2017英语专八阅读材料
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材料一
Fears that wearing high-heeled shoes could lead to knee arthritis are unfounded, say researchers.
研究者们称，人们害怕穿高跟鞋会导致膝盖关节炎是没有根据的。
But being overweight, smoking, and having a previous knee injury does increase the risk, the team from Oxford Brookes University found.
牛津布鲁克斯大学研究小组发现，肥胖、吸烟或者以前膝盖受过伤却增加得关节炎的危险。
They looked at more than 100 women aged between 50 and 70 waiting for knee surgery, and found that choice of shoes was not a factor.
他们对年龄在50到70岁之间的100名将要做关节手术的妇女进行研究，发现选择什么样的鞋并不是导致关节炎的因素。
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health.
该研究在《流行病学与公共卫生》杂志上发表。
More than 2% of the population aged over 55 suffers extreme pain as a result of osteoarthritis of the knee.
55岁以上的人群中有超过2%的人忍受着膝盖关节炎带来的极度痛苦。
The condition is twice as common in 65-year-old women as it is in men the same age.
这种情况在65岁的妇女中发生的几率是同年龄男性的两倍。
Women's and men's knees are not biologically different, so the researchers wanted to find out why twice as many women as men develop osteoarthritis in the joint.
女性和男性的膝盖在生理上并没有什么不同，所以研究者们想要知道为什么患关节炎的女性人数是男性的两倍。
Some researchers have speculated that high-heeled shoes may be to blame.
有研究者推测高跟鞋可能是罪魁祸首。
The women in the study were quizzed on details of their height and weight when they left school, between 36 and 40 and between 51 and 55.
参加该项研究的妇女们被详细询问了她们在毕业时、30到40岁之间，51到55岁之间的身高和体重。
They were asked about injuries, their jobs, smoking and use of contraceptive hormones.
研究人员还询问她们的受伤、工作、吸烟和使用避孕激素的情况。
However, while many of these factors were linked to an increased risk over the years, tottering around in high heels for years was not.
然而，多年来，许多因素都增加了患关节炎的危险，但是常年穿着高跟鞋走路不是原因之一。
The researchers wrote: "Most of the women had been exposed to high heeled shoes over the years - nevertheless, a consistent finding was a reduced risk of osteoarthritis of the knee."
研究者们写到：“大多数妇女很多年来一直穿高跟鞋，然而可靠的发现表明他们患膝盖关节炎的危险反而降低了。”
There was an even more pronounced link between regular dancing in three-inch heels and a reduced risk of knee problems.
研究者们甚至发现经常穿三英寸高的高跟鞋跳舞明显和降低膝盖得病的危险有关。
The researchers described this finding as "surprising", but said that they would not expect a larger-scale study to overturn their findings.
研究者们称这一发现是“令人惊讶的”，但是他们说不指望有大规模的研究会推翻他们的发现。
材料二
过去医生认为试管婴儿是一种很好的帮助不孕不育的夫妇圆孩子梦的方法。但现在，这种方法需要三思而后行。现代医学证明，试管婴儿也许比正常怀孕生产的孩子罹患先天或后天疾病的可能性更大。
Do infertility treatments damage babies'genes? Doctors used to think not.Now they are not so sure.
治疗不孕损害婴儿的遗传基因吗?医生们过去认为不会有什么影响，现在他们对此不十分肯定了。
In the 24 years since the birth of Louise Brown，the world's first test-tube baby，thousands of would-be parents have been assure that as far as scientists knew there was no extra risk of genetic damage associated with in-vitro fertilization，or IVF.No matter how sperm meets egg--whether in a woman's body or in a Petri dish(and even if the sperm needs some help getting inside the egg)--nature is equally vigilant about preventing serious genetic mishaps from coming to term.With those assurances，test-tube births have soared from a few hundred a year in the early 1980s to tens of thousands today.
世界首例试管婴儿路易斯·布朗出生后24年的时间里，成千上万想做父母亲的人们得到科学家们的保证说，试管内受精对基因不会有什么额外的危险。无论精子如何与卵子结合--是否在女人体内还是在较硬的试管壁上，(即使精子需外力帮助才与卵子结合)，大自然都同样会阻止严重变形的基因分娩，有了这样的允诺和保证，试管婴儿的出生在20世纪80年代早期由每年的百余例上升到现如今的数万例。
But according to a pair of reports in last week's New England Journal of Medicine，that conventional wisdom may be wrong.In the first study，doctors in Britain and Australia found that infants conceived with both straightforward test-tube methods and a more invasive technique called intra-cytoplasmic sperm in jection，in which sperm is injected directly into the egg，have an 8.6% risk of major birth defects--including heart and kidney abnormalities，cleft palate and undescended testicles -- compared with the 4.2% rate in babies made the old-fashioned way.The second study，conducted by the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC)，reported that babies conceived through what doctors call assisted reproductive technologies(ART)have 2.6 times the risk of low or very low birth weight --a significant risk factor for cardiac and cognitive problems.
但上周的《新英格兰医学杂志》有两篇报告指出：这种传统的说法也许是错误的。在第一篇研究报告中，英国和澳大利亚的医生们发现，直接的试管受精和通过更具侵入性的技术--把精子通过注射直接与卵子相遇的方法而出生的婴儿，有8.6%存在着主要由出生造成的缺陷的'危险性--包括心脏、肾功能不正常、裂腭、男孩隐睾症等。而正常受孕出生的孩子这种现象的比率只为4.2%。第二个研究报告是由"美国疾病控制与预防中心"主持作出的。报告指出，通过医生们所谓"协助生育技术"的方法而受孕出生的婴儿出生时低体重或严重低体重的危险是正常情况的2.6倍。这是引起心脏病和认知能力问题的危险因素。
There are plenty of reasons to take both studies seriously.In the low-birth-weight study，for example，the researchers allowed for the fact that parents who use assisted reproduction tend to be older than average and to have more multiple births--twins，triplets and so on.Even when they corrected for these factors，the disparity between babies conceived through ART and those conceived normally remained.
