Tiredness, coughing, a runny nose and a sore throat—among all sicknesses there is probably none more common than the flu, which we all get now and then.
However, bird flu is a completely different story.
Ten years ago, the H5N1 bird flu swept across 15 countries, including China, with sufferers reporting chest pain, difficulty breathing, fever and severe coughing. More than 600 people were infected, and about 60 percent died. Now another type of bird flu hit Shanghai and three neighboring provinces, and this time the virus is called H7N9. By the afternoon of April 11, the new virus had taken nine lives out of 35 infected, according to Xinhua News Agency.
The“H”and“N”in the virus’ name refers to two kinds of proteins on the surface of the virus. Any change of the numbers of the two proteins indicates a new mutation(变异). Most of the mutations only affect birds, such as chickens and pigeons, and don’t normally spread to humans. But once they do, the results can be disastrous.
“Any time an animal influenza virus crosses to humans, it is a cause for concern, ”Malik Peiris, virologist(病毒学家)at the University of Hong Kong, told Nature magazine. Take the SARS epidemic(传染病)10 years ago as an example. The virus behind the disease is thought to have jumped to humans from animals. The virus was a complete“stranger”to human bodies, which hadn’t developed an immunity against it.
But there is something more about the new H7N9 bird flu. Unlike the H5N1 bird flu, which causes severe sickness in birds, the H7N9 has been evolving under the radar(悄悄地)since it travels between birds without causing noticeable illness. That makes it difficult to keep track of the disease.
The good news is that there’s so far no sign that the virus is spreading from person to person. But since there is no vaccine for the disease yet, the World Health Organization recommends that you wash your hands after meeting with sick people and before and after you eat or prepare food, and they also suggest avoiding contact with birds or their eggs.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the text?
| A．The H5N1 bird flu turned out to have something to do with the SARS epidemic. |
| B．More than 600 people across the world died from the H5N1 bird flu ten years ago. |
| C．Most of the mutations of the proteins in the bird flu virus are harmful to both birds and humans. |
| D．The name, H7N9 bird flu, shows that there have been new mutations of the proteins in the virus. |
With the example of the SARS epidemic in Paragraph 5, the author intends to .
| A．introduce where the SARS virus came from |
| B．inform us of the harmful effects of the SARS epidemic ten years ago |
| C．show the horrible effects an animal influenza virus can have once it spreads to humans |
| D．compare the differences between the SARS epidemic and the H7N9 bird flu |
What makes the H7N9 bird flu more frightening than the H5N1 bird flu according to the text?
| A．It can cause severe sickness in birds. |
| B．It can spread from person to person. |
| C．It affects a greater number of birds. |
| D．It doesn’t sicken birds and thus can spread unnoticed. |
What are people advised to do to protect themselves against the H7N9 bird flu?
a. To get vaccinated for the disease.
b. To keep away from birds and their eggs.
c. To stop eating chickens and ducks.
d. To avoid meeting with sick people.
e. To wash hands thoroughly and regularly.
| A．a, b | B．c, d |
| C．b, e | D．a, e |
It is one of the greatest mysteries of nature. In case you haven’t noticed, all living things follow very definite, individual rhythms, all as regular as a clock, but what makes them regular?
Though many scientists maintain that these rhythms are the result of some outside force like gravity or radiation or both, the results of most scientific researches agree with other scientists who believe that each living thing has its own built-in biological “time clock.”
Take the mystery of migration for example. Scientists can’t really explain why many species of birds migrate in the autumn even though the temperature is still summery. The birds just seem to snub the comfortable weather that they are having. When a certain time comes, they travel south by the thousand. In spring time, they migrate northwards even though there probably is snow still covering the ground when they finally arrive. Something said “go,” and they did.
Animals that hibernate (冬眠) are obeying individual time clocks, too. When their clock indicates the time to take a winter’s nap, they do, and nothing can stop them. At a certain time in the spring, they wake up and come out regardless of the weather outside.
Plants appear to have yearly rhythms, such as the sprouting of seeds, and they also have daily rhythms. Notice sometimes that plants raise their leaves in daylight and lower them at night.
