1 . For decades, scientists thought of the brain as the most valuable and consequently most closely guarded part of the body. Locked safely behind the blood-brain barrier, it was broadly free of the harm of viruses and the battles started by the immune system (免疫系统). Then, about 20 years ago, some researchers began to wonder: is the brain really so separated from the body? The answer, according to a growing body of evidence, is no.
The list of brain conditions that have been associated with changes elsewhere in the body is long and growing. Changes in the makeup of the microorganisms in the digestive system have been linked to disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. There is also a theory that infection during pregnancy could lead to brain diseases in babies.
The effect is two-way. There is a lengthening list of symptoms not typically viewed as disorders of the nervous system, but the brain plays a large part in them. For example, the development of a fever is influenced by a population of nerve cells that control body temperature and appetite. Evidence is mounting that cancers use nerves to grow and spread.
The interconnection between the brain and body has promising implications for our ability to both understand and treat illnesses. If some brain disorders start outside the brain, then perhaps treatments for them could also reach in from outside. Treatments that take effect through the digestive system, the heart or other organs, would be much easier and less risky than those that must cross the blood-brain barrier.
It also works in the opposite direction. Study shows mice have healthier hearts after receiving stimulation to a brain area involved in positive emotion and motivation. Activation of the brain reward centre — called the ventral tegmental area (VTA) — seems to cause immune changes that contribute to it. Working out how this happens could help to destroy cancers, enhance responses to vaccines and even re-evaluate physical diseases that, for centuries, have not been considered as being psychologically driven.
1. What do the researchers focus on about the brain?| A．Its protecting system. | B．Its exposure to diseases. |
| C．Its controlling function. | D．Its connection to the body. |
| A．By explaining a theory. | B．By providing examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By presenting cause and effect. |
| A．Cheaper. | B．More specific. |
| C．Safer. | D．More direct. |
| A．Brain health depends on immune changes. |
| B．Brain stimulation leads to negative emotions. |
| C．The brain can help enhance psychological health. |
| D．The brain may be key to treating physical diseases. |
1. What does the man think he still has a problem with?
| A．His nose. | B．His head. | C．His mouth. |
| A．In a hospital. | B．In a school lab. | C．At a research center. |
| A．His smell. | B．His taste. | C．His muscle. |
| A．Taking new medicines. | B．Using new treatments. | C．Finding new senses. |
| A．In a classroom. |
| B．In the forest. |
| C．In a hospital. |
4 . When patients are discharged (出院) from the hospital, effective summaries from doctors’ notes are essential to capture their health status in the medical record. Whereas, most are filled with technical languages that are hard to understand and increase patients’ anxiety.
To address the problem, researchers from New York University (NYU) Langone Health have been testing the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence (AI). It tries to develop likely options for the next word in any sentence based on how most people use words in context on the Internet.
NYU Langone Health received access to the latest tool from a famous tech company to explore generative AI. One of the studies by the researchers published in JAMA Network Open, looked at how well the tool could convert (转换) the text in 50 patient discharge notes into patient-friendly language. Specifically, generative AI made the discharge notes drop from 11th-grade reading level on average to a 6th-grade level.
Two physicians were asked to review the AI discharge summary based on a 6th-grade level. The reviewing physicians awarded 54 percent of the AI-generated discharge notes the best-possible accuracy rating. They also found that 56 percent of notes created by AI were entirely complete. The result signified that even at the current performance level, providers of discharge notes would not have to make a single change in more than half of the AI summaries reviewed.
“That more than half of the AI reports generated are accurate and complete is an amazing start,” said Jonah Zaretsky, associate chief of medicine at NYU Langone Hospital — Brooklyn. “Even at the current level of performance, which we expect to improve shortly, the achievement of the AI tool suggests that it can be taught to recognize subtleties (微妙之处).”
Within the following years, the team expects to launch a pilot program to provide lay language discharge summaries that have been generated by AI and reviewed by physicians to patients on a larger scale.
