Chinese vaccines（疫苗）were initially dismissed in Western and other media， partly because of a view that they were inferior
The development of Chinese vaccine within a short span of time after the sudden outbreak of COVID-19
China's efforts
2 . What if computers could replace patients? If virtual (虚拟的) humans could have replaced real people in some stages of a drug trial, it could have sped up development of a preventive tool and slowed down the spread of viruses. Similarly, potential drugs that weren’t likely to work could have been identified early, cutting trial costs and avoiding testing poor drug candidates on living volunteers. These are some of the benefits of “in silico medicine”, which is also known as “computational medicine”.
Powerful computers get to work based on the data according to some rules, producing a virtual organ (器官) that looks and behaves like the real thing. With virtual organs, the modeling begins by feeding data into a complex mathematical model of the mechanisms.
In silico clinical trials are already underway to an extent. For the foreseeable future, real patients will be needed in late-stage studies, but in silico trials will make it possible to conduct quick and inexpensive first assessments of safety and efficiency, hugely reducing the number of live human subjects required for experimentation.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for instance, is using computer simulations (模拟) in place of human trials for evaluating new technology systems. The agency has also published guidance for designing trials of drugs and devices that include virtual patients.
Beyond speeding results and reducing the risks of clinical trials, in silico medicine can be used in place of risky interventions (干预) that are required for analyzing or planning treatment of certain medical conditions. For example, HeartFlow Analysis, a cloud-based service approved by the FDA, enables doctors to identify heart disease based on CT images of a patient’s heart. The HeartFlow system has used these images to construct a dynamic model of the blood running through the heart, thus identifying abnormal conditions and their severity. Without this technology, doctors would need to cut into the body to perform an angiogram (血管造影) to decide whether and how to intervene. Experimenting on digital models of individual patients can also help personalize treatment for any number of conditions.
1. What is the key factor of “in silico medicine”?| A．Trial costs. | B．Virtual organs. |
| C．Potential drugs. | D．Living volunteers. |
| A．It is mainly used to try drugs. | B．It is lacking in practical value. |
| C．It frees patients from clinical trials. | D．It provides safety and reduces costs. |
| A．It is being applied to FDA for use. | B．It has given doctors practical help. |
| C．It models CT images of living patients. | D．It functions on the basis of angiograms. |
| A．Virtual medical science is developing rapidly. |
| B．Clinical trials of new drugs have been sped up. |
| C．Virtual patients make clinical trials fast and reliable. |
| D．Computers will replace human doctors in the future. |
The skin, which acts as a barrier
The cool water stops the
| A．A cure for flu. | B．A kind of drink. | C．A kind of medicine. |
5 . With the world’s attention on vaccines (疫苗), now feels like a good moment to sing the praises of an often forgotten contribution to their development. Three hundred years ago this month, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu got her daughter inoculated (接种) against smallpox, making her child the first person in the West to be protected in this way. Without Montagu’s willingness to adopt a practice she had learned from other cultures, the introduction of vaccines around 80 years later would never have taken place.
Montagu first witnessed inoculation when she accompanied her husband to Turkey in 1717. Inoculation had started in Asia, probably in China, as early as the 10th century AD. Montagu observed how older women in Turkey took a tiny amount of pus (脓) from a person with smallpox. They then used needles to make cuts on people’s wrists and ankles and added the pus to their bloodstream. This helped people gain immunity from future infection.
Like other visitors to the country, Montagu took steps to ensure that her son was inoculated in Turkey. This worked well, but she knew that trying it in England would be far more challenging. Inoculation performed by unlicensed amateurs would threaten doctors’ professional standing and potentially rob them of valuable income. Churchmen also disagree with the practice, as they saw it as going against nature.
Back in England, Montagu observed the increased severity of smallpox infections. Eventually, in April 1721, she decided to use the Turkish practice to have her daughter inoculated, because she believed that the rewards would outweigh the risks. After a safe time had passed following the inoculation, Montagu allowed doctors to examine her daughter.
