In a study comparing 46 severe COVID-19 patients with 460 matched controls, researchers found the mental impacts of the severe COVID-19 six months later can be the equivalent (等量) to aging 20 years—going from 50 to 70 years old—or losing 10 IQ points.
The experiment involved 46 people who’d gone to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge as a result of the COVID-19 between March and July 2020. An average of six months after their infection, researchers supervised them using a testing tool called Cognitron to see how they were doing in areas such as memory, attention, reasoning, anxiety, and depression.
The researchers didn’t have test results from before these individuals fell ill with the COVID-19 to compare to. Instead, they did the next best thing, and compared their results against a matched control group of 460 people. These results were then mapped to see how far they deviated (偏离) from expected scores for their age and demographic, based on 66,008 members of the general public. The results showed that those who’d survived the severe COVID-19 were less accurate and had longer response times than the general public. The magnitude of cognitive (认知的) loss was similar to the effects of aging between 50 and 70 years of age—and equivalent to losing 10 IQ points.
The somewhat good news is that there were some signs of recovery—but it was gradual at best. What’s still not fully understood is why and how the SARS-CoV-2 virus causes this cognitive decline. But the researchers suggest the likely criminal isn’t direct infection, but a combination of factors: including reduced oxygen or blood supply to the brain, clotting of vessels and microscopic bleeds.
There’s also mounting evidence that the body’s own immune and inflammatory response may be having a significant impact on the brain.
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing paragraph 1?| A．To show the research result. |
| B．To debate the research purpose. |
| C．To explain the research method. |
| D．To describe the research process. |
| A．Got tired of. | B．Joined in. | C．Made use of. | D．Watched over. |
| A．To ensure the subjects’ safety. |
| B．To test the subjects’ physical health. |
| C．To measure the subjects’ mental state. |
| D．To check the subjects’ living surroundings. |
| A．The cause of the COVID-19. |
| B．The way the virus affects cognitive decline. |
| C．The influence of cognitive decline. |
| D．The effect of getting the COVID-19. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】You’re often served by young people at restaurants. But Forget Me Not Cafe in Shanghai is different.
The cafe has eight elderly employees with cognitive impairments (认知障碍) who take turns working with other waiters to help customers. They often provide basic services for guests, such as pouring water, serving and taking orders.
“The guests are also very tolerant of us, because sometimes we make mistakes,” said Zhu Caiping, one of the elderly employees at the cafe. Sometimes, they are also invited to take part in welfare activities organized by volunteers, such as baking, dancing and learning English.
“These activities are essential for me. They reactivate my brain,” the 73-year-old said. “What old people like us worry about most is that our brain stagnates (停滞) due to being inactive.”
Because of memory loss, Zhu writes down all the information she wants to remember on sticky notes, such as the names of the volunteers and the teacher as well as English words. “But I really became happy and confident because of being here,” she said.
In addition to the job opportunities for the elderly, information about cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease is posted on a board outside the restaurant to help people recognize symptoms and seek treatment as soon as possible.
Zeng Rong, a co-founder of the restaurant, said the cafe has had a great impact on elderly people with cognitive impairment.
A 58-year-old woman from Jiangsu province, whose husband brings her to the restaurant, is an example. “When she came here for the first time, she barely said a word and was indifferent. I told her that she must communicate and gave her homework every time with rewards,” Zhu said. The woman has since come to the restaurant every Friday, and after several months, her condition has improved.
“She started to comment that the food was ‘delicious’ and speak with others. Moreover, she began to hug me every time,” Zhu said.
Inspired by their kindness, many young people like to come and enjoy the warm atmosphere of the shop.
1. What do we know about Forget Me Not Cafe?| A．It serves elderly people alone. |
| B．It helps heal Alzheimer’s disease. |
| C．It often organizes welfare activities. |
| D．It hires people with cognitive impairments. |
| A．To show a rise in cognitive impairment among people. |
| B．To illustrate how the restaurant makes a difference. |
| C．To explain the popularity of the cafe among the elderly |
| D．To describe how cognitive impairment can affect people. |
| A．It is stressful. | B．It is demanding. |
| C．It is meaningful. | D．It is exhausting. |
| A．A Restaurant in Shanghai |
| B．Story of Forget Me Not Cafe. |
| C．Great Care for Alzheimer. |
| D．Attention Needed for Cognitive Health. |
【推荐2】Older adults who sleep six hours or fewer a night may have elevated risk for dementia(痴呆症) and other cognitive (认知的) issues, a new study finds.
