外刊精读：Forever Young?

　　对于英语学习者来说，阅读并解读英语新闻往往是英语提升的一大法宝；对于参加翻译考试或翻译工作者来说，精读外刊更是提升自身水平的必备技巧之一。新东方外刊精读英译汉小编为大家整理了有关“Forever Young?”的内容，并且从英语提升角度做了全面解读，让我们一起来看看吧!

★ Part01 外刊原文 ★

　　The story starts with an observation that senescent cells often produce a molecule called P16INK4A. Dr. Baker genetically engineered a group of mice that were already quite unusual. They had a condition called progeria, meaning that they aged much more rapidly than normal mice. The extra tweak he added to the DNA of these mice was a way of killing cells that produce P16INK4A. He did this by inserting into the animals’ DNA, near the gene for P16INK4A, a second gene that was, because of this proximity, controlled by the same genetic switch. This second gene, activated whenever the gene for P16INK4A was active, produced a protein that was harmless in itself, but which could be made deadly by the presence of a particular drug.

★ Part02 英语提升角度外刊解读 ★

◆1.单词解读

　　progeria / prəʊ'dʒɪərɪə / n. 早老;早衰症

　　tweak / twi:k / n. 改进;调整

　　insert into 嵌入;插入

　　proximity / prɒkˈsɪməti / n. (空间或时间上的)邻近;接近

◆2.短语句式解读

　　meaning that… 意味着…/也就是说…

◆3.写作句型解读

　　原句：This second gene, activated whenever the gene for P16INK4A was active, produced a protein.

　　句型：n., 过去分词…[过去分词做后置定语]

　　例子：This method, developed by the biologist, is of great significance.

★ Part03 参考译文 ★

　　贝克博士首先观察到衰老细胞往往会产生一种叫做P16INK4A的分子。他通过基因工程在一组身体已经异常的小鼠身上做了实验。这些小鼠患有早衰，这意味着它们比正常老鼠更迅速地衰老。他继而通过杀死产生P16INK4A的细胞对这些老鼠的DNA进行额外调整，他在小鼠的DNA序列中产生P16INK4A的基因附近插入另一个基因(这个基因由于临近性而受相同基因开关控制)从而达到上述目的。只要产生P16INK4A的基因是活跃的，被插入的另一基因就也会被激活，并产生一种对它本身无害但在一种特定药物出现时可致命的蛋白质。