Doctors in Britain gradually accepted the practice. About so years later, a pioneering physician found smallpox vaccines to destroy smallpox completely. As early as last century, academics argued that Montagu was no more than an enthusiastic amateur. In truth, she made a vital scientific contribution towards finding the cure for smallpox.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The origin of smallpox inoculation. |
| B．Montagu’s first access to inoculation. |
| C．The benefits from smallpox inoculation. |
| D．Turkish women’s invention of inoculation. |
| A．it was against human nature | B．it might harm doctors’ interests |
| C．it was beyond doctors’ abilities | D．it might shake churchmen’s belief |
| A．The increased severity of smallpox infections. |
| B．A physician’s discovery of smallpox vaccines. |
| C．The result of Montagu’s daughter’s inoculation. |
| D．Montagu’s focus on its rewards rather than its risks. |
| A．An unsung hero | B．No limit to creation |
| C．Development of vaccines | D．A historic medical innovation |
6 . China is one of the first countries to breed a medical culture. In comparison with Western methods, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) adopts a vastly different approach. For thousands of years, Chinese people have accumulated rich experience in fighting all sorts of diseases, therefore forming a unique medical theory under the guidance of ancient Chinese philosophies (哲学).
The core behind TCM is that the human body's life is the consequence (结果) of the balance between Yin and Yang. Yang functions to safeguard us against outer harm, and Yin is the inner base to store and provide energy. When the balance between the two aspects is disturbed, people fall ill.
One of the traditional techniques of TCM, acupuncture (针刺疗法) means insertion of needles into superficial (表面的) structures of the body—usually at acupoints (穴位)—to restore the Yin Yang balance. It is often accompanied by moxibustion (艾灸疗法), which involves burning mugwort on or near the skin at an acupoint.
The first known text that clearly talks about something like acupuncture and moxibustion as it is practiced today is The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon. It is the earliest and most important written work of TCM and is considered the fundamental and most representative medical text in China.
Acupuncture and moxibustion have aroused the interest of international medical science circles. And TCM is gradually gaining worldwide recognition. The WHO issued a document in 2002 that appealed to more than 180 countries to adopt TCM as an alternative in their medical policies. In 2010, acupuncture and moxibustion of traditional Chinese medicine were added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO. Presently, TCM has been back in the news for its effectiveness in improving the cure rate of the COVID-19 since its outbreak in January 2020.
1. What is the key feature of TCM?| A．It adopts different medical approaches. | B．It's based on ancient Chinese philosophies. |
| C．It helps to restore body's self-balance. | D．It's gained experience through rich practice. |
| A．It distinguishes acupuncture from moxibustion. |
| B．It's a foundation of world medical research. |
| C．it stresses the importance of using acupoints. |
| D．It greatly contributes to the development of TCM. |
| A．To review the development of TCM. | B．To introduce TCM to the world. |
| C．To tell TCM and Western medicine apart. | D．To argue for TCM in fighting COVID-19. |
| A．How TCM helps in the current situation. | B．Why TCM is gaining popularity. |
| C．Why TCM gets recognition from WHO. | D．How other countries adopt TCM. |
7 . Nowadays medical technology seems to be advanced enough for doctors to perform brain transplants (移植). Though this procedure has only been successfully performed on animals so far, doctors are still hoping to perform this procedure on humans. However, in my opinion, brain transplants should not be performed at all, especially not on humans because of the large number of problems and side effects that could come along with. Hopefully these dangerous side effects will convince doctors not to perform this procedure on humans.
Despite many benefits technology brings, I do not think this medical technology of brain transplants will help. We were all born with one brain and through childhood to adolescence our mind developed into who we are, so if with a different brain we would no longer be unique. A person with a different brain would seem to be a total stranger and in many ways they would be. No one should steal our identity from us, even if we are seriously injured, and change it to a completely new one. Also for the people who have died with healthy brains, that was their identity and it should not be given to anyone else.
