2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 84

Unit 84

At 18, Ashanthi Desilva of suburban Cleveland is a living symbol of one of the great intellectual achievements of the 20th century. Born with an extremely rare and usually fatal disorder that left her without a functioning immune system （the “bubble-boy disease,” named after an earlier victim who was kept alive for years in a sterile plastic tent）, she was treated beginning in 1990 with a revolutionary new therapy that sought to correct the defect at its very source, in the genes of her white blood cells. It worked. Although her last gene-therapy treatment was in 1992, she is completely healthy with normal immune function, according to one of the doctors who treated her, W. French Anderson of the University of Southern California. Researchers have long dreamed of treating diseases from hemophilia to cancer by replacing mutant genes with normal ones. And the dreaming may continue for decades more. “There will be a gene-based treatment for essentially every disease,” Anderson says, “within 50 years.”

It’s not entirely clear why medicine has been so slow to build on Anderson’s early success. The National Institutes of Health budget office estimates it will spend $432 million on gene-therapy research in 2005, and there is no shortage of promising leads. The therapeutic genes are usually delivered through viruses that don’t cause human disease. “The virus is sort of like a Trojan Horse,” says Ronald Crystal of New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical College. “The cargo is the gene.”

At the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center, immunologist Carl June recently treated HIV patients with a gene intended to help their cells resist the infection. At Cornell University, researchers are pursuing gene-based therapies for Parkinson’s disease and a rare hereditary disorder that destroys children’s brain cells. At Stanford University and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, researchers are trying to figure out how to help patients with hemophilia who today must inject themselves with expensive clotting drugs for life. Animal experiments have shown great promise.

But somehow, things get lost in the translation from laboratory to patient. In human trials of the hemophilia treatment, patients show a response at first, but it fades over time. And the field has still not recovered from the setback it suffered in 1999, when Jesse Gelsinger, an 18-year-old with a rare metabolic disorder, died after receiving an experimental gene therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. Some experts worry that the field will be tarnished further if the next people to benefit are not patients but athletes seeking an edge. This summer, researchers at the Salk Institute in San Diego said they had created a “marathon mouse” by implanting a gene that enhances running ability; already, officials at the World Anti-Doping Agency are preparing to test athletes for signs of “gene doping.” But the principle is the same, whether you’re trying to help a healthy runner run faster or allow a muscular-dystrophy patient to walk. “Everybody recognizes that gene therapy is a very good idea,” says Crystal. “And eventually it’s going to work.”

注（1）：本文選自Newsweek；

注（2）：本文習題命題模仿對象：第1、2題分別模仿2003年真題Text 1第2題和第1題，第3、4題分別模仿2004年真題Text 1第5題和第3題，第5題模仿2002年真題Text 3第5題。

1. The case of Ashanthi Desilva is mentioned in the text to ______.

A) show the promise of gene-therapy

B) give an example of modern treatment for fatal diseases

C) introduce the achievement of Anderson and his team

D) explain how gene-based treatment works

2. Anderson’s early success has ______.

A) greatly speeded the development of medicine

B) brought no immediate progress in the research of gene-therapy

C) promised a cure to every disease

D) made him a national hero

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A) Ashanthi needs to receive gene-therapy treatment constantly.

B) Despite the huge funding, gene researches have shown few promises.

C) Therapeutic genes are carried by harmless viruses.

D) Gene-doping is encouraged by world agencies to help athletes get better scores.

4. The word “tarnish”（Line 5, Paragraph 4）most probably means ______.

A) affect

B) warn

C) trouble

D) stain

5. From the text we can see that the author’s attitude towards gene therapy seems ______.

A) optimistic

B) pessimistic

C) troubled

D) uncertain

篇章剖析

本篇文章是說明文，主要說明基因療法的前景、現(xiàn)狀、遭遇的問題以及人們對待基因療法的態(tài)度。文章第一段以上世紀90年代一次成功的基因治療為例說明基因療法的廣闊前景；第二段介紹了基因療法的現(xiàn)狀和治療機制；第三段介紹了目前用基因療法治療多種疾病的研究情況；第四段介紹了基因療法遭遇的問題以及人們對基因療法的態(tài)度。

詞匯注釋

sterile /?stera?l/ adj. 無細菌的；消毒的

gene-therapy 基因療法

hemophilia /?hi?m??f?l??/ n. 血友病

mutant /?mju?t?nt/ adj. 【生】突變的

therapeutic /θer??pju?t?k/ adj. 治病的；治療術(shù)的；治療學(xué)的

Trojan Horse （神話）特洛伊木馬（特洛伊戰(zhàn)爭時希臘人做的木馬，希臘兵藏在木馬腹中，混入特洛伊城）；〈喻〉內(nèi)部的破壞集團

cargo /?kɑ?g??/ n. （船、飛機所載的）貨物

immunologist /??mj??n?l?d??st/ n. 免疫學(xué)家

Parkinson’s disease 震顫麻痹癥，帕金森癥

clot /kl?t/ v. （使）凝結(jié)

metabolic /?met??b?l?k/ adj. 新陳代謝的

tarnish /?tɑ?n??/ v. 敗壞；玷污；誹謗；中傷

edge /ed?/ n. 優(yōu)勢

doping /?d?up??/ n. 加添加劑

dystrophy /?d?str?fi/ n. 【醫(yī)】營養(yǎng)不良

難句突破

Born with an extremely rare and usually fatal disorder that left her without a functioning immune system （the “bubble-boy disease,” named after an earlier victim who was kept alive for years in a sterile plastic tent）, she was treated beginning in 1990 with a revolutionary new therapy that sought to correct the defect at its very source, in the genes of her white blood cells.

