1 . Have you heard of depression (抑郁)? It’s a mental illness. People who have it may feel sad all the time or do something to hurt themselves. Now, doctors can put a “happy switch” in their heads to help them.
Doctors at Shanghai Ruijing hospital helped a patient Wu Xiaotian. Wu, 31, has had depression since he was 15 years old. The doctor did an operation on Wu. They put two long lines of electrodes (电极) inside his brain. The 16 electrodes are used to let out electricity on different parts of the brain, which can change the patient’s feelings. Wu can control the “happy switch” through an app on his phone. When feeling down, Wu turns on the switch and the electrodes start working. He is soon cheered up. “It feels like there is power rising from the inside of my body,” Wu said.
The hospital has tested the switch on 26 patients since 2020. Up to now, it has helped cut down a patient’s sad feelings by 60%, said the hospital.
But is the switch safe enough? Although patients like Wu feel great using it, the operation is actually a dangerous one. And doctors are still working to improve it. Also, doctors have to make sure that patients don’t rely on it. Healthy people shouldn’t use it, or it may be like a kind of drug for them.
1. What really makes the “happy switch” work?| A．The small “box”. | B．Electrodes. | C．Electricity. | D．An App. |
| A．Why people have bad feelings. | B．How the “happy switch” works. |
| C．How doctors do operations on brains. | D．Who will have the switch on their brains. |
| A．The switch still needs improving. | B．The switch is a kind of drug. |
| C．All patients who used it became healthy. | D．It can make all sadness go away. |
| A．The new operation is safe for humans. |
| B．Some people may use the switch to sell drugs. |
| C．Different kinds of people should try the switch. |
| D．People should also care about the bad points of the switch. |
2 . Thousands of lives have been saved by giving blood-thinning drugs to people with a heart condition that leaves them at risk of a stroke(中风), according to the head of the NHS.
Since January 2022 about 460,000 people in England who suffer from atrial fibrillation(AF)- a dangerously irregular heart rate-have begun taking one of four anticoagulant(抗凝血剂) drugs that are proved to reduce stroke risk. Speedy introduction of the drugs has kept 4,000 people alive who would otherwise have died and prevented about 17,000 strokes, according to Amanda Pritchard. Strokes kill about 27,000 people a year in England and lead to about 120,000 being taken to hospital.
A drive to encourage take-up of the drugs means 90% of the 1.5 million people in England with AF are using them. That should result in fewer strokes, which are a leading cause of death and disability, given that AF causes about one in five strokes.
“The rapid introduction of these drugs is a big step forward in providing the best possible care for patients with heart disease”, Pritchard, the leader of NHS(National Health Service) England, will say in a speech today at the King’s Fund health experts’ yearly conference.
The drugs, called direct oral anticoagulants, help stop blood from clotting(凝血), therefore reducing the risk of a clot developing and causing a stroke. In 2021 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended that doctors use four anticoagulant drugs.
Dr Maeva May, the Stroke Association’s director, thought the widespread use of the drugs as “fantastic news”, because AF accounts for one in five strokes and strokes in people with AF are more likely to result in death or serious disability.
NHS England has used its spending power to cut deals with the makers of the four drugs, which has made them much more widely available. The British Heart Foundation praised the NHS’s “great progress towards its goal of reducing stroke deaths”.
1. What is the purpose of listing numbers in paragraph 2?| A．To attract the readers’ attention to strokes. |
| B．To introduce the specific information about AF. |
| C．To show the effects of four anticoagulant drugs. |
| D．To summarize the steps towards reducing deaths. |
| A．To identify signs of strokes. | B．To reduce blood pressure. |
| C．To keep heart beating. | D．To prevent blood clotting. |
| A．They have reached some agreements. | B．They have provided free treatment. |
| C．They have established disease funds. | D．They have reminded of stroke deaths. |
| A．Recognising Signs of A Heart Attack | B．A Breakthrough in Stroke Prevention |
| C．Exploring Kinds of Anticoagulant Drugs | D．NHS England’s Life-Saving Conference |
Acupuncture (针灸),
Acupuncture is an
Practices can vary in forms, including needle insertion, cupping and scraping. Needle insertion is carried
Acupuncture has been considered effective, particularly when
As an ancient Chinese medical practice, acupuncture has earned
Plastic surgery is becoming more and more popular. A woman
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5 . Hang your tongue out of your mouth while your eyes look upwards. Breathe loudly and use your hands to pull your head in every way. This is yoga(瑜伽) for your face.
Fumiko Takatsu, creator of the Face Yoga Method, has written six books on face yoga and has been practicing facial exercises for about 15 years. Takatsu, 50, said she came up with the idea of facial exercises after a car accident when she was 35 years old, which left her face out of its proper position. Around the same time, Takatsu said she began to notice signs of aging, but gave up using creams and beauty treatments after they became too expensive.
Koko Hayashi, 39, a face yoga instructor in Los Angeles, said she first heard of face yoga by discovering Takatsu’s work. Hayashi said she had a chin implant(下巴植入体) when she was 27 years old, but took it out because it misshaped her face. ”That’s why I’m so interested in more natural beauty instead of plastic surgery(整形手术) ,” Hayashi said. Like others who practice facial exercises, Hayashi believes it can fix signs of aging and help reduce wrinkles(皱纹).
The question that often pops up when someone mentions face yoga is, “Does it actually work?” A study out of Northwestern University found that the exercises may help middle-aged women.
