AIDS’ Threat to Asia Grows
NEW DELHI----Just a few years ago, Mala was a typical middle-class Indian housewife. She cooked, cleaned and looked after her two small children.
Last year, her life took a tragic turn. Her husband died of AIDS; she was found out HIV-positive and her mother-in-law took her children away from her, saying they would get the disease. “When friends dropped for a visit, she would introduce me, saying, ‘She is my son’s widow. She has AIDS,’” said Mala. AIDS is now described as “explosive(炸药)” around the world. A study of a hospital in the port city of Durban in South Africa, where the world’s biggest and Africa’s second AIDS conference opened last Sunday, found that almost half the beds in medical wards (病房) were occupied by AIDS patients.
South Africa has one of the world’s fastest growing HIV infections, with 1,700 people infected daily, adding to the 4.3 million, or 10 percent of its population, living with HIV. Until now, Asia has been more successful in holding the AIDS virus than Africa, where the disease has killed about 12 million people.
AIDS is now threatening to surround many of Asia’s poverty-stricken countries. Countries in Asia, such as Cambodia, and Thailand, have HIV infection speeds over 1 percent. But the low speeds hide huge numbers of infected people, because of the population base.
In India, for example, 3.7 million are infected, more than in any other country except South Africa. In China, an estimated 860,000 people (the actual number may be a little larger), mainly drug users, live with HIV/AIDS. Gordon Alexander, a senior advisor for UN AIDS in India, estimates that the number hit by AIDS in Asia will climb about eight million over the next five years from about six million.
In many Asian countries, the battle against HIV is a social and cultural one against public discussion of sexual health put a nationwide media campaign into action to limit the speed of HIV through unsafe sex. Brenton Wong, an official for Singapore’s Action for AIDS, says the actual HIV incidence in the city state of 3.9 million people is at least eight times higher than official data. “Shame and deny is still very, very common so people are afraid to get tested and many times won’t even tell their families if they test positive,” said Wong. We can conclude from the underlined sentence in the last paragraph that ______.
A．The official data always tell lies and cheat people to hide the truth. |
| B．3.9 million people in Singapore suffered from AIDS. |
| C．Singapore has a population of 3.9 million |
| D．The number of people infected with HIV is at least eight times larger than that of the AIDS patients in Singapore. |
It is judged that there are ______ people hit by AIDS in Asia or so.
| A．4.3 million | B．6 million | C．8 million | D．3.7 million |
According to the passage, the main reasons that AIDS spread in Asia is through_______.
A． blood |
B．unsafe sex | C．love | D．drugs |
Which of the following statements is not right?
| A．The battle against Aids in many Asian countries is against their culture and social customs. |
| B．Though the HIV infection in Asia develops with low speed, the infected number is still quite large compared to other continents. |
| C．India has the second largest number of HIV infected people. |
| D．Aids might affect the poverty-stricken countries more severely. |
Across the world, 1.1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water. More than 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation. (卫生设备)
The combination proves deadly. Each year, diseases related to inadequate water and sanitation kill between 2 and 5 million people and cause an estimated 80 percent of all sicknesses in the developing world. Safe drinking water is a precondition for health and the fight against child death rate, inequality between men and women, and poverty.
Consider these facts:
●The average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is 6 kilometers.
●Only 58 percent of children in sub-Saharan Africa are drinking safe water., and only 37 percent of children in South Asia have access to even a basic toilet.
●Each year in India alone, 73 million working days are lost to water-borne diseases.
Here are three ways you can help:
Write Congress
Current U.S. foreign aid for drinking water and sanitation budgets only one dollar per year per American citizen. Few members of Congress have ever received a letter from voters about clean drinking water abroad.
Sponsor a project with a faith-based organization
Many U.S. religious groups already sponsor water and sanitation projects, working with partner organizations abroad. Simply put a single project by a U.S. organization can make safe water a reality for thousands of people.
Support nonprofit water organizations
Numerous U.S.-based nonprofits work skillfully abroad in community-led projects related to drinking water and sanitation. Like the sample of non-profits noted as follows: some organizations are large, other small-scale, some operate worldwide, others are devoted to certain areas in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. Support them generously.
