Medical Journals

    Medical journals are publications that report medical information to physicians and other health professionals.

    In the past, these journals were available only in print. With the development of electronic publishing. many medical journals now have Web sites on the Internet, and some journals publish only online. A few medical journals, like the Journal of the American Medical Association, are considered general medical journals because they cover many fields of medicine. Most medical journals are specialty journals that focus on a particular area of medicine.

    Medical journals publish many types of articles. Research articles report the results of research studies on a range of topics varying from the basic mechanisms of diseases to clinical trials that compare outcomes of different treatments. 

    Review articles summarize and analyze the information available on a specific topic based on a careful search of the medical literature. Because the results of individual research studies can be affected by many factors, combining results from different studies on the same topic can be helpful in reaching conclusions about the scientific evidence for preventing, diagnosing or treating a particular disease ¹. Case conferences and case reports may be published in medical journals to educate physicians about particular illnesses and how to treat them. Editorials in medical journals are short essays that express the views of the authors, often regarding a research or review article published in the same issue. Editorials provide perspective on how the current article fits with other information on the same topic. Letters to the editor provide a way for readers of the medical journal to express comments, questions or criticisms about articles published in that journal.

 

词汇：

professional /prə"feʃənəl/ n.专业人员

online /ɒn"laɪn/ adv. 联机地，联线地

specialty /"speʃəltɪ/ n .专业

summarize /"sʌməraɪz/ vt. 总结，概述

 

注释：

1. Because the results of individual research studies can be affected by many factors, combining results from different studies on the same topic can be helpful in reaching conclusions about the scientific evidence for preventing, diagnosing or treating a particular disease.由于个体研究的结果可能受很多因素的影响，因此将有关同一题目的不同研究的结果汇总起来，可能有助于 得出有关预防、诊断或是治疗某一疾病所需的科学证据的结论。

An article dealing with results from different studies on the same topic is called____

A:a research article B:a review article C:a case report D:an editorial

You may fall prey to a nonviolent but frightening and fast-growing crime: identity theft. It happens to at least 500, 000 new victims each year, according to government figures. And it happens very easily because every identification number you have Social Security, credit card, driver’s license, telephone- "is a key that unlocks some storage of money or goods," says a fraud program manager of the US Postal Service. "So if you throw away your credit card receipt and I get it and use the number on it, I’m not becoming you, but to the credit card company I’ve become your account."
One major problem, experts say, is that the Social Security Number (SSN) — originally meant only for retirement benefit and tax purposes — has become the universal way to identify people. It is used as identification by the military, colleges and in billions of commercial transactions.
Yet a shrewd thief can easily snatch your SSN, not only by stealing your wallet, but also by taking mail from your box, going through your trash for discarded receipts and bills or asking for it over the phone on some pretext.
Using your SSN, the thief applies for a credit card in your name, asking that it be sent to a different address than yours, and uses it for multiple purchases. A couple of months later the credit card company, or its debt collection agency, presses you for payment.
You don’t have to pay the debt, but you must clean up your damaged credit record. That means getting a police report and copy of the erroneous contract, and then using them to clear the fraud from your credit report, which is held by a credit bureau. Each step can require a huge amount of effort.
In the Collins’ case, the clearance of the erroneous charges from their record required three years of poring over records and ＄6, 000 in solicitor’s fees. In the meantime, they were denied a loan to build a vacation home, forced to pay cash for a new heating and cooling system, hounded by debt collectors, and embarrassed by the spectacle of having their home watched by investigators looking for the missing car.
Of course, thousands of people are caught and prosecuted for identity theft. But it was only last year that Congress made identity theft itself a federal crime. That law set up a special government office to help victims regain their lost credit and to streamline police efforts by tracking cases on a national scale.
Consumer advocates say this may help but will not address the basic problems, which, they believe, are causing the outbreak in identity theft: industry’s rush to attract more customers by issuing instant credit, inadequate checking of identity, and too few legal protections for consumers personal information.
If the thief applies for a credit card in your name, you ______.

