Question

    Depression(抑郁) can be a destructive illness, plaguing millions of people worldwide with feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and fatigue. Despite numerous antidepressant drugs, as many as a third of patients don’t respond to medication. This has forced doctors to be more creative in finding different treatments for the condition.

In the past two decades, researchers have tied depression to a seemingly unrelated condition: inflammation(炎症), the body’s natural response to stress. It could rise from injury or inflection, or even emotional issues like an unhappy marriage or problems at work. Some amount of inflammation is generally beneficial, as it increases production of cytokines(致癌因子)，proteins that help us heal and protect us from the effects of overwork.

But excessive cytokine levels, and the inflammation they bring on, could come at a cost—a number of studies suggests that high levels of cytokines could contribute to depression.

Cytokines can reach the brain several ways: directly through the blood-brain barrier or indirectly by binding to nerve fibers elsewhere, which send signals to the brain to produce the inflammation molecules. In the brain, cytokines can disturb the production and release of several important signaling chemicals, including serotonin, dopamine and glutamate, which help control emotion, appetite, sleep, learning and memory. It’s though that a lack of serotonin activity in the brain causes depression; most antidepressants increase the activity. But cytokines also have been shown to activate stress hormone signaling in the brain, which man also serve to develop depression.

With all the evidence implicating inflammation in depression, doctors have been anxious to test anti-inflammatory drugs as a potential treatment. Four small studies published between 2006 and 2017 by research groups in Europe and Iran found that adults diagnosed with depression who took aspirin or another anti-inflammatory drug called Celecoxib, along with an antidepressant, got more relief from feelings of sadness, hopelessness, guilt and fatigue compared with those taking an antidepressant alone. However, Andrew Miller, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University, thought something was wrong in these small, limited studies. None of them looked at whether the participants had to have high levels of cytokines before they’d see a benefit from anti-inflammatory drugs.  “Unfortunately, much of the field has fallen into the trap of viewing inflammation as the be-all, end-all,” Miller says. He and his colleagues wanted to see whether the effect of these drugs was limited to the depression patients with high cytokine levels, or if it helped all people diagnosed with depression.

1.Which of the following illustrated how depression is developed?

A. stress → overwork → inflammation → depression

B. inflammation → infection→ stress → depression

C. cytokine → stress→ infection → depression

D. infection → inflammation → cytokine → depression

2.The underlined word “excessive” in Para. 3 is closest in meaning to “________”

A. intermediate B. overmuch C. mild D. appropriate

3.We can infer from the passage that ______.

A. depression will be a curable disease for a long time

B. only aspirin can effectively help relieve people of many emotional problems

C. people who are hard–working are more likely to get depression

D. we have a long way to go before depression can be satisfying treated

4.Which of the following shows the right structure of the passage?

( ①—⑤ represent Para 1—5 )

A.  B.  C.  D.

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.D

4.D

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文，介绍了抑郁症的形成过程以及科学家们对治疗抑郁症的药物的研究。

1.细节理解题。根据第二、三段的介绍可知，感染导致炎症，而炎症产生致癌因子，而过量的致癌因子导致抑郁症，故D项正确。

2.词义猜测题。根据画线词后的“cytokine levels, and the inflammation they bring on, could come at a cost—a number of studies suggests that high levels of cytokines could contribute to depression.”可知，但是致癌因子水平过高，以及由此引发的炎症，可能以一定的代价出现，研究表明致癌因子水平过高可能会导致抑郁症，由此可知画线词词义为“过量的、过多的”，故B项正确。

3.推理判断题。根据最后一段内容，特别是“He and his colleagues wanted to see whether the effect of these drugs was limited to the depression patients with high cytokine levels, or if it helped all people diagnosed with depression.”可知，Andrew Miller教授和他的同事们想知道这些药物的效果是否仅限于致癌因子水平高的抑郁症患者或是否对所有被诊断为抑郁症的人都有帮助，由此可知，在抑郁症得到满意的治疗之前还有很长的路要走（很多工作要做），故D项正确。

4.篇章结构题。通读全文可知，第一段为总论，指出抑郁症是一种非常可怕的疾病，很多患者对治疗抑郁症的药物都没有反应，第二、三段介绍了为抑郁症的形成过程，第四段介绍了致癌因子通过几种途径到达大脑，第五段介绍了科学家们研究治疗抑郁症的药物，故D项正确。