1 . Wu Ming, a young German born after 1995, is a big fan of Chinese culture. As he thought some diseases can’t be treated _______ with Western medicine, he decided to _______traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In 2015, Wu came to Henan province, where a strong TCM culture can be _______. After a year of learning, he _______ the language barrier and started to learn Chinese medicine. Wu always _______ some Chinese herbal medicine by himself to know their flavours and effects, just like Shen Nong, a character in Chinese legend. In Wu’s opinion, TCM is one of the best-preserved _______ of Chinese culture.

Studying TCM also _______ Wu’s mind and lifestyle. He used to be _______ to electronic devices, playing video games every night. Instead of being trapped in the fast-paced but unhealthy daily _______, he now lives a(n) ________ and peaceful life, practicing good habits like drinking tea and reading.

Wu ________ what he has learned to help his family. He always provides his family members with some advice about staying fit after ________ their skin or tongues online. Over time, his family gradually began to understand his ________ for TCM.

Wu thinks there’s no big difference between China and Western countries. “________ comes from being out of touch”, said Wu. He plans to run a traditional Chinese clinic in Germany, which could serve as a(n) ________ between the two countries and publicize TCM and its culture.

3 . Combining knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering, scientists from McGill University develop a biomaterial tough enough to repair the heart, muscles, and vocal cords, representing a major advance in medicine.

“People recovering from heart damage often face a long and tricky journey. Healing is challenging because of the constant movement tissues must withstand (承受) as the heart beats. The same is true for vocal cords. Until now there was no injectable (可注射的) material strong enough for the job," says Guangyu Bao, a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University.

The team, led by Professor Luc Mongeau and Assistant Professor Jianyu Li, developed a new injectable hydrogel (水凝胶) for wound repair, which is a type of biomaterial that provides room for cells to live and grow. Once injected into the body, the biomaterial forms a stable structure allowing live cells to grow or pass through to repair the injured organs.

“The results are promising, and we hope that one day the new hydrogel will be used to restore the voice of people with damaged vocal cords," says Guangyu Bao.

The scientists tested the durability of their hydrogel in a machine they developed to copy the extreme biomechanics of human vocal cords. Vibrating (振动) at 120 times a second for over 6 million cycles, the new biomaterial remained undamaged while other standard hydrogels broken into pieces, unable to deal with the stress of the load.

“We were incredibly excited to see it worked perfectly in our test. Before our work, no injectable hydrogels possessed both high porosity and toughness at the same time. To solve this issue, we introduced a pore-forming polymer to our formula (配方),”says Guangyu Bao.

The innovation opens new ways of making progress for other applications like tissue engineering. The team is also looking to use the hydrogel technology to create lungs to test COVID-19 drugs.

4 . With the weather getting colder and the days becoming shorter, some people are noticing they have less energy and aren’t feeling as positive as they usually do.    1    This type of depression is known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Researchers aren’t yet clear on what causes SAD, but it's likely to be complex. Some research suggests it could be due to a malfunctioning hypothalamus (下丘脑功能不全) or producing too much melatonin (a hormone which controls our sleep-wake cycle). Some researchers theorize it could also be due to having a disrupted circadian rhythm(昼夜节奏混乱).    2    For example, some research has indicated that women may be more likely to experience SAD — though, due to a lack of specific research, it’s uncertain whether these gender differences really exist and if so, why.

Some people notice that their symptoms start to improve when the seasons begin to change and spring approaches.    3    For people with SAD, the main recommended treatments include psychological treatments or taking medicine. Research shows that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for SAD.    4    Given it's still an emerging therapy, research on it remains inconsistent with other treatments.

Aside from seeking professional help, there are a couple of other things that people can do to help them cope with SAD during their day.     5    The researchers of the study had participants either go for a daily one-hour outdoor walk or use a low-dose artificial light box for 30 minutes per day for a period of one week. The participants who went for a daily walk showed significant improvements in all depressive symptoms, compared to those exposed to artificial light.

