新闻万花筒：BBC视角之科学家们利用“基因剪刀”研制新药物

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Scientists have come up with a way of developing new drugs by using so-called “genetic scissors”. These are molecules which literally snip out 40 disease genes in order to test new drugs on them. They say that the technique know as crisper will enable them to test new drugs more quickly, cheaply and accurately.

We have had a very precise technology to do exactly what we want to do.

It’s hoped the technology will speed the development of medicines for a range of illnesses including diabetes, heart disease and many cancers. Another doctor from the European Bioinformatics Institute explains how crisper works.

In particular in cancer, what you can do is you can take a cancer cell which you know now has gone wrong. It’s growing inappropriately. And then you can test in a single experiment, you can test every single gene. And so a single experiment will do that for all of them.

Previously each one of those will be a projectby itself. And you can not just do that on one cancer line, you’ll do it on maybe five hundred or thousand. And this way you can start to say “Aha, this particular gene is the gene that we should try and build a drug to”. About ninety percent of drugs fail. And there are many points where their failure happens. And this technology allows people to do experiments that are just transformative cuz you can test all the genes at once.

And you can find out more about that on the health pages of our website.

In 1977, a 27-year old woman Robyn Davidson decided to embark on an epic solo adventure. Her plan was to trek nearly three thousand kilometers across the Australian outback with only four camels and her dog for company. Rick Smolan photographed her trip for the National Geographic magazine. And his pictures are simply stunning. They’ve been republished in his new book Inside Tracks. Rick Smolan spoke to Dan Damon about this extraordinary adventure and how it began.

Robyn Davidson when she was 27 years old decided for reasons that she still never shared with anybody. Sheset off on this sort of strange journey alone, 1,700 miles across the Australian outback out to the IndianOcean. So she had four camels and her dog. And no one knew why she was doing it. And I was sent by National Geographic to find her five times during this nine-month journey and to photograph her.

It was one of the most uncomfortable journeys anybody could plan for. Here is an image of her covered in flies.

词汇解析

internal

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

adj.国内的；内部的；身内的

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

They were opposed to foreign involvement in their internal affairs.

他们反对外国参与他们本国内政。

We should make an internal inquiry to find out who is responsible for the it.

我们应进行内部调查,找出对此事承担责任的人。

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bunch

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.串；束；一群；捆

n.突出物；凸起

vt.使成一束(或一群等)

vi.隆起；成束成群

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

Can you make these flowers a bunch?

请你把这些花系成捆行吗?

用作及物动词 (vt.)

Don't bunch up all the candlesticks in one corner of the shelf.

不要把蜡烛台全部捆在一起放在架子的一个角上。

用作不及物动词 (vi.)

Spread out more. Don't bunch up on the centre.

再散开一点，不要都挤在中间。

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alter

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

v.改变；更改；阉割；切除卵巢

参考例句

用作动词 (v.)

But nothing can alter the facts.

但任何东西也改变不了这些事实。

Marshaling the structure can transform the layout and alter the offset.

封送结构可转换布局并更改偏移量。

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partially

难度：2星扩展词汇，属常用10000词

英汉解释

adv.部分地；不公平地

参考例句

用作副词 (adv.)

He was only partially to blame for the accident.

他对事故只应负部分责任。

She loved her son Tom only partially.

她偏爱她的儿子汤姆。

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episode

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

n.一段情节；片段；轶事；插曲

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

One of the funniest episodes in the book occurs in chapter 6.

书中最有趣的情节是在第6章。

The episode of this film sounds good.

这部电影的插曲很好听。

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Portuguese

难度：2星扩展词汇，属常用10000词

英汉解释

n.葡萄牙语；葡萄牙人

adj.葡萄牙的；葡萄牙人的；葡萄牙语的

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

The England striker says the slippery Portuguese winker got him sent off in Saturday's World Cup clash.

英格兰前锋说这个狡猾的葡萄牙人在周六的比赛中迫使自己下场后挤眉弄眼。

用作形容词 (adj.)

Several important property definitions were extended, improving linebreaking for Polish and Portuguese hyphenation.

几个重要属性的定义范围扩大，改善波兰语和葡萄牙语的断行连接符。

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peak

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.尖端；山顶；顶峰

v.达到顶峰；使处于顶点

vi.消瘦

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

In Yersa I noticed a spike on the peak of the pyramid-shaped roof of a church.

在叶拉萨村,我发现一座教堂的金字塔屋顶的尖端有一颗尖钉。

用作动词 (v.)

Primary school enrolment will peak this year.

今年小学入学人数将达到最高峰。

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