1 . While many people aren’t getting enough calcium (钙), new research cautions that some people may have the opposite problem: They could be getting too much. Americans spend more than $1 billion a year on calcium supplements (补充剂) in hopes of delaying osteoporosis, the brittle bone disease that cripples many elderly women and some men. Yet recent studies link calcium supplements to a higher risk of heart attacks. Last month, the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force issued a draft recommendation against taking calcium and vitamin D, saying there wasn’t enough evidence of benefit to justify the risk.
For generations of Americans who grew up encouraged to drink milk to maintain strong bones, the reports raised troubling questions: Is calcium not so important after all? Are the supplements unsafe? And how much is too much? “It’s gotten very confusing but it doesn’t need to be,” says Ethel Siris, director of the Toni Stabile Osteoporosis Center in New York. How much calcium people need varies by age and gender. “Adults generally need 1,000 mg daily, rising to 1,200 mg for women over 50 and men over 70, according to guidelines issued in 2010. Children need 1,300 mg daily during the peak growing years of 9 to 18. ”
People also need sufficient levels of vitamin D to absorb the calcium. The IOM recommends 600 international units a day for most adults, and 800 daily after age 70, although many physicians recommend more. It is difficult to take in that much vitamin D from food sources, so experts say many people should take vitamin D in supplement form.
Getting adequate (充足的) calcium from food is easier. For example, 8 ounces of milk or 6 ounces of yogurt has 300 mg of calcium, and one cup of spinach has 270 mg.
But studies linking calcium supplements to heart attack have made experts more cautious of excess calcium than before. A study of 24,000 Germans published in the journal Heart last month, found that those who got their calcium exclusively from supplements were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who took no supplements.
Exactly how calcium supplements might contribute to heart attacks baffles cardiologists (心脏病学家). “Nobody has associated the calcium in your bloodstream with calcification (钙化) in your arteries,” says Nieca Goldberg, medical director of the Joan H. Tisch Center. Still, she says she now urges patients get their recommended calcium from food than from supplements to avoid possible problems.
Osteoporosis experts also urge patients not to take more than the recommended amount of calcium. “People should definitely stop taking two big calcium supplements a day,” says Dr. Dawson-Hughes. Even if the risks remain unclear, taking more than the body can absorb doesn’t benefit bones, “so it’s not worth any risk. ” She adds.
1. What is Ethel Siris’ opinion on taking calcium supplements?| A．Taking calcium supplements is unsafe. |
| B．Adults need more calcium than children. |
| C．Age and gender determine how much calcium is needed. |
| D．It is safer to take calcium from food than from supplements. |
| A．Interest. | B．Amaze. | C．Frighten. | D．Puzzle. |
| A．Taking two calcium supplements a day is good for health. |
| B．It might be wiser to take recommended calcium from food. |
| C．It is easy for people to obtain enough Vitamin D from food. |
| D．The benefits of taking calcium supplements outweigh its risks. |
2 . Keep Sight of Dry Eye
Do your eyes feel uncomfortable or dry? If so, you might have dry eye syndrome (综合征).
In the past, dry eye syndrome was mainly a condition experienced by older adults, but it now affects many young people as well. Dry eye often results from overuse of computers or smartphones, which causes the user to blink (眨眼) less. Since blinking helps keep our eyes wet, a lack (缺少) of it can lead to dry eye.
If you suffer from dry eye syndrome, these steps can go a long way toward making your eyes feel better. However, if the problem doesn’t go away, then it’s time to see a doctor.
| A．After all, your health is worth keeping an eye on. |
| B．Blinking can help protect the surface of your eyes. |
| C．This happens when you don’t produce enough tears. |
| D．Air-conditioning and fans also contribute to dry eye. |
| E．Limit screen time and take breaks from staring at screens. |
| F．Treatments for dry eyes can include eye exercises and eye drops. |
| G．All it takes is a few lifestyle changes to prevent and treat dry eye syndrome. |
3 . A man wearing sunglasses grabs the mic and stands in a relaxed posture ready to make the audience laugh. Seeing how easily he moves, one can hardly notice that the stylish comedian, Gao Xiang, has any problems with vision.
Gao was diagnosed with the rare eye disease — Stargardt. Initially, he refused to accept the cruel situation. He kept escaping the fact until 2013, when he could use the computer more efficiently with the help of special programs designed to help visually disabled people . Consequently, he got the courage to be frank about his and found that people didn’t care about the problem as he had imagined. His working ability also helped remove any feelings of inferiority that he had. He tried to become mentally stronger to accept reality and get his life back on track.
