Helping the body fight disease (01) 中高級閱讀 compiled by David Pai

 

Helping the body fight disease (01) 

中高級閱讀

(學測頂標/多益中高級準備)

compiled by David Pai

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cJB1603HXIuXrhCerFvr6ozrYL6sn-we/view?usp=sharing

Helping the body fight disease (01) 中高級閱讀

compiled by David Pai

 

Cells—Where Life Goes On

Every organism begins life as a single cell. Within each cell in your body, the nucleus contains all of the information that makes you who you are. More than that, it contains all of the information that makes every cell in your body function properly. The information is actually encoded in your chromosomes. You can think of them as 46 long strands of chemical blueprints for every function in your body. The DNA that makes up the chromosomes records information about how to make proteins and other chemicals that ultimately control how the body functions. DNA is the abbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid. The DNA molecules inside the nucleus of your cells are in packages called genes. The molecule itself looks like a tightly twisted ladder. It is the arrangement of chemicals called “bases” on this ladder that spells out how your body grows and repairs itself.

細胞——生命繼續的地方

每個生物體都以單個細胞開始生命。在你身體的每個細胞中，細胞核包含所有讓你成為你自己的資訊。不僅如此，它還包含使身體中每個細胞正常運作的所有資訊。這些信息實際上是在你的染色體中編碼的。你可以把它們想像成46條長長的化學藍圖，用於你身體的每個功能。構成染色體的DNA記錄了有關如何製造蛋白質和其他化學物質的信息，這些化學物質最終控制著身體的功能。DNA是去氧核糖核酸的縮寫。細胞核內的DNA分子位於稱為基因的包裝中。分子本身看起來像一個緊密扭曲的梯子。正是在這個梯子上排列了稱為“基地”的化學物質，闡明瞭你的身體是如何生長和自我修復的。

You may recall that chromosomes come in pairs. Every human being has 23 pairs of chromosomes. Each person has a unique combination of chromosomes—23 come from each parent. The genes on these chromosomes are either expressed, that is they show up in some feature of the body, or recessive—they do not show up in a body feature. Nevertheless, a person who has a gene that expresses a trait such as tongue-rolling may also carry a gene that makes tongue-rolling impossible. We cannot see all of the information that is carried in the genes and chromosomes of any person.

您可能還記得染色體成對出現。每個人都有23對染色體。每個人都有獨特的染色體組合 - 23條來自父母。這些染色體上的基因要麼被表達，也就是說它們出現在身體的某些特徵中，要麼是隱性的——它們不出現在身體特徵中。然而，具有表達諸如翻舌等特徵的基因的人也可能攜帶一種使翻舌是不可能的基因。我們無法看到任何人的基因和染色體中攜帶的所有資訊。

Mitosis—The Cell Cycle

You may also recall that you grow because cells divide and reproduce themselves.

It is true that individual cells also get larger, but this contributes very little to growth. Each time a cell divides, it follows a series of steps known as the cell cycle. First, the cell takes in energy and grows (phase G1). Then, the cell makes copies of its DNA so that a copy of the genetic code of the cell can be passed on to the new cell (S phase). Next, the cell undergoes another growth phase (phase G2). Finally, the cell makes a complete copy of the chromosomes in the nucleus and the other cell parts and splits into two identical cells (mitosis or M phase).

有絲分裂—細胞週期

您可能還記得，您之所以成長，是因為細胞分裂並自我繁殖。

的確，單個細胞也會變大，但這對生長的貢獻很小。每次細胞分裂時，它都會遵循一系列稱為細胞週期的步驟。首先，細胞吸收能量並生長（G1期）。然後，細胞複製其DNA，以便細胞遺傳密碼的副本可以傳遞給新細胞（S期）。接下來，細胞經歷另一個生長階段（G2期）。最後，細胞在細胞核和其他細胞部分形成染色體的完整副本，並分裂成兩個相同的細胞（有絲分裂或M期）。

As you can imagine, when a series of complex steps is repeated billions or trillions of times,mistakes can occur. Think about trying to copy a page from a book perfectly,

a trillion times!

可以想像，當一系列複雜的步驟重複數十億或數萬億次時，錯誤就會發生。想想嘗試完美地複製一本書中的一頁，

一萬億次！

 

In cell division, mistakes in the duplication of the genetic code in a cell’s chromosomes can lead to a disease called cancer.

在細胞分裂中，細胞染色體中遺傳密碼複製的錯誤會導致一種稱為癌症的疾病。

Mitosis

Mitosis is responsible for the reproduction of body cells. When cells become large enough and other conditions are right, the cell enters mitosis. The nuclear membrane dissolves, the chromosomes are duplicated, and they line up along the center of the cell. One complete set of chromosomes moves to either end of the cell and the cell splits,becoming two cells. The nuclear membrane reforms and the cells lookas they did before splitting.

