时文阅读50篇

时文阅读50 篇

Passage 1

DealingWith Spam1: Confidence Game

(2010.11.18 The Economist) [483 words]

Bill Gates, then still Microsoft‘s boss, was nearly right

in 2004 when he predicted the end of spam in two years.

Thanks to clever filters2 unsolicited3 e-mail has largely

disappeared as a daily nuisance4 for most on the internet.

But spam is still a menace5: blocked at the e-mail inbox,

spammers post messages as comments on websites and

increasingly on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. The criminal businesses behind spam are competitive and creative. They vault over6 technical fixes as fast as the hurdles7 are erected.

The anti-spam industry has done applaudable work in saving e-mail. But it is always one step behind. In the end, the software industry‘s int erest is in making money from the problem (by selling subscriptions to regular security updates) rather than tackling it at its source.

Law-enforcement agencies have had some success shutting down spam-control servers in America and the Netherlands. But as one place becomes unfriendly, spammers move somewhere else. Internet connections in poor and ill-run countries are improving faster than the authorities there can police them. That won‘t end soon. In any case, the real problem is not the message, but the link. Sometimes an

unwise click leads only to a website that sells counterfeit8 pills. But it can also lead to a page that infects your computer with a virus or another piece of malicious software that then steals your passwords or uses your machine for other immoral purposes. Spam was never about e-mail; it was about convincing us to click. To the spammer, it needs to be decided whether the link is e-mailed or liked.

The police are doing what they can, and software companies keep on tightening security. But spam is not just a hack9 or a crime, it is a social problem, too. If you look beyond the computers that lie between a spammer and his mark, you can see all the classic techniques of a con-man: buy this stock, before everyone else does. Buy these pills, this watch, cheaper than anyone else can. The spammer plays upon the universal human desire to believe that we are smarter than anyone gives us credit for, and that things can be had for nothing. As in other walks of life, people become wiser and take preca utions only when they have learned what happens when they don‘t.

That is why the spammers‘new arena10— social networks— is so effective. A few fiddles might help, such as tougher default privacy settings on social networks. But the real problem is man, not the machine. Public behaviour still treats the internet like a village, in which new faces are welcome and anti-social behaviour a rarity. A better analogy would be a railway station in a big city, where hustlers11 gather to prey on the credulity12 of new arrivals. Wise behaviour in such places is to walk fast, avoid eye contact and be cautious with strangers. Try that online.

1.spam /sp?m/ n. 垃圾邮件

2.filter /?f?lt?/ n. 过滤器；滤光器；筛选过滤程序

3.unsolicited /??ns??l?s?t?d/ adj. 未经请求的，自发的

4.nuisance /?nju?s?ns/ n. 麻烦事，讨厌的人或东西

5.menace /?men?s/ n. 威胁，恐吓；危险气氛；烦人的人或事物

6.vault over 越过

7.hurdle /?h??dl/ n. 障碍；跨栏，栏

8.counterfeit /?ka?nt?f?t/ n. 伪造，仿造，制假

9. hack /h?k/ n. 砍, 劈；供出租的马；出租车司机；非法侵入（他人计算机系统）

10.arena /??ri?n?/ n. 圆形运动场，圆形剧场；竞技舞台，活动场所

11.hustler /?h?sl?/ n. 耍诡计骗钱的人

12.credulity /kr??du?l?t?/ n. 轻信

Passage 2

AGene to Explain Depression

（2011.1.3 Time）[459 words]

As powerful as genes are in exposing clues to diseases,

not even the most passionate geneticist1 believes that

complex conditions such as depression can be reduced to a

tell-tale2 string of DNA.

But a new study confirms earlier evidence that a

particular gene, involved in ferrying3 a brain chemical

critical to mood known as serotonin4, may play a role in triggering5 the mental disorder in some people.

Researchers led by Dr. Srijan Sen, a professor of psychiatry at University of Michigan, report in the Archives6 of General Psychiatry that individuals with a particular form of the serotonin transporter gene were more vulnerable to developing depression when faced with stressful life events such as having a serious medical illness or being a victim of childhood abuse. The form of the gene that these individuals inherit prevents the mood-regulating serotonin from being re-absorbed by nerve cells in the brain. Having such a low-functioning version of the transporter starting early in life appears to set these individuals up for developing depression later on, although the exact relationship between this gene, stress, and depression isn‘t

clear yet.

Sen‘s results confirm those of a ground-breaking7 study in 2003, in which

scientists for the first time confirmed the link between genes and environment in depression. In that study, which involved more than 800 subjects, individuals with the gene coding for the less functional serotonin transporter were more likely to develop depression following a stressful life event than those with the more functional form of the gene. But these findings were questioned by a 2009 analysis in which scientists pooled8 14 studies investigating the relationship between the serotonin transporter gene, depression and stress, and found no heightened risk of depression among those with different versions of the gene.

―One of the hopes I have is that we can settle this story, and mo ve on to looking

more broadly across the genome9 for more factors related to depression,‖he says.

―Ideally we would like to find a panel of different genetic variations that go together

to help us predict who is going to respond poorly to stress, and who might respond

Sen stresses, however, that this gene is only one player in the cast of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to depression. ―All things considered, this gene

is a relatively small factor, and for this finding to be clinically10 useful, we really need

to find many, many more factors. Ultimately we may identify new pathways that are involved in depression to come up with new and better treatments.‖

1. geneticist /d???net?s?st/ n. 遗传学家

2.tell-tale /?tel?te?l/ adj. 暴露实情的，能说明问题的

3.ferry /?fer?/ vt. 渡运，摆渡

4.serotonin /?s??r???t??n?n/ n. [生化] 血清素，5-羟色胺（神经递质，易影响情绪等）

5. trigger /?tr?ɡ?/ vt. 触发，引发；开动，启动

6.archive /?ɑ?ka?v/ n. 档案馆；档案文件

7.ground-breaking /?gra?nd?bre?k??/ adj. 开创性的；创新的

8.pool /pu?l/ vt.合伙经营；集中（智慧等）；共享，分享

9.genome /??i?n??m/ n. [生]基因组；[生]染色体组

10.clinically /?kl?n?kl?/ adv. 临床地；冷淡地；通过临床诊断

Passage 3

Second Thoughts on Online Education

(2010.9 New York Times) [415 words]

Let the computer do the teaching. Some studies, expert

opinion and cost pressures all point toward a continuing shift

of education online.

