第八章单元测试
The thin, extremely sharp needles didn’t hurt at all going in. Dr. Gong pierced them into my left arm, around the elbow that had been bothering me. Other needles were slipped into my left wrist and, strangely, into my right arm, and then into both my closed eyelids.
There wasn’t any discomfort, just a mild warming sensation. However, I did begin to wonder what had driven me here, to the office of Dr.James Gong, in New York’s Chinatown.
Then I remembered—the torturing pain in that left elbow. Several trips to a hospital and two expensive, uncomfortable medical tests had failed to produce even a diagnosis. “Maybe you lean on your left arm too much,” the doctor concluded, suggesting I see a bone doctor.
During the hours spent waiting in vain to see a bone doctor, I decided to take another track and try acupuncture. A Chinese-American friend recommended Dr. Gong. I took the subway to Gong’s second-floor office, marked with a hand-painted sign.
Dr. Gong speaks English, but not often. Most of my questions to him were greeted with a friendly laugh, but I managed to let him know where my arm hurt. He asked me to go into a room, had me lie down on a bed, and went to work. In the next room, I learned, a woman dancer was also getting a treatment. As I lay there a while, I drifted into a dream-like state and fantasized about what she looked like.
Acupuncturists today are as likely to be found on Park Avenue as on Mott Street. In all there are an estimated 10,000 acupuncturists in the country. Nowadays, a lot of medical doctors have learned acupuncture techniques; so have a number of dentists. Reason? Patient demand. Few, though, can adequately explain how acupuncture works.
Acupuncturists may say that the body has more than 800 acupuncture points. A life force called qi circulates through the body. Points on the skin are energetically connected to specific organs, body structures and systems. Acupuncture points are stimulated to balance the circulation of qi.
The truth is, though acupuncture is at least 2,200 years old, “nobody really knows what’s happening,” says Paul Zmiewski, a Ph.D.in Chinese studies who practices acupuncture in Philadelphia.
After five treatments, there has been dramatic improvement in my arm, and the pain is a fraction of what it was. The mainly silent Dr. Gong finally even offered a diagnosis for what troubled me. “Pinched nerve,” he said.
Robots that can help us with daily chores like cooking and cleaning are a long way off, but automatons that serve as family companions may be much closer. Researchers in the United States, France, Japan and other countries are racing to build robots that can entertain and perform some simpler tasks for us.
Several years after it was introduced to the world, the advanced Japanese humanoid robot Asimo is still serving only as a demonstration and experimentation platform. Even if available for purchase, it would be too expensive for ordinary families.
It is much easier and cheaper to build a robot like Jibo, which uses simple movements and has the ability to interact with people through sound, pictures and touch.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Cynthia Breazeal created Jibo initially as a platform for exploring how people communicate with technology.
"Jibo as a robot is something that can move, with cameras that can move and see you and interact with you like a living thing, so to speak. It can bring content to life off the screen in an entirely new way," explained Breazeal.
Jibo can remind you about appointments, take photos, entertain people and tell stories to children. Breazeal said it also incorporates touch-sensitive technology.
"People often communicate through touch, so they might pat Jibo if it does something that they like and Jibo can actually learn from that," said Breazeal.
Therapists at Amici di Nico Autism Center, in Lecce, Italy, use a small talking robot to treat autistic children.
11-year-old Marco has shown great improvement in focusing and communication since he started playing with the robot that carefully keeps track of the child’s behavior, said engineer Giuseppe Palestra.
"We would like to be one step ahead of state of the art, so that we can make the human-robot interaction better, and let’s say ‘humanize’ the interaction between the robot and the child," said Palestra.
Researchers say they want to develop robots that can be programmed for individual patients, because each child reacts differently to outside stimuli.
French researcher Pierre Lebeau’s family robot Keecker was designed as an entertainment platform that can follow its owner around.
"I came up with the idea of a computer with a projector inside and a great sound system and a camera, something that can move and go to any room to give me a kind of TV-like experience, but anywhere I want without the cables and the complexity,"
Researchers say robots intended for entertainment may soon be on the market with prices ranging from about $500 to $5,000—still expensive for ordinary buyers. Therapeutic robots are still in the experimental phase but they too point to what we can expect from artificial intelligence in the near future.
Urbanization — migration away from the suburbs to the central city — will be the biggest real estate trend in 2015, according to a new report.
The report says America’s urbanization will continue to be the most significant issue affecting the industry, as cities across the country imitate the walkability and transit-oriented development making cities like New York and San Francisco so successful.
As smaller cities copy the model of these “24-hour cities”，more affordable versions of these places will be created. The report refers to this as the coming of the “18-hour city”，and uses the term to refer to cities like Houston, Austin, Charlotte, and Nashville, which are “positioning themselves as highly competitive, in terms of livability, employment offerings, and recreational and cultural amenities.”
Another trend that looks significant in 2015 is that America’s largest population group, Millennials （千禧一代），will continue to put off buying a house. Apartments will retain their appeal for a while for Millennials, haunted by what happened to home-owning parents.
This trend will continue into the 2020s, the report projects. After that, survey respondents disagree over whether this generation will follow in their parents’ footsteps, moving to the suburbs to raise families, or will choose to remain in the urban core. The survey projects that this population cohort will evolve and segment over time, and warns against painting the generation with too broad a brush.
Another issue affecting real estate in the coming year will be America’s failing infrastructure. Most roads, bridges, transit, water systems, the electric grid, and communications networks were installed 50 to 100 years ago, and they are largely taken for granted until they fail.
The report’s writers state that America’s failure to invest in infrastructure impacts not only the health of the real-estate market, but also our ability to remain globally competitive.
Apart from the specific trends highlighted above, which cause some investors to worry, the report portrays an overall optimism borne by the recent healthy real-estate “upcycle” and improving economy. Seventy-four percent of the respondents surveyed report a “good to excellent” expectation of real-estate profitability in 2015. While excessive optimism can promote bad investment patterns, resulting in a real- estate “bubble”，the report’s writers downplay that potential outcome in that it has not yet occurred.
Some respondents to the Emerging Markets survey call the urbanization trend “oversubscribed”，and the report concedes that there do exist some edge cities and suburbs with promise. But these places are few and far between. The most successful places are those built using urban-design principles — with density, walkability, and good transit.
Real-estate investors in 2015 need to pay attention to the two main conclusion of the report: if a property resembles or relies upon sprawl in any way, or doesn’t appeal to Millennials, think before you invest.
答案:1. What did Dr. Gong do when the narrator arrived at his office? A) He laughed at the narrator's questions. B) He asked the narrator to lie down on a bed and began working. C) He recommended another treatment method. D) He diagnosed the narrator's elbow problem immediately. Answer: B 2. How many acupuncturists are estimated to be practicing in the United States according to the text? A) About 1,000 B) About 5,000 C) About 10,000 D) About 20,000 Answer: C 3. Which statement best describes the narrator's experience with acupuncture? A) The narrator found acupuncture painful during the process. B) The narrator experienced significant relief after undergoing acupuncture treatments. C) The narrator was skeptical of acupuncture's effectiveness throughout the treatment. D) The narrator's friend recommended acupuncture as a last resort before considering surgery. Answer: B
