Depression
Carrie Mcintyre and Damon Thompson were eagerly planning their future together. The young Florida couple had good jobs and were sports enthusiasts. But when Damon’s employer (51) a downsizing, he started to worry that he began to (52) , declining social invitations and refusing to play sports. (53) he watched TV for hours on end.
Carrie (54) his moods to job concerns and thought they would pass. But months (55) when Damon hadn’t been (56) , he was still lethargic(懒散的)and cold. When Carrie tried to find out what was wrong, all he would say was, “Nothing”.
Damon’s (57) worries had triggered a bout of depression that he couldn’t shake, even when its cause was gone. But instead of showing Carrie he needed her, he (58) her. To Carrie, his behavior. made no (59) at all. Eventually she (60) their relationship.
“Women in our culture know they are (61) and they reach out for help,” says Terrence Real, a family therapist. “Men express depression differently,” he adds.
Depression afflicts more than several million people in the United States at any given time, and almost one in five over the (62) of a lifetime. According to statistics, approximately 20 percent of all women suffer from depression and about ten percent of men—but some researchers (63) the latter number. The tendency to tough it out (64) ask for help is just one of several reasons (65) experts believe the off-quoted statistics are artificially low. Fortunately, however, when the condition is recognized, there are many ways it can be successfully treated.
(51)
A. advertised
B. announced
C. pronounced
D. acclaimed
Mobile Phone and Diseases
A study by scientists in Finland has found that mobile phone radiation can cause changes in human cells that might affect the brain, the leader of the research team said,
But Darius Leszczynski, who headed the 2-year study and will present findings next week at a conference in Quebec(魁北克), said more research was needed to determine the seriousness of the changes and their impact on the brain or the body.
The study at Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority found that exposure to radiation from mobile phones can cause increased activity in hundreds of proteins in human cells grown in a laboratory, he said.
“We know that there is some biological response. We can detect it with our very sensitive approaches, but we do not know whether it can have any physiological effects on the human brain or human body,” Leszczynski said.
Nonetheless the study, the initial findings of which were published last month in the scientific journal Differentiation, raises new questions about whether mobile phone radiation can weaken the brain’s protective shield against harmful substances.
The study focused on changes in cells that line blood vessels and on whether such changes could weaken the functioning of the blood-brain barrier, which prevents potentially harmful substances from entering the brain from the bloodstream, Leszczynski said.
The study found that a protein called hsp27 linked to the functioning of the blood-brain barrier showed increased activity due to irradiation and pointed to a possibility that such activity could make the shield more permeable(能透过的), he said.
“Increased protein activity might cause cells to shrink—not the blood vessels but the cells themselves—and then tiny gaps could appear between those cells through which some molecules could pass.” he said.
Leszczynski declined to speculate on what kind of health risks that could pose, but said a French study indicated that headache, fatigue and sleep disorders could result.
“These are not life-threatening problems but can cause a lot of discomfort,” he said, adding that a Swedish group had also suggested a possible link with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Where the truth is do not know,” he said.
Leszczynski said that he, his wife and children use mobile phones, and he said that he did not think his study suggested any need for new restrictions on mobile phone use.
According to Leszczynski, how does mobile phone affect one’s health? ______
A. Mobile phone radiation can increase protein activities and such activities can make the protective shield more permeable.
B. Mobile phone radiation can shrink the blood vessels and prevent blood from flowing smoothly.
C. Mobile phone radiation will bring stress to people exposed to it.
D. Mobile phone radiation kills blood cells at a rapid speed.
A New Finding
British cancer researchers have found that childhood leukaemia is caused by an infection and clusters of cases around industrial sites are the result of population mixing that increases exposure. The research published in the British Journal of Cancer backs up a 1988 theory that some as yet unidentified infection caused leukaemia—not the environmental factors widely blamed for the disease.
“Childhood leukaemia appears to be an unusual result of a common infection,” said Sir Richard Doll, an internationally—known cancer expert who first linked tobacco with lung cancer in 1950. “A virus is the most likely explanation. You would get an increased risk of it if you suddenly put a lot of people from large towns in a rural area, where you might have people who had not been exposed to the infection.” Doll was commenting on the new findings by researchers at Newcastle University, which focused on a cluster of leukaemia cases around the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria in northern England. Scientists have been trying to establish why there was more leukaemia in children around the Sellafield area, but have failed to establish a link with radiation or pollution. The Newcastle University research by Heather Dickinson and Louise Parker showed the cluster of cases could have been predicted because of the amount of population mixing going on in the area, as large numbers of construction workers and nuclear staff moved into a rural setting. “Our study shows that population mixing can account for the (Sellafield) leukaemia cluster and that all children, whether their parents are incomers or locals, are at a higher risk if they are born in an area of high population mixing,” Dickinson said in a statement issued by the Cancer Research Campaign, which publishes the British Journal of Cancer.
Their paper adds crucial weight to the 1988 theory put forward by Leo Kinlen, a cancer epidemiologist at Oxford University, who said that exposure to a common unidentified infection through population mixing resulted in the disease.
Who first hinted at the possible cause of childhood leukaemia by infection?______
A. Leo Kinlen.
B. Richard Doll.
C. Louise Parker.
D. Heather Dickinson.
Problems of Internet
The proportion of works cut for the cinema in Britain dropped from 40 per cent when I joined the BBFC in 1975 to less than 4 per cent when I left. But I don’t think that 20 years from now it will be possible to regulate any medium as closely as I regulated film.
The Internet is, of course, the greatest problem for this century. The world will have to find a means, through some sort of international treaty of United Nations initiative, to control the material that’s now going totally unregulated into people’s homes. That said, it will only take one little country like Paraguay to refuse to sign a treaty for transmission to be unstoppable. Parental control is never going to be sufficient.
I’m still very worried about the impact of violent video games, even though researchers say their impact is moderated by the fact that players don’t so much experience the game as enjoy the technical manoeuvres (策略)that enable you to win. But in respect of violence in mainstream films, I’m more optimistic. Quite suddenly, tastes have changed, and it’s no longer Stallone or Schwarzenegger who are the top stars, but Leonardo DiCaprio—that has taken everybody by surprise.
Go through the most successful films in Europe and America now and you will find virtually none that we are violent. Quentin Tarantino didn’t usher in a new, violent generation, and films are becoming much more prosocial than one would have expected.
Cinemagoing will undoubtedly survive. The new multiplexes are a glorious experience, offering perfect Sound and picture and very comfortable seats, thins which had died out in the 1980s. I can’t believe we’ve achieved that only to throw it away in favor of huddling around a 14-inch computer monitor to watch digitally delivered movies at home.
It will become increasingly cheap to make films, with cameras becoming smaller and lighter but remaining very precise. That means greater chances for new talent to emerge, as it will be much easier for people to learn how to be better film-makers. People’s working lives will be shorter in the future, and once retired they will spend a lot of time learning to do things that amuse them—like making videos. Fifty years on we could well be media-saturated as producers as well as audience; instead of writing letters, one will send little home movies entitled My Week. =
Which of the following about Internet is true according to the passage? ______
A. The Internet is the greatest progress for this century.
B. Efforts are needed to control Internet.
C. Paraguay refused to sign a treaty for transmission.
D. The United Nations has found ways to prevent Internet from developing.