The announcement came the day before Thanksgiving, but there was nothing in it to be _________ for: An experimental Alzheimer’s (老年痴呆症) drug many thought would slow the disease’s steady cognitive decline had failed to make a _________ difference in a massive trial of people with early signs of the illness.

Marty Reiswig took the news _________ .“I was just sad,” he says. “I was really hopeful that it would be life-changing for us.” He doesn’t have Alzheimer’s disease, but he is part of a large _________ family that’s been bothered by Alzheimer’s for generations. His family has a genetic mutation (变异) that means its carriers will develop Alzheimer’s at a much _________ age, usually 30 years earlier than those without the mutation. But there’s also a chance his monthly infusions (输液) include a drug that could _________ him, his family members and others like them from losing loved ones to Alzheimer’s.

The key is early interference, before symptoms are _________ and brain damage is too extensive. “That’s how you stop the disease,” says Rudy Tanzi, director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. “You don’t wait.” The attempt to prevent Alzheimer’s rather than treating it is the most exciting new development in decades. Traditionally, drug companies have _________ their therapies on patients who already have memory loss, trouble thinking and other signs of dementia (痴呆). It’s been a _________method. More than 99 percent of all Alzheimer’s drugs have failed tests in the clinic, and the few that have made it to the market only improve some __________. Not a single medicine has been shown to slow the continuous progression of the disease.

__________, with this new approach, even partial success — an appreciable slowing of brain degeneration — could have a big impact, says Dr. Reisa Sperling, who directs the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. If a drug therapy can __________ the attack of dementia by five or ten years, she says, “many more people would die of ballroom dancing __________ in nursing homes.”

Developing drugs to prevent Alzheimer’s disease could be a discovery of Nobel proportions. There is no __________ that the current trials will succeed, but researchers believe they are getting close to __________ what had, until recently, seemed to be one of medical research’s toughest challenges.

Xing Yifan is a university student who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS) about six months after birth.

Due to severe spinal deformity (畸形) caused by the illness, Xing, who weighs only 18 kilograms, has ________ in doing routine tasks that most people take for granted. However, armed with a strong will, he worked hard to ensure that the ________ would not hold him back. Since his muscles are too ________ to support his body, he puts his head on a desk to read. He ________ all the difficulties and was admitted to No. 1 Middle School in Jilin with the highest test scores in the school’s history.

“I ________ everything I’ve got to you. You determined early on that while the disease has made me ________ the ability to walk and run, it wouldn’t make me lose the ________ opportunity. You have accompanied me through every class from primary school to high school. I know every day is ________ for you, but you never give up.” Xing said to his parents.

In Xing’s mind, disease can hurt his body but can’t ________ his desire for knowledge and his confidence to serve the country. In 2021, Xing went to Beihang University with a score of 645 points in the college entrance examination.

________ can create miracles. Xing Yifan has shown the power of optimism and strength for people.

From Zero to Hero: Italy’s Chinese Help Beat Coronavirus

When Chinese-born businessman Luca Zhou flew home from China on Feb 4 to rejoin his family in Prato, Italy, he put himself straight into quarantine (隔离) in his bedroom for 14 days, ______ from his wife and son. “We had learned about the COVID-19 disease and known what was ______ in our homeland and we were ______ for ourselves, our families and friends,” said the 56-year-old, who has a ______ exporting Italian wine to China.

After ______ his self-quarantine, he walked outside in ______ and gloves. He said the few other Chinese on the ______ also wore them, anxious not to ______ the virus to others. “My ______ friends looked strangely at me. I tried many times to ______ to them that they should wear them…but they didn’t ______,” Luca said. “When I came back to Prato, no Italian authority told me anything. We did it all by ourselves. If we had not done it, we would all be infected (感染), Chinese and Italians.”

Back from new year holidays in China, many were fully aware what was coming and ______ the word: stay home. So as Italians headed to the ski slopes and ______ into cafes and bars as ______, the Chinese inhabitants (居民) of Prato had seemingly ______.

As Italian infections began to ______ in late February and early March, some families, many of whom keep Chinese citizenship, even began ______ children to relatives in China, alarmed at the ______ and behavior of Italians around them.

Soon the disease took away many lives and perhaps it was ______ that the locals began to realize how ______ and wisely the Chinese were behaving.