Medical advances on the rise

Medical advances are on the rise around the world. Here are five to watch.

People in fact, get very enthusiastic about 3D printers and many believe it won’t be long before kids are using them to print out their personally signed toys. But medical researchers have already turned to 3D printing to create human body parts. Last year, Cornell scientists printed out an artificial(人造的) outer ear that looks and works like the real thing. But it isn’t suitable to put into human body.

   Another surprising breakthrough is in gene therapy, in which a person’s genes are re-engineered to fight diseases and put back into his or her body. This therapy is still considered experimental, but it’s been effective recently in treating patients with some cancers. And researchers think that one day it can become a new way to treat early stages of the disease, without requiring surgery, chemotherapy(化疗) or radiation.

   Gut reaction(本能反应) research is another breakthrough that it showing a lot of promise and has to do with our guts(肠), specifically with all the bacteria staying. Researchers have suggested there may be a direct physiological connection between the mix of bacteria in our digestive tract(消化道) and how our brain functions, and that the mix can also be a factor（因素） in whether a person is thin or fat.

   In regard to cancer research, there have been definite breakthroughs. Cancer immunotherapy (免疫疗法)is using drugs that encourage the body’s immune system to battle cancer cells directly. Researchers discovered that have been able to cover themselves in a protective shield. New drugs are being tested that have been able to empower the immune system to break through that protection and allow the body to fight cancer cells on its own.

   There are also already plenty of devices and apps out there that track you steps, you sleep, and your calorie consumption. But the next wave of wearable health tech will focus on gathering personal data more meaningful to a doctor and send the data directly to his or her office.

   Also, devices that monitor our personal behaviour will be getting more and more advanced. For example, a device being developed by TellSpec will supposedly be able to analyze the chemical composition of food in real time and let you know on your smart phone just what you’re eating.

My name is Clara.I still remember that chilly December day,sitting in science class.I’d finished a worksheet early and picked up a TIME for Kids magazine. A piece of news caught my eye:NASA was holding an essay contest to name its Mars rover(火星探测器).Before I even knew anything else about it,a single word flooded my 11-year-old mind,Curiosity.

　I couldn’t want for the bell to ring so I could get started on my essay.That afternoon,I raced home,sat down at the computer,and typed until my fingers ached. “Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone’s mind...”

　　Five months later, my mom received a phone call,and immediately, a wide smile spread across her face.

　　On August 5,2012,at 10:31 p.m,the rover named Curiosity touched down safely on the surface of Mars,and I was honored to have a front-row seat in NASA.

Curiosity is such an important part of who I am.I have always been fascinated by the stars,the planets,the sky and the universe. I remember as a little girl,my grandmother and I would sit together in the backyard for hours.She’d tell me stories and point out the stars,Grandma lived in China,thousands of miles away from my home in Kansas,but the stars kept us together even when we were apart.They were always there, yet there was so much I didn’t know about them.That’s what I love so much about space.

People often ask me why we go to faraway places like Mares.My answer is simple because we’re curious.We human beings do not just hole up in one place.We are constantly wondering and trying to find out what’s over the hill and beyond the horizon.

(1)How did Clara get the new about the essay contest?( no more than 10 words)

(2)Why did Clara have a front-row seat in NASA?( no more than 10 words)

(3)What does Clara remember about the time spent with Grandma?( no more than 15 words)

(4)What does the underlined phrase “hole up”mean?(1 word)

(5)In your opinion,why is curiosity important?( no more than 20 words)

Do you know the pretty girl? Her name is Tian Wei. She was born on April 5, 1986. She was from Beijing. She had two big eyes and short hair. She was good at Chinese. And she loved writing.

She was unlucky. When she was in Grade 8, she was seriously ill. Her doctor said she would lose her life anytime. But she wasnˈt afraid of death. She kept on studying and writing. She died on August 13, 2007. She smiled till the end of her life.

Tian Wei had a great dream. She hoped that people could read her book in the bookshops. In March, 2009, her only book Hua Tian Ban Mu came out. it had more than five thousand words. In her book she said, " Iˈm always aching. If possible, Iˈll let my right eye weep but the other one smile."

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In a recent business magazine article, a president said, Laughter in the workplace is a waste of time. This is a place to do business, not to laugh, some researchers, however, disagree with his words. As scientists have learned more about the brain, they’ve discovered that smiles and laughter stimulate the brain, which can help increase happiness and reduce pain.

   Why do we need laughter in our lives? Laughter is a powerful tool for our health．In a number of studies that were carried out, it was shown that people who are more humorous have stronger immune systems(免疫系统)while people who feel stressed have weaker immune systems．Humor can help make your immune systems stronger

    Here are some tips to add more humor to your life：

   ·Laugh at yourself. Don’t  take yourself too seriously. Have a positive attitude towards yourself and your worries will become lighter too.

