Amblyopia is the most common cause of vision loss in children. In all cases of amblyopia, there’s a stronger eye and a weaker eye, and it’s winner-take-all in the cortex (大脑皮层). The cortex learns to ignore the sign al from the weaker eye. By ignoring the weaker eye, the brain doesn’t fuse (融合) images from both eyes. As a result, people with amblyopia can have trouble seeing in 3D.
In an attempt to solve this problem, doctors start treating patients with amblyopia at a young age, while their brain pathways are still developing. The children, usually under 7 years old, are often told to wear an eye patch over their strong eye to force the brain to rely on the weaker. But whenever the eye pa tech is removed, the competition can start over. For lasting improvement, new treatments need to teach the brain to stop suppressing (抑制) key visual cues coming from the weaker eye, says neuroscientist Dennis Levi of the University of California.
Now, several research teams are taking a new way that aims to get the brain to make better use of the information coming from both eyes. Several companies are working on treatment s based on this new angle. One is called Luminopia.
Luminopia’s therapy involves having children watch videos through a virtual reality headset. As the children watch, the headset blocks out certain parts of the display for each eye, so the patients actually have to combine input from the two images to get the full video.
The company conducted a trial showing that children with amblyopia begin to see better on eye chart assessments after three months of one-hour sessions done six days a week. But they have yet to measure improvements in long-term effectiveness. It is believed that if people with amblyopia don’t learn to fuse signals from both eyes from a young age, they never will. So some scientists think attempting to treat adults, whose brains have suppressed signals from their weak eye for decades, is a lost cause.
1. Why does a person with amblyopia have trouble seeing in 3D?| A．His brain is unable to receive images. | B．His weaker eye fails to receive signals. |
| C．His stronger eye can't send signals to the brain. | D．His cortex overlooks signals from the weaker eye. |
| A．Temporary. | B．Ineffective. | C．Wonderful. | D．Comprehensive. |
| A．Forcing the brain to rely on the weaker eye. |
| B．Activating the weak eye to get the full video. |
| C．Improving the situations with eye chart assessments. |
| D．Blocking out the images received from the stronger eye. |
| A．It has an instant effect. | B．Adults are its main targets. |
| C．It has long-term effectiveness. | D．More trials need to be conducted. |
相似题推荐
People's answers vary greatly. For British scientist Robert Edwards, the answer is having a child. "Nothing is more special than a child," he told the BBC.
Edwards, the inventor of the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technology—more commonly known as "test-tube (试管) baby" technology—passed away on April 10, 2013 at the age of 87.
"Edwards changed the lives of millions of ordinary people who now rejoice (高兴) in the gift of their own child," said Peter Braude, a professor at King's College London. "He leaves the world a much better place."
Edwards started his experiments as early as the 1950s, when he had just finished his PhD in genetics. At that time, much of the public viewed test-tube babies as "scary", according to Mark Sauer, a professor at Columbia University, US.
Edwards and his colleague Patrick Steptoe faced opposition from churches, governments and media, not to mention attacks from many of their fellow scientists. "People said that we should not play God and we should not interfere with nature," Edwards once told Times. He said that he felt "quite alone" at the time.
"But Edwards was a fighter, and he believed in what he was doing," said Sauer. Without support from the government, the two struggled to raise funds to carry on. And in 1968 they finally developed a method to successfully fertilize human eggs outside the body.
The first test-tube baby was born on July 25, 1978. Her name was Is Louise Brown. Despite people's safety concerns, Brown was just as healthy as other children.
"IVF had moved from vision to reality and a new era in medicine had begun," BBC commented.
Ever since then, public opinion has evolved considerably. Couples who were unable to have babies began thronging (拥向) to Edwards' clinic. Nowadays, Reuters reports, some 4.3 million other "test-tube" children exist. Edwards received a Nobel Prize in 2010 and was knighted (封为爵士) by Queen Elizabeth in the following year.
Before his death, Edwards was still in touch with Louise. "He is like a granddad to me," she said in an interview with the Daily Mail.
