Question

【題目】A

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS) （肌萎縮性側(cè)索硬化癥） is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary(隨意的) muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.

A-myo-trophic comes from the Greek language. "A" means no or negative. "Myo" refers to muscle, and "Trophic" means nourishment--"No muscle nourishment." When a muscle has no nourishment, it "atrophies" or wastes away. "Lateral" identifies the areas in a person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located. As this area degenerates it leads to scarring or hardening ("sclerosis") in the region.

As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers that normally result in muscle movement. Early symptoms of ALS often include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or breathing. When muscles no longer receive the messages from the motor neurons that they require to function, the muscles begin to atrophy (become smaller). Limbs begin to look "thinner" as muscle tissue atrophies.

What Types of Nerves Make Your Body Work Properly?

The body has many kinds of nerves. There are those involved in the process of thinking, memory, and of detecting sensations (such as hot/cold, sharp/dull), and others for vision, hearing, and other bodily functions. The nerves that are affected when you have ALS are the motor neurons that provide voluntary movements and muscle power. Examples of voluntary movements are your making the effort to reach for the phone or step off a curb; these actions are controlled by the muscles in the arms and legs.

The heart and the digestive system are also made of muscle but a different kind, and their movements are not under voluntary control. When your heart beats or a meal is digested, it all happens automatically. Therefore, the heart and digestive system are not involved in ALS. Breathing also may seem to be involuntary. Remember, though, while you cannot stop your heart, you can hold your breath-so be aware that ALS may eventually have an impact on breathing.

Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood, the recent years have brought a wealth of new scientific understanding regarding the physiology of this disease.

While there is not a cure or treatment today that halts or reverses ALS, there is one FDA approved drug, riluzole, that modestly slows the progression of ALS as well as several other drugs in clinical trials that hold promise.

Importantly, there are significant devices and therapies that can manage the symptoms of ALS that help people maintain as much independence as possible and prolong survival. It is important to remember that ALS is a quite variable disease; no two people will have the same journey or experiences. There are medically documented cases of people in whom ALS ‘burns out,’ stops progressing or progresses at a very slow rate.

【1】What does the underlined word “their” in Paragraph 1 refer to___________?

A. ALS patients B. nerve cells

C. motor neurons D. muscle action

【2】What’s the main idea of Paragraph 2___________?

A. introduce the meaning of ALS

B. why does a muscle have no nourishment

C. where portions of the nerve cells are located

D. what leads to scarring or hardening

【3】Which is NOT involved in the early symptoms of ALS__________?

A. arms B. speech C. breathing D. heart

【4】What can we learn from the passage__________?

A. As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers.

B. If muscles can’t receive the messages sent by motor neurons, limbs begin to look "thinner".

C. The heart and the digestive system are also affected by ALS.

D. the cause of ALS has been completely understood.

【5】The passage most probably comes from____________.

A. Health Magazine B. News report

C. Travel Guide D. English textbook

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】C

【2】A

【3】D

【4】B

【5】A

【解析】文章主要向讀者介紹了一種罕見(jiàn)的疾病ALS，即肌萎縮性側(cè)索硬化癥，俗稱“漸凍人癥”。在英國(guó)也叫“運(yùn)動(dòng)神經(jīng)細(xì)胞病”。臨床上常表現(xiàn)為上、下運(yùn)動(dòng)神經(jīng)元合并受損的混合性癱瘓，常在病后3-5年內(nèi)死亡。

【1】C 猜測(cè)詞義題。代詞their指代前面出現(xiàn)的人或物，而且所指代的詞是復(fù)數(shù)形式，根據(jù)“The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons...”可知，劃線詞指的是運(yùn)動(dòng)神經(jīng)元motor neurons，且根據(jù)下句“When the motor neurons die”可知答案。

【2】A 段落大意題。根據(jù)“A-myo-trophic comes from the Greek language. "A" means no or negative. "Myo" refers to muscle, and "Trophic" means nourishment--"No muscle nourishment."..."Lateral" identifies the areas...("sclerosis") in the region”可知，第二段主要介紹了“ALS”的含義。

【3】D 細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第三段“Early symptoms of ALS often include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or breathing.”可知，ALS的早期癥狀主要是肌肉的萎縮，特別是與手臂、腿、語(yǔ)言、吞咽和呼吸有關(guān)的肌肉的萎縮。根據(jù)第五段“The heart and the digestive system...and their movements are not under voluntary control”可知，心臟和消化系統(tǒng)的活動(dòng)不受ALS的影響。

【4】B 推理判斷題。根據(jù)第三段“As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers”可知，當(dāng)運(yùn)動(dòng)神經(jīng)元退化時(shí)，它們將無(wú)法繼續(xù)向肌肉纖維發(fā)送脈沖，排除A；根據(jù)第五段“The heart and the digestive system...and their movements are not under voluntary control.”可知，心臟和消化系統(tǒng)的活動(dòng)不受隨意支配，因此不受ALS的影響，排除C；根據(jù)倒數(shù)第三段“Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood”可知，ALS的病因尚未完全清楚，排除D。

【5】A 文章出處題。文章主要介紹了一種罕見(jiàn)的疾病--肌萎縮性側(cè)索硬化癥，因此，最有可能摘自與健康有關(guān)的雜志。