Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men’s hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.
The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power with age.
“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,” said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.
“Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70, one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,” said Goldspink. “This is part of the ageing process.”
What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one’s.
“This gender difference might just explain why women live longer than men,” said Goldspink. They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease. “The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart,” said Goldspink.
The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.The underlined word “longevity” in the second paragraph probably refers to “________”.
| A．health | B．long life | C．ageing | D．effect |
The text mainly talks about ________.
| A．men’s heart cells | B．women’s ageing process、 |
| C．the gender difference | D．hearts and long life |
according to the text, the UK scientists have known that ________.
| A．women have more cells than men when they are born |
| B．women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat |
| C．the female heart loses few of the cells with age |
| D．women never lose their pumping power with age |
If you want to live longer, you should ________.
| A．enable your heart to beat much faster |
| B．find out the reason for ageing |
| C．exercise regularly to keep your heart healthy |
| D．prevent your cells from being lost |
We can know from the passage that ________.
| A．the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out |
| B．scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells |
| C．the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss |
| D．women over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20 |
With alarming regularity,we read about oil tankers having accidents near land and the terrible consequences of the oil spills(泄露) on people,nature,and the environment.
Millions of dollars have been used in developing special chemicals to help dismiss the spills and to clean up the animals,beaches,and land spoiled by the oil.Unfortunately,when many of these chemicals are used,,more damage is caused to the environment,especially to lives in the sea.
Of all of today’s environmental disasters ,an oil spill may actually be one of the least serious.Although oil is poisonous,it is a natual material.In the end,it breaks down naturally.There are,of course,long-term effects,but it is usually more serious in the short term.
Nature by itself woks better than chemical materials,but when there is a spill we demand that governments act immediately with as much hi-tech knowledge as possible.In 1967 the tanker Torrey Canyon sank off the Scilly Isles near the coast of England and spilled 120,000 tones of oil into the ocean,If you go there today,you will find it hard to see any sign that it ever happened.
Governments seem to accept the risk of transporting millions of tons of oil by ship every day so that we can fill up our cars and drive around and cause even more environmental
damage.Interestingly the biggest companies in the world produce cars, and the next biggest supply the gasoline to make them run I
We shoule be thinking more about reducing our dependency on oil,Governments should be encouraging research into new technologies，such as cars run by solar power（太阳能），electricity,
hydrogen，and so on.Much of this research has ,in the past been held back by the oil,gas,and coal.
If the world’s millions of cars were 10% more efficient（高效的）—and the industry could easily produce cars at least twice as efficient？we would need many fewer tankers crossing the oceans each year.If this happened,the risks of oil spills would be reduced，and the air we breathe would be cleaner and fresher ,too.
63.What is the passage mainly talking about?
A.Oil spills pollution B.What oil pollution is
C.Oil tanker accidents D.How to reduce oil pollution
64.How does the author support the idea that oil spills are not as serious as people believe？
A.By giving a description B.By making an argument
C.By giving an example D.By drawing a diagram
65.What does the underlined word “risk”in paragraph 5 refer to?
A.Tansportation depending more on oil
B.Poisonous oil breaking down naturally
C.Millions of tons of oil spilling into the sea
D.More environmental damage being caused
66.Which suggestion，is made for reducing oil tank accidents according to the passage?
A.We should build safer tankers in the near future
B.We shoule develop new technologies to cut oil use
C.Tankers should not be allowed to sail near the coastlines
D.Countries should bulid more oil pipelines under the sea
FOR Chinese students the end of their senior year is filled with studying and stress as they prepare for the college entrance exams in June.But for American high school seniors the experience couldn’t be more different. The end of senior year is a celebration of their time in high school and involves parties,games and fun.
Senioritis is a commonly used expression.It means seniors have a disease which makes them unable to do work.This starts in April when seniors find out whether they have been accepted to university.
Unwilling to do school work,seniors have plenty of other activities to focus on.
Many schools have a “Senior Show”,in which only seniors are allowed to perform.Some seniors sing or dance but many of them perform skits（滑稽短剧），where they make fun of their favorite teachers or their friends.For example,a group of boys may dress up and imitate a group of their friends.It is all light-hearted.
The“Senior Show”is usually a part of Senior Week,which is a week specifically dedicated(专用的) to seniors.During this week,seniors usually get academic or athletic awards they have won over their high school careers.The seniors also vote for one of their male and female classmates who they believe is the best-looking or funniest or most involved,etc.These are then published in the yearbook.
The yearbook is an important part of high school for seniors.It is usually dedicated to them and has all their pictures and some words from them in it.Then seniors go around and get it signed by their friends so they can always remember their time together.
Of course during all of this time,seniors are preparing for the Senior Prom,which is an important moment in American culture.It is the most important dance in a young American’s life.
The end of senior year is a truly special and wonderful time for American students.It’s something they will remember for the rest of their lives.
60.Which of the following is the closest in meaning to the underlined sentence in paragraph1?
A.For American high school seniors,things are quite different.
B.It doesn’t make difference at the end of the senior year.
C.For American high school seniors,it is the best time of the year.
D.It is the period filled with stress and workload.
61.What activities that seniors would like to do according to the passage?
A.School work B.Voting for the film star
C.Singing or dance contests D.Senior Show and Senior Prom
62.What will most probably be talked about in the next paragraph of the passage?
A.Activities on the sports field
B.The graduation ceremony where they receive their high school diploma
C.Their favorite film stars
D.The health of seniors
第三部分：阅读理解（共15小题，每题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Joanne was stuck in traffic jam in central Birmingham at 5:30.and at 6:30 she was expected to be chairing a meeting of the tennis club.At last.the traffic was moving.She swung quickly racing to her house.As she opened the door,she nearly tripped over Sheba.