我们有充足的理由对以上两种研究严肃对待。例如：有关低体重出生研究方面，研究者们已然考虑到这样的事实，即那些想通过医学手段而受精生育的夫妻们年龄比一般生育年龄大些，而且一次多胎--双胞胎、三胞胎等等。即使他们避免了这些因素，但是通过"协助生育技术"生育的婴儿与正常生育的婴儿之间仍然存在差异。
But there's no need to panic.Independent experts are quick to point out that the reports are hardly definitive.Couples who seek reproductive help are not just older;they are also--though it may seem like stating the obvious--infertile."You're comparing two different groups of patients here，"says Dr.William Schoolcraft，director of the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine."You have women with the disease of infertility，and you're comparing them with women who don't have the disease."
但也没有必要过分恐慌。其他专家们迅速指出这些报道绝不是确定性的。寻求生育帮助的夫妇并不仅仅是年龄偏大的，他们也是明显的不育夫妇。"科罗拉多生育医学研究中心"负责人威廉姆·斯库克拉夫特博士说："你们是把两类不同的病人进行对比。你们这儿有的是些患有不孕疾病的妇女，而你们却把她们与那些根本没有不孕症的妇女进行对比"。Some of the same caveats apply to the birth-defects study，say experts.Here，too，earlier research had found no significant differences between test-tube babies and convention-ally conceived kids.And here，again，the new study didn't correct for the fact that women who get reproductive assistance often have something wrong with their reproductive system in the first place.
专家们说，一些同样的防止误解的说明适用于出生缺陷研究。在这里，较早期的研究发现：试管婴儿与正常婴儿没有重大的区别，而且新研究并没有纠正这样的事实，即寻求医学手段而受孕的妇女首先她们本身的生育系统有问题。
Even if these new studies are borne out by later research--already under way in infertility programs in Australia and the U.S.--the risks to kids conceived by assisted reproduction remain reassuringly small.And even if the danger is twice what doctors previously believed，91% of ART babies would still be born perfectly healthy.Says Dr.Zev Rosenwaks，director of New York Presbyterian Hospital's infertility program："If you ask a couple if they would rather not have a child at all or try to have a child that over 90% of the time will be normal，I think they will choose to have the child."
即使这些新研究被后期的研究所证实--在澳大利亚和美国有关不孕项目的研究已经在进行，通过医学受精生育的孩子的出生会有缺陷危险仍然肯定是极小的。即使这种危险是医生们先前相信的两倍，但91%这类出生的婴儿仍然完全健康。纽约基督教长老会医院妇女不孕科主任--兹夫·罗森瓦克斯博士说："如果你问一对夫妇她们愿意一生不要孩子，还是愿意生育一个孩子，而且有多于90%的可能孩子是正常的，我想他们肯定会选择要孩子。"
材料三
Toyota and affiliate Hino Motors Ltd. will take part in the development of a new model of a road-rail vehicle originally created by railway operator JR Hokkaido, a Hino spokesman said.Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. and its truck-making affiliate have joined a project to develop an environmentally friendly vehicle capable of moving both on roads and railways, an official said Monday.
日本一位官员于本周一表示，日本丰田汽车集团及其卡车制造分公司目前已参与研发一款路轨两用的环保机动车。日野汽车的发言人称，丰田汽车及日野分公司将参与一款新型路轨两用车的研发项目，这款车最初是由日本北海道旅客铁道公司研制出来的。
The two auto companies are providing technology and materials to strengthen the front part of the "dual mode vehicle" so that it can carry up to 25 people.
这两家汽车公司主要提供技术和材料，加强“两用车”的车体前部构造，使其最多能够容纳25人。
The railway firm is already developing several prototypes of road-rail vehicles and has begun test drives.
北海道旅客铁道公司已经研发出路轨两用车的几款样车，并投入试运行。
The operator, which operates railways in the nation's northern island of Hokkaido, has developed the vehicle as part of its effort to utilize railways now out of service due to a sharp decline in passengers in the region.
北海道旅客铁道公司一直在日本北部岛屿北海道经营铁路运营业务，由于这一地区的铁路因客流量急剧下降而停运，北海道公司采取各种措施利用铁路，研发路轨两用车便是其中之一。
The vehicle has eight wheels -- four iron wheels for railways and four rubber tyres for roads -- and is powered by a diesel engine. It is said to burn only one fourth of the fuel of conventional diesel-powered cars.
这款柴油驱动的两用车共有八个轮子，分别是四个在铁轨上运行的铁轮胎和四个在陆地上运行的橡胶轮胎。据说这款车的耗油量仅为传统柴油车的四分之一。
"Our contribution is expected to be another step toward more practical use of the dual mode vehicle," a Hino spokesman said.
日野公司的发言人表示：“我们将为进一步推进两用车的实际应用做出贡献。”
The latest vehicle is expected to be completed by mid-June and will be displayed at a welcome event for this year's Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido in July for which climate change is high on the agenda.
这款车预计于六月中旬出厂，并将于7月份在北海道召开的八国集团峰会欢迎仪式上亮相。今年八国峰会的主要议题是气候变化。
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