1 . Using needles to deliver drugs has been common for more than a century. The past hundred years have seen all manner of medical advances, from life-saving medicine and X-rays to mRNA vaccines and special cancer treatments. Yet the needle has stayed mostly unchanged. Although now available in a variety of different sizes, it remains a hollow (having a hole or empty space inside), pointy tube.

With luck, that may soon change. As Yichi Ma, a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues outline in a review paper, researchers around the world are looking for ways to ease the pain when needles go into the skin. Many have been inspired by nature.

The team got their idea from mosquitoes, which manage to get their blood meals without causing great pain to people. One reason is that the insects use painkilling chemicals when they first puncture(刺穿) the skin. But there is another reason. The point of a mosquito’s saw-like proboscis(锯齿状的喙) is softer at its tip. The insect makes the skin of its target tight before biting, and shakes its proboscis as it pushes the proboscis in. All of this helps reduce the force needed to puncture the skin.

One paper, published in 2020 by a group of researchers in America and China, found that a mosquito-inspired needle required 27% less puncturing force than an ordinary one. And less force means less pain. Mosquito-inspired needles might also be useful for delicate procedures such as biopsies (the examination of tissue taken from a living body). A paper from the University of Michigan, also published in 2020, found that scientists could improve biopsies of tissue in some body organs. The lower force led to less movement of the organ itself, ensuring that the needles were guided accurately to the area that needed sampling.

For now, such devices remain limited to labs. But there is a big market for better needles. According to WHO, around 16 billion injections were given in 2018. With one person in four saying they suffer from a fear of needles, the savings on stickers and sweets for the brave souls who roll up their sleeves would be considerable.

1. What can we infer about needles from Paragraph 1?

A．Their importance has been ignored for long.

B．They fall behind other medical innovations.

C．Their size remains the same for over a century.

D．They had a poor source of supply for decades.

2. What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．The source of scientists’ inspiration.

B．The chemical compounds found in mosquitoes.

C．The unique structure of a mosquito’s proboscis.

D．The harmful effects of mosquito bites on humans.

3. Why did the author mention the figures in the last paragraph?

A．To show people’s anxiety about injections.

B．To highlight the limitations of current needle designs.

C．To draw attention to the dangers of too many injections.

D．To emphasize the potential demand for improved needles.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Limitations of Current Needle Designs

B．The Role of Needles in Traditional Chinese Medicine

C．Enhancing Needle Technology: Lessons from Mosquitoes

D．The Impact of Needle Innovation on Medical Advancements

3 . A drug used to treat severe bleeding could save thousands of lives for mothers giving birth. A global trial of the drug found it reduced the risk of bleeding deaths during childbirth by nearby one-third. The study involved 20,000 women in 21 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia. The trial was carried out by London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The drug is called tranexamic acid(氨甲环酸). It is low-cost and researchers said it does not cause serious side effects for mothers or babies.

The drug is used to treat mothers for severe bleeding during childbirth, also known as postpartum hemorrhage(产后出血). It is the leading cause of mother’s death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Haleema Shakur is the project director of the trial. She says despite medical advances in many countries, severe bleeding after childbirth remains a big problem in some parts of the world. “It’s one of the biggest killers of mothers. In Africa and Asia, about 10 percent of women will end up with severe bleeding.” The drug works by stopping blood clots(血凝块)from breaking down after a mother gives birth. The treatment can prevent the need for doctors to perform surgery to find the source of bleeding.

Shakur said the best results were reported when the drug was given to women as soon as possible after childbirth, “The earlier you give it—so within the first three hours of giving birth— the better the effect is.”

The next step will be to get the drug where it is needed and provide training for doctors and nurses on how to use it. During the trial, women were given the drug in a hospital. But researchers are looking for easier ways to administer the drug so it can be more widely used in small clinics and rural areas.

1. Tranexamic acid is a drug that ______.

A．should be used for every mother

B．helps mothers before giving birth

C．can help mothers giving birth stop bleeding

D．ensures most new-born babies’ health

2. What is the researchers’ next plan?

A．To know how much the drug is.

B．To get permission to use the drug.

C．To make medical staff know how to use the drug

D．To let more people know the drug

3. What can we learn from the text?

A．The more mothers use the drug, the better its effect is.

B．African and Asian countries made great progress in medicine.

C．Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause of women’s death.

D．There is a long way to go before the drug can be used more widely.

4. What may be the best title for the text?

A．Care for the Health of Mothers

B．How Can We Use Tranexamic Acid Well?

C．What’s the Biggest Killer of Mothers?

D．Childbirth Drug Greatly Reduces Bleeding Deaths

4 . Deveza’s mother was on the waiting list for a kidney transplant (肾移植). Deveza wanted to donate one of her own kidneys, but she was turned down because she might develop the same health problems as her mother in later life.

Deveza came up with a different plan. In 2017, she started the world’s first paired exchange of different organs between living donors, exchanging half her liver (肝) for someone else’s kidney. A case study of the organ exchange has now been published. And the surgeons who were involved are calling for more exchanges like this. “You can imagine the enormous impact for mixed organ extended chains,” says John Roberts, a surgeon at University of California, San Francisco.

