A
Anyone who came of age in the 1990s remembers the Friends TV series where Phoebe and Rachel go out to get tattoos (纹身). Rachel gets a tattoo and Phoebe ends up with a black ink dot because she can't tolerate the pain. This is not a rare occurrence in the world. The funny storyline also shows the question—Can we help the “Phoebes” of the world suffer less by making them more like the “Rachels？”
Pain is the most common symptom reported when people are seeking medical attention. Under normal circumstances, pain signals injury, and as we recover, the pain becomes less. Unfortunately, as no two men are alike, they are different not only in their ability to discover, tolerate and respond to pain but also in how they report it and how they respond to various treatments. This makes it difficult to know how to effectively treat each patient.
People's different health outcomes often result from complex psychosocial interactions, environmental and genetic factors (基因因素). While pain may not register as a traditional disease like heart disease or diabetes, the same factors are at play. The painful experiences throughout our lifetime occur against a background of genes that make us more or less sensitive to pain. But our mental and physical state and previous experiences can help adjust our responses.
If we can better understand what makes people more or less sensitive to pain in all kinds of situations, then we are much closer to reducing human suffering by developing targeted personalized pain treatments with lower risks of misuse, tolerance and abuse than the current treatments.
Once there were reports of children who were paintolerant. Studies of these rare cases showed that the congenital insensitivity to pain is the result of lacking a single gene.
Recently, researchers are evaluating tetrodotoxin, a strong neurotoxin (神经毒素) produced by sea creatures like pufferfish, as a potential pain killer. It has shown early effectiveness in treating cancer pain. These drugs and toxins bring about the same state that is present in those with congenital insensitivity to pain.
本文是一篇说明文。人们对疼痛的感知因人而异，研究其背后的原因有着重要的意义。
1．What kind of people does “Phoebes” represent?
A．Those liking tattoos.
B．Those with black ink dots on their skin.
C．Those appearing in the Friends TV series.
D．Those being unable to take the pain from tattooing.
答案：D
解析：推理判断题。根据第一段中Phoebe ends up with a black ink dot...rare occurrence可推知，“Phoebes”代表了那些像Friends中的Phoebe一样不能忍受纹身疼痛的人。
2．What does the author mainly talk about in Paragraph 3?
A．The importance of knowing more about pain.
B．The causes of people's differences in pain.
C．The methods of adjusting our reaction to pain.
D．The necessity of living through painful experiences.
答案：B
解析：主旨大意题。根据第三段的内容可知，本段主要说明了造成“人们痛感差异”的原因。
3．What's the function of tetrodotoxin?
A．To serve as a potential cancer killer.
B．To make patients unable to feel pain.
C．To improve the effectiveness of pain killers.
D．To make up for lacking an important gene.
答案：B
解析：细节理解题。根据第五段中．..insensitivity to pain...lacking a single gene及第六段中．..toxins bring about the same state...可知，tetrodotoxin做为一种潜在的止痛药，其功能是使病人无法感知疼痛。
