Women who own cats are more likely to have mental health problems and kill themselves because they can be infected by a common parasite that can be caught from cat litter, a study has found.
Researchers found women infected with the Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) parasite(刚地弓形虫), which is spread through contact with cat waste or eating undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables, are at increased risk of attempting suicide.
The study involved more than 45,000 women in Denmark. About a third of the world’s population is infected with the parasite, which hides in cells in the brain and muscles, often without producing symptoms.
The infection, which is called toxoplasmosis(弓形虫病), has been linked to mental illness, such as schizophrenia(精神分裂症), and changes in behavior.
The study’s senior author Doctor Teodor Postolache, an associate professor of psychiatry(精神病学) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the United States, said, “We can’t say with certainty that T. gondii caused the women to try to kill themselves, but we did find a predictive association between the infection and suicide attempts later in life that deserves additional studies.”
Doctor Albert Reece, vice president of medical affairs at the University of Maryland, said, “T. gondii infection is a major public health problem around the world, and many people don’t realize they’re infected.
“Dr Postolache is a leading expert on suicide neuroimmunology(神经免疫学). Suicide is a critically important mental health issue. About one million people commit suicide and another 10 million attempt suicide worldwide each year. We hope that this type of research will one day help us find ways to save many lives that now end too early in suicide.”
Dr. Postolache’s research team at the University of Maryland was the first to report a connection between T. gondii and suicidal behavior in 2009. He is cooperating with researchers in Denmark, Germany and Sweden to confirm and investigate the way leading to this association.
The T. gondii parasite thrives in the intestines of cats, and it is spread through their waste. All warm-blooded animals can become infected through contact with it. Humans can become infected by changing their infected cats’ litter boxes, eating unwashed vegetables, drinking water from a polluted source, or by eating undercooked or raw meat.
Not washing kitchen knives after preparing raw meat before handling another food item also can lead to infection. Pregnant women can pass the parasite directly to their unborn babies and are advised not to change cat litter boxes to avoid possible infection.
Babies don’t produce antibodies to T. gondii for three months after they are born, so the antibodies present in their blood represented infection in the mothers. The scientists studied Danish health patients to determine if any of these women later attempted suicide, including cases of violent suicide attempts which may have involved guns, sharp instruments and jumping from high places.
The study found that women infected with T. gondii were one and a half times more likely to attempt suicide compared to those who were not infected, and the risk seemed to rise with increasing levels of the T. gondii antibodies.
Dr Postolache noted limitations to the study, such as the inability to determine the cause of the suicidal behavior.
The findings were published online in the Archives of General Psychiatry.The objects of the research are women from _____.
| A．Demark | B．the USA | C．Germany | D．Sweden |
The common way which is more likely to be infected with the disease is _____.
| A．to eat unwashed vegetables or undercooked meat |
| B．to clean a place where a cat once lived for a time |
| C．to pass the infection to her unborn baby during a woman’s pregnancy |
| D．to reuse kitchen tools which have been used to cut raw meat |
What is the consequence if a woman is infected with the parasite in the passage?
| A．Having a high fever. | B．Doing deliberate self-harm. |
| C．Keeping a depressed mood. | D．Becoming bad tempered. |
53. What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Women have a higher risk to be infected by the parasite than men. |
| B．The result of the research may help the scientists to find ways to stop suicide in advance. |
| C．The scientists will continue their research into the possible connection. |
| D．The risk of being infected seems to rise with the decreasing levels of the antibodies. |
Which of the following statements would probably be the best title of the passage?
| A．Why are women more likely to commit suicide? |
| B．Women should keep away from cats. |
| C．Ways found to deal with women’s mental problems. |
| D．Are women who own cats at a suicide risk? |
Japan's 24-hour convenience stores, already struggling with lagging sales and growth, may soon face yet another threat - moves to limit business hours and close the stores late at night. The district of Saitama, which borders Tokyo, may follow in the footsteps of the western city of Kyoto and urge convenience stores to close during late night hours in an effort to limit carbon dioxide（二氧化碳）emissions, Japanese media reported. Kyoto, a former capital, wants to persuade convenience and other 24-hour stores to close late at night so as to improve evening views of the city and cut down on energy use. The Nikkei business daily said closures could last from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. The move is strongly opposed by the industry, which fears a bad impact on an already troubled sector also grappling with the specter of a higher tobacco tax, which could hit overall sales. "Even if we only operate the stores for 16 hours, we can't stop the refrigerators," said Toshiro Yamaguchi, the president of Seven-Eleven Japan Co, which is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co Ltd, at a news conference in Saitama on Tuesday. He said such cuts in operating hours would reduce each store's profit by 20 percent. "If this happens, our current business model will lose its foundation." Analysts said that while it is difficult to estimate the potential impact of the move without a concrete plan, their overall impression was that it was likely to be negative. "This could cut profits and lead to less efficient operations and the increased loss of opportunities," said Masafumi Shoda, an analyst at Nomura Securities. "But it depends on the store -- urban stores do better than others. There are some in the countryside that are inefficient." Some have suggested that if governments were sincere about reducing carbon emissions there were much more efficient methods, such as cutting back on the huge number of automatic vending machines（自动售货机）68. Which of the followings was the first to try to limit convenience store hours? A. Saitama B. Tokyo C. Kyoto D. Nomura Security 69. What's the main goal of the proposal? A. To give employees more free time. B. To limit carbon dioxide emissions. C. To sell more tobacco products. D. To reduce each store’s profit.
