首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Many people today are worried about bird flu. They are afraid that it will pass from birds to humans and that thousands of peopl
Many people today are worried about bird flu. They are afraid that it will pass from birds to humans and that thousands of peopl
admin
2018-11-19
84
问题
Many people today are worried about bird flu. They are afraid that it will pass from birds to humans and that thousands of people will die in a pandemic. In 1918 a flu virus killed about 50 million people around the world. The virus was called Spanish influenza (or Spanish flu, for short)because Spanish newspapers first described the disease. Now, after nine years of work, scientists in an American laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia, have produced a copy of the Spanish flu virus. They are also going to publish the genetic sequence of the virus on the Internet and some experts are afraid that other laboratories could copy the virus.
Scientists have copied the virus because they want to understand why the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic killed so many people. In a report in the journal Science, Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger and a team of scientists in the USA show that the copied virus is extremely powerful. The scientists injected the virus into mice and the mice began to lose weight very quickly. They lost 13% of their weight in two days and all of the mice died within six days.
" I didn’ t expect it to be as lethal as it was, " Dr. Terrence Tumpey, one of the scientists in the team, told the journal Nature. In another experiment, they injected more mice with a normal type of flu. The mice lost weight at first but then they got better and did not die. The experiments showed that the mice with the Spanish flu virus had 39,000 times more flu virus in their bodies than the second group of mice.
The scientists who copied the virus say their work has already provided important information about the virus and helps to explain why it is so lethal. But other expels are worried that the virus could escape from the laboratory. " Some people will think that they have really created a biological weapon." said Professor Ronald Atlas of the University of Louisville in Kentucky. " I am even more worried now than I was before about the possibility of a flu pandemic. The 1918 flu pandemic started with bird flu and that might happen again today with Asian bird flu."
Some scientists are worried about the publication of the genetic sequence on the Internet. They are afraid that biologists could copy the virus using the information on the Internet. This could be very dangerous.
It took a long time to copy the virus. Scientists used material taken from the lungs of people who died from the flu virus in 1918. In a second report in Nature, Taubenberger and his colleagues analyzed the genetic make-up of the virus. They were surprised to find that it was completely different from all the normal human flu viruses. This probably means that Spanish flu jumped from birds to humans and did not mix with a human virus first. This is very worrying for scientists because in the past everyone believed that a pandemic was only possible if a bird flu virus mixed with a human flu virus.
Taubenberger says it is very important to know what changes in the virus caused the 1918 Spanish flu virus. This will help scientists to work out which viruses might cause a pandemic. The H5N1 bird flu in Asia is already changing and it could infect humans, he said.
Viruses have escaped from high-security labs before. The SARS virus escaped at least twice, once in Taiwan and once in Singapore, But some scientists believe a pandemic will not happen even if the virus escapes, because most people are naturally immune and there are now a lot of drugs which protect people from flu.
Questions 66—70
Answer the following questions according to the passage.
What is H5N1?
选项
答案
A bird flu virus.
解析
根据第七段最后一句可知,H5N1是亚洲的一种禽流感病毒,正在发生变异,有可能感染人类。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/GJNK777K
本试题收录于:
C类竞赛(非英语专业本科)题库大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)分类
0
C类竞赛(非英语专业本科)
大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)
相关试题推荐
Theconceptofpersonalchoiceinrelationtohealthbehaviorsisanimportantone.Anestimated90percentofallillnessesmay
Aknowledgeofdifferencesbetweenculturesinanever-shrinkingglobalizedworldarebecomingoneoftheessentialskillsthat
TodayI’dliketotalkaboutwhathelpspeoplesuccessfullyintegrateintoanewculture.Whereasthereasonsformigrationare
Traditionally,theAmericanfarmerhasalwaysbeenindependentandhard-working.Intheeighteenthcenturyfarmerswerequites
Thedetectivethoughttheguiltypartytobe______becauseIhadthestrongestmotive.
Butfortheirgeneroushelp,theexperiment______completedsoquickly.
ThomasWheeler,【D1】______oftheMassachusettsMutualLife【D2】______Company,andhiswifeweredrivingalonganinterstatehighwa
Ifyou【D1】______smoothskinthatglowswithyouth,thechancesarethatatsomepointyouwillhaveheardtheexhortationtodri
CyclingthroughEuropewasconsideredtobeoneofJenny’sfantastictips.
Everyyearalargenumberofyoungpeopleleaveschoolandbeginwork.Some【21】jobsonfarmsorinindustry.Othersacceptposit
随机试题
价值工程的核心是()。
在计算机网络中,数据资源共享指的是()。
根据《环境影响评价技术导则一地面水环境》,非感潮河流水域地面水环境影响预测点可不布设在()。
定性风险分析的依据不包括()。
______泛指通过公式计算或经验求得订货点和每次订货批量Q,并且每当库存量下降到s点时,就进行订货的储存策略。
在信息处理过程中,首先要对信息进行筛选,即对信息的真伪进行鉴别,评估信息的价值大小,然后对信息进行分析。分析信息时应先对信息进行:
(1)某公司推出送奶服务(2)李大妈发现奶箱是空的(3)获得赔偿(4)给奶品公司打电话(5)发生车祸
根据所给资料,回答以下问题。2016年1—8月国有企业营业总收入286652.25亿元,同比增长0.2%,其中,中央企业173622.3亿元,同比下降1%,地方国有企业113030.2亿元,同比增长2.1%。1—8月国有企业营业总成本2
对“人民群众”概念的理解,下列说法正确的有()
Motif是Unix下的(1)。X-Windows是基于(2)的系统软件。管道是 Unix中的一个重要功能,它通过(3),从(4)传递资料。在Unix中,用户可以用一个简短的命令来替代经常使用的较复杂的命令行,这可用(5)命令来实现。
最新回复
(
0
)