A major study last year, funded by the Education

Department, which covered comparative research over 12

years, concluded that online learning on average beat

face-to-face teaching by a modest1 but statistically meaningful margin2.

Bill Gates, whose foundation funds a lot of education programs, predicted last

month that in five years much of college education will have gone online. ―The

self-motivated learner will be on the Web,‖ Mr. Gates said, speaking at the

Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe. ―College needs to be less place-based.‖

But recent research, published as a National Bureau of Economic Research

working paper, comes to a different conclusion. ―A rush to online education may

come at more of a cost than educators may suspect,‖the authors write.

The research was a head-to-head experiment, comparing the grades achieved in

the same introductory economics class by students— one group online, and one in classroom lectures.

Certain groups did notably worse online. Hispanic3 students online fell nearly a

full grade lower than Hispanic students that took the course in class. Male students

did about a half-grade worse online, as did low-achievers, which had college

grade-point averages below the mean for the university.

The difference certainly was not attributable4 to machines replacing a

tutorial-style human teaching environment. Instead, the classroom was a large lecture

hall seating hundreds of students.

traditional ―chalk and talk teaching.‖

The online lectures were well done, using a professional producer and

cameraman7. ―It had very much the feel of being in the room,‖Mr. Figlio said.

So what accounts for the difference in outcomes8? Mr. Figlio has a few theories.

For the poorer performance of males and lower-achievers, he says the time-shifting convenience of the Web made it easier for students to put off viewing the lectures and cram9 just before the test, a tactic10 unlikely to produce the best possible results.

It‘s partly a stereotype11 but also partly true, Mr. Figlio says, that female students tend to be better at time management, spreading their study time over a semester, than males. ―And the Internet makes it easier to put off12 the unpleasant thing, attending the lecture,‖he said.

1. modest /?m?d?st/ adj. 谦虚的, 谦恭的；适中的, 适度的；些许的

2. margin /?mɑ:d??n/ n. 页边空白；边, 边缘；差数, 差额

3. Hispanic /h?s?p?n?k/ adj. 西班牙和葡萄牙的

4. attributable /??tr?bj?t?bl/ adj. 可归因于，可能由于

5.flexibility /?fleks??b?l?t?/ n. 灵活性；柔韧性

6.coursework /?k?:sw?:k/ n. 课程作业

7.cameraman /?k?m?r?m?n/ n. 摄影师

8.outcome /?a?tk?m/ n. 结果

9.cram /kr?m/ v. 挤满，塞满；临时死记硬背

10. tactic /?t?kt?k/ n. 兵法；方法, 策略；手段；招数

11.stereotype /?ster??ta?p/ n. 模式化观念，老一套，刻板形象

12.put off 撤销，取消

Passage 4

The Kids Can’t Help It

（2010.12.16 Newsweek）[372 words]

What new research reveals about the adolescent

brain— from why kids bully1 to how the teen years

shape the rest of your life.

They say you never escape high school. And for

better or worse, science is lending some credibility to

that old saw. Thanks to sophisticated imaging

technology and a raft2 of longitudinal3 studies, we‘re learning that the teen years are a period of crucial brain development subject to a host of environmental and genetic factors. This emerging research sheds4 light not only on why teenagers act they way they do, but how the experiences of adolescence— from rejection to binge5 drinking— can affect who we become as adults, how we handle stress, and the way we bond with others.

One of the most important discoveries in this area of study, says Dr. Frances Jensen, a neuroscientist at Harvard, is that our brains are not finished maturing by adolescence, as was previously thought. Adolescent brains ―are only about 80 percent 考拉进阶英语—时文阅读50 篇

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of the way to maturity,‖ she said at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in November. It takes until the mid-20s, and possibly later, for a brain to

picking up new languages starting in early childhood— but also particularly sensitive to the influences of our environment, both emotional and physical. Our brains‘processing centers haven‘t been fully linked yet, particularly the parts responsible for helping to check7 our impulses8 and considering the long-term repercussions9 of our actions. ―It‘s like a brain that‘s all revved10 up not k nowing where it needs to go,‖says Jensen.

It‘s partially because of this developmental timeline that a teen can be so quick to conjure11 a stinging remark, or a biting insult, and so uninhibited12 in firing it off at

the nearest unfortunate target— a former friend, perhaps, or a bewildered parent. The impulse to hurl13 an insult14 is there, just as it may be for an adult in a stressful situation, but the brain regions that an adult might rely on to stop himself from saying something cruel just haven‘t caugh t up.

1. bully /?b?l?/ v. 恐吓；充当恶霸，恃强凌弱

2.raft /rɑ?ft/ n. 筏；橡皮艇，充气船；大量

3.longitudinal /?l?n???tju?d?nl/ adj. 纵向的；纵观的；经度的

4.shed /?ed/ vt. 散发出光；去除，摆脱；蜕，落

5.binge /b?nd?/ n. 饮酒作乐；狂饮；狂闹

6.gray matter 灰质（脑、脊髓内神经元集中的地方）

7.check /t?ek/ v. 检查，核验，核对；制止，控制

8.impulse /??mp?ls/ n. 冲动；脉冲；刺激，推动力

9.repercussion /?ri?p??k???n/ n.（间接的）反响，影响，恶果

10.rev /rev/ v.（发动机等）加快转速

11.conjure /?k?n??/ v. 变魔术；使变戏法般地出现（或消失）

12. uninhibited /??n?n?h?b?t?d/ adj. 无限制的; 无拘束的, 放任的

13.hurl /h??l/ vt. 猛掷，猛扔；大声说出

14.insult /?n?s?lt/ n. 侮辱；凌辱；无礼

Passage 5

The Power of Posture

(2011.1.13 The Economist) [486 words]

―Stand up straight!‖―Chest out!‖―Shoulders back!‖These

are the perennial1 cries of sergeant2 majors and fussy3 parents

throughout the ages. Posture certainly matters. Big is dominant

and in species after species, humans included, postures that

enhance the posturer‘s apparent size cause others to treat him as

if he were more powerful.

The stand-up-straight brigade4, however, often make a

further claim: that posture affects the way the posturer treats

himself, as well as how others treat him. To test the truth of this, Li Huang and Adam Galinsky, at Northwestern University in Illinois, have compared posture‘s effects on

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self-esteem with those of a more conventional ego-booster, management responsibility.

filled out questionnaires5, ostensibly6 to assess their leadership capacity. Half were

then given feedback forms which indicated that, on the basis of the questionnaires,

they were to be assigned to be managers in a forthcoming7 experiment. The other half were told they would be subordinates8. While the participants waited for this feedback, they were asked to help with a marketing test on ergonomic9 chairs.

