When you get in your car, you reach for it. When you're at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it.
Cigarette? Cup of coffee? No, it's the third most addictive thing in modem life, the cell phone. And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their longing to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships.
The costs are becoming more and more evident, and I don't mean just the monthly bill. Dr. Chris Knippers, a counselor at the Betty ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality. Sounds extreme, but we' ve all witnessed the evidence: The person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him. Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell - phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation. He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with. Despite the growing use of phones, e - mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don't have as many friends as our parents. " Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends," he says.
If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it's because it has become very widespread. Consider that in 1987, there were only l million cell phones in use. Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them. They far outnumber wired phones in the United States. From the first two paragraphs, we can know________.
| A．cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes |
| B．cell phone addiction is good for building personal relationships |
| C．people are longing to have their own cell phones |
| D．cell phones are the same as cigarettes |
Cell phone addiction has caused the following effects EXCEPT________ .
| A．a barrier to personal contact | B．fewer friends |
| C．an escape from reality | D．a serious illness |
The underlined word "curb" in Paragraph 2 means “________. ”
| A．ignore | B．control | C．develop | D．rescue |
The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that________ .
| A．women Use cell phones more often than men |
| B．talking on the phone while driving is dangerous |
| C．cell phones do not necessarily bring people together |
| D．cell phones make one - on - one personal contact easy |
Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
| A．Cell phones Are the New Cigarettes |
| B．Cell phones Are Harmful to the Society |
| C．The New Report about the Cell phone |
| D．The Disadvantages of the Cell phone |
Parents might tell older children to “Act your age”. But some researchers say that is what persons from thirteen to nineteen years old are doing. While teenagers can look all grown up, studies have shown that their brains are still developing. How much this explains their behavior, though, is a subject of debate.
Jay Giedd of America’s National Institutes of Health is a leader in this area of research. Doctor Giedd has been studying a group of young people since 1991. They visit him every two years for imaging tests of their brains. He says considerable development continues in young people from the teenage years into the twenties.
A part of the brain called the dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex appears especially undeveloped in teenagers. Researchers believe that this area controls judgment and consideration of risk. So, its underdevelopment may explain why young people seem more willing to take risks like driving too fast.
Laurence Steinberg is a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. He says stronger laws and stronger parental control are needed to protect teens from themselves. That includes raising the age for driving. He says research shows that teenage brains are not fully equipped to control behavior.
Other researchers, however, say there is not enough evidence to make a strong case for such findings. Psychologist Robert Epstein is a visiting scholar at the University of California in San Diego. Mr. Epstein notes that teen behavior differs from culture to culture. He says behavior depends for the most part on socialization. He believes that teenagers will demonstrate(表明) better, safer behavior if they spend more time with adults, and are treated more like them.
But is that always true? Mike Males works at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco. He suggests that all of this talk lately about brainless teens could be an attempt to take away attention from the reality. Writing in the New York Times, he says it is middle-aged adults whose behavior has worsened. In his words, if grown-ups really have superior brains, why don’t we act as if we do?If your parents ask you to act your age, they really mean to advise that you __________.
| A．behave yourself |
| B．take care of yourself |
| C．make yourself at home |
| D．do everything on your own |
Why do young people seem more willing to take adventures?
| A．Because they can all look grown up in that way. |
| B．Because their dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex appears undeveloped. |
| C．Because some researchers have been studying and encouraging them. |
| D．Because stronger laws and stronger parental control protect them |
Which of the following is TRUE about teenagers?
| A．Their brains have almost stopped developing. |
| B．Their cultures have influenced their behavior more or less. |
| C．The behavior of brainless teens has drawn a lot more attention. |
| D．Staying more often with adults makes things even worse. |
It can be inferred from the last paragraph that Mike Males _______.
| A．agrees with what Robert Epstein says |
| B．keeps silent about the subject of debate |
| C．is a leader in this area of research |
| D．has the opinion of his own |
The passage is written mainly to tell people that __________.
| A．development continues in young people from the teens into the twenties |
| B．teenagers’ behavior differs from culture to culture |
| C．there is still a debate between researchers about people’s behaviors |
| D．the talk about brainless teens could take away attention from governments |
Three boys and three girls boarded a bus to Lauderdale, Florida, dreaming of golden beaches. When the bus passed through New Jersey, they began to notice Vingo, who sat in front of them, dressed in a plain, ill-fitting suit.
