Dangers Await Babies with Altitude

     Women who live in the world’s highest communities tend to give birth to under-weight babies, a new study suggests. These babies may grow into adults with a high risk of heart disease and strokes.¹

    Research has hinted that newborns in mountain communities are lighter than average. But it wasn’t clear whether this is due to reduced oxygen levels at high altitude or because their mothers are under-nourished — many people who live at high altitudes are relatively poor compared with those living lower down.

    To find out more, Dino Giussani and his team at CambridgeUniversitystudied the records of 400 births inBoliviaduring 1997 and 1998. The babies were born in both rich and poor areas of two cities:La PazandSanta Cruz.La Pazis the highest city in the world, at 3.65 kilometers above sea level, whileSanta Cruzis much lower, at 0.44 kilometers.

    Sure enough, Giussani found that the average birth weight of babies inLa Pazwas significantly lower than inSanta Cruz. This was true in both high and low-income families. Even babies born to poor families inSanta Cruzwere heavier on average than babies born to wealthy families in loftyLa Paz. “We were very surprised by this result,” says Giussani.

    The results suggest that babies born at high altitude are deprived of² oxygen before birth. “This may trigger the release or suppression of hormones that regulate growth of the unborn child.³ ‘‘ says Giussani.

    His team also found that high-altitude babies tended to have relatively larger heads compared with their bodies⁴. This is probably because a fetus starved of oxygen will send oxygenated blood to the brain in preference to the rest of the body⁵.

    Giussani wants to find out if such babies have a higher risk of disease in later life. People born inLa Pazmight be prone to heart trouble in adulthood, for example. Low birth weight is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. And newborns with a high ratio of head size to body weight are often predisposed to high blood pressure and strokes in later life.

词汇：

altitude /"æltɪtju:d/ n.纬度，(海拔)高度
birthweight /bə:θ weit/ n. 出生体重
underweight /ˌʌndəˈweɪt/adj.体重不足的
hormone /"hɔ:məʊn/ n. 荷尔蒙
stroke  /strəʊk/ n.中风
coronary /"kɒrənrɪ/ adj. 冠状的
hint /hɪnt/ / vt.暗示
fetus /"fi:təs/ n. 胚胎
under-nourished adj.营养不足的

注释：

Giussani did not expect to find that the weight of a baby had little to do with the financial conditions of the family he was born into

A:Right B:Wrong C:Not mentioned

Could you find someone（）

A:for me to play tennis with B:play tennis with C:for me to play tennis D:playing tennis with

He was disappointed to find his suggestions ______.

A:been turned down B:turned down C:to be turned down D:to turn down

People do not analyse every problem they meet. Sometimes they try to remember solution from the last time they had a (21) problem. They often accept the opinion or ideas of other people. Other times they begin to act without (22) , they try to find a solution by trial and error. However, when all of these methods (23) , the person with a problem has to start analysing. There are sever al stages in analysing a problem. First, the person must recognize that there is a problem. For example, Sam’ s bicycle is bro ken. Sam must (24) that there is a problem with his bicycle. Next the person must (25) the problem. Sam can repair his bicycle, he must know why it does not work. Now the person must look for (26) that will make the problem clearer and lead to possible solutions. Suppose Sam decides that his bike does not work because there is something wrong with the brakes. At this time he can look in his bicycle repair book and (27) his friends at the bike shop. After (28) .the problem, the person should have several suggestions for a possible solution. In the end, one suggestion seems to be the solution (29) the problem. Sam, for example, suddenly sees there is a piece of chewing gum(口香糖) stack to a brake. What he will do is to clean the brake. Finally the solution is (30) . Sam does it and finds his bicycle works perfectly. In short he has solved the problem.

A:judge B:find C:describe D:face

We hope you will find the shipment ______.

A:orderly B:with order C:of order D:in order

I find _____.

A:it is difficult for them to finish the job in time B:difficult for them to finish the job in time C:they have much difficulty to finish the job in time D:that difficult for them to finish the job in time

I find .

A:it difficult for them to finish the job in time B:difficult for them to finish the job in time C:they have much difficulty to finish the job in time D:that difficult for them to finish the job in time