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In the Little House on the Prairie children's book series, author Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that her real-life sister, Mary, was blinded by scarlet fever at age 14. The event was also dramatized on a television series based or the books. But pediatricians say the explanation for Mary's blindness doesn't make sense.
Dr.Beth Tarini was surprised by that discovery even as a medical student.“I was in my pediatrics rotation,”said Tarini.“We were talking about scarlet fever, and I said,‘Oh, scarlet fever makes you go blind. Mary Ingall went blind from it.”Her professor disagreed, which propelled Tarini on a detective mission to find out what really happened to Mary.
Tarini and her team researched the issue for 10 years. They found that Mary had scarlet fever as a young child but her illness at 14 was referred to as“brain fever” . There was also no reference to her having the distinctive rash of scarlet fever as a teenager. While scarlet fever had a mortality rate for children of up to 30 percent in the 1800s, most cases of blindness from the disease were temporary.
As the team continued to investigate, they discovered that Laura wrote a letter to her daughter, Rose, in 1937 describing Mary's illness. Laura sent the letter right before the publication of her book By the Shores of Silver Lake,which described Mary's blindness as being caused by scarlet fever. However, an excerpt from the letter stated:“Mary had some sort of spinal sickness.I am not sure if the Dr. named it. We learned later when Pa took her from DeSmet, South Dakota to Chicago, Illinois to a specialist that the nerves of her eyes were paralyzed and there was no hope.”
After poring over historical records,including the Ingalls' town newspaper that reported that Mary had suffered from severe headaches and partial paralysis on one side of her face, the researchers now believe that Mary contracted viral meningoencephalitis, which inflames the brain and spinal cord.By inflaming the optic nerve, it can also lead to blindness.
1.What is the researchers' final conclusion?
A.Mary got blindness because of“brain fever”
B. The blindness of Mary was genetic.
C. Mary's blindness was caused by scarlet fever.
D. Mary's blindness is unrelated with her illness.
2.What is the best title of the passage?
A.The immortal works of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
B.The tragic life of Mary Ingalls Wilder.
C.The mystery of Mary ingalls' blindness.
D.The sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
1.A 【解析】根据最后一段中the researchers now believe that Mary contracted viral meningoencephalitis, which inflames the brain and spinal cord.By inflaming the optic nerve, it can also lead to blindness.可知，研究人员现在相信，玛丽所患的病毒性脑膜炎损害了她的大脑和脊髓，从而引起视神经的损害，也可导致失明。即研究人员的最终结论是：玛丽因为“脑膜炎”而失明，故选A。
2.C 【解析】本文讲述了玛丽 ·英格尔 (Mary Ingalls) 失明之谜。 C 项“玛丽 ·英格尔斯失明的奥秘”最合适做这篇文章的标题，故选C。
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