ground substance (基质)

U.S. prisons are filled with drug offenders; the number of prisoners tripled over the past 20 years to nearly 2 million, with 60 to 70 per cent testing positive for substance abuse on arrest. The country has spent billions of dollars attacking the problem at its roots. But there is growing consensus that the "war on drug" has been lost. The United States is still the world’’s largest consumer of illegal substances; cocaine continues to pour over the border from Mexico. "Traffic" taps into the national frustration, depicting the horrors of both drugs and the drug war. Without taking sides, the film illuminates the national debate and poses on alternative that Americans seem increasingly willing to consider: finding new ways to treat, rather than merely punish, drug abuse. 　　Policy revolutions―like legalizing narcotics (drugs producing sleep or insensibility) ―remain a distant dream. But there is growing public awareness that the money and energy wasted on trying to check the flow of drugs into the United States might be better spent on trying to control demand instead. Voters in several states are far ahead of the politicians, approving ballot initiatives that offer more treatment opinions. "Drugs courts" that allow judges to use carrots and sticks to compel substance-abuse treatment have grown fifty-fold since the mid-1990s, part of a new understanding that, even with frequent relapses( returns to a formal state), treatment is much less expensive for society than jail and ban. 　　Drug addiction is increasingly being viewed as more a disease than a crime. Science is yielding clues about the "hedonic (of pleasure ) region" of the brain, while breakthrough medications and greater understanding of the mental-health problems that underlie many addictions are giving therapists new tools. 　　Officials across the Continent have already begun shifting their focus from preventing drug flow to rehabilitating (making able to live a normal life again) drug users. The new European Union Drugs Strategy for 2000-2004 makes a commitment to increasing the number of successfully treated addicts. Gemany, Italy and Luxembourg have transferred responsibility for drug policy from their Ministries of the Interior to the Ministries of Health or Social Affairs. In Britain, the government has set up a National Treatment Agency to coordinate the efforts of social-service agencies and the Department of Health. And drug-prevention and support agencies there are getting about 30 percent more funding this year. Changing the main national strategy from attacking drug pushers to rehabilitating addicts won’’t come easy. But slowly, steadily, Americans, like Europeans, seem determined to try. According to the text, U. S. prisoners

A:have increased by 2 million in number. B:are most jailed for their drug habit. C:consist of over 1.2 million drug dealers. D:are almost all wrong substance users.

Many science reports discuss medical studies that test the effect of a new drug. Usually, a large number of people is divided into two groups. Each group takes a different substance. But no one knows which group is getting which substance. One group takes the medicine being tested. Another group takes what we call an inactive substance. Medical researchers call this substance a "placebo." The word "placebo" is Latin for "I shall please." Placebo pills(宽心丸)usually are made of sugar.
Using placebos to test drugs sometimes has a surprising result. Researchers say people taking the placebo often report improvements in their health. This is known as "the placebo effect"--pain that is eased or stopped by an inactive substance. In such testing, the drug must perform better than the placebo to prove that it is effective.
Doctors have reported that the placebo effect can be used in treatment. For example, a doctor tells a patient that a new drug will stop the pain in his leg. The pill is only sugar. But the patient does not know that. He takes the pill and says his pain is gone.
Scientists are beginning to discover some physical reasons for this reaction in some people. They are learning that much of what people believe to be true comes from what the brain expects is going to happen. If the brain believes a drug will ease pain, the brain may begin physical changes in the body that can cause the expected effect. A recent examination of studies on drugs for depression found that placebos eased the depression about as well as the active drugs.
Other studies have explored the power of placebos. A study in Japan involved thirteen
people who reacted to the poison ivy (常青藤)plant. Poison-ivy causes red itchy sores(伤痕)on some people who touch it. Each person was rubbed on one arm with a harmless leaf, but was told it was poison ivy. Each person was then touched on the other arm with poison ivy, but was told it was a harmless leaf. All thirteen people developed a reaction on the arm where the harmless leaf touched their skin. Only two reacted to the poison ivy leaves.
Doctors and scientists worry that the use of placebos may not always be harmless. They say people can become victims of false doctors and others who use placebos to claim they can cure disease.
Placebo pills usually are made of ______.

