ThisistheBBCNewsatEightO’Clock-优题课

During the last century we have moved from the Industrial Age through the Information Age to the Knowledge Age. The ability to obtain and apply the right knowledge effectively will become a key skill in the next century. Our ability will no longer be judged only by knowledge gained in the past, but will also be measured by our ability to learn and adapt in the future.
Learning isn’t just about economic success, however. It is the key to achieving our full potential(潜能,潜力). Human beings are particularly adapted to learn and we have the ability to do so throughout our lives.
Learning has the power to change us. Specifically, we can become more successful. Learning can enable us to solve problems and change our attitudes. It makes us more interesting to be with. It can be enormous fun. It can also be very challenging.
We all have the ability, at any age, to change our lives through learning. Our survival in the twenty-first century as individuals, organizations and nations, will depend on our ability to learn. A learning population is healthier, more tolerant(容忍的,宽容的), independent and fulfilled. Learning can take place in a range of styles: anytime, anywhere, anyhow.
None of us learn in isolation(隔绝,孤立). There are a whole range of factors that can affect us in learning. The key factors affecting people’s learning include: ●their resources ●their image of learning ●the rewards associated with any learning activity ●the availability of information about learning opportunities ●the climate created by government and employers in which learning takes place
What is the most important skill in the next century according to the passage?

A．Knowledge we obtained in the past.

B．Computer skill.

C．The ability to obtain and apply knowledge.

D．Foreign language.

What is the most important purpose of learning?

A．To succeed economically.

B．To achieve in life.

C．To solve problems.

D．To achieve our full potential.

In many ways learning has the power to transform us, so which of the following does NOT belong to the ways?

A．We can have a longer life.

B．We can become more successful through learning.

C．We can be more open-minded.

D．We can be more agreeable.

Which of the following proverbs can best go with the fourth paragraph?

A．Learning makes a good man better and an ill man worse.

B．It’s never too late to learn.

C．Reading makes a full man.

D．Knowledge is power.

Everyone has got two personalities—the one that is shown to the world and the other that is secret and real. You don’t show your secret personality when you are awake because you can control your behavior, but when you are asleep, your sleeping position shows the real you. In a normal night, of course, people frequently change their positions. The important position is the one that you go to sleep in.
If you go to sleep on your back, you’re a very open person. You normally trust people and you are easily influenced by fashion or new ideas. You don’t like to displease people. So you never express your real feelings. You’re quite shy and you aren’t quite sure of yourself.
If you sleep on your stomach, you are a rather secretive person. You worry a lot and you’re always easily upset. You always stick to your own opinions or judgment, but you don’t raise your hope too much. You usually live for today not tomorrow. This means that you enjoy having a good time.
If you sleep curled up, you are probably a very nervous person. You have a low opinion of yourself and so you’re often defensive. You’re shy and you don’t normally like meeting people. You prefer to be on your own. You’re easily hurt.
If you sleep on your side, you have usually got a well—balanced personality. You know your strengths and weaknesses. You’re usually careful. You believe in yourself. You sometimes feel anxious, but you don’t often get sad. You always say what you think even if it makes people rather angry.
According to the passage, a person, who is not willing to change his mind and hard to deal with, probably sleeps ___.

A．on his side

B．on his back

C．curled up

D．on his stomach

If a person prefers to sleep curled up rather than on his back, he may be well content to ____.

A．do things personally.	B．stay alone
C．keep things secret	D．trust others easily

What the author mainly intends to tell us is that _______.

A．one’s sleeping position has something to do with one’s character.

B．everyone has got both real and secret personalities.

C．the position in which one goes to sleep is the most important one.

D．when awake, one does not show one’s secret personality.

Less TV Reduce Kids Weight
PALO AITO, California—“Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter—even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise,” US researchers said last week.
A study of 192 third and fourth grades, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds （0.91 kg） less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.
“The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity,” said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician （儿科专家）at Stanford University.
“ American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years,” Robinson said.
In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third.
Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continue their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet nor took part in any extra exercise.
“One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around and burning off calories,” Robinson said.
“Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more,” Robinson added.
The author tries to tell us in the first two paragraphs that ____.

A．children will get fatter if they eat too much.

B．children will get thinner if they eat less.

C．children will get fatter if they spend less time watching TV.

D．children will get fatter if they spend more time watching TV.

According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV ____.

A．is more than four hours a day.	B．is less than four hours a day.
C．doubled in the last twenty years.	D．is more than on any other activities.

Which of the following is right ?

A．Children usually eat fewer while watching TV.

B．Children usually eat more while watching TV.

C．Children eat the same amount of meals while watching TV.

D．Children usually eat nothing while watching TV.

Why can watching TV increase kids’ weight according to the passage ?

A．They usually eat more while watching TV.

B．They burn off fewer calories.

C．They change their diet while watching TV.

