Alzheimer's disease is a major national health problem. Nearly 2 million Americans over the age of 65 have Alzheimer's disease. It is a leading cause of death among the elderly. But Alzheimer's disease is not confined(限于) to the aged. There may be a million or more people under the age of 65 suffering from the disease.
At one time, people suffering from the disease were said to be "getting old". The disease was thought to be a natural part of growing old, but it is now known that Alzheimer's disease strikes young and old alike. It is an organic(器官的) disease that destroys brain cells.
Alzheimer's disease affects the patient's memory, speech, and movement. In the beginning stages of the disease, the patient may seem slightly confused. He may have trouble speaking. Then the patient's memory begins to fail. He may forget dates, telephone numbers, names and plans.
As the disease progresses, the patient may not recognize family and friends. These symptoms(症状) often cause terrible anxiety in the patient. He may feel lost and frightened. Sometimes the patient reacts with wild and bad behavior.
In the last stages of the disease, the patient may not be able to take care of himself. He may have lost the ability to speak and walk.
Scientists don't know exactly what causes Alzheimer's disease. It may be caused by a virus(病毒). It may be caused by a poisonous substance(物质) in the environment. At present, there is no cure for the disease. But there are ways to slow its progress. Exercise and physical treatment can help the patients of this disease.
60. The main idea of the passage is that Alzheimer's disease _______.
A. is a terrible part of the aging process B. is an organic disease that affects young and old
C. can be cured by physical treatment D. causes forgetfulness
61. All of the following are symptoms of Alzheimer's disease EXCEPT _______.
A. forgetfulness B. difficulty in speaking C. loss of sight D. loss of the ability to walk
62. According to the passage, which of the following may be a cause of Alzheimer's disease?
A. Poisons produced by the brain. B. Getting old. C. A virus. D. Lack of exercise.
63. The progress of Alzheimer's disease can be slowed by ______.
A. operation B. a change in environment C. medicines D. physical treatment and exercise
Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything—tutors, cards, special learning centers—in short, everything they could think of. Finally they took Tommy to a catholic(天主教的) school.
After the first day, little Tommy came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn’t kiss his mother hello. Instead，he went to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread out all over the room and little Tommy was hard at work. His mother was surprised. She called him down to dinner and as soon as he finished eating, he went back to his room, without a word. In no time he was back hitting the books as hard as before. This went on for some time，day after day while the mother tried to understand what was happening.
Finally, little Tommy brought home his report card. He quietly put it on the table and went up to his room and hit the books. His mom looked at it and to her surprise，little Tommy got an A in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity. She went to his room and asked, “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns(修女)? ”
Little Tommy looked at her and shook his head, “No. ”
“Well then,” she asked again，“WHAT was it?”
Little Tommy looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that man nailed(钉) to the plus sign, I knew they weren’t joking. ”Tommy’s mother felt surprised that his son____.
| A．was still the same as usual |
| B．ate so much at dinner |
| C．kissed her hello after school |
| D．worked hard but said little |
The underlined phrase “hitting the books” means “_______” in Chinese.
| A．用功 | B．捶书 | C．发泄 | D．振作 |
The last sentence in the passage shows that____.
| A．Tommy felt sorry for the man |
| B．Tommy was afraid of being nailed |
| C．Tommy didn’t like the plus sign |
| D．Tommy liked playing jokes on others |
From the passage, we can infer that____.
| A．teachers should be strict with their students |
| B．mistakes might do good sometimes |
| C．a catholic school is much better than other ones |
| D．nuns are good at helping children with their math |
“Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that man nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren’t joking.” We know that “the man” here is_____________
| A．one of Tommy’s classmates | B．a nun |
| C．Jesus Christ (耶稣基督) | D．a teacher |
This is not a typical summer camp. Michelle Pawlaw and eight other teenage girls are participating in the three—day camp offered by the Arlington County Fire Department located just outside Washington. Firefighter Clare Burley is in charge of the program, who said the purpose is to try to get young women interested in considering the fire service as a career.