72. The three facts presented in the passage are used to illustrate that________.
A. poverty can result in water-borne diseases
B. people have no access to clean drinking water
C. women’s rights are denied in some developing countries
D. safe drinking water should be a primary concern
73. The intended readers of the passage are________.
A. Americans B. overseas sponsors
C. Congressmen D. U.S.-based water organizations
74. The main purpose of the passage is to call on people to _________.
A. get rid of water-related diseases in developing countries
B. donate money to people short of water through religious groups
C. fight against the worldwide water shortage and sanitation problem
D. take joint action in support of some nonprofit water organizations
75. What information will probably be provided following the last paragraph?
A. A variety of companies and their worldwide operation.
B. A list of nonprofit water organizations to make contact with.
C. Some ways to get financial aids from U.S. Congress.
D. A few water resources exploited by some world-famous organizations.
Special Bridges Help Animals Cross the Road
----- Reported by Sheila Carrick
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.
Most people know this joke. But recently, some people have been much more concerned with how the grizzly bear and mountain lion can cross the road.
Millions of animals die each year on U.S. roads, the Federal Highway Administration reports. In fact, only about 80 ocelots, an endangered wild cat, exist in the U.S. today. The main reason? Road-kill.
"Ecopassages" may help animals cross the road without being hit by cars. They are paths both over and under roads. "These ecopassages can be extremely useful, so that wildlife can avoid human conflicts," said Jodi Hilty of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
But do animals actually use the ecopassages? The answer is yes. Paul Beier of Northern Arizona University found foot marks left by mountain lions on an ecopassage that went under a highway. This showed that the lion used the passage.
Builders of some ecopassages try to make them look like a natural part of an area by planting trees on and around them. Animals seem to be catching on. Animals as different as salamanders and grizzly bears are using the bridges and underpasses.
The next time you visit a park or drive through an area with a lot of wildlife, look around. You might see an animal overpass!
45. The writer uses the example of “ocelots” to show that_________.
A．wild animals have become more dangerous
B．the driving conditions have improved greatly
C．the measure for protecting wildlife fails to work
D．an increasing number of animals are killed in road accidents
46. From the news story, we know an ecopassage is_________.
A．an underground path for cars B．a fence built for the safety of the area
C．a bridge for animals to get over a river D．a pass for animals to cross the road
47. When the writer says that animals seem “to be catching on”, he means_________.
A．animals begin to realize the dangers on the road
B．animals begin to learn to use ecopassages
C．animals are crossing the road in groups
D．animals are increasing in number
48. The writer asks visitors and drivers to look around when traveling because_________.
A．wild animals may attack cars B．wild animals may jam the road
C．they may see wild animals in the park D．they may see wild animals on ecopassages
Millions of people visit Yosemite National Park every year to see the tall waterfalls and mountains. These mountains are a splendid sight when viewed form the valley floor. Lots of stores, hotels, and restaurants are needed to handle the crowds. Also, water, roads, and other service systems are part of the infrastructure (基础设施) that must be maintained.
Unfortunately, these systems are starting to break down. It’s not just in Yosemite but in national parks around the nation.
Yosemite is thirty years old according to Dennis Galvin, a National Park Service worker. The Park is not only old but worn out. Two or three times as many visitors come every year. That is too many visitors for the park to deal with.
Four years ago a storm washed out a water pipeline in the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service had to send water trucks to provide water for the visitors. Last month pipes almost broke again and roads had to be closed for a while.
Why hasn’t the National Park Service kept up the park repairs? There is a lack of money. The United States has 378 monuments, parks, and wilderness areas. Between three and four billion dollars are needed for repairs.
Yosemite is one national park that does have money for repairs. It has two hundred million dollars but cannot spend it any way it chooses. When the park workers started widening the road, they were forced to stop by the Sierra Club. The club claimed that the road work was damaging the Merced River that runs through the park.
A sierra Club lawyer, Julia Olson, feels that the infrastructure needs to be moved out of Yosemite. That way less pressure will be put on the already crowded park.
