高普考/三四等/高員級◆英文題庫下載題庫

【完整文章】

Before the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing took place, several athletes had faced charges of taking substances banned by the International Olympic Committee. These were just a few in a long line of cases in which competitors had been accused of using performance-enhancing substances. Far from quelling such practices, the advent of drug testing in sports in the late 1960s stimulated an arms race between regulators and the cheats. Today, some athletes and their coaches continue to risk their reputation, and sometimes the athletes' long-term health, for the cha...

【完整文章】

Before the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing took place, several athletes had faced charges of taking substances banned by the International Olympic Committee. These were just a few in a long line of cases in which competitors had been accused of using performance-enhancing substances. Far from quelling such practices, the advent of drug testing in sports in the late 1960s stimulated an arms race between regulators and the cheats. Today, some athletes and their coaches continue to risk their reputation, and sometimes the athletes' long-term health, for the chance to dope undetected. In the process, they push the human body to its limits and go beyond what is known about the drugs being taken. The latest drugs are designed with testing in mind, so that they either clear from the body quickly or do not produce the tell-tale metabolite spikes in blood and urine samples. As a result, the testing labs must also push to stay one step ahead of the cheats. Donald Berry, a biostatistician, summarizes what he sees as problems with the way doping tests are conducted. He argues that anti-doping authorities have not adequately defined and publicized how they arrived at the criteria used to determine whether or not a test result is positive. The ability of an anti-doping test to detect a banned substance in an athlete is calibrated in part by testing a small number of volunteers taking the substance in question. But Berry says that individual labs need to verify these detection limits in larger groups that include known dopers and non-dopers under blinded conditions that mimic what happens during competition. Some scientists believe that accepting “legal limits” of specific metabolites without such rigorous verification goes against the foundational standards of modern science. Only by publishing and opening to broader scientific scrutiny the methods by which testing labs engage in study may the anti-doping authorities avoid a sporting culture of suspicion, secrecy, and fear.

【文章翻譯】

2008年北京奧運開幕儀式舉行之前，有幾名運動員遭到指控使用國際奧委會所禁止的物質。在參賽者被指控使用性能增強物質（performance-enhancing substance）的許多案例中，這只是冰山一角。1960年代後期體育競技中的藥物檢測的出現，非但沒能壓制這種（非法用藥的）習慣，反而促成了監管機構和作弊者之間的軍備競賽。今天，一些運動員和他們的教練繼續以他們的名譽，有時還有運動員的長期健康為賭注，賭那藥物不被檢出的機會。在這個過程中，他們將人體推向極限並且超出了目前已知的使用藥物。最新的藥物隨著檢測的考量被設計出來，以便它們若不是可以從身體中快速地被清除，就是不會在血液和尿液樣品中產生指示代謝物峰值（tell-tale metabolite spike）。因此，檢測實驗室也必須向前推進以保持領先那些作弊者一步。生物統計學家唐納德．貝里（Donald Berry）將他所看到的總結為藥物檢測進行方式的問題。他認為反禁藥機構沒有充分界定和公布他們如何達到那個用來確定檢測結果是否為陽性的標準。藉由檢測使用議題中物質的少數志願受試者，來校準反禁藥檢測對運動員體內禁用物質的偵測能力。但貝里說，個別實驗室需要在較大的群體中驗證這些偵測極限，這個群體包含已知的用藥者（doper）和無用藥者（non-doper），並且實驗是在盲條件（blinded condition）下進行以模擬競賽時所發生的情況。一些科學家認為，在沒有嚴格的驗證下接受特定代謝物的「合法極限」違背了現代科學的基本標準。只有透過發布和開放更廣泛的檢測實驗室參與研究之科學審查方法，反禁藥機構才可能避免一個充滿懷疑、保密和恐懼的體育文化。

【注】

1. 最後一句"Only by publishing and opening to broader scientific scrutiny the methods by which testing labs engage in study may the anti-doping authorities avoid a sporting culture of suspicion, secrecy, and fear."的句型結構為下列句型之倒裝（倒裝的目的在於強調"only"）：

"the anti-doping authorities may avoid a sporting culture of suspicion, secrecy, and fear only by publishing and opening to broader scientific scrutiny the methods by which testing labs engage in study."

2. 考題中的文章似乎是由《Nature》期刊裡的文章改寫而成的。（見底下網址：http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7205/full/454667a.html?foxtrotcallback=true）