2011年06月の記事一覧 | 英検1級合格ブログ

英検1級リスニング対策

リスニング対策にはBBCでも聞きましょう。特に、Global Newsがお薦めです。他には、Newshour、World Business Report、Business Daily、World Updateもあります。合計4つもPodcastを聞けば、イギリス英語もちゃんと聞き取れるようになるでしょう。アメリカ英語から始めたい方は、CNNのAC360と言う番組をお薦めします。アンダーソンと言うイケメンアナウンサーが様々なニュースを議論しています。最近では、「Birther」等についても話していました。もちろん、CNN News Updateも良いです。どうしてもビジネス系が聞きたいという人は、Business WeekやWall Street Journalを聞くと良いです。ただ、BBCのビジネスレポートでもアメリカの内容は十分です。日本国内の内容は、NHK Worldで入手してください。時間が無い時は、Global NewsとこのNHK Worldで十分だと思います。無料でこれだけのニュースが聞けるのは本当に便利だと思います。前に、AFNやVOAのニュースフラッシュを買ったことがありますが、慣れてくれば、必要はないと思います。あと、英語学習者必須のNHKラジオ講座は毎日聞いてください。私は、実践ビジネス英語、入門ビジネス英語、攻略！英語リスニングを聞いています。

2011.06.11

時事問題対策

時事問題対策が不足していたので。英字新聞を読んで読解力を強化しましょう。NATO and the Arab SpringBy ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSENhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01iht-edrasmussen01.htmlHands Off Our HousesBy MATIAS ECHANOVE and RAHUL SRIVASTAVAhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01srivastava.htmlNon Means NonBy MAUREEN DOWDhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01dowd.htmlThe Bin Laden DecadeBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMANhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01friedman.htmlCutting Out Sugar and SpiceBy RANJANI IYER MOHANTYhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/opinion/02iht-edmohanty02.html

2011.06.11

ココ出る特集2

ココ出るかも！コンピュータ系単語cripplerungwhiz kidself-replicatingwell-meaningunleashnew twistwage war againstchange hands科学・テクノロジー系単語cachemacho combatconfer an advantagelifelong homesteadingoverbearingcome to blowscome to termsnebulousdusty cocoonspruce upperchretinablood vesselparochialbasaltinorganic machinewin convertsfigure intofeatfire upsnagaforementionedappendagecatch preyfilamentArchaeopteryxonce and for allto datechart a courseleapfrog経済・ビジネス系単語go awryold-fangledbequeathchapinvariablyoutrightbaronelixirswankytoutchip away atspell doom自然・環境の単語eat awayfungusphosphorusdig into one's pocketearmarkland-conservation trustaquaculturehere to staymake it intoground-uparable landin tattersbreadbasketensueledgerhydrological effect文化・社会の単語concentric circlecontouraptlyroadblocksprawlbriskdebilitategulliblesoothsayerturpitudewould-be seerjump through the hoopsconsagechutzpahespousepositshy oflargesseoverindulgentin a bid to doconstabularykeep in checkkeep one on the straight and narrowhemlinespurnwild goose chasepredispositionrear one's head

2011.06.11

ココ出る特集！

出そうな単語をあつめました。litterlividbystandernotaryon the ballon the carpetpass the buckperfunctoryperniciouscallowpesterpigeonholepilferprongquipreprehensibleretrogradationrevereriftsalientscamperscuttleseetheservilelay it onskewsleekslogsmearsnidesnubsordidsparselyspitespurtstaggerstowawaysubsidesubversivesumptuouslurktactlesstaunttetherboltthreadsthwarttide overaffronttransposetriteunabasheduncouthundauntedundulateunrulyunscathedunseemlyvacillatevagrantvaliantlyvauntedvenerableventverbosevergevicariouslyvievilevivaciousvolitionvoluptuousvulgarwaddlewhirwhite elephantwieldwincewistfullywrathwreathwrenchchronic conditionmucusinflammatorybronchodilatorbone marrowmenstrual cyclegerontologistwear and teararteryregimentyphoid fevermaladysatirizetonsilsadenoidsflutteranemicclogged artery英検文で覚える単熟語1級より出題

