Simply by analyzing a drop of blood, a doctor will be able to diagnose a birth defect or even cancer when it is in the early stage; using new technology, a material lighter but much stronger than steel can be produced.
These may sound like dreams at present. But the dreams may soon come true as research findings in laboratories are being turned into products more rapidly in the new century, according to experts participating in the fourth Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Technomart, a technology exhibition and trade fair in Suzhou.
"Most people think nano-technology（纳米技术）is too far-fetched to be real. But in fact nano-technology has been applied in a wide range of fields, such as medicine. It is coming into our daily life," said Cheng Jiachong from a Hong Kong-based nano-technology firm.
Nano-technology based on the nanometer, the unit of which is a billionth of a meter, enables scientists to have new concepts of disease diagnosis and treatment on a molecular（分子）and atomic scale, Cheng said.
By using nanometer particles, a doctor can separate the fetus cells（胚胎细胞）from the blood of a pregnant woman to see if the development of the fetus is normal. This method is also being used in the early diagnosis of cancer and heart disease, he said.
One of the most significant impacts of nano-technology is at the bio-inorganic materials interface, according to Greg Tegart, executive advisor of the APEC Center for Technology Foresight.
"By combining enzymes（酶）and silicon chips we can produce biosensors. These could be implanted in humans or animals to monitor health and to deliver corrective doses（剂量）of drugs," he told the participants a technology forum during the exhibition.
"Nano-technology could affect the production of nearly every man-made object, from automobiles, tires and computer circuits（电路）, to advanced medicines and tissue replacement, and lead to the invention of objects yet to be imagined," said David Minns, a special advisor to the National Research Council of Canada.
It has been shown that carbon nano-tubes are ten times as strong as steel, with one sixth of the weight, and nano-scale systems have the potential to make supersonic transport cost- effective and to increase computer efficiency by millions of times, he said.
The experts agreed that the APEC technology exhibition and trade fair provided many chances for exchanges of innovative ideas and products.Realization of the dreams mentioned in the first paragraph will mainly base on ________.
| A．APEC | B．Chinese scientist |
| C．the APEC Center for Technology Foresight | D．Nano-technology |
The length of a nanometer equals to ______.
A． meter |
B． meter |
C． meter |
D． meter |
We can imply from what David Minns said that _________.
| A．Nano-technology could only be used to invent new objects. |
| B．Nano-technology could be widely used to produce or invent objects. |
| C．Nano-technology is a money-consuming technology. |
| D．Nano-technology can not be used to improve the service of Internet. |
Compared to steel, carbon nano-tubes are ________.
| A．stronger and lighter | B．lighter but as strong |
| C．stronger but as light | D．poor in quality |
The World Health Organization and several other United Nations agencies are calling for a major new effort to fight malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. These three infectious diseases killed almost 6 million people last year. That is about 10 percent of the total number of deaths around the world last year.
The WHO and UN agencies released a new report at the World Economic Forum in New York City earlier this month. The document says that deaths around the world from malaria and tuberculosis could be cut in half by the year 2010. It also says the number of deaths from AIDS could be reduced 25 percent within that same time period.
The report is called “Calling Up the Response to Infectious Diseases.” It calls for huge new investments in methods to prevent and treat infectious diseases. Officials say money is needed for research and to purchase drugs. Money is also needed to devices to prevent diseases, such as bed nets. Bed nets prevent mosquitoes that carry malaria from biting people while they sleep.
David Heymann, director of the infectious disease program at the World Health Organization, says that providing effective drug treatments is important for improving peoples’ health and economic well – being. Reducing disease can also help improve economic growth in developing countries.
The WHO report also describes successful health programs in developing countries. In Peru, for example, the number of tuberculosis cases was cut in half by increasing the treatment to control the disease. In Vietnam, malaria was reduced 97 percent through the use of bed nets. And in Uganda, cases of the virus that causes AIDS were cut in half among pregnant women and children through the use of anti – AIDS drugs.
