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。

The weight of a newborn has to do with the supply of oxygen even when he was still in his mother’s womb.

A:The weight of a newborn has to do with the supply of oxygen even when he was still in his mother’s womb. B:Wrong C:Not mentioned

Ag₂CrO₄与AgSCN的溶度积常数几乎相同，比较溶解度S，正确的为（）。

A:S（AgSCN）＝S（Ag₂CrO₄） B:S（AgSCN）＞（Ag₂CrO₄） C:S（AgSCN）＜S（Ag₂CrO₄） D:2S（AgSCN）＝S（Ag₂CrO₄）

What is the correlation between the mother's age and the time when the child develops insulin-dependent diabetes?

A:The younger the mother, the earlier the start of diabetes in the child. B:The older the mother, the earlier the start of diabetes in the child. C:The older the mother, the later the start of diabetes in the child. D:The mother's age has little to do with the time when the child develops insulin-dependent diabetes.

A little boy invited his mother to attend (出席) his elementary school’s first teacher-parentmeeting. To the little boy’s dismay, his mother said she would go. This would be the first time that his classmates and teachers met his mother and he was embarrassed (尴尬的) by her appearance. There was a severe (严重的) scar (伤疤) that covered nearly the whole right side of her face. The boy never wanted to talk about why or how she got the scar.
At the meeting, the people were impressed (留下深刻的印象) by the kindness of his mother with the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed and hid himself from everyone. However, he could hear clearly the conversation between his mother and the teacher.
"How did you get the scar on your face" the teacher asked.
The mother replied, "When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught on fire. Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of control, but I went in. As I was running towards his bed, I saw a burning wood falling down and I placed myself over him trying to protect him. I was knocked to be unconscious (无知觉的) , but luckily, a fireman came in and saved both of us. " She touched the burned side of her face. "This scar will be forever, but until today, I have never regretted doing what I did. "
When the little boy heard this, he couldn’t help running towards his mother with tears in his eyes. He hugged her and felt his mother was greater than anyone. He held her hand tightly for the rest of the day.
After reading the passage, we know_______

A:the people at the meeting didn’t like the boy’s mother B:the boy’s mother was brave but foolish C:the boy hated what his mother had done D:we should respect our parents whatever they are like

A

The water tap was leaking(漏水) again, and the noise was driving Cassie crazy.
Cassie looked at her watch. It was nearly nine o’ clock. She climbed out of bed and stood on a chair by the shelf. Her mother’ s Mr. Fix-It was on the top shelf. Cassie stepped down quietly. She read the book quickly until she found the page she was looking for, and then began to read carefully.
Next Cassie opened a box in the kitchen and picked out the tools she needed—a hammer, a wrench, and several small things. It was no easy job for her to do the repair, and she tried several times. Finally, the water tap was in pieces. One by one, she carefully laid them out on the table. That way she would know how they went back. While this was going on, her cat walked over to watch what she was doing.
Cassie worked late into the night. At one point, she thought she was done. Oops! A small piece that she had forgotten still lay on the table. Slowly Cassie took the water tap apart(分开) one more time. This time she made sure everything was in place. She turned the water tap on and then off. One ...two...three...She waited a full minute. There was no leak! Cassie smiled and put the tools back into the box. Then she went back into bed.
The next morning, Dad was in the kitchen when Cassie got up.
"Notice anything, Dad" she asked.
He looked around and listened. "Hmm, something’ s missing...I can’t find out what it is... Wait,it’ s too quiet in here ! "
"That’s right, "Cassie said. "Something is missing. I fixed the water tap. It doesn’ t leak any more. "
"That’s my girl," Dad said. "It’ s a good thing you are really like your mother.

We can learn from the last sentence of the passage that（）.

A:Cassie’ s mother is good-looking B:Cassie likes her mother very much C:Cassie’ s mother is good at fixing things D:Cassie looks quite like her mother

A The water tap was leaking(漏水)again,and the noise was driving Cassie crazy. Cassie looked at her watch.It was nearly nine o’clock.She climbed out of bed and stood on a chair by the shelf.Her mother’s Mr.FixIt was on the top shelf.Cassie stepped down quietly.She read the book quickly until she found the page she was looking for,and then began to read carefully. Next Cassie opened a box in the kitchen and picked out the tools she needed—a hammer,a wrench,and several small things.It was no easy job for her to do the repair,and she tried several times.Finally,the water tap was in pieces.One by one,she carefully laid them out on the table.That way she would know how they went back.While this was going on,her cat walked over to watch what she was doing. Cassie worked late into the night.At one point,she thought she was done.Oops!A small piece that she had forgotten still lay on the table.Slowly Cassie took the water tap apart(分开)one more time.This time she made sure everything was in place.She turned the water tap on and then off.One…two…three…She waited a full minute.There was no leak!Cassie smiled and put the tools back into the box.Then she went back into bed. The next morning,Dad was in the kitchen when Cassie got up. “Notice anything,Dad”she asked. He looked around and listened.“Hmm,something’s missing…I can’t find out what it is…Wait,it’s too quiet in here!” “That’s right,”Cassie said.“Something is missing.I fixed the water tap.It doesn’t leak any more.” “That’s my girl,”Dad said.“It’s a good thing you are really like your mother.” We can learn from the last sentence of the passage that.

A:Cassie’s mother is goodlooking B:Cassie likes her mother very much C:Cassie’s mother is good at fixing things D:Cassie looks quite like her mother

A little boy invited his mother to attend (出席) his elementary school’s first teacher-parentmeeting. To the little boy’s dismay, his mother said she would go. This would be the first time that his classmates and teachers met his mother and he was embarrassed (尴尬的) by her appearance. There was a severe (严重的) scar (伤疤) that covered nearly the whole right side of her face. The boy never wanted to talk about why or how she got the scar.
At the meeting, the people were impressed (留下深刻的印象) by the kindness of his mother with the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed and hid himself from everyone. However, he could hear clearly the conversation between his mother and the teacher.
"How did you get the scar on your face" the teacher asked.
The mother replied, "When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught on fire. Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of control, but I went in. As I was running towards his bed, I saw a burning wood falling down and I placed myself over him trying to protect him. I was knocked to be unconscious (无知觉的) , but luckily, a fireman came in and saved both of us. " She touched the burned side of her face. "This scar will be forever, but until today, I have never regretted doing what I did. "
When the little boy heard this, he couldn’t help running towards his mother with tears in his eyes. He hugged her and felt his mother was greater than anyone. He held her hand tightly for the rest of the day.
After reading the passage, we know_______

A:the people at the meeting didn’t like the boy’s mother B:the boy’s mother was brave but foolish C:the boy hated what his mother had done D:we should respect our parents whatever they are like