Healthy knees aren’t the main consideration in choosing high heels, but new research says chunky heels are just as bad for the knees as spindly stilettos(细高跟鞋).“It takes a long time to feel the effects of knee osteoarthritis(骨关节炎)—and once you do it, it is too late,”said Dr.Casey Kerrigan, leading researcher of the study and associate professor at Harvard Medical School’s department of physical medicine.“I compare it to smoking—one cigarette is not painful, but over a lifetime it is. Wide-heeled shoes feel comfortable, so women wear them all day long,”Kerrigan said.“They are better for your feet than stiletto heels, but just as bad for your knees.”
In the study, researchers had twenty women wear two pairs of shoes with three-inch heels, one with a narrow heel and the other with a thick one. The scientists compared how much pressure was put on the women’s knees by both types of shoes. The women also walked bare-foot to test normal pressure. The scientists found that both types of shoes applied equal amounts of pressure to the knees. Compared with walking barefoot, the heels increased pressure on the inside of the knee by 26 percent. Increased pressure on the knee eventually leads to arthritis, experts say.
The idea that high heels are bad for your health isn’t new—scientists have warned women for years that they contribute to problems ranging from corns to hammer toes, tendonitis, knee pain, sprained(扭伤)ankles and back problems. But in 1998,Kerrigan and a team of Harvard researchers were the first to link high heels and knee osteoarthritis, a painful joint disease that destroys cartilage(软骨)surrounding the knee. The first study looked only at stiletto heels, and Kerrigan said she wanted to study the chunky high-heeled shoes she noticed many women wearing.“This study confirms what we all intuitively(直觉地)know that high-heeled shoes of any kind are not good for our health,” said Dr.Glem Pfeffer, a San Francisco doctor and member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons who was not connected to the study.
61.We learn from the passage that women choose chunky heels because _________.
A.they want to walk comfortably
B.chunky heeled shoes are cheaper than stiletto heeled pairs
C.chunky heels do less harm to knees
D.chunky heels are not painful at all
62.The study mentioned in the second paragraph found that _________.
A.pressure on the foot is caused by high heels
B.the pressure is abnormal while walking barefoot
C.arthritis is always caused by pressure on the knees
D.both types of shoes have the same harm to the knees
63.It can be inferred from the passage that _________.
A.people got to know the high heels are bad for health recently
B.people have known the high heels are bad for health for years
C.people haven’t known the high heels are bad for health yet
D.people will be warned that the high heels are bad for health soon
64.Kerrigan’s late study looked at the chunky high-heeled shoes because _________.
A.they feel more comfortable
B.they are related to knee osteoarthritis
C.they are worn by many women
D.they are different from stiletto heels
65.The best title for the passage may be _________.
A.Talking Healthy Knees into Consideration
B.High-heels Do Harm to Knees
C.Chunky Heels and Stiletto Heels
D.When Wearing High-heels
LONDON — Britain awoke on Easter Monday to a period of mourning for the Queen Mother, who died over the weekend after a life spanning a century of noisy and evident change. The 101-year-old royal matriarch died in her sleep last Saturday with Queen Elizabeth, her elder and only surviving daughter, at her bedside. For a woman who was one of the best-known figures in Britain for more than 80 years — from the era of tinted portraits on tin biscuit boxes and cigarette cards to the age of the Internet, the Queen Mother remained an enigmatic(不可思议的) and elusive(躲避的) figure.
She achieved such a respect through aeons(永世, 亿万年) of, first, fawning and, later, intrusive media fascination, by remaining almost entirely silent. Her private thoughts were never paraded(炫耀) in public. What the public saw was a charming and benign elderly lady, adept at winning the admiration of press photographers, whom she always favoured with a particular smile.
CHINA’s third unmanned spacecraft, Shenzhou Ⅲ, landed safely in central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Monday afternoon, after orbiting the earth 108 times in slightly less than a week. The craft, which lifted off from Jiuquan in Gansu Province last Monday night, landed after successfully conducting a chain of flight and scientific experiments over a period of 162 hours.
