Dangers Await Babies with Altitude

    Women who live in the world’s highest communities tend to give birth to underweight 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 altitudes 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 Cambridge University studied the records of 400 births in Bolivia during 1997 and 1998. The babies were bom in both rich and poor areas of two cities: La Paz and Santa Cruz. La Paz is the highest city in the world, at 3.65 kilometers above sea level, while Santa Cruz is much lower, at 0.44 kilometers.

    Sure enough, Giussani found that the average birthweight of babies in La Paz was significantly lower than in Santa Cruz. This was true in both high and low-income families. Even babies bom to poor families in Santa Cruz were heavier on average than babies born to wealthy families in lofty La Paz. “We were very surprised by this result,” says Giussani.

    The results suggest that babies bom at high altitudes 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 body.⁵

    Giussani wants to find out if such babies have a higher risk of disease in later life. People born in La Paz might be prone to heart trouble in adulthood, for example. Low birthweight 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．维度，（海拔）高度

stroke /strəʊk / n．中风

birthweight n．出生体重

coronary / ’kɒrənəri /adj．冠状的

under-nourished adj．营养不足的

underweight /’ʌndəweɪt / adj．重量不足的

hint / hɪnt / vt．暗示

hormone /’hɔ:məʊn / n．荷尔蒙

fetus / ’fi:təs / n．胚胎

注释：

1．... grow into adults with a high risk of heart disease and strokes：……长大成人后得心脏病和中风的风险很大

2．... are deprived of ...：被剥夺了……，缺乏……

3．This may trigger the release or suppression of hormones that regulate growth of the unborn child：这可能会触发调节未出生儿成长的荷尔蒙的释放或抑制。这里的release是名词。

4．relatively larger heads compared with their bodies：相对身体来说较大的头部

5．... a fetus starved of oxygen will send oxygenated blood to the brain in preference to the rest of the body：……一个缺乏氧的胚胎会首先把充氧的血液输送到脑部，然后才送到身体的其他部位。starved of是分词短语，修饰fetus, in preference to表示的是第二位的选择，如：I chose to study English in preference to Russian in university.读大学时，我选了英语，而不是俄语。

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 bom into.

A:Right  B:Wrong C:Not mentioned

水泥细度指的是（）

A:水泥净浆达到标准稠度时所需要的水量 B:水泥颗粒粗细的程度 C:水泥凝结硬化过程中，体积变化是否均匀适当的性质 D:水泥胶砂试件单位面积上所能承受的最大外力

关于砂的细度模数，以下说法正确的是（）

A:砂的粗细程度按细度模数分为粗、中、细三级 B:砂的粗细程度按细度模数分为粗、中、细、特细四级 C:砂的细度模数范围：粗砂3.7~3.2；中砂3.1~2.2；细砂2.1~1.6 D:砂的细度模数范围：粗砂3.7~3.2；中砂3.1~2.2；细砂2.1~1.6；特细砂1.5~0.7 E:砂的细度模数范围：粗砂3.7~3.1；中砂3.0~2.3；细砂2.2~1.6；特细砂1.5~0.7

下列关于水泥细度的描述，错误的是（）。

A:细度指水泥颗粒的粗细程度 B:细度对水泥的性质影响很大 C:硅酸盐水泥的细度用比表面积表示 D:颗粒越细，水泥的早期强度越大，硬化时体积收缩也较小

下列关于细度的说法正确的是（）。

A:某配合煤细度为70%时符合规程标要求 B:细度越小越好 C:细度越大越好 D:细度分为0-1，1-3，3-5，大于5mm等四个级别

纱线细度的指标有（）

A:线密度 B:纤度 C:公制支数 D:品质支数 E:英制支数

测定细度使用最为普遍的方法是（）。

A:灯箱法 B:红外线灯法 C:刮板细度计 D:比色法

以下有关管理幅度的论述正确的是(   )。

A:管理幅度也称为组织层次，它是指一名领导者直接领导的下级人员的数量 B:管理幅度也称为管理跨度，它是指组织中所有组织等级的数量 C:管理幅度也称为管理跨度，它是指一名领导者直接领导的下级部门和人员的数量 D:管理幅度也称为组织层次，它是指组织中所有组织等级的数量