VOA慢速英语2009年-SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Alzheimer's Disease:

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty¹.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Today we tell about Alzheimer's disease. More than a century after its discovery, Alzheimer's disease is still destroying people's brains. The cause remains² unknown.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

September twenty-first is World Alzheimer's Day. The theme for the observance this year is "Diagnosing³ Dementia: See It Sooner." The goal is early identification⁴ of the disease so those affected⁵ get the treatment they need.

Around the world, there will be walks to raise money for medical research. Training courses and educational meetings also are planned.

In the United States, for example, more than twenty thousand teams are preparing for what organizers call memory walks. Singapore will hold public events in at least three languages: English, Malay and Mandarin⁶. And, Barbados will mark World Alzheimer's Day with events like a religious service, a health fair and performances by musicians.

VOICE TWO:
　
Carin Kay Martin and her mother, who has Alzheimer's disease, share an apartment in Sacramento, California

An estimated thirty million people around the world have Alzheimer's disease. In the United States alone, more than five million people are said to suffer from this slowly increasing brain disorder⁷.

Alzheimer's affects memory and personality -- those qualities that make a person an individual. There is no known cure. Victims slowly lose their abilities to deal with everyday life.

At first, they forget simple things, like where they put something or a person's name. As time passes, they forget more and more. They forget the names of their husbands, wives or children. Then they forget who they are.

Finally, they remember almost nothing. It is as if their brain dies before the other parts of the body. Victims of Alzheimer's do die from its effects or conditions linked to it. But death may not come for many years.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Alzheimer's disease is the most common disability or mental sickness called dementia. Dementia is the loss of thinking ability that is severe enough to interfere⁸ with daily activities. It is not a disease itself. Instead, dementia is a group of signs of some conditions and diseases.

Some kinds of dementia can be cured or corrected. This is especially true if they result from drugs, infection, sight or hearing problems, head injury, and heart or lung problems. Other kinds of dementia can be corrected by changing levels of hormones⁹ or vitamins in the body. However, brain cells of Alzheimer's victims die and are not replaced.

Victims can become angry and violent as the ability to think and remember decreases. They sometimes shout and move with no purpose or goal. Media reports tell about older adults found walking in places far from their homes. They do not know where they are or where they came from. These people often are suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

VOICE TWO:

Alzheimer's generally develops differently in each person. Yet some early signs of the disease are common. The victims may not recognize changes in themselves. Others see the changes and struggle to hide them.

Probably the most common early sign is short-term memory loss. The victim cannot remember something that happened yesterday, for example. Also, victims of the disease have increasing difficulty learning and storing new information. Slowly, thinking becomes much more difficult. The victims cannot understand a joke, or cannot cook a meal, or perform simple work.

VOICE ONE:

Another sign of the disease is difficulty solving simple problems. Alzheimer's patients might not know what to do if food on a stove is burning. Also, people have trouble following directions or finding their way to places they have known all their lives.

Yet another sign is struggling to find the right words to express thoughts or understand what is being discussed. Finally, people with Alzheimer's seem to change. Quiet people may become noisy and aggressive. They may easily become angry and lose their ability to trust others.

VOICE TWO:

Alzheimer's disease normally affects people more than sixty-five years old. But rare cases have been discovered in people younger than fifty.

Alzheimer's is identified in only about two percent of people who are sixty-five. But the risk increases to about twenty percent by age eighty. By eighty five or ninety, half of all people are found to have some signs of the disease.

Alzheimer's affects people of all races equally. Yet women are more likely to develop the disease than men. This is partly because women generally live longer than men.

VOICE ONE:

There is no one, simple test to show if someone has Alzheimer's disease. Social workers and mental health experts sometimes test for memory and judgment¹⁰. Patients may be asked to identify smells like smoke, natural gas or fruits. Some scientists say a weakened ability to identify smells may be involved. They believe it might show possible development of Alzheimer's.

Doctors who suspect a patient has Alzheimer's must test the person for many other physical problems first. Alzheimer's is considered if the tests fail to show the existence of other problems. The only way to be sure a person has Alzheimer's is to examine the victim's brain after death.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

People who care for Alzheimer's patients may become extremely tired physically¹¹ and emotionally. Families often can get advice and emotional support from local groups. The Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center and the Alzheimer's Association provide information and support.

