Seasick? Try Controlling Your Breathing

   If you get seasick easily, you may prepare for boat rides with pressure-point bracelets, ginger, or a prescription skin patch.  (1)   The technique presumably works because it helps control gravity sensors in the abdomen-a lesser-known input to our fine-tuned balance system.
     (2)   The inner ears sense motions of the head; the eyes see where the head is; and tiny sensory organs in muscles and tendons sense where the rest of the body is. More recently, researchers have realized that sensors in many other parts of the body also play a role: in the abdomen, the lower organs, and even blood vessels.  (3)   But if one or two don't match up, the brain gets confused and we become nauseated.
   Scientists knew the most sickening motions closely match the rate of natural breathing; they also knew that people naturally tend to breathe in time with a motion.  (4)  
   Researchers from Imperial College London enlisted 26 volunteers to sit in a tilting, rocking flight simulator and coordinate their breathing in various ways with the motion.  (5)   The natural tendency was for volunteers to inhale on every backward tilt, in rhythm with the rocking.  (6)   They felt even better if they breathed slightly faster or slower than the cyclic heaving of the chair; using that technique, the time until onset of nausea was 50% longer than during normal breathing.
     (7)   Abdominal sensors are known to send motion signals to the brain more slowly than those in the inner ear because they're farther away from the brain and because abdominal organs have more mass, which means they resist movement a tiny bit longer.  (8)   But if the diaphragm opposes gravity-induced stomach motions with controlled breaths, there is less sensory conflict and less nausea. "This technique is very good for mild everyday challenges," says medical research scientist Michael Gresty, a member of the study team. "it's completely safe, and it's not a drug."
   A. But if the subjects exhaled on every backward tilt, they didn't get sick as quickly.
   B. As long as all of these sensors send matching signals to the brain, we feel oriented.
   C. Now there's one more remedy: timing your breathing to counteract the nauseating motion.
   D. So why do these tactics work?
   E. The brain is traditionally thought to sense body position in three ways.
   F. The time lag between the two types of sensors creates a mismatch that builds up in the brain and makes us gradually sicker, the researchers say.
   G. The tests lasted up to 30 minutes, or until subjects felt moderately sick.
   H. But no one had ever tested whether breathing out of time with a motion could prevent nausea.

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Five Painful Facts You Need to Know

   0.  First of all, let's set the record straight: Pain is normal. About 75 million U.S. residents endure chronic or recurrent pain. So what is pain and why do so many suffer so long? Pain is felt when electrical signals are sent from nerve endings to your brain, which in turn can release painkillers called endorphins and generate reactions that range from instant and physical to long-term and emotional. Beyond that, scientific understanding gets painfully fuzzy. Here's what's known:
   1.  When you're in pain, you know it. But if scientists could fully grasp how pain works and why, they might be able to help you more. The American Academy of Pain Medicine defines pain as "an unpleasant sensation and emotional response to that sensation." Some pain is the result of an obvious injury. Other times, it is caused by damaged nerves that are not so easy to pinpoint. "Pain is complex and defies our ability to establish a clear definition," says Kathryn Weiner, director of the American Academy of Pain Management. "Pain is far more than neural transmission and sensory transduction. Pain is a complex mixture of emotions, culture, experience, spirit and sensation."
   2.  If you have chronic pain, you know how demoralizing and debilitating it can be, physically and mentally. It can prevent you from doing things and make you irritable for reasons nobody else understands. But that's only half the story. People with chronic backaches have brains as much as 11 percent smaller than those of non-sufferers, scientists reported in 2004. They don't know why. "It is possible it's just the stress of having to live with the condition," said study leader A. Vania Apkarian of Northwestern University. "The neurons become overactive or tired of the activity."
   3.  It may not eliminate the phrase "Not tonight, honey ..." but a 2006 study found that migraine sufferers had levels of sexual desire 20 percent higher than those suffering from tension headaches. The finding suggests sexual desire and migraines might be influenced by the same brain chemical, and getting a better handle on the link could lead to better treatments, at least for the pain portion of the equation.
   4.  Any man who has watched a woman having a baby without using drugs would swear that women can tolerate anything. But the truth is, it hurts more than you can imagine. Women have more nerve receptors than men. As an example, women have 34 nerve fibers per square centimeter of facial skin, while men average just 17. And in a 2005 study, women were found to report more pain throughout their lifetimes and, compared to men, they feel pain in more areas of their body and for longer durations.
   5.  Animal research could offer clues to eventually relieve human suffering. Take the naked mole rat, a hairless and nearly blind subterranean creature. A study this year found it feels neither the pain of acid nor the sting of chili peppers. If researchers can figure out why, they might be on the road to new sorts of painkilling therapies for humans. In 2006, scientists found a pathway for the transmission of chronic pain in rats that they hope will translate into better understanding of human chronic pain. Lobsters feel no pain, even when boiled, scientists said in a 2005 report that is just one more salvo in a long-running debate.
   A. Women feel more pain
   B. Chronic pain is common
   C. Chronic pain shrinks brains
   D. Migraines and sex go together
   E. Pain brings about more stress
   F. Scientists don't understand pain fully
   G. Animal research may relieve human pain

9. 
Paragraph 1 ______

10. 
Paragraph 2 ______

11. 
Paragraph 3 ______

12. 
Paragraph 4 ______

13. 
Paragraph 5 ______

A. chronic pain
   B. brain chemical
   C. nerve receptors
   D. a clear definition
   E. damaged nerves
   F. painkilling therapies
   G. an emotional response

