2014年職稱英語考試試題綜合類閱讀理解練習33

　　Kidney Disease and Heart Disease Spur Each Other

　　Hearts and kidneys： If one's diseased, better keep a close eye on1 the other. Surprising new research shows kidney disease somehow speeds up heart disease well before it has ravaged the kidneys. And perhaps not so surprising, doctors have finally proven that heart disease can trigger kidney destruction, too.

　　The work，from two studies involving over 50,000 patients, promises to boost efforts to diagnose simmering kidney disease earlier. All it takes are urine and blood tests that cost less than $25, something proponents want to become as routine as cholesterol checks.2"The average patient knows their cholesterol，，’ says Dr. Peter McCuilough, preventive medicine chief at Michigan's William Beaumont Hospital. "The average patient has no idea of their kidney function. ”

　　Chronic kidney disease，or CKD，is a quiet epidemic ： Many of the 19 million Americans estimated to have it don't know they do. The kidneys lose their ability to filter waste out of the bloodstream so slowly that symptoms aren't obvious until the organs are very damaged.4 End-stage kidney failure is rising fast, with 400,000 people requiring dialysis or a transplant to survive, a toll that has doubled in each of the last two decades.5

　　And while CKD patients often are terrified of having to go on dialysis，the hard truth is that most will die of heart disease before their kidneys disintegrate to that point, something kidney specialists have recognized for several years but isn't widely known.6 Indeed, the new research is highlighted in this month's Archives of Internal Medicine with a call for doctors who care for heart patients to start rigorously checking out the kidneys，and for better care of early kidney disease.7

　　The link sounds logical. After all8，high blood pressure and diabetes are chief risk factors for both chronic kidney disease and heart attacks. But the link goes beyond9 those risk factors，stresses McCuilough： Once the kidneys begin to fail, something in turn10 accelerates heart disease, not just in the obviously sick or very old, but at what he calls "a shockingly early age. ” McCuilough and colleagues tracked more than 37,000 relatively young people 一 average age 53 ― who volunteered for a kidney screening. Three markers of kidney function were checked ： The rate at which kidneys filter blood, called the GFR or glomerular filtration rate11 ; levels of the protein albumin in the urine; and if they were anemic. They also were asked about previously diagnosed heart disease.

　　The odds of having heart disease rose steadily as each of the kidney markers worsened. More striking was the death data. At this age，few deaths are expected，and indeed just 191 people died during the study period. But those who had both CKD and known heart disease had a threefold increased risk of death in a mere 2 years, mostly from heart problems. "This study is very much a wake-up call," McCullough says.

　　注釋：

　　1.keep a close eye on:密切地關(guān)注

　　2.All it takes are urine and blood tests that cost less than $25，something proponents want to become as routine as cholesterol checks.這種對緩慢形成的腎病的早期診斷所采取的全部措 施就是尿檢和血檢，其費用不足25美元，提出這項建議的人希望它能像膽固醇檢查那樣成 為一種常規(guī)檢查。本句中，it takes是all的定語從句，something是urine and blood tests的 同位語，proponents want to become as routine as cholesterol checks 是 something 的金語從句。

　　3.have no idea of:沒有……的概念,不知道……

　　4. The kidneys lose their ability to filter waste out of the bloodstream so slowly that symptoms aren't obvious until the organs are very damaged.腎臟如此緩慢地喪失它從i流中―出廢物 的能力，以至于直到該器官受到嚴重損傷時才有明顯癥狀。not... until:直到……才……。

　　5.End-stage kidney failure is rising fast, with 400,000 people requiring dialysis or a transplant to survive, a toll that has doubled in each of the last two decades.終末期丨腎衰竭病人數(shù)目迅速 增加，有40萬人需要腎透析或腎移^[才能存話，這個數(shù)字在近20年中每10年翻一番。 end-stage kidney failure??終末期腎衰竭。a toll 是 400,000 people requiring dialysis or a transplant to survive 的同位語。

　　6. And while CKD patients often are terrified of having to go on dialysis, the hard truth is that most will die of heart disease before their kidneys disintegrate to that point, something kidney specialists have recognized for several years but isn't widely known.盡管慢性腎病患者常常 害怕不得不去做腎透析，但是嚴酷的事實是，大多數(shù)人在腎臟還沒有那么糟糕以前就死于 心臟病，這一點腎病老師幾年前就已經(jīng)知道，只是不被廣為人知而已。這里，something是　the hard truth is... to that point 這個句子的同位語，后面的 kidney specialists have recognized for several years but isn't widely known 則是 something 的定語從句，省略了關(guān)系代詞 that。

　　7. Indeed, the new research is highlighted in this month's Archives of Internal Medicine with a call for doctors who care for heart patients to start rigorously checking out the kidneys，and for better care of early kidney disease.其實，這項新的研究在本月的《內(nèi)科檔案》雜志上就受到重視，該研 究號召為心臟病人治病的醫(yī)生要開始嚴格地檢查病人的腎臟，并要更好地關(guān)注早期腎病Q她dici/ie:《內(nèi)科檔案》。call for：要求，號召，提倡。check out:檢驗。

　　8.after all:畢竟

　　9.go beyond:超過

　　10.in turn:依次

　　11.glomerular /glD'merjub/ filtration rate (GFR)：腎小球濾過率