2008年职称英语考试概括大意和完成句子习题(二十)
分类: 职称英语
Aspirin—a New Miracle Drug
1. Using aspirin, an over-the-counter pill on sale every supermarket without a prescription, to treat serious circulatory disease may seem almost like quakery. But today doctors recognize this drug as a potent compound as important as antibiotics, digitalis and other miracle drugs.
2. In its natural form as willow bark and leaves, this remarkable remedy dates back to Hippocrates. In 1829 the chemical in the willow tree that can relieve pain and reduce fever was discovered to be salicin. By 1899 the Bayer Company in Germany had marketed a variant, acetylsalicylic acid, under the name of aspirin.
3. Since then, aspirin and compounds containing aspirin have been taken by tens of millions of arthritis patients. As a pain killer aspirin is, according to one study, more effective than all other analgesics and narcotics available for oral use. It also acts on the body’s thermostat, turning down fever.
4. But some of its powers remained unsuspected until recently. In 1950 the late Dr. Craven wrote to a small western medical journal about 400 overweight, sedentary male patients to whom he had given one or two aspirin tablets a day. None had had a heart attack. He enlarged his group to 8000 and in 1956 reported: “Not a single case of detectable coronary or cerebral thrombosis” and “no major stroke” had occurred in patients who had taken one or two tablets daily for from one to ten years. But his observations were largely ignored.
5. Then Dr. Vane proved that aspirin turned off the body’s prostaglandins hormone-like chemicals that can be secreted by every cell. Some potent prostaglandins are harmful compounds that create fever, pain and arthritis. One of them stimulates platelets in the blood to begin forming g clots inside arteries. Aspirin blocks this dangerous effect.
6. Vane’s finding caused some researchers to recall Craven’s 1956 observations, which now had a possible scientific explanation. Numerous studies were begun to find out whether aspirin could indeed inhibit heart attacks and stoke.
7. In 1972, ten U.S. medical institutions began two “double-blind” trials of 303 patients who suffered from transient ischemic attacks (TiAs). Four aspirin tablets a day were given to 153 patients, while placebo tablets were given to 150. Neither patients nor doctors knew which was which. After six months, the patients on aspirin had experienced much fewer TIAs, and fewer strokes and fewer strokes and deaths from strokes than the “controls”. The results were so conclusive that aspirin has been used for this purpose widely.
练习：
1.Paragraph2 _____
2.Paragraph3 _____
3.Paragraph5 _____
4.Paragraph7 _____
A. Confirmation of the New Effect
B. Pain-relieving and Fever-reducing Effects of Aspirin
C. The Ignored Significant Observations
D. The Origin of Aspirin
E. An Explanation of Craven’s Observations
F. Further Findings of Dr. Vane
5.In the middle of the last century Craven made _____.
6.It is Bayer Company _____.
7.There is a prostaglandin _____.
8.Numerous studies concluded _____.
A. that aspirin has a positive effect on heart attacks and stokes
B. two “double-blind” trials of patients with heart disease
C. that first produced aspirin for sale
D. the unsuspected effect on pain and fever
E. important observations on the effects of aspirin
F. that may cause clots to be formed in the arteries
1. Using aspirin, an over-the-counter pill on sale every supermarket without a prescription, to treat serious circulatory disease may seem almost like quakery. But today doctors recognize this drug as a potent compound as important as antibiotics, digitalis and other miracle drugs.
2. In its natural form as willow bark and leaves, this remarkable remedy dates back to Hippocrates. In 1829 the chemical in the willow tree that can relieve pain and reduce fever was discovered to be salicin. By 1899 the Bayer Company in Germany had marketed a variant, acetylsalicylic acid, under the name of aspirin.
3. Since then, aspirin and compounds containing aspirin have been taken by tens of millions of arthritis patients. As a pain killer aspirin is, according to one study, more effective than all other analgesics and narcotics available for oral use. It also acts on the body’s thermostat, turning down fever.
4. But some of its powers remained unsuspected until recently. In 1950 the late Dr. Craven wrote to a small western medical journal about 400 overweight, sedentary male patients to whom he had given one or two aspirin tablets a day. None had had a heart attack. He enlarged his group to 8000 and in 1956 reported: “Not a single case of detectable coronary or cerebral thrombosis” and “no major stroke” had occurred in patients who had taken one or two tablets daily for from one to ten years. But his observations were largely ignored.
5. Then Dr. Vane proved that aspirin turned off the body’s prostaglandins hormone-like chemicals that can be secreted by every cell. Some potent prostaglandins are harmful compounds that create fever, pain and arthritis. One of them stimulates platelets in the blood to begin forming g clots inside arteries. Aspirin blocks this dangerous effect.
6. Vane’s finding caused some researchers to recall Craven’s 1956 observations, which now had a possible scientific explanation. Numerous studies were begun to find out whether aspirin could indeed inhibit heart attacks and stoke.
7. In 1972, ten U.S. medical institutions began two “double-blind” trials of 303 patients who suffered from transient ischemic attacks (TiAs). Four aspirin tablets a day were given to 153 patients, while placebo tablets were given to 150. Neither patients nor doctors knew which was which. After six months, the patients on aspirin had experienced much fewer TIAs, and fewer strokes and fewer strokes and deaths from strokes than the “controls”. The results were so conclusive that aspirin has been used for this purpose widely.
练习：
1.Paragraph2 _____
2.Paragraph3 _____
3.Paragraph5 _____
4.Paragraph7 _____
A. Confirmation of the New Effect
B. Pain-relieving and Fever-reducing Effects of Aspirin
C. The Ignored Significant Observations
D. The Origin of Aspirin
E. An Explanation of Craven’s Observations
F. Further Findings of Dr. Vane
5.In the middle of the last century Craven made _____.
6.It is Bayer Company _____.
7.There is a prostaglandin _____.
8.Numerous studies concluded _____.
A. that aspirin has a positive effect on heart attacks and stokes
B. two “double-blind” trials of patients with heart disease
C. that first produced aspirin for sale
D. the unsuspected effect on pain and fever
E. important observations on the effects of aspirin
F. that may cause clots to be formed in the arteries