在英语越来越重要的21世纪，英语成了大学生顺利进入社会的通行证，为了帮助同学们更好地学习英语，特提供以下资料：
曩昔医生认为试管婴儿是一种很好的辅佐不孕不育的佳耦圆孩子梦的体例。但此刻，这种体例需要三思尔后行。现代医学证实，试管婴儿也许比正常怀孕出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?医生们曩昔认为不会有什么影响，此刻他们对此不十分必定了。
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.eMP365考试网
世界首例试管婴儿路易斯·布朗出生后24年的时刻里，成千上万想做怙恃亲的人们获得科学家们的保证说，试管内受精对基因不会有什么额外的危险。无论精子若何与卵子连系--是否在女人体内仍是在较硬的试管壁上，(即使精子需外力辅佐才与卵子连系)，大自然都同样会阻止严重变形的基因临蓐，有了这样的允诺和保证，试管婴儿的出生在20世纪80年月早期由每年的百余例上升到现现在的数万例。eMP365考试网
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》有两篇陈述指出：这种传统的说法也许是错误的。在第一篇研究陈述中，英国和澳大利亚的医生们发现，直接的试管受精和经由过程更具侵人道的手艺--把精液经由过程打针直接与卵子相遇的体例而出生的婴儿，有8.6%存在着首要由出生造成的缺陷的危险性--搜罗心脏、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%。第二个研究陈述是由"美国疾病节制与预防中心"主持作出的。陈述指出，经由过程医生们所谓"协助生育手艺"的体例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形的2.6倍。这是引起心脏病和认知能力问题的危险身分。
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.
我们有充沛的理由对以上两种研究严厉看待。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，即那些想经由过程医学手段而受精生育的夫妻们春秋比一般生育春秋大些，而且一次多胎--双胞胎、三胞胎等等。即使他们避免了这些身分，可是经由过程"协助生育手艺"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."
但也没有需要过度焦炙。其他专家们迅速指出这些报道毫不是确定性的。追求生育辅佐的佳耦并不仅仅是春秋偏大的，他们也是较着的不育佳耦。"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："你们是把两类分歧的病人进行对比。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到?净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，一些同样的防止曲解的声名合用于出生缺陷研究。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，而且新研究并没有更正这样的事实，即追求医学手段而受孕的妇女首先她们自己的生育系统有问题。
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，经由过程医学受精生育的孩子的出生会出缺陷危险仍然必定是极小的。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。纽约基督教长老会病院妇女不孕科主任--兹夫·罗森瓦克斯博士说："如不美观你问一对佳耦她们愿意生平不要孩子，仍是愿意生育一个孩子，而且有多于90%的可能孩子是正常的，我想他们必定会选摘要孩子。"