1 . About five days ago, my back started tightening in the middle region. A couple of days ago, I was trapped in my bed, unable to move.
It was a wonderful experience. The room looked no different from a Western medicine examination room.
After they placed the needles, the doctor asked me how I felt. I told her I couldn’t feel any pain.
| A．The mysterious ancient healing art of acupuncture was amazing. |
| B．Chinese medicine tend to regard the patient’s symptoms as a whole. |
| C．I hated the looks from my doctor for symptoms that Western technology can’t handle perfectly. |
| D．I felt like I was in an altered state of relaxation, a different dimension, even. |
| E．The doctor told me to be patient and wait for the needles to take effect. |
| F．I sat down and discussed my symptoms with the medical student. |
| G．This actually indicated that I was responding well to the treatment. |
2 . People have different ways of dealing with a common cold. Some take over the counter medicines such as aspirin while others try popular home remedies(治疗) like herbal tea or chicken soup. Yet here is the tough truth about the common cold: nothing really cures it.
So why do people sometimes believe that their remedies work? According to James Taylor, professor at the University of Washington, colds usually go away on their own in about a week, improving a little each day after symptoms peak, so it's easy to believe it's medicine rather than time that deserves the credit, USA Today reported.
It still seems hard to believe that we can deal with more serious diseases yet are powerless against something so common as a cold. Recently, scientists came closer to figure out why. To understand it, you first need to know how antiviral drugs work. They attack the virus by attaching to and changing the surface structures of the virus. To do that, the drug must fit and lock into the virus like the right piece of a jigsaw(拼图), which means scientists have to identify the virus and build a 3D model to study its surface before they can design an antiviral drug that is effective enough.
The two cold viruses that scientists had long known about were rhinovirus(鼻病毒) A and B. But they didn't find out about the existence of a third virus, rhinovirus C, until 2006. All three of them contribute to the common cold, but drugs that work well against rhinovirus A and B have little effect when used against rhinovirus C.
''This explains most of the previous failures of drug trials against rhinoviruses,'' study leader Professor Ann C. Palmenberg at the University of Wiscons in Madison, US, told Science Daily.
Now, more than 10 years after the discovery of rhinovirus C, scientists have finally built a highly detailed 3D model of the virus, showing that the surface of the virus is, as expected, different from that of other cold viruses.
With the model in hand, hopefully a real cure for a common cold is on its way. Soon, we may no longer have to waste our money on medicines that don't really work.
1. What does the author think of popular remedies for a common cold?| A．They are quite effective. | B．They are slightly helpful. |
| C．They actually have no effect. | D．They still need to be improved. |
| A．By breaking up cold viruses directly. |
| B．By changing the surface structures of the cold viruses. |
| C．By preventing colds from developing into serious diseases. |
| D．By absorbing different kinds of cold viruses at the same time. |
| A．The surface of cold viruses looks quite similar. |
| B．Scientists have already found a cure for the common cold. |
| C．Scientists were not aware of the existence of rhinovirus C until recently. |
| D．Knowing the structure of cold viruses is the key to developing an effective cure. |
| A．Drugs against cold viruses | B．Helpful home remedies |
| C．No current cure for common cold | D．Research on cold viruses |
3 . 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. |
4 . One in five people carry a “smart gene” variant (变体) linked to long lifespan, bigger forebrains and enhanced mental ability, researchers have found.
“We’ve known for a long time that people lose cognitive (认知) abilities as they age, but now we’re beginning to understand that factors like KLOTHO can give people a boost in aging. Genetic variation in KLOTHO could help us predict brain health and find ways to protect people from the diseases that happen to us as we grow old, like Alzheimer’s disease (老年痴呆症),” said senior author, Dena Dubal of University of California.
The KLOTHO gene affects a protein found in the kidneys and the brain that regulates many different body processes. About one in five people carry a single copy of the variant, known as KL-VS, which boosts levels of the protein and is associated with a longer lifespan and improved heart and kidney function. A small minority, 3% of the population, has two copies, which is linked to a shorter lifespan.
In the new study scientists scanned the brains of 422 men and women aged 53 and over who were also tested for the KLOTHO gene. They found that participants with a single copy of the gene variant also had a larger brain region known as RDLPFC, which is especially likely to shrink with age. Loss of neurons in this area may be one reason why older people are sometimes easily distracted and find it difficult to do more than one task at the same time.
Researcher Dr Jennifer Yokoyama said, “The brain region enhanced by genetic variation in KLOTHO is vulnerable (脆弱的) in aging and some mental disease. In this case, bigger size means better function. It will be important to determine whether the structure increase associated with carrying one copy of KL-VS can offset the cognitive shortage caused by disease.”
People who have one copy of a variant KL-VS tend to live longer and have lower chances of suffering a stroke (中风),whereas people who have two copies may live shorter lives and have a higher risk of stroke.
1. What can we learn from the second paragraph?| A．People’s cognitive abilities do not decline if people have KLOTHO. |
| B．With the clear understanding of KLOTHO, Alzheimer’s disease can be cured now. |
| C．Genetic variation in KLOTHO could be helpful in treating mental disease in elderly people. |
| D．Genetic variation in KLOTHO could lead people to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. |
| A．have better kidney funtciton |
| B．have a shorter lifespan |
| C．have a higher level of the protein in his/her body |
| D．suffer from some cognitive disease |
| A．they have fewer neurons in the RDLPEC |
| B．their brain region is too large |
| C．they have two copies of the gene variant |
| D．they have more neurons in the RDLPEC |
| A．Prevent. |
| B．Balance. |
| C．Keep. |
| D．Promote. |
