Listening 心理医生

Jack is a psychiatrist, which means he treats people with mental problems/who have mental problems. He has been treating patients for many years and has used a variety of treatments. Sometimes he just listens and talks to the patients and sometimes he uses medications. These medications affect the brain in many different ways.

Over the years, Jack found that some patients improved with treatments, while others didn't improve at all. In some cases, a patient's response to a treatment was the opposite of what was expected. Several years ago he had a young patient who showed him why these treatments didn't work. The patient's name was Bob. He was twenty years old when he first came to see Jack for help. The reason he came was that he had attempted suicide.

Bob was extremely smart and was a student in one of the best universities in the world. However he was often extremely depressed. Because of his depression, he took drugs and drank a lot of alcohol. It was an overdose of drugs and alcohol that nearly killed him. His roommate called 911 when he discovered bob unconscious in their dormitory room.

Once Bob recovered and discharged from the hospital, he took time off from school to

get help. That was when he came to the clinic where Jack practices medicine. At first,

Jack attempted to treat bob with anti-depression medications. He also uses conversations and recommendations to help him rethink his life and memories. After a few months but begin to recover but only moderately. Though he cooperated with the treatment he continued to think negatively. He also continues to go through periods of depression. As a result, he wasn't able to return to school.

Because the treatment wasn't working, jack tried something new. He decides to use brain scans to look inside Bob's brain. Brain scans are the way to look inside the brain to see how it is functioning. What the scans showed about bob was crucial. They showed that his brain was damaged in a way that nobody has anticipated. There was significant damage to the front part of his brain. An injury in this part of the brain can contribute to depression and a negative feeling. It can also contribute to feelings like anger and rage. The facts that his brain was injured and unbalanced explains why the treatment hadn't worked.

The brain scans showed why the medications and other treatments hadn't worked. They had failed because they didn't address the brain injury. After discussing the injury with Bob and his parents, they concluded that the cause of injury was from playing soccer. In fact, Jack knew of quite a few soccer players who had suffered head injuries from playing that sport. Heading the soccer ball many times can damage the brain.

With this new information, Jack used the new medication to treat the injury. Gradually Bob improved and after a few months was close to full recovery, He no longer had any signs of depression and was finally able to return to school. Ultimately, Bob graduated from his university with honors and admitted into a famous law school. From this experience, Jack realized that the brain imaging had helped him to save Bob's life.

If it hadn't been for the scans, Bob would have ended with killing himself. Detecting and treating the injury to the front part of his brain was the key step in his treatment. Jack now believes that the brain scan can be an important tool for psychiatrist.

An injured brain must be healed before other treatments such as vitamins, drugs or counseling can work.

Dialogue 高管讨论

We've got a real problem on our hands. We're getting a lot of complaints

About the proposed new policy?

Yes, people think it's an invasion of privacy.

Don't they agree that regular exercise and staying in shape is good for everyone?

Sure, they agree. But they don’t think we have the right to use an app to track how much they exercise.

Using the app is the only way to make sure our employees get enough exercise. This new policy will reduce our health cost and improve productivity, which helps everyone!

requiring everyone to wear a smart device like this on the rest means they have no privacy

Well, if you put it that way I can see the problem.

However, I don't see any other way to change people's habits. 

This is just a friendly reminder.

It's more than a reminder, It makes things public and put pressure on people to meet their requirements. It will force people to work out even when they don't want to.

There won't be any choice.

Now it doesn't have to be that way, we can still be flexible.

That's not the point. People hate the idea that the company knows everything they do. It's bad enough that they have to communicate with each other at night and on weekends.

What if we make the use of the app an option.

If you do that it still put pressure on people to use it. I think it's best that we get rid of this idea. I'm all for standards but what about freedom and creativity. If we go ahead with this policy, I think we will lose some of our best people.

There are other ways to deal with health issues.

Such as? What is your suggestion?

Give extra holidays to people who take fewer sick days.

No, that wouldn't work, It would put pressure on people to come to work sick and get everyone on sick too. If someone is sick I'd rather that they stay at home.

Then here's the radical idea. Why not let your department managers handle it, They are the one who decides on promotions and bonuses. Setting everything in stone in the form of policy can be very dangerous.Okay I'll consider it, for now, I'll give up the idea of using this app. Please let people know that we're listening to them. We do care about our employees.

I will, I'm sure people will appreciate it, It shows that you have faith in them.

Thanks, I appreciate your advice.

Reading

Passage1 Preventing injuries

Exercise and a certain amount of strenuous physical activity are important for maintaining good health. However, before engaging in them, it's important nor how to prevent injuries from occurring, especially for athletes and elderly people. Injuries can be minimized by doing a proper warm up. This consists of increasing your heart rate and the blood flow to all parts of the body. A good way to do this is through a series of static stretch followed by a series of dynamic streches which are done while moving.

