5 . China is one of the first countries to breed a medical culture. In comparison with Western methods, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) adopt a vastly different approach. For thousands of years, Chinese people have accumulated rich experience in fighting all sorts of diseases, therefore forming a unique medical theory under the guidance of ancient Chinese philosophies.

The core behind TCM is that the human body’s life is the consequence of the balance between yin and yang. Yang functions to safeguard us against outer harm, and yin is the inner base to store and provide energy. When the balance between the two aspects is disturbed, people fall ill.

One of the traditional techniques of TCM, acupuncture (针刺疗法), means insertion (插入) of needles into superficial (表皮的) structures of the body—usually at acupoints (穴位)—to restore the yin-yang balance. It is often accompanied by moxibustion (灸法), which involves burning the mugwort (艾叶) on or near the skin at an acupoint.

The first known text that clearly talks about something like acupuncture and moxibustion as it is practiced today is Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon. It is the earliest and most important written work of TCM and is considered the most representative medical text in China.

Acupuncture and moxibustion have aroused the interest of international medical science circles. And TCM is gradually gaining worldwide recognition. The WHO issued a document in 2002 that appealed to more than 180 countries to adopt TCM as an alternative in their medical policies. In 2010, acupuncture and moxibustion of traditional Chinese medicine were added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO. Presently, TCM has been back in the news for its effectiveness in improving the cure rate of the COVID-19 since its outbreak in January 2020.

When the action movie Wolf Warrior II broke China’ s box-office records in 2017, a less prominent (突出的) figure unexpectedly left a strong impression     1     the audience—a military scientist     2     (call) Dr. Chen who developed a vaccine for a deadly virus spreading across Africa.

Two years ago, a real military scientist Dr. Chen Wei     3     (send) from China to Africa to fight against the deadly Ebola. The only difference between the two figures is     4     the real Dr. Chen is “she”.

When SARS broke out in China in 2003, Dr. Chen and her team isolated (隔离) the virus and identified (确认) the cause of the disease without delay.     5     (lucky), the efforts devoted by them had prevented about 14,000 front-line medical workers from     6     (get) infected.

After SARS, the forward-looking woman shifted her attention to Ebola which claimed (夺去生命) over 10,000     7     (life) worldwide. In 2015, she and her team went to Sierra Leone and started their second phase of clinical experiments (临床实验). After countless trials and errors, her vaccine has proven safe and     8     (effect), and been widely administered (供给) to staff assigned to help people in Africa.

From SARS and Ebola to COVID-19, Dr. Chen has spent half of her life fighting against life-threatening viruses.“ We do not have any other choices but     9     (win),” she said. And she made     10    .

7 . Doctors in hospital emergency rooms often see accidental poisonings. A frightened parent arrives with a child who swallowed a cleaning liquid. Or perhaps the harmful substance is a medicine. Or it might be a chemical product meant to kill insects. These are common causes of accidental poisoning.

In cases like this, seek medical help as soon as possible. Save the container of whatever caused the poisoning. And look on the container for information about anything that stops the effects of the poison. Save anything expelled from the mouth of the victim. That way, doctors can examine it.

Millions of people know a way to save a person who is choking on something trapped in the throat. The method is commonly known as the Heimlich Maneuver or abdominal thrusts(腹部按压), which you can do by getting directly behind a sitting or standing person. Put your arms around the victim’s waist. Close one hand to form a ball. Place it over the upper part of the stomach, below the ribs. Place the other hand on top. Then push forcefully inward and upward. Repeat the abdominal thrusts until the object is expelled from the mouth. For someone who is pregnant or very fat, place your hands a little higher than with normal abdominal thrusts.

Red Cross experts say taking these steps can save many lives. But they also warn that abdominal thrusts are not for people who have almost drowned. They say use of the method could delay other ways to re-start breathing in the victim. Abdominal thrusts should be used only in cases where a near-drowning victim is choking on an object.

To learn more about first aid, ask a hospital or organization like a Red Cross or Red Crescent Society for information. There may be training classes offered in your area.

8 . As they reach school age, about 90 percent of children will have experienced a condition in which fluid (液体) fills the middle ear, muffling (使模糊) sound and sometimes causing infection. The fluid usually clears on its own, but if not, it can lead to a painful ear infection called acute otitis (中耳炎) media. In some cases the fluid can persist for more than a year, causing hearing loss during this period, and slowing down their development of language and social skills.

Diagnosis usually requires a visit to a specialist—but researchers have now developed an app that detects this fluid just as accurately, with only a smartphone and a paper funnel (漏斗).