In fact, neither of these tests was what it seemed. The questionnaires were

irrelevant. Volunteers were assigned to be managers or subordinates at random. The

test of posture had nothing to do with ergonomics. And, crucially, each version of the posture test included equal numbers of those who would become ―managers‖and

―subordinates‖.

Once the posture test was over the participants received their new statuses and

the researchers measured their implicit10 sense of power by asking them to engage in a word-completion task. Participants were instructed to complete a number of

fragments11 with the first word that came to mind. Seven of the fragments could be interpreted as words related to power (―power‖, ―direct‖, ―lead‖, ―authority‖,

―control‖, ―command‖and ―rich‖). Although previous studies suggested a mere title is enough to produce a detectable increase in an individual‘s sense of power, Dr Hu ang

and Dr Galinsky found no difference in the word-completion scores of those told they would be managers and those told they would be subordinates.

Having established the principle, Dr Huang and Dr Galinsky went on to test the

effect of posture on other power-related decisions: whether to speak first in a debate, whether to leave the site of a plane crash to find help and whether to join a movement

to free a prisoner who was wrongfully locked up. In all three cases those who had sat

in expansive12 postures chose the active option (to speak first, to search for help, to

fight for justice) more often than those who had sat crouched13.

The upshot14, then, is that father (or the sergeant major) was right. Those who

walk around with their heads held high not only get the respect of others, they seem

also to respect themselves.

1.perennial /p??ren??l/ adj. [植]多年生的；长久的，持续的

2.sergeant /?sɑ???nt/ n. [军]（英）陆军、空军、海军陆战队中士；（美）陆军或空

军中士

3.fussy /?f?s?/ adj. 挑剔的，大惊小怪的；紧张不安的

4.brigade /?br?ɡe?d/ n. 旅；伙，帮，派

5.questionnaire /?kwest???n e?/ n. 问卷；调查表

6. ostensibly /?s?tens?bl?/ adv. 表面上；明显地

7.forthcoming /?f??θ?k?m??/ adj. 即将发生的；现成的；乐于提供信息的

8.subordinate /s??b??d?n?t/ n. 下级，部属

9.ergonomic /???ɡ???n?m?k/ adj. 人类工程学的

10. implicit /?m?pl?s?t/ adj. 不言明的，含蓄的

11.fragment /?fr?ɡm?nt/ n. 碎片，片段

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13. crouch /kraut?/ vt. 屈膝, 蹲伏, 蹲, 蹲下

14.upshot /??p??t/ n. 最后结果，结局

Passage 6

How Rest Helps Memory: Sleepy Heads

(2010.2.25 The Economist) [402words]

Mad dogs and Englishmen, so the song has it, go out in the

midday sun. And the business practices of E ngland‘s lineal

descendant1, America, will have you in the office from nine in the

morning to five in the evening, if not longer. Much of the world,

though, prefers to take a siesta2. And research presented to the

AAAS meeting in San Diego suggests it may be right to do so. It

has already been established that those who siesta are less likely to

die of heart disease. Now, Matthew Walker and his colleagues at the

University of California, Berkeley, have found that they probably have better memory, too. A post-prandial3 snooze4, Dr Walker has discovered, sets the brain up for learning.

The role of sleep in consolidating5 memories that have already been created has

been understood for some time. Dr Walker has been trying to extend this understanding by looking at sleep‘s role in preparing the brain for the formation of memories in the first place. He was particularly interested in a type of memory called episodic6 memory, which relates to specific events, places and times. This contrasts with procedural memory, of the skills required to perform some sort of mechanical task, such as driving. The theory he and his team wanted to test was that the ability to form new episodic memories deteriorates7 with increased wakefulness, and that sleep thus restores the brain‘s capacity for efficient learning.

They asked a group of 39 people to take part in two learning sessions, one at

noon and one at 6pm. On each occasion the participants tried to memorise and recall 100 combinations of pictures and names. After the first session they were assigned randomly to either a control group, which remained awake, or a nap group, which had 100 minutes of monitored sleep.

Those who remained awake throughout the day became worse at learning. Those

who napped8, by contrast, actually improved their capacity to learn, doing better in the evening than they had at noon. These findings suggest that sleep is clearing the brain‘s short-term memory and making way for new information.

The benefits to memory of a nap, says Dr Walker, are so great that they can equal

an entire night‘s sleep. He warns, however, that napping must not be done too late in the day or it will interfere with night-time sleep. Moreover, not everyone awakens refreshed from a siesta.

1. lineal descendant 直系后裔

2.siesta /s??est?/ n. 午睡，午休

3.prandial /?pr?nd??l/ adj. 膳食的，正餐的

4. snooze /snu:z/ n. 小睡

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5.consolidate /k?n?s?l?de?t/ vt. 使巩固，使加强；合并

6.episodic /?ep??s?d?k/ adj. 偶尔发生的，不定期的；有许多片段的

Learning Gap Between Rich and Poor Starts Early

（2011.2 Newsweek）[354 words]

It‘s generally accepted that there is a correlation

between a child‘s educational attainment1 and a family‘s

poverty level, but new research shows that the problem

may take root2 earlier than previously thought.

A new study in Psychological Science found that at

10 months old, children from poor families performed

just as well as children from wealthier families, but by the time they turned 2, children from wealthier families were scoring consistently higher than those from poorer ones. ―Poor kids aren‘t even doing as well in terms of school readiness, sounding out letters and doing other things that you would expect to be relevant to early learning,‖Elliot M. Tucker-Drob of the University of Texas at Austin, lead author of the study, said in a press release.

To conduct the study, researchers assessed the mental abilities of about 750 pairs

of fraternal3 and identical4 twins from all over the U.S. The participants‘socioeconomic status w as determined based on parents‘educational attainment, occupations and family income.

Each child was asked to perform tasks that included pulling a string to ring a bell, placing three cubes in a cup, matching pictures and sorting pegs by color first at 10 months and again when they were 2 years old. At this time, researchers discovered that during the 14-month window between the aptitude5 tests, gaps in cognitive6 development had started to occur. Children from wealthier families had started to consistently outperform those from poorer ones.

Researchers attempted to disprove7 a genetic explanation by comparing the

aptitude tests of each set of twins. Among the 2-year-olds from wealthier families, identical twins had much more similar test scores than fraternal twins, who share only half of their genes.

However, among 2-year-olds from poorer families, identical twins scored no

more similar to one another than did fraternal twins.

