12月21日午间英语新闻：研究显示奥密克戎繁殖速度超快 约为原始毒株的70倍

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Localized rules urged for Spring Festival travel
国家卫健委回应是否就地过节

Travel policies for the Spring Festival holiday, which begins on Jan 31, should be devised in accord with COVID-19 risk appraisals in different regions and groups, health officials said on Saturday. "Whether it is necessary for people to stay put during the Spring Festival holiday should be based on risk evaluations and should not be uniform across the country," Liang Wannian, a member of the National Health Commission's expert panel, said during a news briefing. 
春节长假将于1月31日开始，在12月18日召开的新闻发布会上，关于是否有必要"就地过年"，国家卫健委疫情应对处置工作领导小组专家组组长梁万年表示，各地要基于风险研判，需要分人群、分地区安排，不能一刀切，要因地制宜出台相关政策。

Liang said increased movement during the Spring Festival travel rush, coupled with diminished resistance against respiratory diseases during winter, will lead to a heightened risk of the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious illnesses. However, China also has several advantages, such as its prompt control of local outbreaks and high rates of COVID-19 vaccination.
梁万年表示，春节期间人口流动增加，加上人群在冬季对呼吸道传染病的抵抗力下降，确实会导致新冠疫情以及其他传染性疾病的传播风险加大，但是，我国也拥有能迅速控制本土突发疫情以及疫苗接种率高等自身优势。

重点词汇
1、appraisal
英 /əˈpreɪzl/  美 /əˈpreɪzl/ 
n. 评估，估价；评价；员工工作评估

2、panel
英 /ˈpæn(ə)l/  美 /ˈpænl/
n. 专家小组，专门小组；（门等的）镶板，嵌板；控制板，仪表盘；（车身的）金属板；画板；<美>陪审团；<英>国民保健制度（原国民健康保险）医师名单；<苏格兰，法律>被告
v. 用（木板、金属板等）覆盖，镶

HKSAR's 7th-term LegCo elected

香港选出新一届立法会议员

All the 90 members of the seventh-term Legislative Council of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region have been elected as of Monday morning. The members were elected by the Election Committee constituency (40 seats), functional constituencies (30 seats), and geographical constituencies (20 seats) after over 1.3 million people voted on Sunday. 
截至12月20日上午，香港特区第七届立法会90个议席全部顺利产生。在全部90个席位中，由选举委员会选举产生40名议员，由功能组别选举产生30名议员，由地区直选选举产生20名议员。超过130万名选民参加了此次投票。

The Chief Executive in Council, in accordance with the Legislative Council Ordinance, has specified Jan 1, 2022 as the commencement date of the seventh-term LegCo of the HKSAR. The term of office of the LegCo is four years. 
香港特区行政长官会同行政会议已根据《立法会条例》有关规定，指明2022年1月1日为香港特区第七届立法会的任期开始日期，任期4年。

重点词汇
1、LegCo
abbr. 立法会（Legislative Council）

2、constituency
英 /kənˈstɪtʃuənsi/  美 /kənˈstɪtʃuənsi/ 
n. 选区，选区的选民；支持者，顾客

3、geographical
英 /ˌdʒiːəˈɡræfɪk(ə)l/  美 /ˌdʒiːəˈɡræfɪkl/ 
adj. 地理的，地理学的

University unveils microbial gene catalog
复旦构建全球微生物基因目录

A team from Fudan University in Shanghai has launched the world's most comprehensive global microbial gene catalog - a database containing 303 million unigenes that will help researchers better understand the relationship between microorganisms and human health. A paper about the catalog, "Towards the Biogeography of Prokaryotic Genes", was published in the science journal Nature on Thursday. 
上海复旦大学的一个研究团队发布了全球最全面的微生物基因目录，共包含3.03亿个物种级的基因，这将帮助研究人员更好地理解微生物和人类健康之间的关系。相关研究成果《原核生物基因的生物地理学研究》于12月16日以长文形式发表于《自然》主刊。

To collect all the genes in the global microbiome to create the catalog, a team from Fudan's Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence - Luis Pedro Coelho, Zhao Xingming and Peer Bork created the database based on 13,000 pieces of publicly available data. The researchers said microbiome research is normally carried out according to different habitats such as human microorganisms and marine microorganisms, but the catalog can analyze microbial metagenomes in different habitats on a global scale.
为了收集全球微生物组中的所有基因并创建目录，来自复旦大学类脑研究院的路易斯•佩德罗•科埃略、赵兴明和皮尔•伯克团队对1.3万个公开宏基因组样本进行挖掘，构建了该目录。研究人员表示，传统微生物组研究按照人类微生物、海洋微生物等不同栖息地分别进行研究，但该目录可以在全球范围内分析不同栖息地的微生物宏基因组。

重点词汇
1、microbial
英 /maɪˈkrəʊbɪəl/  美 /maɪˈkrobɪəl/
adj. 微生物的；由细菌引起的

2、microorganism
英 /ˌmaɪkrəʊˈɔːɡənɪzəm/  美 /ˌmaɪkroʊˈɔːrɡənɪzəm/ 
n. [微] 微生物；微小动植物

3、metagenome
宏基因组

Omicron found to grow 70 times faster than Delta
奥密克戎病毒繁殖速度超快

The Omicron COVID variant has been found to multiply about 70 times quicker than the original and Delta versions of coronavirus in tissue samples taken from the bronchus, the main tubes from the windpipe to the lungs, in laboratory experiments that could help explain its rapid transmission. The study, by a team from the University of Hong Kong, also found the new variant grew 10 times slower in lung tissue, which the authors said could be an indicator of lower disease severity. 
实验室在从支气管(连接气管和肺的主要管道)提取的组织样本中发现，奥密克戎新冠变种毒株的复制速度比原始新冠毒株和德尔塔毒株大约快70倍。这一实验有助于解释奥密克戎毒株的传播速度为什么这么快。香港大学的一个团队开展的这项研究还发现，新变异株在肺部组织内的繁殖速度会降低10倍，研究作者称，这可能意味着病情不会那么重。

Michael Chan Chi-wai, who led the work, said the result needed to be interpreted with caution because severe disease is determined not only by how quickly the virus replicates but also by a person’s immune response and, in particular, whether the immune system goes into overdrive, causing a so-called cytokine storm.
研究领头人陈志伟(音译)表示，应谨慎看待这一结果，因为是否发展为重症不仅取决于病毒复制的速度，还取决于人体的免疫反应，特别是免疫系统是否会因过激反应导致所谓的细胞因子风暴。

重点词汇
1、bronchus
英 /ˈbrɒŋkəs/  美 /ˈbrɑːŋkəs/ 
n. 支气管

2、cytokine
英 /ˈsaɪtəʊˌkaɪn/  美 /ˈsaɪtoʊˌkaɪn/ 
n. [细胞] 细胞因子；细胞激素