Using the proper equipment is essential especially in contact sports. To protect the head, for example, well designed helmets and can greatly reduce the incidence of concussions. Concussions are caused when the soft, jello-like brain slams into the hard human skull. Research shows that repeated concussions can have serious consequences. Compression sportswear is another way to reduce the risk of injury, especially muscle injuries. More and more athletes are using them because their use can also speed up muscle recovery when an injury occurs. Another contributing factor in sports injuries its fatigue. Doctors believe that fatigue is an important warning sign that body has reached its limit. When fatigued it is more difficult for a body to protect itself. Therefore, it's a good idea to stop an activity at the first sign of fatigue. Rest periods, even for professional athletes, can prevent serious injuries from occurring.

使用适当的设备是必不可少的, 特别是在接触运动。保护头部, 例如, 设计良好的头盔, 可以大大减少脑震荡的发病率。当软的, 果冻般的大脑猛烈地撞进坚硬的人的头骨时, 就会引起脑震荡。研究表明反复脑震荡会造成严重后果。压缩运动服是另一种减少受伤风险的方法, 尤其是肌肉损伤。越来越多的运动员使用他们, 因为他们的使用也可以加速肌肉恢复时, 受伤发生。运动损伤的另一个原因是疲劳。医生认为疲劳是身体达到极限的一个重要警示信号。当疲劳时, 身体更难保护自己。因此, 这是一个好主意, 以停止活动的第一个迹象疲劳。休息期, 即使是职业运动员, 也可以防止严重的伤害发生。

Understanding injuries and body's reaction to them can help people cope with the problems that accompany physical exercise. The support and understanding of coaches, teammates and family can be a critical factor in prevention and recovery. Once an injury occurs, it's too late to prevent it, and recovery can take a long time. For the elderly, a simple for can be fatal.

了解伤害和身体反应对他们可以帮助人们应付伴随体育锻炼的问题。教练、队友和家庭的支持和理解可能是预防和恢复的关键因素。一旦受伤发生, 它为时已晚, 以防止它, 恢复可能需要很长的时间。对于老年人来说, 一个简单的可以是致命的。

Passage2 Reducing stroke

A large international study has found that ten risk factors account for 90 percent of all risks of stroke. Of that list, five risk factors usually related to lifestyle are responsible for a full 80 percent of stroke risk.According to the researchers, this risk factors--high blood pressure, smoking, abnormal obsesity, diet and physical activity are modifiable and can be controlled.

一项大型国际研究发现, 十的风险因素占了中风风险的90%。在这份名单中, 五的风险因素通常与生活方式有关, 造成中风风险的整整80%。据研究人员说, 这种危险因素--高血压、吸烟、异常肥胖、饮食和体力活动都是可修改的, 可以控制。

The findings come from a study of 3000 people who had had strokes and equal number of healthy individuals with no history of stroke. The study also includes a brain scan of all participating stroke survivors, according to the researchers.

这一研究结果来源于对3000人中风和没有中风病史的健康个体数量相等的调查。该研究还包括对所有参与中风幸存者的脑部扫描, 据研究人员说。

Across the board, high blood pressure is the most important factor, accounting for one-third of all stroke risk. Blood pressure, it was noted, plays a major role in both forms of stroke: ischemic, the most common form(caused by blockage of a brain blood vessel ), and hemorrhagic or bleeding stroke, in which a blood vessel in the brain bursts.

在整个委员会, 高血压是最重要的因素, 占所有中风风险的1/3。据指出, 血压在两种形式的中风中起着重要作用: 缺血性, 最常见的形式 (由脑血管堵塞引起), 出血或出血中风, 脑中血管爆裂。

Blood pressure is easily measured and there are lots of treatments. Lifestyle modifications to control it include increasing physical activity and reducing salt intake. The other lifestyle risk factors are modifiable as well. High intakes of fish and fruits, for example, is associated with a lower risk of stroke.

血压很容易测量, 有很多治疗方法。生活方式的改变, 以控制它包括增加体力活动和减少食盐摄入量。其他生活方式风险因素也是可修改的。例如, 鱼和水果的高摄入量与中风的风险较低有关。

Many of the same risk factors have been reported in other studies, but this is the first stroke risk study to include both low-and-middle-income participants in developing countries. The study confirms that high blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke in both developing and developed countries. This highlight the need for health authorities in those countries to develop strategies to reduce high blood pressure, salt intake and other risk factors.

其他研究也报告了许多相同的风险因素, 但这是第一次中风风险研究, 其中包括发展中国家中低收入和中等收入者。研究证实高血压是发展中国家和发达国家中风的主要原因。这突出表明, 这些国家的卫生当局需要制定减少高血压、食盐摄入量和其他危险因素的战略。