Our brains could be hard-wired to be male or female long before we begin to grow testes(丸)or ovaries(卵巢)in the womb. This discovery might explain why some people feel trapped in a body that’s the wrong sex, and could also lead to tests that reveal the true "brain sex" of babies born with ambiguous genitalia(生殖器). Till now, the orthodoxy among developmental biologists has been that embryos develop ovaries and become female unless a gene called SRY on the Y chromosome is switched on. If this gene is active, it makes testes develop instead. This switch is seen as the key event in determining whether a baby is a girl or a boy. Only after the gonads(性腺) form and flood the body with the appropriate hormones, the theory goes, is the sex of our minds and bodies determined. But in a study of mice, a team at the University of California, Los Angeles, has now found that males and females show differences in the expression of no fewer than 50 genes well before SRY switches on. "It’s the first discovery of genes differentially expressed in the brain, "says Eric Vilain, who led the UCLA team. "They may have an impact on the hard-wired development of the brain in terms of sexual differentiation independent of gonadal induction." Vilain is presenting details of seven of the 50 genes to the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Baltimore this week. Three of these genes are dominant in females and four are dominant in males. The next step for Vilain and his team will be to show that the genes in question really do influence brain sexuality—and not just in mice. This is likely to be a much tougher proposition than merely showing there are differences in expression. But if the findings are confirmed, they could one day yield blood tests that allow doctors to establish the brain sex of babies born with genitalia that share features of both sexes. At present doctors and parents have to guess which gender to assign for surgical "correction". The first paragraph tells us that ______.
A. whether we will be male or female is determined by the brain, not the genitalia
B. some people consider themselves to be male but are in fact female physiologically
C. our brain sex is formed long after our testes or ovaries begin to grow
D. some people feel trapped because they have ambiguous genitalia
查看答案
骨盆环完整性破坏的骨折为
A. 耻骨联合分离
B. 髂骨翼骨折
C. 髂前上棘骨折
D. 耻骨一侧单枝骨折
E. 骶尾部骨折
Scraps of food could soon be helping power your home, thanks to an ultra-cheap bacteria-driven battery. Its developers hope that instead of feeding the dog or making garden compost(混合肥料) ,organic household waste could top up your home’s electricity. Although such "microbial fuel cells" (MFCs)have been developed in the past, they have always proved extremely inefficient and expensive. Now Chris Melhuish and technologists at the University of the West of England(UWE)in Bristol have come up with a simplified MFC that costs as little as £10 to make. Right now, their fuel cell runs only on sugar cubes, since these produce almost no waste when broken down, but they aim to move on to carrot power. "It has to be able to use raw materials, rather than giving it a refined fuel," says Melhuish. Inside the Walkman-sized battery, a colony of E. coil bacteria produce enzymes that break down carbohydrates, releasing hydrogen atoms. The cell also contains chemicals that drive a series of redox, or reduction and oxidation reactions, stripping electrons from the hydrogen atoms and delivering them steadily to the fuel cell’s anode(正极). This creates a voltage that can be used to power a circuit. To prove the MFC works, the researchers are using it to power a small light-sensitive robot. And when a number of the cells are connected in series, they could power domestic appliances, running a 40-watt bulb for eight hours on about 50 grams of sugar. Earlier MFCs were inefficient because they relied on energy-hungry filters and pumps. By experimenting with different anode materials, the UWE team have figured out how to make their system work: they dump the bacteria and redox chemicals directly into the cell. In its current form, the UWE team says its organic battery can produce eight times as much power as any previous MFC. But Melhuish wants to improve this, both by scaling it up and finding a better mix of redox chemicals. The word "redox” in paragraph 4 most probably means ______.
A. reduction and oxidation reaction
B. electron from the hydrogen atoms
C. bacteria-driven battery
D. a colony of E.coli bacteria
Our brains could be hard-wired to be male or female long before we begin to grow testes(丸)or ovaries(卵巢)in the womb. This discovery might explain why some people feel trapped in a body that’s the wrong sex, and could also lead to tests that reveal the true "brain sex" of babies born with ambiguous genitalia(生殖器). Till now, the orthodoxy among developmental biologists has been that embryos develop ovaries and become female unless a gene called SRY on the Y chromosome is switched on. If this gene is active, it makes testes develop instead. This switch is seen as the key event in determining whether a baby is a girl or a boy. Only after the gonads(性腺) form and flood the body with the appropriate hormones, the theory goes, is the sex of our minds and bodies determined. But in a study of mice, a team at the University of California, Los Angeles, has now found that males and females show differences in the expression of no fewer than 50 genes well before SRY switches on. "It’s the first discovery of genes differentially expressed in the brain, "says Eric Vilain, who led the UCLA team. "They may have an impact on the hard-wired development of the brain in terms of sexual differentiation independent of gonadal induction." Vilain is presenting details of seven of the 50 genes to the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Baltimore this week. Three of these genes are dominant in females and four are dominant in males. The next step for Vilain and his team will be to show that the genes in question really do influence brain sexuality—and not just in mice. This is likely to be a much tougher proposition than merely showing there are differences in expression. But if the findings are confirmed, they could one day yield blood tests that allow doctors to establish the brain sex of babies born with genitalia that share features of both sexes. At present doctors and parents have to guess which gender to assign for surgical "correction". From paragraph 4 we know that Vilain and his team are going to ______.
A. continue to study the influence of genes on human brain sexuality
B. look for more dominant genes for males as well as for females
C. continue their study about genes on mice
D. show that there are differences in expression of genes of males and females
Many students find the experience of attending university lectures to be a confusing and frustrating experience. The lecturer speaks for one or two hours, perhaps (61) the talk with slides, writing up important information on the blackboard, (62) reading material and giving out (63) The new student sees the other students continuously writing on notebooks and (64) what to write. Very often the student leaves the lecture (65) notes which do not catch the main points and (66) become hard even for the students to understand. Most institutions provide courses which (67) new students to develop the skills they need to be (68) listeners and note-takers. (69) these are unavailable, there are many useful study-skills guides which (70) learners to practice these skills independently. In all cases it is important to (71) the problem before actually starting your studies. It is important to (72) that most students have difficulty in acquiring the language skills (73) in college study. One way of (74) these difficulties is to attend the language and study-skills classes which most institutions provide throughout the (75) year. Another basic strategy is to find a study partner with whom it is possible to identify difficulties, exchange ideas and provide support. Part Ⅳ ClozeDirections: In this part, there is a passage with 15 blanks. For each blank there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer for each blank and mark the corresponding letter with a single bar across the square brackets on your machine-scoring ANSWER SHEET.
A. Because
B. Though
C. Whether
D. If