A.Take him to hospital. |
B.Go to a class with him. |
C.Submit a report for him. |
In a study of 33 years of trends in Body Mass Index (体重指数) across 200 countries, the scientists found that people worldwide are getting heavier
BMI is an internationally recognized measurement tool
The study found that between 1985 and 2017, average rural BMI increased
This may be due to some disadvantages for people
A.At a canteen. | B.At a clinic. | C.At a bank. |
A.The teacher’s office. | B.The hospital. | C.The gym. |
1. Who accompanied the woman to the hospital?
A.The man. | B.Her sister. | C.Her mother. |
A.Dust. | B.Seafood. | C.Mangoes. |
6 . A growing body of research suggests that the gut microbiome (消化道菌群) could play a major role in a rising chronic disease that makes us physically weaker. The illness, which is commonly called chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), is characterized by intense fatigue, gastrointestinal (胃肠道的) issues, muscle pain, and cognitive challenges such as headaches and difficulty concentrating, among other symptoms. It often follows a viral infection which can lead to a “disruption” in a balanced gut ecosystem. Actually, an increasing number of Americans have been the sufferers since the outbreak of COVID-19.
Two recent studies published in Cell Host &Microbe point to changes in the microbiome as a possible cause of CFS. Research groups at Columbia University and the Jackson Laboratory performed detailed analyses of the microbes in stool (粪便) samples from patients with CFS and compared them to healthy controls.
The two groups found similar bacteria species were less present in CFS patients compared to control patients. They focused on bacteria that produce butyrate, a fatty acid involved in regulating metabolism and the immune system. “Butyrate plays several roles in directing the body’s response to infections, while also protecting the barrier between the intestine (肠) and the circulatory system, regulating genetic changes in cells, and more,” says Brent Williams, lead author on the Columbia study. Williams and his colleagues extensively analyzed the role of butyrate in CFS patients’ guts, even identifying a correlation between low levels of bacteria that produce this acid and more severe symptoms.
Parallel findings from the Jackson Laboratory team suggest the bacteria that produce butyrate could be used to diagnose CFS. Previous research has identified microbiome issues in CFS patients, but the new findings help clarify which microbes could be related to the illness.
More research on butyrate-producing bacteria and other species identified in the studies is necessary to investigate these potential biomarkers of CFS, the authors say. If the findings are replicated, specific gut bacteria could be used to diagnose the illness, which is currently identified based on symptoms alone.
The findings additionally point toward possible treatments, such as probiotics or microbiome-focused diet adjustments—though patients who have been sick for long periods may require drugs that alleviate the damage done to their metabolism or immune system.
1. What do we know about CFS?A.It is caused by COVID-19 only. | B.It is an illness with systemic symptoms. |
C.It breaks the balance of the gut ecosystem. | D.The number of the infected is on the decrease. |
A.By controlling data. | B.By identifying genes. |
C.By analyzing samples. | D.By comparing symptoms. |
A.Butyrate’s multiple functions are promoted. |
B.Targeted gut microbes may be used to diagnose CFS. |
C.Certain microbes responsible for CFS are narrowed down. |
D.Probiotics supplement with drugs can be a treatment for CFS. |
A.Gut microbiome may be the key to CFS. | B.Microbes help digest food and aid absorption. |
C.Man’s gut is a rich, diverse tropical rainforest. | D.New method for diagnosing CFS are provided. |
7 . Could a new treatment developed by the US company Lilly mean “the beginning of the end” of Alzheimer’s? Could we even cure it some day? These are headlines and questions swirling (流传) around after news of a new drug, called donanemab, showed promising results in phase-3 trials.
The brain science behind Alzheimer’s is complex, but CT and MRJ scans suggest that poisonous changes occur in the brain, including the abnormal build-up of proteins called amyloid plaques and tau tangles. The damage starts in the parts of the brain essential for forming memories but then spreads throughout the organ, with brain tissue shrinking significantly.