Two years ago, he decided to become a full-time stand-up comedian. What has been motivating Gao to be so active in the comedy industry is his eagerness to draw the public’s attention to the disease. “As it is a rare disease, medical institutions and companies might lack the driving force to make great efforts to find a cure,” he says. “I want to unite the patients in China and voice out loud our urgent demands.”
Besides, he and two friends launched a public account on WeChat called Stargardt Care Center, through which they share inspiring stories of people suffering from the eye disorder, instructions for those on how to use computers and translations of foreign essays that explore the possibilities of curing the disease. By now, the account has managed to attract more than 1, 000 Stargardt patients and their family members. And some Non- Governmental Organisations also have got in touch with them to see if they could provide help to the community.
“Stand-up comedy has saved me and enabled me to meet interesting people and do what is worth doing,” Gao says.
1. What does the underlined word “inferiority” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Being proud. | B．Being bored. | C．Being unconfident. | D．Being modest. |
| A．His eagerness for money. | B．His faith in challenging himself. |
| C．His ability in performance. | D．His desire to fight the disease. |
| A．The visually disabled can learn computer skills. |
| B．Experts can provide medical help for the patients. |
| C．Patients can read original articles about the disease. |
| D．Comedians can post jokes to meet interesting people. |
| A．Sensible and tolerant. | B．Positive and inspiring. |
| C．Talented and aggressive. | D．Enthusiastic and punctual. |
Many scientists believe our love of sugar may actually be an addiction. When we eat or drink sugary foods, the sugar enters our blood and affects parts of our brain that make us feel good. Then the good feeling goes away, leaving us wanting more. All tasty foods do this, but sugar has a particularly strong effect. In this way, it is in fact an addictive drug, one that doctors suggest we all cut down on.
“It seems like every time I study an illness and search for the first cause, I find my way back to sugar,” says scientist Richard Johnson. One-third of adults worldwide have high blood pressure, and up to 347 million have diabetes (糖尿病). Why? “Sugar, we believe is one of the culprits, if not the major reason,” says Johnson.
Our bodies are designed to survive on very little sugar. Early humans often had very little food, so our bodies learned to be very efficient in storing sugar as fat. In this way, we had energy stored for when there was no food. But today, most people have more than enough. So the very thing that once saved us may now be killing us.
So what is the solution? It’s obvious that we need to eat less sugar. The trouble is, in today’s world, it’s extremely difficult to avoid. From breakfast cereals (谷物) to after-dinner desserts, our foods are increasingly filled with it.
But there are those who are fighting back against sugar. Many schools are replacing sugary desserts with healthier food like fruit. Other schools are growing their own food in gardens, or building facilities (设施) like walking tracks so students and others in the community can exercise.
1. What is one of the reasons for high blood pressure?2. Why did our bodies learn to store sugar as fat?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
—The sugar enters our blood and affects parts of our brain that make us feel good, so we should eat more in daily life.
4. In your daily life, how do you fight against sugar? (In about 40 words)
5 . Flu is killing us. The usual response to the annual flu is not enough to fight against the risks we currently face, let alone prepare us for an even deadlier widespread flu that most experts agree will come in the future. Yes, we have an annual vaccine , and everyone qualified should get it without question. The reality, however, is that less than half Americans get the flu vaccines. And the flu vaccines we have are only 60% effective in the best years and 10% effective in the worst years. We urgently need a much more effective flu vaccine.
In the U.S. alone, seasonal flu can cause up to 36 million infections, three-quarters of a million hospitalizations and 56,000 deaths. We are not investing the resources needed to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our communities.
Why not? We haven’t been hit by a truly destructive widespread disease in a long time. So as individuals, we let down our guard as our leaders quietly defund and destaff the services we need to protect us.
The risk of continued foot dragging is huge. In a severe widespread disease, the U.S. health care system could be defeated in just weeks. Millions of people would be infected by the virus, and would die in the weeks and months following the initial outbreak.
The cost of preventing epidemics is roughly a tenth of what it costs to cope with them when they hit. In 2012, a call was issued for an annual billion-dollar U.S. commitment to the development of a universal flu vaccine. Six years later, the search for a universal vaccine remains seriously underfunded.
