1 . Many people have dreamt to find a cancer cure. Now, a pill might provide some insight into their dreams.
The medicine, AOH1996, also called the “cancer-killing pill”, explicitly targets the protein that encourages cancer cells to spread across the body. It prevents proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA 细胞增殖核抗原) with a tiny molecule. Up to August 2023, it is being evaluated in Phase I clinical studies for the treatment of solid cancers.
Cancer is a condition in which abnormal cells continue to proliferate uncontrollably, causing the tissue to be destroyed. About one in six deaths were due to cancer in 2020, making it the top cause of death globally.
According to a recent study published in Cell Chemical Biology, City of Hope researchers have discovered a novel method to treat cancer using a special tablet that can get rid of solid tumors. AOH1996 differs from other targeted cancer therapies in this respect, where other approaches may cause a tumor to change and develop more resistance to treatment.
According to City of Hope Professor Linda Malkas, the research team created a medicine specifically targeting the kind of PCNA seen in cancer cells since data indicate that PCNA is distinctively changed in cancer cells. The novel cancer medicine acts like a snowstorm closing a significant airport, stopping only flights from and to aircraft carrying cancer cells.
“Results have been promising. AOH1996 can prevent tumor growth in cell and animal models. The drug is currently in Phase I clinical trial in humans at City of Hope.”
Treatment of lung, brain and skin cancers with AOH1996 has shown to be effective. It kills specific cells by stopping them from replicating (复制) typically. To assess this medicine for potential future use, more clinical studies are planned.
1. What can we know about PCNA?| A．It is a pill that cures solid cancer. |
| B．It is a medicine that prevents tumor growth. |
| C．It is a molecule targeted by the cancer-killing pill AOH1996. |
| D．It is a protein that causes cancer cells to spread across the body. |
| A．It has cured many patients’ cancers. |
| B．It will develop drug resistance. |
| C．It is a natural product collected from plants. |
| D．It has less side effects than other cancer drugs. |
| A．AOH1996 targets cancer cells without harming healthy cells. |
| B．AOH1996 has caused chaos in the medical field. |
| C．AOH1996 is highly effective but inefficient in treating cancer patients. |
| D．AOH1996 is unpredictable and can have unintended consequences. |
| A．Determining the specific types of cancers it can effectively treat. |
| B．Investigating the possible side effects of the medicine. |
| C．Determining if it can be used on a large scale. |
| D．Confirming its effectiveness in killing specific cells. |
Acupuncture(针灸),
Acupuncture is a treatment that aims to promote the body’s self-regulating functions. Its principles are in line
Practices can vary in forms. Needle insertion (插入), the most common method,
Looking beyond China, acupuncture has become a global treatment. Over the years, acupuncture
1. 中国医疗工作者的工作精神；
2. 对你的影响。
注意: 1. 词数120 左右；
2. 可适当添加情节， 以使行文连贯；
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Using needles to help life’s energy flow
For thousands of years, the Chinese have relieved pain and cured disease through acupuncture (针灸).
According to Records of the Grand Historian,
According to TCM (中医), there are a dozen meridians (经脉) in the human body,
In 2010, UNESCO inscribed acupuncture and moxibustion of TCM on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Yet, the practice is not just cultural and historical,
For years,
However, as scientific research of acupuncture
On May 2, 2023, the China Cultural Centre in Malta hosted a Traditional Chinese Medicine Workshop
Traditional Chinese medicine
Besides, the audience
“
6 . Since 2001, robotic tools have revolutionized the practice of surgery. They have greatly reduced the stress and physical demands normally placed on surgeons and have made certain procedures possible.
One example is “keyhole surgery”, or minimally invasive (微创) surgery, which normally requires surgeons to stand at awkward angles and make difficult movements with their hands to make a cut inside the patient. But in June 2022, surgeon James Ansell used 3D glasses and two sticks to control four robotic arms to perform a procedure to remove a cancerous tumor. “My colleague said... that this feels like cheating,” Ansell said to The Guardian.
Another area of surgery that has had major technological breakthroughs in recent years is telesurgery. Normally, telesurgery relies on a wired connection due to concerns of harming the patient should a wireless connection drop during surgery, but China made several advancements in wireless telesurgery based on 5G technology.