The free-of-charge, overnight camp is designed to let the girls experience what firefighters do to protect the community. That includes some rigorous activities such as moving a fire victim. “I didn’t think I could pull that 170 pound body with a friend, but I was actually able to do it.” she said.
They take classes and learn how to climb the ladder on a fire truck, operate emergency tools and rescue an injured person. They also do their share of cleaning the firehouse and the equipment.
“Every week without fail on a Saturday, the job is to wash all the equipment. And we wanted the girls to see this is what we do. This is a typical day in a firehouse,” she said.
Firefighting is still a male-dominated service, but Burley says with 22 women on its force of 320 the Arlington County Fire Department is above the national average of 4.5 percent. She joined the department seven years ago.
“We do everything that the guys do to the same standard. We are tested to the same standard. We are expected to operate at the same standard,” she said.
Most of the girls say they had never thought about becoming a firefighter. but the camp was a great learning experience.” I think it is definitely not a job that only men can do. Women can do it just as well as men can,” said Michelle Pawlaw.What’s the purpose of the summer camp?
| A．To tell the girls how to put firefighting knowledge into practice. |
| B．To teach the girls what to do when caught in fire. |
| C．To provide the girls with a typical summer camp. |
| D．To attract more girls to take firefighting as a career. |
What can we infer from Paragraph 5?
| A．Arlington County Fire Department is in the lead in employing women firefighters. |
| B．Arlington County Fire Department is the first to employ women firefighters. |
| C．More and more women are ready to join the fire department. |
| D．No women ever want to perform the firefighting service. |
What can we infer from Michelle’s words in the last paragraph?
| A．She has determined to join the firefighters in the future. |
| B．She will persuade her fellow students to join in the camp. |
| C．She realizes that women can also be good firefighters. |
| D．She decides that she’ll join in the camp again later. |
What can we learn about the summer camp according to the passage?
| A．American fire departments often hold such events. |
| B．It is offered by Arlington County Fire Department. |
| C．The girls spent their night in the summer camp, which lasted 3 days. |
| D．It is very popular among American girl students. |
A new generation addiction(着迷,迷恋) is quickly spreading all over the world. Weboholism, a twentieth century disease, affects people from different ages. They surf the net, use e-mail and speak in chat rooms. They spend many hours on the computer, and it becomes a compulsive (强迫的,难以抑制的) habit. They cannot stop, and it affects their lives.
Ten years ago, no one thought that using computers could become compulsive behavior that could affect the social and physical life of computer users. This obsessional behavior has affected teenagers and collage students. They are likely to log on computers and spend long hours at different websites.
They become hooked on computer and gradually their social and school life is affected by this situation. They spend all free time surfing and don’t concentrate on homework, so this addiction influences their grades and success at school. Because they can find everything on websites, they hang out there. Moreover, this addiction to websites influences their social life.
They spend more time in front of computers than with their friends. The relation with their friends changes. The virtual (虚拟的）life becomes more important than their real life. They have a new language that they speak in chat rooms and it causes cultural changes in society.
Because of the change in their behavior, they begin to isolate themselves from society and live with their virtual friends. They share their emotions and feelings with friends who they have never met in their life. Although they feel confident of the computer, they are not confident with real live friends they have known all their life. It is a problem for the future. This addictive behavior is beginning to affect all the world.The main idea of the passage is about .
| A．the cause of weboholism. |
| B．the advantage of weboholism |
| C．the popularity of weboholism |
| D．the influence of weboholism |
The underlined word “obsessional” in the second paragraph most probably means.
| A．attractive | B．addictive |
| C．professional | D．potential |
We can infer from the passage that .
| A．weboholism has the greatest effect on teenagers. |
| B．students can hardly balance real and virtual life. |
| C．people are addicted to games on the Internet. |
| D．virtual life is more vivid and attractive anyway. |
Which of the following is NOT true of weboholism?
| A．It contributes to the development of the web. |
| B．The chat room language may change social culture. |
| C．The problem will be getting more and more serious later. |
| D．People addicted to the web often become inactive in real life. |
In a recent study, participants were asked to drink beer from either a straight-sided glass, or a curved “beer glass”. People took about almost twice as long to finish when drinking alcohol from the straight-sided glass, compared with the curved glass. There was no difference in drinking rates from the glasses when the drink was nonalcoholic.