This new international health campaign is estimated to cost about 12,000 million dollars a year. So far, officials say the campaign has about 2,000 million dollars. The WHO says the campaign will need stronger relationships among government, private aid agencies, and drug companies to succeed.According to the report is the disease most difficult to fight.
| A．malaria | B．tuberculosis | C．AIDS | D．influenza |
To prevent these diseases, a large amount of money is needed to .
| A．to buy food and pay for the caretakers |
| B．do research work, buy drugs and devices |
| C．take care of the families of the deaths |
| D．set up more hospitals and health institutions |
We can infer from the text that reducing infectious diseases is .
| A．to help the countries develop better |
| B．to promote cooperation between countries |
| C．to help people get more scientific knowledge |
| D．to help people get a cleaner environment |
Most serious infectious diseases spread mainly in .
| A．Africa | B．South America |
| C．Asia | D．developing countries |
To fight the diseases, is necessary.
| A．better environment |
| B．cooperation between different people |
| C．to wipe out the pests |
| D．more drugs and money |
Art museums are places where people can learn about various cultures. The increasingly popular "design museums" that are opening today, however, perform quite a different role. Unlike most art museums, the design museum shows objects that are easily found by the general public These museums sometimes even place things like fridges and washing machines in the center of the hall
Pele have argued that design museums are often made use of as advertisements for new industrial technology. But their role is not simply a matter of sales-it is the honoring of excellently invented products. The difference between the window of a department store and the showcase in a design museum is that the first tries to sell you something, while the second tells you the success of a sale.
One advantage of design museums is that they are places where people feel familiar with the exhihits. Unlike the average art museum visitors, design museum visitors seldom feel frightened or puzzled. This is partly because design museums clearly show how and why mass-produced products work and look as they do, and how design has improved the quality of our lives. Art museum exhibits, on the other hand, would most probably fill visitors with a feeling that there is something between their understanding.
In recent years, several new design museums have opened their door. Each of these museums has tried to satisfy the public’s growing interest in the field with new ideas. London's Design Museum, for example, shows a collection of mass-produced objects from Zippo lighters to electric typewriters to a group of Italian fish-tins. The choices open to design museums seem far less strict than those to art museums, and visitors may also sense the humorous part of our society while walking around such exhibits as interesting and unusually attractive toys collected in our everyday life.Showcases in design museums are different from store windows because they＿．
| A．show more technologically advanced products |
| B．help increase the sales of products |
| C．show why the products have sold well |
| D．attract more people than store windows do |
The author believes that most design museum visitors＿．
| A．do not admire mass-produced products |
| B．are puzzled with technological exhibits |
| C．dislike exhibits in art museums |
| D．know the exhibits very well |
The choices open to design museums＿
A. are not as strict as those to art museums
B, are not aimed to interest the public
C. may fail to bring some pleasure to visitors
D. often contain precious exhibitsThe best title for this passage is“＿”
| A．The Forms of Design Museums |
| B．The Exhibits of Design Museums |
| C．The Nature of Design Museums |
| D．The Choices Open to Design Museums |
Even while in a deep sleep, people can still learn brand new information. Sleepers soak in new associations between smells and sounds, knowledge that lingers(逗留）into the next waking day, researchers report online August 26 in Nature Neuroscience.
The new study is the first to show that entirely new information can get into the sleeping mind, says Anat Arzi of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. "The brain is not passive while you sleep. It's quite active. You can do quite a lot of things while you are asleep."
But the results don't mean that Spanish vocabulary tapes now have a place on the nightstand. L, Researchers have tried but largely failed to find evidence that complicated information, such as new pairs of words, can make its way into the brain during sleep.
Instead of trying to teach people something complicated like a new language, Arzi and her colleagues relied on the sense of smell and hearing. As anyone who has walked by a dumpster（垃圾车）in July knows, smells can cause a nose-jerk reaction. Catching a bad smell automatically makes people inhale(吸气)less, reducing the size of the inhale. But scent of fresh bread causes a long, deep inhale.、rzi and her team took advantage of this reaction for their experiment.
As people slept in the laboratory, the researchers delivered pleasant scent, such as shampoo. As this nice smell got into the sleepers' noses, the researchers played a particular music. Later, a disgusting smell, such as rotten fish or meat, was paired with a different music. Neither the smell nor the sound woke people up. After just four exposures to the smell-music pair during a single night, the sleepers started to automatically respond to the tones without the accompanying smells, taking in bigger breaths when the shampoo-associated tone played and smaller breaths when played the sound linked to the rotten fish smell.
