The Placebo That Doesn't Hide
Lee el texto en inglés, parte por parte, y responde cada pregunta. Toca una palabra con línea punteada para ver su traducción. Abajo está el vocabulario completo en español.
A placebo is a treatment with no active ingredient, usually a sugar pill, and its effect has always seemed to depend on a small deception. The patient improves because they believe the pill is real. Remove the belief, the thinking went, and the benefit disappears with it.
1. What was the placebo effect thought to depend on?
- AThe sugar in the pill
- BThe patient believing the pill is real
- CA very small dose
Ver la respuesta
B. The patient believing the pill is real
The patient improves because they believe the pill is real.
La prueba en el texto: The patient improves because they believe the pill is real
In 2010, researchers at Harvard tested that assumption. They gave people with irritable bowel syndrome pills in a bottle clearly labeled 'placebo', and told them plainly that the pills contained nothing. After three weeks, many reported feeling noticeably better than a group given no pills at all.
2. True or false? The patients who knew felt no better than those given no pills.
- ATrue (Verdadero)
- BFalse (Falso)
Ver la respuesta
B. False (Falso)
Many felt noticeably better than a group given no pills at all.
La prueba en el texto: many reported feeling noticeably better than a group given no pills at all
Nobody is entirely sure why. One theory is that the ritual of treatment matters as much as the chemistry: swallowing a pill twice a day, being seen by a caring doctor, expecting to recover. The body may respond to the act of being looked after, not only to what is in the bottle.
3. According to the theory, why might an empty pill still help?
- AThe body responds to being cared for
- BThe pill had hidden medicine in it
- CThe patients forgot they were sick
Ver la respuesta
A. The body responds to being cared for
The ritual of being treated may matter as much as the chemistry.
La prueba en el texto: the ritual of treatment matters as much as the chemistry
The findings are modest and far from settled, and nobody suggests sugar pills should replace medicine. But they unsettle a comfortable idea: that the mind is fooled into healing. It may be less that we are tricked, and more that care itself is part of the cure.
4. What is the writer's final suggestion?
- ASugar pills should replace medicine
- BPlacebos only work if we are tricked
- CCare itself may be part of the cure
Ver la respuesta
C. Care itself may be part of the cure
The writer suggests care itself may be part of the cure.
La prueba en el texto: and more that care itself is part of the cure
Vocabulario en español
| Inglés | Español | Significado en inglés |
|---|---|---|
| deception | engaño | making someone believe something that is not true |
| assumption | suposición | something people believe is true without proof |
| ritual | ritual | actions done the same way each time |
| modest | modestos | small; not large or impressive |
| unsettle | ponen en duda | make people feel less sure about something |
Ahora escribe tú
Escribe una frase en inglés: In one sentence: what did the Harvard study suggest about how placebos work?
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