新概念英语4册第17课

A Man-Made disease

In the early days of the settlement of Australia, enterprising settlers unwisely introduced the European rabbit. This rabbit had no natural enemies in the Antipodes, so that it multiplied with that promiscuous abandon characteristic of rabbits. It overran a whole continent. It caused devastation by burrowing and by devouring the herbage which might have maintained millions of sheep and cattle. Scienties discovered that this particular variety of rabbit (and apparently no other animal) was susceptible to a fatal virus disease, myxomatosis. By infecting animals and letting them loose in the burrows, local epidemics of this disease could be created. Later it was found that there was a type of mosquito which acted as the carrier of this disease and passed it on to the rabbits. So while the rest of the world was trying to get rid of mosquitoes, Australia was encouraging this one. It effectively spread the disease all over the continent and drastically reduced the rabbit population. It later became apparent that rabbits were developing a degree of resistance to this disease, so that the rabbit population was unlikely to be completely exterminated. There were hopes, however, that the problem of the rabbit would become manageable.

Ironically, Europe, which had bequeathed the rabbit as a pest to Australia acquired this man-made disease as a pestilence. A frence physician decided to get rid of the wild rabbits on his own estate and introduced myxomatosis. It did not, however, remain within the confines of his estate. It spread through France where wild rabbits are not generally regarded as a pest but as a sport and a useful food supply, and it spread to Britain where wild rabbits are regarded as a pest but where domesticated rabbits, equally susceptible to the disease, are the basis of a profitable fur industry. The question became one of whether Man could control the disease he had invented.

在澳大利亚的早期殖民地，一些有远见的殖民者不愿意引进欧洲兔。这种兔子在这里没有天敌，所以他们繁殖并没有了兔子本身的一些习性。在整个大陆上泛滥成灾。它们掘洞穴造成破坏，并且会大量吞吃可以供养几百万只牛羊的草。科学家发现这种兔子（而非其他动物）很容易感染一种致命的疾病，Myxomatosis。通过感染动物并使他们在地洞中活动，会造成这种疾病的局部流行。后来发现有一种蚊子作为带菌着把这种疾病传染给了兔子。所以当世界其他地方正努力消灭蚊子的时候，澳大利亚则很欢迎这种蚊子。它将疾病传播到整个大陆并大量地减少了兔子的数量。但后来兔子明显地对这种疾病有了一定的抵抗性。因此兔子的不可能被完全消除。然而他们希望兔子的问题可以变的可以控制。

具有讽刺意味的是，欧洲把兔子作为害虫遗留在了澳大利亚，却认为这种人为的疾病是一种瘟疫。 一位法国的医师决定在他自己的土地内使用Myxomatosis消灭野兔。然而，并没有限制在他的土地上，而是遍及整个法国。在那里野兔不再被认为是有害的，而作为一种运动和食物的补充。后来发展到了英国，在那里野兔被认为是害虫，而本地的兔子，同样容易感染这种疾病，却是皮毛工厂的利润基础。问题演变成了人类是否能够控制自己发明出来的疾病。