At first, Dorothy Sorlie thought she was just getting old, though not as gracefully as she'd hoped. Retired from teaching English at a local college, Sorlie, then 74, began losing interest in things she'd enjoyed, including reading and cooking. She couldn't concentrate. Her handwriting changed. The symptoms occurred so gradually that initially she wasn't aware anything was happening.
Things kept getting worse. She started worrying that she might be developing early dementia (痴呆). The physical symptoms progressed too. Most worrisome, she began having trouble walking and started falling. Through it all, her doctors struggled to explain what was happening.
She and her husband, Jim Urness, were desperate for answers; It would take years before they got them. The doctors' diagnoses (诊断), all incorrect, could account for one or two of Sorlie's symptoms but not all of them, and none of the treatments seemed to help.
The couple traveled across the country looking for someone who could tell them what was wrong. However, one possible explanation for her symptoms after another proved incorrect. At last, Sorlie's primary care doctor, Kevin Wergeland found the disease responsible for all her symptoms was a little-known condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). Although her condition was detected at an advanced state, it was treatable.
In fact, NPH is sometimes referred to as "treatable dementia". It is an insidious (潜伏的) and mysterious disorder that can copy many more common problems including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. An estimated 700000 people in the United States have NPH, although ifs believed that fewer than 20 percent of them are correctly diagnosed.
Sorlie is now free of NPH symptoms, and taking advantage of her good health and using her dramatic recovery to inform others about NPH. She gives presentations to local senior centers as a volunteer. "If this awareness can help one person avoid what my husband and I endured, " Sorlie says, "then my efforts are worth it. "
The sun produces more than enough energy for human activities, but we still can't capture enough of it. While solar panels (太阳能电池板) have made big advances in recent years, becoming cheaper and more efficient, they just provide electricity, not storable liquid fuels, which are still in great demand.
"If you look at the global energy structure and what's needed, electricity only covers maybe 20-25%. So the question is when we have covered that 25%, what do we do next? asks Professor Reisner from Cambridge University.
His answer is to look to nature: "Plants are a huge inspiration, because they have learned over millions of years how to take up sunlight and store the energy in energy carriers. I really believe that artificial photosynthesis (光合作用) will be one part of that energy structure over the next two decades. "
When plants photosynthesize, they take up water and carbon dioxide, and use light from the sun to change these raw materials into the carbohydrates they need for growth. "We want to copy this, but we don't really want to make carbohydrates because they make a low-quality fuel, so instead of making carbohydrates we try to make something that can be more readily used," says Prof Reisner.
"We have a great theory effort, and the theory and the experiment go hand in hand," says the project leader, Prof Harry Atwater of Caltech. "We now have what's actually the worlds largest database. The bad news is that we're not likely to see fields full of photosynthesis panels any time soon. There are still major stumbling blocks. "
Eat right, exercise, avoid stress... These instructions are often considered to be the necessary ingredients (要素) for a long and healthy life. While these day-to-day habits and behaviors matter, a person's attitude to life—including, and maybe especially, the way he or she reacts to hardship—is arguably the more important side of the longevity (长寿) coin.
Faced with difficult times, a lot of people start drinking, smoking, abandoning exercise, cutting ties with friends, or making other unhealthy choices. These new habits can be hard to kick once the difficult Period has passed: However, certain qualities seem to safeguard some people from such risks. Experts say one quality consistently tops the list, that is, the being high on conscientiousness. Conscientiousness refers to someone who is organized, careful, and persistent (坚持的) in their goals. Conscientious people are planful and responsible. When they take on a task, they don't give up easily.
This may come as a surprise to those who assume carefree, take-it-easy types are most likely to avoid life's many injuries and injustices. "We actually found the most cheerful and optimistic people lived shorter lives," Martin, an expert, says. "Being worried or anxious all the time is a problem, but a little worrying—when you're thinking ahead~can help you to be better prepared. " Conscientious worriers tend to put their anxiety to good use: They make choices or changes in response to their concerns. Their worrying is productive, not pointless.
While conscientious people are not totally free of risks, they're clear about the risks they're going to take. These are folks who tend to wear their seat belts, stay away from heavy drinking or drugs, and avoid other sources of unreasonable risk. Conscientious people also tend to adopt and stick with healthy habits, and their awareness and diligence tend to lead them into healthy relationships and jobs. All of these tendencies promote a long and healthy life.
Hope for Solving Our Seas' Problems
The world' oceans, more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface, are filled with problems: Overfishing, warming and acidifying (酸化的) waters, plastic pollution, a loss of abundance and diversity. But it's of great importance. To care about the ocean in the 21st century is to feel conflicted: despairing what's been lost, optimistic about what we can save.
David Doubilet is a photographer who has already spent more than 27,000 hours underwater. There is an image where Doubilet holds a photo he's made on the same reef, in the same spot, in 2009 — and what that reef looked like nine years later. The decline has been completely discouraging.
