Experts hope an experimental drug can be as effective against the novel coronavirus in people as it has been on cells in a controlled lab environment.
The US drug, remdesivir(瑞德西韦), began clinical trials on patients in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Thursday. Other medications, including chloroquine, arbidol and darunavir have also recently been found capable of arresting viral growth in lab cells, but like remdesivir they require more clinical trials to confirm their safety and potency on humans.
The Phase III trials for remdesivir have been approved by China’s National Medical Products Administration and is conducted by the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences on patients at the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital.
A total of 761 patients will participate in two trials-one trial to assess the drug’s potency on 308 cases with mild or moderate infection, and the other on 453 severely infected patients, Cao Bin, head of the clinical trial and vice-president of the friendship hospital, said on Wednesday.
Cao said studies have shown remdesivir is effective in inhibiting the growth of the novel coronavirus in vitro(在生物体外), meaning the procedure was done on cells in a controlled environment outside of a living organism, typically in a petri dish or test tube.
But the drug has yet to show convincing clinical evidence that it can translate its positive in vitro results into actual human patients. Hence, it will require rigorous clinical testing, Cao said.
A 35-year-old patient from the United States infected with the virus was reported seeing noticeable improvement with no obvious side effects after taking the drug, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
Gilead Sciences, the maker of remdesivir, said in a recent statement that it has been working with government agencies on the novel coronavirus response efforts.
However, the company stressed that remdesivir is an experimental medicine that has only been used in a handful of patients on compassionate grounds, “so we do not have an appropriately robust understanding of the effect of this drug to warrant broad use at this time”.
1. Why does the US drug, remdesivir, began clinical trials?| A．To see how it takes effect. |
| B．To replace the traditional medicine. |
| C．To confirm their safety and potency on humans. |
| D．To show whether remdesivir is effective in inhibiting the growth of the novel coronavirus in vitro. |
| A．Chinese Hospital does The Phase III trials independently. |
| B．Remdesivir can cure those who are infected with the novel coronavirus. |
| C．After taking the drug, a 35-year-old patient was infected with the virus. |
| D．Doctors had seen apparent success treating a 35-year-old patient infected with the virus. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. | C．Critical. | D．Gloomy. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guidebook. | C．A novel. | D．A magazine. |
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【推荐1】Muscles make an excellent vaccine administration site because muscle tissue contains important immune cells. These immune cells recognize the antigen, a tiny piece of a virus or bacteria introduced by the vaccine that stimulates an immune response. In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine the immune cells in the muscle tissue pick up these antigens and present them to the lymph nodes. Injecting the vaccine into muscle tissue keeps the vaccine localized, allowing immune cells to sound the alarm to other immune cells and get to work. Once a vaccine is recognized by the immune cells in the muscle, these cells carry the antigen to lymph vessels, which transport the antigen-carrying immune cells into the lymph nodes. Lymph nodes, important parts of our immune system, contain more immune cells that recognize the antigens in vaccines and start the immune process of creating antibodies.
Muscle tissue also tends to keep vaccine reactions localized. Injecting a vaccine into the deltoid muscle may result in local inflammation or soreness at the injection site. If certain vaccines are injected into fat issue, the chance of painful redness or swelling increases because fat tissue has poor blood supply, leading to poor absorption of some vaccine components.
Yet another deciding factor in vaccine administration location is the size of the muscle.
Adults and children aged three and older tend to receive vaccines in their upper arm in the deltoid. Younger children receive their vaccines mid-thigh because their arm muscles are smaller and less developed.
Another consideration during vaccine administration is convenience and patient acceptability.
Can you imagine taking down your pants at a clinic with strangers around? Rolling up your sleeve is much easier and more preferred.
1. How many reasons are mentioned for the vaccines given in the muscle?| A．2 | B．3 | C．4 | D．5 |
| A．Muscle tissue contains vital immune cells. | B．Muscle tissue stimulates immune responses. |
| C．Muscles can easily recognize bacteria. | D．Muscles can prevent reproduction of viruses. |
| A．Poor blood supply. | B．Local pain. |
| C．Rapid fat loss. | D．Better absorption. |
| A．an advertisement | B．a novel | C．a speech | D．a journal |
【推荐2】Brain imaging was once thought to be too costly and difficult for widespread use in the developing world. But the technology soon may be available in poor countries. Brain imaging creates pictures of brain activity. It uses infrared light similar to the light produced by a television remote control. Brain imaging can identify the first signs of cognitive (认知的) delays, mental problems, in newborns and young children. Such children could be suffering from a poor diet.