If you live along the California coast, you can easily observe a demonstration of this mysterious clock functioning regularly. There, from February to September, the highest tides occur exactly every fourteen and four-fifths days, and during these high tides, but at no other time, small silvery fish called grunions surf-ride a wave to the beach. There the female deposits her eggs in the sand and the male fertilizes them; then both hitch a wave-ride back to the sea. Exactly fourteen and four-fifths days later, never before or after, the tiny eggs hatch, and the high tide carries the new babies out to sea.
72. According to the passage, the mysterious rhythms result from ______.
A. the influence of gravity on living species
B. the effect of radiation on living species
C. the influence of a mysterious outer force on living species
D. the internal mechanism inside the living species
73. The underlined word “snub” in the third paragraph probably means ______.
A. fight B. ignore C. symbolize D. criticize
74. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?
A. Hibernating animals are obeying an internal time clock.
B. The positioning of the leaves of some plants is due to the daily rhythms.
C. The internal clock functioning is demonstrated in the reproducing habits of grunions.
D. The yearly hibernation is more because of the weather influence than the biological functioning.
75. The passage is mainly about ______.
A. the rhythms of life
B. the reasons of mysterious hibernation
C. strange behaviors of species
D. the timing for different events in the world of species
Welcome to the British Museum, the grandest and the most spectacular of human history. The admission is free and we open every day from 10:00 to 15:30. You can explore 10 departments including:
The Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas
The collection of the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americasincludes around 350,000 objects. The scope of the collection is contemporary, and historical.It includes most of Africa, the Pacific and Australia,as well as the Americas. All of the collections were got during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and date from this time.
The Department of Asia
The Department of Asia covers the material and visual cultures of Asia – a vast geographical area of Japan, Korea, China, Central Asia, Afghanistan, South Asia and South-East Asia. The collection dates from about 4000 BC, to the present day. It representsthe cultures and ways oflife of local people and other minority groups.
The Department of Greek and Roman Empires
The Department of Greek and Roman Empires features antiquities (古董). It has one of the most comprehensive collections of antiquities from the Classical world, with over 100,000 objects. These mostly range in date from the beginning of the Greek Bronze Age (about 3200BC) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD.
69. The scope of the Department of Africa, Oceania and Americas doesn’t include______.
A. Africa B. Australia C. the South America D. Britain
70. The earliest collection is from ______.
A. The Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas
B. The Department of Asia
C. The Department of Greek and Roman Empires
D. All of the above
71. The Department of Asia represents ______.
A. the geographic features of Asia
B. the relationships between Asian countries
C. the life styles and cultural traditions of some peoples
D. the cultural fights between some native groups
Section B
Directions: Read the following four passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A,B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
In our culture, the sources of what we call a sense of “mastery” — feeling important and worthwhile — and the sources of what we call a sense of “pleasure”— finding life enjoyable — are not always the same. Women often are told “You can’t have it all.” Sometimes what the speaker really is saying is: “You choose a career, so you can’t expect to have closer relationships or a happy family life.” or “You have a wonderful husband and children — what’s all this about wanting a career?” But women need to understand and develop both aspects of well-being, if they are to feel good about themselves.
Our study shows that, for women, well-being has two aspects. One is mastery, which includes self-respect, a sense of control over your life, and low levels of anxiety and depression. Mastery is closely related to the “doing” side of life, to work and activity. Pleasure is the other aspect, and it is made up of happiness, satisfaction and optimism. It is tied more closely to the “feeling” side of life. The two are independent of each other. A woman could be high in mastery and low in pleasure, and vice versa（反之亦然）. For example, a woman who has a good job, but whose mother has just died, might be feeling very good about herself and in control of her work life, but the pleasure side could be damaged for a time.
The concepts of mastery and pleasure can help us identify the sources of well-being for women, and correct past mistakes. In the past, women were encouraged to look only at the feeling side of life as the source of all well-being. But we know that both mastery and pleasure are important. And mastery seems to be achieved largely through work. In our study, all the groups of employed women were valued significantly higher in mastery than women who were not employed.
A woman’s well-being is developed when she takes on multiple roles. At least by middle adulthood, the women who were involved in a combination of roles — marriages, motherhood, and employment — were the highest in well-being, in spite of warnings about stress and strain.
65. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that ________.
