question_answer

Direction: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Alzheimer's disease impairs a person's ability to recall memories, both distant and as recent as a few hours before. Although there is no cure yet for the illness, there may be hope for a cure with a protein called nerve growth factor. The protein is produced by nerve cells in the same region of the brain where Alzheimer's occurs. Based on this relationship, scientists from the University of Lund in Sweden and the University of California at San Diego designed an experiment to test whether doses of nerve growth factors could service the effects of memory loss caused by Alzheimer's. Using a group of rats with impaired memory, the scientist gave half of the rats dose of nerve growth factor while giving the other half a blood protein as a placebo, thus, creating a control group. At the end of the four-week test, the rate given the nerve growth factor performed equally to rats with normal memory abilities. While experiments do not show that nerve growth factor can stop the general process of deterioration caused by Alzheimer’s, they do show potential as a means to slowing the process significantly.

The word 'impairs' is most similar to which of the following?

 

A) Affects                         

B) Destroys

C) Enhances                     

D) Diminishes

E) None of these