The simple reason lies in our collective satisfaction. As soon as headlines about the flu are gone, hospitals are emptied of flu patients, and school and workplace absence rates decline, we go back to business as usual.
Leading scientists and public health officials have the capability to keep us much safer from flu. They need your quick and decisive support to succeed. Your action today may be a matter of life and death for you and your loved ones.
1. The problem of the current flu vaccines is that _______.| A．they are not available every year |
| B．most Americans are not allowed to get them |
| C．not everyone is qualified for them |
| D．many people still catch flu after getting them |
| A．Hospitals cannot meet the needs of patients during flu outbreaks. |
| B．Individuals aren’t alert enough to the underinvestment in flu prevention |
| C．The leaders continue to drag the feet of the patients infected with flu. |
| D．Flu will certainly become a severe widespread disease in the near future. |
| A．Science is currently not so developed as to keep us safer from flu. |
| B．The death rate from flu is much higher than that from other diseases. |
| C．The general public is partially to blame for the neglect of flu prevention. |
| D．Developing a universal flu vaccine will cost more than dealing with flu. |
6 . As an educator and health care provider, I have worked with numerous children infected with the virus that causes AlDS. The relationships that I have had with these special kids have been gifts in my life. They have taught me so many things, but I have especially learned that great courage can be found in the smallest of packages. Let me tell you about Tyler.
Tyler was born infected with HIV: his mother was also infected. From the very beginning of his life, he was dependent on medications (药物) to enable him to survive. When he was five, he had a tube inserted (插入) in a vein (静脉) in his chest. This tube was connected to a pump, which he carried in a small backpack on his back. Medications were linked to this pump and continuously supplied through this tube to his bloodstream. At times, he also needed supplemented (补充的) oxygen to support his breathing.
Tyler wasn’t willing to give up one single moment of his childhood to this deadly disease. It was not unusual to find him playing and racing around his backyard, wearing his medicine-laden backpack and dragging his tank of oxygen behind him in his little wagon. All of us who knew Tyler were amazed at his pure joy in being alive and the energy it gave him. Tyler’s mom often teased him by telling him that he moved so fast that she needed to dress him in red. That way, when she peered through the window to check on him playing in the yard, she could quickly spot him.
This dreaded disease eventually wore down even the likes of a little dynamo like Tyler. He grew quite ill and, unfortunately, so did his HIV-infected mother. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to survive, Tyler’s mom talked to him about death. She comforted him by telling Tyler that she was dying too, and that she would be with him soon in heaven.
A few days before his death, Tyler called me over to his hospital bed and whispered, “might die soon. I’m not scared. When I die, please dress me in red. Mom promised she’s coming to heaven, too. I’ll be playing when she gets there, and I want to make sure she can find me.”
1. Tyler had to wear his backpack so that ________ .| A．his mother could recognize him in the crowd |
| B．oxygen could be provided to support his breathing |
| C．he could carry his favourite toys wherever he went |
| D．its pump could supply medications to his bloodstream |
| A．Tyler was very afraid of dying so soon |
| B．Tyler gave up the chance to enjoy his childhood |
| C．Tyler tried to enjoy his life though being badly ill |
| D．Tyler couldn’t move freely with his medicine-laden backpack |
| A．courageous and optimistic | B．confident and energetic |
| C．enthusiastic and adventurous | D．ambitious and passionate |
| A．Gifts in my life | B．Dress me in red |
| C．Never give up | D．Live with HIV |
Tips for Dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that sets in or starts in the winter months. Unlike other types of depression, it may improve as spring comes on. It is often a periodic recurring disorder—you’ll feel depressed every winter and begin to feel better each spring. SAD depression is caused by lowered levels of serotonin, the mood-affecting brain chemical that is caused by seasonal changes in daylight. Shorter days may also disrupt the body’s biological clock, which upsets the balance of melatonin, the hormone which regulates mood and sleep patterns.
Seasonal affective disorder is far more common in northern climates, where days can be very short in winter. SAD affects more women than men and is more likely to occur in people under age 40 than those older than that.
Although any amount of outdoor light can help raise serotonin levels, getting light in the morning seems to offer the most benefit. If the weather permits, take a walk. In your home or office, try sitting close to a window that faces south. Replacing light bulbs in your home with full spectrum light bulbs can help because they give out light similar to sunlight.