“This is a pilot study that suggests that there might be some factors of face exercise that can be helpful to at least certain patients in improving certain signs of aging,” said Dr. Murad Alam from Northwestern University. “But we need more studies to better understand exactly how much exercise is necessary to have any benefit, whether it works for men and women of different ages, and then how much exercise is needed to keep that benefit.”
Medical reporter Dr. Jennifer Ashton said that she is not sure whether face yoga works and that any benefits are most likely going to be up to the person trying it. “If you feel better after trying face yoga, it may be something you should keep doing,” she said.
1. What made Takatsu decide to create the Face Yoga Method?| A．An unexpected car accident. | B．Great interest in doing yoga. |
| C．Unaffordable beauty treatments. | D．Unsatisfactory effects of creams. |
| A．She wrote a book about face yoga. |
| B．She experienced a failed plastic surgery. |
| C．She had always admired natural beauty. |
| D．She has practiced facial exercises since she was 27. |
| A．Face yoga is helpful but more research is needed. |
| B．Face yoga is more suitable for women than men. |
| C．Face yoga needs much too exercise to bring benefits. |
| D．Face yoga should be widely taken by more people. |
| A．Its key point is keeping exercising. |
| B．It can stop all kinds of signs of aging. |
| C．Its advantages do more than its disadvantages. |
| D．Its effectiveness depends on personal feelings. |
The virus “Ebola” is named after the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That’s
The deadliest Ebola outbreak is spreading fast in Western Africa, taking over 900
There are several promising drugs and vaccines (疫苗) in
Acupuncture(针灸), an ancient Chinese medical practice, has been the treatment for lots of patients for thousands of years. Before modern medicine
As a treatment
Practices can be different in forms, including needle insertion (扎针), cupping and rubbing. Needle insertion, the most common method, is carried out by
Looking beyond China, acupuncture has become a global treatment. In the past 50 years, acupuncture
As an ancient Chinese medical practice, acupuncture has a rich history and much cultural
8 . When Stanford University student Ellen Xu, now 18, was a five-year-old in San Diego, Califormia, she clearly remembers that her parents rushed her little sister to the hospital. Three-year-old Kate had fallen seriously ill; she had a fever, reddened eyes, and some swelling (肿胀) in her hands and tongue.
At first, the puzzled doctors thought she had flu, but when her condition didn’t improve, the Xus returned to the clinic room, where a doctor by chance had a similar earlier experience with such symptoms (症状) in the blood known as Kawasaki disease. Though rare (罕见的), it’s the leading cause of the heart disease in babies and young children, and its causes remain unknown.
The doctor knew how to treat it: He ordered some medicine for Kate, and finally she shook off the illness without suffering damage to her heart.
Xu remembers being curious about her sister’s illness condition and was amazed that the grown-ups couldn’t answer her questions about why it was so hard to check. “In my mind, it was this puzzle I wanted to solve,” she says.
Ten years later, wanting to enter a high school science fair, she had an idea. What if we had a doctor in our pocket? So she created just that: Using AI, Xu designed a program that uses visual facts to check the disease based on five physical symptoms.
The technology works the same way as apps that can identify birds and plants with photos you’ve taken on your cellphone. Worried parents can upload a photo that they have taken of their child, and the technology will scan the picture for symptoms of the disease, which often have a strong visual factors, such as a swollen tongue.
Xu’s invention has been applied as a web app on the website. “The technology could also be developed for recognizing some other diseases,” she says, “It means a lot to me. I want to use AI to help people live happier and healthier lives.”
Xu says that her sister Kate, now in her third year of high school with dreams of becoming an environmental engineer, is strong and healthy.
1. Why did the author mention Kate’s illness?| A．To explain who treated Kate’s illness. |
| B．To prove how serious Kate’s illness was. |
| C．To show how much Ellen loved her sister. |
| D．To tell why Ellen solved the puzzle in her mind. |
| A．To save her sister. | B．To earn a prize. |
| C．To check a rare disease. | D．To identify birds and plants. |
| A．Determined and careful. | B．Creative and helpful. |
| C．Diligent and selfless. | D．Active and easygoing. |
| A．A Girl’s Road to Invention. | B．An Invention Helping Doctors. |
| C．A Girl Recovering from a Disease. | D．A New Method to Treat a Disease. |
1. What is the matter with Mr. Smith?
| A．He ate a lot. |
| B．He got a sore throat. |
| C．He can’t sleep at night. |
| A．English. | B．Chinese. | C．Physics. |
| A．He has rested for a week. |
| B．He has to help his students. |
| C．He wants to visit a university. |
10 . The healthcare industry in the UK is not cheap or efficient enough. This has led many people to seek out other solutions, one of which is something known as online therapy.
The idea is quite simple. Anyone who can use a computer and have an Internet connection will have the ability to talk to a therapist online. Many providers ask the potential client (客户) several questions before signing up.
For all the love online therapy has received lately, it doesn’t come without its disadvantages. The main problems many people have with online therapy are the absence of facial expressions and ethics (道德规范).
| A．Let’s look at the advantages of traditional therapy. |
| B．As you can see, there is a large list of benefits to this type of therapy. |
| C．So, professional organizations hesitate to fully accept online therapy. |
| D．It was five years ago that many online therapy providers started their business. |
| E．As its name suggests, it allows people to connect to a therapist over the Internet. |
| F．There should be careful consideration about the use of an online therapy service. |
| G．These questions can range from how old you are to what your current condition is. |
