单选题 There are already drugs that brighten moods, like Prozac, and other antidepressants that control levels of a brain chemical called serotonin. While originally meant to treat depression, these drugs have been used for other psychological conditions like shyness and anxiety and even by otherwise healthy people to feel better about themselves.
But is putting people in a better mood really making them happy? People can also drown their sorrows in alcohol or get a euphoric feeling using narcotics, but few people who do so would be called truly happy.
The President"s Council on Bioethics said in a recent report that while antidepressants might make some people happier, they can also substitute for what can truly bring happiness: a sense of satisfaction with one"s identity, accomplishments and relationships.
"In the pursuit of happiness human beings have always worried about falling for the appearance of happiness and missing its reality," the council wrote. It added, "Yet a fraudulent happiness is just what the pharmacological management of our mental lives threatens to confer upon us."
Now the race is on to develop pills to make people smarter. These drugs aim at memory loss that occurs in people with Alzheimer"s disease or a precursor called mild cognitive impairment.
But it is lost on no one that if a memory drug works and is safe, it may one day be used by healthy people to learn faster and remember longer.
Studies have already shown that animals can be made to do both when the activity of certain genes is increased or decreased. Dr. Tom Tully, a professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, created genetically engineered fruit flies that he said had "photographic memory." They could, in one session, learn something that took normal flies 10 sessions.
"It immediately convinced everyone that memory was going to be just another biological process," Dr. Tully said. "There"s nothing special about it. That meant that it was going to be treatable and manipulable."
But experts say that improving memory will not necessarily make one smarter, in the sense of IQ, let alone in wisdom. "It would be a mistake to think that drugs that have an impact on memory necessarily will have an effect on intelligence," said Dr. Daniel L. Schacher, chairman of psychology at Harvard.
"Is it a good thing to remember everything?" Dr. Tully asked. Could a brain too crammed with information suffer some sort of overload?
单选题 Talking of antidepressants, the author expresses dissatisfaction with ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查事实细节题。文中第一段提到治疗抑郁的药被用来代替感官的快乐,这属于药物的滥用。因此,本题选C。
单选题 The word "euphoric" (boldfaced in Paragraph 2) can be replaced by the word "______".
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查细节。定位到文中第二段,在“get a euphoric feeling”之前提到“making them happy”,不难推出“euphoric”的意思是“快乐”。因此,本题选D。
单选题 According to the Council"s report, for those who seek contentment with their lives, antidepressants can ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 本题为文章细节题,文中第三段提到President"s Council的报告,抗抑郁药或许可以使人感到快乐,但这不是真正的快乐,真正的快乐可以从成就、人际关系中获得,可见抗抑郁药带来的快乐感是一种欺骗。因此答案为A。
单选题 The example of fruit flies is given to show that ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题为文章理解题。定位到文中倒数第四段,作者用果蝇的例子说明药物可以使动物变得更加聪明,这是医学的奇迹。因此,本题选D。
单选题 The author thinks that, to one, remembering everything could be ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 本题为细节推断题。文章最后一段提到“如果人们记住每一件事情,那么对于大脑的负担是很大的”,由此可见,记住一切事情也是有伤害的,因此本题选A。
单选题 From the passage we can infer that medicines have little power in ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 本题是对作者主观态度的考查。整篇文章提到医学试着使药物发挥更广泛的作用,但是结果并不是理想的,很多情绪不是药物可以控制的。由此可知,药物几乎没有能力解决心理的问题。因此本题选B。