Taking a picture of your tongue with a mobile phone could soon instantly tell you how healthy you are. Researchers believe the images can reveal important information about a patient’s health and even give them early warning of serious illness.
A team at the University of Missouri is developing a system that can analyze pictures using a 5,000-year-old Chinese principle, which is based on the flow and balance of positive and negative energies in the body, and uses the tongue as a key to learning about a person’s physical health, or “zheng” according to Chinese medicine.
“Within a year, our goal is to create an application for smart phones that will allow anyone to take a photo of their tongue and learn the status of their zheng,” said Dong Xu, chair of MU’s Computer Science Department in the College of Engineering and the co-author of the latest study.
The software analyzes images based on the tongue’s color and coating to distinguish between tongues showing signs of “hot” or “cold” zheng. Shades of red and yellow are associated with hot zheng, whereas a white coating on the tongue is a sign of cold zheng.
“Hot and cold zheng doesn’t refer directly to body temperature,” said Xu, “Rather, it refers to a series of symptoms associated with the state of the body as a whole.”
For the study, 263 gastritis(胃炎) patients and 48 healthy volunteers had their tongues analyzed. The gastritis patients were classified by whether they showed infection by a certain bacteria as well as the intensity of their gastritis symptoms. In addition, most of the gastritis patients had been previously classified with either hot or cold zheng. This allowed the researchers to test the accuracy of the software’s analysis.
“Our software is able to classify people based on their zheng status. And as we continue to work on the software we hope to improve its ability,” said another co-author Ye Duan, “Eventually everyone will be able to use this tool at home using webcams or smart phone applications, which will allow them to monitor their zheng and get an early warning about possible ailments.”
【小题1】 The software mentioned in the passage is based on .A．the latest development of smart phonesB．a traditional Chinese medical principleC．the changes in one’s flow and energyD．symptoms related with the state of the body【小题2】According to Chinese medicine, zheng refers to . A．one’s body temperatureB．the physical health of a personC．the possible disease of a personD．the color and coating of one’s tongue【小题3】The study led by Dong Xu proves .A．the effect of the softwareB．the software’s great prospectC．the advancement of smart phonesD．the greatness of Chinese medicine【小题4】The underlined word “ailments” can be replaced by .A．analysisB．effectsC．illnessesD．applications【小题5】It can be inferred from the passage that .A．the software still needs improvementB．the subjects in the study are all gastritisC．the software has been in market for a yearD．the subjects in the study are classified by ageB
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(答案→)B
解析：文章介绍了一种新的手机软件，通过拍摄舌头的图片，软件可以根据中医原理判断一个人的健康状况，给出适当的建议。
【小题1】细节题：从文章第二段的句子：A team at the University of Missouri is developing a system that can analyze pictures using a 5,000-year-old Chinese principle,可知文章提到的软件是以传统医学原则为基础的，选B
【小题2】细节题：从文章第二段的句子： and uses the tongue as a key to learning about a person’s physical health, or “zheng” according to Chinese medicine.可知根据中医zheng指的是一个人的健康状况，选B。
【小题3】细节题：从文章第六段的句子：This allowed the researchers to test the accuracy of the software’s analysis.可知Dong Xu的研究证明了这个软件的效果，选 A
【小题4】猜词题：从文章最后一段的句子：which will allow them to monitor their zheng and get an early warning about possible ailments.这个软件可以让人们监控他们的症状，得到可能的疾病的早期的警告：可知“ailments” 指的是“疾病”，选C
【小题5】推理题：从文章最后一段的句子：And as we continue to work on the software we hope to improve its ability,”可知这个软件还需要改善，选A