People may drink their alcohol faster from curved glasses because it is more difficult to accurately judge the halfway point of these glasses, the researchers concluded. As a result, drinkers may be less able to measure how much they have consumed. “People often talk of ‘pacing themselves’ when drinking alcohol as a means of controlling levels of drunkenness, but I think the important point to take from our research is that the ability to pace effectively may be compromised when drinking from certain types of glasses,” said study researcher Angela Attwood of the University of Bristol’s School of Experimental Psychology in the United Kingdom.
In another experiment, participants completed a computer task in which they were shown pictures of two glasses containing varying volumes of liquid, and asked to judge whether each glass was more, or less, than half-full. The researchers found people made greater errors in judging the halfway point of the curved glass.
“The participants who showed the greatest error in these judgments also tended to show the greatest changes in their drinking rates,” the researchers said. “The speed at which people drink alcohol influences their level of intoxication (迷醉), and the number of drinks they consume on an occasion. Therefore, slowing down is likely to have a positive impact for the individual, and also at a population level.”If a man finishes drinking alcohol from a curved glass in 30 minutes, from a same-volumed straight glass, he will spend _____.
| A．about 15 minutes | B．about 60 minutes |
| C．about 45 minutes | D．about 25 minutes |
According to the passage, the experiment shows that _____.
| A．curved glasses mislead people’s judgment |
| B．people differ greatly when judging the same glass |
| C．people do computer tasks poorly after drinking |
| D．the type of liquid influences people’s thinking |
What advice do the researchers give drinkers?
| A．Use a curved “beer glass”. |
| B．Drink at a slower pace. |
| C．Drink with positive people. |
| D．Try different types of alcohol. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Shape may influence your drinking |
| B．Curved glass is out of date |
| C．Drink less for your health |
| D．Drinkers favor a different type of glass |
From the beginning of human history, wild animals provided food, clothing and sometimes medicine for man. We may not depend as much on wild animals now. But we hear about them every day. Americans use the names of animals in many ways. Automobile manufacturers and gasoline companies especially like to use big cats to sell their products. They like lions, tigers and wildcats. When Americans say wildcat, they usually mean a lynx, an ocelot or a bobcat. All these cats attack quickly and fiercely. So wildcats represent something fast and fierce.
An early American use of the word wildcat was quite different. It was used to describe members of Congress who declared war on Britain in 1812. A magazine of that year said the wildcat congressmen went home. It said they were unable to face the responsibility of having involved their country in an unnecessary war.
Wildcat also has been used as a name for money in the 1800s. At that time, some states permitted banks to make their own money. One bank in the state of Michigan offered paper money with a picture of a wildcat on it. Some banks, however, did not have enough gold to support all the paper money they offered. So the money had little or no value. It was called a wildcat bill or a wildcat banknote. The banks who offered this money were called wildcat banks. A newspaper of the time said those were the days of wildcat money. It said a man might be rich in the morning and poor by night.
Wildcat then was also used for an oil well or gold mine that had almost no oil or gold in it. Dishonest developers would buy such property. Then they would sell it and leave town with the money. The buyers were left with worthless holes in the ground. Today, wildcat oil wells are in areas that are not known to have oil.What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Wildcats and their stories. |
| B．Wildcats and their characters. |
| C．Varieties of animal species. |
| D．Relationship between animals and humans. |
The underlined words "a lynx, an ocelot or a bobcat" in Paragraph 1 may refer to "".
| A．gasoline companies |
| B．automobile manufacturers |
| C．brands of automobile |
| D．names of wildcats |
Which of the following would people like to have or trust according to the passage?
| A．Wildcat congressmen. | B．Wildcat oil wells. |
| C．Wildcat banks. | D．Wildcat cars. |
It can be inferred that during the days of wildcat money.
| A．people couldn't buy anything with the money |
| B．people complained and suffered a lot |
| C．the rich invested too much on oil wells |
| D．people didn't know how to save money |