节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-03-26
难易度:High
关键字:therapy, revolutionize, uncontrollable, alternative, molecular biologist,
defective
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
Thank you for joining us today.
Our lesson is a unique one - Gene Therapy.
Now therapy means healing.
And science has been making a lot of advancements in the area of healing people
of diseases.
Gene therapy is proving to be very effective.
"But what is it?" you may ask.
Let's get into our lesson and find out about Gene Therapy.
(Music).
Gene Therapy.
Recent successes with gene therapy offer hope to patients.
"We used to think that our fate was in our stars, but now we know that, in large
measure, our fate is in our genes," said James Watson.
Watson is a molecular biologist and co-discoverer of DNA structure.
Why?
Scientists are seeing that gene therapy is revolutionizing the treatment of
disease.
In gene therapy, healthy genes are introduced into defective cells to prevent or
cure disease.
While much of the research is in the beginning stages, some successes point to
the real benefit of the therapy.
In Italy, doctors have recently treated one genetic disease with gene therapy.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, let's go right back to the top of our lesson.
We read: Recent successes with gene therapy offer hope to patients.
Have you ever heard of gene therapy?
Well, the idea of it has been around since 1972, but just recently there have
been a few breakthroughs, a few stories of how gene therapy is successful.
And these success stories offer hope to patients.
Now that phrase is not in our lesson, but let's talk about success stories.
A success story is a personal and true story about how someone succeeded in
something.
Right. And success stories are called success stories because they're told to
encourage others who may be struggling with something.
For example, we have been discussing depression in one article for each of the
last three months.
Some people have experienced depression and come out to share with people their
success stories.
That's right.
Or maybe someone smoked for many years, and finally they found a way to quit.
Their success story will hopefully be encouraging to others who are going
through a similar struggle.
Do you have any success stories?
You could perhaps one day share about how studying with Studio Classroom help
you accomplish your dream.
Yes, be sure to share that success story with everyone.
Well, we read here that these recent successes with gene therapy offer hope to
patients.
Let's look at the phrase: to offer something to someone.
Here we are talking about something abstract, hope.
How else could we use this phrase?
I believe God offers peace to those who trust Him.
Good.
Or does your teacher ever offer you opportunities to raise your grade in class?
You could say our teacher is offering extra points to anyone who turns in their
essay a week early.
One common way I hear the word "offer" is when someone says: Can I offer you a
ride?
They have a car, and they know that I have to walk home, so they ask if they can
offer me a ride home.
And of course, back to our lesson, if you are struggling with a disease, someone
else's success story might offer you a glimmer of hope.
What didn't seem possible before is possible now.
We read a quote here:
We used to think that our fate was in our stars, but now we know that, in large
measure, our fate is in our genes.
Hmm, what does this person mean, our fate is in the stars?
Well, yes, people for many years have looked to the stars to figure out more
about themselves.
Many people believe in astrology.
Astrology has to do with the idea that there is a relationship between the
things that go on in the universe and our lives.
Gabe, do you know your sign?
What sign? I have a sign?
No, no. People in Taipei often ask what my sign is.
Now personally, I don't believe in astrology, so it doesn't really make a
difference to me.
But I am a Taurus.
So what is your sign?
Ah, yes, I see what kind of sign you're asking me about.
Well, I, too, don't really follow the stars, but I am a Cancer.
Well, what about you?
Do you believe in astrology?
Do you follow the stars?
Do you think your fate is in your stars?
Science is proving that our fate is actually in our genes.
Well, it's a good thing I didn't wear jeans today.
I'm not ready for my fate yet.
Gabe, you're thinking of jeans, J-E-A-N-S.
I'm talking about genes, spelled G-E-N-E-S.
Of course jeans are pants made from a certain material like the kids in this
picture are wearing.
But genes, as in gene therapy, is very different.
They are tiny molecules pass down to you through the blood.
Well, we have more to learn about this.
But right now we should visit Liz in the Grammar Gym and see what she has to say
about this sentence.
Hi there, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
And I hope you're all doing well today.
In today's lesson we see this sentence:
"We used to think our fate was in our stars, but now we know that, in large
measure, our fate is in our genes," said James Watson.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence for today.
And now notice the phrase in the middle of the sentence: in large measure.
It just means not entirely but mostly, or in a big way.
So today's sentence just means we know that, in a big way, our fate is in our
genes.
Use this phrase "in large measure" when you want to describe how something is
mostly in a certain way.
For example: Nate's success, in large measure, is because of his positive
attitude.
Or: Brent's business failure is, in large measure, due to his pride and greed.
So give this phrase a try.
And if you'd like to see some more example sentences, they're available in
today's Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
That's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Now we read a quote at the beginning of the lesson, and this was said by James
Watson, who is a very important man in the world of molecular biology.
Right. He's probably most famous for discovering the structure of DNA.
You all know what DNA is, and you've probably seen pictures of DNA strands like
this one.
And now why did he say our fate is in our genes?
We read here: Scientists are seeing that gene therapy is revolutionizing the
treatment of disease.
So all kinds of diseases may be able to be treated with gene therapy.
Well, just exactly how does this work?
We will read a little bit about that in the next paragraph, but first, we want
to show you a video that helps to explain, too.
Enjoy.
For most of us, vision comes naturally.
We don't think about the process behind it, but vision is a process.
Light comes through the pupil.
It is focused by your lens, and it is turned into signals your brain can
understand by an amazing bit of tissue at the back of the eye called the retina.
The retina is the busiest part of the body.
Each cell is a light-processing factory.
The factories gather light and convert it into electrical messages that can be
understood by the brain.
The operating instructions for these factories are called genes.
People with inherited retinal diseases have an error in these operating
instructions.
This error, called a mutation, may mean that some crucial part of the process
just doesn't happen, resulting in vision loss.
One missing piece can shut down the assembly line and eventually the entire
factory.
The goal of gene replacement therapy is to provide new instructions to keep the
factory working.
So how do we get new instructions into the factory?
The biological world already has specialists - an industrial espionage called
viruses.
Viruses infect cells by sneaking into the factory.
They take over the factory by giving the cells' machinery new instructions.
Scientists use these stealth skills to design new therapies for vision loss.
The scientists remove most of the virus' own genes, then they put new
instructions into the shell of the virus.
Scientists then inject these biological secret agents into the retina.
Gene therapy can be adapted to treat many different blinding mutations.
It cannot repair a cell factory that has been destroyed.
However, the first human trials have shown that gene therapy can repair the
assembly line and improve vision.
Wow! It's amazing to see that gene therapy can help to restore and improve
vision.
Well, we have more to learn about the disease mentioned in our article and how
gene therapy is helping afterthis.