VOA慢速英语 2007 0410b

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty¹. On our program this week, we will tell about new suggestions for treating heart attack victims. We also tell about a test for lung cancer. But first, we report on new pictures from a far-away planet.

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VOICE ONE:

 
Jupiter's Little Red Spot, seen from 3.5 million kilometers
The New Horizons spacecraft has made some of the most detailed² pictures ever taken of the planet Jupiter. Yet the American spacecraft is only passing by the planet. New Horizons is attempting to become the first space vehicle to visit Pluto³.

New Horizon's pictures of Jupiter and three of its moons are filled with surprises. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. The planet has a deep, thick atmosphere of clouds made of hydrogen, helium, methane⁴ and ammonia.

New Horizons used its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager camera to take pictures of a storm called the Little Red Spot. The pictures will help scientists learn how the storm developed.

VOICE TWO:

New Horizons also made pictures of Jupiter's moon Io. The pictures were taken just as the volcano Tvashtar sent a cloud of dust two hundred ninety kilometers above its surface. At the time, the spacecraft was only two million five hundred thousand kilometers away from the moon.

Scientists say the pictures look like a similar volcanic⁵ eruption⁶ on Io in nineteen seventy-nine. At that time, the Voyager Two spacecraft captured a picture of the volcano Pele erupting. But New Horizon's pictures of Tvashtar are more detailed.

Another target for the camera was the largest of Jupiter's moons, Ganymede. Pictures show an icy world with ancient dark areas and bright newer areas where space objects struck the surface.

New Horizons also took pictures of Europa, another moon of Jupiter. Europa is believed to have an ocean one hundred kilometers below its frozen surface.

VOICE ONE:

The American space agency launched New Horizons in January of last year. Although smaller than a car, it is the fastest spacecraft ever launched. It has traveled at speeds of over fifty-seven thousand kilometers an hour.

New Horizons is expected to reach Pluto in two thousand fifteen. 

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VOICE TWO:

Lung cancer kills more Americans than any other kind of cancer. Smoking is a leading cause of the disease. Signs of lung cancer include chest pain, breathing problems and the sudden expulsion of air from the lungs. The signs may not appear until the disease is fully⁷ developed.

Doctors have different ways to find lung cancer. One test is an x-ray imaging process called computed⁸ tomography, or CT. A CT test, or scan, can be helpful in finding very small growths on the lung.

Last year, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report about CT scans and lung cancer. The report said early discovery of lung cancer with the test followed by an operation could save lives. It estimated that patients whose cancers were found early and then removed had a ten-year survival rate of ninety-two percent.

VOICE ONE:

Now, another report is disputing the findings. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the report. Peter Bach is a lung specialist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He says early CT testing is not only unproven, but can cause great harm to patients. He says some patients died from unnecessary operations. Others suffered heart attacks, infections and even a collapsed⁹ lung.

Doctor Bach says CT scans are successful at finding small growths in the lungs. But he says such growths do not always spread quickly or cause serious harm. For that reason, he says, it only seemed in the earlier study that lung cancer deaths were prevented.

VOICE TWO:

Doctor Bach and his team examined information about more than three thousand two hundred people. All of the patients either smoked or were former smokers¹⁰. They were tested for lung cancer. Doctor Bach says CT scans missed the fast-growing, deadly cancers. He says the tests showed only very small, slow-growing cancers. The CT scans led to a rise in the number of lung cancer operations.

Thirty-eight of the patients died of lung cancer over a five-year period. Doctor Bach says that same number of patients would have died without early CT scans.

Medical experts say the debate on preventing lung cancer deaths through such tests will continue until a larger study is completed.

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VOICE ONE:

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation¹¹, or CPR, can save the life of someone whose heart has stopped. The condition is called cardiac arrest. The heart stops pumping blood. The person stops breathing. Without lifesaving measures, the brain starts to die within four to six minutes. 

CPR combines breathing into the victim's mouth and repeated presses on the chest. CPR keeps blood and oxygen flowing to the heart and brain.

However, a Japanese study questions the usefulness of mouth-to-mouth breathing. The study was published in the British medical magazine, The Lancet. Doctors in Tokyo examined more than four thousand people who had suffered cardiac arrest. In all the cases, witnesses saw the event happen.

VOICE TWO:

More than one thousand of the victims received some kind of medical assistance from witnesses. Seven hundred and twelve received CPR. Four hundred and thirty-nine received chest presses only. No mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths were given to them.

The researchers say any kind of CPR improved chances of the patient's survival. But, they said those persons treated with only chest presses suffered less brain damage. Twenty-two percent survived with good brain ability. Only ten percent of the victims treated with traditional CPR survived with good brain ability.

VOICE ONE:

The American Heart Association changed its guidance for CPR chest presses in two thousand five. The group said people should increase the number of chest presses from fifteen to thirty for every two breaths given. Gordon Ewy is a heart doctor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. He wrote a report that was published with the study.

Doctor Ewy thinks the CPR guidelines should be changed again. He said the Heart Association should remove rescue breaths from the guidelines. He argues that more witnesses to cardiac arrests would provide treatment if rescue breaths are not a part of CPR. He says this would save lives. Studies show that many people do not want to perform mouth-to-mouth breathing on a stranger for fear of getting a disease.

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VOICE TWO:

Life expectancy¹² is the average number of years people are expected to live. In the United States, that average has been increasing since the late eighteen hundreds. But, life expectancy for black Americans has always been lower than that for white Americans. In the nineteen-eighties, the difference in life expectancy rates for blacks and whites increased and later decreased. Until now, these changes had not been explained.

Sam Harper of Canada's McGill University and other researchers decided¹³ to investigate. They examined deaths among blacks and whites in the United States between nineteen eighty-three and two thousand three. This meant investigating forty-six million deaths. The results were published in the Journal of American Medicine.

VOICE ONE:

Professor Harper says the study shows that American blacks are living longer. He says their life expectancy is nearly that of whites. In nineteen ninety-three, for example, white men lived an average of eight and one-half years longer than black men. In two thousand three, the difference had narrowed to six and one-half years.

The researchers say the biggest improvement in life expectancy was noted¹⁴ among black males between fifteen and forty nine years of age.

VOICE TWO:

Professor Harper says the changes appear linked to successes in reducing violence linked to the drug crack cocaine¹⁵. He says increases in the sizes of police forces and economic improvements all appear to have helped young black males live longer.

But, the researcher says additional improvements are needed. He says the disease AIDS and heart disease in African-Americans are also keeping their life expectancy rates less than whites. He says there is also a need to reduce the higher death rates among newborn African-Americans.

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VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Lawan Davis, Mario Ritter and Caty Weaver¹⁶. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

3 Pluto   

n.冥王星

参考例句：

• Pluto is the furthest planet from the sun.冥王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Pluto has an elliptic orbit.冥王星的轨道是椭圆形的。

4 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。

5 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

6 eruption   

n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作

参考例句：

• The temple was destroyed in the violent eruption of 1470 BC.庙宇在公元前1470年猛烈的火山爆发中摧毁了。
• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

8 computed   

adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He computed that the project would take seven years to complete. 他估计这项计划要花七年才能完成。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Resolving kernels and standard errors can also be computed for each block. 还可以计算每个块体的分辨核和标准误差。 来自辞典例句

9 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

10 smokers   

吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily. 许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。

11 resuscitation   

n.复活

参考例句：

• Despite attempts at resuscitation,Mr Lynch died a week later in hospital.虽经全力抢救，但林奇先生一周以后还是在医院去世了。
• We gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and heart massage.我们对他进行了口对口复苏救治和心脏按摩。

12 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

15 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

16 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。