When you go to the doctor, you like to come away with a prescription.It makes you feel better to know you will get some medicine. But the doctor knows that medicine is not always needed. Sometimes all a sick person needs is some reassurance that all will be well. In such cases the doctor may prescribe a placebo.

A placebo is a sugar pill, a harmless shot, or ail empty capsule. Even though they have no medicine in them, these things seem to make people well. The patient thinks it is medicine and begins to get better. How does this happen?

The study of the placebo opens up new knowledge about the way the human body can heal itself. It is as if there was a doctor in each of us. The doctor will heal the body for us if we let it. But it is not yet known just how the placebo works to heal the body. Some people say it works because the human mind fools itself. These people say that if the mind is fooled into thinking it got medicine, then it will act as if it did, and the body will feel better.

Placebos do not always work. The success of this treatment seems to rest a lot with the relationship between the patient and the doctor. If the patient has a lot of trust in the doctor and if the doctor really wants to help the patient, then the placebo is more likely to work. So in a way, the doctor is the most powerful placebo of all.

A placebo can also have bad effects. If patients expect a bad reaction to medicine, then they will also show a bad reaction to the placebo. This would seem to show that a lot of how you react to medicine is in your mind rather than in your body. Some doctors still think that if the placebo can have bad effects it should never be used. They think there is still not enough known about it.

The strange power of the placebo does seem to suggest that the human mind is stronger than we think it is. There are people who say you can heal your body by using your mind. And the interesting thing is that even people who swear this is not possible have been healed by a placebo.

1.What do we know about placebo according to the passage?

A. It contains some sort of medicine.

B. It won’t function if you are negative about medicine.

C. People who don’t believe placebo can’t be healed by it.

D. Patients and doctors know clearly how it helps to heal the body.

2.Why is the doctor sometimes the most powerful placebo?

A. The patient needs help badly.

B. The patient believes in the doctor.

C. The doctor knows better about your body.

D. The doctor has carefully studied medicine.

3.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 5 refer to?

A. The placebo. B. The bad effect.

C. The body. D. The medicine.

4.What is the passage mainly about?

A. Placebo:Work on Your Mind

B. Placebo:The Most Powerful Medicine

C. Placebo:The Best Doctor

D. Placebo:Heal Your Body

“One thing I enjoy about my job is that I can work on something that is actually active,” says Game McGimsey, an American volcanologist(火山学家). Part of his job includes keeping an eye on Alaska’s many active volcanoes and giving people a heads-up when a volcano might erupt(喷发).

Like most jobs in the science, volcanology requires a lot of education. McGimsey received an undergraduate degree in geology at the University of North Carolina, then landed an internship(实习期) with a geologist at the USGS(美国地质勘探局) whose work field was about volcanoes. After earning a graduate degree at the University of Colorado, McGimsey accepted a job with the USGS and has been with the Alaska Volcano Observatory for 25 years.

Volcanoes can influence the world in ways we might not think about. For example, on Dec.15 1989, a 747 jetliner (a large airplane) flew through a thick ash cloud produced by Mount Redoubt, an Alaskan volcano that hadn’t erupted in 25 years. The ash caused all four engines to die, and the plane’s electronics went dead.

“The plane was within several thousand feet of flying into the mountains below when the pilots got a couple of engines restarted and landed safely in Anchorage,” McGimsey says. It cost nearly $80 million to repair the damage to the plane.

Such situations show just how dangerous volcanoes can be. However, volcanologists know the risks and are prepared to protect themselves.

McGimsey admits, “There is certainly a higher danger level in volcanology than some other jobs. We understand how serious the danger is, and we don’t like taking unnecessary chances. We avoid getting too close to an erupting volcano, because it is not worth injury or death simply to get a rock or a photograph.”

1.Before working for the USGS, McGimsey ________.

A.had been a pilot for 25 years

B.knew nothing about the organization

C.had taught at the University of North Colorado

D.had studied at the University of Colorado

2.On Dec.15,1989, a 747 jetliner ________.

A.had all its engines restarted

B.flew into a volcano in Europe

C.survived an air accident luckily

D.disappeared in a huge ash cloud

3.What McGimsey says in the last paragraph shows his ________.

A. prideB. carefulnessC. lonelinessD. doubt

4.What would be the best title for the text?

A.Game McGimsey: a man of his word

B.Game McGimsey: a volcano watcher

C.The eruption of Mt Redoubt

D.Lost land of the volcano

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网