2011.06.11

英検1級語彙直前練習！

英検1級に出そうな単語を集めてみました！peccadilloesrecedesolacebloodlettingsurrealsalaciousscrabblevertiginousstrolluprootbolsternoxiousimperceptibletrebledacarbazinegaitdunesnafumumbo jumbo jihadistfoiegraspenumbramarksmanasphyxiationtrillheathenendemicpariahgenuflectcronylargessefrayidolatrycowerbuckshtickburlylinchpinどうですか？全部わかりましたか？英検1級の語彙は難しいですが、頑張りましょう！

2011.06.11

トピック5:E.coliきゅうりの恐怖（ドイツが発生源を探している）

E.coli cucumber scare: Germany seeks source of outbreak Suspicion has fallen on cucumbers from Spain Germans have been warned not to eat cucumbers until tests identify the source of a deadly E.coli outbreak which local officials say has killed 13 people.It is thought contaminated cucumbers were imported from Spain, but further tests are being carried out. Germany has registered 1,200 confirmed or suspected E.coli cases so far.With cases reported in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK, Germany is set to hold crisis talks later.In many of the reported cases, the gastrointestinal infection has led to Hemolytic-uremic Syndrome (HUS), which causes kidney problems and is potentially fatal. Export chain One woman was taken to hospital in Poland on Monday. She was said to be in a serious condition after returning from a trip to the northern German city of Hamburg, which has seen the majority of infections.Authorities in the Czech Republic, Austria and France have taken some Spanish-grown cucumbers off shop shelves amid contamination fears.Czech officials said contaminated cucumbers may also have been exported to Hungary and Luxembourg.Suspicion has fallen on organic cucumbers from Spain imported by Germany but then re-exported to other European countries, or exported directly by Spain. Austria has banned the sale of cucumbers, tomatoes and aubergines imported via Germany, while Russia has banned the import of some vegetables from Germany and Spain. "If the situation does not change, then we will ban all European vegetable products," Gennady Onishchenko, the head of Russia's consumer protection agency, was quoted as saying by Interfax.Two Spanish greenhouses identified as sources for the outbreak have been closed and are currently under investigation to see whether the outbreak originated there or elsewhere, said an EU spokesman.Spanish officials have said Europe should not be so quick to blame Spanish produce, and said they would seek a response from the EU for damages incurred by the claim."You can't attribute the origin of this sickness to Spain," said Diego Lopez Garrido, Spain's Secretary of State for European Affairs. "There is no proof and that's why we are going to demand accountability from those who have blamed Spain for this matter," he told reporters in Brussels.Contagious cucumbers? The Sweden-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has called the outbreak "one of the largest described of HUS worldwide and the largest ever reported in Germany".Twelve of the outbreak's 13 fatalities have been women. All but one of those deaths were recorded in northern Germany, but fears that the outbreak was spreading increased when a 91-year-old woman died in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.Continue reading the main story Hemolytic-uremic Syndrome? Usually occurs when digestive system infection produces toxic substances ? Toxic substances destroy red blood cells and can cause kidney failure ? Severe cases can cause failure of nervous system The head of Hamburg University's Eppendorf Clinic, Joerg Debatin, said more deaths were expected, as 30 people infected with HUS had lost kidney function. German authorities have warned the outbreak may get worse as its source may still be active.As German media reported the number of people infected had risen to 1,200, Health Minister Daniel Bahr was preparing to hold emergency talks with Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner and regional state representatives to discuss the outbreak, officials said.Meanwhile, the authorities in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony expect the number of seriously ill patients to rise, because it can take up to 10 days for symptoms of infection to appear, the news website Spiegel reported.Doctors are pinning their hopes on Eculizumab, an antibody treatment that has worked in the past against HUS, correspondents say.The head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's national disease institute, has warned people to avoid eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.But RKI President Reinhard Burger said the source of the contamination had not yet been clearly identified, AFP reported.The outbreak has baffled scientists because whereas HUS normally affects children under the age of five, in this instance nearly 90% are adults and two-thirds are women, says the BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin.One possibility is that they became infected after eating food for what they thought were health reasons, adds our correspondent. The DNA of the bacterium is to be analysed later to try to find ways of catching it early in people infected by it.The sickness is not directly contagious but it can be transferred between people if an infected person prepares food for others.食に関するニュースは日本でも大きく取り上げられていたので、使えるニュースだと思います。