The implication is that children‘s genetic potential is subdued8 by poverty,

though the study stopped short of drawing a scientific conclusion as to what specifically was causing the achievement gaps. Researchers did postulate9 that, generally speaking, poorer parents may not have the time or resources to spend playing with their children in stimulating ways.

1. attainment /??te?nm?nt/ n. 达到；成就，造诣

2. take root 生根；开始；建立

3. fraternal /fr??t??nl/ adj. 兄弟般的，亲如手足的

4. identical /a??dent?kl/ adj. 同一的，完全相同的

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5. aptitude /??pt?tju?d/ n. 天资，天赋

6. cognitive /?k?ɡn?t?v/ adj. 认知的，认识的

7. disprove /d?s?pru?v/ vt.证明……是错的

9. postulate /?p?stj?le?t/ v. 假定，假设

Passage 8

More Than Meets the Mirror：Illusion1 Test Links Difficulty Sensing Internal Cues2 with Distorted3 Body-Image

(2011.1.4 Scientific America) [457 words]

With all of the New Year‘s diet ads claiming you can

lose dozens of pounds in seemingly as many days, you

probably are not alone if you looked in the mirror this

morning and saw a less than ideal body. Or maybe you just

picked up a new magazine in which already thin models

have their remaining flesh scavenged4 by Photoshop to

make them appear even slimmer. With all of these unrealistic promises and images, it can be hard to gain an accurate sense of one‘s own body. But the disjunction5 for some people might go deeper than manipulated5 photos.

A new study shows that the way people perceive their external7 appearance is

likely linked to how they experience their bodies internally. Researchers found that people who had greater difficulties sensing their own internal bodily states were also more likely to be fooled into believing a rubber hand was part of their own bodies. These results, published online in the issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, may one day help scientists understand how body image can become so distorted in disorders like body dysmorphia8 and anorexia nervosa9, says lead author Manos Tsakiris of Royal Holloway, University of London.

―The sense of self is built up from a representation of internal states,‖says Hugo Critchley, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Sussex in England who was not involved with the study. ―This paper is showing that sensitivity of individuals to their internal state predicts the strength of their self-representation.‖

Most of the time, the image someone has of their body is pretty close to its

external appearance. You may see your thighs10 as slightly bigger than they actually are, or your arm muscles as slightly smaller, but the discrepancy11 is usually minimal12. In some mental disorders, however, body image can become dramatically distorted. Those who suffer from body dysmorphic disorder think that parts of their bodies are malformed13 or grotesque14, even when these supposed flaws are not noticeable to others. In eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa patients continue to think they need to lose weight even as their bodies waste away.

Crucial to the formation of body image— pathological15 and otherwise— is the integration of external and internal cues. What we see in the mirror and what we feel against our skin melds with16 our own internal awareness of our bodies to create an overarching17 body image. Scientists have historically focused on how external factors like magazines and fashion models affect the creation of an accurate body image. Tsakiris and his colleagues, however, hypothesized that a person‘s internal

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awareness of his or her body, known as interoceptive18 awareness, was also related to the creation of an accurate body image.

1. illusion /??lju???n/ n. 错觉，幻觉；假象

2. cue /kju?/ n. 提示；暗示, 暗号

4.scavenge /?sk?v?n?/ v.（从废弃物中）觅食，捡破烂；吃（动物尸体）

5.disjunction /d?s????k??n/ n. 分离，分裂

6.manipulate /m??n?pj?le?t/ vt. 控制，操纵；操作，使用；正骨

7.external /?k?st??nl/ adj. 外部的，外面的；外界的，外来的；对外的

8.dysmorphia /d?s?m??f??/ n.[医]畸形, 变形

9.anorexia nervosa 神经性厌食症

10. thigh /θa?/ n. 股，大腿

11.discrepancy /d?s?krep?ns?/ n. 差异，不符合，不一致

12.minimal /?m?n?m?l/ adj. 极小的，极少的，最小的

13.malformed /?m?l?f??md/ adj. 畸形的

14.grotesque /ɡr???tesk/ adj. 怪诞的，荒唐的；奇形怪状的

15.pathological /?p?θ??l???kl/ adj. 不理智的，无道理的；病态的；病理学的

16. meld with 与……融合；与……合并

17.overarching /???v?r?ɑ?t???/ adj. 非常重要的，首要的

18. interoceptive /??nt?r?u?sept?v/ adj. 内感受(器)的

Passage 9

The Tussle1 for Talent

（2011.1.6 The Economist）[432 words]

Plato believed that men are divided into three classes:

gold, silver and bronze. Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian

economist, argued that ―the vital2 few‖account for most

progress. Such sentiments are taboo today in public life.

Politicians talk of a ―leadership class‖or ―the vital few‖at

their peril3. Schools abhor4 picking winners. Universities

welcome the masses: more people now teach at British ones than attended them in the 1950s.

In the private sector5 things could hardly be more different. The wo rld‘s best companies struggle relentlessly6 to find and keep the vital few. They offer them fat pay packets, extra training, powerful mentors7 and more challenging assignments. If anything, businesses are becoming more obsessed with ability.

This is partly cyclical8. Deloitte and other consultancies have noticed that as the economy begins to recover, companies are trying harder to nurture raw talent, or to poach9 it from their rivals. When new opportunities arise, they hope to have the brainpower to seize them. The acceleration of the tussle for talent is also structural, however. Private-equity firms rely heavily on a few stars. High-tech firms, for all their sartorial10 egalitarianism11, are ruthless12 about recruiting the brightest. Firms in emerging markets are desperate to find high-flyer13s— the younger the better— who can cope with rapid growth and fast-changing environments.

Successful companies make sure that senior managers are involved with ―talent

that they spent 40% of their time on personnel. Andy Grove, who ran Intel, a chipmaker14, obliged all the senior people, including himself, to spend at least a week a year teaching high-flyers. Nitin Paranjpe, the boss of Hindustan Unilever, recruits people from campuses and regularly visits high-flyers in their offices. Involving the company‘s top brass15 in the process prevents lower-level managers from monopolising16 high-flyers (and taking credit for their triumphs). It also creates a dialogue between established and future leaders.

Successful companies also integrate talent development with their broader strategy. This ensures that companies are more than the sum of their parts. Adrian Dillon, a former chief financial officer of Agilent, a firm that makes high-tech measuring devices, says he would rather build a ―repertory17 company‖ than a

―collection of world experts‖. P&G likes its managers to be both inn ovative and worldly: they cannot rise to the top without running operations in a country and managing a product globally. Agilent and Novartis like to turn specialists into general managers. Goodyear replaced 23 of its 24 senior managers in two years as it shifted from selling tyres to carmakers to selling them to motorists.

