It doesn’t kill germs better than cooler water, but turning tap temperatures high, the US burns carbon equal to the emissions of Barbados.
People typically wash their hands seven times a day in the United States, but they do it at a far higher temperature than is necessary to kill germs, a new study says. The energy waste is equivalent to the fuel use of a small country.
It’s cold and flu season, when many people are concerned about avoiding germs. But forget what you think you know about hand washing, say researchers at Vanderbilt University. Chances are good that how you clean up is not helping you stay healthy; it is helping to make the planet sick.
Amanda R. Carrico, a research assistant professor at the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment in Tennessee, told National Geographic that hand washing is often “a case where people act in ways that they think are in their best interest, but they in fact have inaccurate beliefs or outdated perceptions.”
Carrico said, “It’s certainly true that heat kills bacteria, but if you were going to use hot water to kill them it would have to be way too hot for you to tolerate.”
She explained that boiling water, 212°F (99.98°C), is sometimes used to kill germs - for example, to clean drinking water that might be polluted with germs. But “hot” water for hand washing is generally within 104°F to 131°F (40°C to 55°C.) At the high end of that range, heat could kill some germs, but the sustained contact that would be required would scald the skin.
Carrico said that after a review of the scientific literature, her team found “no evidence that using hot water that a person could stand would have any benefit in killing bacteria.” Even water as cold as 40°F (4.4°C) appeared to reduce bacteria as well as hotter water, if hands were scrubbed, rinsed（冲洗）and dried properly.
In fact, she noted that hot water can often have an unfavorable effect on hygiene. “Warmer water can harm the skin and affect the protective layer on the outside, which can cause it to be less resistant to bacteria,” said Carrico.
Using hot water to wash hands is therefore unnecessary, as well as wasteful, Carrico said, particularly when it comes to the environment. According to her research, people use warm or hot water 64 percent of the time when they wash their hands. Using that number, Carrico’s team calculated a significant impact on the planet.
“Although the choice of water temperature during a single hand wash may appear minor, when multiplied by the nearly 800 billion hand washes performed by Americans each year, this practice results in more than 6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually,” she said.
That’s roughly equal to the emissions of two coal-fired power plants, or 1,250,000 passenger vehicles, over the course of a year. It’s higher than the greenhouse gas emissions of small countries like El Salvador or Armenia, and is about equivalent to the emissions of Barbados. If all US citizens washed their hands in cooler water, it would be like eliminating the energy-related carbon emissions of 299,700 US homes, or the total annual emissions from the US zinc or lead industries.
The researchers found that close to 70 percent of respondents said they believe that using hot water is more effective than warm, room temperature, or cold water, despite a lack of evidence backing that up, said Carrico. Her study noted research that showed a “strong cognitive（认知的） connection” between water temperature and hygiene in both the United States and Western Europe, compared to other countries, like Japan, where hot water is associated more with comfort than with health.
The researchers published their results in the July 2013 issue of International Journal of Consumer Studies. They recommended washing with water that is at a “comfortable” temperature, which they noted may be warmer in cold months and cooler in hot ones.What does the writer mainly focus on when writing this passage?
| A．Whether hot water helps kill germs effectively in hand washing. |
| B．How hot water contributes to the serious worsening of our planet. |
| C．Why the consumption of hot water is unnecessary and wasteful. |
| D．What the advantages and disadvantages of using hot water are. |
The underlined word scald in paragraph six probably means .
| A．burn | B．improve | C．soften | D．wrinkle |
According to the passage, all the following share roughly the same CO2 emissions yearly EXCEPT .
| A．two coal-fired power plants | B．US zinc or lead industries |
| C．1,250,000 passenger vehicles | D．El Salvador or Armenia |
Which of the following is WRONG according to the passage?
A. Boiling water at 212°F (99.98°C) works effectively in killing germs.
B. Warmer water can damage the protective layer of the outside skin.
C. There is much difference between cold water and hot water in reducing bacteria.
D. Americans have inaccurate beliefs or outdated perceptions in hand washing.Which of the following is the standard of a comfortable water temperature for washing hands?
A. Warmer in winter and cooler in summer.
B. Between 104°F to 131°F (40°C to 55°C).
C. Below 104°F (40°C) or above 131°F (55°C).
D. Warm enough to kill germs and clean up. If you want to read stories of this kind afterwards, which of the following magazines will you probably subscribe to?
| A．Universal Science Fiction | B．Science & Discoveries |
| C．Environment & Protection | D．Exploration of America |
I hated dinner parties .But I decided to give them another shot because I’m in London. And my friend Mallery invited me . And because dinner parties in London are very different from those in New York, “I’m having a dinner party ” means : “I’m booking a table for 12 at a restaurant you can’t afford ang we’ll be sharing the cheque evenly , no matter what you eat.” Wors , in Manhattan there is always someone who leaves before the bill arrives .They’ll throw down cash, half of what they owe, and then people like me, who don’t drink, end up paying even more . But if try to use the same trick , the hostess will shout; “Where are you going ?” And it’s not like I can say I have somewhere to go : everyone knows I have nowhere to go.
But in London, dinner patise are in people’s homes . Not only that, the guests are an interesting mix .The last time I went to one , the guests were from France , India ,Denmark and Nigeria; it was like a gathering at the United Nations . In New York ,the mix is less striking . It’s like a gathering at Bloomingdat="le’s" , a well-known de partment store.
For New Yorkers, talking ,talking about other parts of the world means Brooklyn and Queens in New Yorkers.But at Mallery’s ,when I side that I had been to Myanmar recently, peo ple knew where it was , In New Yorkers people would think it was a usual culb.
1.What does the word “shot” in Paragraph I pro baly mean?