2011.06.11

トピック４：イギリス君主制に対する民主主義ケース

Friday, Apr. 29, 2011Royal Pain: The Republican Case Against Britain's MonarchyBy Nick CohenDuring one of the royal pageants that periodically choke the streets of London, a conservatively dressed American approached me."You must be so proud," she trilled, and she became quite truculent when I told her I felt nothing but shame. "How can you hate your country?" she snapped. "What's the matter with you?" "I don't hate my country," I replied, "and there's nothing the matter with me. Like you, I am a republican."Foreigners rarely realize that British republicans have always opposed monarchy because they love their country and want to end the humiliation of a Hanoverian state's smothering our best democratic impulses. When the 18th century English dissenter Richard Price, friend of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, warned that fawning before royalty produced "idolatry as gross and stupid as that of the ancient heathens," he aptly titled his denunciation "A Discourse on the Love of Our Country." (See pictures of Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding day.)If you doubt the patriotism of british republicanism, consider trying to explain to an American why the U.S. should import the British constitution. "You must make someone President for life," you begin. "It might as well be Barack Obama, as he's in power now, and all dynasties start with someone's seizing the throne. His heirs will succeed him, however haughty, deluded, infirm or otherwise unsuited for high office they may be. They will be the official heads of state, and the armed forces will swear loyalty to them rather than to the American Constitution." I don't believe you would strengthen your pitch if you concluded, "Tourists will love the American monarchy. Think of the profits for Washington hoteliers!"Outside the tourist trade, it is hard to judge how brightly monarchical feeling burns in Britain as we witness yet another "fairy-tale wedding" and try to stifle the expectation that "Kate and Wills" will follow three of the Queen's four children into the divorce courts. About 20% of the British call themselves republicans ? a cheeringly large number considering that none of our politicians dare question the Crown's existence. In 2005 a parliamentarian proposed to end the system of male primogeniture and allow daughters to succeed to the throne ahead of their younger brothers. The then Labour government, nit-pickingly p.c. in all things except matters royal, slapped down this minor reform. A fine example to ambitious young women, I thought at the time. Beyond Westminster, however, the paralyzing deference to the past is long gone. The mood in Britain today is one not of classic republicanism but of mild interest tinged with boredom. As of late April, about 5,500 applications to hold street parties to celebrate the nuptials had been received. There were tens of thousands of parties, by contrast, to mark the arranged marriage of Charles Windsor and Diana Spencer in 1981. The apparent waning of royalty's magic may be the result of communities' being not as tight-knit as they were 30 years ago. But whatever the complicating factors, only royal propagandists doubt that the marriage of this bland couple is failing to excite the nation. (Watch a video on the Royals through history.)The Charles and Di fiasco explains much of today's indifference. When they wed, it seemed that Britain was in the grip of a monarchical mania every bit as intense as the cult around Emperor Hirohito. But for women in particular, the discovery that the Prince never loved his wife and expected to carry on servicing his mistress represented the moment when they realized that the Crown had taken them for fools. They have neither forgiven nor forgotten.The trouble with monarchy, however, is that, by definition, no one can stop the Prince from becoming King Charles III, because the British are not allowed to vote for their head of state. Charles Windsor constantly interferes in politics and promotes every variety of reactionary superstition and new-age quackery. He sounded like the leader of a messianic cult when he announced in a recent book, "I would be failing in my duty to future generations and to the Earth itself if I did not attempt to ... indicate possible ways we can heal the world." Yet whatever his personal failings, he will be King because he was born to the right mother.On the "big day," the courtier journalists of television news showed cheering crowds outside Westminster Abbey. I don't doubt that millions of Britons celebrated with them. But if the media had taken their cameras to the beaches, parks and pubs of Britain, they would have found millions of others who no longer cared for the spectacle and maybe, just maybe, were beginning to agree with Price, Paine, Jefferson and Franklin that their country deserved something better.Cohen is a columnist for the Observer ロイヤルファミリーに関しては出る可能性が高そうです。（みんなもそう思ってるので、あまり変わらないと思いますが。）

