Not all cases of Alzheimer’s disease look like this, but Alzheimer’s is a serious disease that is said to be the fourth or fifth leading cause of death for people over age 75.
It is said that about three percent of the U.S. population over age 65 have Alzheimer’s. In the early stages, people may exhibit short term memory loss. Some may experience changes in personality, easy to be angry. As the disease progresses, patients might lose the ability to move and may be unable to speak or move at all. This progressive disease generally lasts 8 to 10 years before death occurs.
While no one is certain what causes these changes in the brain's nerve fibers (神经纤维), their effect is certain. Alzheimer’s destroys not only the patients, but also spouses (配偶), friends and families.
What should you do if you notice progressive memory loss in yourself or a loved one? Have the person examined by a doctor who is a specialist in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Though many reasons other than Alzheimer’s disease may cause memory loss, its early diagnosis (诊断) and treatment may delay some of the most serious effects.
What feeling will you likely experience should a loved one suffer from Alzheimer’s disease? A person will often go through the various stages of sadness, shock, anger, and so on. If the spouse develops the disease, you may experience hurt and disappointment when he or she doesn't remember you are married.
Life for the Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones will never be the same as the disease progresses, bringing a deep sorrow, loss and even anger towards God. No matter what feelings are present, facing them honestly will serve one better than burying them.
1. What can be inferred from the passage about the gray-haired lady?
A.She has been living with her father. |
B.She was sad about the death of her father. |
C.She can’t search for her father without being watched. |
D.She suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. |
A.their families and friends will suffer from the same disease |
B.their families and friends will experience mental sufferings |
C.they will certainly die in 8 to 10 years |
D.they will forget everybody but their spouses |
A.from Alzheimer’s disease and nothing else |
B.from sadness, shock, anger, and so on |
C.for a number of reasons |
D.with changes in personality |
A.early treatment may stop Alzheimer’s disease occurring |
B.it is still unknown what causes the changes in the brain’s nerve fibers |
C.nerve fibers in the brain will cause Alzheimer’s disease |
D.when one suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, he will be buried |
2 . You’re in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater. You listen to their conversation:
“I can’t believe it — Lorenzo Bertolla! They are almost impossible to find. Isn’t it beautiful? And it’s a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome.”
They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater. It’s nice and the price is right. You’ve never heard of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish. They must know. So, you buy it. You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency. They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes.
Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating. If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too. This is the secret of undercover marketing. Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it.
Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don’t pay attention to traditional advertising. This is particularly true of the MTV generation-consumers between the age of 18 and 34. It’s a golden group. They have a lot of money to spend, but they don’t trust ads.
So advertising agencies hire young actors to “perform” in bars and other places where young adults go. Some people might call this practice misleading, but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative. “Look at traditional advertising. Its effectiveness is decreasing.” It is true, because everyone knows an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something. However, you don’t know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance.
1. The two attractive young women were talking so that they could _____.A.get the sweater at a lower price |
B.decide on buying the sweater |
C.be admired by other shoppers |
D.be heard by people around |
A.a very popular male singer |
B.an advertising agency |
C.the brand name of clothes |
D.a clothing company in Rome |
A.Traditional advertising will soon disappear in the market. |
B.The MTV generation tends to be more easily influenced by all kinds of ads. |
C.Undercover marketing will surely be banned soon by the government. |
D.That traditional advertising is too direct may lead to its decreasing effectiveness. |
A.Two Attractive Shoppers |
B.Lorenzo Bertolla Sweaters |
C.Undercover Marketing |
D.Ways of Advertising |
Strength is controlled by a number of factors----the most studied by far is skeletal muscle. However, the nervous system is also an important, though not fully understood, determining factor of strength and weakness.
Brian C. Clark and colleagues set out to test how the system functions in strength development. They designed an experiment to measure changes in wrist (腕) muscle strength in three groups of healthy adults. Twenty-nine subjects wore a hard cast that extended from just below the elbow (肘) past the fingers, effectively preventing the hand and wrist from moving, for four weeks. Fifteen subjects who did not wear casts served as the control group.
Of the 29 people wearing a hard cast, half were asked to regularly perform an exercise, imagining they were strongly contracting their wrist for five seconds and then resting for five seconds. This was repeated four times in a row followed by a one-minute break for a total of 13 rounds per session and five sessions per week. The other half performed no imagination exercises.
At the end of the four-week experiment, both groups who wore casts had lost strength in their unmoving limbs (肢体) when compared to the control group. But the group that performed imagination exercises lost 50% less strength than the non-imagination group. The nervous system’s ability to fully make the muscle recover also returned more quickly in the imagination group compared to the non-imagination group.
1. What does the underlined word “critical” mean in the first paragraph?
A.Serious. | B.Disapproving. |
C.Significant. | D.Criticizing. |
A.Scientists have partly understood the nervous system. |
B.Whoever has worn a cast for long may have difficulty in muscle recovery. |
C.Scientists have already spent a lot of time in studying skeletal muscle. |
D.The number of the subjects in the experiment was 29 in all. |
A.The control group lost 50% less strength than the non-imagination group. |
B.The imagination group lost more strength than the non-imagination group. |
C.The control group wore casts but didn’t perform the imagination exercise. |
D.The speed of non-imagination group’s muscle recovery was slower. |
A.In a science magazine. | B.In a storybook. |
C.In a textbook . | D.In a book review. |