Question

    As they reach school age, about 90 percent of children will have experienced a condition in which fluid (液体) fills the middle ear, muffling (使模糊) sound and sometimes causing infection. The fluid usually clears on its own, but if not, it can lead to a painful ear infection called acute otitis (中耳炎) media. In some cases the fluid can persist for more than a year, causing hearing loss during this period, and slowing down their development of language and social skills.

Diagnosis usually requires a visit to a specialist—but researchers have now developed an app that detects this fluid just as accurately, with only a smartphone and a paper funnel (漏斗).

Doctors typically detect the problem by peering into the ear for a visual assessment. Yet, this method has only a 50 percent accuracy rate. “Right now, if you bring your child to a pediatrician, or to any urgent care family doctor, the way they look at whether or not there’s fluid in the middle ear is by looking at the eardrum,” says Sharat Raju, a surgeon in the department of head and neck surgery at the University of Washington.

For a cheaper and more accessible alternative, researchers at the University of Washington turned to smartphones. First the user follows a template to cut and tape a piece of paper into a funnel, which can be placed between a smartphone and the patient’s ear. Next the app plays a chirping sound through the phone’s speaker; the sound waves bounce off the eardrum and hit the phone’s microphone, where they register and are analyzed by the app. An eardrum with fluid behind it will vibrate (振动) differently than if the middle ear is full of air, as it normally is.

To develop the app, the researchers first played chirps for patients with and without fluid in their ears. They recorded the echoes (回音), which indicate the eardrum’s mobility. Then they used a machine learning model to classify the returning sound waves, determining which audio characteristics indicated a normal ear and which suggested the presence of fluid. Once they tested the app on 98 children, ranging from 18 months to 17 years old, at Seattle Children’s Hospital. It correctly detected fluid in 85 percent of cases, and correctly identified fluid-free ears in 82 percent.

The researchers are currently trying to get FDA approval for the app, and have founded a company to commercialize it. They hope to make it available by the end of the year, to help parents track children’s ear health at home.

1.What do we know about the fluid from the first paragraph?

A.It is mostly part of children’s growth. B.It is unavoidable for any child.

C.It is a permanent physical condition. D.It is beyond any medical means.

2.What does the underlined word “pediatrician” refer to in Paragraph 3?

A.A hospital. B.A specialist.

C.A relative. D.An app.

3.What is the fourth paragraph mainly about?

A.The application of the app. B.The causes of the kid’s ear problem.

C.The purpose of developing the app. D.The experiment of the smartphone.

4.What do the researchers expect of the app?

A.It will upgrade the medical technology. B.It will hit the market in the near future.

C.It will help children do better academically. D.It will save doctors medical operations.

Answer

1.A

2.B

3.A

4.B

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章介绍了一款检测孩子中耳是否有液体的手机app即将面世，该应用会让中耳液体检查更便宜、更准确。

1.细节理解题。根据文章第一段的As they reach school age, about 90 percent of children will have experienced a condition in which fluid (液体) fills the middle ear, muffling (使模糊) sound and sometimes causing infection.(当他们到了上学的年龄，90%的孩子都会经历中耳被液体填充的情况，这种情况会使听到的声音模糊，有时会造成感染)可知，中耳被液体填充是绝大多数孩子成长中都会经历的，即是孩子成长的一部分。A. It is mostly part of children’s growth.(它几乎是孩子成长的一部分)符合以上说法，故选A项。

2.词义猜测题。根据划线部分所在句子“Right now, if you bring your child to a pediatrician, or to any urgent care family doctor, the way they look at whether or not there’s fluid in the middle ear is by looking at the eardrum,” says Sharat Raju,可知，现在如果你带孩子去pediatrician或者任何紧急护理的家庭医生处去，他们都是通过观察耳膜来判断孩子的中耳是否有液体。结合句意可知，pediatrician和家庭医生属于同类，故推测pediatrician是儿科医生。B. A specialist.(一个专家医师)符合以上推测，故选B项。

3.主旨大意题。根据文章第四段的First the user follows a template to cut and tape a piece of paper into a funnel, which can be placed between a smartphone and the patient’s ear. Next the app plays a chirping sound through the phone’s speaker; the sound waves bounce off the eardrum and hit the phone’s microphone, where they register and are analyzed by the app.(首先，用户按照模板将一张纸剪下来放到漏斗里，并把漏斗放在智能手机和病人耳朵之间的；然后，该程序通过手机扬声器播放一种啾啾声，声波从耳膜反弹并击中手机的麦克风，在那里它们显示并被应用程序分析)可知，本段主要讲述了检测中耳液app的应用。A. The application of the app.(该app的应用)符合以上说法，故选A项。

4.细节理解题。根据文章最后一段的The researchers are currently trying to get FDA approval for the app, and have founded a company to commercialize it. They hope to make it available by the end of the year,(研究人员目前正在试图获得FDA对该程序的批准，并已经成立了公司将其商业化，他们希望在今年年底推出这项应用)可知，该app有望在今年年底面向市场。B. It will hit the market in the near future.(它会在不久的将来面向市场)符合以上说法，故选B项。