2011.06.11

トピック3:イギリスのゴミ輸出

The UK's new rubbish dump: ChinaTomorrow The hi-tech plague that is hurting Africa. John Vidal explores the trade in waste electronicsJohn Vidal The Guardian, Monday 20 September 2004 13.28 BST More than a third of the waste paper and plastic collected by British local authorities, supermarkets and businesses for recycling is being sent 8,000 miles to China without any knowledge of the environmental or social costs - and to the complete surprise of most consumers. New government figures suggest that exports to China are running at 200,000 tonnes of plastic rubbish and 500,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard a year - a huge increase on just three years ago.Much of the plastic sent to China is packaging but a Guardian investigation has found that agents for Chinese companies are now buying up and exporting thousands of tonnes of unwashed bottles, containers, and other household waste."China is buying up everything it can. It is sucking in material from all over the world and it doesn't give two noodles what it takes," said one plastics recycler who asked not to be identified. "I know of 300 firms, mostly in China, offering to buy my plastics. I have three or four companies cold-calling me every day from China requesting material. They have very cheap labour to sort the material but the shame is that it is being done there and not here. They don't care about the quality, or the contamination. No one checks what is sent or what arrives."The British plastics industry admits that the global trade is starving some local recycling initiatives of materials and putting established firms out of business or at risk. According to UK plastic recyclers, agents for Chinese companies areoffering ￡120 a tonne for mixed plastic bottles, far more than British companies can pay. "The industry here can only support ￡50 a tonne. We believe that 10-15,000 tonnes of old bottles are going to China. Yet only about 25,000 tonnes were collected last year", said Stephen Chase of Chase Plastics."The Chinese put me out of business," said Edward Clack, a plastics recycler who invested in two recycling plants in Britain. "Everyone has lost supplies to China. The local market is being starved of materials. Hundreds of brokers are buying up the plastic and shipping it out. It's cheaper to send a container to China than to Scotland."China drives the global waste trade, importing more than 3m tonnes of waste plastic and 15m tonnes of paper and board a year. But the trade is being driven equally by tough EU legislation forcing local authorities and businesses to recycle more. Landfill charges are rising steeply, making it relatively cheaper to send the waste abroad. Meanwhile, major companies have moved in, offering to collect and dispose of large quantities.The trade is made possible by the vast numbers of shipping containers arriving in Britain with Chinese exports. One of Britain's largest freight forwarding companies confirmed that the return waste trade to China is accelerating rapidly."We are shipping a phenomenal amount of waste, maybe 15,000 tonnes a week to China," said a spokesman for Warrant freight forwarders of Liverpool. The current price for sending a standard 26-tonne container of waste plastic to China, he said, is about ￡500.The Tanjin Songzi Import and Export Trade company based in the huge port of Tianjin Xingang is typical of the growing trade. "We are specilize [sic] in import the scrap plastic bottle, waste plastic, waste paper. Europe origin. Please show me your offer," says its advertisement on an international plastics exchange website brimming with traders wanting the raw material for the Chinese industrial revolution.Most Chinese plastic waste importers want pictures of what they are buying, but some are are not fussy. "We buy all types, such as the mineral water bottles, pure water bottles and plastic bottles of other drink. Any specifications will be fine. If you can supply, please email," says Mr Lee of a Shanghai company on the same site.Western plastic companies are setting up in China, but some of the poorest people are employed to sort and recycle the plastic. "Plastic is now one of the biggest industries in Guangdong province, but much of the work is being done by migrant labour earning a pittance," said Martin Baker, of Greenpeace China."I would say that Britain is dumping its rubbish in the name of recycling. It is not responsible recycling that is being done. It is reprocessing, but the methods being used are still mostly rudimentary. There are some good factories, but on the whole it is small scale, done in backstreets with little environmental standards. People are burning plastic, sorting it by hand, the water gets polluted and it goes back into the rivers," he said.UK supermarket chains, some of the largest generators of plastic packaging waste in Britain, are all getting their recycling