自考英语(二)阅读理解辅导(8).doc

更多优质自考资料尽在百度贴吧自考乐园俱乐部（自考英语(二)阅读理解辅导(8)Sacrificed to Science?Professor Colin Blakemore works at Oxford University Medical School doing research into eye problems and believes that animal research has given humans many benefits:The use of animals has been central to the development of anaesthetics, vaccines and treatments for diabetes, cancer, developmental disordersmost of the major medical advances have been based on a background of animal research and development.There are those who think the tests are simply unnecessary. The International Association Against Painful Experiments on Animals is an organization that promotes the use of alternative methods of research which do not make animals suffer. Their spokesman Colin Smith says:Animal research is irrelevant to our health and it can often produce misleading results. People and animals are different in their reactions to drugs and in the way their bodies work. We only have to look at some of the medical mistakes to see this is so.But Professor Blackmore stresses:It would be completely irresponsible and unethical to use drugs on people that had not been thoroughly tested on animals. The famous example of thalidomide is a case for more animal testing, not less. The birth defects that the drug produced were a result of inadequate testing. If thalidomide were invented today, it would never be released for human use because new tests on pregnant animals would reveal the dangers.Another organization that is developing other methods of research is FRAME. This is the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments. It recognises that many experiments still have to be done on animals and is aiming for Reduction, Refinement and Replacement of animals in experiments. In 1981, it established a research programme to improve and expand non-animal testing. Increasingly, new technology is making it easier for us to find alternative methods of testing. Computer models can be used to simulate the way that cells work and to try to predict the toxicity of chemicals. Data from previous animal experiments is used to develop a computer model which will predict what will happen if you add a chemical with an unknown biological effect to a substance. The eventual aim of computer modeling is to reduce the number of animals used in experiments.The Lethal Dose 50 test (LD50) may also be replaced. In the original test, all the animals in a test group are given a substance until half of them die. The test indicates toxicity. A method using a fixed amount, which gives the same eventual information but uses fewer animals and does not require that they die, may replace the LD50. Many other new techniques are now available that enable more research to be done in the test tube to see if chemicals produce harmful biological effects.The number of animals used in laboratory tests has declined over the last 20 years. This is partly due to alternatives and partly to the fact that experiments are better disigned so fewer need to be used - healthier animals provide better experimental results. For example, it used to take 36 monkeys to test a sample of polio vaccine, now it takes only 22. Also, lack of money has reduced the number of animals used - they are expensive to buy and expensive to keep.Birmingham University now has Britains first department of Biomedical Ethics. Professor David Morton of the department is involved in animal research and is concerned with reducing animal suffering as much as possible. Animals spend 95% of their time in their cages and refinement also means making their lives better when not undergoing tests. This includes keeping them in more suitable cages, allowing social animals like dogs to live together and trying to reduce the boredom that these animals can experience.In Professor Mortons laboratory, rabbits live together in large runs, filled with deep litter and boxes that they can hide in. The researchers have also refined some experiments. In the US, one experiment in nerve regeneration involves cutting a big nerve in a rats leg, leaving its leg paralysed. In