Deep into the night, the bus pulled into Howard Johnson Restaurant, and everybody got off except Vingo. He sat rooted in his seat, and the young people began to wonder: perhaps he was a sea captain, a runaway from his wife, an old soldier going home.
Shortly after a snack, they went back to the bus and one of the girls sat beside him and introduced herself.
After a while, slowly and painfully, he told his story. He had been in prison in New York for the past four years. Last week he was released from imprisonment and now going home.
“When in prison I wrote to my wife,” he said. “I told her that I was going to be away a long time, and that if she couldn’t stand it, she could just forget me; I’d understand. We used to live in Brunswick, and there’s a big oak tree just as you come into town. Last week, I wrote her again. I told her that if she’d take me back, she should put a yellow handkerchief on the tree, and I’d get off and come home. If she didn’t want me, forget it and I’d go on through.”
She told the others, and soon all of them were in it, waiting for the approach of the great oak tree. Then, suddenly, all of the young people were up out of their seats, screaming and crying, doing small dances of joy. The oak tree was covered with yellow handkerchiefs, 20 of them, 30 of them, maybe hundreds, a tree that stood like small flags of welcome flying in the wind. As the young people shouted, Vingo rose and made his way to the front of the bus to go home.What attracted the six young people when their bus passed through New Jersey?
| A．The Howard Johnson Restaurant. |
| B．A silent man. |
| C．Golden beaches. |
| D．A well-dressed man |
The young people on the bus try to imagine Vingo may be a person EXCEPT_________.
| A．a sea captain |
| B．an old soldier going home |
| C．an old soldier going home |
| D．a prisoner escaping from prison |
Vingo wrote a letter to his wife again last week to ________.
| A．ask for her forgiveness |
| B．beg her to allow him back home |
| C．tie a yellow handkerchief to the oak tree |
| D．make sure if she was still in love with him |
Why did all the young people shout with joy when they arrived in Brunswick?
| A．They were approaching their destination. |
| B．They were surprised to see so many welcoming people. |
| C．They were sure that Vingo’s wife was expecting him home. |
| D．The oak tree was still standing there welcoming Vingo back home. |
What can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Going home |
| B．Vingo and his wife |
| C．Yellow handkerchiefs |
| D．The relationship between Vingo and the young people |
The disease Ebola is spreading in West Africa. The situation frightens both local citizens and travelers.
There is no vaccine or special treatment. It is difficult to stop Ebola from spreading. It moves easily from person to person. The disease strikes its victims through direct contact with the blood or other fluids from the body of an infected person.
The bodies of victims still contain the virus days after they die. Local traditions and burial and funeral customs also make the sickness hard to control. Doctors say it is important to identify an Ebola case early to prevent others from becoming infected. Patients suffer from high body temperature, bleeding and diarrhea(腹泻).
Only a few prevention measures exist. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. suggest staying away from countries with confirmed Ebola cases. People at increased threat include those working in animal research, health care workers and others caring for patients in the community.
In the past, cases of Ebola have been confirmed in the Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Sudan, and Uganda.
Doctors advise careful protective measures if you must go to an area where Ebola exists.
If Ebola has been identified directly around you, the C.D.C. and W.H.O. strongly suggest wearing protective clothing. Cover your face and hands. Goggles can protect the eyes. Try to remove Ebola germs with cleaners that fight infection.How does the disease Ebola spread? (No more than 16 words)
What makes the sickness hard to control? (No more than 10 words)
What symptoms do the Ebola patients have? (No more than 7 words)
Who are at increased threat according to the passage? (No more than 17 words)
Quickly ask yourself: What did you eat today? Now tell me how you actually feel. If you’re complaining of stress, anxiety, depression, aches and pains, foggy thinking, or just a general lack of energy, a new medical theory will blow your mind. The chances are that those disease-like symptoms are all the result of what’s called hidden food allergies(过敏反应).
This is what Ken Drew found out when he was lucky enough to be recommended to medical practitioner Dr. Patel. Patel is considered something of a genius, and has been called a modern day Louis Pasteur. You’ve heard of him, of course—Pasteur figured out how to keep milk from getting spoiled. Dr. Patel is like a Louis Pasteur for keeping your body from getting spoiled from chronic(慢性的) diseases.
“Foggy thinking, slightly constipated(便秘的), heart pain,…you name it. It’s part of getting old,” you say. “It’s just stress.” Most of the body’s immune defenses are all located in your stomach, so when you have a hidden food allergy and you expose yourself to harmful foods, your defenses malfunction(故障) and disease-carrying bacteria take over. Had you not eaten that one food you were allergic to for breakfast, you would never have got sick.