70. How's the convenience store sector doing in Japan? A. It is not mentioned. B. It's doing great. Business is booming. C. Not very well. D. It’s about to close.
The world's oceans have warmed 50 percent faster over the last 40 years than previously thought due to climate change, Australian and US climate researchers reported on Wednesday. Higher ocean temperatures expand the volume of water, contributing to a rise in sea levels that is submerging small island nations and threatening to great damage in low-lying, densely-populated delta regions around the globe.The study, published in the British journal Nature, adds to a growing scientific chorus of warnings about the pace and consequences of rising oceans. It also serves as a corrective to a massive report issued last year by the Nobel-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change（IPCC）, according to the authors. Rising sea levels are driven by two things: the thermal（热）expansion of sea water, and additional water from melting sources of ice. Both processes are caused by global warming. The ice sheet that sits at the top of Greenland, for example, contains enough water to raise world ocean levels by seven metres（23 feet）, which would bury sea-level cities from Dhaka to Shanghai. Trying to figure out how much each of these factors contributes to rising sea levels is critically important to understanding climate change, and forecasting future temperature rises, scientists say. But up to now, there has been a confusing gap between the projections of computer-based climate models, and the observations of scientists gathering data from the oceans. The new study, led by Catia Domingues of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, is the first to reconcile（与…一致）the models with observed data. Using new techniques to assess ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 metres（2,300 feet）from 1961 to 2003, it shows that thermal warming contributed to a 0.53 millimetre-per-year rise in sea levels rather than the 0.32 mm rise reported by the IPCC.64. What happens when the ocean's temperature rises? A. It causes sea levels to rise.B. It causes sea levels to remain constant.C. It causes sea levels to decrease.D. It causes sea level to change. 65. Which of the followings would be buried by the rising sea? A. Small island nations. B. All coastal cities around the world. C. People who enjoy holiday on the beach. D. Low-lying regions.66. The new study in this passage _____________.A. shows that thermal warming contributed to a 0.32 millimeter-per-year rise in sea levels. B. did not reveal anything that scientists hadn't already known. C. used new techniques to assess ocean temperatures. D. shows that models contradict the observed data. 67. What was the main finding of the study? A. Nothing enough is being done about global warming. B. That ocean waters have warmed faster than scientists had previously thought. C. That the warming of the world's oceans is not a threat. D. A massive report issued last year by IPCC was wrong.
Comprehensive lifestyle changes including a better diet and more exercise can lead not only to a better physique, but also to swift and dramatic changes at the genetic level, U.S. researchers said on Monday. In a small study, the researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer（前列腺癌）who decided against conventional medical treatment such as surgery and radiation or hormone therapy. The men underwent three months of major lifestyle changes, including eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and soy products, moderate exercise such as walking for half an hour a day, and an hour of daily stress management methods such as meditation（冥想）. As expected, they lost weight, lowered their blood pressure and saw other health improvements. But the researchers found more profound changes when they compared prostate biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle changes. After the three months, the men had changes in activity in about 500 genes -- including 48 that were turned on and 453 genes that were turned off. The activity of disease-preventing genes increased while a number of disease-promoting genes, including those involved in prostate cancer and breast cancer, shut down, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research was led by Dr. Dean Ornish, head of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, and a well-known author advocating lifestyle changes to improve health. "It's an exciting finding because so often people say, 'Oh, it's all in my genes, what can I do?' Well, it turns out you may be able to do a lot," Ornish, who is also connected with the University of California, San Francisco, said in a telephone interview. "'In just three months, I can change hundreds of my genes simply by changing what I eat and how I live'. That's pretty exciting," Ornish said. "The implications of our study are not limited to men with prostate cancer." 60. The article basically states that a healthy lifestyle__________. A. can even change your genes for the better. B. has no effect on your genes. C. is good for the environment. D. helps men recover from prostate cancer. 61. Apart from eating healthy food and exercising, the men in the study__________. A. were put under a lot of stress. B. were walking for hours a day.. C. were taught stress management methods. D. were thinking for a whole day. 62. In total, how many disease-preventing genes turned on as a result of the healthy lifestyle? A. 30 B. 453 C.500 D. 48 63. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the article? A. The men with low-risk prostate in the study lost weight and lowered their blood pressure. B. A famous author and Dr. Dean Ornish led this research. C. Dr. Dean Ornish expressed his optimism about this research in a telephone interview. D. Conventional medical treatment has no effect on the men with prostate cancer.
