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. |
| A．He was sick. | B．He had a health examination. | C．He had an operation. |
3 . 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
The surgery
Miss Edwards is unhappy
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
| A．Have an examination. | B．Have an operation. | C．Take some medicine. |
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. Where are the speakers?
| A．At the doctor's. | B．At the school. | C．At the bank. |
| A．In the morning. | B．At noon. | C．In the afternoon. |
10 . The Australian sand octopus (章鱼) was discovered in 1990 and is the only octopus species known to bury itself deep in the sand to hide from enemies. A team of researchers are studying the venom (毒液) of this kind of octopus. They have discovered that the venom may greatly slow cancer growth. And it can also help fight drug resistance in patients with a BRAF-changed skin cancer. BRAF is involved in managing cell growth. A change in it results in abnormal cell growth. These BRAF changes are seen in half of all cases of skin cancers.
“We and other groups have previously discovered that other animals-snakes, spiders, bees-have anticancer properties,” said Dr. Maria, the study’s lead author. “However, in my current knowledge, the anticancer properties of an octopus species have never been studied or confirmed before.”
Current treatments face a few challenges including low response rates, poisoning and side effects, as well as drug resistance. The octopus venom slows the growth of BRAF-changed skin cancer. More importantly, it is safe to be used in large quantities — it is not poisonous. Therefore, in combination with other drugs, the treatments could potentially achieve better and safer patient outcomes.
It is very unlikely that the octopus has specifically developed its venom to contain an anticancer substance. According to the researching team, the octopus venom contains over 1,000 unique substances with several functions such as reducing pain and anticancer.
“In this study, we have shown that the octopus venom specifically targets BRAF-changed skin cancer. The next step is to examine whether similar promising results are applicable for other BRAF-changed cancers.” said Dr. Maria. “Before it can be used on patients, the team will need to perform several rounds of lab testing and clinical trials to understand how it works and its full potential as a drug against skin cancer.”
1. What can we know about BRAF?| A．It is a change in cells. | B．It controls cell growth. |
| C．It can cause a deadly illness. | D．It helps to cure a skin cancer. |
| A．A medicine to cure cancers. | B．A substance contained in animals. |
| C．The medical value of octopus species. | D．The anticancer effect of an octopus venom. |
| A．It is of large quantity. | B．It has no side effects. |
| C．It is less expensive. | D．It has lower risks. |
| A．Its application requires further work. |
| B．It helps treat BRAF-changed cancers. |
| C．Its safety needs more clinical testings. |
| D．It has already been put into wide use. |