done in China, said a spokesman for Sainsbury's. "We send 5,000 tonnes of plastic there a year. We used to send it to a firm in Nottinghamshire, but it has closed down," he said. "We looked for others in Britain but no one could match the Chinese option for quantity or price. We would love to see it being recycled here, but it's not possible at present."But Ian Bowles, a spokesman for Asda, said he did not know where the company's plastic recycling was being done. "UK companies pick it up. As far as we know it's being reprocessed here. It could be that excess quantities are going abroad." Other retailers known to be generating large quantities of plastic waste, including Tesco, did not respond to questions about where their recycling was being done.No detailed studies have been done of the environmental costs of shipping vast quantities of waste from Britain to China, but environment groups and MPs were yesterday shocked at the scale of the trade. "Exporting lightweight packaging waste to China makes little sense environmentally," said Liberal Democrat MP Sue Doughty. "It is a failure of the UK recycling market which allows the UK to export plastic for recycling. We have no control over environmental standards in China. Instead of solving the problem we are exporting it. Much more needs to be done to stimulate the markets in the UK so that waste is handled as close as possible to the point of generation."Clare Wilton, wastes spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth, said: "People will be shocked that some of the newspapers and empty drinks bottles they put out for recycling can end up in China. It's an environmental disgrace. The solution is to expand the UK's own recycling industry. This would be good for the environment, create local jobs and help Britain become a leader in green technology."Sending plastic bottles to China is "barmy", said Mike Croxford, manager of Newport Wastesavers, which collects 50 tonnes a month of plastic from 50,000 homes in south Wales. "We should be dealing with the stuff here, but the reality now is that most plastic in Britain is going abroad. I don't think the public knows where some of it goes. If they knew it was going right round the world, they might not encourage it."But other recyclers said it was better to send rubbish to China to be recycled than to put it in landfill in Britain. Andrew Simmons of the Peterborough-based waste charity Recoup buys millions of plastic bottles from UK councils, bales them up, and sells them to a reprocessor who then sells them on to Europe or, increasingly, to China. He rejected claims that Britain was dumping its rubbish on China and said that the environmental cost of sending bottles thousands of miles was negligible compared with making "virgin" plastic bottles from oil.China is increasingly aware that countries are exporting their pollution to them and have imposed strict laws governing what can be exported. Large amounts of German household waste have been found and all waste exports from Japan have recently been halted after electronic and contaminated household waste was found. However, the Chinese authorities, plagued by corruption, are unable to check the contents of all the waste containers that arrive in Chinese ports every year.British plastic bottles are mostly sent to Hong Kong where they are sorted and "flaked" before being sent to factories on the mainland. "One type of plastic bottle goes on to make soft furnishings and clothes, another is made into pellets which are sold back to European manufacturers to make things like plastic bags," said Mr Simmons.This insatiable demand for the world's rubbish, he said, has actually boosted the British market for plastic recyclers, raising the price and making it far more worthwhile for councils to collect and not dump it in landfill. Partly because of this, more than half of all British local authorities now offer plastic recycling.More and more British plastic is likely to go to China, said Tim Frier of Valpac, whose subsidiary, Valiant, collects waste from more than 5,000 businesses in Britain, including supermarkets, pubs and clubs, and sends up to 15,000 tonnes of plastic to China a year. Valpac has just opened an office in China."We will be sending more there. But they have strict rules. The problem was that a lot of waste going to China was contaminated, and not being sorted properly. There were concerns about British waste, too," he said.The government insists that companies have export licences but few if any checks are made in British ports. The Environment Agency admits that it is unable to check what is being exported."There is a legitimate trade in waste exports for recovery involving materials such as paper, ferrous metals, plastics and card. These wastes are classed as 'green list' and are not subject to the same level of control as wastes classed as hazardous," said a spokesman.