A:shouldn’t bother it at all B:had better pay for your carelessness C:should get a report from the police D:have to spend much effort to tackle it

Text 1
Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations, said he wanted next week’s summit of 170-plus heads of state and government in New York to be another "San Francisco moment"--a chance to recapture the spirit of renewal and optimism that accompanied the birth of the United Nations in California 60 years ago. He is not likely to get his way.
After more than a year of investigation, Paul Volcker, a former head of America’s Federal Reserve, chose this of all weeks to publish his report on what went wrong with the UN’s oil-for-food programme in Iraq. It does not make pretty reading. The programme achieved its basic aim, which was to allow an Iraq under sanctions to sell some oil so that some of the basic food and medical needs of its people could still be met. But Mr Volcker’s team confirms that the programme was riddled with waste, inefficiency and corruption, including among UN staff at head quarters as well as in the field. As a result, Saddam Hussein’s regime succeeded in squeezing a total illicit income of some $ 10 billion from the scheme, about $ 8 billion from smuggling and the rest from surcharges and kickbacks.
Ever since the Security Council failed to endorse the war against Iraq, Mr Annan’ s critics have been calling for him to resign or be sacked for his part in the oil-for-food programme. They have had two arguments. One is that he is himself guilty of malfeasance. The other is that even if he isn’ t, he was the man at the top and should therefore take the blame for a scandal that unfolded on his watch. On both counts, a case can be made that the Volcker report offers him an escape.
On the first count, Mr Volcker has found no evidence at all that the secretary-general himself did anything corrupt, even though several people close to him plainly did.
On the second, the report does not say whether Mr Annan should go for having presided over such chaos and venality. It does say that corruption down the line reflected the absence of "a strong organizational ethic" that should have permeated the leadership. But it also argues that Mr Annan was not responsible for everything that went wrong. Though nominally the UN’ s administrative boss, neither he nor his predecessors were chosen for managerial skills or provided with the tools--such as the ability to hire and fire without political interference--to be effective managers. In the case of oil-for-food, the Security Council tried to keep control through a sanctions committee of national diplomats. Having neither the Security Council nor the secretariat in clear command was a recipe for "the evasion of responsibility at all levels".
If the UN were a company whose boss had made a hash of things, The Economist would call for the top man’s head. Removing a boss is a good way for shareholders to show that they want change. But since the UN is not a firm, sacking Mr Annan over the oil-for-food programme would send the wrong signal: that it is his person and not--as the Volcker report stresses--the structure of the organization that is at the root of the problem. And because the UN is a political organization, ousting Mr Annan would send a political signal, too. It would be read by many UN members as a punishment inflicted on the UN by America’ s more strident Republicans as revenge for the Security Council’s failure to support the British and American invasion of Iraq in 2003.

It can be inferred in the last paragraph that（）

A:the structure of UN is blamed in Volcker' s report. B:sacking Mr Annan is essential to the recapture of the spirit of renewal. C:the writer shares exactly same views with Mr. Volcker. D:Mr Annan can be exempt from being dismissed due to the nature of UN.

You may fall prey to a nonviolent but frightening and fast-growing crime: identity theft. It happens to at least 500, 000 new victims each year, according to government figures. And it happens very easily because every identification number you have Social Security, credit card, driver’s license, telephone- "is a key that unlocks some storage of money or goods," says a fraud program manager of the US Postal Service. "So if you throw away your credit card receipt and I get it and use the number on it, I’m not becoming you, but to the credit card company I’ve become your account."
One major problem, experts say, is that the Social Security Number (SSN) — originally meant only for retirement benefit and tax purposes — has become the universal way to identify people. It is used as identification by the military, colleges and in billions of commercial transactions.
Yet a shrewd thief can easily snatch your SSN, not only by stealing your wallet, but also by taking mail from your box, going through your trash for discarded receipts and bills or asking for it over the phone on some pretext.
Using your SSN, the thief applies for a credit card in your name, asking that it be sent to a different address than yours, and uses it for multiple purchases. A couple of months later the credit card company, or its debt collection agency, presses you for payment.
You don’t have to pay the debt, but you must clean up your damaged credit record. That means getting a police report and copy of the erroneous contract, and then using them to clear the fraud from your credit report, which is held by a credit bureau. Each step can require a huge amount of effort.
In the Collins’ case, the clearance of the erroneous charges from their record required three years of poring over records and ＄6, 000 in solicitor’s fees. In the meantime, they were denied a loan to build a vacation home, forced to pay cash for a new heating and cooling system, hounded by debt collectors, and embarrassed by the spectacle of having their home watched by investigators looking for the missing car.
Of course, thousands of people are caught and prosecuted for identity theft. But it was only last year that Congress made identity theft itself a federal crime. That law set up a special government office to help victims regain their lost credit and to streamline police efforts by tracking cases on a national scale.
Consumer advocates say this may help but will not address the basic problems, which, they believe, are causing the outbreak in identity theft: industry’s rush to attract more customers by issuing instant credit, inadequate checking of identity, and too few legal protections for consumers personal information.

