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An Australian man who has been donating his extremely rare kind of blood for 56 years has saved the
lives of more than two million babies.
James Harrison has an antibody in his plasma (血浆) that stops babies dying from Rhesus disease, a
form of severe anemia (贫血症). He has enabled countless mothers to give birth to healthy babies,
including his own daughter, Tracey, who had a healthy son thanks to her father's blood.
Mr. Harrison has been giving blood every few weeks since he was 18 years old and has now added
up to a total of 984 donations. When he started donating, his blood was regarded so special that his life
was insured for one million Australian dollars.
He was also nicknamed the "man with the golden arm" or the "man in two million". He said, "I've never
thought about stopping. Never." He made a promise to be a donor aged 14 after taking major chest
surgery in which he needed 13 liters of blood. "I was in hospital for three months," he said. "The blood I
received saved my life so I made a pledge to give blood when I was 18."
Just after he started donating he was found to have the rare and life-saving antibody in his blood. At
the time, thousands of babies in Australia were dying each year of Rhesus disease. Other newborns
suffered permanent brain damage because of the condition. The disease creates an incompatibility
between the mother's blood and her unborn baby's blood. It stems from one having Rh-positive
blood and the other Rh-negative.
His blood has since led to the development of a vaccine (疫苗) called Anti-D. After his blood type
was discovered, Mr. Harrison volunteered to have a series of tests to help develop the Anti-D vaccine.
"They insured me for a million dollars so I knew my wife Barbara would be taken care of," he said. "I
wasn't scared. I was glad to help. I had to sign every form going and basically sign my life away."
Mr. Harrison is Rh-negative and was given injections of Rh-positive blood. It was found his plasma
could treat the condition and since then it has been given to hundreds of thousands of women. It has also
been given to babies after they are born to stop them developing the disease.
It is estimated he has helped save 2.2 million babies so far. Mr. Harrison is still donating every few
weeks now.
1. How old is James Harrison?
A. 56
B. 70
C. 74
D. 78
2. Why did James decide to donate his blood? Because .
A. his daughter asked him to help her son
B. he has a golden arm worth a million dollars
C. a vaccine called Anti-D is to be developed
D. someone else's blood saved his life
3. The underlined sentence (in Paragraph 5) suggests that .
A. babies suffer permanent brain damage before their birth
B. the mother and the baby have different types of blood
C. Rhesus disease contributes to permanent brain damage
D. all the patients have a rare antibody in their blood
4. What can we infer from the sixth paragraph?
A. Some of the tests to develop the vaccine are dangerous.
B. His wife Barbara needed to be taken care of badly then.
C. Mr. Harrison was glad to help develop a new vaccine.
D. His blood type was accidentally discovered after tests.
