西交大版21世纪研究生英语教程3单元课文.docx

人类进步如何使得我们无法摆脱病魔Advances that make life more comfortable can also make it more dangerous.人类的种种进步使我们生活得更加舒适，同时也使我们的生活更加危险。 [1] SARS may have dominated the headlines last week [in May,2003],but it wasn’t the only weird disease on the World Health Organization’s radar screen. 上周[原文中指2003年5月]，非典可能占据了各家报纸的头版头条，然而，它并非世界卫生组织所监测到的惟一怪病。In central Africa, an outbreak of the dreaded Ebola fever had stretched into its fifth month. 在非洲中部，爆发了致命的埃博拉出血热，并已持续了5个月；In Belgium and the Netherlands, a virulent new strain of avian flu was wiping out entire chicken farms. 在比利时和荷兰，一种新的恶性的禽流感病毒株系席卷了所有的养鸡场。Dutch farmers recently slaughtered 18 million birds in hopes of stopping the outbreak. 为阻止该病的爆发，荷兰的农场主最近宰杀了1800万只家禽。Yet the bird flu has spread to several provinces and jumped from poultry to pigs and even people, causing 83 human cases. 然而， 禽流感已蔓延到几个省，并已从家禽传染到猪，甚至人也受到传，目前已有83人发病。 Most of the infected people have suffered only eye inflammation, but some have developed respiratory illness. 大多受感染的病人只是眼睛发炎，但有些人还并发呼吸系统疾病。One of them, a 57 year old veterinary surgeon, recently died of pneumonia. 其中一位受感染者是一名五十七岁的老兽医，他最近死于肺炎。 “Bird flu virus was ... found in the lungs,” according to an April 19 statement from the Dutch Agriculture Ministry, “and no other cause of death could be detected.” 据荷兰农业部（2003年）4月19日的报告称，“在死者肺部发现了禽流感病毒，但并未查出任何其他致死病因。”Sound familiar? 这种说法听起来很耳熟，不是吗？ [2] SARS. Ebola. Avian flu. 非典，埃博拉出血热，禽流感。The parade of frightening new maladies continues, each one confirming that our species, for all its cleverness, still lives at the mercy of the microbe. 可怕的新病层出不穷。每种疾病都证实：尽管人类极其聪明，却仍处于微生物的摆布之中It didn’t seem that way 30 years ago — not with smallpox largely defeated, AIDS still undreamed of and medical science evolving at an unprecedented clip. 三十年前人们并不这样认为。原因在于：当时天花已基本灭绝，“艾滋病”还闻所未闻，而医学也正以前所未有的速度在发展。But even as optimists proclaimed victory over the germ, our megacities, factory， farms, jet planes and blood banks were opening broad new avenues for infection. 然而，正当乐观派宣告我人类们战胜