2011.06.11

トピック2：メラノマに効き目のある薬の発見

トピック2：メラノマに効き目のある薬の発見Drugs Show Promise Slowing Advanced MelanomaDr. Paul B. Chapman of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center was a leader in the clinical trial of vemurafenib, which attacks a specific genetic mutation that accelerates tumor growth. By ANDREW POLLACKPublished: June 5, 2011 CHICAGO ? Two new drugs have been found to prolong the lives of people with advanced melanoma, representing what researchers say is notable progress against the deadly skin cancer after decades of futility. Graphic The drugs represent success in two new approaches to combating cancer: one by attacking a specific genetic mutation that accelerates tumor growth; the other by unleashing the body’s immune system to fight the disease “This is an unprecedented time of celebration for our patients,” Dr. Lynn M. Schuchter, a melanoma specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, told reporters Sunday in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, where the results were presented. The drugs do not cure melanoma, except perhaps in rare cases. But experts said they might add two to several months to the expected lifespans of people with advanced melanoma. Right now people with metastatic melanoma ? meaning it has spread to distant organs ? typically live 6 to 10 months. In one trial, 84 percent of patients taking the experimental drug vemurafenib (pronounced vem-yoo-RAF-en-ib) were still alive after six months, compared with 64 percent of those getting an older chemotherapy drug, dacarbazine. Using another statistical measure, the risk of dying was reduced 63 percent. The effect was so marked that the trial was stopped early for ethical reasons, so that patients in the control group could be offered the new drug. Because of that, researchers do not yet know the median survival. “You don’t need to wait for 50 percent of 675 patients to die to conclude that one drug is much better than the other,” said Dr. Antoni Ribas of the University of California, Los Angeles, who was an investigator in the trial and has been a consultant to the developer of the drug. The other new drug, ipilimumab (pronounced ip-ee-LIM-yoo-mab), when combined with dacarbazine, extended median survival to 11.2 months compared with 9.1 months for those who received dacarbazine alone. After three years, 20.8 percent of those who got that new drug were alive, compared with 12.2 percent of those in the control group. The results of both trials were published online by The New England Journal of Medicine in addition to being presented here. To be sure, more than half of patients with metastatic melanoma would not be helped all that much by either drug. Experts say more needs to be done, especially since melanoma affects more young adults than many other types of cancer. Even if the new drugs allow patients with metastatic melanoma to live two years, “Two years is nothing when you’re 30,” said Dr. Anna C. Pavlick, head of the melanoma program at New York University. Still, doctors and patient groups welcomed the progress because until now treatment of melanoma that had spread beyond the skin to distant organs “was terrible even by routine cancer standards,” said Dr. Vernon K. Sondak, chairman of cutaneous oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. Also, the number of melanoma cases has been rising, unlike for many other types of cancer. Doctors say that is because of unprotected sun exposure years ago, the proliferation of tanning salons and perhaps more attention to detecting the disease. There were about 68,000 new cases of melanoma and about 8,700 deaths last