2015考研英语阅读集中练：Stress and ageing

考研英语阅读水平的提高重在练习，多练才能够增加词汇量，提升对语法语义的把握，才能够更容易的理解和总结文章中心主旨。正所谓熟能生巧，就是这个道理。十一刚过，后续复习任务依然很重，新东方在线小编希望考生能够继续努力，多读多练。下面分享英语阅读集中练篇章，望考生认真阅读。

2015考研英语阅读集中练：Stress and ageing

　　It has been known for some time that chronic stress (caring for a child with a protractedillness, for example) causes premature shortening of the telomeres.

　　What has not been clear is whether this is a one-way trip, with each stressful period turningthe telomeric ratchet irreversibly.

　　This week, though, at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Orlando,Florida, a group of researchers led by Edward Nelson of the University of California, Irvine,showed that it isn't.

　　Their research suggests that stress management not only stops telomeres from shortening,it actually promotes their repair.

　　Dr Nelson drew this welcome conclusion from a previous study that measured the impactof telephone counselling on women who had been treated for cervical cancer.

　　The study found that such counselling worked, both mentally and physically.

　　Women who had been counselled reported that the quality of their lives had improved,compared with those of a control group who had not been counselled.

　　They also showed improvements in the strength of their immune systems.

　　Given those benefits, Dr Nelson wondered if he could find others, and he re-examined theparticipants' samples to look at the lengths of the telomeres in their white blood cells (redcells have no nuclei, and therefore no chromosomes).

　　What he found surprised him. Not only did counselling stop telomere shrinkage, it actuallypromoted telomere growth.

　　Those women for whom counselling had worked (ie, those who reported a decrease inemotional stress) had longer telomeres at the end than they did at the beginning.

　　Their Hayflick countdowns were being reset.

　　A single such result must, of course, be treated with caution.

　　But another study reported at the meeting, by Elizabeth Blackburn of the University ofCalifornia, San Francisco (who shared the Nobel prize for the discovery of the enzyme thatrepairs telomeres), gave some support.

　　This showed that exercise has a similar effect to counselling on the telomeres of the stressed.

　　If Dr Nelson's work is successfully replicated, it will shine more light on the ill-understoodrelationship between the health of the mind and the health of the body.

　　For, as he points out, nothing actually changed in the lives of the women in question.

　　They still had cancer, albeit under treatment, and they were still under stress. Nothing, thatis, except their attitude.

温馨提示：10月10日，本周五是考研正式报名开始，希望广大应往届考生提前做好准备。

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