时间:2018-12-15 作者:英语课 分类:2010年VOA慢速英语(十二)月


英语课

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.


Doctors currently identify autism disorders 2 by observing behavior. Autism affects social and communication skills. It usually first appears in young children.


Now, researchers in the United States think they have found a biological test for autism. A team from Harvard University in Massachusetts and the University of Utah developed it.


The test uses an MRI or magnetic resonance 3 imaging machine to look for abnormalities in the brain. Other studies have not shown major structural 4 differences between the brains of autistic people and those without autism.


But the latest study did not look at the large structures of the brain. Instead, Harvard's Nicholas Lange says the team looked at the circuitry -- the chemical and electrical pathways that link the different parts of the brain.


NICOLAS LANGE: "The brain may be OK, the parts that do the work may be OK. But the wiring, the cables between the points in the brain, one to another, may be disrupted in some way."


The scientists did MRI scans on sixty males between the ages of eight and twenty-six. Thirty of them had been identified as having mild autism, a form also known as high-functioning autism.



Ashton Faller doing homework with his mother last year. Ashton has received treatment for autism since he was 2 years old


The researchers looked at the connections in two areas of the brain that control language and social behavior. They used a technique called diffusion 5 tensor imaging. This way they could observe microscopic 6 fibers 7 to see how well the brain circuitry was organized.


Nicholas Lange says the pictures showed a clear difference between the people with autism and those without. He compared it to spaghetti.


NICHOLAS LANGE: "There's a bundle of uncooked spaghetti and there's clear directionality to that. It's nice and well-organized, as opposed to a cooked bowl of spaghetti that's just a tangle 8 of -- it looks like spaghetti. And that's the way the wiring can be. It can be either very tangled 9 [or] it can be very organized."


The researchers say the tests were able to predict with ninety-four percent accuracy which of the people had been found to have autism. The researchers repeated their study with new participants and got equally strong results.


The results appear in the journal Autism Research.


But Doctor Lange says the test is not ready yet for general use. The study was small and only involved males. It also used older children and adults.


Doctor Lange says that, in time, the test might be able to identify autism in children under three. Three is currently the youngest age at which most doctors will diagnose an autism disorder 1. But most parents begin to suspect a problem by the age of two.


And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. For podcasts and transcripts 10, go to voaspecialenglish.com. We're also on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I'm Faith Lapidus.



1 disorder
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调
  • 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 disorders
n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 );凌乱;骚乱;(身心、机能)失调
  • Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告,厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 resonance
n.洪亮;共鸣;共振
  • Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments.一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。
  • The areas under the two resonance envelopes are unequal.两个共振峰下面的面积是不相等的。
4 structural
adj.构造的,组织的,建筑(用)的
  • The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
  • The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。
5 diffusion
n.流布;普及;散漫
  • The invention of printing helped the diffusion of learning.印刷术的发明有助于知识的传播。
  • The effect of the diffusion capacitance can be troublesome.扩散电容会引起麻烦。
6 microscopic
adj.微小的,细微的,极小的,显微的
  • It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
  • A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。
7 fibers
光纤( fiber的名词复数 ); (织物的)质地; 纤维,纤维物质
  • Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上,以硫酸钠为凝固剂,对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝,制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
  • Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。
8 tangle
n.纠缠;缠结;混乱;v.(使)缠绕;变乱
  • I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
  • If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你,我就不跟他们争吵。
9 tangled
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句
学英语单词
2-CP
additive colour mixture
African cherry orange
alchemic
anodize, anodized
assessment of duty
bi-mono aircraft
birlas
bondstones
bungholes
car license fee
caustic soda poisoning
check man
Chiraq
clanfenur
clinker aggregate
coefficient of heat conductivity
consider as
constricticolpate
cultural communication
cycle space
cytolyzing
dallin
dayside auroral oval
delanium graphite
digital analog function table (daft)
dimmer sweep trace
Diupāra
double dyeing
doubletransmission
Emmaste
evocates
eye-ball
Ferrosalite
flat line reinsurance
floorsets
free sheets
game park
genus Dendrolagus
Geranium rectum
goal-shy
godphi
happy puppet syndrome
high pressure fluid ejection hazard
highly multicollinear regressor
hugli
in default of acceptance
in synchronism
indefectuous
inspissants
lamino-
last six weeks gestation
laterally intermittent illuminant
leak-off pipe line
lower half bush
macrorelief
Madrid Stock Exchange
majority logic circuit
medicinal liquor
method of peak area measurement
Methoprotryn
microwave noise
Mount Sanford
mud-flap
nourishing blood for tranquillization
number transfer bus
paresthesia sexualis
peen rammer
petered
planomide
plutonic boss
Polonnaruwa Dist.
polyp nutritivus
polysaprobic zone
postvoiding
pot-type oil switch
Potamogeton recurvatus
procedure-oriented
prudentiality
pushes
radecic
radiometer channel
regulated extraction turbine governing system
right of visit and search
rind graft method
san tome
sarcomatosis
scale bud
scrip
self-sustained
simply supported end
smectic A phase
Sunbelt, sunbelt
superseparability
textura
tonify
tracheal annular ligament
unblouse
wbu
working towards
Wynestron