This new learned association lingered into the next waking day, too. Even though the sleepers had no idea they had been exposed to smells or sounds, their behavior proved that their brain had actually learned something during sleep. As before, the shampoo sound stimulated a long, deep inhale, while the rotten fish tone caused more shallow breaths.We can infer from the passage that
| A．while sleeping, we can learn whatever we want to learn |
| B．we will increase the size of inhale if we catch a pleasant smell |
| C．the knowledge we learned while sleeping will be forgotten in the next waken day |
| D．when walking by a bakery, the fresh bread will cause a nose-jerk reaction |
What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?
| A．One can’t acquire complicated knowledge during the sleeping hours. |
| B．Spanish vocabulary tapes now have a place on the nightstand |
| C．Researchers have tried to find evidence that the new words can be learned during sleep. |
| D．Complicated information can make its way into the brain during sleep |
How do Arzi and her team do their research? By
| A．giving instructions | B．analyzing human brains |
| C．following the guides of others | D．doing experiments |
In which part of a website may this passage most likely appear?
| A．Culture. | B．Science. | C．History. | D．Economy. |
Rockwatch一The Best Club on Earth
If you are a young person and interested in geology(地质学），then Rockwatch is the club for you. When you join new memberships receive a Rockwatch Rox file each. This has the information and top tips you will need to start enjoying geology. It’s designed to serve as your own field notebook as well. In it you will find your membership card, full colour nuni-map, thumbs up guide and fact cards.
Rockwatch Magazine: Our lively magazine is mailed to members three times a year. They can read reports and news from around the world, and articles on everything from diamonds to dinosaurs, earthquakes to erosion.
Rockwatch Events: With each magazine you will receive a Rockwatch events calendar. Rocky activities suitable for families are listed and include road shows and guided walks
The Rockwatch Rock Artist:are you an artist, or a photographer? This is your chance to become Rockwatch Rock Artist of the year and win amazing prizes in our annual competition.
Special Offer: Rockwatch members can have specially discounted Wildlife Watch membership. Watch is the big gest environmental action club for young people, with 100 groups across the country. You can join both clubs together by filling in the boxes in the membership form.Rockwatch is a magazine telling about things related to
| A．geology | B．agriculture | C．politics | D．economics |
What activities are specially arranged for Rockwatch member interested in photography?
| A．Guided walks. | B．Rocky activities. |
| C．Yearly competitions. | D．Academic workshops. |
When applying for Wildlife Watch membership, a Rockwatch member can enjoy
| A．free memhership | B．a special discount | C．a Rock Artist prize | D．guided road shows |
You may join both Rockwatch and Wildlife Watch clubs by
| A．calling the two clubs | B．applying separately |
| C．providing references | D．filling in one form |
Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are a major cause of climate change, and now a new study has confirmed that atmospheric CO2 is also affecting the ocean chemistry and potentially harming sea life.
Montana State University scientist Robert Dore has been researching the water in the Pacific Ocean for almost two decades. "We've been going to the same spot in the Pacific Ocean, and we try and characterize long-term change in the open ocean environment. And one of the key things that we measure is COx levels. And We've been able to record this increasing quantity of atmospheric CO, into the ocean. "Scientists expected that as atmospheric CO2 increased, more and一 more of the carbon dioxide would be absorbed into the ocean, affecting the chemical balance of the sea water, with a potentially harmful impact on shellfish and coral in particular.
"As carbon dioxide dissolves in the water, or seawater in this case, it forms a weak acid, carbonic acid," Dore explains. "And therefore, as the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere goes up and that exchanges with the surface seawater, it drives the pH down, and makes it more acidic."
The seawater samples Dow and his colleagues have analyzed confirm what the theory predicts. The effect was particular striking at about 250 meters down, and again at 500 meters. Dore and his colleagues came up with two possible explanations. It could be that surface water picked up CO2 and then moved to those depths. Or there could be a biological explanation.
"It's important to realize that the oceans are really becoming acidic. And it can have negative impacts on a whole variety of sea life from fish to coral. It’s potentially catastrophic."What can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Sea Life Facing Danger | B．Scientist Researching Seawater |
| C．Oceans Becoming More Acidic | D．Climate Change Affecting Seawater |
With the increase of atmospheric C02，＿．
| A．more corals will appear in the sea |
| B．the surface water is becoming warmer |
| C．the chemical balance of the seawater is affected |
| D．the pH of the ocean out here has been increasing |
Which of the following shows the process of the impact of atmospheric C02 on sea life?
a. Sea life is endangered. b. C02 goes into the surface water.
c. The ocean chemistry is affected. d. C02 levels in the atmosphere go up
e. C02 decreases the pH and makes the seawater more acidic.
| A．abcde | B．dbcea | C．aebed | D．edcba |
Scientist Robert Dore came to the conclusion based on＿．
| A．his research and analysis | B．the expectation of other scientists |
| C．some former theory | D．a major cause of climate change |