Scientific American 60 Second Science听抄（有音频文件）

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

:)   Thanks, you are right. Additionally, the humor in the last sentence is based on a WWII battle.

The Battle of the Bulge was one of the most famous battles in US history and the bloodiest battle encountered by the American military in WWII with a record 19,000 US men killed in one single engagement (total casualties were 80,000 for the US and 100,000 for Germany). You can watch a 1965 movie with the same title, featuring many great movie stars.

Bulge here refers to the shape of the huge dent in the Allied frontline, created by the advancing German forces.

By the way, please stop using an English Chinese dictionary if you can. It’s really not a good idea, as I have said earlier. Thank you. Using an English English dictionary is really not that painful. Trust me.

:handshake

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

:)

Kelediguo’s script is 100% accurate.

On your question 1: Notice this? The finding, other research, another study…

Question 2, respiratory is commonly pronounced the way Steve did. Most Americans simply drop one syllable and make it sound like “respitory”. Similarly, most people pronounce veterinarian as “vet’narian”.  Apparently, Americans tend to reduce things like “ira” and “eri” into a schwa, in much the same way they treat unstressed middle vowels.

[ 本帖最后由 zhenzhen_163 于 2007-8-21 16:37 编辑 ]

liucirongUID: 2215759

thank you,zhenzhen_163
~~
actually
i have learned a lot from you.
~~
from now on, i will use E-E dictionary, and try to explain things and ask questions in English.

liucirongUID: 2215759

August 21, 2007: 60-Second Science Online Game Offers Insights Into Epidemics

A glitch in the World of Warcraft online role-playing game enabled a virtual disease to spread among the characters, which became useful for real epidemiologists to study. Kevin Begos reports.

My dictation:
The epidemic swept the “world”. Fortunately, it was only the World of Warcraft, a popular online role-playing game. Blizzard gotthe attention of real disease experts of Rutgers Universities. That’s because the accidental airbreak that attacked the virtual characters offered an unique opportunity to study how social groups can help spread disease. In late 2005, the epidemic kicked the World of Warcraft played by millions. It all started with a narrow. One creature was supposed to infect only a few virtual players with so-called “Corrupted Blood”. But some of the nasty of virtual inhabitants exported a flounce?, spread the disease to unsuspecting masses. The virtual quarantines game designers tried to impose didn’t work. And part because the virtual people didn’t follow them and so entire virtual cities were virtually distroyed. The experts were fascinated because they never had way to realistically simulate, how large a group of people would react to an epidemic. But the cure for real epidemic still won’t be as easy as the virtual one was. Think just we program the computers.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
reference reading material :

Online games may help battle epidemics

A FANTASY plague that ran amok in the internet's most popular game world may help scientists predict the impact of genuine epidemics.

A study says virtual playgrounds, such as World of Warcraft, populated by nine million flesh-and-blood players, could become testing grounds for the real battle against bird flu, malaria or some as-yet-unknown virus.

One of the study's authors, Nina Fefferman of Rutgers University in New Jersey, has confirmed that discussions are under way with Blizzard, which created World of Warcraft in 2004.

They are investigating how future updates might yield useful scientific data.

"As technology and biology become more heavily integrated in daily life, this small step towards the interaction of virtual viruses and humans could become highly significant," she said.

The unlikely path to a collaboration between hard science and hard-core gaming began in late 2005, when Blizzard programmers introduced a highly contagious disease – dubbed "Corrupted Blood" – into a newly created zone of the game's Byzantine environment.

World of Warcraft is a "multiplayer online role-playing game" in which players – numbering in the tens, or hundreds of thousands – use computer-controlled avatars to fight battles, form alliances, and dialogue simultaneously on the internet.

At first, the "patch", as new elements such as the disease are called, worked as expected: experienced players shrugged it off like a bad cold, and weaker ones were left with disabled avatars.

But then things spun out of control.

As in reality, some of those carrying the virus slipped back into the virtual world's densely populated cities, rapidly infecting their defenceless inhabitants.

The disease also spread – much like real influenza or the plague – via domesticated animals abandoned by players for fear of infecting their avatars, leaving the sickened pets to roam freely.

Programmers tried to set up quarantines, but they were ignored.

Finally, they resorted to an option not available in the real world: they shut down the servers and rebooted the system.

"This was the first time that a virtual virus has infected a virtual human being in a manner resembling an actual epidemiological event," said Fefferman, whose co-author, epidemiologist Eric Lofgren from Tufts University in Boston, was playing the game when the plague struck.

The authors had already discussed the possibility of using online gaming to study the spread of disease, and thus immediately recognised the opportunity.

To date, epidemiologists have relied heavily on mathematical simulations to forecast the spread of contagious diseases across large populations.

But crunching numbers has limitations, says Fefferman.

"There is no way to model how people will behave" in a public crisis, she said.

"How many will run away from a quarantine?

"Will they become more or less co-operative if they are scared? We simply don't know."

Which is where the virtual netherworlds come into the picture. They can help scientists to "feed appropriate parameters into existing epidemiological models", she said.

Some sceptics have suggested that gamers are more willing to take risks online than in the flesh, and Fefferman acknowledges there is a difference.

