Last month, I slept through a flight from London to Beijing. Upon waking up, I was shocked to discover that I could no longer _________ my right arm and fingers. My arm just simply did not follow my brain’s _________, as if it no longer _________ my body.

The doctor at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital _________ me to have suffered neural (神经的) injury. Aside from _________ that I see a physiotherapist (理疗师), he only told me, “Rest for two months first and come back for _________ check-up.”

In that moment of _______, a long-time family friend, who is an acupuncturist (针灸师) in Sichuan, _______ to help. I started my acupuncture _______ the next day. I was skeptical at first, but my ____________ was soon beaten by the results. After a few days, I could move my __________. Two weeks later, I could have meals using chopsticks. After a month, my arm and fingers were almost back to their ____________ functions.

In that clinic, I heard many other patients’ ________. One 11-year-old boy, who was born with ________ autism (自闭症), was treated at the age of three, and now he communicates quite __________. One lady, who suddenly became deaf two months ago, has just __________ her hearing.

I’m surprised at how these ________ needles can cure so many illnesses, many of which even big hospitals with expensive medical devices __________ with. Is it magic? No! But it is the right __________ of the Chinese tradition that brings __________ and happiness to friends here and farther.

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.

It was a great shock to me to discover that I had a serious disease. I had never been very well coordinated (协调)physically when I was_______. But things seemed to change when I went to university, at the age of 17, I started to _______ some sports.

In my third year at university, however, I noticed that it seemed to be difficult for me, and I fell over once or twice for no obvious _______ My father took me to the family doctor who led me to a good _______. Two days later, I went into hospital for examinations. I stayed in the _______ for two weeks, during which I had a wide variety of tests. But after all the _______, they didn't tell me what I had, except that I was a special case. However, they _______ it to continue to get worse. The doctor felt sorry because he could do _______ except giving me vitamins (维生素), I could see that he didn't _______ the vitamins to have much effect on my disease. I didn't feel like asking for more details, because the disease was obviously ________ .

I realized that I had a(n) ________ disease. It was a bit of a shock. However, while I had been in hospital, I had seen a boy who had leukemia (白血病) and he ________ died of that kind of disease. Clearly there were people who were ________ than me. At least my condition didn't make me feel sick, so whenever I felt ________, I remembered that boy.

The doctors told me to go back to university. I ________ doing the research I had started before going to hospital. My dreams at that time were rather hard to ________ Before my condition had been diagnosed (诊断), I had been very bored with life. But shortly after I came out of hospital, I ________ realized that there were a lot of worthy things I could ________. I began to make progress in my ________ and I got married to a girl called Jane, whom I had met just about the time my condition was diagnosed. That marriage ________ my life. It gave me something to live for.