Researchers at Stanford University measured seniors' (ages 65 to 85) dementia risk and cognitive abilities, finding higher risk in those patients who regularly slept six or fewer hours compared to those who slept seven or eight hours. Those seniors who slept nine or more hours also had lower cognitive functions and other health issues, but the researchers didn't find the same high dementia risk in this group.
The findings demonstrate how important it is for adults to maintain a healthy sleep cycle, especially as they get older.
As adults age, it's common for their sleep patterns to change or become disrupted — leading to longer, shorter, or more irregular sleep. This disruption may be linked to Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, impacting seniors' ability to remember information, problem-solve, and go through everyday behaviors. Sleep disruption can also be caused by or heighten depression, cardiovascular disease（冠心病）, and other conditions.
A recommended sleep time for seniors is seven to eight hours, the researchers said. Six or fewer hours corresponded to short sleep, while nine or more hours corresponded to long sleep.
The Stanford researchers measured levels of beta amyloid, a protein in the brain that is typically found in high levels when a patient develops Alzheimer's. In addition, the researchers used several tests for memory, attention, spatial skills, and executive function to identify patients' cognitive abilities. Those patients sleeping for six hours or fewer a night were more likely to develop dementia, the researchers found. The low-sleep patients had higher levels of beta amyloid.
The Stanford researchers found that patients with lower sleep also performed worse on memory tests, while those with higher sleep (more hours) performed worse on executive function tests，which measure the brain's ability to switch between different tasks.
―The main takeaway is that it is important to maintain healthy sleep late in life, Winer told CNN.
1. What does the underlined word “disrupted” in paragraph 4 mean?| A．difficult | B．disordered |
| C．dissolved | D．different |
| A．It is more likely to cause old people to have bad memories over issues. |
| B．It may contribute to dementia, cardiovascular disease and other illnesses. |
| C．Some daily behaviors perhaps differ from those whose sleeping is normal. |
| D．It tends to bring all the old people to undergo brain scans and cognitive tests. |
| A．A proper sleep time for seniors is seven to eight hours. |
| B．Low and high sleep patients were both poor at memory tests. |
| C．Executive function test is applied to measure the capacity of brain. |
| D．Keeping a healthy sleep for older adults late in life is crucial. |
【推荐3】Panic attacks are sudden, intense surges of fear, panic, or anxiety.
Deep breathing
If you’re able to control your breathing, you’re less likely to experience the hyperventilating(呼吸急促) that can make other symptoms — and the panic attack itself — worse. Focus on taking deep breaths in and out through your mouth, feeling the air slowly fill your chest and belly and then slowly leave them again.
Close your eyes
Some panic attacks come from triggers(触发物) that overwhelm you. If you are in a fast-paced environment with a lot of stimuli(刺激), this can feed your panic attack.
Mindfulness can help ground you in the reality of what is around you. Since panic attacks can cause a feeling of separation from reality, this can combat your panic attack as it is approaching or actually happening.
Use muscle relaxation techniques
Much like deep breathing, muscle relaxation techniques can help stop your panic attack in its tracks by controlling your body’s response as much as possible. Consciously relax one muscle at a time.
| A．Practice mindfulness |
| B．Get away from reality |
| C．They have physical as well as emotional symptoms. |
| D．To reduce the stimuli, close your eyes during your panic attack. |
| E．You can start with the fingers, and then move your way up through your body. |
| F．These cannot only help you fall asleep, but they may also promote muscle relaxation. |
| G．Breathe in for a count of four, hold for a second, and then breathe out for a count of four. |
【推荐1】The power of music is central to writer-director Garth Jennings’ Sing 2, particularly through a new character voiced by music idol Bono. As the sequel (续集) to Jenning’s crowd-pleaser in 2016, the animated movie (动画片) features a new original song titled “Your Song Saved My Life.”
