American this year will swallow 15, 000 tons drugs of
aspirin, one of safest and most effective invented by man. [1] ______
The most popular medicines in the world today, it is an ef- [2] ______
fective pain reliever. Its bad effects are relatively mild, and it
is cheap.
For millions of people suffered from arthritis, it is the [3] ______
only thing that works. Aspirin, in short, is truly the 20th -
century wonder drug. It is also the second largest suicide
drug and is the leading cause of poisoning between chil- [4] ______
dren. It has side effects that, if relatively mild, are largely [5] ______
unrecognized among users.
Although aspirin was first sold by a German company
in 1899, it has been around more longer than that. Hippocra-
tes, in ancient Greece, understood the medical value of the
leaves and tree bark which today are known to contain salic - [6] ______
ylates(水杨酸盐), the chemical in aspirin. During the 19th
century,there was a great number of experimentation in Eu- [7] ______
rope with this chemical and it led in the introduction of aspi-
rin. By 1915, aspirin tablets were available in the United [8] ______
States.
A small quantity of aspirin (two five - grain tablets)
relieves pain and inflammation. It also reduces down fever [9] ______
by interfering with some of the body’s reactions. Specifical-
ly, aspirin seems to slow down the formation of the acids in-
volved in pain and the complex chemical reactions that
cause fever. The chemistry of these acids is not fully under-
stood, and the slowing effect of aspirin is well known. [10] ______