It's the first question parents ask when their child is diagnosed with autism (自闭症). Will his future brothers or sisters have a higher risk of (1) ______ it, too?
According to the largest study of siblings (兄弟姐妹) in families with autism, the answer is yes. Among 664 children who had at least one older sibling with the developmental disorder, the (2) ______ risk of autism was nearly 19%, (3) ______ higher than previous sibling-recurrence estimates that were anywhere from 3% to 10%. Kids with more than one older autistic sibling had an even higher risk of the disorder: 32%.
The (4) ______ suggest that genes play a key role in autism risk. But they also hint that other environmental factors (5) ______ by siblings, like influences in the womb (子宫), may be important as well.
On the (6) ______ of the findings, the researchers recommend that doctors closely (7) ______ younger siblings of autistic children to pick up any early signs of the disorder, (8) ______ an unusually large head or delayed language development and communication skills. Evidence suggests that early (9) ______ and diagnosis of autism can help children take advantage of therapies that can treat some of its (10) ______.
| A）average B) basis C) common D) consequently E) detection F) developing G) distributed H)dramatically I) including J) monitor K) reason L) results M) shared N) symbols O)symptoms |
When Captain Cook asked the chiefs in Tahiti why they always ate (1) _______, they replied. "Because it is right." If we ask Americans why they eat with knives and forks, or why their men wear pants (2) _______ skirts, or why they may be married to only one person at a time, we are likely to get (3) _______ and very uninformative answers: "Because it's right. " "Because that's the way it's done." "Because it's the (4) _______. " Or even "I don't know. " The reason for these and countless other patterns of social behavior is that they are (5) _______ by social norms-shared rules or guidelines which prescribe the behavior that is appropriate in a given situation. Norms (6) _______ how people "ought" to behave under particular circumstances in a particular society. We conform(遵守) to norms so readily that we are hardly aware they (7) _______. In fact, we are much more likely to notice (8) _______ from norms than conformity to them. You would not be surprised if a stranger tried to shake hands when you were introduced, but you might be a little (9) _______ if they bowed, started to stroke you, or kissed you on both (10) _______ Yet each of these other forms of greeting is appropriate in other parts of the world. When we visit another society whose norms are different, we quickly become aware that things we do this way, they do that way.
A new study found that inner-city kids living in neighborhoods with more green space gained about 13% less weight over a two-year period than kids living amid more concrete and fewer trees. Such (1) _______ tell a powerful story. The obesity epidemic began in the 1980s, and many people (2) _______ it to increased portion sizes and inactivity, but that can't be everything. Fast foods and TVs have been (3) _______ us for a long time. "Most experts agree that the changes were (4) _______ to something in the environment," says social epidemiologist Thomas Glass of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. That something could be a (5) _______ of the green.
The new research, (6) _______ in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, isn't the first to associate greenery with better health, but it does get us closer (7) _______ identifying what works and why. At its most straightforward, a green neighborhood (8) _______ means more places for kids to play – which is (9) _______ since time spent outdoors is one of the strongest correlates of children's activity levels. But green space is good for the mind (10) _______ : research by environmental psychologists has shown that it has cognitive (11) _______ for children with attention-deficit disorder. In one study, just reading (12) _______ in a green setting improved kids' symptoms.
(13) _______ to grassy areas has also been linked to (14) _______ stress and a lower body mass index (体重指数) among adults. And an (15) _______ of 3,000 Tokyo residents associated walkable green spaces with greater longevity (长寿) among senior citizens.
Glass cautions that most studies don't (16) _______ prove a causal link between greenness and health, but they're nonetheless helping spur action. In September the U. S. House of Representatives (17) _______ the delightfully named No Child Left Inside Act to encourage public initiatives aimed at exposing kids to the outdoors.
Finding green space is not (18) _______ easy, and you may have to work a bit to get your family a little grass and trees. If you live in a suburb or a city with good parks, take (19) _______ of what's there. Your children in particular will love it – and their bodies and minds will be (20) _______ to you.
Being sociable looks like a good way to add years to your life. Relationships with family, friends, neighbours, even pets, will all do the trick, but the biggest longevity (长寿) boost seems to come from marriage or an equivalent relationship. The effect was first noted in 1858 by William Farr, who wrote that widows and widowers (鳏夫) were at a much higher risk of dying than their married peers. Studies since then suggest that marriage could add as much as seven years to a man’s life and two to a woman’s. The effect holds for all causes of death, whether illness, accident or self-harm.
Even if the odds are stacked against you, marriage can more than compensate. Linda Waite of the University of Chicago has found that a married older man with heart disease can expect to live nearly four years longer than an unmarried man with a healthy heart. Likewise, a married man who smokes more than a pack a day is likely to live as long as a divorced man who doesn’t smoke. There’s a flip side, however, as partners are more likely to become ill or die in the couple of years following their spouse’s death, and caring for a spouse with mental disorder can leave you with some of the same severe problems. Even so, the odds favour marriage. In a 30-year study of more than 10,000 people, Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School describes how all kinds of social networks have similar effects.
So how does it work? The effects are complex, affected by socio-economic factors, health-service provision, emotional support and other more physiological (生理的) mechanisms. For example, social contact can boost development of the brain and immune system, leading to better health and less chance of depression later in life. People in supportive relationships may handle stress better. Then there are the psychological benefits of a supportive partner.
A life partner, children and good friends are all recommended if you aim to live to 100. The ultimate social network is still being mapped out, but Christakis says: “People are interconnected, so their health is interconnected.”