year in the United States, up from 48,000 cases and 7,700 deaths in 2000, according to the American Cancer Society. Particularly fast increases have occurred among people older than 65 and among women 15 to 39 years old. Vemurafenib is the latest so-called targeted therapy, which inhibits the effects of genetic mutations that spur tumor growth and spread. In particular, the drug counters the effect of a mutation in a gene called B-RAF that was discovered in 2002 to be common in melanomas. (The drug’s name comes from V600E mutation in RAF.) The drug, which is taken orally twice a day, would be used only by the roughly half of melanoma patients whose tumors have this mutation. The drug significantly shrinks tumors in about half of these patients ? or about a quarter of all melanoma patients. It was developed by Roche and Plexxikon, a biotechnology company in Berkeley, Calif., that was recently acquired by Daiichi Sankyo of Japan. The drug is expected to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration within a few months. Ipilimumab, the other new drug, releases a brake on the body’s immune system, allowing it to more effectively attack the tumor. Developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, it was approved in March and is sold under the name Yervoy. A series of articles in The New York Times last year followed the development of vemurafenib, then known as PLX4032, and recounted how some patients close to death seemed to make miraculous recoveries. The effect, however, typically lasts only about seven months before the cancer starts to grow again, though some patients benefit for more than two years. S. Taylor Chance, a 67-year-old real estate agent in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., has been taking vemurafenib in a clinical trial since March 2010. “If it weren’t for the trial I wouldn’t be here,” she said. It has not been all good. Ms. Chance said the drug caused such extreme pain at one point that “I called in the children and said, ‘I’m done, I can’t do this any more.’ ” But she had her dose reduced and took other medications for the pain. In the trial, sponsored by Roche and led by Dr. Paul B. Chapman of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, 38 percent of participants had to stop taking the drug or lower the dose because of side effects, including rash and joint pain. Many patients get minor skin cancers that can be removed by dermatologists. The trial of ipilimumab, paid for by Bristol-Myers, involved 502 patients with late-stage melanoma. Last year at this conference, researchers presented results of a trial showing a survival advantage for patients who had undergone a previous treatment. The new trial of this drug, by contrast, involved patients who were getting treated for the first time. While the extension of median survival of two months, from about 9 months to about 11 months, was less than some experts expected, researchers said the real benefit was that a small number of patients, perhaps 10 to 20 percent, could live a long time. Because it unleashes the immune system, ipilimumab can have serious side effects. In the latest trial, a big one was liver damage. A course of treatment of ipilimumab costs $120,000. The price of vemurafenib has not been announced, but is expected to be at least tens of thousands of dollars per year. Doctors are eager to try the two drugs together. Roche and Bristol-Myers said Thursday that they would conduct such tests. A version of this article appeared in print on June 6, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Two New Drugs Show Promise In Slowing Advanced Melanoma.