1.tussle /t?sl/ n.扭打；争论；争斗；奋斗

2.vita l /?va?tl/ adj.生命的；充满活力的；生死攸关的；极其重要的

3.peril /?per?l/ n. 严重危险；祸害，险情

4.abhor /?b?h??/ vt. 痛恨，憎恶

5.sector /?sekt?/ n.[数]扇形；两脚规；部分；部门

6.relentlessly /r??lentl?sl?/ adv. 残酷地，无情地；不停地，不减弱地

7.mentor /?men?t??/ n.私人教师，辅导教师；良师益友

8.cyclical /?sa?kl?kl/ adj. 周期的，循环的

9.poach /p??t?/ vt. 水煮；偷猎；盗用，挖走（人员）

10.sartorial /sɑ??t??r??l/ adj. 服装的，男装的，衣着的

11.egalitarianism /??ɡ?l??te?r??n?z?m/ n. 平等主义，平均主义

12. ruthless /?ru?θl?s/ adj. 无情的，冷酷的; 残忍的

13.high-flyer /?ha?fla??/n.抱负极高的人；有野心的人

14.chipmaker /?t??p?me?k?/ n. 集成块制造者；半导体(元件)制造商

15.top brass 要员

16.monopolise /m??n?p?la?z/ vt. 垄断，独占；占去（大部分时间、精力），霸占

17.repertory /?rep?tr?/ n. 保留剧目轮演

Passage 10

What Is a Medically Induced Coma1 and Why Is It Used?

（2011.1.10 Scientific America）[497 words]

Basically what happens with a medically induced

coma is that you take a drug and administer it until you

see a certain pattern in the monitor2 that follows the

patient‘s brain waves, the E EG（electroencephalogram3）.

Patients with brain injuries who are in a coma have a

12

can hopefully protect the brain.

If you‘ve had a brain injury, what happens is the metabolism4 of the brain has

been significantly altered. You may have areas without adequate blood flow. The idea is: ―Let me reduce the amount of energy those different brain areas need.‖If I can do

that then, as the brain heals5 and the swelling6 goes down, maybe those areas that

were at risk can be protected. But the main thing about a drug-induced coma, as opposed to a coma, is that it‘s reversible7. If you do this to someone with a normal brain, they would come right out of it once you removed the drugs.

Speaking generally, the main effects that these drugs have outside the brain is

they reduce blood pressure. So people trying to do this are giving a lot of other medicines to keep blood pressure up and keep the heart pumping in a nice way.

You‘re protecting the brain on one hand and, on the other hand, all areas of the brain

are not getting the blood they need necessarily.

If you do this for an extended period of time, the drugs can accumulate and it

may take them a while to wash out of the system as well. As long as you‘re mindful of these things you can see someone through a period like this. It really depends on the injury, whether it‘s a brain injury or seizing.

It depends on how the person is progressing and the nature of the injury. What the neurologists or intensive8 care unit doctors do is try to have them come out as soon as possible. In a case like Gifford‘s they have swelling. If they see the swelling recede,

then they may try to lighten up9 the coma to see if she can come back and see what

her level of function is.

The body doesn‘t usually decide to enter a coma. A coma is a profound

shutdown10 of brain function. It typically results from profound trauma11, brain injury,

a drug overdose, stroke— some very gross12 insult. There isn‘t a natural analogue13 for

a medically induced coma.

It‘s hard to sort out, because if you‘re going to these extremes you‘re already

dealing with a very dire14 situation. If there are effects later on, it‘s an extremely

difficult distinction to make whether it is an effect of the drug-induced coma. People who do this are very mindful of watching and monitoring. They make every effort to only use this option for as long as they need to.

https://www.360docs.net/doc/655724904.html,a /?k??m?/ n. 昏迷

2.monitor /?m?n?t?/ n. 监视器；监测器，监控器；班长

3.electroencephalogram /??lektr???n?sef?l?ɡr?m/ n. [医]脑电图

4.metabolism /m??t?b?l?z?m/ n. 新陈代谢

5. heal /hi?l/ v. (使)愈合, 治愈, (使)恢复健康

6.swelling /?swel??/ n. 膨胀，浮肿

7.reversible /r??v??s?bl/ adj. 可逆的，可恢复原状的，可医治的；可翻转的，可两

面穿的

8. intensive /in?tens?v/ adj. 加强的, 集中的, 密集的

9.lighten up 别那么严肃，别担忧

10.shutdown /???tda?n/ n. 关闭；停工；倒闭

考拉进阶英语—时文阅读50 篇

13

13.analogue /??n?l?ɡ/ n. 相似物；类似事情

14. dire /da??/ adj. 可怕的；悲惨的；极端的；急迫的

Passage 11

An Unwanted Inheritance

（2011.1.26 Newsweek）[478 words]

Greg Martin wasn‘t sure what to expect when his

mother died last May, forcing him to return to his childhood

home for the first time in nearly 18 years. The house,

located on a pleasant block in San Diego, had always been

cluttered1, but now it was virtually uninhabitable2. ―There

were piles as tall as me, six feet or so,‖Greg said. ―Where

there used to be floor, there were trails— a foot and a half hig h, so you‘d be walking on stuff.‖Greg was forced to navigate through piles of magazines, papers, and books, plastic bags filled with thrift-store purchases, expired3 medicine bottles and literally tons of clothes. The only ―living space‖was a small pocket by the front door, where his mother, a colorful and fiercely independent woman, had collapsed shortly before her death at the age of 83. Greg, who has taken a leave of absence from his job, expected that cleaning out the house would take six months. It‘s n ow been eight— and counting.

It‘s a scenario that‘s all too familiar to children of hoarders4, who are burdened

with far more than funeral arrangements, probate5, and grief. They must also deal with the overwhelming piles of stuff that a hoarding parent accumulated over the years— in apartments, in houses, in storage facilities, and garages. The items themselves may vary, but for many children of hoarders, the result is the same: the unwanted inheritance6 of a whole lot of nothing.

The inclination to hoard typically begins in the teenage years, but experts say it

can also be triggered7— or made worse— by brain damage, a traumatic life event, or depression. As the hoarders age, the piles grow, gradually eclipsing8 everything else in their lives.

