People being tested for radiation exposure
The crisis at the damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Station in northern Japan has raised worries about radiation risks. We spoke Tuesday with Jonathan Links, an expert in radiation health sciences. He is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland.
Professor Links says workers within the nuclear plant are the only people at risk of extremely high doses of radiation.
JONATHAN LINKS: "Of course, we don't know what doses they've received, but the only persons at risk of acute radiation effects are the workers."
For other people, he says, there may be a long-term worry. People can get cancer from low doses of ionizing radiation, the kind released in a nuclear accident.
Professor Links says scientists can use computers to quickly model where radioactive material has blown and settled. Then they measure how large an area is contaminated. He says if the situation is serious enough, officials could take steps like telling people not to eat locally grown food or drink the water.
JONATHAN LINKS: "But that would only be the case if there was a significant release and, because of wind direction, the radioactive material was blown over the area, and then settled out of the air into and onto water, plants, fruits and vegetables."
The reactors at Fukushima are on the Pacific coast. But Professor Links says people should not worry about any radioactive material leaking into the ocean.
JONATHAN LINKS: "Even in a worst-case scenario accident, the sea provides a very high degree of dilution. So the concentration of radioactivity in the seawater would still be quite low."
Japan is the only country to have had atomic bombs dropped on it. That memory from World War Two would create a stronger "psychological sensitivity" to radiation exposure, Professors Links says.
Next month is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the explosion and fire that destroyed a reactor at Chernobyl in Ukraine. The nineteen eighty-six event was the world's worst accident in the nuclear power industry.
A new United Nations report says more than six thousand cases of thyroid cancer have been found. These are in people who were children in affected areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The report says that by two thousand five the cancers had resulted in fifteen deaths.
The cancers were largely caused by drinking contaminated milk. The milk came from cows that ate grass where radioactive material had fallen.
To get the latest updates, go to www.unsv.com.
Contributing: James BrookeThe passage mainly tells us __________.
| A.What measures the Japan Government takes to solve the nuclear crisis . |
| B.Worries and influences caused by the nuclear crisis . |
| C.With great efforts of scientists , the Japan Government has put the nuclear crisis under control . |
| D.To explain that the nuclear crisis has less effect on its neighboring countries. |
Which of the following is NOT the influences caused by the leak of Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Station?
| A.Workers at the nuclear station are suffering the risk of death . |
| B.People can get cancer from low doses of ionizing radiation, the kind released in a nuclear accident. |
| C.The radioactive material may be blown over the area causing the pollution to water . |
| D.The concentration of radioactivity in the seawater can not be diluted. |
What’s the meaning of the underlined word “dilution”?
| A.chemical | B.salt | C.dissolution | D.elimination |
According to the passage which of the following is not TRUE ?
| A.Water people drink ,food and vegetables people eat may be polluted by nuclear radiation . |
| B.Japan is the only country to have had atomic bombs dropped on it. |
| C.You can go to www.unsv.com. to get the latest news . |
| D.The nuclear accident in Japan is the worst in the nuclear power industry. |
Having one of those days—or weeks—when everything seems to annoy you? Even if you do nothing about it, your bad mood(心情) will probably go away after some time. But with a little effort, you can forget it much faster—often within a day or two.
Walk it off
Exercise is the most popular badmood buster. A person who's in a bad mood has low energy and high tension. Taking a fast tenminute walk, or doing some quick exercises can do wonders towards changing the bad mood.
Tune it out
Listening to your favorite music for a while can also make tension go away quickly, because music starts connection with past positive experiences we've had.
Give yourself a pep talk
Stop and listen to what's on your mind. Bad moods are often started by too many negative thoughts. Write them all down on paper, the pessimistic(悲观的) messages you've been giving yourself, and then give optimistic answers. (“I still don't have a job.” vs “I have two interviews next week.”)
Reduce your stress
Relaxation techniques are wonderful moodlifters. These include deep breathing, stretching and visualizing, all of which sound complicated(复杂的) but aren't. One easy way to visualize: close your eyes and picture a favorite place, such as the beach. Another simple way to distress is to make a todo list. One reason for being in a bad mood is feeling you have no options. By taking control over certain areas, you realize you're not helpless. You can make changes in your mood and life.
