字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：Pigeon Pb Proxies Could Cut Kids' Blood Tests / 鴿子血檢測可以減少兒童血液檢測

洪欣老師推薦：托福聽力最好的課外教材：60-Second Science

康康精選托福會考的主題，堅持每天精聽一定會進步的哦!!

建議方法：

1. 先聽兩三遍 (不看文稿)

2. 再一句一句聽寫 (每句都要聽寫數遍，直到寫出85%以上的字)

3. 最後check文稿，看哪聽不出來，單字沒背過，還是發音不熟。

4. 堅持天天聽，就能每天進步哦。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：喜歡的同學，幫忙推或按讚哦~~

http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/2016/20160927sa_tech.mp3

只有音檔怎夠，聽不懂地方，不用怕，康康幫你準備好中英文稿了：

中英文稿：

Pigeons. Ever since humans established permanent agricultural settlements, we’ve lived side-by-side with the birds—or, as some people call them, rats with wings. They walk on our sidewalks, roost on our buildings, and eat our leftovers. But soon pigeons may help us identify risks to public health.

鴿子。自從人類建立農業永久居住地之後，我們周圍總有鳥類——或者，像有些人說的那樣，長了翅膀的老鼠。它們走在人行道上，在我們的建築物上棲息，吃我們剩下的食物。但是，不久以後，鴿子或許能幫助我們識別對公共健康有害的危險。

"What we're doing here in my lab is we're assessing how we can use something that's been considered a pest that people actively try to exterminate: the pigeon. How can we use it to better the environment for not only ourselves but for pigeons and for other wildlife?"

現在我們在實驗室研究正在做的是：我們正在評估，之前被人類視為害蟲而遭到人類竭力消滅的動物：鴿子。我們應該如何利用鴿子來造福環境，不僅僅是為了我們人類自己，同時也是為了鴿子和其他的野生動物?

U.C. Davis neurobiologist Rebecca Calisi. She looked at lead levels in blood samples from more than 800 injured pigeons brought to a New York City wildlife rehabilitation center. And she compared those to lead levels in blood samples collected from children by the New York City Department of Health in routine screening efforts. The results were published in the journal Chemosphere.

加州大學大衛斯分校神經生物學家麗蓓嘉•凱莉斯。她測量了紐約市野生動物康復中心800只受傷鴿子血液樣本中的鉛含量。之後，她將鴿子血液中的鉛含量同紐約健康部門中常規監測到的兒童的血樣中的鉛含量進行對比。該研究結果發佈在《化學界》雜誌上。

"The neighborhoods where children have high rates of lead toxicity, that's where we saw pigeons with high blood lead levels…so this is a proof of concept kind of project."

在小孩子的血樣中有較高含鉛量的居住地區,我們發現那裡的鴿子的血樣中也含有較高的鉛含量,所以這也許能證明我們的理論。

Most pigeons will live out their lives within just two kilometers of the place they hatched, so the birds may be able to help researchers develop a detailed map of the risk of toxic lead exposure.

大部分鴿子的生活地區距離其孵化的巢穴只有兩公里，所以，它們或許可以幫助研究人員開發出鉛含量的地區分佈圖。

In people, especially kids, lead exposure can affect intelligence, brain development, social skills and memory. Having demonstrated that pigeons can pinpoint areas with high lead contamination, Calisi thinks that the birds can help researchers zero in on other potential environmental hazards as well.

鉛可以影響人類，尤其是兒童的智力、大腦發育、社交能力以及記憶力。實驗證明了鴿子的相關資訊可以指出鉛污染較高的地區，凱莉斯認為鴿子可以幫助研究人員找到環境中存在的其他潛在的危險。

"The thing is, we don't know what to test for right now. We know to test for lead, but what about certain pesticides? Or fire retardants are a big problem these days. We're not sure what the problems are. So instead of drawing a ton of blood from children and putting them through all these tests, why not use an animal that shares our environment, the pigeon, and test for a whole suite of different potential harmful pollutants?"

但問題是，我們現在還不知道用這種方法檢測何種指標。我們知道可以測試鉛元素，但是對於某些特定的殺蟲劑呢?現在，阻燃劑是一個大問題。我們尚不知道問題在哪裡。因此我們不能對很多孩子進行抽血，來將所有的測試都做一遍，我們可以利用和人類生存在同一環境中的動物，如鴿子，來測試環境中可能存在的潛在污染物。

So rather than dismissing them as rats with wings, why not think of them as…lab rats with wings?

所以與其驅散這種會飛的老鼠，為什麼不能將它們當作，實驗室中的飛天小白鼠呢。