英国新闻听力 印度疯狂的毒蛇（在线收听）

每年，据统计有大约3万人在印度由于被毒蛇咬到而送命。问题不是缺乏抗毒血清，用于治疗被四大毒蛇，眼镜蛇，黑绉纱，蝰蛇和锯状鳞片蝰蛇，咬伤的抗毒血清已经推出数十年之久。困难的是要让被毒蛇咬到人能及时注射抗毒血清。在印度的许多地方，还迷信一些传统的救治方法，而不是第一时间送到医院，这会导致救治延误，造成致命的无法挽回的结果。杰明·格瑞恩曾到过有沙漠之洲之称的印度拉贾斯坦邦，在那里参与过一个教育项目旨在减少此类死亡人数。

单词注释： 

Antivenom n.抗蛇毒素，抗蛇毒血清 

Zigzag adj.锯齿形的，Z字形的 

Scrubby adj.杂草丛生的，树丛繁盛的 

Rasping adj.令人不安的，令人焦躁的 

Deteriorate v.（使）恶化 

Amulet n. 护身符

ANNOUNCER: Every year, it is estimated that around 30 thousand people in India die from snake bites. The problem isn’t a shortage of antivenom, one to treat bites by the big four venom snakes, cobra, crapes, viper, and saw scaled viper has been available for decades. The difficulty is getting the snake bit victims to the serums in time. In many part of India, great faith is placed in traditional treatments but the delay cause by trying this first and not going straight to hospital, can often be fatal. Gemming Grain has been in the desert state of Rajasthan, where an education project is aiming to reduce the death toll. 

播音员：每年，据统计有大约3万人在印度由于被毒蛇咬到而送命。问题不是缺乏抗毒血清，用于治疗被四大毒蛇，眼镜蛇，黑绉纱，蝰蛇和锯状鳞片蝰蛇，咬伤的抗毒血清已经推出数十年之久。困难的是要让被毒蛇咬到人能及时注射抗毒血清。在印度的许多地方，还迷信一些传统的救治方法，而不是第一时间送到医院，这会导致救治延误，造成致命的无法挽回的结果。杰明?格瑞恩曾到过有沙漠之洲之称的印度拉贾斯坦邦，在那里参与过一个教育项目旨在减少此类死亡人数。

GEMMING GRAIN: We were almost on top of the snake before we saw it. It lay still, curled in desert sand. Its zigzag markings looking like just another stone. It was a Northern saw scaled viper, known locally as “bandy” and this is a species which is responsible for 95% of all snake bites deaths in Northern Rajasthan. A local guiding tracker, Maona, had already bagged one specimen. We set out on motor bike at dawn from the city of Patna to collect vipers so that they could be milked for their venom. As Maona strolled along head down, it didn’t take long for him to pick up a trail in the sand. Following into a hole of the base of some scrubby bushes, he started digging with a metal pole. Within a few seconds he revealed the snake’s tail, and soon after that, the rest of the “bandy” appeared. Gently, he pressed its front end to the ground with a stick to confirm grip of it head between palm and four fingers and with a flick of the rest to ensure that it didn’t bit him on the way past, he deposited into the long black bag he was carrying. It was all very quick and very elegant. Maona was a surprise to any of us to discover the next specimen basking on the sand within a few centimeters of his sandaled foot. This one showed us why it was called saw scaled viper. When the corner this snake wards you off not by the hiss but by curling into a figure of shape and rubbing their scales against each other to produce a distinctive and unsettling rasping sound. Our snake handler however obviously was not unsettled. Calmly, he reached his snake stick and the viper soon joined his companion in the bag. The bandy is small but deadly and in an area where people work in an open sandals or even on barefoot, there is very little protection against been bitten. Perhaps this explains why so far this year, the BPM hospital in Patna has admitted about 130 snake bite patients, nearly all of them bitten by bandy. If you multiply this by all the other district hospital in the Northern Rajasthan, not to mention the cases which never make it as far as the hospital, you will get some idea of the scale of the problem. Most rural communities still place a great deal of faith in traditional treatment for snake bite. Here in Rajasthan for example, priests in Village Temples will conduct a lengthy spiritual cleansing called Jadda. The patient is made to drink liquid butter or ghee until they vomit, then after several hours of prayer and priestly ritual dance, they are allowed to go home, supposedly fully cured. In fact, this delay in receiving proper medical treatment can prove fatal. The lucky ones are taken straight to hospital by their families. I met one of those lucky ones, responding to a late night phone call from Dr. P. D. Tanwuar at the BPM Hospital, I rushed in to see Belrira, a-45-years old farmer just starting his anti-venom treatment through and IV Drip. After a bandy bite on the foot early that morning, he is being taken straight to the Jaddaman. But his condition was still deteriorating and his family had decided to hire a taxi to transport him in the 200KM to Patna. It was a right decision. By the following morning he was sitting up in bed eating a banana and looking considerably better. I was intrigued however to spot the amulet of peacock feathers his family had placed around his ankle, another traditional cure for snake bite, just in case. 