有絲分裂

有絲分裂負責身體細胞的繁殖。當細胞變得足夠大並且其他條件正確時，細胞進入有絲分裂。核膜溶解，染色體複製，它們沿著細胞中心排列。一組完整的染色體移動到細胞的兩端，細胞分裂，成為兩個細胞。核膜的改革和細胞看起來就像它們在分裂之前所做的那樣。

Understanding Cells and Cancer

The great majority of all cells are too small to observe with the unaided eye. As a result, the study of cells and of problems in cells had to wait until there were tools to help people see cells.

了解細胞和癌症

絕大多數細胞都太小，無法用肉眼觀察。因此，對細胞和細胞中問題的研究必須等到有工具可以幫助人們看到細胞。

About 1590, a Dutch eyeglass maker named Johannes Jansen developed a tool that researchers used to study the details of things that were too small to see with their eyes alone.

大約在1590年，一位名叫約翰內斯·詹森（Johannes Jansen）的荷蘭眼鏡製造商開發了一種工具，研究人員用它來研究那些太小而無法單獨用眼睛看到的事物的細節。

 

Today we call this invention the microscope. Some time later Anton Van Leeuwenhoek used better lenses and constructed more powerful microscopes that could magnify many more times.

今天，我們稱這項發明為顯微鏡。一段時間后，安東·范·列文虎克（Anton Van Leeuwenhoek）使用了更好的鏡頭，並建造了更強大的顯微鏡，可以放大更多倍。

 

Using this amazing new tool, English scientist Robert Hooke discovered the cell in 1665 while carefully examining a thin section of a cork.

使用這個驚人的新工具，英國科學家羅伯特·胡克（Robert Hooke）在1665年仔細檢查軟木塞的薄片時發現了這個細胞

As microscopes improved, scientists could explore deeper into the tiny world of the cell. By the middle of the 1800s, Robert Brown had discovered the cell’s nucleus, and Theodore Schwannand Matthias Schleiden had put forth the idea that all living things were made of cells. Another scientist named Johannes Muller looked at cancer tumors and found that they, too, were made of cells. But Muller proposed that cancer cells did not come from normal cells.

隨著顯微鏡的改進，科學家們可以更深入地探索細胞的微小世界。到1800年代中期，羅伯特·布朗發現了細胞核，西奧多·施萬南德·馬蒂亞斯·施萊登提出了所有生物都是由細胞組成的觀點。另一位名叫約翰內斯·穆勒（Johannes Muller）的科學家研究了癌症腫瘤，發現它們也是由細胞組成的。但穆勒提出癌細胞不是來自正常細胞。

Rudolf Virchow began the modern scientific study of cancer by looking at tumors under the microscope and comparing them with human disease. Muller had already shown that tumors were made of cells, but Virchow determined that cancer cells originated from normal cells. He

proposed the idea that good cells could turn bad.

Rudolf Virchow通過在顯微鏡下觀察腫瘤並將其與人類疾病進行比較，開始了對癌症的現代科學研究。穆勒已經證明腫瘤是由細胞組成的，但Virchow確定癌細胞起源於正常細胞。他

提出了好細胞可以變壞的想法。

At about the same time, other scientists began to unravel another mystery. Gregor Mendel,an Austrian monk with training in both science and gardening, conducted a series of experiments with pea plants. These early experiments would become the foundation for the modern science of genetics.

大約在同一時間，其他科學家開始解開另一個謎團。接受過科學和園藝培訓的奧地利僧侶格雷戈爾·孟德爾（Gregor Mendel）對豌豆植物進行了一系列實驗。這些早期的實驗將成為現代遺傳學的基礎。

Mendel noticed that pea plants could be grouped according to their characteristics. Some were short, and others were tall. Pea seeds were yellow or green, wrinkled or smooth. Mendelcross bred pea plants with certain characteristics (for example, tall plants with short plants) and kept careful records of the results. Over an eight-year period, the records he kept proved that parent plants pass on traits to their offspring through what we now call genes.

孟德爾注意到豌豆植物可以根據其特徵進行分組。有些矮小，有些很高。豌豆種子是黃色或綠色，起皺或光滑。Mendelcross培育具有某些特徵的豌豆植物（例如，高大的植物和短的植物），並仔細記錄結果。在八年的時間里，他保存的記錄證明，親本植物通過我們現在所說的基因將性狀傳遞給它們的後代。

 

It would take almost another century before a team of scientists would discover that the DNA molecule was the language for passing on the book of directions from parents to children.