Most organ transplants come from people who have died, but there are never enough organs. As most people can manage with just one of their kidneys, people with kidney failure are increasingly receiving donated organs from relatives or friends. If someone wants to donate but their immune (免疫的) system is unsuited, doctors may be able to find pairs of would-be donors who can each give a kidney to the other’s relative.

When Deveza was looking into such chains, she came across research describing the idea of trading a kidney with the only other organ generally taken from a living donor—the liver. She suggested the idea to many hospitals before she finally contacted Roberts, who saw the idea’s potential.

Deveza was assessed to be in good enough health to donate part of her liver. It then took 18 months to find Annie Simmons, in Idaho, whose liver was unsuitable to use as a transplant for her sister with severe liver disease. They drew up a plan: Simmons would donate a kidney to Deveza’s mother, and in return, Deveza would give half her liver to Simmons’ sister. The hospital gave the go-ahead and the four operations took place on the same day successfully.

The team hopes that the ground-breaking case will inspire more people to consider doing the same. Roberts says that direct exchanges involving two donors could enable up to thirty extra living donor liver transplants a year—a ten per cent increase.

1. What did Deveza do to save her mother?

A．Carrying out a case study.

B．Calling for kidney donations.

C．Launching a medical experiment.

D．Trading half her liver for a kidney.

2. What does Paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．Patients’ hopelessness to survive.

B．Several sources of organ donation.

C．Current situation of organ transplants.

D．Doctors’ efforts to improve organ transplants.

3. What can be inferred about the organ exchange between Deveza and Simmons?

A．It discouraged organ donation.

B．It brought two families together.

C．It met with widespread approval.

D．It produced a desirable outcome.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．My Liver, Your Kidney

B．Mother’s Love, Our Happiness

C．Organ Transplant: Blessing for Patients

D．Organ Exchange: Major Medical Advances

6 . Therapy (治疗) dogs have long visited nursing homes and schools and even disaster sites, offering comfort to humans. A new study shows that a 10-minute visit from a therapy dog can help relieve patients’ pain in the emergency room.

The research from the University of Saskatchewan, published in the journal PLOS on Wednesday, found that emergency room patients who were visited by a therapy dog reported less pain than those who weren’t.

“Therapy dogs themselves are really friendly and are so excited to visit with people in places where they don’t typically have a pet.” Dr. Colleen Dell, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of the study authors, told NPR.

In a trial (试验), researchers asked more than 200 patients to report their pain levels. One group of patients received a 10-minute visit from a therapy dog and the other group did not. After the visit, researchers asked patients in both groups to report their pain levels again. Those who spent 10 minutes with the dog reported less pain, the study found.

“Many patients have experienced positive outcome from therapy dogs, but this study clinically proves them”, said Dell, herself a therapy dog handler.

Stempien, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Saskatchewan has seen the dogs in action at the hospital where he works. Before the pandemic (大流行病), a therapy dog would visit multiple times a week. During visits, the dog would often make a stop in the nursing lounge (休息室) before visiting with patients.

“I think it brought smiles on faces of almost all the staff they interacted with,” Stempien told NPR.

But the people aren’t the only ones getting something out of this. “Therapy dogs love their job. They love to interact with people.” Dell said, “Though we need more research on this, we believe they also gain something out of it as well as giving while visiting with people.”

1. How did researchers carry out their study?

A．Collecting numbers.

B．Organizing tests.

C．Studying previous study projects.

D．Conducting questionnaires.

2. Which of the following is true about the trial?

A．Different patients received different treatments from the therapy dogs.

B．Those visited by the therapy dogs reported more positive results.

C．Those visited by the therapy dogs lessen their pain totally.

D．200 doctors and nurses took part in the trial.

3. What can you know from the last paragraph?

A．Therapy dogs are only interested in helping people.

B．Therapy dogs fell less pain when staying with people.

C．Therapy dogs can also get something when helping people.

D．The present research is enough to prove that therapy dogs love their job.

4. Where does this text probably come from?

A．A health magazine	B．An animal encyclopedia
C．A biology textbook	D．A science fiction

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

These days, doctors are using a new approach to healing, which is called tapping. This approach combines     1     (wise) from Chinese medicine with talk therapy (治疗).

By simply tapping points along the body while     2     (confirm) your emotional state, you can release cellular energy. By feeling those emotions, you process and clear them through     3     power of love and forgiveness. Tapping provides a healthy way to process difficult emotions, even from experiences that     4     (happen) in the distant past. The practice draws from acupuncture (针灸), a healing method from     5     (tradition) Chinese medicine that dates from thousands of years ago.

Acupuncture opens energy highways in the body by sticking thin needles into the skin. Tapping takes a similar approach, but uses touch instead of needles     6     (promote) the flow of energy throughout the body. It may sound strange or impossible     7     first glance. But scientists believe that the method works because it excites the central nervous system,     8     causes the body to release helpful chemicals.

Everyone may have experienced some sorts of emotional discomfort in their lives. Although painful, it’s important to develop healthy ways to process their experiences. Healing     9    (practise) like tapping help release these emotions    10     (active), so you can process and heal from difficult emotions.