For well over a thousand years, smallpox was a disease that everyone feared. The disease killed much of the native population in South America when the Spanish arrived there in the early sixteenth century. By the end of the eighteenth century, smallpox was responsible for about one in ten deaths around the world. Those who survived the disease were left with ugly scars on their skin.
It had long been well known among farmers that people who worked with cows seldom caught smallpox; instead, they often caught a similar but much milder disease called cowpox (牛痘) . A British doctor called Jenner was extremely interested in this, and so he studied cowpox. He believed that, by vaccinating (给接种疫苗) people with the disease, he could protect them against the much worse disease smallpox. In 1796, he vaccinated a boy with cowpox and, two months later, with smallpox. The boy did not get smallpox. In the next two years, Jenner vaccinated several children in the same way, and none of them got the disease．
News of the success of Jenner’s work soon spread. Vaccination soon became a common method to protect people against other diseases caused by virus, such as rabies (狂犬病), and vaccines were sent across the world to the United States and India.
It took nearly two centuries to achieve Jenner’s dream of getting free of smallpox from the whole world. In 1967, the world Health Organization (WHO) started a great vaccination program, and the last known case of smallpox was recorded in Somalia in 1977. The story of vaccinations does not end there, however. There are many other diseases that kill more and more people every year. Besides, many new diseases are being discovered. The challenge for medical researchers will, therefore, probably continue for several more centuriesSmallpox was so serious that _________________ by the end of l8th century
| A．its death rate was up to ten percent |
| B．those who caught it were certain to die |
| C．one in ten people in the world died of smallpox |
| D．one in ten deaths in the world was caused by smallpox |
Edward Jenner discovered that vaccination with cowpox could ____________.
| A．make smallpox much milder |
| B．stop people from getting smallpox |
| C．protect people against any disease |
| D．prevent people’s scars after smallpox |
Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?
| A．The first experiment with cowpox was made by a British doctor. |
| B．After 1977 smallpox disappeared around the world according to WHO. |
| C．Vaccination had existed among ordinary farmers before being discovered. |
| D．Vaccination can be used to protect people in the world against not only smallpox. |
The author of the passage thinks that _________________.
| A．vaccinations bring many new problems |
| B．vaccinations end the spread of diseases |
| C．there is a long way to go to fight against diseases |
| D．there is a long way to go to discover new diseases |
Eight-year-old Jesse Arbogast was playing in the sea late one evening in July when a 7-foot bull shark attacked him and tore off his arm. Jesse’s uncle jumped into the sea and dragged the boy to shore. The boy was not breathing. His aunt gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation(人工呼吸) while his uncle rang the emergency services. Pretty soon, a helicopter arrived and flew the boy to hospital. It was a much quicker journey than the journey by road.
Jesse’s uncle, Vance Folsenzier, ran back into the sea and found the shark that had attacked his nephew. He picked the shark up and threw it onto the beach. A coastguard shot the fish four times and although this did not kill it, the shark’s jaws relaxed so that they could open them, and reach down into its stomach, and pull out the boys’ arm.
At the Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Dr Ian Rogers spent eleven hours reattaching Jesse’s arm. “It was a complicated operation,” he said, “but we were lucky. If the arm hadn’t been recovered in time, we wouldn’t have been able to do the operation at all. What I mean is that if they hadn’t found the shark, we wouldn’t have had a chance.”
According to the local park ranger Jack Tomosvic, shark attacks are not that common. “Jesse was just unlucky,” he says, “evening is the shark’s feeding time. And Jesse was in an area without lifeguards. This would never have happened if he had been in an area where swimming is allowed.”
When reporters asked Jesse’s uncle how he had had the courage to fight against a shark, he replied, “I was mad and you do some strange things when you’re mad.” What was the boy doing when the accident happened?
| A．Feeding a hungry shark. |
| B．Jumping into the rough sea. |
| C．Dragging a boy to the shore. |
| D．Swimming in a dangerous area. |
In which way did the boy’s uncle help with the operation?
| A．By finding his lost arm. |
| B．By making a phone call. |
| C．By flying him to hospital. |
| D．By blowing into his mouth. |
How was his uncle in time of danger?
| A．Careful. | B．Brave. | C．Optimistic. | D．Patient. |
According to Jack Tomosvic, _______.
| A．people are often attacked by sharks |
| B．sharks never attack people |
| C．Jesse was unlucky to have been attacked by a shark |
| D．Jesse was swimming in a safe area at the moment |
Deep in the Amazon forest, thousands of people still live in isolation from the rest of the world.
In a recent press release, the Brazilian government confirmed the existence of another isolated tribe of about 200 people living in the Vale do Javari reservation. The 200 people living in the Vale do Javari reservation. The reservation, located near the Peruvian border, is about the size of Portugal. At least another 14 isolated tribes, with a total population of about 2000, call the area home.
The newly observed group lives on four large straw-roofed buildings and grows corn, peanut and other crops.
Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (BNTF) first noticed the reservation in the forest using satellite maps, but it wasn’t until April that an airplane expedition was able to confirm the tribe’s existence. “The work of finding and protecting isolated groups is part of Brazilian public policy,” said the BNIF officer for Vale do Javari, Fabricio Amorim. “To confirm something like this takes years of hard work.”
BNIF estimates there are 68 isolated tribes living in the Amazon. The organization uses airplanes to avoid disturbing the tribes through personal contact, but that doesn’t mean others are so respectful of their right to privacy.
Illegal fishing, woodcutting and hunting bring people into the protected area. Oil exploration on the Peruvian side of the border is another threat. All kinds of criminals also invade the lands of the local groups, said Amorim. The outsiders can damage the land and influence the cultures of indigenous(土著的)peoples. They can also bring diseases which can wipe out the whole population that still lack even basic antibiotics(抗生素).
Brazil’s indigenous peoples won the legal right to their traditional lands in Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, which stated that all indigenous lands shall be divided and turned over to tribes within five years. Indigenous groups now control 11 percent of Brazil’s territory, including 22 percent of the Amazon.
Allowing indigenous groups the right homelands is not just a matter of human rights. The rest of the world can benefit from their knowledge. Mark Plotkin has spent years living with the people of the Amazon and learning from their traditional healers. In his lecture, he pointed out that many useful materials and knowledge, including numerous drugs, can be gained from listening to the indigenous groups of the Amazon. Besides this, they are also more effective at protecting the land, and less expensive, than hired rangers(护林人).The underlined word in the first paragraph probably means “a state of ”.
| A．separation | B．interaction |
| C．satisfaction | D．excitement |
From the passage we can learn that the tribes in the Amazon forest .
| A．only live on a reservation designated for them |
| B．prefer straw-roofed buildings to wooden ones |
| C．keep contact with the outside world through airplanes |
| D．have the legal right to the land they live on |
Which of the following is TRUE according to Amorim?
| A．Privacy violation is common among the Amazon tribes. |
| B．The laws dividing the lands of the tribes are far from enough. |
| C．Modern civilization endangers the tribes and their cultures. |
| D．It is hard to make public policy to protect primitive tribes. |
The last paragraph is mainly about .
| A．the lost human rights of the indigenous peoples |
| B．the benefits of protecting the primitive tribes |
| C．the value of traditional healing |
| D．the indigenous peoples as guardians of the Amazon forest |
The novelist, Harriet Beecher Stowe, born 200 years ago, was a poor housewife with six children, and she suffered from various illnesses. Driven by the hatred of slavery, she found time to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which became the most influential novel in American history and caused great change, both at home and abroad.
Today, however, the book has a different reputation, owing to the popular image of its character, Uncle Tom, whose name has become a saying for a cowardly（懦弱的）black man who betrays his race.
But this view is wrong: the original Uncle Tom was physically and morally strong, an inspiration for black people and other oppressed（被压迫的）people worldwide. Indeed, that was why, in the mid-19th century, Southerners attacked Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a dangerously destructive book, while Northern reformers—especially black people—often praised it.
The book was influential overseas too. In Russia it inspired Vladimir Lenin, who recalled it as his favorite book in childhood. It was the first American novel to be translated and published in China, and it fueled anti-slavery movements in Cuba and Brazil.
The book’s progressive appeal was the character of Uncle Tom himself: a strong man who is notable because he does not betray his race; one reason he gives up escaping from his plantation（种植园）is that he doesn’t want to put his fellow slaves in danger. And he is finally killed because he refuses to tell his master where two runaway slaves are hiding.
Unfortunately, these themes were lost in many of the stage versions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
The play, seen by more people than those who read the book, remained popular up to the 1950s and still appears occasionally. But in the play, Stowe’s revolutionary themes were drowned.
But it doesn’t have to be that way; indeed; during the civil rights era it was those who most closely resembled Uncle Tom—Stowe’s Uncle Tom, not the embarrassed one of popular myth—that proved most effective in promoting progress. Both Stowe and Uncle Tom deserve our reconsideration and our respect.Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin because she .
| A．wanted to earn money to support her family |
| B．tried to set an example to her six children |
| C．hated slavery from the bottom of her heart |
| D．had similar life experiences to Uncle Tom |
Which of the following is TRUE about the influence of the book?
| A．It was the first American novel to be translated into Russian. |
| B．It was the most influential book for Vladimir Lenin in his life |
| C．It also gave rise to anti-slavery movements in faraway Africa. |
| D．It inspired black people and people who were suffering in the world. |
What can we learn about Uncle Tom in the book?
| A．he helps his fellow slaves to avoid getting into danger. |
| B．He is a black man who betrays his race. |
| C．He manages to escape from the plantation. |
| D．He kills himself instead of giving away the slaves. |
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
| A．The themes of revolution and progress in the book were lost in the play |
| B．There are more people who have read the book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, than those who have seen the stage version. |
| C．The play was very popular and it is still put on from time to time today. |
| D．It was Uncle Tom in the book that promoted the progress of mankind. |
After two classes, I started to recognize several of the faces in each class. There was always someone braver than the others who would introduce themselves and ask me questions about how I was liking Forks. I tried to be diplomatic, so mostly I just lied a lot to appear to be skilled at dealing with people. At least I never needed the map.
