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上期划线句答案
Five minutes of rapid bidding that had started at $800,000 ended when the Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun placed the winning bid, besting six other rivals, which experts said was a sign that even a struggling market would spend big on spectacle.
拍卖的起拍价为80万美元，经过五分钟的快速竞价，来自中国的加密货币企业家孙宇晨打败其他六位竞争者，最终成功竞得拍品，专家解读这一结果，认为即使市场不景气，仍有投资者愿意花费巨款购买这种不同寻常的艺术品。
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本期内容
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双语阅读
Para.1
More than 95 percent water by weight, mucus lines all of the wet surfaces inside the body — not just your nose, but also your eyes, ears, throat, airways, lungs, gut and urogenital tract. Its key building blocks are mucins, which are long proteins decorated with complex sugars that make them look like bottlebrushes. These sugars help attract water, Dr. Boucher said, and the mucins form a gel-like mesh that can cover a large surface area like the nasal cavity, keeping it wet while also controlling the passage of pollutants, bacteria, viruses and drugs through it.
Para.2
Mucus keeps the cells on our internal surfaces wet so they can do their jobs. It covers the olfactory cells in our nose and taste buds on our tongues, enabling us to smell and to taste food well, Dr. Ribbeck said. It prevents our eyes and throat from drying out and getting irritated. In the gut, mucus stops the stomach from eating itself by walling off stomach acid from the stomach lining; it also helps move food through the intestines. And in the cervix, mucus enables sperm to swim through and fertilize an egg.
Para.3
Mucins are “workhorses” of our immune response, Dr. Ribbeck said. They bind to pollutants, bacteria and viruses that enter our bodies and trap them so we can mechanically expel them. “In the next 10 minutes you’re going to inhale a thousand bacteria — and you’d like to clear them without ever knowing about it,” Dr. Boucher said.
Para.4
You do this, he said, with the help of tiny structures on the airways called cilia, which beat 10 times a second — “like little oars” — and sweep mucus up to the throat, where it is swallowed and digested. When you blink, you essentially “squeegee off mucus” from your eyes into ducts that lead down to your throat, he said. And when your stomach and intestinal muscles squeeze food along, they propel mucus through the gut. Just as mucins bind to bad bacteria, the sugars on them can recruit good microbes, too, by acting as a source of food.
Para.5
Specific sugars will feed specific bacteria, meaning that the makeup of your mucus can affect the composition of your microbiome, said Rebecca Carrier, a professor of chemical engineering at Northeastern University who studies intestinal mucus. Mucins can also affect the function of immune cells, many of which live in your gut, and either stimulate or tamp down the body’s inflammatory response, Dr. Carrier said.
本文节选自：The New York Times（纽约时报）
发布时间：2024.11.6
作者：WELL
原文标题：Mucus: It’s Snot What You Think
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写作句总结
原句：When you blink, you essentially “squeegee off mucus” from your eyes into ducts that lead down to your throat, he said.
结构：When you X, you essentially Y from Z into A, [Name] said.
例句：When you practice mindfulness, you essentially clear your mind of distractions, allowing your focus to shift to the present moment, your teacher said.
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阅读理解题
According to the passage, what is the primary function of mucins in the body?
A) Absorbing nutrients
B) Regulating body temperature
C) Enhancing sensory perception
D) Providing protection and hydration
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全文概括
Mucus, composed primarily of water and mucins, lines and protects the body's internal surfaces. Mucins' sugar structures attract water, forming a gel that traps pollutants and pathogens, aiding in their removal via cilia and bodily functions like blinking and digestion. This mucus layer maintains moisture, enables sensory function (smell and taste), and influences the gut microbiome by selectively feeding beneficial bacteria. Furthermore, mucins' interaction with immune cells modulates inflammatory responses.
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打卡作业
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