Alzheimer
New research points to a finding that children who are born to older parents are more likely than children born to younger parents to develop Alzheimer's disease, a degeneration of brain tissue causing memory loss, senility, and disorientation in old age. A team of researchers studied 103 Alzheimer's patients, all of whom were over 82 years of age. At the time of the patients' birth, the average age of their fathers was 32.5 years. This is nearly six years older than the average age of fathers of a comparison group of healthy elderly people with similar social backgrounds. Mothers of the Alzheimer's patients averaged 26.8 years when the children were born, several years older than mother of healthy group.
In companion study, both parents of Alzheimer's patients were also substantially older, by an average of two to four years, than both parents of another comparison group of sixty-seven patients who were suffering from a different type of memory loss.
Given the demographics of modern society, this is particularly important research. People today are waiting longer to have children, and it is expected that these findings will lead to new initiatives to better understand Alzheimer's disease and how to avoid it.
1. What causes Alzheimer symptoms in patients?
a. Dehydration of brain cavity
b. Loss of vitality of brain tissue
c. Malformation of inner ear
d. Thickness of skull
2. What is the major new understanding to result from this study?
a. All elderly people exhibit some of the signs of Alzheimer's disease
b. People over 82 are more likely to get Alzheimer's than people under 82.
c. Possibility of Alzheimer's is lower in children whose parents are about the same age.
d. Older parents are more likely than younger parents to have children who will get Alzheimer's disease.
3. What besides age of parents was considered important and controlled for in this study?
a. Health of brothers and sisters
b. Living environment
c. Social background
d. Town or region of residence
4. One hundred and three subjects whom the researchers studied were………………………
a. Alzheimer's parents
b. Alzheimer's patients
c. older parents
d. patients' children
5. This research is said to be important because………………………………………………….
a. the age at which people have children is rising
b. Alzheimer's patients are healthy otherwise, live long, and are expensive to take care of
c. New types of Alzheimer's are being discovered, and we do not even understand the old types
d. Younger people are staring to come down with Alzheimer's
6.The word senility in this article means…………………………………………………..
a. fact of losing an ability to remember events and experience
b. having become worse in comparison with former state
c. person's family, experience, and education
d. the weakness of mind or body connected with old age
7. The word research in the last paragraph could be replaced by…………………………
a. consequence
b. finding
c. investigation
d. experiment
8. The word avoid in the last paragraph could best be replaced by……………………………
a. detour
b. evade
c. vanish
d. void
9. The word it at the end of this article refers to…………………………………..
a. Alzheimer's disease
b. degeneration of brain tissue
c. memory loss
d. old age
10. The title of this article is…………………………………………
a. Demographics of Modern Society
b. How to Avoid Alzheimer
c. Cause of Memory Loss
d. Alzheimer's Origins
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