1. What is generative AI used for by the researchers?| A．Submitting discharge summaries. | B．Accessing patients’ health status. |
| C．Making discharge notes clear to patients. | D．Offering technical languages to doctors. |
| A．Probable predicting. | B．Actual thinking. |
| C．Free imagining. | D．Strict instructing. |
| A．To correct their mistakes. | B．To measure their accuracy. |
| C．To compete with the AI tool. | D．To make up the missing parts. |
| A．Misleading. | B．Dismissive. | C．Challenging. | D．Promising. |
5 . I was shocked to see my baby Dani with a cleft(唇裂) at his birth. After the delivery, I wasn’t
Things
Dani wanted to be a
Being Dani’s mother is a(n)
Now I
| A．persuaded | B．invited | C．allowed | D．forced |
| A．relief | B．pain | C．security | D．loneliness |
| A．changed | B．continued | C．worsened | D．mattered |
| A．challenge | B．choice | C．evidence | D．inspiration |
| A．attitude | B．gift | C．recovery | D．virtue |
| A．loudly | B．firmly | C．clearly | D．gently |
| A．pilot | B．trainer | C．doctor | D．spaceman |
| A．valuable | B．difficult | C．interesting | D．practical |
| A．excitement | B．difference | C．contribution | D．strength |
| A．living | B．spreading | C．breaking | D．discovering |
| A．chance | B．fact | C．mission | D．honor |
| A．promised | B．raised | C．ordered | D．begged |
| A．pitied | B．supported | C．compared | D．controlled |
| A．set up | B．work with | C．turn to | D．care about |
| A．replace | B．draft | C．confirm | D．share |
| A．Teacher and student. | B．Doctor and patient. | C．Husband and wife |
7 . When colds and flu hit, many people automatically turn to over-the-counter (OTC) medicines to push through and treat their symptoms. Although these medicines are easily accessible and widely used, it might come as a surprise to many people to learn that they are not risk-free. A study estimated that every year, 26,735 people went to the emergency room for adverse (不利的) events related to OTC cold and cough medicines.
When two or more drugs are used together, their interactions can sometimes produce unexpected harmful effects. Physicians are typically knowledgeable about potential drug interactions, so it is very important for patients to ask their healthcare providers which OTC medicines are safe for them to use.
It is important to read the package ingredients of OTC medicines closely to avoid duplication of doses (剂量重复). Cold medicines are typically made up of multiple ingredients. A person who takes a single-ingredient medicine paired with one of these multi-ingredient medicines can receive an unsafe dose of that ingredient.
While everyone could potentially experience adverse effects from cold and flu medicines, some groups — including older adults, children and pregnant women — may be at greater risk. Older people who are using prescribed drugs to treat multiple health conditions may have a higher risk of drug interactions because of the higher number of medicines being used at the same time to treat different conditions. The aging body is not as expert at absorbing, distributing and clearing medicines as younger bodies are. This can put older adults at higher risk for an overdose and drug-to-drug interactions with some medicines.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not recommend giving cold medicines to children under age 4. Because of a variety of factors, young children have a higher risk of an accidental overdose and adverse events that could lead to death.
1. What does the author advise patients to do in Paragraph 2?| A．To ask for suggestions from doctors. | B．To buy medicines from hospitals. |
| C．To read the package ingredients of drugs. | D．To take drugs as early as possible. |
| A．To provide a medical choice for people who catch a cold. |
| B．To show cold medicines are more likely to cause bad effects. |
| C．To explain OTC medicines often have more than one ingredient. |
| D．To stress the importance of learning about medicines’ ingredients. |
| A．They can’t cope with aging positively. | B．Their body can’t handle medicines easily. |
| C．They are more easily affected by diseases. | D．Their desire for health makes them unwise. |
| A．Say No to OTC Drugs | B．Tips on Taking OTC Drugs |
| C．OTC Medicines May Not Be Safe | D．How to Deal with an OTC Drug Overdose |
8 . When I turned 12, I started hiding how I looked with jackets and oversized T-shirts for fear of comments about my body. I wouldn’t talk about things I loved because I was afraid that people would think I was odd for liking them or that I was talking too much.
At the age of 14, I’d had what I now know were panic attacks over grades in the middle of the hallways in school, or in loud, crowded queues in theme parks. This led to some long talks with my parents and failed meetings with my school advisors, And I eventually decided it was time for me to try mental therapy (治疗).