According to the text, the mountains in Yosemite look most splendid when they are appreciated from ______.
A. the bottom of the valleys B. the top of the mountains
C. the side of the mountains D. the edge of the valleys
National parks like Yosemite in the U.S. find it increasingly difficult to meet the need of visitors because ______.
A. their transport management needs improving
B. they spend too much on their service systems
C. their service systems frequently go out of order
D. they need help from environmental organizations
The main problem of Yosemite National Park is its ______.
A. rundown water pipes B. overcrowdedness
C. lack of money D. narrow roads
68. According to the text, the Sierra Club is most likely to be ______.
A. an environmental group B. an information center
C. a travel service D. a law firm
Tristan da Cunha, a 38-square-mile island, is the farthest inhabited island in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. It is 1,510miles southwest of its nearest neighbor, St. Helena, and 1,950miles west of Africa. Discovered by the Portuguese admiral（葡萄牙海军上将）of the same name in 1506, and settled in 1810, the island belongs to Great Britain and has a population of a few hundred.
Coming in a close second –- and often wrongly mentioned as the most distant land －is Easter Island, which lies 1,260 miles east of its nearest neighbor, Pitcairn Island, and 2,300 miles west of South America.
The mountainous 64-square-mile island was settled around the 5th century, supposedly by people who were lost at sea. They had no connection with the outside world for more than a thousand years, giving them plenty of time to build more than 1,000 huge stone figures, called moai, for which the island is most famous.
On Easter Sunday, 1772, however, settlers from Holland moved in and gave the island its name. Today, 2,000 people live on the Chilean territory （智利领土）. They share on street, a small airport, and a few hours of television per day.
56．It can be learned from the text that the island of Tristan da Cunha _____________.
A．was named after its discoverer B．got its name from Holland settlers
C．was named by the British government D．got its name from the Guinness Book of Records
57．Which of the following is most famous for moai?
A．Tristan da Cunha. B．Pitcairn Island.
C．Easter Island. D．St. Helena.
58．Which country does Easter Island belong to?
A．Britain. B．Holland. C．Portugal. D．Chile.
Fidenzio Salvatori is determined that the city of Toronto will have an outdoor marketplace for merchants from its immigrant community, complete with dancing and other forms of amusement form their native countries. “Toronto is truly multicultural (多元文化的)，” he said in a newspaper interview. “It’s a city from many places, and multicultural marketplace will help Torontonians to understand and appreciate the rich variety of cultural groups in our city.”
Salvatori, aged 23, will soon complete his studies at the University of Toronto. He was eleven years old when he came to Canada from Italy with his parents. “Most of Toronto’s immigrants are from lands where the marketplace has always been part of daily life,” he said.
Salvatori has been interested in getting an open-air market for Toronto for the last three years. This year, with the help of two fellow students, he prepared a proposal on the subject and presented it to the city’s Executive committee, asking for their support. The proposal pointed out Toronto’s rich variety of national groups, “whose customs include market shopping.”
Under a Canadian government program for multiculturalism, the three students have received two thousand dollars with which they will do a study to find out whether Toronto’s immigrant businessmen would support an open-air market. They hope the merchants will support the plan strongly. “A study done earlier this year showed that 90 percent of shoppers would be in favor of it,” Salvatori said. “At first it would be an experiment. But we think it will prove to be good business for the merchants, as well as tourist attraction.”
61. What is Fidenzio Salvatori’s purpose of having an outdoor marketplace for Toronto?
A. To provide different forms of amusement.
B. To keep the cultural variety of the city.
C. To inspire its immigrant community.
D. To satisfy its immigrant merchants.
62. Fidenzio Salvatori, with two other students, has got two thousand dollars from the government ______.
A. to make an experiment B. to perform a research
C. to start a marketplace D. to operate a business
63.According to Salvatori, the marketplace may also help to improve Toronto’s ______.
A. market management B. travel industry
C. community service D. city planning
64.It can be inferred from the text that the Canadian government supports ______.
A. the protection of different cultures B. the plan of an open-air market
C. the request of merchants D. the attitude of shoppers