It is easy for many people to catch a cold in the springtime or fall. It makes us wonder if scientists can send a man to the moon, why can’t they find a cure for the common cold? The answer is easy. There are actually hundreds of kinds of cold viruses out there. You never know which one you will get, so there isn’t a cure for each one.
When a virus attacks your body, your body works hard to get rid of it. Blood rushes to your nose and cause a block in it. You feel terrible because you can’t breathe well, but your body is actually eating the virus. Your temperature goes up and you get a fever, but the heat of your body is killing the virus. You also have a runny nose to stop the virus from getting into your cells. You may feel very uncomfortable, but actually your wonderful body is doing everything it can to kill the cold.
Different people do different things to deal with colds. In the United States and some other countries, for example, people might eat chicken soup to make themselves feel better. Some people take hot baths and drink warm liquids. Other people take medicine to stop various symptoms (症状) of colds.
There is one interesting thing to note —some scientists say taking medicines when you have a cold is actually bad for you. The virus stays in you longer because your body doesn’t have a way to fight it and kill it. Bodies can do an amazing job on their own. There is a joke, however, on taking medicine when you have a cold. It goes like this:
It takes about one week to get over a cold if you don’t take medicine, but it takes only seven days to get over a cold if you take medicine.
| Title |
How Much You Know About the Common Cold |
| Introduction |
◆People catch a cold 61. in spring or fall. ◆A 62. of cold viruses exist everywhere. ◆It is hard to find a cure for each cold. |
| The symptoms of the common cold |
◆The body’s blood as well as its temperature 63. , causing a fever. ◆You will find that you have some difficulty 64. . ◆You have a runny nose, which makes you feel miserable. |
| Some 65. of dealing with the common cold |
◆Drinking chicken soup to help you 66. . ◆Taking hot baths and drinking warm 67. ________. ◆Taking some medicine. |
| 68. by some scientists |
◆Taking medicine when having a cold will do 69. to the body. ◆Taking medicine or not will take you one week to 70. the common cold. |
After a year of being prepared, Laura Dekker can’t wait to set sail .Last August ,the Dutch government decided that Laura Dekker was too young to take on the challenge of sailing around the world alone. But after a year of preparing herself , Laura has been allowed to sail.
”I was so happy I almost jump into the water,” Laura said , after learning of the court’s judgement. She was born on a yacht(游艇) in the South Pacific ,and now lives with her father in a boat. When Dutch child protection groups first heard about her plan to sail alone , they stopped her from doing so .
Since the decision, though, Laura had been preparing with her father to persuade the courts that she was ready. Last week she received the books and other materials she would need for school while she was at sea. She added safety equipment to a new, big ship. And she took her first aid course to learn several survival skills, like how to put out fires on the boat, take care of her own injuries and deal with lack of sleep. She also planned a safer course --- adding alternate routes(备用路径) to avoid pirate(海盗) attacks, and planning a course that would have her on dry land as she moved from port to port across the world.
Laura is using a larger and more safer boat. If she finished successfully in less than two years, she will take the title from current record-holder Jessica Watson, of Australia, who was 16 when she completed the journey.Why didn’t the Dutch government allow Laura Dekker to sail alone ?
| A．She was too old to take care of herself |
| B．She was too young to sail alone. |
| C．She was not well prepared |
| D．It would cause trouble to the government. |
It can be inferred that Laura’s sailing plan was first ______.
| A．not allowed by her father and mother |
| B．supported by her father and mother |
| C．not allowed by Dutch child protection groups |
| D．supported by Dutch child protection groups |
When Laura is at sea ,she might _____.
| A．learn some lessons by herself |
| B．learn some lessons with the help of her father |
| C．stop her school lessons for some time |
| D．not learn any lessons of her schooling |
According to the passage , Laura made good preparations in the following EXCEPT _____.
