2010年考研英語閱讀B模擬試題及答案

　　Part B

　　Directions:

　　The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For Questions 41-45, you are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent text by choosing from the list A-G to fill in each numbered box. The first and the last paragraphs have been placed for you in Boxes. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET1. (10 points)

　　[A] Ten volunteers responded to the placebo much better than the rest. By the end of the experiment, their anxiety scores had halved, whereas the others' stayed the same. Brain scans also showed that activity in the amygdala, the brain's "fear" centre, had dropped by 3 per cent。

　　[B] He and his colleagues recruited 25 people with an exaggerated fear of public humiliation, otherwise known as social anxiety disorder. Participants had to give a speech at the start and end of an eight-week treatment - which unbeknownst to them and their doctors, was actually a placebo。

　　[C] To see if there were genetic differences between responders and non-responders, Furmark screened them for a variant of the gene for tryptophan hydroxylase-2, which makes the brain chemical, serotonin. Previous studies suggested that people with two copies of a particular "G" variant are less anxious in standard "fear" tests. Sure enough 8 of the 10 responders had two copies, while none of the non-responders did (Journal of Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2534-08.2008)。

　　[D] The gene might not play a role in our response to treatment for all conditions, and the experiment involved only a small number of people. Nonetheless, the discovery is a milestone in the quest to understand this phenomenon, which often blurs the results of clinical trials "To our knowledge, it's the first time anyone has linked a gene to the placebo effect," says Tomas Furmark of Uppsala University in Sweden。

　　[E] Furmark believes the effect of the gene may extend to other conditions where the amygdala is involved, such as phobias, pain disorders and even depression. However, he cautions that only further studies will reveal whether the gene influences the placebo effect more generally。

　　[F] Echoing Furmark's caution is Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin, Italy. "We know that there's not a single placebo effect but many." Some may work through genetics, he adds, others through the expectation of a reward。

　　[G] FOR the first time, a gene is being linked to increased susceptibility to the placebo effect, the mysterious capacity some people have to benefit from sham treatments。

　　Order:

　　G →　41.　→　42.　→　43.　→　44.　→　45.　→　F

　　參考答案

　　Part B(10 points)

　　41. D　42. B　43. A　44. C　45. E

　　全文翻譯

　　G 研究人員首次將基因與更容易產生安慰劑效應聯系起來。安慰劑效應是指有些人所具有的從偽治療中獲益的神奇能力。

　　D 這類基因也許并不能在治療任何疾病時都影響到我們的反應，并且只有少數人參加了這次試驗。盡管如此，今天的發現對于人們理解這種通常干擾臨床試驗結果的現象來說，仍然具有里程碑式的意義。瑞典烏普薩拉大學的托馬斯·富爾馬克說：“據我們所知，這是人類第一次將基因與安慰劑效應聯系起來。”

　　B 富爾馬克和同事征集了25名患者社交恐懼癥的志愿者。參與者必須在為期8周的治療開始和結束時各做一次演講——他們自己和他們的醫生都不知道這實際上是一種安慰劑療法。

　　A 10名志愿者對這種安慰劑療法所產生的反應比其余的人要好得多。試驗結束時，他們的焦慮分值已經減半，而其他人則維持不變。大腦掃描結果顯示，大腦“恐懼”中樞扁桃核的活動已減少30%。

　　C 為了查看反應者與無反映者是否存在基因差別，富爾馬克為他們檢查了色氨酸羥化酶2基因的一種變體，這種基因變體能生成一種大腦化學物質血清素。此前的研究表明，具有兩組“G”基因變體的人在標準“恐懼”測試中焦慮程度較低。完全可以肯定的是10位反映者中8位都具有這兩組變體，而無反應者中則沒有一個人具有這兩組變體。

　　E富爾馬克認為，這類基因的作用也適用于其他與扁桃核有關的疾病，如恐懼癥、疼痛障礙、憂郁癥等。但他警告說，只有進一步研究之后才能發現這類基因是否在更廣泛的意義上影響安慰劑效應。

　　F意大利都靈大學的法布里齊奧·貝內代蒂說：“我們知道安慰劑效應不止一種，而是很多種。”他還說，有些是通過基因起作用，其他一些則是通過獎勵期待起作用。