The technology has a long name —— functional near-infrared spectroscopy, or f-N-I-R-S. It involves placing an extremely small, soft helmet around a baby's head. Infrared light is sent through the bone protecting the brain. It helps to show whether babies are developing normally for their age.
f-N-I-R-S is considered safer than other imaging methods, including MRI or PET scan. And it also can be easily moved. The brain scanner equipment can be loaded into a vehicle. Health workers can drive it from village to village.
Clare Elwell is a professor of medical physics at University College London. She helped develop the relatively low-cost, non-aggressive imaging technology. She says the device measures oxygen in the blood to learn how babies’ brains are developing.
“And as you use different areas of your brain, you direct oxygen to those different brain areas. And so if we look at the change in the distribution of the oxygen in your brain, we can work out how active your brain is and what your brain is actually processing.”
Clare Elwell led a study of the testing method in rural Gambia. The babies involved were between four and eight months old. They were examined three times over 15 months. Researchers noted the babies1 reactions to different images and sounds. She says poor nutrition and childhood diseases threaten the African children. She says the goal is to identify babies needing to be better fed or treated for health problems that can harm brain development.
1. What do we know about the f-N-I-R-S?| A．It measures oxygen in the body to learn how brains are developing. |
| B．It can only be used in newborns and young children. |
| C．It is not only relatively cheap but also convenient. |
| D．It is just like a soft helmet around a baby’s head. |
| A．To guarantee their adequate medicine. |
| B．To develop economy. |
| C．To offer their proper education. |
| D．To insure they can get good nutrition. |
| A．Because she was born there. |
| B．Because she was a volunteer doctor there. |
| C．Because she wanted to cure the children there of their brain diseases. |
| D．Because she wanted to know if poor nutrition resulted in brain problems. |
| A．Brain Imaging Enters Africa |
| B．Poor Nutrition Only Led to Mental Problems |
| C．f-N-I-R-S, A New Imaging Method |
| D．Poor Countries Can All Use f-N-I-R-S Now |
【推荐3】On January 7, David Bennett went into the operating room at the University of Maryland Medical Center for a surgical procedure never performed before on a human. The 57-year-old Maryland resident had been hospitalized for months due to a life threatening disease. His heart was failing him and he needed a new one.
Bennett’s condition left him unresponsive to treatment and ineligible (不合格) for the transplant list or an artificial heart pump. The physician-scientists at the center, however, had another-also risky- option: transplant (移植) a heart from a genetically-modified pig.
“It was either die or do this transplant,” Bennett had told surgeons a day before the operation. “I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s also my last choice.”
It took the medical team eight hours to finish the operation, making Bennett the first human to successfully receive a pig’s heart. “It’s working and it looks normal. We are thrilled, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring us. This has never been done before,” Barkley Griffith, who led the transplant team, told the New York Times.
While it’s only been five days since the operation, the surgeons say that Bennett’s new pig heart was, so far, functioning as expected and his body wasn’t rejecting (排斥) the organ. They are still monitoring his condition closely.
“I think it’s extremely exciting,” says Robert Montgomery, transplant surgeon and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, who was not involved in Bennett’s operation. The result of the procedure was also personally meaningful for Montgomery, who received a heart transplant in 2018 due to a genetic disease that may also affect members of his family in the future. “It’s still in the early days, but still the heart seems to be functioning. And that in and of itself is an extraordinary thing. Up to now most experimental heart transplant procedures have been done between pigs and other animals. This is the first time that surgeons have taken it into a living human.”
1. What do the words “a shot in the dark” underlined in Paragraph 3 mean?| A．Something that costs a fortune. |
| B．Something impossible to succeed. |
| C．Something drawing public attention. |
| D．Something with an uncertain outcome. |
| A．Negative. |
| B．Cautious. |
| C．Optimistic. |
| D．Uncaring. |
| A．The heated debate over the pig heart transplant. |
| B．David Bennett’s contribution to medical research. |
| C．The first experimental pig heart transplant in the world. |
| D．The first successful pig heart transplant into a living human. |
| A．Political Affairs. |
| B．Global Entertainment. |
| C．Sci-Tech Front. |
| D．Financial Window. |
【推荐1】While the start of a new school year is always exciting, this year was even more so for some elementary school students in Auckland, New Zealand. They became the world's first kids to be "taught" by a digital teacher. Before you start imagining a human-like robot walking around the classroom, Will is just an avatar that appears on the student's desktop, or smart phone screen, when ordered to come.
The autonomous animation platform has been modeled after the human brain and nervous system, allowing it to show human-like behavior. The digital teacher is assigned to teach Vector's "Be sustainable with energy" — a free program for Auckland elementary schools.
Just like the humans it replaced, Will is able to instantly react to the students' responses to the topic. Thanks to a webcam and microphone, the avatar not only responds to questions the kids may have, but also picks up non-verbal cues. For instance, if a student smiles at Will, he responds by smiling back. This two-way interaction not only helps attract the students' attention, but also allows the program's developers to monitor their engagement, and make changes if needed.
