1 . Horseback riding might not seem like a typical New York City activity, but one program has several horse farms throughout the city’s busy districts. GallopNYC provides lessons to veterans(老兵) and people with disabilities — horseback riding is their therapy(疗法).

Olivia Diver visits the GallopNYC location in the Howard Beach neighborhood in Queens. Diver has only been riding horses for a few months, but says she’s already felt the benefits. “It helped me come out of my comfort zone and be less shy and less in my shell,” she said. Trying something new shows her she can accomplish other things as well.

James Wilson,executive director at GallopNYC, says there are many ways horses can be therapeutic. “The horse sees the world in the way somebody with post-traumatic stress disor-der (PTSD) might see the world, in a really guarded, sort of anxious way,” he explained. “So,somebody with PTSD and a horse can sort of partner together and see the world in the same way and kind of take care of each other.” Horses can also help with physical disabilities. After two years of therapeutic riding, a teenager, who had so little core strength that his mother had to be in the bathtub with him, had enough core strength that he could be in the shower by himself. Wilson said, “The movement of the horse will loosen up muscles that might be really tight. And the movement helps stimulate other body parts and other muscles that you might not use. ”

“CallopNYC has about 1,000 people on is waitlist for lessons, but prioritizes people with disabilities and veterans. We believe that everybody benefits from the time on a horse, so if you want to ride a horse, come on, let’s go,” Wilson said. Lessons are $55, but the non-profit fundraises to help cover or lower the cost for customers who may need support.

2 . A study led by Plana-Ripoll, a doctor at Aarhus University in Denmark, tries to deal with a fundamental question that has bothered researchers for more than a century—what exactly causes mental illness?

In the hope of finding the answer, scientists have piled up a large amount of data over the past decade, through studies of genes and brain activity. They have found that many of the same genes underlie seemingly distinct disorders and that changes in the brain’s decision-making systems could be involved in many conditions.

The researchers are also rethinking theories of how our brains go wrong. The idea that mental illness can be classified into distinct, separate categories like “anxiety” has been disproved to a large extent. Instead, recently they’ve found that disorders shade into each other, and there are no hard dividing lines.

The researchers are trying to understand the biology that underlies mental illness. They have a few theories. Perhaps there are several dimensions of mental illness, so depending on how a person scores on each dimension, they might be more likely to have some disorders than others. An alternative idea is that there is a single factor that makes people easier to suffer from mental illness in general. What disorder they develop is then determined by other factors. Both ideas are being taken seriously though the former one is more widely accepted by the researchers.

The details are still unclear, but most researchers agree that one thing is specific: The old system of categorizing mental disorders into neat boxes does not work. They are also hopeful that, in the long run, replacing this framework with one that is grounded in biology will lead to new drugs and treatments. The researchers aim to reveal, for instance, the key genes, brain regions and neurological processes involved in psychopathology(精神病理学), and target them with treatments. Although it might take a while to get there, they are long-term optimistic if the field really does its work.

7 . Elderly people have a higher chance of suffering from illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. One common health problem that affects them is Alzheimer’s disease, which affects a person’s memory, behavior, and thinking. Because of memory loss and behavioral changes, people with Alzheimer’s may slowly become unable to take care of themselves, eventually requiring constant care from family members or caregivers.

There is no cure for Alzheimer’s at the moment—drugs can only treat its symptoms.

But technology can improve the lives of those living with the condition by making it easier for them to go about their daily activities. For example, tracking devices placed in watches or jewelry can monitor where a person is. Automated reminders can also be stored in motion sensors and placed around the house. When a sensor detects movement, it can play a recorded voice message to remind the person to lock the door or turn off the stove.

Alzheimer’s disease is a huge challenge, but we may be getting close to finding a solution. In the future, it might be possible to treat Alzheimer’s without using drugs. A team of researchers in Australia has created a form of technology that can send sound waves into the brain. These sound waves help to clear waste in the brain that contributes to Alzheimer’s. The team has tested their technology and found that it helped to restore memory in 75 percent of mice. Work on the technology isn’t complete, but, if successful, it could prevent memory loss in people with Alzheimer’s. This really does fundamentally change the understanding of how to treat this disease and researchers foresee a great future for this approach.

9 . A few months ago, I was down with a terrible cold which ended in a cough that was hard to get rid of. No matter how many different medicines I tried, I_________couldn’t get rid of the cough. Not only did it_________my teaching but also my life as a whole.

Then one day after class, a student came up to me and_________ traditional Chinese medicine. From description Chinese medicine sounded as if it had magic power that_________. I was_________   because I knew so little about it and have never tried it before. _________ my cough got so much worse that I couldn’t sleep at night, so I decided to give it a_________.The Chinese doctor took my pulse and asked to see my tongue, both of which were’ new experience to me because they are both_________ in Western medicine, where diagnosis relies heavily on_________. Then the doctor gave me a scraping (刮) treatment known as “Gua Sha”. I was a little __________ at first because he used a smooth edged tool to scrape the skin on my neck and shoulders.

A few minutes later, the treatment started to produce a__________effect and my body and mind began to sink deeper into__________. I didn’t feel any improvement in my__________in the first couple of days, but after a few more regular visits to the doctor, my cough started to __________. Then within a matter of weeks, it was completely__________ !

10 . More than half of the world’s population will be overweight or obese by 2035 without significant action, according to a new report.     1    

Rates of obesity are rising particularly quickly among children and in lower income countries, the report found. Louise Baur, president of the World Obesity Federation, said that policymakers needed to act now to prevent the situation worsening.    2    “Governments and policymakers around the world need to do all they can to avoid passing health, social and economic costs on to the younger generation.”

The report found that childhood obesity could more than double from 2020 levels, to 208 million boys and 175 million girls by 2035. The cost to society is significant as a result of the health conditions linked to being overweight.    3    However, the authors said they were not blaming individuals, but calling for a focus on the societal, environmental and biological factors involved in the conditions.

    4    It is a number calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in meters squared. In line with the World Health Organization’s guidelines, a BMI score over 25 is overweight and over 30 is obese.     5    The report also found that almost all of the countries expected to see the greatest increases in obesity in the coming years.