He talks about places where the coral's still healthy and is even being used to develop new species of more resilient (可迅速恢复的) coral. And he believes his work documenting all of this — the good and the bad — can inform and inspire.
"The time in the sea has given me a priceless perspective," he says. "I can make pictures that bear witness. Pictures have this power to educate. But he is careful not to show only pictures that make people feel bad —""
That's the message of this issue: As Doubilet puts it; "With hope, there's always the ability to change. Whether we choose to drive a hybrid car or not, whether we choose to turn down the temperature, whether we use sustainable energy. Above all, there is hope. "
A. We need pictures that also show hope and resilience.
B. There is reason for hope and a lot that each of us can do.
C. It was like a bunch of corals, and I went back to a boneyard.
D. He has photographed the story about the changes to coral reefs.
E. Yet Doubilet remains hopeful that we can turn a lot of this around.
F. Finding solutions, or even reasons for optimism, can seem a demanding task.
G. There you'll find ideas for addressing the problems and being part of the solutions.
A major earthquake struck Haiti in 2010. Shortly after that, my wife and I decided to 1 a struggling orphanage (孤儿院) in Port-au-Prince. The children there became like 2 to us, especially one little girl named Chika. But at the age of five, Chika was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor. Though we never 3 adopted Chika, we decided to bring her home with us to Detroit to make sure she got the 4 medical care—just as any parent would.
Occasionally, our friends would say，"It's 5 what you're doing for a child that's not yours. " It 6 me to think there would be any difference in our efforts if 7 Chika had our DNA.
The paperwork at the orphanage was 8 by me. It obligated (使负责任) us to feed, educate，and 9 the children—all things parents are supposed to do. But 10, it is a document of 11, not parenthood.
We 12 with the "Yours or not yours" question for many times until Chika once asked, "How did you find me?" From then on，I 13 myself she would never feel 14 again.
We did not bring any of these little souls into the world. That 15 can never be overstated. But I have witnessed the 16 connection between an adoptive mother and her child, and I have also witnessed helpless babies 17 by those who birthed them. The opposite also happens. Now, I've 18 the truth: Love determines our 19. It always comes down to that. We were—we are—a place of love and 20 for Haitian children.
Traveling to an office five days a week, sitting at a desk all day，and then going home. Office work is not always like that. It doesn't have to be such routine—the usual, fixed way of doing things—it is much (flexible) these days.
During the pandemic, we've all had to have a flexible approach to work. And it has, perhaps, changed our attitude to (work) flexibly. Actually，different countries have different laws about working flexibly. In the UK, for the last 14 years, employees (have) the right to request flexible working. But what does it (exact) mean to work flexibly?
"Because of the pandemic, now everybody thinks flexible working means working from home, but it doesn't. It's about common sense—using your (judge) to make sensible decisions. does the job need in terms of when, where, how long, and what do you need and what does your family need一and how do the two match? So, flexibility really means having choice and control over when, where and how long you work, and (negotiate) that with your manager," said Sarah Jackson, a workplace consultant at Cranfield University School of Management.
So, requesting to work for two hours a day is not sensible, being able to work from 12 until 8 instead of 9 to 5 might be. Of course, this (depend) on the needs of the business.
At a medical clinic in Waterloo, Ontario, an elderly woman sat on the edge of a waiting room chair singing the Celine Dion tune "My Heart Will Go On." Other than a slight rhythmic rocking of her body to the Titanic theme song, she kept still, with her arms crossed elegantly over her chest. With little effort, she was able to send her sweet，high-pitched (尖声的) voice exploding into every comer of the clinic.
I had fun watching how people reacted. There was a lot of changing in seats, but mainly they awkwardly looked away and tried to pretend there was nothing out of the ordinary going on.
I was there with my father, who was getting a routine blood test, when the woman arrived. She settled into the seat directly across from my dad. Because she was so tiny, she was forced to sit on the edge of the chair so her feet could touch the floor. The position made it seem as though she were sitting forward to engage in conversation with him. She smiled at him, and he smiled back.
I was concerned about how my dad would react to the possible invasion of his space. He was 77 at the time and had been living with Alzheimer's (老年痴呆症) for several years. He was a brilliant and shy military man. When he was healthy，he tolerated people's eccentricities (古怪) dutifully but with silent disapproval. He considered it wholly bad mannered to bring too much unnecessary attention to oneself. Since Alzheimer's has a tendency to cause damage to a person's patience and self-control. Dad had got into a few challenging and unpleasant situations in the past. I couldn't help but think that this little woman was playing with fire.
Her singing began gently, like a quiet hum. I glanced over at Dad. His smile was gone, and he was staring right at her. She was staring back. I couldn't read his expression, but it seemed to be something like confusion. This wasn't an unusual state for him.
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
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Paragraph 1:
This didn't stop the tiny woman one bit, and her singing slowly got louder.
Paragraph 2:
To my surprise, my dad's face softened.