Studies have shown that increasing your exercise routine can counteract SAD. Exercise raises levels of serotonin. Moderate exercise, which means neither too much nor too little exercise, such as walking, riding a stationary bike or swimming is a great way to get started. But any activities that raise your heart rate, including daily chores, can help, especially if you can do them outdoors or near a sunny window. Yoga, jogging and Tai chi can all help lift your mood.
Year-end panic refers to the self-blame and overall feeling of panic brought about by the approach of the year’s end, often due to a poor financial year and pressure from work and family. Psychological experts suggest that we should avoid peer competition. While regretting for the failed plans in the past year, you can still make resolution to do it better in the coming year.
1. According to the passage, what is SAD?2. Who are more likely to suffer from SAD?
3. Please decide which part of the following statement is false, then underline it and explain why.
Increasing exercise routine can fight against SAD, and people should do a large amount of exercise to get started.
4. Seasons bring not only depression but also happiness. Which season can cheer you up? And why? (In about 40 words)
8 . Serving Up Hope
Food allergies have been on the rise. In the US, it is now estimated that over 10 percent of the adult population has an allergy to peanuts, shellfish, dairy or another type of food. In the UK, the past three decades have seen hospital admissions for food allergies rise fivefold. Thankfully, we are building up the armory needed to reverse this trend so that, one day, such potentially deadly reactions become a thing of the past.
The most common types of food allergies are triggered by antibodies that we make called immunoglobulin (免疫球蛋白) E or IgE. These antibodies were discovered in the mid-1960s and kick-started an era of allergy research that is still going strong today. The early findings have spawned thousands of studies that paint an intricate (复杂的) picture of how allergies work, suggesting ways in which we can prevent and treat them.
When someone has a food allergy, IgE is involved in triggering a response when the immune system comes into contact with that food. Essentially, the body sees that part of your meal as an enemy, releasing histamine (组织胺) and other inflammatory chemicals in an attempt to deal with it. This causes symptoms ranging from itchiness and sneezes to wheezing (喘气) and anaphylactic shock (过敏性休克). The result can be anything from a mild inconvenience to death.
The old saying "prevention is better than the cure" holds true for food allergies. My colleagues and I use the so-called six Ds as a guide to preventative measures during childhood: diet, dirt, dogs, dry skin, detergents (清洁剂) and vitamin D. Studies have found that people have a lower risk of developing an allergy when, as youngsters, they eat a diverse diet and do so often, have healthy vitamin D levels, live in a home with a dog, avoid dry skin and are exposed to dirt, allowing them to develop a good microbiome (微生物组). The use of harsh detergents has also been associated with an increase in IgE.
Clearly, for many people that have food allergies, such early life prevention is no longer an option. However, other approaches are taking shape.
Most of the interventions we currently use target the immune system in an effort to retrain its response to allergens. One technique, known as allergen immunotherapy (免疫疗法), involves slowly building up exposure to a problem food. By starting in very small doses, the body appears to be able to be retrained to no longer see it as a threat. However, immunotherapy needs regular exposure to allergens, which can cause side effects.
Allergy vaccines are another option. These work by reshaping the body's immune response to a particular food so it doesn't end in illness.
As we gain evidence and experience with each of these approaches, we are moving closer to being able to treat all food allergies.
1. From the first two paragraphs, we can tell that __________.| A．one in ten people in UK is allergic to peanuts, shellfish, dairy or another type of food |
| B．immunoglobulin E only takes effect when we have food allergies |
| C．the research of allergies hasn't been conducted until recent years |
| D．more people in the UK now suffer from food allergies than it was 30 years ago |
| A．arouse readers' curiosity about the food allergies |
| B．assure readers of his unique method in the fight against food allergies |
| C．discuss the effectiveness of this potential method for curing food allergies |
| D．support the belief that the prevention of an allergy is more important than the cure |
| A．people are likely to get rid of food allergies through gradual adaptation to the specific problem food |
| B．some early prevention methods like the six Ds are no longer helpful in the curing of food allergies |
| C．immunotherapy brings more harm than good as it needs regular exposure to the specific problem food |
| D．since our body's immune response can be reshaped, a vaccine can be a very safe method for the curing of food allergies |
| A．objective | B．optimistic |
| C．skeptical | D．critical |
9 . A Teenage Inventor
The world could be one step closer to quick and inexpensive Ebola detection thanks to a teenager from Connecticut.