A, struggling against sharks
B. learning knowledge in first aid
C. improving the yacht
D. improving herself with survival skills
When I was 16 years old, I made my first visit to the United States. It wasn’t the first time I had been abroad. Like most English children, I learnt French at school and I had often been to France, so I was used to speaking a foreign language to people who didn’t understand English. But when I went to America I was really looking forward to having a nice easy holiday without any language problems.
How wrong I was! The misunderstanding began at the airport. I was looking for a public telephone to give my American friend Danny a ring and tell her that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking like being lost and asked if he could help me.
“Yes,”I said.“I want to give my friend a ring.”
“Well, that’s nice,”he exclaimed (惊呼).“Are you getting married? But aren’t you a bit young？”
“Who is talking about marriage?” I replied. “I just want to give my friend a ring to tell her I’ve arrived. Can you tell me where there’s a phone box?”
“Oh!”he said.“There’s a phone downstairs.”
When at last we did meet up, Danny explained the misunderstanding to me.“Don’t worry,” she said to me.“I had many difficulties at first. There are lots of words which the Americans use differently in meaning from us British. You’ll soon get used to all the funny things they say. But most of the time British and American people can understand each other!”Where was the writer from? _____.
| A．America | B．France |
| C．England | D．China |
When the writer arrived at the airport, he wanted to _____.
| A．buy a ring for his friend |
| B．make a call to his friend |
| C．ask the way to his friend’s |
| D．go to the telephone company |
From the passage we can see that “give somebody a ring ”___
| A．has two different meanings |
| B．means “call somebody” for the old man |
| C．means “be going to get married ”in England |
| D．has the same meaning in American as in England |
Which sentence is wrong according to the passage?
A. The writer’s friend, Danny had a lot of difficulties in the U.S.A. at first.
B. There are some differences between American and British English.
C. British people can’t understand the Americans most of the time.
D. British and American people can understand each other most of the time.
Joe Bloggs always had a cigarette on his lips. He smoked while he read, while he watched TV, and while he drank a cup of coffee. He smoked forty cigarettes a day, but he was happy.
Joe’s friend, Fred Brown, said to him, “It is very bad to smoke”. When Joe heard this , he started to worry and became so thin that he went to Fred for help.
Fred said , “You must eat more”. O Joe did not smoke , but he ate chocolate , and he became very fat. Again he went to Fred for help.
Fred said , “ You must not eat chocolate”. So Joe stopped eating chocolate , but he went back to smoking cigarettes. He became thin again but he was not happy, because he still smoked.
Sometimes Joe Bloggs wished Fred Brown was not his friend!When Joe became thin the first time it was because_____.
| A．he smoked too much | B．he worried too much |
| C．he stopped smoking | D．he ate too little |
The following sentences tell what happened to Joe.Which is the right order of the events?
a.He did not smoke , he ate chocolate , he was fat, he was unhappy.
b.He smoked , he did not eat chocolate, he was thin , he was unhappy.
c.He smoked , he did not eat chocolate , he was not fat , he was happy
| A．a, b, c | B．c, b, a |
| C．b, a, c | D．c, a, b |
In the end Joe was unhappy about his friendship with Fred because___
| A．Fred had given him the wrong advice on purpose. |
| B．he never liked being told what to do |
| C．he in fact had never really understood what Fred meant |
| D．Fred’s advice had brought him much trouble |
What is the writer trying to tell us with this story?
| A．Chocolate is bad for one’s health. |
| B．One should ask friends for help and advice |
| C．Smoking is bad for one’s health |
| D．One should think and decide for oneself |
Try imagining what the world will be like in the year 3000. Some serious thinkers are starting to imagine just that.
Bart: I don’t know that present-day electronic chips are, but some sort of chips — I’d guess maybe plastic. Our three-pound brain is definitely a wonder, perhaps the greatest wonder of natural biology. In this coming century, we’ll be re-engineering the brain a piece at a time, first with implants（植入物） and finally engineering an complete replacement. There’s no question that in the distant future we’ll play the music of the mind on instruments different from the current ones. So, yes, chips are our destiny (命运).