One girl sat next to me in both Trig and Spanish, and she walked with me to the cafeteria for lunch. She was tiny, several inches shorter than my five feet four inches, but her wildly curly dark hair made up a lot of the difference between our heights. I couldn't remember her name, so I smiled and nodded as she gossiped about teachers and classes. I didn't try to keep up.
We sat at the end of a full table with several of her friends, who she introduced to me. I forgot all their names as soon as she spoke them. They seemed impressed by her bravery in speaking to me. The boy from England Eric, waved at me from across the room.
It was there, sitting in the lunchroom, trying to make conversation with seven curious strangers, that I first saw them.
They were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, as far away from where I sat as possible in the long room. There were five of them. They weren't talking, and they weren't eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them. They weren't staring at me, unlike most of the other students, so it was safe to stare at them without fear of meeting an over interested pair of eyes. But it was none of these things that caught and held my attention.
I stared because their faces, so different, so similar, were all extremely, inhumanly beautiful. They were faces you never expected to see except perhaps on the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine, or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. It was hard to decide who was the most beautiful -- maybe the perfect blond girl, or the bronze-haired boy.What does the underlined word “diplomatic” mean?
| A．clever | B．smooth | C．honest | D．delight |
From the passage, we can infer that _______________.
| A．“I” was really liking the new place. |
| B．“I” had a bad memory, so it’s hard to remember names. |
| C．“I” was good at making friends. |
| D．“I” was not interested in what the girl said. |
According to the last two paragraphs, why did “they” catch “my” attention?
| A．Because “they” looked incredibly beautiful. |
| B．Because “they” weren’t talking. |
| C．Because “they” sat in the corner. |
| D．Because “they” didn’t eat the food. |
According to the passage, which statement is NOT true?
| A．The girl walked with “me” was a little short. |
| B．“I” saw the five students for the first time. |
| C．Those students sitting in the corner had finished their food. |
| D．“I” probably wanted to know more about those five students. |
Mothers can still offer comfort, even from a distance, a new study has found. The results show that simply hearing their mothers’ voice over the phone works just as well at calming the nerves of stressed children as a real-life pat on the shoulder.
The soothing（抚慰的）effect is most likely due to the release of the hormone（荷尔蒙）, oxytocin（催生素）, in the brain, the researchers say. This “love hormone” is known to quell stress and is likely to be involved in social connections, including those between a mother and a child.
Previous work has revealed that this hormone is released during physical contact with a mother. “But it’s clear from these results that a mother’s voice can have the same effect as a hug, even if she isn’t actually standing there,” said the researcher, Leslie Seltzer, a biological scientist.
Seltzer tested a group of 61 girls, aged 7 to 12, by having them make an unprepared speech and solve a series of maths problems in front of a group of strangers, sending their hearts racing and levels of cortisol—a hormone associated with stress—soaring.
Facing a challenge like that raises stress levels of a lot of people. Once stressed, a third of the girls were comforted in person by their mothers with hugs. A third of the girls watched an emotionally neutral 75-minute video. The rest were handed a telephone with their mothers on the line.
For the girls who interacted in person or over the phone with their mothers, the levels of the “love hormone” rose significantly, and the stress-marking hormone was washed away. This effect didn’t show up for participants who watched the video.
Seltzer is now testing the amount of oxytocin released with other communication methods—like text messaging—and hopes to see the research spread out from human subjects. “It’s not just us, of course. Lots of very social species have voices,” she said. “on the one hand, we are curious to see if this effect is unique to humans. On the other, we’re hoping researchers who study vocal communication will consider looking at oxytocin release in other animals and apply it to broader questions of social behavior and evolutionary biology.Mothers’ voice over the phone can reduce children’s nerves according to the study, because .
| A．children can imagine their mothers’ hugs on the line |
| B．children enjoy their mothers’ voice and forget their worries |
| C．mothers are good at comforting their children, even on the phone |
| D．mothers’ voice can promote the release of the love hormone |
The underlined word “quell” in the second paragraph probably means “”.
| A．cause or bring | B．delay or direct |
| C．stop or reduce | D．develop or train |
From the study, we know that .
| A．the level of cortisol determines how stressed a person is |
| B．the 61 girls were divided into two groups in the research |
| C．the recent study had the same results as the previous one |
| D．watching a video is the best way to reduce one’s stress |
From the last paragraph, we can conclude that .
| A．text messaging has the same effect on oxytocin release as telephoning |
| B．the effect of a mother's voice on oxytocin in animals is still not known |
| C．the effect of communication on stress is unique to humans |
| D．the research has been applied to social behavior and evolutionary biology |