A:inactive substance B:active drug C:radioactive substance D:explosive substance

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003 reported that dark chocolate may lower your blood pressure. Researchers at the University of Cologne studied men and women who were recently diagnosed with mild high blood pressure. Half were given 100g (fabout 3.5 ounces) of dark chocolate per day and half were given white chocolate. After only two weeks systolic (收缩的) blood pressure decreased on average by five points and diastolic (以及舒张的) blood pressure by two points in those consuming dark chocolate, but not those consuming white chocolate.
In a similar study, researchers from Italy reported in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension that 3.5 ounces of dark chocolate for one week lowered systolic blood pressure by 12 points and diastolic blood pressure by 8.5 points when blood pressure was monitored continuously for 24 hours. Insulin (胰岛素) sensitivity and LDL cholesterol also improved. No benefits were seen with white chocolate. Another study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that chocolate may help repair damage to smokers’ blood vessels, at least temporarily.
why Chocolate increases your body’ s production of nitric oxide (一氧化氮), a powerful substance that causes your blood vessels to relax and dilate. This, in turn, causes an increase in blood flow and a decrease in blood pressure--like opening a water spigot (水龙头). A study published in July in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that just 30 calories per day of dark chocolate lowered blood pressure and increased nitric oxide production after 18 weeks.
Nitric oxide is also stimulated by drugs such as Viagra and Levitra, which increase blood flow to the penis and enhance erections. This may be one of the reasons why chocolate has had a long reputation as an aphrodisiac (壮阳药). Casanova (卡萨诺瓦) is said to have considered it as his "favorite breakfast dish. " Chocolate also contains phenylethylamine (苯乙胺), which research suggests is a stimulant that is released when you’ re interacting with someone intimately.
What is nitric oxide according to the passage

A:It is a powerful substance to power the heart. B:It is a substance to cause blood vessels to relax and contract. C:It is a substance flowing from the heart to all over the body. D:It is the substance that controls blood pressur

{{B}}第三篇{{/B}}

Placebo pills usually are made of ______.

A:inactive substance B:active drug C:radioactive substance D:explosive substance

下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题。请根据短文内容，为每题确定1个最佳选项。
{{B}}第一篇{{/B}}

Which statement is NOT true of one-liners?

A:They are unclear B:They contain a lot of information C:They lack substance D:They are carefully constructed

第三篇

Political Spins
Last week, US White House spokesman Tony Snow sent journalists digging for their dictionaries. He called recent criticism by the former President Bill Clinton "chutzpah" (大胆放肆). With just one sentence, Snow managed to make headlines, a joke and a defense of President George W. Bush. Interestingly. this is how battles are fought and won in US politics - with carefully-worded one-liners (一行字幕新闻) made for TV which often lack substance and clarity (清晰度).
"The amount of information that candidates attempt to communicate to people is actually getting smaller and smaller," said Mark Smith, a political science professor al Cedarville University. This has been accompanied by a changing media environment, Smith said. In 1968, the average TV or radio soundbite (演讲中的句子或短语) was 48 seconds, according to Smith. In 1996, the average soundbite had shrunk (缩短) to 8 seconds. Thus, politicians wanting publicity try to make their public communication as quotable as possible.
Campaigning politicians als0 use 30-second TV ads and clever campaign slogans (口号) to boost their messages. Republican presidential candidate John McCain rides to campaign stops in a bus named the "Straight-Talk Express". McCain hopes the name will convince voters he plans to tell people the truth - whether it’s in fashion or not. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has chosen the campaign slogan "Let the conversation begin". She hopes it will help her appear open-minded and friendly.
But one-liners, TV ads and campaign slogans all have a single key ingredient: something commonly called political "spin". Brooks Jackson, a former journalist and the current director of the non-partisan (无党派的) website FactCheck.org, calls spin "just a polite word for deception (欺骗)."
"I do believe that very often politicians believe their own spin," said Jackson.
"Strong partisans suffer from a universal human tendency: They ignore the evidence that would force them into the uncomfortable position of having to change their minds and admit that they were wrong."

Which statement is NOT true of one-liners（）

A:They are unclear B:They contain a lot of information C:They lack substance D:They are carefully constructed