2011.06.11

読解に出そうな分野はこれ！

トピック1：HIV発見から30年30 years with HIV: 3 men reflectBy Saundra Young, CNN "In 1996, the advent of the protease inhibitor and the so-called cocktail changed the prognosis for HIV, and that therapy has required considerable refinement, because even that therapy had complications from the drugs themselves that caused a lot of damage -- lasting damage -- and many of those long-term survivors suffered and continue to suffer the complications of the earlier medication."Jim Chud is one of those long-term survivors. The 53-year-old AIDS activist says he was a 20-year old bisexual athlete at Yale University when he contracted the virus. Chud thinks it was 1977 when he got sick. He was leading a double life: He had a steady girlfriend, but took weekend visits to the bathhouses in New York.By 1985, Chud was living in Washington. Having watched many of his friends get sick and die, Chud was at the head of the line when the new HIV test arrived. By 1989 he had full-blown AIDS -- the most advanced stages of HIV. "I thought I was going to die," he says. "I didn't think I would see 30."He started volunteering for drug trials. One, a National Institutes of Health study looking at the combination of drugs AZT and DDC, left him paralyzed for four months. He has had more than 30 surgeries on his spine and neck.World economic woes imperil AIDS advancesIn 1999, Chud contracted a fungal infection in his sinuses that spread to his brain. There were more toxic drugs and six more surgeries. Over the years he's been on 12 different HIV drugs. Today he's disabled and along with HIV medications takes prescriptions to battle pain, infections and depression.His concern? That HIV has vanished from the spotlight. "People are still dying, and to think that doesn't happen anymore and isn't newsworthy is a problem. Kids aren't getting the message today that we got many years ago that this is a fatal disease and it's not to be taken lightly."Cleve Jones has never taken the disease lightly. The 55-year-old human rights activist and founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt thinks he contracted the virus in the winter of 1978-79. Jones was living in San Francisco, California, and was working for pioneer gay rights leader and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. AIDS was already exacting a heavy toll on the community. After the HIV test became available in spring 1985, Jones received his official diagnosis."I was living with the virus in my body for a full 10 years before treatment became available," he says.He participated in the first clinical trial looking at multiple drugs, now called combination therapy. But back then the drugs didn't work for very long. "The science was pretty primitive then," he says. "I was always looking a year ahead, two to three years ahead into the research pipeline, knowing that whatever combination was working for me at any particular moment -- the odds were good it wouldn't be working a few months later."Bush led on AIDS funding; will Obama?Today, the prognosis is much better. While other countries continue to struggle to manage the disease, in the United States a diagnosis is no longer an automatic death sentence. But Jones says there aren't many long-term survivors left. "It's bittersweet for us. There is nobody left in my life today that knew me when I was young."When he looks back over the last 30-plus years, Jones can acknowledge how far the fight has come. "I still hope for an outright cure. I still hope for a vaccine. But it took a very long time and there were many dark periods where I felt the world had waited too long to respond."Phill Wilson has devoted his life to stopping the AIDS pandemic in the black community. His diagnosis in 1985 spurred him to help found a number of AIDS service organizations. The 53-year-old was living in Los Angeles, California, with his partner and believes he was infected in 1980 at age 24. Like Chud and Jones, Wilson says he was also one of the first tested and diagnosed and among the first in Los Angeles put on AZT, the first antiviral drug approved for treating HIV.Straight poor at higher risk of AIDS"It was not a question of if you were going to die, it was a question of when you were going to die," he says. "We knew that AZT was not good enough and so the goal was to stay alive until there was another option."Wilson says he no longer remembers what it's like not to live with HIV."When I was diagnosed, a long-term survivor was someone who lived 12 months, and most people were dead in six months. And so there was no expectation that someone would live as long as I have lived."The disease and the drugs took a heavy toll on Wilson. There were three near-death experiences. Once, doctors gave him less than 48 hours to live. "It's hard to describe what it was like living in the middle of the storm during the worst of the plague years. But one of the things that I think happens is when you witness firsthand that kind of death and devastation, I don't think that you are so afraid."In 1999, Wilson founded the Black AIDS Institute, the only national HIV/AIDS think tank that focuses solely on black people. In February, he was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. He is driven and has no plans to slow down.This week Wilson has been in Vienna, Austria, at the 18th International AIDS Conference, keeping his finger on the pulse of the disease. But in the shadow of these new advances, he can't help looking to the past."It's bittersweet, because while it is incredibly inspiring to know that there are going to be people who won't get infected and there are going to be people who get infected and won't get sick and there are people who'll get sick and won't die and that is inspirational, and I can celebrate the life I have to live, but I can never forget all the advances in the world came too late for my first partner and the literally hundreds of people that I know who have died from this disease."

2011.06.11

明日は英検1級受験日です！

英検1級を受けてきます！私が考えた予想問題は以下の通りです。エッセイはこれが出るかも。「How can we protect natural resources and culture that include World Heritage by technology, such as surveillance cameras and should companies take their social responsibility more seriously? We should also consider how to use natural energy, robots, bicycles to make our lives better.For political issues, what is the importance of voting and should Japan spend less money on defence?」単語、語彙はこれが出ると良いな。sally,tourniquet,jive,ostracism,autism,gynecologist,jolly along, diuretic, constipation, confetti,hedonism,読解問題、リスニングに出そうなトピックも予想してみます。

2011.06.11