Another problem with brain transplants is how doctors can choose what are “healthy” or “normal” brains. An elderly person who has died would have an aged brain that would not be as efficient as a younger person’s brain. Then would doctors have to find healthy brains of the same age as the person who needs it? This could also bring up other factors such as intelligence, gender, or physical problems that a person might have had before death. Also another problem might be how long a brain can be kept “alive” after death and how it can be kept “alive” without damage.
Overall, my feelings about this surgery are that it should not be done on humans until doctors have overcome all the problems and obstacles (障碍) that stand in their way of making human brain transplants successful.
1. Why does the author think brain transplants should not be performed at all?| A．The cost of the surgery is extremely high. |
| B．Doctors are not able to perform brain transplants. |
| C．A good many problems and side effects may arise. |
| D．This procedure has only been successful on animals. |
| A．People shouldn’t give their healthy brains to others. |
| B．Having a brain transplant means losing one’s identity. |
| C．Transplanting brains is changing old brains into new ones. |
| D．Having brain transplants indicates stealing identity from others. |
| A．Aged brains aren’t healthy brains. | B．Young brains are always healthy. |
| C．Healthy brains cannot be kept “alive”. | D．It’s very difficult to tell healthy brains. |
| A．To encourage brain donation. |
| B．To stress the importance of brain operation. |
| C．To argue against brain transplants on humans. |
| D．To introduce the technology of brain transplants. |
| A．His feet hurt. |
| B．His shoes don’t fit him. |
| C．He missed a long walk yesterday. |
9 . At any given moment, about seven microliters of tears are present in each of our eyes-about one-tenth of a drop of waste. You might think they’re nothing more than salt water, but they deliver oxygen and nutrients to our eyes, removing waste, and are signs of some diseases. This means that doctors and maybe, in the near future, you can look for signs of illness by looking at your tears.
Studies have already shown that markers of many serious diseases, such as cancer, can be found in tears. Recently, a technology named TearExo has been developed to screen for breast cancer using tears collected by patients themselves. This would greatly reduce the cost of testing and help detect the serious disease earlier.
Tear testing could also have an impact on COVID-19: current research has been focusing on developing a test to detect SARS-COV-2 infections (感染) as well as document previous infections, through antibody testing. These tests are typically done with blood—but nucleic acid (核酸) can be detected in tears as well, and antibodies to the virus may also be detected in tears. That means a quick and inexpensive tear test that doesn’t require a needle could be developed in the near future.
But the potential advantages of tears as health signs go beyond occasional testing. One promising tear-based technology is smart contact lenses (隐形眼镜) that continuously monitor a patients biomarkers, significantly improving disease prevention and early detection, which has already attracted the attention of some major companies like Google, and is currently being developed in research laboratories around the world.
One significant step in its development was the first stand-alone contact lenses with an integrated battery, in 2019. More recently, smart contact lenses have been successfully developed for continuous monitoring and treatment of diabetic retinopathy (糖尿病视网膜病变). Such a product probably won’t be ready for market for several years. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 45 million people in the U.S already wear contact lenses to correct their vision. It would be simple for them to use a smart version.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential in tears. Tears can provide an inexpensive, rapid and easy-to-use way to health monitoring. Given the advantages of tear technology, such technology would certainly lead to more effective disease prevention — rather than having to deal with the difficulties of treating them.
1. What can the technology TearExo be used for?| A．Detecting breast cancer more accurately. | B．Helping to detect breast cancer earlier. |
| C．Saving time in breast cancer detection. | D．Reducing the pain of breast cancer. |
| A．The widespread uses of tears. |
| B．The latest nucleic acid testing method. |
| C．Advantages of detecting nucleic acid in tears. |
| D．Potential applications of tears in nucleic acid testing. |
| A．They have a promising future. | B．They can protect patients’ eyes. |
| C．They monitor eyesight continuously. | D．They can be bought now on the market. |
| A．The role tears play in the eyes. |
| B．Tears contain high levels of chemicals. |
| C．Eyes say something about your health. |
| D．Your tears might save your life someday. |
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