托福閱讀材料之興奮劑

　　From federal investigations into Major League Baseball(美國職業(yè)棒球大聯(lián)盟) to allegations of substance abuse in track and field, performance enhancing drugs(興奮劑) have been in the news a lot. The most well-known performance enhancers are steroids(類固醇), drugs that can make athletes bigger and stronger. But they can also cause serious medical problems.

　　So how do steroids work, and what makes them so dangerous?

　　First, it’s important to understand that the body naturally produces steroids. For men, the best known is testosterone(睪丸激素). Testosterone is an anabolic steroid(合成代謝類固醇), meaning that it encourages new muscle growth. So the more testosterone you have in you, the greater potential you have to be bigger and stronger. It makes sense, then, that artificial anabolic steroids mimic testosterone produced in the body.

　　Here’s how they work. Anabolic steroids attach to cells and encourage them to produce more protein, which muscles need to grow and become stronger. So steroids basically (1)speed up and enhance the process of muscle growth that you can accomplish by lifting weights and other kinds of exercise. A weightlifter on steroids will develop larger muscles and do so faster than a “clean” weightlifter.

　　Millions of people take performance enhancing drugs such as caffeine and vitamins every day. But unlike these drugs, steroids can cause serious, long lasting problems. For example, steroid use puts extra pressure on the liver to cleanse the bloodstream of the many toxins in steroids.

　　Prolonged steroid use can result in liver damage. They also affect brain chemistry(腦化學(xué)), and can cause depression and severe mood swings known as ‘roid rage(類固醇癲狂)’. There’s certainly nothing wrong with building your body, but using steroids to do so will ultimately (2)break you down.

　　譯文：

　　興奮劑，讓人沉浮

　　從對美國職業(yè)棒球大聯(lián)盟藥物濫用指控的聯(lián)邦調(diào)查來看，服用興奮劑已經(jīng)成為一個熱門話題。其中最著名的興奮劑是類固醇，它可以讓運(yùn)動員更大更強(qiáng)。但是它們也會導(dǎo)致嚴(yán)重的醫(yī)學(xué)問題。

　　那么類固醇是怎樣發(fā)揮作用的呢?是什么使它們?nèi)绱宋ｋU?

　　首先，知道身體能夠自然產(chǎn)生類固醇是很重要的。對于男性來說，最廣為大家所知的就是睪丸激素。睪丸激素是一種合成代謝類固醇，它能夠促進(jìn)新的肌肉的生長。因此如果你的睪丸激素越多，你的潛力就越大越強(qiáng)。這樣一來，人造合成類固醇模仿人體內(nèi)分泌的睪丸激素應(yīng)運(yùn)而生了。

　　它們是這樣工作的。合成類固醇依附于細(xì)胞上，促使它們產(chǎn)生更多肌肉生長和壯大所需要的蛋白質(zhì)。因此類固醇主要是加快和加強(qiáng)肌肉生長，而這樣的效果你可以通過舉重和其它的運(yùn)動練習(xí)達(dá)到。一個服用類固醇舉重運(yùn)動員的肌肉會比一個“干凈”的運(yùn)動員生長得更大更快。

　　成千上萬的人們每天都在服用咖啡因，維他命之類的興奮劑。但是與其它藥物不同的是類固醇會導(dǎo)致嚴(yán)重，持久的問題。例如，使用膽固醇會對肝臟凈化血液帶來壓力，因?yàn)槟懝檀祭镉泻芏喽舅亍?/p>

　　長期使用類固醇可導(dǎo)致肝損害。它們同樣會影響腦化學(xué)，并會導(dǎo)致抑郁癥和被稱為“類固醇癲狂”的嚴(yán)重情緒波動。強(qiáng)身健體當(dāng)然沒有錯誤，但是如果你使用類固醇來完成，那么最終你會垮掉。

　　Notes:

　　(1)speed up 加速;使加速

　　I sped up my car as soon as I left her house.

　　一離開她家，我便加快了速度。

　　(2)break down 分解;發(fā)生故障;失敗;毀掉;制服

　　The bridge broke down in last earthquake.

　　那座橋在上次地震中坍塌了。