He is a granddad to millions, in fact.
1. What’s the article mainly about?
| A．The first test-tube baby. |
| B．A new era in medicine. |
| C．The inventor of IVF technology. |
| D．The changes IVF technology has brought. |
| A．show how difficult it was for Edwards to do his work |
| B．describe what kind of person Edwards was |
| C．explain why he is loved by all children |
| D．comment on his achievement |
| A．attack | B．support | C．test | D．influence |
a. He received a Nobel Prize.
b. He struggled to raise funds.
c. The first test-tube baby was born.
d. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
e. He succeeded in fertilizing human eggs outside body.
f. He started his experiments on IVF technology.
| A．f-e-b-c-a- d | B．f-b-e-c-d-a |
| C．f-b-e-c-a-d | D．f-e-d-a-c-b |
【推荐2】Smart glasses could be the next leap in technology
First there was the keyboard, then the touch screen. Some tech companies say a wearable pair of glasses could be the next leap in technology, even if it didn't work out for Google glass. In the future we won't be only limited to our smartphones, when it comes to understanding the world around us.
The US-based company Snap's investment is this, the Spectacles 3 sunglasses. This third version is smarter than the previous ones. It has two cameras. The comer of the glasses lights up when recording video, and allows the wearer to put 3D objects in the video. Here are some flowers.
In a very different application, the AM glass by Hong Kong-based Pacific Future allows theme park visitors to have a different kind of experience through Augmented Reality. During the launch of the smart glasses during Halloween, this park became extra scary.
| A．So this is our early investment in that future. |
| B．Smart glasses are helpful in many other fields. |
| C．Thus the wearer can take a clearer picture of the flowers. |
| D．Users can capture up to a minute of video with smart glasses. |
| E．That's one of the reasons why consumers rejected Google glass. |
| F．So there's a ghost everywhere mixed with the real-life buildings. |
| G．Augmented Reality security glasses made by Beijing-based Goolton can be used by police to identify suspects. |
【推荐3】Imagine looking at a view of mountaintops and wondering about the name of each peak. Suddenly, above each mountaintop, a name appears on the sky. The words are not written in smoke by skywriting planes. The words are actually not in the sky at all. They come from tiny computers in contact lenses(隐形眼镜)
Computers have become smaller and smaller over the decades. The first computers filled houses. Transistors(晶体管) and then chips allowed computers to become small enough to fit on a desktop, then a laptop, and finally a phone. When experimenting with further reductions in size, developers often have to deal with the limits of human eyesight, which control how small the computers can be and still present visible information.
One new solution employs microprojectors (微投影机) to create a readable display for tiny computers. These machines project computer information onto any surface. Though an impressive breakthrough, there are potential problems. Such public displays can lead to privacy concerns; Most people do not want their information displayed on a wall for everyone to see. Besides, these projectors are extremely expensive, and their screens give users headaches.
Babak Parviz, a researcher at the University of Washington, created another solution: inventing a screen visible only to a person wearing a contact lens. Parviz created a computer in a contact lens that uses the wearer's field of vision as the display. To create the display, Parviz took ordinary soft contact lenses with a wirelessly controlled system. At some point, Parviz says, it will be possible to connect the lens to a remote personal computer device such as cellphone or a laptop. By looking in a certain direction, the wearer sends the computer visual information about what he or she sees. The device then uses this information to point out the names of peaks.
These contact lenses are inserted and removed in much the same way as ordinary contact lenses. In addition, the computers in the lenses won't block the wearer's sight at all. Although now the computers are not on lenses treating eyesight problems, Parviz hopes that someday the technology will progress to that level.
