2013年自考英语(二)课文译文:为科学而献身?

　　为科学而献身?

　　Professor Colin Blakemore works at Oxford University Medical School doing research into eye problems and believes that animal research has given humans many benefits:

　　科林?布莱克默教授在牛津大学医学院做眼科研究工作，他相信对动物的研究会给人类带来很多好处。

　　The use of animals has been central to the development of anaesthetics, vaccines and treatments for diabetes, cancer, developmental disorders...most of the major medical advances have been based on a background of animal research and development.

　　使用动物对于麻醉学和疫苗的发展，对糖尿病、癌症和发育紊乱的治疗等都有着极为重要的意义，大多数重大的医疗发展都建立在对动物的研究和开发的基础上。

　　There are those who think the tests are simply unnecessary. The International Association Against Painful Experiments on Animals is an organization that promotes the use of alternative methods of research which do not make animals suffer. Their spokesman Colin Smith says:

　　有些人认为这些实验是毫无必要的。“国际反对用动物做痛苦实验协会”是一个旨在促使人们使用可替换方法，从而使动物不受痛苦的组织。他们的发言人科林?史密斯说：

　　Animal research is irrelevant to our health and it can often produce misleading results. People and animals are different in their reactions to drugs and in the way their bodies work. We only have to look at some of the medical mistakes to see this is so.

　　对动物的研究和我们的健康毫不相干，而且它时常产生起误导作用的结果。人和动物对于药物的反应不同，而且它们肌体的运行方式也不同，我们只须看一些医疗事故就会明白这一点。

　　But Professor Blackmore stresses: It would be completely irresponsible and unethical to use drugs on people that had not been thoroughly tested on animals. The famous example of thalidomide is a case for more animal testing, not less. The birth defects that the drug produced were a result of inadequate testing. If thalidomide were invented today, it would never be released for human use because new tests on pregnant animals would reveal the dangers.

　　但是科林?布莱克默教授强调说： 没有在动物身上进行全面的试验之前就把药物用在人类身上，是完全不负责任和不道德的行为。著名的萨立多胺案例就告诉我们：要进行更多的而不是更少的动物试验。药物引起的生育缺陷就是试验不够充分的结果。如果萨立多胺是今天发明的，它将决不会被用在人类身上，因为对怀孕动物的试验就会显示出它的害处。

　　Another organization that is developing other methods of research is FRAME. This is the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments. It recognises that many experiments still have to be done on animals and is aiming for Reduction, Refinement and Replacement of animals in experiments. In 1981, it established a research programme to improve and expand non-animal testing. Increasingly, new technology is making it easier for us to find alternative methods of testing. Computer models can be used to simulate the way that cells work and to try to predict the toxicity of chemicals. Data from previous animal experiments is used to develop a computer model which will predict what will happen if you add a chemical with an unknown biological effect to a substance. The eventual aim of computer modeling is to reduce the number of animals used in experiments.

　　另外一个正在从事开发其他研究方法的组织是FRAME。FRAME就是“取代动物作医学实验基金会”的简称。它认识到许多试验仍须在动物身上进行，它的目标是减少、限制和取代试验中的动物。1981年它建立了一个研究计划，目的在于改进和推广无动物试验。新技术日益使我们更加容易找到可替代的实验方法。计算机模型可以用来摸拟细胞活动的方式，预测化学药品的毒性。以前动物试验的数据被用来开发一个计算机模型，这一模型将会预测出把一种未知其生物效果的化学药品加入到某一种物质之后所产生的情况。计算机模型的最终目标是减少用于试验的动物的数量。

　　The Lethal Dose 50 test (LD50) may also be replaced. In the original test, all the animals in a test group are given a substance until half of them die. The test indicates toxicity. A method using a fixed amount, which gives the same eventual information but uses fewer animals and does not require that they die, may replace the LD50. Many other new techniques are now available that enable more research to be done in the test tube to see if chemicals produce harmful biological effects. The number of animals used in laboratory tests has declined over the last 20 years. This is partly due to alternatives and partly to the fact that experiments are better designed so fewer need to be used -- healthier animals provide better experimental results. For example, it used to take 36 monkeys to test a sample of polio vaccine, now it takes only 22. Also, lack of money has reduced the number of animals used --they are expensive to buy and expensive to keep.