主體句式：She was treated with a... therapy.

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：這是一個復(fù)雜長句。過去分詞born引導(dǎo)了一個包含定語從句（that引導(dǎo)的定語從句，修飾disorder）和插入語（同樣在其中含有帶定語從句的分詞短語）的原因狀語，主句中又跟了一個定語從句（that引導(dǎo)的用來修飾therapy的從句）。

句子譯文：她一出生就患上了一種極為罕見而且通常致命的免疫系統(tǒng)不全癥（即“氣泡男孩癥”，該病得名于早期的一位在消過毒的塑料帳篷里生活多年的患者），從1990年開始，她就接受了一種全新的治療方法，這種方法試圖醫(yī)治其病源——在她的白血球基因中治療免疫缺陷。

題目分析

1. A 細節(jié)題。文章第一句話對用基因療法治療Ashanthi所患罕見疾病的成功給予了很高的評價，并在第一段末指出醫(yī)生們對基因療法寄予了極高的期望。由此可見，答案應(yīng)該是A。

2. B 細節(jié)題。文章第二段一開頭就說：“It’s not entirely clear why medicine has been so slow to build on Anderson’s early success.”從時間上來看，Anderson采用基因療法的成功嘗試已經(jīng)是1990年的事情了，但是他的成功沒有讓醫(yī)學(xué)加速發(fā)展。

3. C 細節(jié)題。文章第二段對于基因治療的方式的解釋是用于治療的基因通過“viruses that don’t cause human disease”進入體內(nèi)，就好像“特洛伊木馬”一樣，由此可見，這些病毒是無害的。

4. D 語義題。第四段上文提到基因療法遭受的一次挫折——一個病人因接受基因療法而死亡；接著講專家擔心運動員利用基因療法在比賽中作弊會進一步tarnish這一領(lǐng)域，從上下文邏輯推理，應(yīng)該是“有損，玷污”這一類的意思，答案D符合題意，為正確答案。

5. A 推理題。作者的態(tài)度從文章第一句話和最后一句話就可以明顯判斷出來。第一句話說基因療法是20世紀的偉大成就之一，最后一句話說“Everybody recognizes that gene therapy is a very good idea”，由此可見作者對基因療法持積極樂觀的態(tài)度。

參考譯文

住在克利夫蘭郊區(qū)18歲的阿珊賽·德西娃是20世紀智力成就的鮮明代表。她一出生就患上了一種極為罕見而且通常致命的免疫系統(tǒng)不全癥（即“氣泡男孩癥”，該病得名于早期的一位在消過毒的塑料帳篷里生活多年的患者）。從1990年開始，她就接受了一種全新的治療方法，這種方法試圖醫(yī)治其病源——在她的白血球基因中治療免疫缺陷。這種方法奏效了。來自南加州大學(xué)的一位曾經(jīng)參與治療的醫(yī)生W·弗倫奇·安德森說，雖然她上次接受基因治療的時間已經(jīng)是1992年，但現(xiàn)在的她完全健康，并且擁有正常的免疫功能。長期以來研究人員一直夢想用正常基因取代突變基因的方法治療血友病和癌癥等各種疾病。這種夢想也許還會延續(xù)幾十年。安德森說：“在50年內(nèi)，基本上各種疾病都會有一種基因療法?！?

現(xiàn)在還不完全清楚為什么自從安德森的早期成功之后，醫(yī)學(xué)發(fā)展卻如此緩慢。國家衛(wèi)生研究院預(yù)算辦公室估計2005年該院將投入4. 32億美元用于基因療法的研究，而且大有領(lǐng)先的可能。治療基因通常都是通過那些不會引起人類疾病的病毒進入體內(nèi)的。“這種病毒就好像特洛伊木馬，”來自韋爾·康奈爾醫(yī)學(xué)院的紐約基督教長老會教徒羅納德·克利斯特爾說，“它運送的貨物則是基因?！?

在賓州大學(xué)阿博拉姆遜癌癥中心，免疫學(xué)家卡爾·瓊最近用一種基因來治療艾滋病病毒感染者，以幫助他們的細胞抵御感染。在康奈爾大學(xué)，研究人員正在研究用基因療法治療帕金森癥和一種破壞兒童腦細胞的罕見遺傳疾病。在斯坦福大學(xué)和費城兒童醫(yī)院，研究人員也在嘗試找出幫助血友病患者的方法。目前血友病患者必須注射昂貴的促凝血藥物來維持生命。動物實驗已經(jīng)表明這項研究大有可為。

但不知什么緣故，從實驗室轉(zhuǎn)換到病人，有一些環(huán)節(jié)缺失了。在治療血友病的人體試驗中，病人最初有一些反應(yīng)，但經(jīng)過一段時間，這種反應(yīng)就消失了。此外，這一領(lǐng)域還沒有從1999年遭受的那一次挫折中恢復(fù)過來。那一年，身患罕見新陳代謝紊亂癥的18歲青年杰西·格爾辛基在賓州大學(xué)接受基因療法試驗后死亡。一些專家擔心如果接下來受益的人群不是病人而是想增強競爭力的運動員的話，將更有損這個領(lǐng)域的形象。今年夏天，圣迭戈索爾克研究院的研究人員說他們已經(jīng)通過植入增強奔跑能力的基因創(chuàng)造出了一只“馬拉松老鼠”；而世界反興奮劑機構(gòu)也已經(jīng)準備檢驗運動員有沒有“基因作弊”的跡象。但無論你是在幫助一個健康的賽跑者跑得更快還是讓一個營養(yǎng)不良癥患者行走起來，其原理都是相同的。“大家都知道基因療法是個非常好的想法，”克里斯托爾說道，“基因療法最終會有用的?！?