―I‘m dreading the day when the house needs to be cleaned out, more than I dread

the day that they leave us,‖laments Teresa C. of Winnipeg, Canada. Teresa, like several others interviewed for this story, did not want to give her last name because the hoarding is a source of tension in her family. For Teresa, inheriting her aging parents‘hoard is a worry for the future.

Hoarding is an extremely complicated mental disorder that generally involves the acquisition of too many items, difficulty getting rid of items, and problems with organization and prioritization9. Few statistics exist related to hoarding, because hoarders rarely seek or accept treatment. But shows like Hoarders and Hoarding: Buried Alive, Animal Hoarders have certainly raised awareness and triggered a tidal wave of anecdotal evidence to suggest the illness, often associated with obsessive10 compulsive disorder, affects millions— either directly or indirectly. Support groups and message boards are flooded with stories about the once-secret life of hoarders and their families, and the constant battles to get the hoarders to understand the impact their illness is having on their loved ones. That impact doesn‘t end with their passing.考拉进阶英语—时文阅读50 篇

2. uninhabitable /??n?n?h?b?t?bl/ adj. 不适宜居住的

3. expired /?ks?pa??d/ adj. 过期的，失效的

4. hoarder /?h??d?/ n. 贮藏者，囤积者

5. probate /?pr??be?t/ n. 遗嘱检验

6. inheritance /?n?her?t?ns/ n. 遗产，遗传特征；继承遗产

7. trigger /?tr?ɡ?/ vt. 触发，引发；开动，启动

8. eclipse /??kl?ps/ vt. 遮住……的光；使黯然失色

9. prioritization /pra???r?ta??ze???n/ n. 优先处理；按重要性排列

10. obsessive /?b?ses?v/ adj. 强迫的，着迷的，难以释怀的

Passage 12

The Myth of Aging Gracefully

(2011.1.30 Newsweek) [419 words]

Who wants to live to 100? Just about everyone, if old age

fulfills the fantasy1 that we can sail through our 90s with

vigorous bodies and minds and die instantly of a heart attack,

preferably while running the last of many marathons. As the

oldest baby boomers turn 65, it is past time to take a realistic

look at old age as it is— not as a minor inconvenience to be

remedied2 by longevity-worshiping hucksters3 of ―anti-aging‖ supplements or

brain-teasing computer games, not as a ―disease‖that will soon be ―cured‖by a medical miracle, and not as an experience to be defied and denied, in the spirit of a 2008 Worl d Science Festival panel on aging titled ―90 Is the New 50.‖No, it‘s not.

It‘s not even the new 70.

The truth is that we are all capable of aging successfully—until we aren‘t. The media love to uphold examples of ―ageless‖aging like Betty White, a scintil lating4 comedian at 89, or Warren Buffett, an investment sage5 at 80. These exceptions are easier to think about than the general rule that physical and financial hardships mount as people move beyond their relatively hardy 60s and 70s, classified by sociologists as the ―young old,‖into the harsher territory of the ―old old‖in their 80s and 90s. There

is a 50–50 chance that anyone who survives to blow out 85 candles will endure years of significant mental or physical disability. The risk of Alzheimer‘s dise ase doubles in every five-year period over 65.

Geriatrician Muriel R. Gillick, in her book The Denial of Aging, emphasizes the social consequences of faith in an ageless old age: ―If we assume that Alzheimer‘s disease will be cured and disability abolished in the near term,‖she writes, ―we will have no incentive6 to develop long-term-care facilities that focus on enabling residents to lead satisfying lives despite their disabilities.‖More important, blind faith in medical solutions prevents discussion about the urgent nonmedical needs of the old. Americans need not only better long-term-care facilities for the sickest old but community-based services to foster independence for the healthier old. When politicians advocate raising the retirement age to bolster7 Social Security, they also need to consider the dearth8 of jobs for old people already looking for work. Only when we abandon the fantasy that age can be defied will we be able to begin a

考拉进阶英语—时文阅读50 篇

11. fantasy /?f?nt?s?/ n. 幻想，想象

12. remedy /?rem?d?/ vt. 改正，纠正

13. huckster /?h?kst?/ n. 强行推销的人；沿街叫卖的小贩，上门推销员

14. scintillating /?s?nt?le?t??/ adj. 才气横溢的

15. sage /se??/ n. 圣人，贤人，哲人

16. incentive /?n?sent?v/ n. 激励，刺激，鼓励

17. bolster /?b??lst?/ vt. 改善，加强

18. dearth /d??θ/ n. 缺乏，不足

Passage 13

It’s Time to Embrace Evidence-Based Medicine

（2009.11.20 Harvard Business Review）[477 words]

Evidence-based medicine is gaining momentum in the

US, which is a good thing. What‘s EBM? It‘s an approach to

delivering health care with two identifying characteristics.

One: Analysis of all available data, especially data from

clinical trials and other rigorous studies, to determine the best

course of treatment (t his is the ?evidence-based‘part). Two:

Creation of protocols1— standardized processes that describe the course of treatment in detail.

For example, a hospital could adopt a process checklist2 listing five steps that

every ICU doctor should take before inserting a central line.

Few if any health care professionals have a problem with conducting studies and analyzing data. And yet, many of them don‘t like being asked to follow standardized protocols that are based on this data. They prefer instead to follow their intuition3. It‘s probably safe to posit4 that the more education, experience, and authority health care workers have, the less willing they‘ll be to set aside5 their intuition and abide by some procedure developed by others.

Resistance isn‘t surprisin g; autonomous6 and experienced craft workers have

always resented more systematic approaches to getting work done, and have warned that such approaches would lead to inferior outcomes. Take away the master‘s discretion7 and devalue his intuition and experience, the argument goes, and bad results will ensue8. And medicine in particular is too important, and too unpredictable, to be constrained by rigid protocols. As physician Jerome Groopman writes in his book How Doctors Think ―... today‘s rigid reliance on evidence-based medicine risks having the doctor choose care passively, solely by the numbers...Numbers can only complement a physician‘s personal experience with the drug or a procedure...‖

So what makes me say that evidence-based medicine is a good thing? Just the facts. Three separate sets of findings strongly suggest that we need more, not less, standardized medicine.

First, there‘s a massive amount of variation in health care delivery, most of

which is pointless and much of which is harmful.

Second, th ere‘s ample9 evidence that standardization improves outcomes, and

考拉进阶英语—时文阅读50 篇

16

that health care is not any exception to this general rule.