Sometimes, people live with pain from different diseases. Amanda Greene says her pain comes from a disease     1     hits her badly. She tried taking medicine, but she suffered an allergic(过敏的) reaction     2     a strong pain killer, opioids. Now Amanda Greene is trying something different. It     3     (call) “virtual reality” treatment. For Greene, her virtual experience helped her feel more     4    (relax) and trained her to breathe in a special way. She saw a tree as she was told how to breathe in and out, and her pain was     5     (great) reduced with this.

Doctor Spiegel says these patients’ disorders are sometimes connected to mental health. VR can help, he explains, by changing     6     messages in the brain and nervous system to reduce pain.

Opioid abuse (镇定剂上瘾)has led to many     7    (death) across the United States. But, unlike opioids, Spiegel does not think that patients     8    (seek) pain relief would become physically     9     (depend) on VR treatment. Now, more than 100 hospitals nationwide     10     (use) VR and helping patients control pain and nervousness, and more countries are taking an interest in VR.

7 . It’s been well over a year since COVID-19 first appeared. Although the virus continues to be a problem in many parts of the world, things are starting to turn back in our favor with the help of vaccines(疫苗).

Vaccine development started in February 2020, when it became clear to scientists that a solution to the pandemic would need a global effort to vaccinate as many people as possible. The CO—VAX（COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access）mechanism was then created to ensure equal access to safe and effective vaccines for all countries and regions, according to Business World.

Of course，this would take great effort，since vaccines typically take years to develop. However，COVID—19 needed faster development. The first COVID vaccine—the Pfizer vaccine—was approved by UK health authorities on Dec 2, 2020, according to science journal Nature.

This was made possible through the use of mRNA (信使核糖核酸). Vaccines developed with mRNA use the virus' spike protein (棘突蛋白) to create antibodies (抗体) that can fight the virus. Companies like Moderna and Pfizer have created their own mRNA vaccines, according to the BBC.

However，these vaccines must be stored at very low temperatures, which is not possible everywhere. In response, Chinese companies like Sinopharm and Sinovac have developed vaccines using dead viruses instead of spike proteins. These vaccines can be kept at regular temperatures.

Although there have been rumors about vaccines being unsafe, the majority of people seem to realize the importance of vaccination for building mass immunity in order to stop the virus from spreading.

Zhang Wenhong，China’s leading expert on infectious diseases，said it’s good that the world has come to understand that the vaccines will protect us, according to Global Times. Zhang added that human beings belong to one family. Vaccines are a kind of medicine that we all must share in order to stay safe and healthy.

American College of Physicians 'stepped out of its lane" by placing gun control in medical education. Stanley Gold-farb, formerly the associate dean of curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, argued that teaching social justice issues and population health comes "at the expense of strict training in medical science" at a time when sub-specialists are in short supply. But many physicians, ourselves included, think social issues should be at the heart of medical education.

Formal medical school typically takes four years, followed by several years of residency（住院医生实习期）and often a fellowship（研究员职位）, and during that short time students have a wide range of competing requirements. They must learn complex biological and chemical pathways that explain diseases and health. They must be educated on how to read the the scientific literature and apply it to their patients. They must master many therapies and know how to adapt them to patients' varied diseases states. On top of all this, they must learn to communicate effectively and compassionately with patients and colleagues.

Being a good doctor also demands that we understand the reasons behind poor health. Our mission is not simply to diagnose, manage and treat. Physicians should act to prevent the root causes of illness and improve well-being. Physicians are trained to tackle problems at their root. System and structural-level social issues are also drivers of poor health, and it is our duty to address them. Medical training must evolve to produce doctors who are able to not only treat the individual but also understand the larger influencers of health -- of which gun violence is most emphatically one. As medical professors, we would fail our students -- and our patients - if we expected any less.

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