Ernest Hemingway underwent 20 gruelling rounds of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to cure him of his depression. Having lost many of his memories as a result, he said, "It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient," and took a shotgun to his head not long afterwards. Ever since ECT was pioneered by Ugo Cerletti, an Italian neurosurgeon, in the late 1930s, it bas had a bad press. In books (The Bell Jar, Zen and the Art of MIotorcycle Maintenance), in song (Electric Co by U2) and in film (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Tar-nation), it has been portrayed as a sinister procedure that leaves the patient a dribbling dullard. But in spite of this, ECT remains one of the fastest-acting and most effective antidepressant treatments known.
Why it should be so effective, though, is an enigma. On the face of it, running a current of almost an amp through someone's brain seems a silly thing to do. But a study by Johan Hellsten of Lund University in Sweden bas cast some light on the question. Dr. Hellsten has shown that ECT leads to the gene ration of new blood vessels [n part of the brain implicated in depression.
Previous brain imaging studies have shown that patients with long-term depression have a smaller hippocampus (part of the brain that deals with emotion and memory) than average. But, while it is possible to use scanners to look at brain volume in people, it is impossible to examine what is going on at a cellular level. For this reason, Dr. Hellsten used rats.
There were two groups of rats in his experiment. The test group received ECT once a day. for ten days while the control group received a sham treatment. On the eleventh day! the rats were killed and examined. Dr. Hellsten found a 20 fold increase in the number of endothelial cells (the cells that line blood vessels) in the hippocampuses of the test rats, compared with the control rats. He also found a 16% increase in the total length of the blood vessels in their hippocampuses. If the blood vessels of any organ--including the hippocampus are reduced, that organ begins to atrophy. ECT appears to reverse this atrophy. This study is the first to show an increase in blood-vessel production in connection with an anti-depressive treatment.
Why ECT has this effect is still a subject of speculation, but Dr. Hellsten suspects that what is happening is a consequence of the brain trying to protect itself. ECT works by creating an artificial epileptic seizure. Natural seizures, which often last much longer than the 30 seconds or so employed for ECT. result in the production of chemicals called growth factors that stimulate cell division and growth. This response helps to compensate for the damage that a seizure can do. Though modern ECT does not last long enough to cause damage, it nevertheless provokes the damage-limitation response.
ECT, invented in a more brutal age, was originally seen as a way to control unruly patients, often against their will. Ironically, it now serves to give will back to those who have lost it.
The word "gruelling" in the first paragraph probably means ______.
A. intermittent.
B. incessant.
C. toilsome.
D. numerous.
听力原文: A number of people in India are being tested for possible bird flu infection following the discovery of the most virulent strain of the disease in the State of Maharashtra. Only hours earlier, the presence of the H5N1 strain of bird flu had been confirmed among thousands of dead chickens at a farm in Maharashtra. In Iran, tests on dead swans in the north of the country have shown that they were infected by the same strain. Cases have also been confirmed in Austria and in France, where tests on a wild duck found dead at a poultry farm proved it was carrying H5N1 bird flu. The United Nations special coordinator David Nabarro said the authorities everywhere had to be prepared to deal with an outbreak.
The H5N1 bird flu has been found in all the following places EXCEPT ______.
Australia.
B. Maharashtra.
C. France.
D. Austria.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview.
听力原文:W: Good morning, John, nice to be here!
M: You know, well, a lot of us spend time looking for things in the morning? It's the glasses, it's the keys, and in my case it's always, always the other shoe.
W: Yeah, the other shoe, yeah! I've been there.
Ms What are the biggest mistakes we made when it comes to that?
W: And to speak to what you're saying, I think it's being organized. When you're disorganized, you don't know where things are. You're rifling from drawers, rifling through closets, trying to find the thing that didn't go back where it belongs. So if you can stay organized, you can really save some time.
M: All right. Let's start saving time right this minute. OK?
W: Okay.
M: No. 1, your No. 1 tip here is banking online. Now some people are afraid to do it, but you say it's something smart.
W: Yeah, yeah, 'it is very safe. And we certainly recommend that you use your own bank's website. So go to the bank, talk to the consumer service representatives there. If you have some questions about how to do it, how safe it is, it's the best way to find out how safe it is and how easy...
M: And how much time do you think you saved, Carolyn, by doing that?
W: You know if you can, write, write in a lot of checks, if you're making transfers, checking your statements, you can save 30 minutes, up, even up to an hour.
M: I've seen a lot of this number, the second tip, which is online grocers. Now, that's really not for everyone, but you actually go grocery shopping online.
W: That's exactly what you do. And you know, if you are the type of person that wants to read every label and look at every piece of fruit, it's probably not for you. But, you know, if you wanna give up a little control, you can definitely save some time. M: And what's the good strategy if you decide to go shopping online?
W: What I would suggest is especially starting out, is to do the staples online. The brands that you use all the time, the paper products, the cleaning products, the cereals, get that online and then go to the store for the meats in the produce.
M: Now for those who are big library people who like the library, you say make a preemptive strike basically and go online first before you actually make the trip out to the library.
W: That's exactly right. Check the library's website. You can reserve books rather than make a trip and find out they don't have the book that you want. You can put it in order and they will call you and let you know when it's in and then you go get it.
M: Ah, the fourth tip, I like it a lot because I travel a lot. It is to print your boarding pass before you go to the airport. That is so smart, right?
W: It's really amazing, especially when you don't have to check luggage. Because if you have to check luggage it's gonna take you a little time. But if you're just carrying on, you skip those chaos and go right to the gate.
M: That's brilliant. Now for those of us who are always sort of looking for the same phone number, I know I'm like this. I leaf through the phone book, I find the phone number, I call it, I shut the phone book and then the next week I'm gonna use that same number. What's the good way to sort or keep track of things?
W: Highlight it, you know, just do it in a bright color, so it jumps out to you if it's something that you use often and organize your phone book. That's really important. No more napkins and envelope flaps and old Christmas cards and phone numbers. Do it nicely and you will find things quicken
M: Okay, my big Achilles' heel for me is my purse. It is the bottomless horrible pit. I don't even know wh
A. they suffer from amnesia.
B. they are not organized.
C. they have too many things.
D. they are often in a hurry.