1. What can the contact lenses in the text do?| A．Treat eyesight problems of the wearers. |
| B．Offer beautiful views of nature to users. |
| C．Project information on wall surface remotely. |
| D．Show information about what wearers can see. |
| A．Put people's privacy at risk. | B．Save computer information. |
| C．Cause serious illnesses. | D．Support users' needs. |
| A．Further reducing computers' size. | B．Creating the visual information. |
| C．Treating eyesight problems. | D．Blocking the wearer's sight. |
| A．Tiny Computers, Amazing Sights. | B．Smaller Lenses, Closer Views. |
| C．Progress Towards Clearness. | D．Road to the Small World. |
【推荐1】This year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Tu Youyou (co-winner), whose research led to the discovery of artemisinin, a crucial new treatment for malaria. Artemisinin has saved hundreds of thousands of lives, and has led to improved health for millions of people. Over 200 million people around the world get malaria each year, and about 600,000 die from it. Artemisinin has become a vital part of the treatment for malaria, and is thought to save 100,000 lives a year in Africa alone.
Tu Youyou, a committed and patient scientist, was born in Ningbo, China, on 30 December 1930, and graduated from Peking University Medical School in 1955. After she graduated, she worked at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing. In 1967, the Chinese government formed a team of scientists with the objective of discovering a new treatment for malaria, and Tu Youyou was among the first researchers chosen. In the beginning, Tu Youyou went to Hainan, where malaria was more common, to study malaria patients. In 1969, she became the head of the project in Beijing, and decided to review ancient Chinese medical texts to find traditional botanical treatments for the disease. Her team examined over 2, 000 old medical texts, and evaluated 280, 000 plants for their medical properties. From their research, they discovered and tested 380 distinct ancient Chinese medical treatments that showed promise in the fight against malaria.
One medical text from the fourth century suggested using the extract from sweet wormwood to treat a fever. Tu’s team tested a collection of dried wormwood leaves but found no effect. They then tried boiling fresh wormwood, and using the liquid obtained from this to treat malaria, but this did not work either. Their project got stuck. However, Tu Youyou would not acknowledge defeat. She analysed the medical texts again, and by chance, she found one sentence suggesting a different way to treat the wormwood. She concluded that boiling the sweet wormwood apparently destroyed its medical properties. Using a lower temperature to draw out the extract, she found a substance that worked. After failing more than 190 times, the team finally succeeded in 1971. Tu Youyou and her team members even insisted on testing the medicine on themselves to make sure that it was safe. Later, the medicine was tested on malaria patients, most of whom recovered. This medicine, which was called artemisinin, soon became a standard treatment for malaria.
According to Tu Youyou, the discovery of artemisinin was a team effort. Upon hearing that she had been awarded the Nobel Prize, she said, “The honour is not just mine. There is a team behind me, and all the people of my country. This success proves the great value of traditional Chinese medicine. It is indeed an honour for China’s scientific research and Chinese medicine to be spread around the world.”
1. Which of the following statements about artemisinin is NOT true according to the passage?| A．It is an extract from sweet wormwood that can treat malaria. |
| B．It has improved people’s health. |
| C．It is a great discovery. |
| D．It has saved 100,000 lives a year in the world. |
| A．Determined. | B．Bold and brave. | C．Easy-going. | D．Polite. |
| A．How was artemisinin discovered and tested to treat malaria? |
| B．What contributions did Tu Youyou and her team members make? |
| C．What was the childhood experience of Tu Youyou? |
| D．Why did Tu Youyou decide to use the extract from sweet wormwood to treat malaria? |
| A．It is the effort of the whole team and traditional Chinese medicine. |
| B．It belongs to her hard work. |
| C．It turns out to be the great luck of her and her team. |
| D．It depends on the big support from the government. |
【推荐2】Laws that would have ensured pupils from five to 16 received a full financial education got lost in the 'wash up'. An application is calling on the next government to bring it back.
At school the children are taught to add up and subtract (减法) but, extraordinarily, are not routinely shown how to open a bank account - let alone how to manage their finances in an increasingly complex and demanding world.
Today the parenting website Mumsnet and the consumer campaigner Martin Lewis have joined forces to launch an online application to make financial education a compulsory element of the school curriculum in England. Children from five to 16 should be taught about everything from pocket money to pensions, they say. And that was exactly the plan preserved in the Children, Schools and Families bill that was shelved by the government in the so-called "wash-up" earlier this month -- the rush to legislation before parliament was dismissed. Consumer and parent groups believe financial education has always been one of the most frustrating omissions of the curriculum.
