英語文化隨身帶

Take-Away English

I have always enjoyed black pudding[黑香腸] for breakfast. Nothing can 1. _ with the taste of the rich black sausage[香腸] made of pigs’blood. However， even I might draw the line at making black pudding 2. _ my own blood. That’s exactly what the BBC’s Michael Mosley has done. It’s part of an investigation[調(diào)查研究] into the incredible[不可思議的] power of blood to protect and regenerate our bodies.

For thousands of years people have believed in the power of blood to make us young. In Roman times， the sick were encouraged to drink the blood of freshly killed gladiators to 3. _ their illnesses. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula， Count Dracula is transformed from a little old man 4. _ a super athlete when he drinks human blood.

Recent research seems to back up these ideas. Scientists in California have looked at what happens to old mice when you inject them with the blood of young mice. After the infusion， the mice perform 5. _ in memory tests， and their brains start to sprout new connections making them more like young brains. This could be used for people with Alzheimer’s disease[阿爾茨海默病].

Another treatment is called PRP （platelet[血小板] rich plasma）， also known as the Vampire[吸血鬼] Facelift. This involves taking your own blood， extracting the plasma and then injecting it back into your 6. _. Popular with stars such as Tiger Woods and Kim Kardashian， PRP has been proved to be 7. _ for wound repair. After two weeks’ treatment， Michael’s face did feel like a baby’s bottom.

So 8. _ we all be eating blood， and possibly rubbing it onto our skin？ Maybe， but scientists such as Dr. Saul Villeda of the University of California have a less extreme vision.“My hope，” Villeda says， “is that we can identify the youthful factors in blood that we want to 9. _ and the ageing factors we have to 10. _. And I think that’ll be a much better way， a much more controlled way.”

我一向喜歡拿黑香腸（血腸）當(dāng)早餐，再沒有什么能媲美由豬血制成的黑香腸的濃郁香味了。不過，就連我這樣喜歡黑香腸的人，也接受不了用自己的血來做黑香腸—而這正是英國廣播公司（BBC）的邁克爾·莫斯利做的一項(xiàng)試驗(yàn)。血液對于保護(hù)和促進(jìn)身體再生具有不可思議的作用，這項(xiàng)試驗(yàn)則是研究血液作用的一部分。

千百年來，人們都相信血液具有使我們保持青春的力量。在羅馬時代，人們鼓勵病人喝剛剛喪生的角斗士的血來治療疾病。在布拉姆·斯托克的恐怖小說《吸血鬼》里，德古拉伯爵在喝了人血之后，就會從一個瘦小的老頭變成一個超級健壯的人。

最近的研究似乎也支持這些觀點(diǎn)。（美國）加利福尼亞州的科學(xué)家們做過一項(xiàng)研究，他們往年老的老鼠體內(nèi)注入年輕老鼠的血液，然后觀察會出現(xiàn)什么現(xiàn)象。輸血之后，年老老鼠的記憶力測試成績有了提高，其大腦也開始生長出新的連線，變得更像年輕老鼠的大腦。這個發(fā)現(xiàn)可應(yīng)用于治療阿爾茲海默病患者。

另一種療法被稱為PRP（富血小板血漿），也叫“吸血鬼拉皮術(shù)”。這種療法要從你自己的血液中提取血漿，然后重新注射到臉上。PRP很受如老虎·伍茲和金·卡戴珊等明星的歡迎，并已證明對創(chuàng)傷修復(fù)確有療效。邁克爾的臉經(jīng)過兩個星期的治療，摸起來的確就像嬰兒屁股一樣光滑了。

那么，我們都要開始吸血嗎？或者還要用血涂抹皮膚？也許吧，但有些科學(xué)家的見解沒有那么極端，比如加利福尼亞州大學(xué)的索爾·維萊達(dá)博士。他說：“我希望我們能夠識別出血液中令人保持青春以及令人衰老的因素，前者是我們想增加的，而后者是我們想減少的。我認(rèn)為這是一種更好、更可控的方式?！?/p>

重點(diǎn)詞匯

draw the line 劃清界限，拒絕

regenerate [rI5dVenEreIt] v. 使再生

gladiator [5^lAdIeItE] n.（古羅馬）角斗士

transform [trAns5fC：m] v. 轉(zhuǎn)變

back up 證實(shí)、支持（某種說法或觀點(diǎn)）

inject [In5dVekt] v. 注射

infusion [In5fju：VEn] n. 輸入

sprout [spraJt] v. 涌現(xiàn)出，發(fā)出

plasma [5plAzmE] n. 血漿

facelift [5feIslIft] n. 去皺整容手術(shù)

extract [Ik5strAkt] v. 提取

identify [aI5dentIfaI] v. 辨別，找出

Quiz小測驗(yàn)

閱讀短文并回答問題。

1. What is black pudding usually made of？

2. Who was encouraged to drink human blood？

3. What do old mice do better after blood infusions？

4. What is another name for PRP？

5. What happened to Michael Mosley’s face after injecting blood？