Medicine Award Kicks off Nobel Prize Announcements(B級)

　　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 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 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 for research suggesting that cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth.

　　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：1.C2.D3.D4.A5.D

　　第四篇： 諾貝爾獎的公布從醫學獎開始

　　兩位因研究癌細胞的生長而贏得贊譽的科學家可能成為2008年諾貝爾醫學獎的候選人，周一將為醫學獲獎者進行頒獎，從而開始諾貝爾獎為期六天的公布。

　　由于對酶的研究，出生于澳大利亞的美國人伊麗莎白.布萊克本和另外一個美國人開羅.格雷德已經贏得了一系列醫學方面的榮譽。老師認為他們最可能獲得這次的醫學獎。

　　自1901年首次頒發諾貝爾獎以來，只有七名女性贏得了醫學獎，其中最后一名是美國研究員琳達.巴克，她和理查德.埃克索一起獲得了2004年的醫學獎。

　　布萊克本和格雷德的競爭對手有來自法國的皮埃爾.尚本，來自美國的羅納德.依文斯和艾爾伍德.杰森，他們開創了核激素受體這一蛋白質研究的新領域。

　　與以前一樣，在斯德哥爾摩卡羅林斯卡學院召開新聞發布會并公布決定之前，評獎委員會沒有任何關于候選人是誰的暗示。

　　阿爾佛雷德.諾貝爾是瑞典人，他發明了甘油炸藥。他在遺囑里確立了諾貝爾而是瑞典中央銀行在1968年創立的。

　　諾貝爾沒有留下關于如何評獎的指導，然而，醫學獎的獲得通常是由于具體的突破，而不是大量的研究。

　　醫學獎委員會秘書漢斯.喬恩瓦說，一千萬瑞典克朗(相當于130萬美元)的獎金可以鼓勵開拓性研究，然而，他認為，贏得獎金并不是科學家的初衷。

　　“從事研究工作時，研究者很可能并不把自己看成未來的諾貝爾獲獎者。“ 喬恩瓦這樣對美聯社記者說：“他們的動力來自他們的研究以及對生命運轉方式的興趣。”

　　2006年，來自舊金山加利福尼亞大學的布萊克本，來自巴爾的摩約翰.霍普金斯大學的格雷德與來自哈佛醫學院的杰克.紹斯塔克共同獲得了拉斯克爾基礎醫學獎。他們的工作為研究癌細胞利用端粒酶維持不可控制的生長打下了基礎。