Section A: Banked Cloze
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Researchers, writing in the journal Heart, pooled data from 23 studies and found that social isolation or feelings of loneliness were tied to an increased risk of coronary heart disease (冠心病) and strokes.
The studies included data from 181,006 men and women ages 18 and over. There were 4,628 coronary events and 3,002 strokes in follow-up periods (26) ______ from three to 21 years. Three of the papers (27) ______ loneliness, 18 looked at social isolation and two included both. Social isolation and loneliness were determined with questionnaires; the researchers depended on medical records and death (28) ______ for determining coronary events and strokes.
The scientists found that loneliness and social isolation increased the (29) ______ risk of having a heart attack or a death from heart disease by 29 percent, and the risk of stroke by 32 percent. There were no (30) ______ between men and women.
“People have tended to focus from a policy point of view on (31) ______ lonely people to make them more (32) ______,” said the lead author, Nicole K. Valtorta, a research fellow at the University of York in England. “Our study (33) ______ that if this is a risk factor, then we should be trying to prevent the risk factor in the first place.”
The authors (34) ______ that this was a review of observational studies and did not (35) ______ cause and effect.
Word Bank
全文翻译
研究人员在《心脏》杂志上撰文，汇总了23项研究的数据，发现社交孤立或孤独感与冠心病和中风风险增加有关。这些研究包括了181,006名18岁及以上的男性和女性的数据。在3至21年的随访期间，发生了4,628起冠心病事件和3,002起中风事件。其中三篇论文测量了孤独感，18篇研究了社交孤立，两篇两者都包含。社交孤立和孤独感通过问卷确定；研究人员依赖医疗记录和死亡证明来确定冠心病事件和中风。科学家们发现，孤独感和社交孤立使心脏病发作或死于心脏病的相对风险增加29%，中风风险增加32%。男女之间没有差异。"从政策角度来看，人们倾向于专注于帮助孤独的人建立更多联系，"主要作者、英国约克大学研究员 Nicole K. Valtorta 说。"我们的研究表明，如果这是一个风险因素，那么我们应该首先努力预防这个风险因素。"作者承认这是对观察性研究的综述，并未确定因果关系。Answers & Explanations
26. L (ranging)。解析：空格修饰 periods，且后面跟介词 from... to...。ranging from A to B 是固定用法，意为“范围从 A 到 B”。
27. H (measured)。解析：空格位于句子谓语位置。主语是 papers (论文/研究)，句子意为“其中三篇论文‘测量了’孤独感”。H 选项 measured 最符合科研论文描述数据的语境。
28. B (certificates)。解析：death certificates 是固定搭配，意为“死亡证明”。研究人员通过医疗记录和死亡证明来确定冠心病和中风事件。
29. M (relative)。解析：relative risk 为医学研究中的专有名词，意为“相对风险”，常用于描述某种因素对发病率的影响比例。
30. E (differences)。解析：空格位于 no 之后，意为“没有...”。根据文意，这种风险增加在男女身上是一致的，即“男女之间没有‘差异’”。
31. O (targeting)。解析：focus on doing sth 结构。此处意为政策倾向于“以孤独人群为目标”。targeting 符合语境。
32. C (connected)。解析：make them more ______。前文说这些人很 lonely (孤独)，为了改善状况，政策应该使他们变得更“有社交联系的” (connected)。
33. D (demonstrates)。解析：主语是 Our study，谓语动词缺单三形式。demonstrates that... 意为“我们的研究表明...”，是学术文章的常用表达。
34. A (acknowledge)。解析：空格为主句谓语。作者“承认” (acknowledge) 这是一个综述研究。选项 K 虽然也是单三，但语义不通。
35. F (establish)。解析：did not ______ cause and effect。establish cause and effect 是固定搭配，意为“确定因果关系”。观察性研究通常只能说明相关性，不能确定因果关系。