Mortons lab, the researcher cuts a small nerve in the foot. He can see if it can regrow and the rat can still run around its cage.Even with these new developments in research, only a tiny proportion of all tests are done without using animals at some stage. The use of animals in experiments cannot stop immediately if medical research is to continue and consumer products are to be properly tested, and Professor Blakemore believes that sometimes there are no alternatives:Wherever possible, for both ethical and scientific reasons, we do not use animals. But cells live in animals and we can only really see how they behave when they are inside animals. We cannot possibly reproduce in a test tube or a computer model all the complex reactions of the body to a drug or a disease. When it comes to research into heart disease and its effects on the body, or diseases of the brain for example, we do not have adequate substitutes for the use of animals.As research techniques become more advanced, the number of animals used in experiments may decrease, but stopping testing on animals altogether is a long way away.为科学而献身科林布莱克默教授在牛津大学医学院工作，从事眼睛疾病的研究。他相信对动物的研究已使人类获益匪浅。使用动物对于麻醉学和疫苗的发展，对糖尿病、癌症和紊乱的治疗等极其重要。多数重要的医学都是以动物研究和开发的背景为基础的。有些人认为这些实验毫无必要。国际反动物痉实验协会是一个提倡使用不使动物痉的替代方法的组织。他们的发言人科林史密斯说：对动物的研究和我们的健康无关，它常常产生令人误入歧途的结果。人和动物对药物的反应及他们身体运作的方式都不同。我们只要看一看医疗失误就会明白。但布莱克默说：没有认真在动物身上实验的药物大人身上使用，是完全不负责和不合道理的。萨力多胺就是一个著名的例子。它证明需要更多的动物实验而不是更少的动物实验。这种药物引起的先天性畸形是缺乏实验的结果。如果萨力多胺是现在发明的，它就不会被批准为人类使用，因为在有孕的动物身上实验会提示其危险。另一个开发其他研究办法的组织是FRAME，替代动物医学实验基金会的简称。它认识到许多实验仍然不得不使用动物，该基金会旨在减少使用动物，改良使用动物，甚至替代动物。在1981年，它们设立了一个改进和扩大无动物实验的研究项目。渐渐地，新科技使我们更易于找到进行实验可供选择的办法。电脑模型可以用来模拟细胞的活动方式和预测化学制品的毒性。以前的动物数据用来开发一个电脑模型，它能预测如果一种物质中加入某种未知生物作用的化学药品会发生什么。电脑模型的最终目标是减少用于实验的动物数量。致死计量50实验（LD50）也可以被代替。在过去的实验中，实验群中所有的动物被喂给一种物质，直到其中一半死亡。这个实验表明其毒性。一种用固定的数量可以得到相同的结论，但是使用较少动物而且不使它们死亡的方法可能代替LD50。现在已有许多其他的技术，可使更多的研究工作在试管中进行，从而发现化学药品是否产生有害的生物作用。过去的20年里，实验室里实验中使用的动物数量减少；其部分原因是由于可供选择的方法多了，另外部分是由于实验设计得更好，因为使用更健康的动物能产生更好的实验结果，所以用的动物减少了。例如，过去常用36只猴子来实验脊髓质炎疫苗样本，现在只用22只。缺少资料已使所使用的动物数量减少了 购买和使用动物都很昂贵。伯明翰大学现在设有英国首家生物医学伦里学系。系里的大卫莫顿教授从事动物研究，并对尽可能地减少动物的痉很关心。动物们在笼子里度过了他们 95的时间，改良也意味阒不进行实验时使它和得更好些。这包括在更舒适的笼子里喂养它们，允许像狗那类喜欢合群的动物生活在一起，尽量减少这些动物可能经历的烦恼。在莫顿教授的实验室里，大批兔子一起生活，到处是厚厚的干草和箱子供它们躲藏。者们还改进了一些实验。在美国，神经再生方面的发切断鼠脚里的一条小神经。他可以看到神经是否可以再生，而老鼠仍在笼子里四处跑。尽管这些研究有了新成果，所有的裕只有极少数在某一阶段不使用动物。如果医学实验研究还要继续，消费性门牌号学要严格地进行检验，这样在实验中使用动物就不会立即停止。布莱克莫教授相信有时是无可选择的。无论在何处，有可能的话，基于伦理和科学的原因，我们不应使用动物做实验。但是细胞生活在动物体内，只有当细胞在动物体内时我们才能真正看清它们是如何活动的。我们不可能在试管中或电脑模型里复制出身体对疾病或芗的所有复杂反应。涉及到研究心脏病和它对身体的影响时，例如脑内疾病，我们没有代替使用动物的合适的替代物。随着研究技术变得更先进，实验中使用的动物数量可能会减少，但完全停止在动物身上实验还有很长的路要走。Lets Stop Keeping PetsPets are lovable, frequently delightful. The dog and the cat, the most favored of pets, are beautiful, intelligent animals. To assume the care for them can help bring out the humanity in our children and even in us. A dog or a cat can teach us a lot about human nature; they are a lot more like us than some might think. More than one owner of a dog has said that the animal understands everything he says to it. So a mother and father who have ever cared for pets are likely to be more patient and understanding with their children as well, and especially to avoid making negative or rude remarks in the presence of a child, no matter how young.It is touching to see how a cat or dog - especially a dog - attaches itself to a family and wants to share in all its goings and comings. If certain animal psychologists are right, a dog adopts his family in a most literal way - taking it for granted that the family is the band of dogs he belongs to.It is sometimes said that the cat takes all and gives nothing. But is that really true? A cat can teach us a valuable lesson about how to be contented, how to be serene and at ease, how to sit and contemplate. Whereas a dogs constant pleas for attention become, sometimes, a bit too much. Nevertheless it is the dog who can teach us lessons of loyalty and devotion that no cat ever knew.So theres plenty to be said in favor of keeping pets. But with all that in mind, I still say lets stop keeping pets. Not that a family should kill its pets. Very