China achieved the first 5G-based remote operation in March 2019 involving a brain surgery procedure between a surgeon in Sanya and a patient in Beijing, a distance totaling nearly 3,000 kilometers. More recently, a team of surgeons successfully completed remote micron-level eye surgery on rabbits located in a different city. The rabbits were at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhbù, Guangdon g province, whereas the surgical team who operated on them via a 5G robot were at the Hainan Eye Hospital in Haikou, Hainan province.
Looking to the future, people hope that remote surgery could become commonplace to help heal injured soldiers on the battlefield while keeping surgeons at a safe distance. Some even believe that robotic systems, combined with AI, could one day exceed human surgeons.
But, given current technological limitations and the high costs of these robots which can cost millions of dollars, the complete robot takeover of surgery may still be a while off.
1. What does the “keyhole surgery” example intend to show?| A．Great complexity of robotic surgery. |
| B．Physical challenges surgeons face. |
| C．Surgical progress enabled by robotic tools. |
| D．Urgent need for advanced 3D technology. |
| A．Achieving remote surgery using a wired connection. |
| B．Completing successfully remote eye surgery on humans. |
| C．Conducting a 5G-based remote operation on rabbits overseas. |
| D．Performing the first wireless brain surgery with 5G technology. |
| A．They are quite affordable. |
| B．They are currently in high demand. |
| C．They have not been widely used. |
| D．They have gone beyond human capabilities. |
| A．Robotic Surgery Uses 5G Technology |
| B．Keyhole Surgery Benefits Human Beings |
| C．Autonomous Robot Achieves Great Progress |
| D．Medical Robotics Revolutionizes Surgery Method |
7 . Robotic surgery is one thing, but sending a robot inside the body to car you tan operation is quite another, which has long been a goal of some researchers to produce tiny robotic devices. These devices are capable of traveling through the body to deliver drugs or to make repairs without the need for a single cut, the possibility of which has just got a bit closer.
However, unlike the plot of one film — which featured a microscopic crew and submarine traveling through a scientist’s bloodstream this device could not be put into blood vessels (血管) because it is too big. While other types of miniature robots that can be swallowed were developed in the past, their role has mostly been limited to capturing images inside the body. In a presentation this week to the International Conference, Daniela Rus and Shuhei Miyashita of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology described a robot they have developed that can be swallowed and used to collect dangerous objects accidentally taken in.
To test their latest version, Dr. Rus and Dr. Miyashita designed a robot as a battery hunter, which might seem to be an odd task. However, more than 3,500 people in America alone, most of them children, swallow the tiny button cells used in small electronic devices by accident every year. To start with, the researchers created an artificial esophagus (食道) and stomach made out of silicone (硅胶). It was closely modeled on that found in a pig and filled with medical liquid; the robot itself is made from several layers of different materials, including pig intestine (肠), and contains a little magnet (磁铁). This is folded up and wrapped in a 10mmx27mm capsule of ice. Once this reaches the stomach, the ice melts and the robot unfolds which is moved and guided with the use of a magnetic field outside the body. In their tests, the robot was able to touch a button battery and draw it with its own magnet, and during dragging it along, the robot could then be directed towards the intestines where it would eventually be gotten rid of through the anus. After it, the researchers sent in another robot loaded, with medication to deliver it to the site of the battery to speed up healing.
The artificial stomach being transparent on one side, the researchers can see the batteries and visually control the robots. If not, that will require the help from imaging system, which will be a bit more of a challenge, but Dr. Rus and Dr. Miyashita, are determined to succeed.
1. According to the passage, the robot operation will probably be able to .| A．travel through a scientist’s bloodstream |
| B．photograph the body to convey it to the doctor |
| C．enter the body to deliver drugs or make repairs |
| D．operate on a person outside the body completely |
| A．the researchers did the experiment on a chosen animal |
| B．the robot took necessary drugs besides a little magnet |
| C．digesting the swallowed batteries is difficult for children |
| D．the actual size of the robot maybe larger than the capsule of ice |
| A．The surgeries will cost patients much money. |
| B．Patients will suffer less for some surgeries. |
| C．Fewer children will swallow the button cells. |
| D．A robot will be invented traveling blood vessels. |
| A．An Experiment on Robot | B．Tiny Robot, Significant Role |
| C．The Robotic Voyage in Body | D．The Exploration of Robot Technology |
8 . A cancer treatment no longer means what it used to be. Just a few decades ago, the survival rate beyond five years was less than 50%. Now, nearly 70% of those who get cancer survive that long, and that rate is set to rise. Why? Because, more than ever, chemotherapy (化疗) and radiation, once the only ways of cancer treatment, are being paired with or replaced by varieties of new drugs and treatments.