差不多又過了一個世紀，一組科學家才發現DNA分子是將父母的指示書傳遞給孩子的語言。

It takes an understanding of all of these things and more to begin the detailed study of cancer and its cures. But first, we need to know what cancer is and how it develops. This is an understanding that developed over a great many years.

需要瞭解所有這些事情以及更多，才能開始對癌症及其治療方法進行詳細研究。但首先，我們需要知道癌症是什麼以及它是如何發展的。這是多年來發展起來的理解。

 

What Causes Cancer?

 

Because individual cells are too small to see, people knew about cancer long before they knew about cells. Th e oldest known written description of cancer was found on an Egyptian  papyrus written between 3000 and 1500 BCE

 

什麼原因導致癌症？

 

因為單個細胞太小而看不見，所以人們在知道細胞之前就知道癌症了。已知最古老的癌症書面描述是在西元前3000年至1500年之間寫的埃及紙莎草紙上發現的

 

Scientists that study ancient human remains have found evidence of cancer on the remains of a female skull from about 1900 BCE.

研究古代人類遺骸的科學家在西元前1900年左右的女性頭骨遺骸上發現了癌症的證據。

Mummified remains of an ancient Peruvian that date back 2,400 years show signs of malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer.

可追溯到2，400年前的古代秘魯木乃伊遺骸顯示出惡性黑色素瘤的跡象，這是一種皮膚癌。

 

 

So people have been coming down with cancer for as long as there have been people. 因此，只要有人，人們就一直患有癌症。

Hippocrates, a Greek physician, was the first person to be able to distinguish between benign,or harmless, growths and cancerous growths. When he examined cancerous tumors, he thought that the swollen blood vessels around the tumor looked like a crab’s claws, so he gave the disease the name karkinos, which is the Greek word for crab. This word comes into English in the form carcinoma, which is another word for certain kinds of cancers.

希波克拉底是一位希臘醫生，是第一個能夠區分良性或無害生長和癌性生長的人。當他檢查癌性腫瘤時，他認為腫瘤周圍腫脹的血管看起來像螃蟹的爪子，所以他給這種疾病起了個名字karkinos，這是希臘語中的螃蟹。這個詞以癌症的形式進入英語，這是某些癌症的另一個詞。

 

Just as people have noticed tumors throughout history, they have wondered about the causes of cancer. The Greek doctor Hippocrates suggested that cancer was the result of too much “black bile,” one of the fluids that was thought to control the functions of the body.

By the 1700s,another bodily fluid was blamed—lymph. We now know that lymph is a fluid that carries diseasefightingwhite blood cells.

正如人們在整個歷史中注意到腫瘤一樣，他們也想知道癌症的原因。希波克拉底醫生認為，癌症是過多的「黑膽汁」的結果，黑膽汁是被認為控制身體功能的液體之一。到了1700年代，另一種體液被歸咎於淋巴液。我們現在知道淋巴液是一種攜帶抗病白細胞的液體。

 

In 1838, Muller showed that cancerous tumors were made up of cells. But scientists still did not know the cause of cancer. The most common scientific theory until the early 1900s was that some sort of injury caused cancer. But scientists were unable to prove the theory that injury caused cancer. At the same time, they started to show that other things did seem to cause cancer:

1838年，穆勒表明癌性腫瘤是由細胞組成的。但科學家們仍然不知道癌症的原因。直到1900年代初，最常見的科學理論是某種傷害會導致癌症。但科學家無法證明損傷導致癌症的理論。與此同時，他們開始證明其他事情似乎確實會導致癌症：

a virus caused cancer in chickens, and chemicals in coal tar and tobacco appeared to cause cancers to develop in otherwise healthy people.

一種病毒導致雞患癌症，煤焦油和煙草中的化學物質似乎會導致癌症在其他健康人群中發展。

Stephen Paget, a researcher, discovered that cancer often appeared in different places in the body far from the original location. He developed a “soil and seed” theory to explain how these cells could develop elsewhere.

研究人員斯蒂芬·佩吉特（Stephen Paget）發現，癌症經常出現在遠離原始位置的身體不同的地方。他開發了一種「土壤和種子」理論來解釋這些細胞如何在其他地方發育。

In 1953, the science of genetics took another leap forward when James Watson and Francis Crick, using the previous work of Rosalind Franklin, discovered the chemical structure of the DNA molecule. 

1953年，當詹姆斯·沃森（James Watson）和法蘭西斯·克里克（Francis Crick）利用羅莎琳德·佛蘭克林（Rosalind Franklin）之前的工作發現了DNA分子的化學結構時，遺傳學科學又向前邁進了一步。