Doctors typically detect the problem by peering into the ear for a visual assessment. Yet, this method has only a 50 percent accuracy rate. “Right now, if you bring your child to a pediatrician, or to any urgent care family doctor, the way they look at whether or not there’s fluid in the middle ear is by looking at the eardrum,” says Sharat Raju, a surgeon in the department of head and neck surgery at the University of Washington.

For a cheaper and more accessible alternative, researchers at the University of Washington turned to smartphones. First the user follows a template to cut and tape a piece of paper into a funnel, which can be placed between a smartphone and the patient’s ear. Next the app plays a chirping sound through the phone’s speaker; the sound waves bounce off the eardrum and hit the phone’s microphone, where they register and are analyzed by the app. An eardrum with fluid behind it will vibrate (振动) differently than if the middle ear is full of air, as it normally is.

To develop the app, the researchers first played chirps for patients with and without fluid in their ears. They recorded the echoes (回音), which indicate the eardrum’s mobility. Then they used a machine learning model to classify the returning sound waves, determining which audio characteristics indicated a normal ear and which suggested the presence of fluid. Once they tested the app on 98 children, ranging from 18 months to 17 years old, at Seattle Children’s Hospital. It correctly detected fluid in 85 percent of cases, and correctly identified fluid-free ears in 82 percent.

The researchers are currently trying to get FDA approval for the app, and have founded a company to commercialize it. They hope to make it available by the end of the year, to help parents track children’s ear health at home.

9 . It has been around for centuries, but up until very recently, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) wasn’t fully accepted abroad. Proof of this can be found in The Treatment (《刮痧》), a 2001 film that tells the story of a Chinese man in the US who’s accused of abuse after he uses guasha, a form of TCM treatment, to cure his grandson’s disease.

During the last 10 years or so, however, TCM has been getting increasingly popular all over the world. A report released by the State Council Information Office on Dec. 6 says this style of health care, which includes different forms like herbal medicine and exercise, has spread to 183 countries and regions.

“We have set up 10 TCM centers outside China, and all of them are popular among locals,” Wang Guoqiang, head of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said at a news conference on Dec 6. “Governments of 86 countries and regions have signed agreements with the Chinese government on TCM corporation.”

One of the reasons behind the growing popularity of TCM is the increase of scientific research into it. And after Tu Youyou, the Chinese scientist who discovered the anti-malaria (抗疟疾) drug qinghaosu (青蒿素), won the Nobel Prize in 2015, TCM became even more famous internationally.

However, all these achievements in TCM don’t mean that it’s problem-free. Over the years, TCM has faced challenges in being able to prove that it has certain effects.

Some researchers have suggested TCM should be more exact and work together with Western medicine.

“Bringing together with Western medicine and TCM, rather than being in competition, is where the potential for great effects is,” said Bernhard Schwartlander, the China representative of the World Health Organization.

No one would much like the idea of eating 61 pounds of tomatoes a day. But if their goodness was put into an easy­-to­-swallow pill that you were told might prevent strokes (中风) and heart attacks you would probably be putting in an order tomorrow.

Researchers believe they may have come up with just that after trials. The daily pill contains a chemical called lycopene which makes tomatoes red and is known to break down fat in the vessels (血管). A Cambridge University study found taking the pills improved blood flow and the lining of vessels in patients with pre­existing heart conditions. It also increased the flexibility (灵活性) of their vessels by 50 percent. The scientists believe it could limit the damage caused by heart disease—responsible for 180,000 deaths a year—and help cut the 49,000 deaths a year from strokes. They also hope it could benefit those with arthritis (关节炎), diabetes (糖尿病) and even slow the progress of cancer.

Each pill is equal to eating around 61 pounds of ripe tomatoes. Studies have shown eating a Mediterranean­style diet rich in tomatoes, fish, vegetables, nuts and olive oil can significantly reduce cholesterol (胆固醇) and help prevent cardiovascular disease.

Preliminary results from a two­month trial, in which the pill was given to 36 heart disease patients and 36 healthy volunteers with an average age of 67, were presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association. It was shown to improve the function of the endothelium—the layer of cells lining blood vessels. It also improved their sensitivity to nitric oxide, the gas which causes the enlargement of the vessels in response to exercise.

Ian Wilkinson, head of Cambridge University’s clinical trials unit, said, “These results are potentially very significant and it meets the goal, but we need more trials to see if they translate into fewer heart attacks and strokes.”

Further studies are planned, with researchers hoping it could offer a choice for heart disease sufferers who can not take the cholesterol­lowing drugs.

Mike Knapton, head of the British Heart Foundation, said, “Although this showed lycopene improved blood flow in people with heart disease, that's a long way from demonstrating that taking it could improve outcomes for people with heart disease. The best way to get the benefits of a good diet is to eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.”