For example, the first medication for what was previously considered an “undruggable” lung cancer was recently approved in the United States, Canada, Europe and the U.K. And a brand-new precise chemotherapy drug delivered directly to breast cancer cells is giving hope to patients with the HER 2-positive form of the disease.
Another discovery has been the promise of a treatment called immunotherapy, as researchers around the world have discovered ways to use the body’s own immune (免疫) system to battle cancer cells.
Also driving hope is a focus on prevention. Decades of research and public education have led to greater awareness of how lifestyle changes can reduce our risk of developing cancer. According to an article from the journal Pharmaceutical Research and published by the National Institutes of Health, 90% to 95% of cancers can be owed to environment and lifestyle, rather than to genetic (基因的) factors.
Employing vaccines (疫苗) is another effective way of prevention. Take the mRNA cancer vaccines for example. The speedy development of COVID-19 vaccines was thanks to foundations already laid by researchers who had been working for years to create mRNA vaccines to fight cancer. These vaccines use a specially programmed molecule (分子) to activate an immune response in the body’s cells. Unlike the COVID-19 vaccines designed to help protect billions of people, each cancer mRNA vaccine is tailored to treat a single patient’s cancer.
In fact, this personalized approach can be made for everyone, and for every cancer.
1. Why is the survival rate beyond five years rising now?| A．Because new drugs and treatments have come out. |
| B．Because chemotherapy and radiation get advanced. |
| C．Because new drugs have been paired with old ones. |
| D．Because new treatments have replaced the old ones. |
| A．All the cancers are not related to genetic factors. |
| B．Most cancers have no relationship with lifestyle. |
| C．A focus on prevention is our only hope to deal with cancer. |
| D．All cancers have relationship with environment and lifestyle. |
| A．The COVID-19 vaccines can be used to fight some cancers. |
| B．One cancer mRNA vaccine can’t be used for another cancer. |
| C．One cancer mRNA vaccine can be used to treat patients of the same cancer. |
| D．The COVID-19 vaccines were created from previous cancer mRNA vaccines. |
| A．A diary entry. | B．A news report. |
| C．A book review. | D．A science fiction. |
1. 简介针灸；
2. 推荐老师；
3. 表达祝福。
注意：1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear John,
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Yours,
Li Hua
10 . Dr. Ofri’s new book, “Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue,” recounts her experiences as a doctor at New York’s Bellevue Hospital. NPR’s Melissa Block, host of All Things Considered, recently spent a day at the hospital to get a sense of her world, through her relationships with her patients.
Dr. Danielle Ofri is an attending physician in internal medicine at Bellevue. For her, poetry and literature are as much a part of the job as X-rays and pills. She’s written about her experiences there in the book, Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellewe. It’s a collection of essays about learning to listen to the narrative of her patients.
Dr. Ofri tries to keep an ear turned to the stories behind her patients’ medical complaints. Answers to questions about family or jobs may not help with medical diagnosis, but conversations like these can help gain a patient’s trust, and they help the doctor, too. “At night, I recall our conversations, and wonder what else I could do for them. It makes me curious about them,” Dr. Ofri says, “so when I go back the next day, I’m more connected with them. And I think a connection has healing powers. Most of the patients brighten, when they talk about themselves and I think they actually feel better.”
A good part of Dr. Ofri’s day is also spent overseeing the work of new doctors. The days are filled with jargon (行业术语) and medical shorthand. But Dr. Ofri also tries to inject another kind of language into the training poetry. She carves out five minutes or so each day to gather with her interns and read a poem. She calls it her “literary rounds”. Through these brief pauses in the day, she says she’s giving her students “a chance to let the other part of their brain flower a little bit”. “I’m just hoping the experience of doing that is helpful, and also trains my students to listen more carefully to patients.” she said.
1. Why did Melissa Block recently go to Bellevue Hospital?| A．To make friends with Dr. Ofri. | B．To receive medical treatment. |
| C．To know about Dr. Ofri’s experiences. | D．To collect essays on treatment. |
| A．The stories behind illnesses. | B．The effect of family and jobs. |
| C．The benefits of listening to patients. | D．The healing powers of conversations. |
| A．Cut. | B．Change. | C．Accept. | D．Add. |
| A．To encourage them to write books. | B．To improve their humanistic quality. |
| C．To prepare an entire career for them. | D．To make their brain grow and flower. |