As the Personal Finance Education Group (PFEG) points out, the good habits of young children do not last long. Over 75% of seven- to 11 -year-olds are savers but by the time they get to 17, over half of them are in debt to family and friends. By this age, 26% see a credit card or overdraft (透支) as a way of extending their spending power. PFEG predicts that these young people will "find it much harder to avoid the serious unexpected dangers that have befallen many of their parents' generation unless they receive good quality financial education while at school."
The UK has been in the worst financial recession (衰退) for generations. It does seem odd that-unless parents step in-oung people are left in the dark until they are cruelly introduced to the world of debt when they tarn up at university. In a recent poll of over 8,000 people, 97% supported financial education in schools, while 3% said it was a job for parents.
1. It can be inferred from the first two paragraphs that _______.| A．students have been taught to manage their finances |
| B．pupils should not be taught to add up and subtract |
| C．the author complains about the school education |
| D．laws on financial education have been effectively carried out |
| A．instruct the pupils to donate their pocket money |
| B．promote the connection of schools and families |
| C．ask the government to dismiss the parliament |
| D．appeal for the curriculum of financial education |
| A．It's not easy for them to get into financial trouble if the teenagers are taught to manage money |
| B．only half of the 17-ear-old teenagers spend their money as planned |
| C．parents are willing to pay the debt for their kids |
| D．it is not easy for people to keep good habits long |
| A．show the seriousness of the financial recession |
| B．stress the necessity of the curriculum reform |
| C．make the readers aware of burden of the parents |
| D．illustrate some people are strongly against the proposal |
【推荐3】We are all aware of the effect greenhouse gas emissions is having on our planet and the efforts needed to do with climate change. Most of us are doing our bit to minimise our impact on the environment, but despite our collective effort, are we doing enough to achieve net zero by 2050?
Net zero means not adding to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Many countries are doing their bit by changing how they generate and use power, thereby cutting carbon dioxide output. And they announced what further steps they were going to take at the recent COP26 summit in Glasgow.
In the UK, the government has been setting out its plans to achieve net zero by 2050. It's recently announced an end date for the sale of gas boilers, which are used for heating homes. The idea is to replace them with heat pumps. It's offering homeowners grants of up to £ 5,000 to get them installed. Another initiative in the UK is a big push towards electric vehicles. There are to be financial encouragements for car manufacturers, and more charging points are to be installed in streets. And there's to be a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
But not all emissions can be reduced to zero, so those remaining will have to be made up for.
One way to do this is to plant thousands of trees, which are good at absorbing carbon dioxide, The UK government has guaranteed to plant 30,000 hectares of trees a year by 2025. There are other ideas too, but what's certain is this will cost money. The CBI's Tom Thackray told the BBC that“those costs have to be weighed up against the cost of inaction(不作为).”
Whether the UK, or anyone else, reaches net zero remains to be seen. And there's some doubt about how this can be accurately measured anyway. But it's generally recognised that a global effort is needed to tackle climate change. Therefore, net zero targets only make sense if every other country is moving in the same direction.
1. What can we learn about the UK government from the text?| A．It doesn't cut down the carbon dioxide output. |
| B．It will add to the amount of greenhouse gases, |
| C．It will ask many world leaders to discuss about reaching net zero. |
| D．It plans to end the sale of gas boilers, and petrol and diesel vehicles. |
| A．Have a simple life. |
| B．Cost money to save the UK. |
| C．Plant 30,000 hectares of trees a year. |
| D．Fight against the cost of various inactions. |
| A．Refer to. | B．Push forward. | C．Adapt to. | D．Deal with. |
| A．How to protect the environment |
| B．Working together to achieve net zero |
| C．Greenhouse gas emissions are influencing the world |
| D．Devoting major efforts to developing electric vehicles |