A. Choice B. Try C. Style D.Goal
2. What does the writer dislike most about dinner parties in New Yorkers
A. There is a stange mix of people.
B. The restaurants are expensive.
C. The bill is not fairly shared.
D. People have to pay cash
3.What does the author think of the parties in London?
A. A bit unusual B. Full of tricks C.Less costly D. More interesting
4.What is the author’s opininon of some New Yorkers from her experience?
A.Easy-going B. Self-centred. C.Generous D.Conservative
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Tt was a village in India. The people were poor . However, they were not unhappy. After all , their forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.
Then one day, some visitors from the city arrived . They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog's legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other places.
This seemed like money for nothing . There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was catch them . Agreement was reached, and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time ,the people were able to dream of a better future. But the dream didn't last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first ,but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often ,and there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn't just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides （杀虫剂）and medicines. Soon there was no money left .
Then the people realized what was happening.Tt was the frog .They hadn't been useless. They had been doing an important job-eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed , the insects were increasing more rapidly. They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.
Now, the people are still poor .But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning.
| 1． |
From Paragragh 1 we learn that the villagers.
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| 2． |
Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?
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| 3． |
What might be the cause of the children's sickness?
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| 4． |
What can we infer from the last sentence of the text?
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Every day we experiencc one of the wonders of the world around us without even realizing it It is not the amszing complexity of television. Nor the impressive tcchnology of transport The universal wonder we share and
Experience is our ability to make noises with our mouths, and so transmit ideas and thoughts to each other’s minds. This ability comes so naturally that tend to forget what a miracle（奇迹）it is.
Obviously, the ability to talk is something that marks humans off from animals. Of course, some animals have powers just as amazing. Birds can fly thousands of miles by observing positions of the stars in the sky in relation to the time of day and year. In Nature’s went show, humans are a species of animal that have deve pod their own special act. If we reduce it to basie ferms, it’s a ability for communicating information to ther by varying sounds we make as we breathe out.
Not the to don’t have other powers of communication. Our facia. expressions convey our emotions, such as anger, or jout or disappointment. The way we hold our beads can indicate to others whether we are happy or sad. This is so-called “body language”. Bristling(直立的)fur is an unmistakable warning of attack among many animals. Similarly, the bowed bead or drooping tail shows a readiness to take second place in any animal gathering.
Such a means of communication is a basic mechanism that animals, including human beings, instinctively acquire and display. Is the ability to speak just another sort of instinct? If so, how did human beings acquire this amazing skill? Biologists can readily indicate that particular area of our brain where speech mechanisms function, but this doesn’t tell us how that part of our bodies originated in our biological history.
1.According to the passage, the wonder we take for granted is_________.
A.our ability to use language
B.the miracle of technology
C.the amazing power of nature
D.our ability to make noises with mouth
2.What feature of “body language”mentioned in the passage is common to both humans and animals?
A.Lifting beads when sad.
B.Keeping long faces wh
en angry.
C.Bristling hair when ready to attack.
D.Bowing heads when willing to obey.
3.What can be inferred from Paragraph 3?
A.Body language is unique to humans.
B.Animals express emotions just as humans do.
C.Humans have other powers of communication.
D.Humans are no different from animals to some degree.
4.This pastge is mainly about________________.
A.the development of body language
B.the special role humans play in nature
C.the power to convey information to others
D.the difference between humans and animals in language use
Modcm inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a bundred miles in little more than an hour. Aireraft cross the world a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every ycar motor-cars are produced which go even faster each new computer boasts（吹嘘）of saving preeious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves timc, but at a prick.When we lose or gain half a day in speeding aeross the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfoerable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel tlru they have been left bebind in anot ar nine zoors Again pending too long at compulers resul’s in painti ninrts and fingers. Mobile phones also to dange according to some seientists; too much uss may thesmit h bul radiation into our brains, a we do not like to think about.
Howave, what do we do with the time we have saved?Certainly not or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Pcrhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imavination take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devotcd simply to the cultivation of the land or the eare of eattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives wenl on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so ,we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faeed;:they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modem machinery has freed peope fre that primitive existcnee.
1.The new rooucts opcome more and more time-saving beeause_________.
A.our love of speed secure never-ending
B.time is limited
C.theprices are increasingly high
D.the manufacturers boast a lot
2.What does“the days”in Parag
raph 3 refer to?
A.I maginary life B.Simple life in the past
C.Times of inventions D.Time for constant activity
3.What is the author’s attitude towards the modem teehnology?
A.Critical B.Objective C.Optimistic D.Negative
4.What does the pa mge mainly diseuss?
A.The present and past times B.Machinary and human beings
C.Imaginations and inventions D.Modem technology and its influenec
 Head of Research Satary: & 55.271 We are looking for a Head of Research to manage the CWU research Department and information Centre. You would be required to excrcise control of all researchers work of the depertment and manage a team of three researchers and four support staff. The person appointed would be expected to carry out research work of a strategic nature across the range of businesses in which the CWU has or seeks membership and to contribute to the strategic thinking and direction of the union as a whole. You will need: proven line management skills, especially in managing and motivating a  team; good research skills, holding a good degree in a related subject or other similar experience; a high level of mathematical and calculating skills; the ability to produce high quality work under pressure; a commitment to and knowledge of the trade union movement and social demotic politics; and knowledge and/or experience of the postal and/or telecommunications industry。To apply ：please request an application pack by emailing hr@ cwu.org or by telephoning HR (Human Resources ) on 020 8970 7482. When applying please stay your source. Closing Date for Applications:4th August 2010 Anticipated interview date:17th August 2010 No agencies please |
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In which column of a newspaper could we find this advertisement?
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| 2． |
One of the duties of the person to be appointed is.
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| 3． |
If you apply for this position, you can do all EXCEPT
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| 4． |
Which of the following applieans is most likely to be employed?
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