is a psychologist. She is interested in how people respond to stress.

Well, trans-generational effects were not on my radar⁵ screen at all until we opened up a clinic for the treatment of Holocaust⁶ survivors⁸.

While treating the Holocaust survivors for stress, she was surprised that many of the children of the survivors were themselves suffering stress effect.

About five children of Holocaust survivors were calling us for every Holocaust survivor⁷, and what these children said was that they were casualties of the Holocaust too that they had been affected⁹ by the Holocaust indirectly¹⁰.

She was convinced that the stress in their children was caused by continual retelling of the stories by their parents.

New Words & Phrases:

confound: If someone or something confounds you, they make you feel surprised or confused, often by showing you that your opinions or expectations of them were wrong. 使混乱;使困惑;使不知所措

sift³: If you sift through something such as evidence, you examine it thoroughly¹¹. 详查,细究

Holocaust: The Holocaust is used to refer to the killing¹² by the Nazis¹³ of millions of Jews during the Second World War. 大屠杀;大破坏

1 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

2 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

3 sift   

v.筛撒，纷落，详察

参考例句：

• Sift out the wheat from the chaff.把小麦的壳筛出来。
• Sift sugar on top of the cake.在蛋糕上面撒上糖。

4 sifted   

v.筛( sift的过去式和过去分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• She sifted through her papers to find the lost letter. 她仔细在文件中寻找那封丢失的信。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She sifted thistles through her thistle-sifter. 她用蓟筛筛蓟。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

6 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

7 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

8 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

9 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

10 indirectly   

adv.间接地，不直接了当地

参考例句：

• I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
• They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人，他们进行了间接接触。

11 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》