Olivia Hallisey, a junior at Greenwich High School, was awarded $50,000 in the Google Science Fair for her new method that detects Ebola, a virus that causes bleeding from different parts of the body and usually causes death. Olivia’s method is to ask patients to put their saliva (唾液) onto a testing card. The card changes color if the person is catching Ebloa. Present Ebloa tests take up to 12 hours and cost $1,000. Olivia’s method, however, can be done just in 30 minutes for about $25. Besides, the sample (样本) doesn’t have to be put in a refrigerator thanks to the silk material Olivia uses to produce the testing cards.
Olivia was inspired to deal with this global problem after watching the news that more than 10,000 people died from Ebola in West Africa. She was particularly worried about the fact that, while the acts of involvement can improve survival rates, present detection methods are costly, time-consuming and require complex tools. Olivia got help from her science research teacher. She drew out directions from past research, and figured out detection systems that have proven to work with other diseases, including Lyme disease and yellow fever.
“What affects one country affects everyone,”Olivia told CNBC. “We have to work together to find answers to the huge challenges which cause harm to the global health.” The Connecticut’s teen, who hopes to become a doctor one day, was named the Google Science Fair winner in the competition of 20 competitors from across the globe. The fair is open to young people between the ages of 13 and 18 in most countries.
Olivia hopes her success will inspire other girls interested in science and computers. “I would just encourage girls to try it in the beginning, and remind them that they don’t have to feel naturally drawn or feel like they have a special talent for maths or science,” she told CNBC, “but just really look at something they are interested in and then think how to improve something or make it more enjoyable or relate it to their interests.”
1. According to the passage, present Ebola detection methods______.| A．require samples to be kept in refrigerators |
| B．must use a large amount of samples |
| C．may detect other deadly viruses as well |
| D．have proven to be ineffective in practice |
| A．Admitted. | B．Controlled. | C．Attracted. | D．Exposed. |
| A．inventors | B．students | C．doctors | D．scientists |
10 . Life lessons from death
Living gratefully has a huge transforming power, not just when something wonderful or special happens, but every day no matter what is happening. I've recently been involved with two people whose lives were challenged by bad luck. I have seen how grateful living had the power to keep one of them going and how it's beginning to lift the other. One was a friend and the other is my sister.
My friend seemed to be in good health when she received a deadly diagnosis（诊断）: a disease with no effective treatment. She had all the emotions that a tragedy（悲剧）brings, but she also had a powerful response to despair（绝望）that gave her " the happiness that doesn't depend on what happens." She wrote online daily, honestly sharing the details of her situations.
She wrote that even though it was difficult to move, this gave her more time to notice small things. She was grateful not only for the love and help of family and friends, but also for time to see the sun rise and watch the birds in her yard. No opportunity for gratefulness was wasted.
She taught that gratefulness is not a false cheerfulness. It's taking every opportunity to celebrate the blessings of small things. We can be grateful for the challenge that helps us develop compassion（同情）for each other. Life is a precious gift.
She repeatedly blogged（写博客）that she was happier than she had ever been. When she wrote about "the worst day", she ended with "Life is still a lovely gift." She died later that day.
Her message, however, changed my sister's life. My sister's health was getting worse and worse, though nothing life-threatening（威胁生命的）. She did have a very painful knee. Her life was in danger form her defeated spirit She was bed-bound（卧床不起）, getting weaker and weaker. Fearful, angry and depressed, she felt out of options for recovery.
I read my sister a few of my friend's messages. I was careful not to say, "Why can't you be more like her? " Instead, I let the words do their work. I'm grateful to say that an attitude of gratitude began to replace her anger and fear. I believe this helped her to heal.
We can't be grateful for all that happens, but we can practise gratefulness for life itself, for all we can learn to deal with, for all the ways we can help each other grow and heal.
1. How did the author's sister feel when she was ill?| A．Calm | B．Lonely | C．Sad | D．Confused |
| A．She complained that life was unfair to her. |
| B．She started to appreciate and enjoy the small things in life. |
| C．She tried her best to look for the best doctors. |
| D．She repeatedly blogged how painful it was. |
| A．Writing a blog | B．Eating healthy food |
| C．Talking with family | D．Being grateful for life |
| A．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
| B．Gratitude has the power of lifting people's spirits. |
| C．Health is the most important thing for people. |
| D．Families will always be there no matter what happens. |