Third, it‘s abundantly clear by now that human intuition has some serious flaws ,

want robots listening to me describe symptoms or operating on me any time soon. But this doesn‘t mean t hat it should be a technology-free process, or that we can‘t use computers to improve what doctors do. Medicine is experiencing a deep shift. It‘s moving from a craft-based industry— the largest one left in the world— to a science-based one. As customers of that industry, we should applaud that shift, and also applaud innovators who are using data and technology to overcome the biases12 and limitations of intuition. It‘s a healthy development.

1.protocol /?pr??t?k?l/ n. 协议；草案；礼仪

2.checklist /?t?ekl?st/ n. 清单；一览表

3.intuition /??ntj?????n/ n. 直觉；凭直觉感知的知识

4.posit /?p?z?t/ v. 假设，认定

5.set aside 驳回，撤销；暂时不考虑

6.autonomous /???t?n?m?s/ adj. 自治的；自主的

7.discretion /d?s?kre??n/ n. 慎重, 谨慎

8.ensue /?n?sju?/ vi. 接着发生，因而产生

9.ample /??mpl/ adj. 丰裕的，足够的；丰满的，硕大的

10.relegate /?rel?ɡe?t/ vt. 使贬职，使降级；使（足球队）降组

11.sideline /?sa?d?la?n/ n. 旁线；侧道；[复]（球场等的）界线；副业；兼职

12.bias /?ba??s/ n. 偏见, 偏心, 偏袒；偏爱

Passage 14

Why Almost Everything You HearAbout Medicine IsWrong

（2011.1.24 Newsweek）[426 words]

If you follow the news about health research, you risk

whiplash1. First garlic lowers bad cholesterol2, then— after more

study—it doesn‘t. Hormone3 replacement reduces the risk of heart

disease in postmenopausal4 women, until a huge study finds that it

doesn‘t (and that it raises the risk of breast cancer to boot). Eating

a big breakfast cuts your total daily calories, or not— as a study

released last week finds. Yet even if biomedical research can be a

fickle5 guide, we rely on it.

But what if wrong answers aren‘t the exception but the rule? More a nd more scholars who scrutinize6 health research are now making that claim. It isn‘t just an individual study here and there that‘s flawed, they charge. Instead, the very framework of medical investigation may be off-kilter, leading time and again to findings that are at best unproved and at worst dangerously wrong. The result is a system that leads patients and physicians astray7— spurring8 often costly regimens that won‘t help and may even harm you.

It‘s a disturbing view, with huge implications for docto rs, policymakers, and

health-conscious consumers. As the new chief of Stanford University‘s Prevention

考拉进阶英语—时文阅读50 篇

17

Research Center, Ioannidis is cementing9 his role as one of medicine‘s top mythbusters10. ―People are being hurt and even dying‖becaus e of false medical

them without sacrificing sick people. One no-brainer solution is to use and pay for only treatments that work. But if Ioannidis is right, most biomedical studies are wrong.With billions of dollars on the line, companies are loath to declare a new drug ineffective. As a result of the lag in publishing negative studies, patients receive a treatment that is actually ineffective. That made Ioannidis wonder, how many biomedical studies are wrong?

His answer, in a 2005 paper: ―the majority.‖From clinical trials of new drugs to cutting-edge genetics, biomedical research is riddled14 with incorrect findings, he argued. Ioannidis arranged an abstract mathematical argument to prove this, which some critics have questioned. ―I do agree that many claims are far more tenuous15 than is generally appreciated, but to ?prove‘that most are false, in all areas of medicine, one needs a different statistical model and more empirical16 evidence than Ioannidis uses,‖ says biostatistician17 Steven Goodman of Johns Hopkins, who worries that the most-research-is-wrong claim ―could promote an unhealthy skepticism about medical research, which is being used to fuel anti-science fervor.‖

1.whiplash /?w?pl??/ n. 鞭打；鞭打损伤

2.cholesterol /k??lest?r?l/ n. [生化] 胆固醇

3.hormone /?h???m??n/ n. [生化] 荷尔蒙，激素

4.postmenopausal /p??st?men???p??z?l/ adj.（妇女）绝经后的

5.fickle /?f?kl/ adj. 易变的；反复无常的

6.scrutinize /?skru?t?na?z/ vt. 认真检查，细看

7.astray /?s?tre?/ adv.& adj. 误入歧途地(的), 迷路地(的)

8.spur /sp??/ v. 策（马）前进；鞭策；激励；促进，加速

9.cement /s??ment/ vt. 巩固，加强；（用水泥、胶等）粘结，胶合

10. mythbuster /?m?θb?st?/ n. 流言破解者

11.quackery /?kw?k?r?/ n. 江湖医术，庸医行径

12.impede /?m?pi?d/ vt. 阻止，阻碍

13.deficit /?def?s?t/ n. 赤字，亏空

14.riddle /?r?dl/ vt. 使布满窟窿

15.tenuous /?tenj??s/ adj. 脆弱的，微弱的；纤细的，薄的，易断的

16.empirical /?m?p?r?kl/ adj. 经验主义的，完全根据经验的

17. biostatistician /?ba????st?t??st???n / n.生物统计学家

Passage 15

Why NewtonWasWrong

（2011.1.6 The Economist）[466 words]

Theory says that the past performance of share prices is no guide to the future. Practice says otherwise what goes up must come down. It is natural to assume that the law of gravity1 should also apply in financial markets. After all, isn‘t the oldest piece 考拉进阶英语—时文阅读50 篇

18

of the previous year would have enjoyed returns more than 12

percentage points higher than someone who bought 2009‘s

worst performers.

This was not unusual. Since the 1980s academic studies have repeatedly shown

that, on average, shares that have performed well in the recent past continue to do so

for some time. Longer-term studies have confirmed that this ―momentum2‖effect has been observable3 for much of the past century. Nor is the phenomenon confined to the stock-market. Commodity prices and currencies are remarkably persistent, rising or falling for long periods.

The momentum effect drives a juggernaut4 through one of the tenets5 of finance

theory, the efficient-market hypothesis. In its strongest form this states that past price movements should give no useful information about the future. Investors should have

no logical reason to have preferred the winners of 2009 to the losers; both should be

fairly priced already.

Even the high priests of efficient-market theory have acknowledged the

momentum effect. Well-paid fund managers have spent decades trying to find ways to beat the market. But you have to wonder why they bother devoting so much money

and effort to researching the fortunes of individual companies when the momentum approach appears to be easy to exploit and has been around for a long time.