A powerful earthquake jolted Taiwan, killing five construction workers, authorities(官方) said. Over 200 injuries ware reported across the island, mostly minor, as a result of Sunday’s 7.5-magnitude quake. The quake was centred off Hualien, 180 kilometres east of Taipei. It struck at 2:53 pm and lasted for nearly a minute.
1. Which of the following statements is true according to the news?
A. The Queen Mother died on Easter Monday alone.
B. The Queen Mother was an attractive person in her political life.
C. The British people felt sorry for the death of the Queen Mother.
D. The Queen Mother was suffering a lot when she was dying.
2. It can be inferred that _______.
A. the craft landed in central Inner Mongolia unexpectedly
B. it took the craft at least 2 hours to orbit the earth once
C. the Chinese scientists did a lot of experiments in space
D. China was successful in sending an unmanned spacecraft into space
3. The third news mainly talks about the _______ in Taiwan.
A. political matters B. social problems
C. unexpected damage D. construction workers
In every school there is a “top” crowd that sets the pace, while the others follow their lead. Let’s say the top crowd decides that it is smart to wear bright red sweaters. Pretty soon everybody is wearing a bright red sweater.
There is nothing wrong with that, except the fact that on some people bright red sweater is extremely unbecoming. The situation can even become dangerous, if the top crowd decides that it is smart to drink or to drive cars at seventy miles an hour. Then the people who follow the lead are endangering their lives. They are like the sheep being led to the butcher.
Now, chances are that you have come across situations like these more than once in your life; chances are that one time or another you probably did something you knew to be wrong. You may have excused yourself by saying, “Gee, the crowd does it.” Well, let the crowd do it, but don’t do it yourself. Learn to say, “No.”
Develop your own standards and your own judgment. If you know the crowd is planning something you disagree to, have the courage to bow out mannerly. You’ll have the satisfaction of standing on your own two feet.
1. Which is the best title for this passage?
A. Follow the Lead. B. Top Crowd. C. Being Yourself. D. Bright Red.
2. The author doesn’t think it good wearing red sweaters if ________.
A. the crowd does it B. you can’t afford them
C. you don’t look good in red D. the situation isn’t safe
3. According to the passage, people who follow the crowd ________.
A. sometimes do things against their better judgment
B. make mistakes blindly
C. are willing to put their lives in danger
D. will in the end become pace-setters
Have you ever been afraid to talk back when you were treated unfairly? Have you ever bought something just because the salesman talked you into it? Are you afraid to ask a boy (girl) for a date?
Many people are afraid to assert themselves (insist upon their own rights). Dr Robert Alberti, author of Stand Up, Speak Out, and Talk Back, thinks it’s because their self-esteem(自尊) is low. “Our whole set-up makes people doubt themselves,” says Alberti. “There’s always a 'superior' around — a parent, a teacher, a boss — who 'knows better’”.
But Alberti and other scientists are doing something to help people to assert themselves. They offer “assertiveness training” courses (AT). In the AT courses people learn that they have a right to be themselves. They learn to speak out and feel good about doing so. They learn to be aggressive(敢闯, 闯劲儿) without hurting other people.
In one way, learning to speak out is to overcome fear. A group taking an AT course will help the timid person to lose his fear. But AT uses an even stronger motive—the need to share. The timid person speaks out in the group because he wants to tell how he feels. AT says you can get to feel good about yourself. And once you do, you can learn to speak out.
1. In the passage, the writer talks about the problem that _______.
A. some people are too easy-going
B. some people are too timid
C. there are too many superiors around us
D. some people dare not stick up for their own rights
2. The effect of our set-up on people is often to _______.
A. make them distrust their own judgment
B. make things more favorable for them
C. keep them from speaking out as much as their superiors do
D. help them to learn to speak up for their rights
3. One thing AT doesn’t do is to _______.
A. use the need of people to share
B. show people they have the right to be themselves
C. help people to be aggressive at anytime even when others suffer
D. help people overcome fear
My husband and children think they are very lucky that they are living and that it’s Christmas again. They can’t see that we live on a dirty street in a dirty house among people who aren’t much good. But Johnny and children can’t see this. What a pity it is that our neighbours have to make happiness out of all this dirt. I decided that my children must get out of this. The money that we’ve saved isn’t nearly enough.