Together, Dr Patel and Ken Drew have developed the Reverse My Disease program, which claims it can bulletproof your body against diseases like arthritis(关节炎), Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease and cancers. You won’t need a prescription and there isn’t any kind of medical procedure involved. There’s no medical jargon, no complicated diet to do. What it does do is claim to tell you how to hack your body’s natural defense system.
Dr. Patel has remained under the radar of the entire medical establishment because his ideas are so threatening to doctors who don’t want you to stop being sick enough for them to write you prescriptions. Those doctor visits cost you, so check out Reverse My Disease if you want to prevent disease by learning how to eat food that won’t harm your body.We can learn from the passage that Louis Pasteur ________.
| A．made great contributions to keeping human body from getting spoiled from chronic diseases. |
| B．has developed the Reverse My Disease program with Dr. Patel. |
| C．recommended Ken Drew to Dr. Patel. |
| D．might be a great scientist who did research on bacteria. |
According to Ken Drew and Dr. Patel, people get slightly constipated and have heart pain because _______.
| A．they are getting old. |
| B．their immune defenses are all located in your stomach. |
| C．they don’t eat the right food. |
| D．they are involved in a medical procedure. |
What does the underlined word “bulletproof” most probably mean?
| A．damage | B．defend |
| C．diagnose | D．demand |
What can we know from the passage?
| A．Once you get sick or depressed, you should go to the doctor for a prescription. |
| B．You can find a prescription or a complicated diet from the Reverse My Disease program. |
| C．Exposing yourself to harmful foods causes problems to your defense system. |
| D．Reverse My Disease program has been well-accepted by doctors. |
What is the author’s attitude towards Reverse My Disease?
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Cautious. | D．Negative |
Big trees are incredibly important ecologically. For a start, they provide food for countless other species and shelter for many animals. With their tall branches in the sun, they capture vast amounts of energy. This allows them to produce massive crops of fruit and flowers that sustain much of the animal life in the forest.
Only a small number of tree species have the genetic ability to grow really big. The biggest are native to North America, but big trees grow all over the globe, from the tropics to the forests of the high latitudes (纬度). To achieve giant size, a tree needs three things: the right place to establish its seedling, good growing conditions and lots of time with low adult death rate. Lose any of these, and you will lose your biggest trees.
In some parts of the world, populations of big trees are dwindling(逐渐变少) because their seedlings cannot survive. In southern India, for instance, an aggressive non-native bush, Lantana camara, is invading the floor of many forests. Lantana grows so thickly that young trees often fail to take root. With no young trees to replace them, it is only a matter of time before most of the big trees disappear.
Without the right growing conditions, trees cannot get really big and there is some evidence to suggest tree growth could slow in a warmer world, particularly in environments that are already warm. Having worked for decades at La Selva Biological Station in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, David and Deborah Clark and colleagues have shown that tree growth there declines markedly in warmer years. “During the day, their growth shuts down when it gets too warm, and at night they consume more energy because their metabolic (新陈代谢) rate increases,” explains David Clark. With less energy produced in warmer years and more being consumed just to survive, there is even less energy available for growth.
The darks’ theory, if correct, means tropical forests would shrink over time. The largest, oldest trees would progressively die off and tend not to be replaced. According to the Clarks, this might cause a destabilization(不稳定) of the climate; as older trees die, forests would release some of their stored carbon into the atmosphere, causing a cycle of further warming, forest shrinkage and carbon emissions.
Besides, big trees face threats from elsewhere.According to the passage, big trees make great contributions to the ecosystem because .
| A．they can capture large amounts of energy. |
| B．they determine the change of global climate. |
| C．they provide the essentials for many creatures. |
| D．they can avoid a new cycle of further warming. |
All the following factors are a must for making big trees EXCEPT .
| A．no deadly damage |
| B．genetic contribution |
| C．ideal environment for growth |
| D．high-latitude location |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Big trees in trouble. |
| B．Advantages of big trees. |
| C．Results of big trees’ disappearing. |
| D．Importance of big trees to humans. |
What will the author most probably discuss after the last paragraph?
| A．More threats to the existence of big trees. |
| B．The effect of human activities on big trees. |
| C．Benefits of big trees to the whole atmosphere. |
| D．Comparison between common trees and big ones. |