人教修订版 高中三年级 Unit 9

Listening

Revision 1. Who can say something about WHO? The World Health Organization is the United Nations’ specialized agency for health. It was established on April 7th, 1948. WHO’s objective is to realize the highest possible level of health of all

people in the world. Health is defined in WHO’s Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. WHO is governed by 192 member states through the World Health Assembly.

The Health Assembly is composed of representatives from WHO’s Member States. The main tasks of the World Health Assembly are to approve the WHO programme and the budget for the following biennium and to decide major policy questions.

2. Do you think that WHO plays an important role in improving the world’s health? You can explain the reason by giving examples.

I think WHO plays an important role in improving the world’s health. For example, last winter, a terrible

tsunami broke out in the Indian Ocean. A large number of people lost their lives in the disaster, and there were also a huge number of people who lost their homes.

Many of them suffered from bad living conditions and bad sanitation,

thus terrible plague broke out there. WHO was one of the first ones to give help to the people, and it did make a difference.

Listeningalcohol:drug abuse:

outbreak:

wine.

using drug wrongly orimproperly

a sudden eruption of something

Part 1

Part 2

Listening TextPart 1 The World Health Organisation, or WHO, was created by the United Nations in 1948. The goal of the WHO is to help people all over the world to live a healthy life. In order to reach this goal, the WHO runs programmes

to fight diseases, improve sanitation, and stop alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse. One of the WHO’s greatest successes to date is playing a major part in freeing the world from smallpox, which was once a feared disease. The

organisation has also helped limit the bad influence of new diseases like SARS and HIV/AIDS. The defeat of smallpox is a good example of how the WHO works. Smallpox is a contagious disease that causes blindness and even death. In the 10th century, Chinese doctors

discovered that healthy people who were given small doses of smallpox became immune to the disease. At the time, however, this method was not safe and didn’t always work. Later, in the 18th century, a British doctor found a safer way to protect people

against the disease. But it was not until 1967, when the WHO started a large programme to fight smallpox, that people could get protection in an easy and safe way. The WHO programme reached people everywhere and put a stop to the

spread of the disease. In 1977, the last smallpox case occurred. Three years later. With no new cases, the WHO declared that the world was free from smallpox.

Part 2 The WHO is also working to prevent

and treat diseases like AIDS and polio. Several programmes exist that are aimed at improving health care in the world and protecting people against new diseases. In 2003, the world saw a new and frightening

disease. An unknown virus infected people in China and many people died of it. Scientists and doctors soon discovered the virus and called it SARS. Because of modern transportation, SARS quickly spread to other parts of the world. Canada and China were among the worst

affected areas. The governments tried their best to stop the disease from spreading and quickly arranged hospitals, nurses and doctors to treat the SARS victims. People who were travelling had to check their temperatures and tell where they were

going and whom they would visit. The WHO played an important role. It worked together with the governments to control the outbreak. As an international organisation with many years of experience of dealing with diseases, the WHO could provide

warnings, information and help. As a result, the disease was controlled and prevention measures were put in place to make sure that any new outbreak could be dealt with in a good way.

Can you list some other international organizations? And what are their functions? SA: I want to say something about UNESCO, which stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiza- tion. It was founded on

November 16th, 1945. Today, UNESCO functions as a laboratory of ideas and a standard-setter to forge universal agreements on emerging ethical issues. The Organization also serves as a clearinghouse — for the dissemination and sharing

of information and knowledge — while helping Member States to build their human and institutional capacities in diverse fields. In short, UNESCO promotes international co-operation among its 191 Member States and six Associate

Members in the fields of education, science, culture and communication. SB: I want to talk about UN. UN stands for the United Nations, it was established on October 24th, 1945 by 51 countries. Its function is to preserve peace through

international cooperation and collective security. Today, there are 191 countries which are the members of the UN.

Listening on P209

Common Cold

I think most of us have the experience of suffering from the common cold. It is caused by viruses. Sneezing, scratchy throat, runny nose usually are the first signs of a cold. The common cold is usually mild, with symptoms lasting 1 to 2 weeks. To protect ourselves, we should try to avoid going to public places often.

Cancer

We all know that certain changes in

our cells can cause cancer. Some kinds

of cancer are caused by things people

do. Smoking can cause cancers of the

lungs, mouth, throat, and several other

organs. Radiation can cause cancer.

Too much exposure to sunlight without any protection can cause skin cancer. Nowadays, cancer is still a disease that cannot be cured. So we should pay more attention to our life style.

AIDS

AIDS is caused by the virus HIV. If a person gets AIDS, his or her immune system will be destroyed, and he or she will become sick, at last, he or she will die.

SARS

Coronavirus is the cause of SARS. I think SARS is the most serious disease. Because once a person is infected, if he gets no proper treatment, he will die. When SRAS is spreading, the best way to protect us is to stay at home and have a good life style.

Bird Flu

Bird flu is caused by different subtypes of influenza, a virus affecting chickens, ducks and other birds, which can cause mild disease. It can mutate into viruses that can cause serious disease. It is very serious, and many people died of it.

Part 1

Part 2

Listening TextPart 1 In 2004, the Word Health Organisation, WHO, warned of a possible outbreak of another serious disease which may be even more deadly than SARS. The WHO believes that it is likely that bird flu

will spread to human beings in the next few years. If it does, up to seven million people could die from the disease. Diseases like bird flu are caused by viruses, that is, tiny things which change and become more dangerous over time. When a new type of a

common virus changes, it may be able to get past the body’s immune system. If that happens, humans are in great danger until a cure or treatment becomes available. There have always been viruses and people always get sick, of course, but as we saw with SARS, the situation is

more difficult today. People travel more than over before, which means that the diseases can spread quickly and across large areas — in fact the whole world. Scientists are already working on drugs that will prevent or limit the effect of a new virus, but the process

takes time. It is just as important to make sure that countries, especially poor countries, are prepared to deal with the disease. New diseases usually affect poor areas the most, so we must help develop health care in all countries.

One reason for the WHO warning is that big new diseases tend to happen regularly, usually every 20 to 30 years. In the 20th century, there were three large outbreaks: the Spanish flu in 1918-19, which killed between 20 and 40 million people; the Asian flu of 1957, killing one million

people; and the 1968 Hong Kong flu, which killed about 750,000 people. It has been 36 years since the Hong Kong flu, so scientists and doctors think that the next deadly challenge is just around the corner.

Part 2 There are three kinds of viruses that cause flu: A, B and C. Type A is the virus that causes bird flu. As the name suggests, the virus is usually found in birds. It can also infect humans, pigs, horses and other animals. There are several different kinds of the Type A

virus. Type B viruses are usually found only in human beings. They have been responsible for some flu outbreaks, but they are not considered as dangerous as Type A viruses. Type C viruses are not considered very serious. They are found in humans, but do not cause serious illnesses.

The most dangerous thing about the flu viruses is that they change, When humans are infected with a virus, the body develops a defence for it. If viruses didn’t change, we would not have the worry about the viruses we know. Unfortunately, every new

generation of virus is slightly different from the older ones. That means that our body doesn’t recognise the virus and can’t protect itself from it. This kind of change is not very fast and doctors and scientists can change the medicines we use to help prevent the virus from causing serious illness.

The other kind of change, however, happens very quickly and is more serious. If a virus changes in this way and becomes a new type of virus, the body is defenceless. The virus can spread easily from one person to another and reach far across the world. Fortunately, this kind of change

doesn’t happen very often. The WHO now believes that a new, dangerous virus will appear soon and that we must prepare the best we can. We must improve health care in all countries and cooperate with each other so that we can discover and prevent new viruses.