The movie is planned to hit theaters on Dec. 22. Bono plays Clay, a lion who has stopped singing. Jennings says he already had started writing Sing 2 when he first talked with Bono about the project, but Clay’s character wasn’t fully completed. But what was clear to Jennings was that Clay had to be a lion: “A legendary (传奇的) and the greatest creature. The goal was to find a way to touch him enough so that he would come back and reengage with the world he’d left behind.”
Jennings adds, “When I first talked with Bono about it, we just had a long and enthusiastic conversation about music and what it could do for a character like this.” According to Bono, when asked what would lead someone to stop singing, Bono’s answer was “grief”. In Clay’s case, he lost his wife, he lost his reason to sing, and no amount of success can compare with the loss.
Recalling the first time Bono played him “Your Song Saved My Life”, Jennings admits, “I was quite overcome because of the song itself. I could completely see the end of the movie.”
A music video for “Your Song Saved My Life”, in support of the non-profit program Education Through Music, was released so people could send their stories of how their music teachers encouraged them to sing. And in Ireland Bono backs a similar program called Music Generation.
1. What caused Clay to stop singing?| A．Sadness. | B．Failures. | C．Old age. | D．Unknown reasons. |
| A．the song had the same length as the movie did |
| B．the song explained to him the end of the movie |
| C．the song touched him as much as the movie did |
| D．the song gave him the inspiration to write the end |
| A．To advertise Bono. | B．To promote the movie. |
| C．To popularize the song. | D．To support Education Through Music. |
| A．The influence of the movie. | B．The importance of music to people. |
| C．The introduction to another program. | D．The process of creating the music video. |
【推荐2】“Don’t tell anyone”. We hear these words when someone tells a secret to us. But it can be hard to keep a secret. We’re often tempted to “spill the beans”, even if we regret it later.
According to Asim Shah, professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Bchavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, US, keeping a secret may well “become a burden”. This is because people often have an “obsessive (无法摆脱的) and anxious urge to share it with someone”.
An earlier study, led by Anita E. Kelly, a scientist at the University of Notre Dame, US, suggested that keeping a secret could cause stress. People entrusted with secrets can suffer from depression, anxiety, and body aches, reported the Daily Mail.
But with secrets so often getting out, why do people share them at all? Shah explained that people often feel that it will help them keep a person as a friend. Another reason people share secrets is guilt over keeping it from someone close to them. A sense of distrust can develop when people who are close do not share it with each other. “Keeping or sharing secrets often puts people in a position of either gaining or losing the trust of someone.” according to Shah.
He added that talkative people could let secrets slip out. But this doesn’t mean that it is a good idea only to share secrets with quiet people. A quiet person may be someone who keeps everything inside. To tell such a person a secret may cause them stress, and make them talk about the secret.
Shah said that to judge whether to tell someone a secret, you’d better put yourself in their position. Think about how you would feel to be told that you mustn’t give the information away. Shah also recommended that if you accidentally give up someone’s secret you should come clean about it. Let the person know that their secret isn’t so secret anymore.
1. The underlined phrase “spill the bean” is closest in meaning to ________.| A．let out a secret | B．tell the truth |
| C．eat our words | D．take gossip |
| A．is oft often obsessed with a certain threat |
| B．often would rather not have been told about it |
| C．usually has a strong desire to keep it until death |
| D．may suffer from physical or psychological problems |
| A．Quiet people are more likely to keep the secrets to themselves. |
| B．Sharing secrets helps establish friendship or get over the sense of guilt. |
| C．It’s better to inform others of the chances of your leaking secrets beforehand. |
| D．Putting yourself in others’ shoes helps realize the difficulty of keeping secrets. |
| A．Walls have ears. |
| B．Still tongues make wise heads. |
| C．A word spoken is past recalling. |
| D．Every wall has a crack. |
【推荐3】Fire has always been part of California’s landscape. But long before the disastrous forest fires of recent years, native American tribes（部落）held controlled burns each year. Those burns cleared out underbrush and encouraged new plant growth. Now, government officials have realized tackling the fire problem will mean bringing back “good fire”, much like California’s tribes once did.
When western settlers removed tribes from their land and banned tribal ceremonies, cultural burning disappeared. Instead, authorities focused on quickly putting out wildfires.
