万物简史 第450期:小生物的世界(21)
英语课
Precisely the same thing happens with meningitis. 脑膜炎的情况完全一样。
At least 10 percent of young adults, and perhaps 30 percent of teenagers, carry the deadly meningococcal bacterium 1, 至少有10%的年轻人和也许30%的少年携带着致命的脑膜炎球菌，
but it lives quite harmlessly in the throat. 但脑膜炎球菌完全无害地生活在咽喉里。
Just occasionally—in about one young person in a hundred thousand—it gets into the bloodstream and makes them very ill indeed. 在非常偶然的情况下——大约10万个年轻人中间的1个——脑膜炎球菌会进入血液，害得他们生大病。
In the worst cases, death can come in twelve hours. That's shockingly quick. 在最严重的情况下，人可以在12个小时内死亡。速度是极快的。
"You can have a person who's in perfect health at breakfast and dead by evening," says Marsh 2. “一个人吃早饭时还是好好的，到晚上就死了。”马什说。
We would have much more success with bacteria if we weren't so profligate 3 with our best weapon against them: antibiotics 4. 要是我们不是那样滥用对付细菌的最佳武器：抗生素，我们本来会取得更大的胜利。
Remarkably 5, by one estimate some 70 percent of the antibiotics used in the developed world are given to farm animals, often routinely in stock feed, 值得注意的是，据一项估计，在发达世界使用的抗生素当中，有大约70%往往经常用于饲料中，
simply to promote growth or as a precaution against infection. 只是为了促进生长或作为对付感染的预防措施。
Such applications give bacteria every opportunity to evolve a resistance to them. 因此，细菌就有了一切机会来产生抗药性。
It is an opportunity that they have enthusiastically seized. 它们劲头十足地抓住这样的机会。
In 1952, penicillin 6 was fully 7 effective against all strains of staphylococcus bacteria, 1952年，青霉素用来对付各种葡萄球菌完全有效，
to such an extent that by the early 1960s the U.S. surgeon general, William Stewart, felt confident enough to declare: 以致美国卫生局局长威廉·斯图尔特在20世纪60年代初敢说：
"The time has come to close the book on infectious diseases. “现在是该结束传染病时代的时候了。
We have basically wiped out infection in the United States." 我们美国已经基本上消灭了传染病。”
Even as he spoke 8, however, some 90 percent of those strains were in the process of developing immunity 9 to penicillin. 然而，即使在他说这番话的时候，大约有90%的这类病菌已经对青霉素产生抗药性。
n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌
- The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
- A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。
n.沼泽，湿地
- There are a lot of frogs in the marsh.沼泽里有许多青蛙。
- I made my way slowly out of the marsh.我缓慢地走出这片沼泽地。
adj.行为不检的；n.放荡的人，浪子，肆意挥霍者
- This young man had all the inclination to be a profligate of the first water.这个青年完全有可能成为十足的浪子。
- Similarly Americans have been profligate in the handling of mineral resources.同样的，美国在处理矿产资源方面亦多浪费。
n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )
- the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
- The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。
ad.不同寻常地，相当地
- I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
- He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。
n.青霉素，盘尼西林
- I should have asked him for a shot of penicillin.我应当让他给我打一针青霉素的。
- Penicillin was an extremely significant medical discovery.青霉素是极其重要的医学发现。
adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地
- The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
- They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说
- They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
- The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
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