A Famous Accident

一场著名的意外

One of the greatest pharmaceutical discoveries happened by accident. In his haste to go on vacation, Alexander Fleming had left his laboratory in a mess. The essence of his ongoing work involved a type of bacteria. An infection caused by the bacteria was often terminal, and he was looking for a remedy. He had left the bacteria out while he was away.

最伟大的医药发现之一是来自偶然。亚历山大·弗莱明因为忙着去度假，把实验室弄得一团糟。他正在进行的工作的本质涉及一种细菌。这种细菌引起的感染通常是致命的，他正在寻找治疗方法。他不在时把细菌留在外面了。

When he returned from vacation, he found that his lab was covered in fungus. He started cleaning up the mess. While he was cleaning, he had an impulse to examine the fungus. He saw that whenever the fungus was in close proximity to the bacteria, the bacteria died.

当他度假回来时，他发现他的实验室布满了真菌。他开始收拾残局。当他在打扫的时候，他有一种检查真菌的冲动。他发现每当真菌接近细菌时，细菌就会死亡。

Though he was a messy scientist, his experiments were precise. He thought that there might be some significance to the fungus. He immediately commenced an experiment to assess what had happened to the bacteria. It had either died by accident or the fungus had killed it. The subsequent tests proved it was the latter reason. 虽然他是个邋遢的科学家，但他的实验很精确。他认为真菌可能有一定的意义。他立即开始了一项实验，以评估细菌发生的变化。要么死于意外，要么是真菌杀死了它。后来的试验证明，是后者。

What he found astonished him. The fungus actually killed the bad bacteria. All this time, he had been looking for a synthetic material to kill the bacteria. Instead, a common fungus did the job.

他的发现使他大吃一惊。真菌实际上杀死了有害细菌。一直以来，他都在寻找一种能杀死细菌的合成材料。而一种普通的真菌就能做到。

He knew that something in the fungus had killed the bacteria. His next step was to find those molecules that had done it. When he found them, he extracted them and put them into a pill. The drug proved to be very effective. It also worked against other types of harmful bacteria.

他知道是真菌里的某种东西杀死了细菌。他的下一步是找到那些起作用的分子。当他发现它们的时候，他将其取出，放进药丸里。这种药被证明很有效，还能对抗其他类型的有害细菌。

The discovery received a lot of publicity. Soon after, the new drug was being used all over the world. Because of the success, the scientist was able to develop even more fabulous drugs to help people. His accidental discovery changed the world and helped save many people's lives.

这一发现得到了广泛的关注。不久，这种新药就在世界各地被使用。由于这次成功，这位科学家能够开发出更多神奇的药物来帮助人们。他的意外发现改变了世界，挽救了许多人的生命。

核心单词表

assess v. 评定

astonish v. (使)惊讶

commence v. 开始

essence n. 本质

extract v. 提取

fabulous adj. 难以置信的

haste n. 匆忙

impulse n. 冲动

latter adj. 后者的

molecule n. 分子

ongoing adj. 仍在进行的

pharmaceutical adj. 制药(学)的

precise adj. 精确的

proximity n. 接近

publicity n. 宣扬

remedy n. 补救

significance n. 意义

subsequent adj. 随后的

synthetic adj. 综合的

terminal adj. 晚期的

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