第四部分：閱讀理解（共六篇）
第二十五篇
Medicine Award Kicks off Nobel Prize Announcements
Two scientists who have won praise for research into the growth of cancer cells could be candidates for the Nobel Prize in medicine when the 2008 winners are presented on Monday, kicking off six days of Nobel announcements.
Australian-born U. S. citizen Elizabeth Blackburn and American Carol Greider have already won a series of medical honors for their enzyme research and experts say they could be among the front-runners for a Nobel.
Only seven women have won' the medicine prize since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1901. The last female winner was U. S. researcher Linda Buck in 2004, who shared the prize with Richard Axel.
Among the pair's possible rivals are Frenchman Pierre Chambon and Americans Ronald Evans and Elwood Jensen, who opened up the field of studying proteins called nuclear hormone receptors.
As usual, the award committee is giving no hints about who is in the running before presenting its decision in a news conference at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute.
Alfred Nobel, the Swede who invented dynamite, established the prizes in his will in the categories of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. The economics prize is technically not a Nobel but a 1968 creation of Sweden's central bank.
Nobel left few instructions on how to select-winners, but medicine winners are typically
awarded for a specific breakthrough rather than a body of research.
Hans Jornvall, secretary of the medicine prize committee, said the 10 million kronor (US$1.3 million) prize encourages groundbreaking research but he did not think winning it was the primary goal for scientists.
"Individual researchers probably don't look at themselves as potential Nobel Prize winners when they're at work," Jornvall told The Associated Press. "They get their kicks from their research and their interest in how life functions. "
In 2006, Blackburn, of the University of California, "San Francisco, and Greider, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, shared the Lasker prize for basic medical research with Jack Szostak of Harvard Medical School. Their work set the stage for7 research suggesting that cancer
cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth
詞匯:
Enzyme n．酶 krona n. 瑞典克朗
Receptor n．受體 kronor krona的復數(shù)形式
Dynamite n．甘油炸藥 telomerase n．端粒酶
注釋：
1．kicking off：開始(某種)活動
2．handed out：分發(fā)
3．nuclear hormone receptors：核激素受體
4．a(chǎn) news conference：記者招待會。
5．a(chǎn) body of：一批
6．The Associated Press：美聯(lián)社
7．set the stage for：為……打好基礎(chǔ)
練習：
1. Who is NOT a likely candidate for this year's Nobel Prize in medicine?
A Elizabeth Blackburn.
B Carol Greider.
C Linda Buck.
D Pierre Chambon.
2. Which is NOT true of Alfred Nobel?
A He was from Sweden.
B He was the inventor of dynamite.
C He established the prizes in his will.
D He gave clear instructions on how to select winners.
3. Which was NOT originally one of the Nobel Prizes?
A The medicine prize.
B The literature prize.
C The peace prize.
D The economics prize.
4. The word "kicks" in line 6 from the bottom probably means _____________.
A excitement.
B income.
C motivation.
D knowledge.
5. The research by Blackburn and Greider helps suggest the role of ____________.
A money in medical research.
B proteins in cancer treatment.
C hormones in the functioning of life.
D telomerase in the growth of cancer cells.
答案與題解：
1．C從短文的頭四段可以看出．只有2004年獲得諾貝爾醫(yī)學獎的Linda Buck不在今年的候選人范圍內(nèi)。
2．D短文的第七段說到，對于如何選拔獲獎?wù)咧Z貝爾并沒有多少交代。
3．D短文的第六段說到，諾貝爾獎在設(shè)立時并沒有經(jīng)濟學獎項。
4．A從上下文不難看出，科學家搞研究的主要目的不是為了獲獎，他們從其所從事的研究以及生命運行的興趣中獲得很大快感。
5．D短文的最后一句話表明，研究顯示癌細胞利用端粒酶來支持其無限增殖，而這幾位科學 家的工作為這種研究打下了基礎(chǔ)。
