Listening practice: The germs that learn to dodge medicine1×0:008:330:00Part one: first English listening2:56Part two: Chinese coaching and vocabulary5:41Part three: English replay0:00主播Imagine a medicine that once worked like a key, opening the way to stop an infection, but now the lock has changed. That is the idea behind antimicrobial resistance. According to the World Health Organization, antimicrobial resistance happens when bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites no longer respond well to medicines. The medicine has not become weak in the bottle. The germ has changed, or has gained a defense, so an infection can be harder to treat. For a student listener, the most important point is simple: resistance belongs to the germ, not to the patient’s body. This topic is about biology, medicine, and human choices meeting in one small invisible world.0:43主播The story often begins with antibiotics. Antibiotics are medicines used against bacterial infections, not against ordinary viruses such as colds or flu. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control explains that antibiotics changed modern medicine because they made many dangerous bacterial infections treatable. But when antibiotics are used too often, or used when they are not needed, bacteria that happen to survive can multiply. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says resistant germs may survive, grow, and even share resistance traits with other germs. In other words, a tiny advantage can spread. A medicine may kill many bacteria, yet leave behind the ones best prepared to dodge it.1:27主播This is not only a problem inside one hospital or one country. According to a World Health Organization fact sheet, bacterial antimicrobial resistance was directly responsible for about one point two seven million deaths worldwide in twenty nineteen, and was associated with nearly five million deaths. A newer WHO report released in twenty twenty five warned that one in six laboratory confirmed bacterial infections causing common infections in people worldwide in twenty twenty three were resistant to antibiotic treatments. The report also said resistance rose in more than forty percent of the pathogen and antibiotic combinations that were monitored from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty three. Numbers like these turn an invisible process into a global warning signal.2:14主播So what can slow the problem down? The answer is not to fear every medicine. The answer is to use medicines more carefully and prevent infections in the first place. The WHO describes a One Health approach, which connects human health, animal health, food production, and the environment. The CDC also reminds people that antibiotics and antifungals should be used when they are truly needed, and that good habits, vaccines, clean water, diagnosis, and infection control all matter. Antimicrobial resistance sounds like a distant scientific term, but it asks a very practical question: can we protect the power of useful medicines before too many germs learn how to escape them?2:56讲解这一遍先抓主线。本期英文讲的是 antimicrobial resistance,也就是「抗微生物药物耐药」。你可以把它想成:药本来能对付某些病原体,但病原体发生变化或获得防御能力,导致药效下降。注意,英文里强调的是 the germ has changed,不是 your body is resistant,也就是说「耐药」主要指细菌、真菌等病原体对药物不再敏感,而不是人的身体对药物免疫了。3:31讲解第一组关键词:antimicrobial,抗微生物的,范围比 antibiotic 更大;antibiotic,抗生素,主要针对细菌感染;resistance,抵抗力、耐药性;infection,感染;pathogen,病原体;bacteria,细菌;fungi,真菌;virus,病毒。听到 bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat the drugs,可以抓成「细菌和真菌获得能力,打败原本要杀死它们的药」。develop 在这里不是「发展事业」,而是「逐渐形成」。4:11讲解第二组短语:misuse and overuse,误用和过度使用;not needed,不必要;survive and multiply,存活并繁殖;share resistance traits,分享或传播耐药特征;laboratory-confirmed infections,实验室确认的感染;one in six,六分之一;more than forty percent,超过百分之四十。数字不用逐个死记,先听出它们在表达趋势:耐药不是个别案例,而是越来越需要全球监测的问题。4:50讲解最后看一个长句主干:According to the World Health Organization, bacterial antimicrobial resistance was directly responsible for about one point two seven million deaths worldwide in twenty nineteen, and was associated with nearly five million deaths. 先去掉来源状语 According to the World Health Organization,主语是 bacterial antimicrobial resistance,谓语有两个并列部分:was directly responsible for,和 was associated with。理解成:世卫组织数据显示,细菌耐药在二零一九年直接导致约一百二十七万例死亡,并与近五百万例死亡相关。接下来带着这些词,再完整听一遍英文原文。5:41主播Imagine a medicine that once worked like a key, opening the way to stop an infection, but now the lock has changed. That is the idea behind antimicrobial resistance. According to the World Health Organization, antimicrobial resistance happens when bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites no longer respond well to medicines. The medicine has not become weak in the bottle. The germ has changed, or has gained a defense, so an infection can be harder to treat. For a student listener, the most important point is simple: resistance belongs to the germ, not to the patient’s body. This topic is about biology, medicine, and human choices meeting in one small invisible world.6:23主播The story often begins with antibiotics. Antibiotics are medicines used against bacterial infections, not against ordinary viruses such as colds or flu. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control explains that antibiotics changed modern medicine because they made many dangerous bacterial infections treatable. But when antibiotics are used too often, or used when they are not needed, bacteria that happen to survive can multiply. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says resistant germs may survive, grow, and even share resistance traits with other germs. In other words, a tiny advantage can spread. A medicine may kill many bacteria, yet leave behind the ones best prepared to dodge it.7:06主播This is not only a problem inside one hospital or one country. According to a World Health Organization fact sheet, bacterial antimicrobial resistance was directly responsible for about one point two seven million deaths worldwide in twenty nineteen, and was associated with nearly five million deaths. A newer WHO report released in twenty twenty five warned that one in six laboratory confirmed bacterial infections causing common infections in people worldwide in twenty twenty three were resistant to antibiotic treatments. The report also said resistance rose in more than forty percent of the pathogen and antibiotic combinations that were monitored from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty three. Numbers like these turn an invisible process into a global warning signal.7:51主播So what can slow the problem down? The answer is not to fear every medicine. The answer is to use medicines more carefully and prevent infections in the first place. The WHO describes a One Health approach, which connects human health, animal health, food production, and the environment. The CDC also reminds people that antibiotics and antifungals should be used when they are truly needed, and that good habits, vaccines, clean water, diagnosis, and infection control all matter. Antimicrobial resistance sounds like a distant scientific term, but it asks a very practical question: can we protect the power of useful medicines before too many germs learn how to escape them?
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