蚂蚁能嗅出癌症

安徽 周艳霞

科学家发现，蚂蚁的鼻子比狗还灵敏。只需短时间的训练，蚂蚁就能迅速识别人体中的癌细胞，甚至还能区分不同的癌细胞。

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1Ants have the ability to sniff（嗅）out cancerous cells in humans, a new study has discovered, suggesting they could be used for cancer diagnosis in the future.Researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) discovered that the ant species Formica fusca(丝光褐林蚁)has a well-developed sense of smell.

2It was able to tell cancerous cells from healthy cells in humans, thanks to their sense of smell, limited trials discovered. But more clinical tests must be carried out before they can be used in clinical settings like hospitals,the team said.

3They suggested that in the future, ants could turn out to be better than dogs when it comes to locating cancerous cells in humans. To conduct their research, the scientists performed tests with 36 ants, smelling cells in a laboratory setting. First, the specialists exposed the ants to the smell of a sample (样本) of cancerous human cells. This odor was then associated with a reward of sugar solution. In a second step, the researchers exposed the ants to two different smells. One was a new smell and the second was the smell of cancerous cells.

4Once this test was successful,the researchers exposed the ants to different cancerous cells. As such, the scientists found that ants could tell cancerous from healthy cells and could tell two cancerous lines apart.

5This first study showed that ants have high potential, are capable of learning very quickly,at lower cost,and are efficient.

6This isn't the first time that scientists have used the animal sense of smell to locate cancerous cells. Dogs' noses are well suited for medical diagnosis. However, training them to do so requires several months to a year. On the other hand, insects can be easily reared(养殖) in controlled conditions; they are inexpensive and hundreds of individuals can be conditioned with very few trials,the researchers pointed out.

7The approach can potentially be adapted to a range of other complex smell detection tasks including the detection of narcotics, explosives, spoiled food, or other diseases, including malaria,infections,and diabetes.

Reading Check

Choose the best answers according to the text

Language Study

Ⅰ.Analyze the difficult sentence in the text

Ants have the ability to sniff out cancerous cells in humans, a new study has discovered, suggesting they could be used for cancer diagnosis in the future. 一项新研究发现，蚂蚁能嗅出人体内的癌细胞，这表明蚂蚁未来可用于对癌症的诊断。

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句，句中Ants have the ability to sniff out cancerous cells in humans 是宾语从句，作谓语动词has discovered 的宾语；suggesting...是现在分词作伴随状语，they could be used for cancer diagnosis in the future 也是宾语从句，作suggesting的宾语。

Ⅱ.Memorize some text-centered chunks

sniff out 发现；嗅出

sense of smell 嗅觉

tell from 辨别

thanks to 幸亏

carry out 实施；执行；实行

turn out（以某种方式）发生；最后是；结果是

be associated with 与……有关

be suited for 适合于……

on the other hand 另一方面

point out 指出；指明

be adapted to 适合于；适应