Nikhil Ravishankar believes that Will-like avatars could be a novel way to catch the attention of the next generation. He says," I have a lot of hope in this technology as a means to deliver cost-effective, rich, educational experience in the future."
The program, in place since August 2018, has been a great success thus far. Ravishankar says, "What was fascinating to me was the reaction of the children to Will. The way they look at the world is so creative and different, and Will really captured their attention." However, regardless of how popular it becomes, Will is unlikely to replace human educators any time soon.
1. What is the benefit of this two-way interaction?| A．It can smile back. | B．It can use microphone. |
| C．It can change if necessary. | D．It can talk any topic for free. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Doubtful. | C．Unclear. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．New High-tech Contributes to Education |
| B．New Zealand Will Replace Teachers in Classrooms |
| C．The World's First Digital Teacher, a Help to Students |
| D．The World's First Digital Teacher Appears in Classrooms |
【推荐2】For most of the traditional restaurants, it is challenging to deal with the increasing number of customers. But for Li Xianghui’s restaurants, things are different. Owning four restaurants, Li bought a number of cooking machines, which can operate tirelessly day and night. Packed in kits, all dishes are semi-finished(半加工的) and can be served within minutes after they are put into the machines.
“Automation (自动化) is the future for the restaurant business. It can avoid pressure from human costs in running a traditional restaurant and increase efficiency,” Li says. “There is a standardized process(过程) by the machines, which can make sure of the same taste of each order.”
The cooking machine can make about 2,000 recipes(食谱), according to Li. Once seated, customers scan a QR code(二维码) and use an app to make their meal selection and pay. With the only waiter putting the semi-finished food kit into the machine, the meal will be served in minutes. What’s more, the robot “cook” has attracted an increasing number of customers since the restaurant’s opening. Many customers say the taste is good and the price is not expensive.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have trained their robot “cook” to make a judgement about the saltiness of a dish at different stages of the chewing (咀嚼) process, like a similar process in humans, according to their research published in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI.
Their results could be useful in the development of automated or semi-automated food preparation by helping robots to learn what tastes good and what doesn’t, making them better “cooks”. “If robots are to be used for certain aspects of food preparation, it’s important that they are able to ‘taste’ what they’re cooking,” said Grzegorz Sochacki, the paper’s first author.
1. Why does Li say “Automation is the future for the restaurant business”?| A．Food can be cooked in some simpler way by the machines. |
| B．Customers prefer to have a quicker meal in the restaurant. |
| C．The tastes of dishes are better when cooked by the machines. |
| D．The costs of running a restaurant are less when using machines. |
| A．0. | B．1. | C．2. | D．4. |
| A．It becomes popular on the Internet soon. |
| B．People want to see the robot “cook” there. |
| C．People are satisfied with the taste and price there. |
| D．It allows customers to use an app to make orders. |
| A．To improve robots’ cooking skills. | B．To explore other uses of robots in kitchen. |
| C．To prove robots’ ability to make recipes. | D．To train robots to learn how to chew. |
【推荐3】Money with no strings attached. It’s not something you see every day. But at Union Station in Los Angeles last month, a board went up with dollar bills attached to it with pins and a sign that read, “Give What You Can. Take What You Need.”
People quickly caught on. And while many took dollars, many others pinned their own cash to the board. “People of all ages, races, and socio-economic(社会经济的) backgrounds gave and took,” said Tyler Bridges of The Toolbox, which created the project. “We even had a bride in her wedding dress come up to the board and take a few dollars.” Most of the bills on the board were singles, but a few people left fives, tens and even twenties. The video clip(片段) shows one man who had found a $ 20 bill pinning it to the board.
“What I can say for the folks that gave the most, is that they were full of smiles,” Bridges said. “There’s a certain feeling that giving can do for you and that was apparent in those that gave the most.” Most people who took dollars took only a few, but Bridges said a very small number took as much as they could.
While the clip might look like part of a new ad campaign, Bridges said the only goal was to show generosity(慷慨) and sympathy. He added that he hopes people in other cities might try similar projects and post their own videos on the Internet.
“After all, everyone has bad days and good days,” he said. “Some days you need a helping hand and some days you can be the one giving the helping hand.”
1. What does the expression “money with no strings attached” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Money spent without hesitation. | B．Money not legally made. |
| C．Money offered without conditions. | D．Money not tied together. |
| A．Women tended to be more sociable. | B．The activity attracted various people. |
| C．Economic problems were getting worse. | D．Young couples needed financial assistance. |
| A．To do a test on people’s morals. | B．To raise money for his company. |
| C．To earn himself a good reputation. | D．To promote kindness. |
