2020年醫學考博已經進入沖刺備考階段，醫學考博的考試題型包括英語和專業課的考試，醫博英語的的考試是有一定的難度的，特別是醫博英語試卷中一共有6篇閱讀理解。因此考生一定要重視醫博英語能力的培養。

我們知道醫博英語不同于其他考博的英語試卷，其中涉及很多醫學類專業知識。因此經過對歷年真題的學習發現，閱讀理解有80-90%的文章來源于雜志New.Scientist和The Journal of the American Medical Association，JAMA。

其中New Scientist 是英國發行的世界頂級科技雜志，也是全國醫學博士英語統考閱讀理解的重要題源。

全國醫學博士英語考試的閱讀理解文章全部選自英美主流報刊雜志，而且文章的內容很少做修改與增刪。因此，我們一定要了解英美報刊文章的特點和規律，才能更好地把握醫博英語考試閱讀理解的定位與風格。

英美報刊雜志，尤其是英國的，常用 “客觀”、“公正” 來體現報道的價值。即所謂的：

“unprejudiced, unopinionated, uninvolved，unbiased”

不偏不倚，不予評論 ，不加參與，不帶偏見

因此，通常來看，文章作者對于文章中探討的主題都會以比較中立客觀的角度去分析。也就是為什么很多醫博英語考試閱讀理解部分一旦問到作者態度的時候，答案大部分都是跟中立客觀有關。

此外，大家也要注意時效性。最近這幾年考試中會經常遇到一些時髦話題的文章，比如達芬奇機器人訴訟案等等。所以大家平時最好能夠經常關心醫療界和科技界時事，積累一些必要的背景知識，抓住相關的時事熱點，能夠幫助我們很好的了解醫博英語的考試。

為幫助考生更好的了解醫博英語的題源文章，為考生摘取了New Scientist中的一篇文章。

Stone tools helpd shape human hands

AROUND 1.7 million years ago, our ancestors' tools went from basic rocks-banged-together to chipped haxes. The strength dexterityneeded to make use the latter quickly shaped our hands into what they are today – judging by a fossilthat belongs to the oldest known anatomicallymodern hand.

The 1.7-million-year-old Acheulean haxes were some of the first stone tools. Over the next million years, these chunkyteardrop-shaped rocks became widely used before being replaced by finer, more precise flint tips. But how our ancestors' hands evolved into a shape that could make such tools is a bit of a mystery.

Before the haxes appeared, our ancestors hadprimitive wrists: good for hanging from branches, but too weak to grasp handle small objects with much force. no hbones had been found to fill the gap between 1.7 million years ago 800,000 years ago – by which time humans had developed the hands we have today. Now, a new fossil is helping bridge that gap.

In 2010, a team led by Fredrick Kyalo Manthi of the National Museums of Kenya discovered an intriguingbone in the north of the country. Carol Ward of the University of Missouri colleagues identified it as a third metacarpal, the long bone in the palm between the middle finger the wrist.

Like modern human metacarpals, it has a small lump at its base – the styloid. This projection helps stabilise the wrist when the his gripping small objects between the thumb fingers.Isotope datingrevealed the bone to be about 1.4 million years old. It is likely to have belonged to Homo erectus.

H bones of early Homo erectus are almost unknown, says Richard Potts of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC." Having such a well-preservedspecimen begins to answer questions about hevolution," he says.

"This is an exciting find," agrees Mary Marzke of Arizona State University in Tempe. It shows that our ancestors' handswere already evolving into their modern form 1.4 million years ago. The forceful, repetitive sustained processes of tool use, such as digging with rocks, would have made stronger hands desirable, says Marzke.

This would have been particularly useful for knocking off flakes to form sharpen haxes, says Potts. Once the important wrist features were in place, it became easier for later hominids to make smaller, finer tools.

Because the fossil is younger than the first tools, Ward's team believe it is the first evidence of anatomy evolving to suit a new technology. As stone tools became more widespread, those who had the wrist structure to use them would have had an evolutionary advantage over their weaker-wristed kin. "The way we look today has been shaped by our behaviour over millions of years," says Ward. She presented the research at this week's meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Knoxville, Tennessee.