Question

Babies born in summer are more likely to become short-sighted in late life, a study has shown.

As many as a quarter of all cases of short-sightedness are caused by too great an exposure to sunlight in the first weeks of life, say eye experts.

They are advising all parents to put sunglasses on their babies during the first weeks.

Scientists had already established that over-exposure to sunlight caused shortsightedness in animals.

Researchers who compared the months in which babies were born with whether they needed glasses later on say the principle also applies to humans.

A study of almost 300,000 young adults-the largest of its kind-showed that those born in June and July had a 25 per cent greater chance of becoming severely short-sighted than those born in December or January.

Research leader Professor Michael Belkin, of Tel Aviv University, said it was because prolonged illumination(光照) causes the eyeball to lengthen-causing short-sightedness.

Hence the more light a newborn is exposed to, the more the eyeball lengthens and the worse the short-sightedness will be.

The mechanism which lengthens the eyeball is associated with levels of melatonin(褪黑激素), a pigment (色素) which protects the skin against harmful rays of the sun.

In young babies not enough melatonin is released as protection, meaning they are more vulnerable to sunburn and changes to eyeball shape.

Sight expert Professor Daniel O’Leary, of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, said “At the moment we don’t know the precise cause of why light exposure affects sight, but the evidence seems to prove that it is one of the reasons for people becoming shortsighted.”

1.Babies born in summer are more likely to be shortsighted ____________.

A. because the summer sun is too strong for babies

B. because babies born in summer have lengthened eyeballs

C. if they are exposed too much sunlight in the first weeks after they are born

D. if parents don’t know a proper way to protect their babies’ eyes

2.Melatonin is a kind of material to ___________.

A. prevent the eyes from becoming near-sighted

B. protect the skin from harmful sun rays

C. make our body strong

D. protect babies’ eyes from summer sun

3.From what Professor Daniel O’Leary says we can conclude that ___________.

A. there is no evidence that shortsightedness is related to exposure to sunlight

B. whether light exposure affects sight still needs to be further proved

C. he believes that light exposure can cause shortsightedness

D. he tries to give the cause of why light exposure affects sight

4.The underlined word “vulnerable” in the passage probably means __________.

A. easy to be harmed B. resistant

C. protective D. changeable

Answer 1

1.C

2.B

3.C

4.A

【解析】

試題解析：研究表明在夏季出生的嬰兒長(zhǎng)大后更容易成為近視眼，眼科專家稱多達(dá)四分之一的近視眼病例是由于在出生后前幾周里暴露陽光太久造成。

1.小題1】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第一段和第二段得知，眼科專家稱：在夏季出生的嬰兒長(zhǎng)大后更容易成為近視眼，因?yàn)橛捎趮雰涸诔錾�后前幾周里暴露陽光太久造成。故選C 。

2.小題2】推理判斷題。根據(jù)倒數(shù)第三段The mechanism which lengthens the eyeball is associated with levels of melatonin(褪黑激素), a pigment (色素) which protects the skin against harmful rays of the sun.得知，褪黑激素是一種可以保護(hù)皮膚不受陽光紫外線傷害的色素。故選B 。

3.小題3】推理判斷題。根據(jù)最后一段得知，劍橋大學(xué)的視學(xué)專家Daniel O’Leary教授相信暴露在陽光下會(huì)導(dǎo)致人們近視眼。故選C。

4.小題4】猜測(cè)詞義題。在嬰幼兒時(shí)期，沒有產(chǎn)生足夠的褪黑激素作為保護(hù)，嬰幼兒更容易被陽光灼傷，并且改變眼球的形狀。故選A。

考點(diǎn)：科研類文章