雅思课外阅读--阿尔茨海默的希望之光 1

本文含大量自然科学类阅读高频词，另外标注了一些初级生理学词汇最好看到要认识，这些词汇属于以前雅思不要求但在近两年改革趋势中加重的单词，同时也是托福高频单词。

Some mice can easily remember where they hide food, but not those genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s disease.Like humans they become forgetful.By the time these mice are seven months old they are unable to remember, for example, which arm of a maze they have explored before. Two months later, their brains are riddled with amyloid beta, the protein “plaques” that also characterise the latter stage of the disease in humans.

有些老鼠能轻易记起它们把食物藏在哪儿，但经过基因改造而患上阿尔茨海默症的老鼠却不能。和人类一样、它们很健忘。到七个月大的时候这些老鼠无法记住——比如——他们曾经探索过迷宫的哪条路。2个月之后，他们的大脑里充满了β-淀粉样蛋白质，这些蛋白质斑点同样是阿尔茨海默症病人晚期的特征。

【经典句式】

mice老鼠(复数)

genetically engineered 基因改造的

Alzheimer’s disease阿尔茨海默症

forgetful健忘的

maze迷宫

explore探索

be riddled with …充满了……

protein蛋白质

A characterise B A是B的特点

the latter stage of …晚期

【大作文万用句式】

By the time … 等到……的时候……

Now researchers have managed to restore memories to mice with Alzheimer’s. This helps provide more evidence about how memories are lost during the early stages of the disease and may point to how, some time in the future, those memories might be brought back.

现在研究者成功恢复了患阿尔茨海默症老鼠的记忆。这提供了更多关于阿尔茨海默症早期记忆丢失的证据，并可能指出未来怎样恢复记忆。

【经典句式】

have managed to do sth 成功地……

restore恢复

mice老鼠(复数)

Alzheimer’s阿尔茨海默症

【大作文万用句式】

… helps provide more evidence about … and may point to how, some time in the future, … 提供更多关于……的证据，并可能指出未来怎样……

Susumu Tonegawa and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used a technique known as optogenetics, which activates clusters of neurons by shining light on them. As they report in Nature, the researchers prepared seven-month-old Alzheimer’s mice by injecting a harmless virus into the rodents’ dentate gyrus, apart of the hippo campus that helps to store fearful memories.The virus contains a gene for channelrhodopsin-2, a light-sensitive protein which forms pores in the cell membranes of neurons infected with the virus. These pores are closed in the dark, but open in response to blue light, flooding neurons with positively charged ions.The resulting pulse of current makes the neurons fire. During their experiments, the researchers were able to illuminate the infected neurons of the mice using opticalfibres implanted in their brains.

麻省理工学院的利根川进和同事用一种“光遗传学”的技术，用光照激活神经元集群。正如他们在《自然》上发表的那样，研究人员将一种无害病毒注射到预先准备的七个月大痴呆症老鼠的啮齿动物齿状回区，这个区域是海马体内帮助存储害怕记忆的一部分。病毒含有光敏感通道的基因，产生的光敏感蛋白能在被病毒感染的神经元细胞膜上形成孔洞。这些通道在无光照时是关闭的，但对蓝光起反应并打开，使神经元充满正离子。产生的电流脉冲使神经元产生电流。在实验中，研究人员能用光纤植入老鼠大脑来刺激感染的神经元。

【经典句式】

colleague同事

Massachusetts Institute of Technology= MIT 麻省理工学院

activate激活

cluster簇

neuron神经元

Alzheimer’s阿尔茨海默症

mice老鼠(复数)

inject… into …注入;注射

virus病毒

rodent嗫齿类动物(老鼠兔子之类)

hippocampus海马体

store存储

fearful害怕的

contain包含

gene基因

light-sensitive对光敏感的

protein蛋白质

pore孔洞

cell membrane细胞膜

in response to作为对……的反应

flood… with …使充满

charged ion正离子

resulting因此的;结果的

pulse脉冲

current(电)流

illuminate点亮;照亮

optical fibre光纤

implant植入

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