杰明?格瑞恩：当我们注意到那条蛇的时候几乎快踩到它的身上。它静静地蜷着身子躺在沙漠的沙地上。看上去就像是一块锯齿形的石头。它是一条北部特有的锯状鳞片蝰蛇，当地称它为“印度马车”，而且在拉贾斯坦北部，所有被毒蛇咬到中毒而死的人中有95%的人就是被这种蛇咬到的。当地的一位向导，毛纳，曾经捕获过一条这样的蛇。我们驾驶着电动车在清晨从巴特那市出发去收集蝰蛇来采集它们身上的毒液。毛纳低着头沿路搜寻着，没过多长时间他就在沙地上找到了痕迹。接着在一片杂木丛生的灌木丛中发现了一个洞，他开始用金属棒往里捅。没过多久就看见了一条蛇的尾巴，紧接着其余的部分都呈现出来了。轻轻地，他用一根木棍压住了它的前端按在地上，以确定把它的头部控制在掌心和四指之间的位置，然后敲击它的头以确保不会咬到他，然后放进随身携带的黑色长袋里。整个过程都非常的迅速，手艺一流。毛纳对我们每个人来说都是个惊喜，没走几步路我们又发现一条蛇躺在沙地上晒太阳。这一次我们算是见识到什么叫做锯状鳞片蝰蛇。当这条蛇要避开你的时候没有发出嘶嘶的声音，而是把身体盘成一种形状，摩擦它们的鳞片，制造出一种奇特的令人不安的尖锐声音来保护自己。这显然无法让我们的捕蛇手退却。他镇定地拿出他的捕蛇棒，按照之前所描述的步骤很快的将这条蝰蛇捕捉到袋子里。这是一条小蛇，但极具毒性，在这个地方，人们都是穿着敞脚的草鞋，有的甚至打着赤脚去工作，几乎没有什么防护措施。或许这可以解释今年目前为止，巴特那的BPM医院已经增加了近130个被蛇咬伤的病人，几乎所有被咬伤的人都是被这种蝰蛇咬伤的。如果算上拉贾斯坦所有其他区的医院，你会发现这个问题的规模性。大多数的乡下地方仍然信奉采用传统的救治方法来处理被毒蛇咬伤的情况。拉贾斯坦这里的方法是，祭司将会在村庄寺庙进行一次心灵净化，他们称之为加达。咬伤者会被灌入液体黄油或印度酥油直至呕吐，然后是数小时的祷告和祭祀舞蹈，所有这些完成以后，他们被允许带回家，认为他们已经治愈了。事实上，这会拖延他们接受药物治疗的最佳时间，后果是致命的。运气好的人会被他们的家人直接送到医院。我就见过其中的一个，当时我接到了P.D.汤沃博士很晚从BPM医院打来的电话，我冲到了医院看见了贝瑞纳，一名45岁的农民正在接受抗毒药物的静脉注射。那天早上他被蝰蛇咬到脚后，就直接送到了安达曼。但他的情况仍然在恶化，所以他家人决定租一辆出租车将他送往200公里外的巴特那。这个决定是正确的。送去后的第二天早上他就可以坐起来吃香蕉了，看上去好多了。然而我很好奇的是他家人在他的脚踝周围画上孔雀羽毛状的图案作为护身符，这是另外一个传统方法，用来以防万一的。