The McGaritys have money but they are so proud. They look down upon the poor. The McGarity girl just yesterday stood out there in the street eating from a bag of candy(糖果)while a ring of hungry children watched her. I saw those children looking at her and crying in their hearts; and when she couldn’t eat any more she threw the rest down the sewer(下水道). Why, is it only because they have money ? There is more to happiness than money in the world, isn’t there?
Miss Jackson who teaches at the Settlement House isn’t rich, but she knows things. She understands people. Her eyes look straight into yours when she talks with you. She can read your mind. I’d like to see the children be like Miss Jackson when they grow up.
1. This passage mainly suggests that the writer _______.
A. is easy to get along with
B. is unhappy with the life they are living
C. is good at observing and understanding
D. is never pleased with her neigbours
2. What do you think of McGarity girl?
A. She is proud and hungry. B. She is selfish and cruel.
C. She is lonely and friendless. D. She is unhappy and misunderstood.
3. In this text, the writer tries to tell us that _______.
A. money is the key to everything
B. the more money you have, the less happy you’ll be
C. there is something more important than money
D. when talking to people we should look into their eyes
4. Pick out the one that does NOT describe the writer’s view on money.
A. Why, is it only because they have money?
B. There is more to happiness than money.
C. Miss Jackson isn’t rich, but she knows things.
D. The money we saved isn’t nearly enough.
Humans are social animals. They live in groups all over the world. As these groups of people live apart from other groups, over the years and centuries they develop their own habits and ideas, which form different cultures. One important particular side of every culture is how its people deal with time.
Time is not very important in non-industrial societies. The Nuer people of East Africa, for example, do not even have a word TIME that is in agreement with the abstract thing we call time. The daily lives of the people of such non-industrial societies are likely to be patterned around their physical needs and natural events rather than around a time schedule(时间表) based on the clock. They cook and eat when they are hungry and sleep when the sun goes down. They plant crops during the growing seasons and harvest them when the crops are ripe. They measure time not by a clock or calendar(日历), but by saying that an event takes place before or after some other events. Frequently such a society measures days in terms of “sleeps” or longer periods in terms of “moons”. Some cultures, such as the Eskimos of Greenland measure seasons according to the migration of certain animals.
Some cultures which do not have a written language or keep written records have developed interesting ways of “telling time”. For example, when several Australian aborigines want to plan an event for a future time, one of them places a stone on a cliff or in a tree. Each day the angle of the sun changes slightly. In a few days, the rays of the sun strike the stone in a certain way. When this happens, the people see that the agreed-upon time has arrived and the event can take place.
In contrast(成对比), exactly correct measurement of time is very important in modern, industrialized societies. This is because industrialized societies require the helpful efforts of many people in order to work. For a factory to work efficiently(well, quickly and without waste), for example, all of the workers must work at the same time. Therefore, they must know what time to start work in the morning and what time they may go home in the afternoon. Passengers must know the exact time that an airplane will arrive or depart. Students and teachers need to know when a class starts and ends. Stores must open on time in order to serve their customers. Complicated(复杂的) societies need clocks and calendars. Thus, we can see that if each person worked according to his or her own schedule, a complicated society could hardly work at all.
1. By saying “Humans are social animals”, the author means _______.
A. they live all over the world
B. they are different from other animals
C. they live in one place, district or country, considered as a whole
D. they are divided into many groups
2. Time is not very important in non-industrial societies. This is because people in those societies _______.
A. don’t have the word "time" in their languages
B. don’t get used to using clocks and other timepieces
C. don’t measure time in their daily-lives around an exact time schedule
D. don’t need to plan their daily lives around an exact time schedule
3. The Australian aborigines’ way of “telling time” is based on _______.
A. the change of the sun rays
B. the movement of the earth in relation to the sun
C. the position of the stone
D. the position of the tree or the cliff
4. Which of the following might be the best title for this passage?
A. Time and Culture
B. The Measurement of Time
C. Time Schedule and Daily Life
D. Clock, Calendar and Society