1 . In recent years, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have brought both excitement and concerns to various fields. One area where AI is making a profound impact is the medical field, particularly in the domain of diagnostics.
Al-powered diagnostic systems leverage deep learning algorithms to analyze medical images, such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. These algorithms can detect subtle patterns and anomalies that might be missed by human radiologists, potentially leading to earlier and more accurate diagnoses.
However, the integration of AI in medical diagnostics raises complex ethical questions. For instance, who should be held responsible if an AI system misdiagnoses a patient’s condition? Should AI algorithms be treated as medical professionals, with legal and liability implications? These questions become even more intricate when considering that AI systems learn from vast datasets of medical information, which might contain biases or inaccuracies.
Furthermore, the adoption of AI diagnostics could impact the role of healthcare professionals. Some argue that AI could enhance doctors’ capabilities by providing them with additional insights, while others fear that it might replace human expertise, leading to job losses and a potential decrease in the quality of patient care. Despite these challenges, proponents of AI diagnostics emphasize its potential to improve healthcare accessibility, especially in underserved regions where there is a shortage of skilled medical professionals. Al-powered diagnostics could provide preliminary assessments and recommendations, helping to bridge the gap between patients and healthcare providers.
1. What is the primary advantage of AI-powered diagnostic systems in the medical field?| A．They provide additional insights to doctors. |
| B．They replace the need for human radiologists. |
| C．They analyze medical images using deep learning algorithms. |
| D．They focus on detecting visible patterns in medical images. |
| A．The potential for AI algorithms to replace human doctors. |
| B．The reliability of AI algorithms in analyzing medical images. |
| C．The legal responsibility for misdiagnoses made by AI systems. |
| D．The biased data used for training AI algorithms. |
| A．AI could enhance doctors’ expertise and skills. |
| B．AI could lead to job losses in the medical field. |
| C．AI could decrease the quality of patient care. |
| D．AI could replace human doctors completely. |
| A．AI diagnostics could decrease the quality of patient care. |
| B．AI diagnostics could primarily serve regions with sufficient medical professionals. |
| C．AI diagnostics could bridge the gap in healthcare accessibility. |
| D．AI diagnostics could replace the need for skilled radiologists. |
| A．In a classroom. | B．In a hospital. | C．In a restaurant. |
| A．Husband and wife. | B．Nurse and patient. | C．Teacher and student. |
| A．She’s an athlete. | B．She’s a coach. | C．She’s a doctor. |
5 . Malaria (疟疾) has been a deadly problem for humans since ancient times. Usually, people get malaria when infected mosquitoes (被感染的蚊子) bite them. Countless people have died from it. Thankfully, Chinese scientist Tu Youyou found an effective drug called qinghaosu (青蒿素).
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Tu’s discovery. In 1969, Tu became the director of a national project to develop a drug against malaria. Her team took a unique approach (方法). They went back to books about classical Chinese medicine. After reading more than 2,000 old remedies (药方), Tu and her team collected over 600 plants and listed almost 380 possible remedies for malaria.
One remedy (治疗法), which is 1,600 years old, uses the sweet wormwood (青蒿) plant to treat malaria. Tu found it effective and tried to extract (提取) the qinghaosu from it in order to make drugs. The extraction failed at first, so Tu returned to the classical books again and finally found a way. She used a low-temperature method to extract the qinghaosu and succeeded in 1972.
After her team showed that qinghaosu could treat malaria in mice and monkeys, Tu and two of her colleagues (同事) volunteered to test the drug on themselves before testing on human patients. It turned out that qinghaosu was safe. All patients in the tests recovered. Gradually, qinghaosu became the first-line treatment (治疗方案) for malaria recommended (推荐) by the World Health Organization (WHO), saving millions of lives around the world.
In 2015, when Tu was awarded with the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, she refused to take all of the credit (荣誉). Instead, she praised her colleagues and Chinese traditional medicine. She once proudly said: “Every scientist dreams of doing something that can help the world.”
1. When was qinghaosu discovered?| A．In 1969. | B．In 1972. | C．In 2015. | D．More than 1, 600 years ago. |
| A．It is a kind of plant. | B．It is a classical Chinese medicine. |
| C．It is an element (元素) extracted from plants. | D．It is an old Chinese folk remedy. |
| A．Because she used the wrong type of plant. |
| B．Because it was a folk remedy. |
| C．Because the extraction was done at a low temperature. |
| D．Because the temperature of the extraction is not low enough. |
| A．Because people didn’t believe it could treat malaria |
| B．Because they couldn’t find suitable animals to do the tests. |
| C．Because her colleagues were in need of the drug. |
| D．Because they wanted to test the safety of the drug. |
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been passed down for thousands of years.
7 . On January 7, David Bennett went into the operating room at the University of Maryland Medical Center for a surgical procedure never performed before on a human. The 57-year-old Maryland resident had been hospitalized for months due to a life threatening disease. His heart was failing him and he needed a new one.