第三部分：阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）
选择题（共17小题：每小题2分，满分34分）阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。Three armed robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints from an art museum in downtown Sao Paulo on Thursday, which was the city's second high-profile art theft in less than a year. The bandits also took two oil paintings by well-known Brazilian artists Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Lasar Segall, said Carla Regina, a spokeswoman for the Pinacoteca do Estado museum. The Picasso prints stolen were "The Painter and the Model" from 1963 and "Minotaur, Drinker and Women" from 1933, according to a statement from the Sao Paulo Secretary of State for Culture, which oversees the museum. The prints and paintings have a combined value of $612,000, the statement and a museum official said.About noon, three armed men paid the $2.45 entrance fee and immediately went to the second-floor gallery where the works were being exhibited, bypassing more valuable pieces, authorities said. "This indicates to us that they probably received an order" to take those specific works, Youssef Abou Chain, head of Sao Paulo's organized crime unit, told reporters at a news conference. The assailants overpowered three unarmed museum guards and grabbed the works, officials said. The robbery took about 10 minutes and the museum was nearly empty at the time. The assailants took the pieces — frames and all — out of the museum in two bags. The institution has no metal detectors. In December, Picasso's "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and "O Lavrador de Cafe" by Candido Portinari, an influential Brazilian artist, were stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art by three men who used a crowbar（铁撬棍）and car jack to force open one of the museum's steel doors. The framed paintings were found Jan. 8, covered in plastic and leaning against a wall in a house on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, South America's largest city. One of the suspects in that robbery — a former TV chef — turned himself over to police in January, who already had two suspects in custody（监禁）. 56. What did the armed men steal on Thursday?A. Two prints by Pablo Picasso B. Two oil painting by Brazilian artistsC. Two prints by Pablo Picasso and two oil paintings by two Brazilian artists. D. Two prints by two Brazilian artists and two oil paintings by Picasso Pablo. 57. Why didn't the thieves take other more valuable works? A. Because they didn't know that the other pieces were worth more. B. Probably because they had received an order for the prints that they took. C. Because they didn't have enough time. D. Because they were in such a hurry that they couldn’t get them all. 58. How many people were in the museum during the robbery? A. A lot. The museum was crowded. B. Not too many. It was almost empty. C. There were a lot of people outside the museum. D. Only three of them. 59. According to the passage, which of the followings is TRUE? A. In December, "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and "O Lavrador de Cafe" painted by Candido Portinari were stolen. B. There are steel doors and no detectors in Sao Paulo Museum of Art. C. Three robbers defeated three armed museum guards and took away the works on Thursday.
D. Three suspects in the first high-profile art theft in less than a year were arrested.
The first bullet "train designed and manufactured in China with a speed of 300 kilometers per hour roiled off the production line on Saturday morning. The train was the latest model in the country' s China Railway High-speed (CRH) Series. This marks that China has joined a leading world club after Japan, France and Germany to become the fourth country capable of turning out such high speed trains. Previously, China' s fastest selfdeveloped trains ran at a service speed of up to 250 km per hour.
Those trains, which presented to public on April 18, served the Beijing-Harbin, Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Guangzhou routes. The new streamlined train was made of aluminum alloy(铝合金). The train body was the lightest of its kind in the world; Such a design was for the sake of energy economization. The train' s power was 12.7 kilowatts, lower than other high-speed trains, which was normally about 15 kilowatts.
The new train, which features a bar in the dining car and double-faced LCD TV screens in the first-class cars, was equipped with shock absorbers between carriages. As the train is running at a high speed, the shock absorbers are used to reduce shocking force and rocking of the train body. A train with eight carriages could seat about 600 passengers. They were expected to run on the 115-km Beijing-Tianjin route starting from August before the Beijing Olympic Games. It would reduce the journey time from the current 80 minutes to around 30 minutes.
77. From the 1st paragraph we learn that_______.
A. The latest model of CRH Series ran at a service speed of up to 250 km per hour
B. China became the fourth country in the world able to produce bullet trains
C. The first self-developed bullet train roiled off the production line at a speed of 300 km per hour
D. China has joined a leading world club consisting of Japan ; France and Germany
78. The new bullet train_______.
A. has been put into use in China B. has double-faced LCD TV sets in first carriage
C. is slower than high-speed trains D. is made of the lightest material in the world
79. "It" in the last paragraph refers to_______.
A. a train with eight carriages B. the speed of 115 km per hour
C. the Ministry of Railways D. the use of the new train
80. What is mainly talked about in this passage.'?
A. The bullet trains designed and made in China have been put into operation.
B. The bullet trains serve many of the main routes between big cities in China.
C. The new bullet trains are equipped with some advanced facilities.
D. The new bullet trains are expected to run for the Beijing Olympic Games.