D．Both A and B

SHANGHAI - Health experts in Shanghai are calling for more protection for young children as the latest research shows about half of the youngsters are suffering from secondhand smoke.
About 45 percent of children suffer passive smoking in families, 50 percent in public places, and almost 6 percent on public transportation, shows a research released by the Shanghai Children's Medical Center on Tuesday.
"Not only adults but also children and newborn babies are at risk for the adverse effects of passive smoking," said Tang Jingyan, a doctor at the Shanghai Children's Medical Center.
"Actually, those young children whose bodies are still growing and developing are more sensitive to the effects of secondhand smoke."
Research has shown that children who are exposed to secondhand smoke will suffer from more colds, coughs and sore throats, and they are more likely to suffer from bronchitis, pneumonia and will have a higher risk of developing cancer.
Doctors even suggested that children suffering passive smoking are more likely to have behavioral problems and may not develop mentally as quickly as their peers．
Other research by the Shanghai Children's Medical Center has found that more than 80 percent of child patients in the center live in a smoke-filled household, where one or both parents smoke．
"Though doctors have stressed the harm of passive smoking over and over, it is still hard to reach a totally 'smoke free' home," said a pediatrician named Zhang Yiwen, noting that parents are often tempted to smoke even though they have learned the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
China has 540 million people suffering from passive smoke, 180 million of them younger than 15．The age of smokers is also getting lower, earlier reports said.
"There are more young smokers than before．You can see young people wearing a school uniform and carrying a schoolbag light a cigarette on the street．Some of them are even female students," said Jing Xingming, a professor of children's developmental behavior at the center.
"Children like to imitate adults, especially their parents．If parents often smoke at home, it is very likely children will develop a smoking habit, which can cause a vicious circle," Jin said.
Reports from the Ministry of Health said China has about 350 million smokers, of whom 15 million are underage smokers．Also, around 40 million of the country's 130 million children aged between 13 and 18 had tried smoking, and 15 million had become addicted to tobacco.
What is the main idea of the passage?

A．About half of the youngsters are suffering from secondhand smoke.

B．Experts are calling for more protection for youngsters from smoking.

C．More and more youngsters are picking up the habit of smoking.

D．Smoking does great harm to the health of the youngsters.

What kind of the youngsters most possibly develop a habit of smoking?

A．Children of non-smoking mothers.	B．Children of non-smoking fathers.
C．Children of heavy smokers.	D．Children from some smoking centers.

Which of the following disease may not be connected with secondhand smoking?

A．Cancer.

B．Behavioral problems.

C．Sore throats.

D．Coughs.

The underlined word “vicious” in the last paragraph but one most probably means ___________.

A．complete

B．simple

C．great

D．bad

What can be inferred from the passage?

A．About 80% of the children in the Shanghai Children's Medical Center smoke heavily.

B．About 45 percent of children suffer passive smoking in

the Shanghai Children's Medical Center.

C．About 540 million people are heavy smokers in China.

D．Children aged between 13 to 18 are more likely addicted to smoking.

Swedish master medical photographer Lennart Nilsson is a pioneer in medical photography．In association with researchers and with the help of advanced, specially designed equipment, he has documented the inside of man down to the level of a cell with his camera.
Born in Strängnäs, a satellite city of Stockholm, in 1922, Nilsson got his first camera from his father when he was 11 years old．From the early stage, he has been interested in looking at ants and taking photos of them.Throughout the years, he has devoted special attention to capturing the creation of a human being, from conception to birth.
In 2006 when his photo book Life was published in both Swedish and English, he was invited to give a lecture at the Stockholm bookstore．He vividly described to the public how he took the photos so that the development process of the embryo can be understood better．Finally when he was signing his name in the book, I asked him what made him so passionate about working on this, he stopped writing and thought for a second, “I think it is the respect for life,” Nilsson said.
Nilsson began his career as a photographic journalist in the middle of the 1940s and published a number of photo-essays in Swedish and foreign magazines, including "Polar Bear Hunting in Spitzbergen" (1947) and Midwife.
“When I went to the professor to take the embryo photo, I was looking around and then I saw something which was unbelievable, it was a tiny human embryo lies in a very special place, a 10-20 millimeter embryo with hands, arms and eyes, and I got a shock,” Nilsson said.
Nilsson began experimenting with new photographic techniques in the mid-1950s to report on the world of ants and life in the sea．His revealing macro-studies were published in his book on ants, Myror (1959), and in the Life in the Sea (1959), and in Close to Nature (1984)．In the 1960s special designed, very slim endoscopes (内窥镜))made it possible for him to photograph the blood vessels and the cavities (空洞) of the body with the necessary depth of field and, in 1970, he used a scanning electron microscope for the first time, he was also considered the pioneer for three dimension digital pictures of the body organs.
After his photographs of human embryo were published, he was encouraged to continue photographing the origins of human being.
Nilsson is very modest and sincere．At age of nearly 88, he is still cooperating with colleagues in Karolinska Institute where the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is selected every year.
“He can forget all the other things when he is working and he is still working diligently,” Mrs Nilsson told People’s Daily Online.
Why does Nilsson want to document the creation of a human being?