VOA慢速英语2011-SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Are Bone Pieces Fro

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Christopher Cruise.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, we will tell about an effort to learn what happened to American pilot Amelia Earhart. We will tell about a group that studies developments in technology to predict the future. And we will tell about a complex health disorder¹ called chronic² fatigue³ syndrome⁴.

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CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: American scientists are attempting to recover genetic⁵ material in bone fragments that could be from Amelia Earhart. The famous pilot disappeared while flying over the southwest Pacific Ocean more than seventy years ago.

The world has changed greatly since her airplane went missing on July second, nineteen thirty-seven. But public interest in her life and death remains⁶ high.

Small bone fragments may help answer continuing questions about her death. Scientists at the University of Oklahoma are performing genetic tests at the Molecular⁷ Anthropology⁸ Laboratories in Norman, Oklahoma.

FAITH LAPIDUS: When last heard from, Amelia Earhart was seeking to become the first female pilot to fly a plane around the world. Earhart was already internationally known at the time. She had been the first woman to fly a plane alone over the Atlantic Ocean. Still, she was not satisfied.

Amelia Earhart disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan in 1937 in a Lockheed Electra 10E while attempting a round-the-world flight. Scientists are studying bone fragments found on a South Pacific island.

Earhart wanted to guide her aircraft forty-three thousand kilometers around the equator. Fred Noonan served as navigator for the flight. His job was to plot the plane’s movement.

Earhart and Noonan had completed their planned trip over South America, Africa and Asia when they stopped in New Guinea for fuel. After that, they seemingly did not touch land again. Their bodies and parts of their plane were never found.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Bones that might help solve the mystery were discovered last year on the unpopulated Pacific island of Nikumaroro. The island was known as Gardner Island in Earhart’s time. It is about three thousand kilometers south of Hawaii.

Nikumaroro Island could have been on Earhart’s way to Howland Island. Her flight plan called for her to stop on Howland to refuel her specially-designed Lockheed Electra plane.

Scientists are testing bone from Nikumaroro to learn if DNA⁹, deoxyribonucleic acid, can be recovered from it. DNA contains all the genetic information about an organism. If researchers find human DNA, it can be compared with DNA provided by a member of Amelia Earhart’s family. The long-time mystery of how Earhart died could be solved if the two DNA samples show family similarities.

An organization interested in aircraft and flight history found the bone material and other objects on Nikumaroro. Volunteers who belong to the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery had explored the island repeatedly in the past.

Earlier explorations had found shoes and other objects. The objects might have belonged to the two-person flight team. But that has not been proven.

Volunteers for the group made the new discovery in what appears to have been a camping area. They also found a container with a woman’s face make-up and glass bottles. The bottles were made before World War Two. In the same area was a knife with its blades removed. Opened seashells were nearby. There was also evidence of small fires.

FAITH LAPIDUS: A television program on the Discovery Channel tells about the group’s findings and work. But an expert about Amelia Earhart’s life says she did not land on an island. Instead, writer Susan Butler believes an American court declaration in nineteen thirty-nine. It ruled that Earhart died when her plane crashed into the ocean and sank.

And that is how a recent film about the pilot represents her death. The movie is called “Amelia.” It is one of a long list of shows, books and films about America’s lost woman hero of flight.

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CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: An organization called the World Future Society publishes a yearly report about how technology, the economy and society are influencing the world. Tim Mack heads the World Future Society. He says medicine is one area of growth.

TIM MACK: “I was surprised by the enormous growth in medical technology.”

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Mr. Mack says the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology are working together to create new ways to help patients. These include better ways to provide medicine and identify disease without invasive operations.

Mr. Mack also says developments in artificial intelligence could lead to a future where disabled patients could be cared for by a voice-activated robot.

A surgeon performs an operation using robotic assistance

FAITH LAPIDUS: The World Future Society also publishes The Futurist magazine. Every year it examines developments in technology and other areas to predict the future. The magazine released the top ten predictions from the Outlook 2011 report.

The report said Internet search engines will soon include both text and spoken results. It said television broadcasts and other recordings¹⁰ could be gathered using programs developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Outlook 2011 also examined refuse collection. It said industrial nations will send much more waste to developing countries. This will cause protests in those countries. In about fifteen years, developing countries will stop accepting foreign waste. This will force industrial nations to develop better waste-to-energy programs and recycling technologies.

The report also had a prediction about education. It said young people use technologies for socializing as well as working and learning. So they solve problems more as teams instead of competing. In this way, social networking is supporting different kinds of learning outside the classroom.

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FAITH LAPIDUS: Health experts say chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as CFS, is a complex disorder. They say it can cause people to feel fatigued¹¹ or extremely tired. CFS may also cause physical weakness, muscle and joint¹² pain, problems with memory or thinking, or trouble sleeping. Many people with the disorder have a higher than normal body temperature. They may also have throat pain and weakness in the lymph nodes near the cervix or under the arms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between one million and four million Americans suffer from CFS. Those affected¹³ are often unable to perform at their normal level of ability. Bed rest does nothing to ease their problems. Increased physical activity often makes their symptoms worse.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: There is no test to confirm chronic fatigue syndrome.Instead, doctors use a patient's medical history and testing to dismiss other treatable conditions. Those who are confirmed to have the disorder must experience at least four of the symptoms of CFS for at least six months.

CFS was not widely accepted as a medical condition until the late nineteen eighties. Until then, many people who had it were said to be suffering from mental problems or stress.

It is not yet known what causes the disorder. Scientists have been studying the condition and debating its causes for hundreds of years. Some believe the cause is a viral infection.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Last month, experts urged America’s Food and Drug Administration to ban blood donations from people with a history of CFS. The experts noted¹⁴ conflicting results concerning a possible link between the disorder and a group of viruses known as murine leukemia viruses. MLVs are a kind of retrovirus known to cause cancer in mice. They include xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, also known as XMRV.

Last year, researchers tested blood from thirty-seven patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. They also looked at forty-four healthy blood donors¹⁵. They reported evidence of MLVs in eighty-seven percent of the CFS patients. This compared to seven percent of the healthy patients.

The evidence supports a two thousand nine study that found evidence of XMRV in about two thirds of CFS patients. However, similar studies have found no such link.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE:

A recent report in the journal Retrovirology found that xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus is not the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome. Study organizers said the blood samples in the earlier studies had likely been mixed with DNA from mice.

The Food and Drug Administration has not made a decision about whether or not to ban blood from donors with CFS. But the American Red Cross said that, in the interest of public safety, it would no longer accept blood donations from people who admit to having the condition.

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FAITH LAPIDUS: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and June Simms, who was also our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I’m Christopher Cruise. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

　

1 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。

2 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

3 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

4 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

5 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。

6 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。

7 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

8 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

9 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

10 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

11 fatigued   

adj. 疲乏的

参考例句：

• The exercises fatigued her. 操练使她感到很疲乏。
• The President smiled, with fatigued tolerance for a minor person's naivety. 总统笑了笑，疲惫地表现出对一个下级人员的天真想法的宽容。

12 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

13 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。

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 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》