Developing treatments for Alzheimer’s has been a challenge, with almost 20 years passing with no new drugs. But in the last year, two new ones have emerged: donanemab and lecanemab. Neither are cures or magic bullets for the disease, but they do address key symptoms. They target the amyloid proteins that can accumulate in the brain and damage neurons, slowing down its progression.
While this news is exciting, there are major caveats. One is whether it will ever become available on the NHS. The cost is estimated to be about £20,000 per person per year of treatment.
Another is the serious side effects: in the study, brain swelling occurred in 24% of participants and brain bleeding occurred in 31.4% on the drug compared with 13.6% in the placebo (安慰剂) group. There were also three deaths during the trial.
Part of the problem for me, as an academic, in assessing the drug is that the full results of the trial haven’t yet been shared publicly or published in a peer-review journal. We cannot access the full data or examine the trial yet, and there is always a motivation for private companies to overstate the effectiveness of new drugs. Trial results need to be assessed by an independent body of experts.
While it is unlikely to change clinical practice until at least 2025, the news of donanemab is again an indication that science is continuing to make progress when it comes to treating the major causes of illness and death, even one related to the highly complex inner workings of the brain, So, there are caveats and the need for caution, but these new drugs are indeed the grounds for that rare thing these days: hope.
1. What can we learn about Alzheimer’s from the passage?A.There exists a new drug to cure it completely. |
B.Most people will develop Alzheimer’s when they are old. |
C.It is caused by the accumulation of some proteins in the brain. |
D.It results from the loss of memories as people get older. |
A.Warnings. | B.Discussions. | C.Debates. | D.Weaknesses. |
A.It has serious side effects such as brain bleeding and deaths. |
B.The effectiveness may be blown up without fair assessment. |
C.The cost of the new drug is out of reach for ordinary people. |
D.There is no possibility for new drugs to be admitted into the NHS. |
A.Approving. | B.Doubtful. | C.Unclear. | D.Indifferent. |
8 . Fear is one of our strongest emotions. However, people with phobias(恐惧)have an extreme fear response that causes both physical and psychological pain. In everyday life, some phobia triggers(诱因)are much easier to avoid than others. For instance, people who suffer from a fear of bats are highly unlikely to be troubled by these creatures every day.
The good news is that there are a variety of different methods used to treat phobias. Among the most popular are cognitive behavioral therapy(疗法), exposure therapy, and virtual reality therapy.
*Cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT)
*Exposure therapy
The aim of exposure therapy is to gradually desensitize(使脱敏)the patients to the source of their phobia.
*Virtual Reality therapy
Exposure therapy isn’t a usable option for all phobias.
A.Luckily, modern technology offers an alternative. |
B.The patient ranks situations from least to most terrifying. |
C.Instead, our brains can be retrained to overcome a phobia. |
D.The aim of CBT is to change how we think about certain situations. |
E.Someone suffering from a social phobia, however, will struggle to lead a normal life. |
F.This enables patients to face their phobias, while knowing they are in no physical danger. |
G.CBT is as effective as medication in treating many anxiety disorders. |
9 . Pretending sickness may get harder. Slipping a day off work by nervously coughing down the phone to your boss might not work. Very soon your company might be able to tell whether your symptoms are real, just from your voice.
An Indian research team tried to tell a “cold voice” from a healthy voice. Their research makes use of the fact that human speech, like any musical instrument, does not produce single frequencies of sounds. Even the best trained singers cannot hit pure notes like those from tuning forks. The dominant notes in the human voice are instead accompanied by a series of higher pitch (音高) tones.
Together these sets of notes fit into mathematical patterns called harmonics (和声), with tones having frequencies that are multiples of the original note. For example, the pitch of the second harmonic note is twice the frequency of the main note and so on. The loudness of these harmonics in speech tends to fade as they proceed up the frequency scale. The team reasoned that infection with a cold might change how this decline happened.
