A 32-year-old woman in Belgium has become the first woman ever to give birth after having ovarian tissue removed, frozen and then implanted back in her body. The patient had the tissue removed in 1997 in hopes of preserving her fertility because she had Hodgkin‘s lymphoma, a type of cancer, and was about to undergo chemotherapy with drugs likely to damage her ovaries and cause infertility. She and her doctors hoped that once she was cured, the ovarian tissue could be thawed and returned to her abdomen to produce eggs.
文中的一些生詞,如:ovarian tissue, fertility, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chemotherapy, thawed, abdomen(如果它們是生詞的話)會妨礙我們對段落大義的理解,但我們熟悉的“give birth, produce eggs”告訴我們本段落所敘述的內容與婦女生育有關,而且我們還可以判斷出這是一例不同尋常的生育,因為removed(摘除)、frozen(冷凍)、implanted(移植)、returned(放回)等這些關鍵詞向我們顯示了這樣一個關鍵信息。從第二句得知,這位病人摘除的ovarian tissue是希望能保護她的fertility。最后一句又說,先前摘除的ovarian tissue 移植回去后可以produce eggs;再從生活常識中得知,能使婦女產卵生育的器官是卵巢。這樣,綜合起來我們就推測出了ovarian的意義是“卵巢”、fertility的意義是“生育能力”。而至于這位婦女得的什么癌癥(Hodgkin‘s lymphoma)我們可以忽略不計,只要抓住“治療這種疾病的藥物會導致’不育‘”這一主要信息即可(第二句后半句)。至此,我們可以大膽地推測本段的核心大意:文中提到的比利時婦女患有癌癥(lymphoma淋巴),而化療這種癌癥的藥物會引起不育(infertility);為保護她的生育能力(fertility),治療前,醫(yī)生摘除了她的卵巢(ovarian)冷凍起來,待疾病治好以后,再生育。