     ·Don’t  worry why people laugh--just appreciate it．Be funny．Look for the humorous side of and otherwise difficult situation．

    ·Prepare a first-aid laughter source．11Iis could include books，cartoons，CDs or videos．Write down the amusing things that happen and save them for a sad day．

    ·Be open to silly things．Humor the child within yourself．

   ·Laugh with others for what they do，rather than what they are．

   Research has shown that laughter is indeed the best medicine，so make time for humor now．

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Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia was delivered to my house. No card came with it. Calls to the flower shop were not helpful at all. After a while I stopped trying to discover the sender’s name and just delighted in the beautiful white flower in soft pink paper.

But I never stopped imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother encouraged these imaginings. She’d ask me if there was someone for whom I had done special kindness. Perhaps it was the old man across the street whose mail I’d delivered during the winter. As a girl, though, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy I had run into.

One month before my graduation my father died, I felt so sad that I became completely uninterested in my upcoming graduation dance and I didn’t care if I had a new dress or not. But my mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable. In truth, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia—lovely, strong, and perfect with perhaps a bit of mystery(神秘).

My mother died ten days after I was married. I was 22. That was year the gardenia stopped coming.

Exercise is often suggested for sleeping difficulties, and it does have a beneficial effect. However, experts say the influence is not immediate, and can take up some time to take effect.

   Dr. Kelly Baron said: "If you have insomnia（失眠），you won't exercise yourself into sleep right away. It's a long-term job. You have to keep at it and not get discouraged."

   Dr. Baron decided to carry out her own research after hearing her patients with insomnia complain that the exercise didn't help them right away. She said: "They'd say, ' I exercised so hard yesterday and didn't sleep at all'. It's thought that exercise improves sleep, but I thought it probably wasn't that simple for people with insomnia.

   Most previous studies have been carried out on healthy sleepers. Dr. Baron's research is the first one. She looked at the data from older women with insomnia over a 16-week period. She said: "People have to realize that even if they don't want to exercise, that's the time they need to dig in their heels (决不妥协) and get themselves out there. The key message was persistence(坚持). Write a note on your mirror saying ' Just Do It!', and you can see wonders in four months. Most importantly, it will help in the long run." Dr. Baron also warned that insomnia could also make people less willing to exercise.

   Rather than medicine treatments, exercise may be a healthier way to improve sleep because it couldaddressthe potential（潜在的) problems. This study shows exercise and sleep affect each other in both directions: regular long-term exercise is good for sleep, but poor sleep can also lead to less exercise. So in the end, sleep still works better as far as health is concerned.

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Reading can be fun, but it can also be time-consuming (taking a long time) if your speed is not as fast as you'd like it to be. An average reading speed can range from 200 to 350 words per minute, but that rate can vary depending on the material and your reading experience. Here are a few tips to help you improve your reading speed.

    Preview（预览） the material you're going to read. Look at main headings, chapters divisions , and other related parts - to develop clues about the structure of the work.

    Adjust（调整） your reading speed as you read the material. Slow down when you need to be sure that you comprehend one section（部分） of the material. Speed up if you are already familiar with or don't need to know other sections,

    Readers can greatly improve their reading speed by taking in several words in the line of text at one time (instead of sounding out each word, or focusing on each letter of the word),    Another way to improve your reading speed is to pay more attention to the key words in the sentences. A significant amount of reading time is wasted on conjunctions, prepositions, or articles (i.e a, an, the, but, and, or, nor, but, etc.).

   Talk about what you've read. Some readers find that by talking about their reading with friends of  fellow students, they are able to effectively synthesize(综合理解） the material. Find a reading spot, where nothing or nobody will disturb your reading.

    Don't reread right away; it will slow you down. If you absolutely don't understand part of the reading selection, go back and review the material later.

Practice. Practice. Practice. The best way to improve your reading speed is to practice reading. Try out some of these techniques(技巧), and then perfect the strategies (策略)that work best for you.

Speedy eaters are three times more likely to be too fat, a problem which is made even worse by the popularity of fast food and the decrease of regular dining habits, some Japanese researchers said on Wednesday.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, pay special attention to how eating styles, and not just what or how much is eaten, can affect an obesity epidemic(肥胖流行病) that is becoming more and more severe because of the speed of the Western-style diet in many parts of the world.

The World Health Organization considers around 400 million people in the world as too fat, 20 million of whom are under the age of five. The researchers are concerned（担心的） that the condition raises the risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes(糖尿病) and heart problems.

For their study, Hiroyasu Iso and the team at Osaka University asked more than 3000 Japanese volunteers(志愿者) who are 30 to 69 years old about their eating. About half of the men and a little more than half of the women said they ate until full. About 45 percent of the men and 36 percent of the women said they ate quickly.

Those who said they ate until full and ate quickly were three times more likely to be fat than people in the “not eating until full and not eating quickly” group, the researchers found.

They believe that the main causes are both the popularity of eating cheap fast food and bad habits such as watching television while eating.

To fight against the bad effect of eating quickly and being too full that can lead to obesity, parents should encourage children to eat slowly and in calm environments, the study suggested.

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