To find out, the scientists made use of an unusual resource: recordings of the voices of 630 people in Germany, 111 of whom were suffering from a cold. Each was asked to count from one to 40 and describe what they did at the weekend. They also read aloud a fable The North Wind and the Sun, which has been a popular text for speech research since 1949. By breaking down each person’s speech into its spectrum (声谱) of component wavelengths, the researchers could identify the dominant frequency and the harmonics in each case. They then used machine-learning to analyse the relationships between the loudness of these harmonics and found patterns that could distinguish the cold voices from the healthy voices.
The team’s diagnosis of cold voice shows a 70% accuracy. Faced with another dull Monday at the office, would you take the risk?
1. On what basis is the research performed?A.Human speeches vary in frequencies. |
B.Training has no effect on human notes. |
C.Humans speak like musical instruments. |
D.Higher pitch notes dominate human voices. |
A.The pitch of harmonics. | B.A pretended cold voice. |
C.The sets of human notes. | D.Higher sound frequencies. |
A.It is easy to understand. | B.It is valuable in literature. |
C.It is popular with speakers. | D.It is suitable for the research. |
A.Human speech reflects health | B.Pretending sickness is a trend. |
C.Voice changes with conditions. | D.Changing voice is of great risk. |
10 . To a chef, the sounds of lip smacking, slurping and swallowing are the highest form of flattery (恭维). But to someone with a certain type of misophonia (恐音症), these same sounds can be torturous. Brain scans are now helping scientists start to understand why.
People with misophonia experience strong discomfort, annoyance or disgust when they hear particular triggers. These can include chewing, swallowing, slurping, throat clearing, coughing and even audible breathing. Researchers previously thought this reaction might be caused by the brain overactively processing certain sounds. Now, however, a new study published in Journal of Neuroscience has linked some forms of misophonia to heightened “mirroring” behavior in the brain: those affected feel distress while their brains act as if they were imitating the triggering mouth movements.
“This is the first breakthrough in misophonia research in 25 years,” says psychologist Jennifer J. Brout, who directs the International Misophonia Research Network and was not involved in the new study.
The research team, led by Neweastle University neuroscientist Sukhbinder Kumar, analyzed brain activity in people with and without misophonia when they were at rest and while they listened to sounds. These included misophonia triggers (such as chewing), generally unpleasant sounds (like a crying baby), and neutral sounds. The brain’s auditory (听觉的) cortex, which processes sound, reacted similarly in subjects with and without misophonia. But in both the resting state and listening trials, people with misophonia showed stronger connections between the auditory cortex and brain regions that control movements of the face, mouth and throat, while the controlled group didn’t. Kumar found this connection became most active in participants with misophonia when they heard triggers specific to the condition.
“Just by listening to the sound, they activate the motor cortex more strongly. So in a way it was as if they were doing the action themselves,” Kumar says. Some mirroring is typical in most humans when witnessing others’ actions; the researchers do not yet know why an excessive(过分的) mirroring response might cause such a negative reaction, and hope to address that in future research. “Possibilities include a sense of loss of control, invasion of personal space, or interference with current goals and actions,” the study authors write.
Fatima Husain, an Illinois University professor of speech and hearing science, who was not involved in the study, says potential misophonia therapies could build on the new findings by counseling patients about handling unconscious motor responses to triggering sounds—not just coping with the sounds themselves. If this works, she adds, one should expect to see reduced connected activity between the auditory and motor cortices.
1. It can be learnt from the new study that ______.A.misophonia sufferers can’t help imitating the triggers |
B.people with misophonia are more likely to flatter chefs |
C.the brains of people with misophonia overreact to sounds strongly |
D.misophonia sufferers tend to have similar annoying activities in their brains |
A.suffer less severely at the resting state | B.own markedly different brain structures |
C.react more negatively at a mirroring response | D.lose control of their facial movements easily |
A.Improving speech and hearing science. | B.Developing a treatment for misophonia. |
C.Drawing people’s attention to misophonia. | D.Promoting human brain structure research. |