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When a 13-year-old Virginia girl started sneezing, her parents thought it was merely a cold. But when the sneezes continued for hours, they called in a doctor. Nearly two months later the girl was still sneezing, thousands of times a day, and her case had attracted worldwide attention.
Hundreds of suggestions, ranging from "put a clothes pin on her nose" to "have her stand on her head" poured in. But nothing did any good. Finally, she was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital where Dr. Leo Kanner, one of the world's top authorities on sneezing, solved the baffling (难以理解的) problem with great speed.
He used neither drugs nor surgery, curiously enough, the clue for the treatment was found in an ancient superstition about the amazing bodily reaction we call the sneeze. It was all in her mind, he said, a view which Aristotle, some 3,000 years earlier, would have agreed with heartily.
Dr. Kanner simply gave a modem psychological interpretation to the ancient belief that too much sneezing was an indication that the spirit was troubled; and he began to treat the girl accordingly.
"Less than two days in a hospital room, a plan for better scholastic and vocational adjustment, and reassurance about her unreasonable fear of tuberculosis quickly changed her from a sneezer to an ex-sneezer," he reported.
Sneezing has always been a subject of wonder, awe and puzzlement. Dr. Kanner has collected thousands of superstitions concerning it. The most universal one is the custom of begging for the blessing of God when a person sneezes—a practice Dr. Kanner traces back to the ancient belief that a sneeze was an indication that the sneezer was possessed of an evil spirit. Strangely, people over the world still continue the custom with the traditional, "God bless you" or its equivalent.
When scientists look at the sneeze, they see a remarkable mechanism which, without any conscious help from you, takes on a job that has to be done. When you need to sneeze you sneeze, this being nature's clever way of getting rid of an annoying object from the nose. The object may be just some dust in the nose which nature is striving to remove.
单选题 The girl sneezed continuously because she______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 详见第五段的语义解释，“为她制定了更好的学业计划和职业规划，并向她保证她不会得肺结核，她就马上停止了打喷嚏”。说明小女孩的心理负担很重。
单选题 When the girl began to sneeze continuously,______. [A] a lot of people offered their advice [B] she was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital [ C] she was given a treatment found in ancient superstition [D] many doctors treated her in different ways
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 重点明确题干要求，从第二段中分析，排除B项、C项和D项。
单选题 Dr. Kanner cured the girl by______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 此题考查对文意的理解。从第四段中“卡纳博士用现代心理学的知识对此做出解释，然后开始医治这个小女孩”。
单选题 When a person sneezes, we say "God bless you" because______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 此题考查对段落的理解和对作者观点的归纳。从第六段的最后一句话中可以得出作者的看法：“世界各地的人们仍然继续着‘愿上帝保佑你’或者与之类似的说法。”
单选题 According to scientists ,people sneeze because______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 从When you need to sneeze you sneeze，this being nature' s clever way of getting rid of all annoying object from the nose．The object may be just some dust in the nose which nature is striving to remove.可知。此题考查对段落文意的理解。在最后一段中“nature”作为关键词，是判断本题的重要依据。