But what the authorities did only made California’s wildfire risk worse. Without regular burns, the landscape grew thick with plants that dry out every summer. These dry plants are kindling（引火物）for the fires that have recently destroyed California communities. Climate change and warming temperatures make those landscapes even easier to catch fire.
So, tribal leaders and government officials are forming new partnerships. There are hundreds of thousands of acres that need careful burning to reduce the risk of extreme wildfires. Tribes are eager to gain access to those ancestral lands to restore traditional burning. Before 1800, the tribes used low-grade fires to shape the landscape, encouraging certain plants to grow both for tribal use and to attract game.
The arrival of western settlers dramatically changed the ways of fire management. “They came with their concepts of being afraid of fire,” a tribal leader says. “They didn’t understand fire in the sense of a tool. And they didn’t understand its role to help generate the land. So they brought suppression（压制）”.
Tribal leaders have been reaching out to ecologists, researchers and fire agencies about the importance of their knowledge. In Northern California, the Karuk and Yurok tribes have partnered with the Forest Service to manage land for traditional values and wildfire management.
1. What have government officials realized about the native tribes?| A．The tribes’ old practice is useful. |
| B．The tribes are causing more forest fires. |
| C．It’s impossible to prevent the tribes burning forests. |
| D．It’s necessary to remove the tribes from where they live. |
| A．Fire suppression. | B．Reshaping land. |
| C．Cultural burning. | D．Removing kindling. |
| A．They think it threatening. | B．They consider it as natural. |
| C．They think it can be beneficial. | D．They consider it harmful to the land. |
| A．Western Settlers Brought Wrong Ideas of Fire Control |
| B．Wildfires Are Becoming Increasingly Serious in California |
| C．Native American Tribes Restore Their Traditional Ceremonies |
| D．California Looks to What Tribes Have Known to Manage Wildfires |
【推荐1】IQ is often considered as an important driver of success particularly in fields such as science, innovation and technology. In fact many people have endless fascination with the IQ scores of famous people. But the truth is that some of the greatest achievements by our species have primarily relied on qualities such as creativity, imagination, curiosity and empathy (同感).
Many of these characteristcs are rooted in what scientists call “cognitive (认知的) flexibility”—a skill that enables us to switch between different concepts or to adapt behavior to achieve goals in a novel or changing environment. Cognitive flexibility provides us with the ability to see that what we are doing is not leading to success and to make the appropriate changes to achieve it.
Cognitive flexibility may have affected how people coped with the pandemic lockdowns (疫情封锁) which produced new challenges around work and schooling. Some of us found it easier than others to adapt our routines to do many activities from home. Such flexible people may also have changed these routines from time to time trying to find better and more varied ways of going about their day. Others, however, struggled and ultimately became more rigid in their thinking.
Flexible thinking is key to creativity. It also supports academic and work skills such as problem solving. For example, visual artists may be of average intelligence but highly creative and have produced masterpieces. Creativity is also important in science and innovation. We have discovered that successful businessmen who have created multiple companies are more cognitively flexible than managers of a similar age and IQ.
Cognitive flexibility is also associated with high recovery from negative life events as well as higher quality of life in older individuals. It can even be beneficial in emotional and social cognition: studies have shown that cognitive flexibility has a strong link to the ability to understand the emotions, thoughts and intentions of others.
Neuroimaging studies have shown that cognitive flexibility is dependent on a network of frontal brain regions. There are a number of ways to objectively assess people’s cognitive flexibility including the Wisconsin Card Sorting test and the CANTAB Set Shift Task. And the good news is that it seems that you can train cognitive flexibility.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．Creativity is the only source of people’s success. |
| B．A driver’s achievement is not determined by IQ. |
| C．The IQ of famous people is mysterious. |
| D．IQ may not be the key factor in human’s achievements. |
| A．Organizing online meetings. | B．Taking up indoor workout. |
| C．Joining in group hiking. | D．Learning to bake at home. |
| A．Flexible people tend to stick to their routines. |
| B．People have a better understanding of others’ feelings. |
| C．Businessmen are more likely to succeed than visual artists. |
| D．Older individuals are able to avoid misfortunes in life. |
| A．The ways to develop cognitive flexibility. |
| B．The application of cognitive flexibility. |
| C．The Wisconsin Card Sorting test. |
| D．The importance of training cognitive flexibility. |
【推荐2】Zhong Nanshan, who identified the SARS virus in 2003 and is leading the Chinese government’s efforts in the fight against COVID-19, was recommended for the Medal of the Republic. Zhang Boli, Zhang Dingyu and Chen Wei have been shortlisted (入围) for national honorary titles.
