第四部分写作 第一节任务型阅读（每空一词0.5分，共5分） More than a century after its discovery, Alzheimer’s disease is still destroying people’s brains. The cause remains unknown. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common disability or mental sickness called dementia. Dementia is the loss of thinking ability that is severe enough to interfere with daily activities. About thirty million people around the world have Alzheimer’s disease. In the United States, more than five million people are said to suffer from this slowly increasing brain disorder (疾病). Alzheimer’s disease generally develops differently in each person. Yet some early signs of the disease are common. The victims may not recognize changes in themselves. Others see the changes and struggle to hide them. Probably the most common early sign is short-term memory loss. The victims  cannot remember something that happened yesterday, for example. Also, the victims have increasing difficulty learning and storing new information. Slowly, thinking becomes much more difficult. The victims cannot understand a joke, or cannot cook a meal, or perform simple work.Another sign of the disease is difficulty solving simple problems. The patients might not know what to do if food on a stove is burning. Also, people have trouble following directions or finding their way to places they have known all their lives. Yet another sign is struggling to find the right words to express thoughts or understand what is being discussed. Finally, people with Alzheimer’s disease seem to change. Quiet people may become noisy. They may easily become angry and lose their ability to trust others. Alzheimer’s disease affects memory and personality. The victims slowly lose their ability to deal with everyday life. Victims of Alzheimer’s disease do die from its effects or conditions linked to it. But death may not come for many years. Patients cannot fully recover from the disease. But many can be helped by medicine. That is especially true if the disease is found early.
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difficulty in thinking.