今天前程百利小编为大家分享的是托福听力的背景学习。备考托福听力就要把听力文本吃透分析彻底。这样不仅能积累背景材料，还能把听力的专业词汇积累起来一块背诵，为托福听力打下坚实的基础。下面跟小编一起学习漏油事件和海豚死亡有何关联?
Unusual adrenal and lung conditions seen in dead dolphins in the months after the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill point to the oil as the cause. Steve Mirsky reports
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill began in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. Following the event through 2012, more than a thousand dolphins washed up dead along the Gulf, in three major strandings. That’s four to five times higher than the region’s usual rate of dolphin deaths.
“We found that dolphins dying after the oil spill had distinct adrenal gland and lung lesions that were not present in the stranded dolphins from other areas.”
Kathleen Colegrove of the University of Illinois was the lead veterinary pathologist of the latest in a series of studies analyzing the die-off. She and her study co-authors took part in a telephone press conference on May 20th.
“Now, surprisingly, one in three dolphins that stranded in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama had a thin adrenal gland cortex. And when looking at just the Barataria Bay dolphins, half of them had this lesion.”
Barataria Bay got an especially high dose of oil.
“This prevalence was significantly higher than in the reference population, in which less than one in 10 had this lesion. Now, this thinning of the adrenal gland cortex was a very unusual abnormality for us, that has not been previously reported in dolphins in the literature…now, aside from chemical exposure, conditions that can cause the adrenal gland to become thin include things like cancer, autoimmune disease, fungal infections and tuberculosis. And we did not find any evidence of these alternative causes in the dolphins.
“Now, in addition many dolphins dying after the oil spill again in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama had evidence of significant lung disease…in fact, these dolphins had some of the most severe lung lesions I have ever seen in wild dolphins from throughout the U.S.”
The study is in the journal PLoS ONE.
BP disputes the link between the dolphins and the oil spill. But the study’s lead author, Stephanie Venn-Watson of the National Marine Mammal Foundation contends:
“The evidence to date indicates that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and associated compounds caused the adrenal and lung lesions which contributed to the increased deaths as part of this unusual mortality event.”
疑难词汇：
Adrenal adj. 肾上腺的n. 肾上腺
Spill vt. 使溢出，使流出;使摔下vi. 溢出，流出;摔下;涌流n. 溢出，溅出;溢出量;
摔下;小塞子
Stranding n. [水运] 搁浅;[安全][水运] 触礁
v. [水运] 搁浅(strand的现在分词)
lesion n. 损害;身体上的伤害;机能障碍
veterinary adj. 兽医的n. 兽医
pathologist n. 病理学家
prevalence n. 流行;普遍;广泛
cortex n. [解剖] 皮质;树皮;果皮
abnormality n. 异常;畸形，变态
autoimmune adj. 自身免疫的;自体免疫的
fungal adj. 真菌的(等于fungous)
tuberculosis n. 肺结核;结核病
长难句解析：
1. “This prevalence was significantly higher than in the reference population, in which less than one in 10 had this lesion.
难句类型：
Which引导的非限制性定语从句
句子主干：
This prevalence was significantly higher
难句拆分：
in which less than one in 10 had this lesion，介词+which引导的定语从句。
2. Now, this thinning of the adrenal gland cortex was a very unusual abnormality for us, , aside from chemical exposure, conditions that can cause the adrenal gland to become thin include things like cancer, autoimmune disease, fungal infections and tuberculosis.
难句类型：
That引导的定语从句
句子主干：
this thinning of the adrenal gland cortex was a very unusual abnormality for us
难句拆分：
that can cause the adrenal gland to become thin include things like cancer, autoimmune disease, fungal infections and tuberculosis，that引导的定语从句作conditions的定语。
文本结构特点：
本篇文章主要讲的是大量海豚的死亡与2010年墨西哥漏油事件有关。水地平线石油泄漏事件及其相关化合物导致海豚发生肾上腺和肺损伤，进而造成此次异常事件中的海豚死亡量增加。
好了，以上就是前程百利小编为大家整理的备考托福听力背景材料以及专业词汇的学习。大家学会了吗?希望能在备考托福的路上助大家一臂之力。预祝大家取得好成绩。
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