21.A Strange Disease奇怪的疾病

（单词翻译）

21.A Strange Disease¹奇怪的疾病

When the construction of the firework factory came to the stage of painting, a pump was put in. Then, all the painters in the neighbourhood were defeated by a severe disease whose characteristic was alike to that of a bad burn.

An expert physician was instructed to attend to the victims and handle this case. He was enthusiastic, but he didn’t foresee that it was a hard challenge. After simple enquiry, he announced that the polluted paint was to blame. But without positive evidence, people suspected and rejected his view, saying the theory he put forward made no sense. Being much more strict with himself, he contributed himself to the case. Apart from making enquiries, he made detailed² charts and analysed the data cautiously³. Finally, he drew a scientific conclusion, linking the disease to the radium in the pump. Exposed to radium, a kind of radioactive⁴ material in the universe, people absorbed radiation and got sick immediately.

Spinning the pump backward, he took away the radium. This simple movement cured all the victims. 

当那座烟花工厂的建设到了油漆阶段时，一个水泵被安装进来，接着，在它附近的油漆工都得了一种严重的疾病（疾病击败油漆工），其特征与烧伤相似。

一位经验丰富的内科医生被指定去照顾受害者并负责处理这一案例。他热情地投入到工作中，但是却没有预见到这是一次艰难的挑战。在简单的询问后，他就宣布说罪魁祸首是受污染的油漆（油漆应受责备）。但是没有确实的证据，人们很怀疑并拒绝他的观点，大家都说他提出的理论毫无道理。他对自己要求更加严格，全身心地投入。除了询问，他还制作了详细的图表，谨慎地分析各项数据，最后，他终于得出了一个科学的结论，把疾病和水泵中的镭联系起来。镭是宇宙中的一种放射性物质，当暴露在镭的辐射中时，人体吸收其射线，立刻染上疾病。

他把水泵向后旋转，拿走了里面的镭，这个简单的动作治愈了所有的受害者。