Logic suggests that the effect should be arbitraged6 away. If the best performers

of the past 12 months continue to do well, smart investors will buy them after 11

months have elapsed, reducing the returns on offer to those who wait the extra month.

In turn, others will buy after ten months, then nine, eight and so on until the effect disappears.

When efficient-market theorists come across a market anomaly7, they tend to

dismiss it in one of three ways. The first argument is that the anomaly is a statistical

quirk8 obtained by torturing9 the data; it will not persist. The second is that any gains

from the strategy will be dissipated10 in higher trading costs. The third is that higher returns simply reflect the higher risks of the strategy.

According to a paper by Cliff Asness, who co-founded AQR, the better

performance of momentum stocks is not merely a reflection of higher risk. He finds

that the momentum effect persisted even when the data were controlled for company

size and value (defined as price-to-book) criteria. Another explanation is needed.

1.gravity /?ɡr?v?t?/ n. 重力，地心引力；庄严；严重性

2.momentum /m??ment?m/ n. 动力，势头；冲力；动量

3.observable /?b?z??v?bl/ adj. 觉察得到的；看得见的

4.juggernaut /???ɡ?n??t/ n.重型卡车；不可抗拒的强大力量，无法控制的强大机构

5.tenet /?ten?t/ n. 原则；信条；教义

6.arbitrage /?ɑ?b?trɑ??/ n. 套汇，套利

7.anomaly /??n?m?l?/ n. 异常事物；反常现象

8.quirk /kw??k/ n. 怪癖；怪事，奇事

考拉进阶英语—时文阅读50 篇

19

Passage 16

Psychotherapy1 Eases Chronic2 Fatigue Syndrome, Study Finds

(2011.2.17 New York Times) [486 words]

A new study suggests that psychotherapy and a gradual

increase in exercise can significantly benefit patients with

chronic fatigue syndrome.

While this may sound like good news, the

findings— published Thursday in The Lancet— are certain to

displease3 many patients and to intensify4 a fierce, long-running

debate about what causes the illness and how to treat it.

Many patients, citing two recent high-profile5 studies, believe the syndrome may

be caused by viruses related to mouse leukemia6 viruses, and they are clamoring7 for access to antiretroviral8 drugs used to treat the virus that causes AIDS. That treatment is very expensive and would be expected to continue indefinitely, and health insurers are not generally willing to pay for untested drug regimens9.

The new study, conducted at clinics in Britain and financed by that country‘s government, is expected to lend ammunition10 to those who think the disease is primarily psychological or related to stress.

The authors note that the goal of cognitive behavioral therapy, the type of psychotherapy tested in the study, is to change the psychological factors ―assumed to be responsible for perpetuation11 of the participant‘s symptoms and disability.‖

In the long-awaited study, patients who were randomly assigned to receive cognitive behavioral therapy or exercise therapy, in combination with specialized medical care, reported reduced fatigue levels and greater improvement in physical functioning than those receiving the medical care alone— or getting the medical care along with training in how to recognize the onset12 of fatigue and to adjust their activities accordingly.

The cognitive and behavioral interventions13 outlined in the new study are a

series of sessions14 continuing for several months. The researchers are expected to address the cost-effectiveness of the treatments in another report. (Several of the study‘s authors reported financial ties to the insurance industry.)

By contrast, the idea that a viral15 infection is responsible for chronic fatigue syndrome, also called myalgic16 encephalomyelitis17, has been proposed at least since early outbreaks were investigated in the mid-1980s in the United States. Although studies have shown that many patients with the disease have elevated antibody levels for several viruses, no causal role has been proved for any of them. Health officials in the United States are coordinating studies to determine why the mouse leukemia viruses were found in patients in two studies but not in several others.

A major difficulty with conducting studies on the syndrome is that there are

several different ways of defining and identifying the illness. These variations have led to a wide range of estimates of its prevalence18.

Patient groups and some researchers have challenged the criteria used by the

考拉进阶英语—时文阅读50 篇

20

British investigators as likely to include many people with depression, which often causes severe fatigue. They also note that the study excluded patients who could not get to treatment centers, most likely ruling out some of the sickest patients. And at

1.psychotherapy /?sa?k???θer?p?/ n. 心理治疗；精神治疗

2.chronic /?kr?n?k/ adj. 长期的；慢性的

3.displease /d?s?pli?z/ vt. 使生气，使恼怒

4. intensify /in?tens?fa?/ v. (使)增强,(使)加剧

5. high-profile /?ha?pr?ufa?l / adj. 引人注目的

6.leukemia /l u??ki?m??/ n. 白血病

7.clamor /?kl?m?/ v. 大声地要求；大声地喊叫，呼叫

8. antiretroviral /?ante?retr?u?v?r?l / n. [医]抗逆转录病毒的

9.regimen /?re??men/ n. 养生法；生活规则

10.ammunition /??mj??n???n/ n. 弹药；（辩论中可攻击对方的）信息，事实

11.perpetuation / p??pet???e???n/ n. 永久，永存

12. onset /??n?set/ n. 开始，开端，发生

13.intervention /??nt??ven??n/ n. 介入；插嘴；妨碍

14.session /?se??n/ n. 会议；（法庭的）开庭，（议会等的）开会；学期

15.viral /?va??r?l/ adj. 病毒的，病毒引起的

16.myalgic /ma???l??k/ adj. 肌痛的

17.encephalomyelitis /en?sef?l???ma???la?t?s/ n. [内科] 脑脊髓炎

18.prevalence /?prev?l?ns/ n. 流行，普遍，盛行

Passage 17

Eating Poorly Can Make Us Depressed

(2011.1.28 US News and World Report) [497 words]

Researchers from the universities of Navarra and Las Palmas

de Gran Canaria have demonstrated that the ingestion1 of

trans-fats and saturated2 fats increase the risk of suffering

depression, and that olive oil, on the other hand, protects against

this mental illness.

They have confirmed this after studying 12,059 SUN Project

volunteers over the course of six years; the volunteers had their diet, lifestyle and ailments3 analyzed at the beginning of the project, over its course and at the end of the project. In this way the researchers confirmed that despite the fact that at the beginning of the study none of the volunteers suffered from depression, at the end of the study 657 new cases had been detected.

Of all these cases, the participants with an elevated consumption of trans-fats

(fats present in artificial form in industrially-produced pastries4 and fast food, and naturally present in certain whole milk products) ―presented up to a 48% increase in the risk of depression when they were compared to participants who did not consume these fats,‖affirmed Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, first author of the article.