　　“药剂致死剂量50试验(LD50)”也可以被取代。在最初的试验中，给一个试验组中的所有动物施用一种物质直到它们中的一半死亡。这个试验显示出了毒性。现在一种使用固定数量的方法可以取代“药剂致死量50试验”，这种方法可以得出同样的结果，但是使用较少的动物而且不需要它们死掉。现在已有许多其他的新技术，可使更多的研究工作在试管中进行，并且能够发现化学药品是否产生有害的生物效果。在过去的20年里，实验室试验使用的动物数量已经下降，其部分原因是有了替代方法，部分原因是实验设计得较好，所需动物较少，更加健康的动物提供了优良的实验结果。例如，过去常常需要用36只猴子来检验一个脊髓灰质炎疫苗的样本，现在只需22只。资金的缺乏也减少了动物使用的数量――购买和饲养它们的费用都很昂贵。

　　Birmingham University now has Britain’s first department of Biomedical Ethics. Professor David Morton of the department is involved in animal research and is concerned with reducing animal suffering as much as possible. Animals spend 95% of their time in their cages and refinement also means making their lives better when not undergoing tests. This includes keeping them in more suitable cages, allowing social animals like dogs to live together and trying to reduce the boredom that these animals can experience.

　　现在伯明翰大学有英国第一个生物医学伦理学系，该系的莫顿教授参与动物研究并对尽可能减少动物的痛苦十分关注。动物们95%的时间都呆在笼子中，条件的改善使动物在没有经受试验时可以活得更好一些，包括让他们呆在更加适合的笼子中，让那些喜欢合群的动物(如狗)在一起生活，尽量减少这些动物可能感到的厌烦。

　　In Professor Morton’s laboratory, rabbits live together in large runs, filled with deep litter and boxes that they can hide in. The researchers have also refined some experiments. In the US, one experiment in nerve regeneration involves cutting a big nerve in a rat’s leg, leaving its leg paralysed. In Morton’s lab, the researcher cuts a small nerve in the foot. He can see if it can regrow and the rat can still run around its cage.

　　莫顿教授的实验室里，大批兔子一起生活，里面有厚厚的干草和盒子以供它们藏匿。研究人员还改进了一些实验。在美国，一个神经再生实验需要割断老鼠腿上的一根大的神经，使它的腿瘫痪。在莫顿的实验室里，研究人员割断了它的爪子上的一根小神经，他能够看到这一神经能否再生，而老鼠仍能够在笼了中到处跑。

　　Even with these new developments in research, only a tiny proportion of all tests are done without using animals at some stage. The use of animals in experiments cannot stop immediately if medical research is to continue and consumer products are to he properly tested, and Professor Blakemore believes that sometimes there are no alternatives:

　　尽管在研究方面取得了许多新的进展，但是只有极小一部分实验能够在某一阶段不用动物进行。如果医学研究要继续进行，消费产品要严格检测，那么在实验中使用动物的情况不能立刻停止，布莱克默教授相信有时根本不会有替代的方法。

　　Wherever possible, for both ethical and scientific reasons, we do not use animals. But cells live in animals and we can only really see how they behave when they are inside animals. We cannot possibly reproduce in a test tube or a computer model all the complex reactions of the body to a drug or a disease. When it comes to research into heart disease and its effects on the body, or diseases of the brain for example, we do not have adequate substitutes for the use of animals.

　　由于伦理和科学的原因，在任何有可能的地方，我们都不使用动物。但是细胞生长在动物体内，只有当它们在动物体内时，我们才能真正看清它们如何活动。我们不可能在试管中或者是在计算机模型中看出肌体对一种药物或者是一种疾病的复杂反应。例如，对心脏病或它对身体的影响，或者对大脑疾病的研究来讲，我们没有合适的东西来代替动物的使用。

　　As research techniques become more advanced, the number of animals used in experiments may decrease, but stopping testing oil animals altogether is a long way away.

　　随着研究技术越来越先进，用于实验的动物数量会逐渐减少，但是完全停止在动物身上做试验还有漫长的路要走。

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