14. 
As scientists don't know much about pain, it's hard to provide ______ of it.

15. 
Some pain is the result of ______.

16. 
People suffer both physically and emotionally if they have ______.

17. 
It is found that men have fewer ______ than women.

18. 
Study on animals may finally discover some new  ______ for human beings.

Facts about Aging

   The overall difference in life expectancy at birth in the United States is about 7 years (i.e.72 for men vs. 79 for women); and at every age women, on average, can expect to live longer than men. Interestingly, older women are more likely to suffer from debilitating illnesses than men. However, this difference seems to reflect the fact that women typically have less wealth and education than men - two factors that are associated with shorter life expectancies for both sexes. When the effects of poverty and education are removed in the relevant statistical analyses, these sex differences in rates of disability disappear.
   The elderly generally show very high interest in associating with friends and close family members. What they show less interest in than younger adults is the expansion of their social networks to make new friends.
   About one-third of problem drinkers develop their alcohol abuse problem late in life, and this problem of alcoholism among the aged is indeed more acute for women than men. Overuse of drugs may result from the tendency of some doctors to automatically prescribe drugs rather than search for underlying physical or psychological causes of symptoms, especially when the patients are elderly women. It may also reflect the fact that women are more likely to be facing the loneliness and stress associated with the loss of a spouse than men, and are generally more likely to seek help from a doctor.
   Alzheimer's disease, the much-dreaded form of dementia associated with profound memory loss and other increasingly devastating symptoms, is a condition that strikes a significant number of elderly people. Nevertheless, most elderly people will never suffer such memory loss. In fact, contemporary estimates suggest that moderate to severe memory loss is found in only 4 to 6 percent of adults over age 65. The most important point to be aware of is that while memory (especially short term memory) does deteriorate somewhat as we get older, profound memory loss is not a "natural" consequence of the aging process. It is a product of disease. Evidence of profound memory loss should prompt a visit to a physician who specializes in such problems.
   after age 80 the ratio of widows to widowers in the U.S. is about 5 to 1. This statistic reflects the fact that women have a longer life expectancy than men, and the fact that women typically marry men older than themselves. Differences in wealth may also make it easier for marriage-minded widowers to find mates than widows, since elderly women are more likely to be living in poverty than elderly men.
   The stereotype of depressed lonely old people is a pervasive one, but it is not supported by the facts. While social isolation is a problem for many older people, it is also a problem for many young people as well. Surveys consistently show that, in the absence of serious illness, older people generally report higher levels of happiness or life satisfaction than young people. One reason for this is that as people age they seem to devote increasing attention to the task of managing their affective states and avoiding sadness or anxiety.
   Although there is considerable variability in the degree of loss, sensory decline is fairly inevitable. These losses, it should be noted, have important implications for environmental design in the care of the elderly. For example, greater use of acoustical tile to absorb background noise, use of non-slippery floor surfaces to provide additional traction, and use of non-glare surfaces and clearly marked boundaries can all increase comfort and safety.

Recycling Paper

   The process of recycling paper can help to reduce deforestation and energy consumption on a significant scale. There are many different reasons why we should recycle paper products, and some of these are  (26)   in the paragraphs below.
   Energy consumption will always be on the  (27)   as population levels grow, and so any manufacturing processes which help to reduce energy consumption are  (28)  
   The Energy Information Administration (EIA) claim that there can be as  (29)   as a 40% energy saving when recycling paper over producing paper  (30)   the direct raw material.
   Although recycling paper has many  (31)  , it also has its drawbacks. One of these drawbacks is that we cannot recycle the  (32)   paper product for eternity, as the fibers contained within the paper degrade over time,  (33)   their strength and length.
   On  (34)  , an individual paper fiber can only be recycled a  (35)   of six times. Although this is a significant drawback, the six time recycling process will help to  (36)   a great deal of energy when you consider  (37)   much paper there is to be recycled.
   If paper fibers can be recycled up to 6 times, and we recycled all paper products, this could help to  (38)   the intensity of deforestation for paper products up to a factor of 6.
   With paper production said to  (39)   around 40% of harvested wood, and paper said to  (40)   around 90% wood, you can see how recycling paper is an important process for the  (41)   of our forests.
   Today, the use of recycled paper products is on the increase, as more and more people begin to recycle paper  (42)   products around the home.
   Although there are slight differences in the recycling processes of different  (43)   of paper products (e.g. corrugated, mixed paper, newspaper products), we are able to recycle just about any type of paper product around today.
   The recycling logo helps to  (44)   a recyclable product and can also sometimes help to identify if the product contains any recycled material, in the form of a percentage. This helps a consumer to identify the  (45)   of recycling various products.

26. 
A. questioned         B. conducted         C. determined        D. highlighted

27. 
A. fall              B. rise               C. top              D. surface

28. 
A. welcomed         B. challenged         C. created           D. introduced

29. 
A. good              B. many              C. much             D. little

30. 
A. from            B. in               C. by              D. at

31. 
A. chances           B. applications        C. benefits           D. risks

32. 
A. similar           B. same             C. different          D. new

33. 
A. improving         B. getting            C. missing           D. losing

34. 
A. purpose           B. average           C. time             D. practice

35. 
A. maximum         B. deal              C. number           D. scale

36. 
A. save             B. consume          C. produce          D. control

37. 
A. what             B. whether           C. why             D. how

38. 
A. maintain          B. reduce             C. survive            D. regulate

39. 
A. consist of         B. take in            C. account for        D. ask for

40. 
A. compose          B. hold              C. contain           D. mix

41. 
A. possibility        B. sustainability      C. suitability        D. capability

42. 
A. based             B. linked             C. involved          D. turned

43. 
A. names            B. ways             C. members          D. forms

44. 
A. paint             B. make             C. protect           D. identify

45. 
A. image            B. difficulty          C. potential          D. location