Avoid things that won't improve your mood
TV may not help much: you need to increase your energy level and stimulate(刺激) your mind—something that the TV show “Neighbors” won't do. And before you reach for that piece of cake and coffee, think about how mood and food are linked. Sugar and caffeine contribute to depressed moods. The better choice? Research shows that carbohydrates, such as potatoes and pasta(面食), produce calming effects in people who have a desire for them.Which of the following may help us stop a bad mood?
| A.Doing nothing about it. |
| B.Exercising and enjoying music. |
| C.Writing down negative thoughts. |
| D.Talking about it with neighbors. |
Why is it suggested that you close your eyes and picture the beach?
| A.It helps remove bad mood. |
| B.It brings us a new technique. |
| C.It is not complicated to do so. |
| D.It is an area to be easily controlled. |
TV may not improve your mood because it ________.
| A.shows what happens around you |
| B.does not energize you |
| C.reminds you of eating and drinking |
| D.produces a calming effect |
Which would be the best title for this passage?
| A.Energy Level and Stress |
| B.How to Beat a Bad Mood |
| C.Bad Mood and Our Life |
| D.How to Control Your Feeling |
As you grow rapidly through your teenage years,you will experience a lot of changes.The changes may seem difficult and they may seem to happen quickly.Don't panic!You will deal successfully with them!You are a young adult now!
With more responsibility,you will find more freedom to make your own choices.This is a time to be well informed about your choices so that you can make healthy balanced decisions that will help shape your future.You may already know your career path or you may have no idea at all what you want to do.Both situations are fine!Work hard and the right opportunity will present itself to you.
Young adulthood means greater freedom and more choices.You will probably want to be independent.But try not to shut your family out of your life.You should learn to think of others even though you are old enough to look after yourself.Your family have been with you since you came into this world.
It is also perfectly natural in this time for you to spend more time with your friends than your family.Choose your friends wisely.A true friend will stand by you no matter what happens.
This period is part of the life cycle.There are some__people who will be with you throughout life's journey and there will be some people with whom you part and go separate ways.Leaving school can be hard.The reality is that you may not ever see all of your classmates again.
You are a young adult.It is your life.No one can live it for you.The choices that you make from now on will be your choices.So making the right choices will be important to you.Life is for living.Enjoy your life wisely!The best title for this passage would be ________.
| A.The Choices in Life | B.The Key to Success |
| C.Say Goodbye to the Past | D.Becoming a Young Adult |
Who do the underlined words“some people”(Paragraph 5)probably refer to?
| A.your parents | B.your classmates | C.true friends | D.your relatives |
The author thinks teenage years are ________.
| A.a period of complete freedom |
| B.too hard for young people to get through |
| C.an important time for the young to make the right choices |
| D.a very important period for young students to leave their parents |
Who is the passage mainly written for?
| A.Teenagers | B.Teachers | C.Young parents | D.Adults |
When several different people look at the same person, it is not unusual for each of them to see different things; when you alone observe one behavior or one person at two different times, you may see different things. The following are but some of the factors that lead to these varying perceptions (感知,认知):
(1)Each person’s perceptions of others are formed by his or her own cultural conditioning education, and personal experiences.
(2) Sometimes perceptions differ because of what we choose to observe and how we deal with what we’ve observed. It is not necessarily true that person perception is based on observations of a particular person. Your observations may be totally controlled by what others have told you about this person; or you may focus (聚焦) primarily on the situation or role relationship. Most people do not use the same yardstick (标准) to measure their parents, their friends, and strangers.
(3) Sometimes we see only what we want to see or don’t see what may be obvious to others because of out own needs, desires, or temporary emotional states. This is a process known as selective perception. Selective perception is obviously more difficult when contradictory (矛盾的) information is particularly obvious, but it can be done. We can ignore (忽视) the stimulus- “He’s basically a good boy so what I saw was not shoplifting. ”
We can reduce the importance of the contradictory information- “All kids (孩子) get into mischief (顽皮) . Taking a book from the bookstore isn’t such a big deal. ” We can change the meaning of the contradictory information-”It wasn’t shoplifting because he was going to pay for it later.”…The first factor given by the author that affects our perception is _____.
| A.the abilities of one’s auditory (听) and visual (视) sensors |
| B.cultural background and personal experiences |
| C.experiences one learns from others |
| D.critical measures taken by other people |
While observing a particular person, ______.