Bennett’s condition left him unresponsive to treatment and ineligible (不合格) for the transplant list or an artificial heart pump. The physician-scientists at the center, however, had another-also risky- option: transplant (移植) a heart from a genetically-modified pig.
“It was either die or do this transplant,” Bennett had told surgeons a day before the operation. “I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s also my last choice.”
It took the medical team eight hours to finish the operation, making Bennett the first human to successfully receive a pig’s heart. “It’s working and it looks normal. We are thrilled, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring us. This has never been done before,” Barkley Griffith, who led the transplant team, told the New York Times.
While it’s only been five days since the operation, the surgeons say that Bennett’s new pig heart was, so far, functioning as expected and his body wasn’t rejecting (排斥) the organ. They are still monitoring his condition closely.
“I think it’s extremely exciting,” says Robert Montgomery, transplant surgeon and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, who was not involved in Bennett’s operation. The result of the procedure was also personally meaningful for Montgomery, who received a heart transplant in 2018 due to a genetic disease that may also affect members of his family in the future. “It’s still in the early days, but still the heart seems to be functioning. And that in and of itself is an extraordinary thing. Up to now most experimental heart transplant procedures have been done between pigs and other animals. This is the first time that surgeons have taken it into a living human.”
1. What do the words “a shot in the dark” underlined in Paragraph 3 mean?| A．Something that costs a fortune. |
| B．Something impossible to succeed. |
| C．Something drawing public attention. |
| D．Something with an uncertain outcome. |
| A．Negative. |
| B．Cautious. |
| C．Optimistic. |
| D．Uncaring. |
| A．The heated debate over the pig heart transplant. |
| B．David Bennett’s contribution to medical research. |
| C．The first experimental pig heart transplant in the world. |
| D．The first successful pig heart transplant into a living human. |
| A．Political Affairs. |
| B．Global Entertainment. |
| C．Sci-Tech Front. |
| D．Financial Window. |
As the saying goes, “Laughter is the best medicine.” In troubling times, good humour is in need more than ever. Doctors and medical staff are including it in
After a COVID-19 ward opened in Jerusalem, one healthcare clown decided to help patients by
Healthcare clowns are carefully chosen. Professional
Laughter really is the best medicine.
As a Clown Doctor for the Humour Foundation, Lou Pollard has spent the last nine years
The Humor Foundation is a non-profit charity working to deliver the health benefits of humor. The idea for the organization came from a
“It’s all about distracting the unhappy kids, trying to bring them some smiles and laughters and get them back to their
“People do think that we are all doctors,” Pollard says, “we’ve been in hospital emergency departments and people have said all these medical problems to
Dressing as a clown
But Clown Doctors aren’t just for the kids.
“It’s about the family having a laugh together and everyone remembering that they can still be together and have a laugh even though terrible
“It’s
10 . Mankind’s attempts at achieving physical beauty is nothing new (the use of beauty products dates back to ancient Egypt and Rome) but the methods we use to achieve that “perfect look” have certainly evolved. Americans spend billions of dollars each year on a variety of beauty products. Some people will stop at nothing to maintain a youthful appearance. Just how far would you go to achieve that youthful glow?
For brave individuals with common aches and muscle pains, Ada Barak’s northern Israel spa (休闲健身中心) offers a slippery solution. In this $70 procedure, dozens of non-poisonous snakes are laid over the body, causing a variety of sensations. Small snakes, such as the milk snake, brush lightly over the skin; larger ones, such as corn and king snakes, provide deeper pressure to alleviate painful muscles.
Temperature treatment method dates back hundreds of years，and Europeans have long applied the use of “cold saunas” to restore the body and reduce chronic pain. The first spa in North America to offer “cryotherapy” was opened in 2010 by Sparkling Hill Resort in British Colombia, Canada. For $45, clients can participate in an icy 3-minute introductory session in which they expose themselves (under close supervision (监管)) to a-110℃ (-166°F) temperature room. Frozen stiff or re-energized? You’ll have to see for yourself.
When a pumice stone (浮石) isn’t enough, some people turn to fish to soften their heels. “Fish pedicures” are popular in Europe and Asia, and run between $40 and $100. The practice is slowly popping up in American salons—though some states have cited hygienic (清洁) issues and banned the treatment. Prior to a traditional pedicure, clients soak their feet in a pool with over 100 garra rufa fish (from the family Cypriniformes), which eat away dead skin to leave feet soft and refreshed.
1. What does the underlined word “alleviate” in para. 2 mean?| A．Assist. | B．Relieve. | C．Refresh. | D．Advance. |
| A．It lasts no more than 3 minutes. | B．It watches over clients’ safety. |
| C．It happens in a very warm room. | D．It aims to deal with chronic pain. |
| A．It costs between $40 and $100. |
| B．It is popular in Europe and Asia. |
| C．People can use it to clear themselves of dirt. |
| D．People have begun to complain about its issues. |
| A．The history of beauty products. | B．The potential of beauty industry. |
| C．Some funny ways of beauty treatment. | D．Some reasons to achieve “perfect look”. |