I still remember going to my first therapy session,almost four years ago. Before I went to it, I feared it’d be scary, but I was wrong. The first few sessions were just used for the two of us to get to know each other. The following few sessions were used for me to figure out why I was there. I tested fairly high on the anxiety scale.and ever since then I’ve kept going there. Two years later, I started going there every two weeks rather than every week. My anxiety levels have gone up and down because of exams, issues with friends and just plain old bad days. For now though,they seem to remain stable for the most part.
To this day, I still think that going to therapy was one of the best decisions I’ve made so far in life. From the first session that I attended to the last one I went to, I’ve learned so many life skills and coping strategies that I use at least once a week.
I’ve always said to my friends and family that they should try therapy if it’s necessary. For people suffering panic attacks, going to therapy means talking to someone who you know won’t judge you about anything, who won’t tell anyone about what you say or how you feel, and who helps you understand yourself and your life.
1. What was the author’s problem when she was 12?| A．She had a poor relationship with classmates. |
| B．She had a strange dressing style. |
| C．She would run into anxiety easily. |
| D．She iost interest in studying. |
| A．They helped find the cause of her panic attacks. |
| B．They failed to help her get out of her trouble. |
| C．They strongly advised her to see a doctor. |
| D．They lost patience with her. |
| A．It had negative side effects on the author. |
| B．It was effective in helping keep his anxiety scales steady. |
| C．It strengthened the author’s confidence quickly. |
| D．It offered solutions to problems of school and friendship. |
| A． To teach us to better,understand ourselves. |
| B．To give tips on ways to overcome anxiety. |
| C．To explain the working process of mental therapy. |
| D．To encourage readers to accept therapy if necessary. |
9 . Personalized medicine changes conventional medicine which typically offers blanket recommendations and offers treatments designed to help more people than they bam but that might not work for you. The approach recognizes that we each possess unique characteristics, and they have an out size impact on our health.
Around the world, researchers are creating precision tools unimaginable just a decade ago: superfast DNA sequencing(排序); tissue engineering, cell reprogramming, gene editing, and more. The science and technology soon will make it possible to predict your risk of cancer, heart disease, and countless other illnesses years before you get sick. The work also offers prospects for changing genes in removing some diseases.
Last spring, researchers at the National Cancer Institute reported the dramatic recovery of a woman with breast cancer, Judy Perkins. The team, led by Steven Rosenberg, an immune(免疫的) treatment pioneer, had sequenced her cancer cells’ DNA to analyze the sudden change. The team also removed a sampling of immune cells and tested them to see which ones recognized her cancer cells' genetic faults. The scientists reproduced the winning immune cells by the billions and put them into Perkins to attack her cancer cells. More than two y cars later. Perkins, a retired engineer from Florida, shows no signs of cancer.
Thirty years ago, scientists thought that it would be impossible to understand our genetic rules and sequence the 3.2 billion pairs of different elements in our DNA. “It was like you were talking fairytales,” Kurzrock said. “The conventional wisdom was that it would never happen. Never And then in 2003, never was over.”
It took the Human Gene Project 13 years, roughly one billion dollars, and scientists from six countries to sequence one gene complex. Today sequencing costs about a thousand dollars. The latest machines can produce the results in a day. The technology, combined with advanced cell analysis, clarifies the astonishing biochemical variations that make every human body unique.
1. What can we know about personalized medicine?| A．It has emerged a decade before. |
| B．It offers blanket recommendations. |
| C．It uses genetic information to help patients. |
| D．It administers treatment intended for most people. |
| A．Promising. | B．Highly risky. | C．Fruitless. | D．Strictly confidential. |
| A．Sequencing her immune cells. |
| B．Reprogramming her cancer cells |
| C．Analysis of her life style changes. |
| D．Identification of cancer-fighting cells. |
| A．Its wide applications. | B．Its recent advances. |
| C．Its major disadvantages. | D．Its attractive prospects. |
For thousands of years, an ancient Chinese medical practice, acupuncture(针灸),
Acupuncture,