“Hey,Sheba.”she said,“I’ve got no time for you now,but I’ll take you out as soon as I get back from tennis club.”Then she noticed Sheba seemed to be coughing or choking Obviously,she could hardly breathe.Immediately,Joanne realized she would have to take her to the vet（兽医）.When she got there,that vet was just about to close for the day Seeing the state of Sheba,Dr.Sterne brought her quickly into his office.
“Listen,doctor,I’m really in a rush to get to a meeting can I leave her with you,and go and get changed?I’ll be back in ten minutes to pick her up,and then I’ll take her on to the meeting with me.Is that OK?”
“Sure.”said the doctor.
Joanne made the quick trip back to her house in a couple of minutes.As she was once more entering the hallway,the phone by the door began to ring.
“This is Dr.Sterne,”said an anxious vioce,“I want you to get out of that house immediately,”said the doctor’s voice.“I’m coming round fight away,and the police will be there any time now.Wait outside!”
At that moment,a police car screeched to a stop outside the house.Two policemen got out and
rain into the house.Joanne was by now completely confused and very frightened.Then the doctor arrived.
“Where’s Sheba?Is she OK?”shouted Joanne.
“She’s fine,Joanne.I took out the thing which was choking her,and she’s OK now.”
Just then,the two policemen reappeared from the house,half-carrying a white-faced man,who could hardly walk.There was blood all over him.
“My God,”said Joanne,“how did he get in there?And how did you know he was there?”
“I think he must be a burglar.”said the doctor.“I knew he was there because when I finally removed what was stuck in Sheba’throat:it turned out to be there human fingers”
56.What was Joanne supposed to do at 6:30?
A.To walk her dog B.To see her doctor
C.To attend a club meeting D.To play tennis with her friends
57.Joanne wanted to get back to her home again
A.to dress up for the meeting B.to phone the police station
C.to catch the badly hurt burglar D.to wait for her dog to be cured
58.From the passage,we can infer that
A.Sheba fought against the burglar
B.the police found the burglar had broken in
C.Joanne had planned to take her dog to the meeting
D.the doctor performed a difficult operation on the dog
59.In the passage,the writer intends to tell us that the dog is
A.clever B.friendly C.frightening D.devoted
I find it pleasant to be alone the greater part of the time; to be in company, even with the best, is soon tiresome and wasteful, and I never found a companion so companionable as solitude (独处).
We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad than when we stay in the meeting-rooms, for solitude is not measured by the miles of space between a man and his fellows.
The farmer, who can work alone all day without feeling lonesome, but must do something with others to get pleasure at night, wonders how the student can sit alone at night; he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is actually at work in his field and cutting his wood as the farmer was in his.
Society is commonly too cheap：We meet at very short intervals (间隔) ,not having had time to get any new value for each other; we meet at meals three times a day and give each other a new taste of that unpleasant old cheese; we live thick and are in each other’s way, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another.
We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable (可忍受的); certainly less frequency would be enough for all important and hearty communications between men.
It would be better if there were but one to live within a square mile, as where I live ,for as the value of a man is not in his skin, we need not touch him.
72．The writer uses the example of the farmer and the student to show that _____.
A．men need to do something for pleasure after their work.
B．men are not lonely when they are working.
C．solitude is necessary for a student.
D．people have different ideas of solitude.
73．When the writer says：“Society is commonly too cheap” he means that ______.
A．we meet not frequently enough so we don’t understand each other well.
B．we eat cheap food and live a simple life so we don’t feel very happy.
C．our lives are too regular for us to find any happiness in them.
D．people don’t have enough hearty communication to realize the value in others
74．The writer’s opinion on the value of a man is that _____.
A．it is made too low by the rules of etiquette and politeness.
B．it can be discovered through frequent physical touch.
C．it can be found in a man’s appearance.
D．it doesn’t lie in physical touch.
75．The writer almost believes that ______.
A．a student and a farmer have no idea of solitude.
B．the same life we live every day is the cause of man’s loneliness.
C．etiquette and politeness are rules that make frequent meetings tolerable.
D．less frequent meetings can make us more clear about the value of men.
Tears are nature's way of making us feel more comfortable. When our eyes is made uncomfortable by some small pieces of pollution, or when we are cutting onions, or when we are exhausted and “red –eyes” from over work and late hours, tears form in our eyes to clean and re-flesh them.
Tears are also a sign of strong emotion. We cry when we are sad and we cry when we are happy.
And tears seem to be uniquely（唯独）human. We know that animals also experience emotion—fear, pleasure, loneliness — but they do not shed （流） tears. From this, we can conclude that tears are closely related to the emotional and biological make up of the human species.
Biologically speaking, tears are actually drops of saline fluid, which is a little bit salty, produced by a gland（腺）in the body. Because salt is an important component, tears may actually constitute the most conclusive evidence that the human animal is the end product of a long evolutionary process that began in the sea.
And it is clear that, in addition to（除了） the emotional benefits（好处）, the shedding of tears has a specific biological function as well. Through tears, we can eliminate from our body certain chemicals which build up in response to stress and create a chemical imbalance in the body. Crying actually makes us feel better by correcting that imbalance and making us feel good again. And thus the emotional and the biological functions of tears merge（合并）into one and make us even more "human" than we would otherwise be.
68．According to the passage, human beings may have originated（起源于）in________.
A．the sea B．the salt C．chemicals D．animals
69．Which of the following is NOT a function of tears?
A．Biological B．Emotional C．Political D．Chemical
70．According to the article, which of the following is unique to humans?
A．The feeling of loneliness. B．The state of feeling good.
C．The ability to shed tears D．The feeling of fear
71．The underlined word “eliminate” probably means_______.
A．add B．produce C．replace D．remove