But most players have invested a lot of time and energy into strengthening their avatars and forming alliances.

For many, psychologists say, their virtual creations have become alter egos.

"We don't mean to suggest that people's reactions in this game would exactly mirror their reactions in real life," she said.

"But I think it is the closest thing we have to something that people really do become emotionally invested in protecting."

The researchers are working on a proposal for a new patch that would be a "compromise between what gamers would most enjoy and what would be most scientifically useful," she said.

edoooUID: 2288057

原帖由 zhenzhen_163 于 2007-8-21 16:05 发表
:)   Thanks, you are right. Additionally, the humor in the last sentence is based on a WWII battle.

The Battle of the Bulge was one of the most famous battles in US history and the bloodiest  ...

It is interesting and you are knowledgeble.

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

Great!  :handshake

liucirongUID: 2215759

zhenzhen I have faced some problems.

i have used the MW dictionary,a dictionary i have loaded down long before, to look up for words.
it was useful.

but i have no tool to do some phrases .

do you have some recommendation?

celerellaUID: 2386409

This is Scientific Amricans 60-second science, I am Kevin Begos, got a minute?
The epidemic swept the world. Fortunately, it was only the World of Warcraft, a popular online role-playing game. But that got the attention of the real disease experts staff of * universtiies. That's because the accidental error break that attacked virtual characters offered the unique opportunity to study how social groups can help spread disease. In late 2005, the epidemic killed the World of Warcraft played by millions. That all started with an error. One creature was supposed to infect only a few virtual players was so-called corrupted blood. But some of the next year virtual inhabitants exploited the flaws and spreaded the disease on suspecting masses. The virtual quarantines the game's designers tried to impose didn't work in part because the virtual people didn't follow them and so entire virtual cities were virtually destroyed. The experts were fascinated because they never had a way to realistically simulate how large groups of people will react to an epidemic. But the cure for a real epidemic still won't be as easy as the virtual one was, they just read program in computers..
Thanks for the minute for Scientific Amricans 60-second science, I am Kevin Begos.

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

There are many idiom dictionaries out there on the internet. You can google and find them. Use them to check if certain phrases are idioms.

You can also wiki any word or phrase using wikipedia.

As a last resort, use that wonderful tool—Google. Google it!

kelediguoUID: 149939

2007-8-21

The epidemic swept the world. Fortunately, it was only the World of Warcraft, a popular online role-playing game. But that got the attention of real disease experts at Tufts and Rutgers universities. That’s because the accidental outbreak that attacked the virtual characters offered a unique opportunity to study how social groups can help spread a disease. In late 2005, the epidemic hit the World of Warcraft played by millions. It all started with an error. One creature was supposed to infect only a few virtual players with so-called corrupted blood. But some of the next year’s virtual inhabitants exploited the flaw and spread the disease to unsuspecting masses. The virtual quarantines game designers tried to impose didn’t work in part because the virtual people didn’t follow them and so entire virtual cities were virtually destroyed. The experts were fascinated because they’ve never had a way to realistically simulate how large groups of people will react to an epidemic. But the cure for a real epidemic still won’t be as easy as the virtual one was: they just read programs in computers.

kestrelyUID: 2332398

ding idng

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

But some of the nastiest virtual inhabitants exploited the flaw...

But the cure for a real epidemic still won’t be as easy as the virtual one was: they just re-programed the computers.

macromoleculesUID: 2196972

很难

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

On July 26, we reported that obesity could be sort of contagious. When your friends gain weight, you feel more comfy carrying extra pounds. Now comes a report that a common virus may contribute to obesity epidemics. Researchers found human adenovirus-36 could transform adult stem cells contained from fatty tissue into fatty cells. They announced their finding at a meeting of American Chemical Society. Adenovirus-36 infection is known to cause respiratory and eye issues. Other researchers revealed animal that animals infected with the virus accumulate fat. And another study showed that 30% of obese people had the infection, compared with only 11% lean individuals. What the new study did provide direct evidence that the virus actually cause fat levels to increase. The researchers collected fat from liposuction patients isolated adult stem cells. They exposed half to the virus and found that the infected stem cells turned into fat cells. So vaccines or antiviral drugs may yet get drafted for the battle of bulge.

The epidemic swept the world. Fortunately it was only the world of War Craft, a popular on line role-playing game. But that got the attention of real disease experts at Tufts and Rutgers universities. That’s because the accidental outbreak that attacked the virtual characters offer unique opportunity to study how social groups can help spread disease. In late 2005 the epidemic hit the world of War Craft, played by millions. It all started with an error. One creature was supposed to infect only a few virtue players with so called corrupted blood. But some of the next year’s virtual inhabitants exploited the flaw and spread the disease to unsuspecting masses. The virtual quarantines game designers tried to impose didn’t work, in part because the virtual people didn’t follow them and so the entire virtual cities were virtually destroyed. The experts were fascinated because they have never had a way to realistically simulate how large group of people to react to an epidemic. But the cure for a real epidemic still won’t be as ease as the virtual one was. They just reprogram their computers.

kelediguoUID: 149939

Thank you very much. It makes sense.