'This is the first time an amputee has been able to get real time sensory feedback from their prosthetic fingers direct to their brain. And so the patient was able to be blindfolded and pick up a plastic cup and know it was a plastic cup and then pick up a wooden brick and know that they were picking up something hard， so they had the difference between hard and soft. And that's the first time that that's been possible. And the real advance here was not in the hand itself but in the computer software and the algorithms we use to transform the electrical signals from sensors in the fingers of the artificial hand into impulses which could be read by the brain. And so the patient had to go in and have surgery in Italy， to have electrodes implanted in the upper arm. Then he had the hand fitted and then connected to a lot of external wiring. He went through a month of tests in Rome to see whether this thing worked and……'
'Oh， I see. So that's what provided the algorithms.'
'That's right. So he had to undergo a month of laboratory testing.'
'So the scientists were excited clearly. What about the patient himself？'
'Well， I met Denis Abo， a 36-year old man from Denmark. He， about a decade ago he had an accident with a firework which led to his left hand being amputated. And they describe him as a hero because he had to undergo not one surgery， but two operations because he did a month of test with this hand and it all had to be removed. He was amazed by it. He loved it. So explained to me how he underwent these tests wearing a blindfold and earplugs with different objects put in his hand and suddenly after nearly a decade he was able to get some of the all sensation back that he had in his original hand.'
'Amazing to suddenly feel things that are round or circled or hard or soft. You can use it and feel what's happening without looking at your hand.'
译文：
长久以来，失去胳膊的截肢患者可以借助义肢拿取物品，但却不能产生触感。直到现在，欧洲科学家提出发明仿生手的方法，使患者能够通过手指获得触感。我们的医学记者费格斯·沃尔什采访了发明仿生手的科学家以及重获触觉的患者。目前，该患者能够感受到手中物体的形状、硬度和柔软度。
“这是世界上首款给截肢患者的大脑实时传递反馈的假肢。患者被蒙住双眼，拿起一个塑料杯，就能知道手中之物是塑料杯，再拿起木块，就能知道手中是硬物，他们能感受软硬的区别，这是前所未有的突破。然而，真正的先进性不止在仿生手上，而是体现在我们使用的计算机软件和算法上，通过仿生手指中的传感器，将电信号传到大脑神经中。另外，患者必须去意大利进行手术，将电极移植到上臂中，然后装上仿生手，接上许多外部配线。他在罗马进行了为期一个月的试验，来测试整个系统是否成功……”
“我明白了。也就是这个系统提供了计算机运算法则。”
“是的。他必须经过一个月的实验室测试。”
“显然，科学家们都很激动，那么患者本人呢？”
“患者名叫丹尼斯·阿博，男，36岁，丹麦人。大约10年前，他在烟花爆竹事故中失去了左手。他们都认为他是英雄，因为他不止要做一次手术，而是两次，因为一个月的测试后，仿生手不得不被暂时移除。他对仿生手感到很吃惊，也很喜欢。他向我讲述了测试的全过程，他当时戴着眼罩和耳塞，感受手中不同的物品，10年后，他的触感突然回来了。”
“突然能感受到各种物品，圆形的，圈状的，硬的，软的，我很开心。不用看就知道手里拿了什么样的物品。”
单词解析Word analysis
1. impossibIe[?m'p?s?b(?)l]adj.不可能的
例句：The noise made sleep impossible.
噪音让人无法睡觉。
2. pIastic['pl?st?k]adj.塑料
例句：Plastic bags are prohibited here.
这儿不允许使用塑料袋。
3. transform[tr?ns'f??m； trɑ?ns-； -nz-]v.转化，改观
例句：Increased population has transformed the landscape.
人口的增加使景观发生了变化。
4. artificiaI[ɑ?t?'f??(?)l]adj.人造的
例句：Artificial fertilizers are wildly used today.
人工化肥现在广泛使用。
5. surgery['s??d?(?)r?]n.外科手术
例句：She required surgery on her right knee.
她的右膝需要做手术。
6. sensation[sen'se??(?)n]n.触觉，感觉
例句：Caroline had the sensation that she was being watched.
卡洛琳有种感觉，有人在监视她。
7. originaI[?'r?d??n(?)l； ?-]adj.最初的，原先的
例句：The land was returned to its original owner.
这块土地归还给了原主。
语法知识点Grammar points
1. But to feel those objects has been impossible until now.
“to”引导的不定式做主语，“to”引导的不定式还可以做主语，状语等其他成分。
2. This is the first time an amputee has been able to get real time sensory feedback from their prosthetic fingers direct to their brain.
“It/This is the first time（that）……”第一次做……后面的从句一般用现在完成时。
3. You can use it and feel what's happening without looking at your hand.
“what's happening”名词性从句做表语；“without looking at your hand”做伴随状语。
37：联合国要求梵蒂冈立即停止儿童虐待行为Vatican'must immediately remove'child abusers-UN
05/02/2014
Coming up， a new report says poor teaching is leaving hundreds of millions of children without basic maths and literacy.
'Many teachers are highly mo-tivated but they are not all to teach children how to read， forexample， the right fundamentals of education system.'
First， we start with that new UN report on education which is grim reading. It says at least a quarter of a billion children leave school without basic literacy and numeracy skills. And it says it will be another 70 years before all boys and girls all have access to primary education. The challenges for the poo-rest countries in Africa are especially tough. As a primary school teacher in a government school in Malawi has been explaining：
'There are a lot of problems in most of our government schools because some of them still learn under trees， learning under trees where there are no desks in most schools in government.'
'Over the past decade we've actually seen great progress in getting more girls into school， so one of the success stories of education goals is actually narrowing of this gender gap. However， when we look at more detail， we see that the poorest rural girls are far far behind. They are the ones that are really getting left behind. So on average in Africa， the poorest rural girls have spent about three years in school， compared to nine years for the richest urban boys. So it's a massive gap.'
'So where are you talking about exactly？'
'The biggest problem is in west African countries， in countries like Senegal and Mali and BurkinaFaso and so on. These are countries that still need to make far more progress and particularly in getting more girls into school. We find that many teachers are highly motivated and they go into profession for the right reasons， but that they don't always have the skills that they need to do their job.'
译文：
这次新闻的主要内容有：一项新的调查报告显示，教学质量低下导致数亿儿童缺乏基本的算术和读写能力。
“许多老师积极性都很高，但是并不是所有人都教会了孩子们最基本的东西，比如阅读。”
首先，我们来看一项新的联合国教育报告，这份报告着实令人担忧。报告显示，至少2.5亿儿童在不具备基本读写和算术能力的情况下离开了校园。而且，要让所有男孩和女孩都接受小学教育，还需要70年的时间。对于非洲最贫穷的国家来说，挑战尤为艰巨。