If the thief applies for a credit card in your name, you （）

A:shouldn’t bother it at all B:had better pay for your carelessness C:should get a report from the police D:have to spend much effort to tackle it

Text 1 　　Homework has never been terribly popular with students and even many parents, but in recent years it has been particularly scorned. School districts across the country, most recently Los Angeles Unified, are revising their thinking on his educational ritual. Unfortunately, L.A. Unified has produced an inflexible policy which mandates that with the exception of some advanced courses, homework may no longer count for more than 10% of a student’s academic grade. 　　This rule is meant to address the difficulty that students from impoverished or chaotic homes might have in completing their homework. But the policy is unclear and contradictory. Certainly, no homework should be assigned that students cannot do without expensive equipment. But if the district is essentially giving a pass to students who do not do their homework because of complicated family lives, it is going riskily close to the implication that standards need to be lowered for poor children. 　　District administrators say that homework will still be a pat of schooling: teachers are allowed to assign as much of it as they want. But with homework counting for no more than 10% of their grades, students can easily skip half their homework and see vey little difference on their report cards. Some students might do well on state tests without completing their homework, but what about the students who performed well on the tests and did their homework It is quite possible that the homework helped. Yet rather than empowering teachers to find what works best for their students, the policy imposes a flat, across-the-board rule. 　　At the same time, the policy addresses none of the truly thorny questions about homework. If the district finds homework to be unimportant to its students’ academic achievement, it should move to reduce or eliminate the assignments, not make them count for almost nothing. Conversely, if homework does nothing to ensure that the homework students are not assigning more than they are willing to review and correct. 　　The homework rules should be put on hold while the school board, which is responsible for setting educational policy, looks into the matter and conducts public hearings. It is not too late for L.A. Unified to do homework right. According to Paragraph 3,one problem with the policy is that it may____.

A:discourage students from doing homework B:result in students’ indifference to their report cards C:undermine the authority of state tests D:restrict teachers’ power in education

Passage Four
Your Public Affairs Studies Courses requires that you understand a major investigation of any topic of interest and it also requires you draw together all the areas of your study. However, you do not need to give equal emphasis to each area. With this in mind, you can now start planning your project for investigation. Your course of study will bring you in contact with many issues; some of these will be of more interest to you than others. Your teacher or classmates may be able to make suggestions. Newspapers and magazines that you read carry issues of relevance (关联) to your studies; look at these carefully. You are sure to find sources of ideas from them, which you can adapt to form the basis of your report. Career interests are also a source for inspiration (灵感), as you may have in mind a career which you wish to enter. Whatever you choose, it must be something that you are interested in. It should have some meaning to you, either now or in the future. Interest is of great importance because it helps to keep motivation (动力) or concentration.

The topic of your investigation must be one （）

A:from which you can form your report B:that you interested in C:that your teacher approves D:that you already have in your mind

Passage Four
Your Public Affairs Studies Courses requires that you understand a major investigation of any topic of interest and it also requires you draw together all the areas of your study. However, you do not need to give equal emphasis to each area. With this in mind, you can now start planning your project for investigation. Your course of study will bring you in contact with many issues; some of these will be of more interest to you than others. Your teacher or classmates may be able to make suggestions. Newspapers and magazines that you read carry issues of relevance (关联) to your studies; look at these carefully. You are sure to find sources of ideas from them, which you can adapt to form the basis of your report. Career interests are also a source for inspiration (灵感), as you may have in mind a career which you wish to enter. Whatever you choose, it must be something that you are interested in. It should have some meaning to you, either now or in the future. Interest is of great importance because it helps to keep motivation (动力) or concentration.

The topic of your investigation must be one （）

A:from which you can form your report B:that you interested in C:that your teacher approves D:that you already have in your mind