| A.one is likely to take all aspects (方面) into consideration |
| B.one pays more attention to his/her advantages |
| C.children often differ from grown-ups in perception |
| D.one tends to choose certain cues (提示) to look for |
Observation of the same person by two people at the same time may differ because ______.
| A.their measuring yardsticks are not the same |
| B.either of them may be slow to catch information |
| C.the time for observation is not long enough |
| D.each of them uses different language to express his/her impressions |
The word “stimulus ” in paragraph 4 refers to ______.
| A.something attractive | B.selective perception |
| C.contradictory information | D.shoplifting |
There were two interesting pieces of news items in the paper a few years ago. One was about a man who received a bill from the telephone company for $ 2,000 a month for doing nothing.
The connection between the two news items is simple; computers-the best invention of the 20th century. The telephone bill came from a computer which made a terrifying mistake; that man’s bill was only $ 23.26. The other item was not as amusing. A man walked into the unguarded computer room of a large packaged food company and expertly programmed the computer to pay him $ 2,000 a month for raw meat which he “supplied ” to the company. Of course he never sent the meat, but he certainly received the money . The computer wrote out a bill, and even “signed ” it. It was only a random (随便) check that uncovered the trick. It could be happening in thousands of other companies all over the world.
Computers are not the magical workers that some people say they are. They make mistakes, they’re sometimes slower than human beings and they’re easily fooled.
The US used to conscript (征兵) people with the help of a computer. The army sent out a card, which had to be filled in and sent back. It was easy to avoid being called up simply by spreading candle-wax(腊) on the card. The computer couldn’t read the card, and did nothing with it.
It’s in our everyday life that computers cause many problems. Let’s get back to using people instead of computers, before a mistake that we can’t put right.In the first paragraph we can conclude ______.
| A.the paper is telling a lie | B.the first sentence is the topic sentence |
| C.the two news items made people surprised | |
| D.if a man did nothing at all for the telephone company, he would still get $2,000 a month |
The main idea of the second paragraph is _______.
| A.the computers are magical workers |
| B.the computers can do anything as well as man |
| C.the computers can write out the bill and even sign it |
| D.the computers sometimes also make mistakes |
Computers ______.
| A.were used to conscript people | B.are usually faster than human beings |
| C.are not so magical as people expect | |
| D.were not easily controlled and always fooled human beings |
The writer thinks _______.
| A.we’d better use people instead of computers in our everyday life |
| B.we should not use computers because they always make mistakes |
| C.computers are widely used in our everyday life |
| D.if we want to work well, don’t use the computers |
There are two types of twins; identical and non-identical twins. Identical twins are formed from a single egg in mother’s body which divides to from two separate babies. Identical twins look the same, and are often dressed by their parents in clothes of the same colors. It is often difficult to tell identical twins from each other, even when they are standing side by side. Non-identical twins come into being when the mother produces two separated eggs a the same time, both of which grow to form babies. In this case the twins look like normal brothers and sisters and are easy to tell one from the other.
In the 1970s and 1980s a scientist did some research into twins. He invited many pairs of identical twins to university and asked them to take part in a week of tests. He was particularly interested in adopted (收养) twins who had been separated at birth. He would give the twins different kinds of tests to study their speed of thinking, their speech, their memory, the ways they saw and heard different things, and so on. Time and time again he found separated twins who preferred clothes of the same color, used the same kind of shaving soap, wore the same shaped square glasses and the same colored socks.
There is a third type of twins, but it is a very unusual one. Twins which are joined together at birth are known in western countries as Siamese twins.It is difficult to tell identical twins apart because _______.
| A.they are dressed in the same clothes | B.they are dressed in the same color |
| C.they are very alike | D.they are standing side by side |
If the twins are easy to tell from each other, they are ______.
| A.very probably non-identical twins | B.surely identical twins |
| C.surely identical twins | D.always a brother and a sister |
Which of the following is NOT true according to this passage?
| A.In the 1970s and 1980s a scientist did some research into the two main types of twins. |
| B.In the week of tests, he tested their speed of thinking, their speech, their memory and some other things. |
| C.There were twins who had been separated from each other as soon as they were born. |
| D.Very often, separated twins were found to choose things of the same kind, the same shape and the same color. |
This passage mainly tells us _______.
| A.the main types of twins | B.what has been found out about twins |
| C.how twins are formed | D.how a scientist studied twins |