Another group, Alzheimer's Disease International, lists ten symptoms of the disease on its Web site. The list shows the difference between these signs of normal aging and the possibility of developing Alzheimer's.

VOICE ONE:

Patients cannot fully¹² recover from the disease. But many can be helped by medicine. That is especially true if the disease is found early.

America's Food and Drug Administration has approved several drugs to treat symptoms of the disease. The drugs are of two kinds. A doctor must order these medicines for patients. Most are called cholinesterase inhibitors.

VOICE TWO:

Cholinesterase inhibitors may work by protecting a chemical messenger needed for brain activities. They are meant to treat memory, thinking, language, judgment and other brain activity. They are used for mild to moderate cases of the disease.

The second kind of drug has a long name. It is represented by the drug memantine. This medicine seems to work by governing the activity of a chemical involved in information processing, storage and memory. It treats patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's.

VOICE ONE:

The British writer Iris¹³ Murdoch died of Alzheimer's disease. She said it was a dark and terrible place.

The two thousand-seven film "Away From Her" tells what happens to one marriage when a partner suffers from the disease. Julie Christie was nominated¹⁴ for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing the patient. Listen as she describes the pain of her mental condition.

JULIE CHRISTIE: "Half the time I wander around looking for something I can't remember what it is. Everything is gone."

VOICE TWO:
　
A healthy brain, left, and a brain with Alzheimer's

It has been more than a century since a German doctor, Alois Alzheimer, told about a dementia patient whose brain was studied after death. Her brain had sticky structures and nerve cells that appeared to be mixed together.

Later studies showed these nerves are made of a protein that changes so it sticks together in groups. The sticky structures were shown to be amyloid plaques¹⁵.

Scientists are still not sure what causes Alzheimer's disease. The leading theory blames amyloid plaques. Still, a theory exists that amyloid plaques are an effect of the disease, not the cause.

VOICE ONE:

Work continues on possible genetic¹⁶ causes. This month, two teams of European researchers said they identified new genetic markers linked to Alzheimer's disease. The teams worked separately. Their findings were reported in the journal Nature Genetics.

The newly-found genetic markers may affect a person's risk of developing Alzheimer's. Until now, only four genes¹⁷ had been linked with the disease. They provided a better understanding of the disease process, but no immediate¹⁸ treatment.

Many more studies are being done to find the causes and treatment of Alzheimer's.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And this is 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 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 diagnosing   

诊断( diagnose的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The conference also heard reports on improved methods of diagnosing cancers. 会议还听取了关于诊断癌症新方法的报告。
• One should be alert to involvement of other organ systems in diagnosing these entities. 诊断这些疾病时，应警惕其它器官系统受到连累。

4 identification   

n.视为同一，证明同一，确认

参考例句：

• He's made a formal identification of the body.他正式确认了死者身份。
• We should have identification card on the person when we go out.我们外出时应随身携带身份证。

5 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。

6 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

7 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

8 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

9 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

10 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

11 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

12 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。

13 iris   

n.虹膜，彩虹

参考例句：

• The opening of the iris is called the pupil.虹膜的开口处叫做瞳孔。
• This incredible human eye,complete with retina and iris,can be found in the Maldives.又是在马尔代夫，有这样一只难以置信的眼睛，连视网膜和虹膜都刻画齐全了。

14 nominated   

adj.被提名的，被任命的 动词nominate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She has been nominated for the presidency. 她已经获得了董事长职位的提名。
• The movie was nominated for an Oscar. 这部电影获奥斯卡金像奖提名。

15 plaques   

（纪念性的）匾牌( plaque的名词复数 )； 纪念匾； 牙斑； 空斑

参考例句：

• Primary plaques were detectable in 16 to 20 hours. 在16到20小时内可查出原发溶斑。
• The gondoliers wore green and white livery and silver plaques on their chests. 船夫们穿着白绿两色的制服，胸前别着银质徽章。

16 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

17 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

18 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。