VOA慢速英语:Fukushima Children Tested for Thyroid Cancer Risk

This week, Japanese doctors began examining three hundred sixty thousand children in Fukushima Prefecture. The goal is to learn the extent to which radiation may increase their risk of thyroid cancer. Children who lived closest to the Fukushima-1 Nuclear Power Station were among the first to be tested.
这个星期，日本的医生开始检查在福岛县的36万名儿童，目的是了解辐射可能增加他们患甲状腺癌的风险程度。住在离福岛第一核电站最近的孩子们成为首批检测的目标。

The earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan in March left twenty thousand people dead or missing. So far no one has died from radiation exposure. But tens of thousands remain displaced from a twenty-kilometer area around the disabled power plant.
地震和海啸在今年3月袭击了日本的东北部，造成了两万多人死亡或失踪。到目前为止还没有人死于辐射。但来自受损核电站周围二十公里范围内仍有数万民众流离失所。

Officials say the thyroid tests will be done every two years until the children reach the age of twenty. After that, tests will be done every five years. Most cancers of the thyroid gland can be treated if found early.
有关官员说，甲状腺测试将每两年进行一次，一直到孩子们满20岁。在这之后，测试将每5年进行一次。如果发现得早，大多数甲状腺癌症是可以治疗的。

Some people in Tokyo and other cities are measuring radiation levels themselves. They worry about a possible risk from Fukushima. In recent days, a private laboratory confirmed the presence of increased levels of radioactive cesium in some dirt at Tokyo's Edogawa ballpark. The area is nearly two hundred fifty kilometers from the reactors.
在东京和其他城市有的人自己测量辐射水平。他们担心来自福岛的潜在风险。最近几天，一个私人实验室证实，东京都江户川球场一些泥土中的放射性铯浓度水平提高。该地区距离反应堆近250公里。

A VOA reporter talked to people at a Little League game on Sunday and found that none of them knew about the radioactive hot spot.
一位美国之音的记者在周日与参加一场少年棒球比赛的人们交谈发现，他们都不知道有关放射性的热点。

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Two mothers at the ballpark expressed surprise when told about the soil.
当我们告诉他们有关突然问题时，球场的两位妈妈表示惊讶。

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The women say they have heard many general reports about radiation since the disaster in March. They felt they could not be overly concerned about those reports or they would not be able to go on with their daily lives.
妇女们称，自从3月的灾难以来，他们已经听到了许多有关辐射的一般报道。他们觉得他们不能过于关注这些报道，否则她们将无法正常生活。

Last week private citizens found abnormal levels of radiation in the air on the path to a Tokyo school. However, government officials say the cause was under the floor of a nearby house: old bottles containing radium powder. Radium was used in the past to make watch and clock faces glow in the dark.
上周，公民个人在前往东京一所学校的路上发现空气辐射水平异常。然而，政府官员称是由于附近一所房屋地板下有旧瓶子装有镭粉造成的。镭过去用于制造手表，使钟表表面在黑暗中可以发光。

The International Atomic Energy Agency says Japan must avoid becoming too "conservative" in its clean-up efforts.
国际原子能机构称，日本在其清理辐射的措施上要避免过于保守。
Japanese officials have ordered an increase in radiation testing, but they say hot spots outside Fukushima are not a cause for worry. They say no one spends enough time at the sites to get enough radiation to cause harm. They also say the small dosimeters that some private citizens use to measure radiation can give a wrong reading.
日本官员已下令增加辐射测试，但他们称，福岛县以外的热点不是一个令人担忧的原因。他们称没有人会在这些地点呆上足够长的时间来获得足够的辐射造成伤害。他们还表示，民众私人使用的小型原子能辐射计可能会给出一个错误的读数。