Edward: In 3000 perhaps the biggest difference from today is that there will be no more men. Females can have female children, without any need for men. In about ten years, we’ll find the cocktail that women can take to have female children. There’ll be no need for men at all.
Greg: What is Heaven? Heaven’s a place where you can create worlds at will, and the ideal Heaven is where you run the whole thing yourself. The current means of getting to Heaven involve various supernatural systems for which, at this point, there’s no scientific evidence. So I think we can reduce Heaven to an engineering project which we’re doing. The demand for Heaven is great—witness the desire of every human heart, from the people who built the ancient pyramids to modern society, to live beyond one’s given time. Our plan is to change human consciousness from the brain to bits of information in a computer chip, or some other kind of computational medium, so that just by thinking we’ll be able to create our own personal world. And I think the first stage of Heaven will be the feeling world, and beyond that I think we’d find a higher, more spiritual plane.According to Bart, the brain may be the greatest wonder in the future because _______.
| A．it may weigh as much as 3 pounds |
| B．it may be driven by plastic chips |
| C．it may be replaced by robots |
| D．it may play the music of the mind |
What does Bart refer to by saying “chips are our destiny”?
| A．Chips are our last choice in the future. |
| B．Chips are on the way to controlling mind. |
| C．Chips are the production of future technology. |
| D．Chips are the implants in the distant future. |
In 3000, what about the population of the world?
| A．It will be all made up of females. |
| B．It will be larger than that of present. |
| C．It will mainly consists of children. |
| D．It will be reduced by a drink of cocktail. |
According to Greg, Heaven in the future is a place where ________.
| A．your scientific idea exists |
| B．you have once traveled |
| C．your own thought travels |
| D．your material world is formed |
Why do we call the sounds of birds, whales and insects songs? Because something about what we hear seems to have beauty, and some mellifluous (动听的) structure that touches us more than any possible message. Though for many years science has cautioned against hearing too much of what we humans would like to hear when we are trying to understand animal sounds, the musicality in some sounds is now starting to have an effect on the science of animal communication itself.
Many specific animal sounds express aggression(进攻), warning, or food, but such practical explanations are tough to apply to the long songs. Some whale songs can go on for up to 24 hours. The usual explanation for birdsong is that the birds are singing to attract mates or to announce the limits of their area. But the audience is not always evident for these long love songs, which have many of the elements related to human music: rhythm, melody (旋律), themes, repeating patterns, organization, variety, interest — all adding up to something humans have found beautiful for thousands of years. “Birds taught man,” wrote Roman poet and philosopher (哲学家) Lucretius, “and taught them songs before their art began.”
What is the scientific value of such sounds? The advantage of hearing music in nature and trying to reach out to nature through music is that though we don’t fully understand it, it is so accessible.
Music refuses explanation, but it clearly expresses something deep and important, which humans can’t live without. Finding music in the sound of birds, whales and other animals makes the farther frontiers(边缘) of nature see much closer to us.The underlined phrase “cautioned against” in Paragraph 1 probably means “_______”.
| A．warned against |
| B．fought against |
| C．been filled with |
| D．been satisfied with |
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
| A．We call the songs of birds’ sounds because there is beauty that sounds pleasant to the ears. |
| B．It is believed that birds are singing to attract mates or to warn the limits of their areas. |
| C．The songs of a bird really carry an emotional message such as “aggression and caring”. |
| D．It is not very long for people to know that birdsong does have something beautiful. |
By saying “Birds taught man”, what did Lucretius mean?
| A．People teach rhythm, melody, themes, repeating patterns to birds. |
| B．Birds can teach people how to go on singing a song up to 24 hours. |
| C．Human music has, in fact, come from the sounds of birds in nature. |
| D．Humans learned something beautiful from the sounds of many animals. |
From the passage we know that music in nature ________.
| A．can’t be explained at all |
| B．is very easy to pick up and listen to |
| C．can’t be understood at all |
| D．is of no scientific value |