few could bring themselves to do that. To be practical, I am suggesting that if we do not now have a pet we should not acquire one; second, that if we now have a pet, we let it be our last one. I could never say that pets are bad. I am saying, lets give up this good thing - the ownership of a pet - in favor of a more imperative good.The purchase, the health care, the feeding and housing and training of a pet - and I chiefly mean the larger, longer-lived pets - cost time and money. Depending on the animals size and activity, its special tastes and needs, and the standard of living we establish for it, the care of a pet can cost form a dollar a week to a dollar or more a day. I would not for a moment deny it is worth that.But facts outside the walls of our home keep breaking in on our awareness. Though we do not see the poverty-stricken people of India and Africa and South America, we can never quite forget that they are there. Now and then their faces are shown in the news, or is the begging ads of relief organizations. Probably we send a donation whenever we can.But we do not, as a rule, feel a heavy personal responsibility for the afflicted and deprived for we are pretty thoroughly formed by the individualistic, competitive society we live in. The first dime we ever made was ours to spend in any way we chose. No one thought of questioning that. That attitude, formed before we had learned to think, usually prevails through our life: I made my money. I can spend it any way I like.But more and more we are reading that the people of the Third World feel bitter at us in the developed countries (with the United States far more developed than any of the others) for our seizing hold of two-thirds of the worlds wealth and living like kings while they work away all day to earn a bare living.The money and the time we spend on pets is simply not our own to spend as we like in a time of widespread want add starvation. A relief organization advertises that for $33 a month they can give hospital care to a child suffering from kwashiorkor - the severe dificiency disease which is simply a starving for protein. Doing without such a pet, and then sending the money saved to a relief organization would mean saving a life - over the years, several human lives.Children not suffering from such a grave disease could be fed with half that amount - not on a diet like ours, but on plain, basic, life-sustaining food. It is not unreasonable to believe that the amount of money we spend on the average pet dog could keep a child alive in a region of great poverty. To give what we would spend on a cat might not feed a child, but it would probably pay for his medical care or basic education. The point needs no laboring. That is all that need be said.让我们停止养宠物宠物是可爱的，又常讨人喜欢。狗和猫人们最喜爱的宠物，是漂亮和聪明的动物。担当起照料它们的责任有助于我们在孩子身上甚至在我们自己身上培养人情味。一只狗或一只猫能教给我们许多关于人类的本性的东西。它们比某些人想象的更像人类。不止一个养狗的人曾经说过狗理解他对它说的一切话。所以曾经照顾过宠物的父母可能也会对他们的孩子更有耐心和理解，特别是能避免在孩子面前做否定和不礼貌的评论，不管他年龄多小。看到猫和狗特别是狗对一个家庭是如何地依恋，如何地想要分享家里发生的一切事情，是十分感人的。如果某些动物心理学家是对的，狗以最忠实的方式接受它的家庭理所当然地认为家即是它所属的那一群狗。有时人们说猫索取一切，什么都不给予。但那是真的吗？关于如何满足，如何安详自在，如何静坐深思，猫可以给我们上有价值的一课。而狗不断寻求人们和注意，有时太过分了。尽管如此，狗能教给我们忠诚和献身，这是猫从不知道的。于是人们便有许多理由赞成养宠物。但尽管心里明白所有这些理由，我依然要说让我们停止养宠物吧。并不是说一个家庭应该杀死他们的宠物，很少有人能使自己做这样的事。实际上，我是在建议如果我们现在没有养宠物，我们就不要弄一个；第二，如果我们现在有一只宠物，就让它成为我们的最后一只吧。我怎么也不会说宠物很坏；我是说，让我们放弃这个好东西，去支持一个更紧迫的有益的事业吧。购买一只宠物，照顾它的健康、喂养它、给它提供住处、训练它我主要指的是较大的、较长寿的宠物花费时间和钱财。根据动物的体形大小、活动，其特殊口味和需要，我们为之建立起生活标准，照顾一只宠物的花费可能从一周一美元到一天一美元或更多。我从不否认喂养它的价值。但是我们房子外的事实却不断闯入我们的意识。虽然我们没有看到印度、非洲和南美洲穷困潦倒的人们，我们决不能完全忘记他们的存在。他们的面容不时出现在新闻里或救济组织的求援广告里。也许我们有能力时也送去了一份捐助。但我们通常并不感到对贫穷的人们负有重大的个人责任，因为我们几乎完全是由我们生活于其中的这个个人主义的、竞争的社会所塑造成的。我们曾经挣得的第一个十分硬币是自己的，我们可以选择花掉它的任何一种方式。没人想到对此提出质疑，那种态度形成于我们学会思考之前，通常会贯穿我们的一生：我挣自己的钱，我可以以我喜欢的任何方式花掉它。但我们越来越多地在阅读中了解到第三世界的人们怀恨发达国家的我们，因为我们占有了世界2/3的财富，生活得像国王一样，而他们整天工作以求糊口。我们花在宠物身上的金钱和时间在广泛渴望帮助和饥饿遍布的时代绝对不是我们可以随心所欲花费的私有物。一个救援组织做广告说，每个月捐献33美元就可使一个患营养不良症的孩子住院治疗这是一种仅仅由于缺乏蛋白质而产生的严重营养不良疾病。不养宠物，然后把节省下来的钱捐给救援组织将意味着挽救一条生命几年后，就能挽救几条生命。没有遭到那种严重疾病的孩子可以用那个数目的半数糊口不是们那样的食物，只是一般的、基本的、维持生命的食物。相信我们平均花在宠物狗身上的钱能够养活一个特别贫穷地区的孩子是不过分的。拿出我们花在猫身上的钱可能养活不了一个孩子，但它们可能付清他的医疗费或基本教育费。这一点无须详述，这就是所有要说的。