阅读理解 For the first nine months of Sam Berns'' life, everything seemed normal. He learned to walk, but then his parents noticed something different. After a year, doctors ultimately diagnosed (诊断) him with a genetic disease so rare that it affects just one in 8 million children. Only 40 children in the world are known to have the disease. The disease, progeria, ages children at up to 10 times the normal rate. They stop growing prematurely, then lose their hair and get arthritis. Some children suffer strokes by the time they are 4 or 5. There is no known treatment or cure, and most patients die of heart disease by the age of 13. Progeria is a gene mutation (突变). But scientists had not identified which gene or genes were responsible for the disease, so they had no idea even how to start hunting for a cure. With most genetic diseases, researchers are able to examine family trees to see how diseases recur, cross-referencing the information to narrow the hunt. But with progeria sufferers seldom living into their teens, there were no family trees to study. But not long ago, NIH (National Institutes of Health) called Sam''s parents with good news: by comparing the genetic samples of progeria sufferers with a normal human gene structure, they had found a common chromosome (染色体) fault that almost all of the progeria-suffered children shared. The discovery could potentially be the first step toward finding a cure for the rare disease and possibly even a way to fight the disease of aging in the general population. Now 7, Sam acts just like any child of his age. However, Sam has the body of a 70-year-old, and is starting to feel, some of the effects of premature aging, including poor eyesight and stiffness his joints.
单选题 The following statements are true for all progeria-suffered children EXCEPT that______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】事实细节题。题目问的是“对于所有的早老病患者来说，哪个说法不对?”文章第二段提到所有早老病患者的症状为：“过早地停止生长，开始掉头发，患关节炎”，而“有一些孩子在4、5岁时会开始中风”。根据题意和第二段内容，只有B符合题意，为正确答案。
单选题 Progeria can not be cured up to now because______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】事实细节题。文章第三段第二句话指出“因科学家尚未找到致病的是哪一种基因，所以他们还不知道如何着手跟踪治疗该病”，由此可知C与文意相符，为正确答案。选项D是找不到致病基因的原因，与题意不符，故排除；A、B两项在文中均未提及。
单选题 What can researchers know through studying family trees?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】事实细节题。第三段第三句提到“研究者们可以研究早老病患者的家谱，看疾病复发的情况如何”(examine family trees to see how diseases recur)，目的是通过信息之间的相互关系来缩小查找目标，由此可知A与文意相符。B、C虽在文中有所提及，但都与题意不符，故排除；从文章可知，直到现在也没有找到治疗该病的方法，故排除D。
单选题 According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】推理判断题。文中第二段末尾句只提到“大部分患者会在13岁之前死于心脏病”，但并不一定就是Sam Berns，故排除A；根据文意可知，早老病患者会以十倍于常人的速度老化，主要是指生理机能，而不是外表，故排除B；文章首段最后一句话说“世界上只有40名孩子得这种病”，所以C也不对。从文章最后一段内容可知，Sam Berns已感到有些早衰的反应了，故D正确。
单选题 What do we know from the news that NIH brought to Sam's parents?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理判断题。文章第四段中提到NIH最近有新发现，这一发现可能会迈出治愈这一疾病的第一步，这就说明将来治愈早老病是有可能的，故C为正确答案。该病现在还未被攻克，由此可排除A；文章虽提到几乎所有受早老病折磨的孩子都有共同的染色体故障，但与本题题意不符，B项也可排除；D项未在文中提及。