Zhong Nanshan
Zhong was one of the most important figures in fighting SARS in 2003. He offered to treat all serious SARS cases in Guangdong Province at his institute. When the COVID-19 hit Chin a in January, the medical genius chose to work on the front line, saving millions of lives. He was the first person to publicly warn that the virus can be transmitted from one person to another.
Zhang Dingyu
As the acting president of one of Wuhan’s major hospitals in treating COVID-19patients, the man who was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in October 2018 chose to stay with his colleagues and save lives with no looking back.
Zhang Boli
Zhang directed the country in using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to defeat the novel coronavirus. He also led the design of the TCM treatment for COVID-19 patients. Having spent 82 days in Wuhan fighting COVID-19, Zhang is in Beijing now as a national lawmaker drawing up proposals to help the country better prepare for epidemics on the legal front.
Chen Wei
Chen is a professor at Academy of Military Medical Sciences. The vaccine co-developed by Chen’s team and a Chinese vaccine developer was the first in the country to get to the human testing stage. The vaccine project that she headed is one of a handful of vaccines that have shown some promise in human testing. She is also one of the key leaders in China’s Ebola vaccine research.
1. Who was the first to warn that COVID-19 can be transmitted between people?| A．Zhong Nanshan. | B．Zhang Dingyu. | C．Zhang Boli. | D．Chen Wei. |
| A．Treating COVID-19 patients. | B．Doing research on vaccines. |
| C．Staying in hospital to treat ALS. | D．Drawing up proposals as a lawmaker. |
| A．To educate. | B．To introduce. | C．To advertise. | D．To advise. |
【推荐3】Pandemic (流行病) lock-downs (封锁) might be common, but not all our movements are limited. This has led to a rise in dance, as people search for connection. Live classes online have increased rapidly, headed by the likes of dance legend Debbie Allen. Living rooms are becoming party scenes thanks to live-streaming (视频直播) dance parties by celebrity dancers Diplo and D-Nice.
Because of the recent increase in virtual events, geographically separated groups of strangers are moving in the same direction to the same rhythm without speaking a word. Recent research has shown that even our earliest ancestors (祖先) recognized the social benefits of dance.
According to a recent study published in the Public Library of Science’s Genetics Journal, creative dancers share two similar genes with good social communicators. These researchers believe our prehistoric ancestors who were good dancers used those skills for a close relationship and social interaction. We dance to celebrate harvests, ask for much-needed rain and bring healing.
In the Guadeloupe Islands, dance was once one of the only means of communication for an entire population. West Africans were brought over to the French Caribbean as slave (奴隶) labor. Members from various places speaking different languages began to find common ground in rhythms and dances. This art form became Gwoka. Each Gwoka rhythm shows a specific human experience, such as love, sadness and the celebration of Carnival (狂欢节).
I learned to speak a bit of this language at a Guadeloupean folk dance school. Gwoka shared similarities to the Bomba dance that I had tried in Puerto Rico. Bomba, in turn, had reminded me of the tambu in Aruba. As I continue to dance with more people, I build more links in a global chain of movement and rhythm.
So, in this new times of COVID -19, I’m not surprised how dance has been the solution for hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
1. What mainly leads to the popularity of dance during pandemic lock-downs?| A．People’s thirst for connection. |
| B．Worldwide geographical limitation. |
| C．Online classes given by famous dancers. |
| D．Live-streaming parties thrown by celebrities. |
| A．To show an experience. | B．To build relationships. |
| C．To share genetic qualities. | D．To celebrate important events. |
| A．The origin of Gwoka. | B．The celebration of Carnival. |
| C．Slave trades in the French Caribbean. | D．Means of communication of West Africans. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Astonished. | C．Carefree. | D．Understandable. |