A. for women, a sense of “mastery” is more important than a sense of “pleasure”
B. for women, a sense of “pleasure” is more important than a sense of “mastery”
C. women can’t have a sense of “mastery” and a sense of “pleasure” at the same time
D. a sense of “mastery” and a sense of “pleasure” are both necessary to women
66. The author’s attitude towards women having a career is________.
A. negative B. positive C. indifferent D. realistic
67. One can conclude from the passage that if a woman takes on several social roles, ________.
A. it will be easier for her to overcome stress and strain
B. she will be more successful in her career
C. her chances of getting promoted will be greater
D. her life will be richer and more meaningful
68. Which of the following can be considered as a source of “pleasure” for women?
A. Family life B. Multiple roles in society
C. Regular employment D. Freedom from anxiety
A new study says one part of the human brain may become smaller as the result of a condition known as jet lag. Jet lag results from flying long distances in an airplane. Jet lag interferes with a person's normal times for sleeping and waking. People with jet lag may feel extremely tired for several days. They also may have problems thinking clearly and remembering.
Kwangwook Cho is a researcher at the University of Bristol in Britain. He reported the findings of his jet lag study in the publication Nature Neuroscience.
The study involved twenty young women who worked for international airlines. The women had served passengers on airplanes for five years. These flight attendants flew across many countries and at least seven time zones. In the study, the flight attendants had different amounts of time to recover from jet lag. Half the women spent five days or fewer in their home areas between long flights. The other half spent more than fourteen days in their home areas.
Mister Cho took some fluid from the women's mouths to measure levels of a hormone that increases during stress. He tested them to see if they could remember where black spots appeared on a computer screen. And he took pictures of their brains using magnetic resonance imaging. This is a way to measure the size of the brain's temporal lobes（颞叶）.
It was found that the women who had less time between flights had smaller right temporal lobes. This area of the brain deals with recognizing and remembering what is seen. The same group performed worse and had slower reaction times on the visual memory test. And their saliva samples showed higher levels of stress hormones.
Mister Cho says he believes the brain needs at least ten days to recover after a long trip. He says airline workers told him their ability to remember got worse after working on planes for about four years. Other studies have shown that increased feelings of stress can cause a loss of cells in the part of the brain that controls memory.
Scientists say more tests are needed to study the effects of jet lag on the brain. They want to find out if too much jet lag could permanently affect memory.
72. According to the text, jet lag _____.
A. can cause difficulties in speaking
B. can make people feel tired for a few weeks
C. is the illness only found in people who work on the airplanes
D. can be caused by flying over several time zones in an airplane
73. It is inferred that more tests need to be done because _____.
A. the conclusion was questioned by many scientists
B. scientists fear that his research is not done properly
C. every scientific conclusion needs the support from many tests
D. the woman who were studied in the research were not healthy
74. Which of the following statements is TRUE about the research results?
A. Women who have a longer rest at home show better memory.
B. Women who fly in short time had smaller right temporal lobes.
C. Women who have longer flights failed the memory test.
D. Women who rest more than 14 days produced less hormones.
75. What is the subject discussed in the test?
A. The cause of jet lag.
B. A story of a group of flight attendance.
C. A research about the effects of jet lag on the brain.
D. The importance of having enough rest after long flights.
The Channel is the name given to the stretch of water which separates England and France. Ferries operate all year round to carry people across the Channel, and they are busy most of the year. January is the only quiet month nowadays. As well as summer holiday-makers, there are day trippers and coach traffic, not to mention lorries and other commercial vehicles. Some ferries carry cars and their passengers, while others also connect train passengers with the Continental rail network.
The biggest hazard for the ferry is the wind. The crew listens to BBC weather reports four times a day. Or they sometimes get gale warnings from local radio station.
Crossing the Channel by ferry is a bit like trying to cross Oxford Street on a busy afternoon, according to one ferryboat captain. The ferries from Folkstone and Dover to Calais and Boulogne have to cross the main flow of traffic. This consists of ships traveling through the Channel to and from Northern Europe. There may be four hundred ships making the journey at any one time, and they all pass through a “choke point” which is only fifteen miles (twenty-five kilometers) wide. The cross-channel ferries have to sail right through the middle of all this traffic.
68. The passage is mainly concerned with _____.
A. the English Channel B. the weather on the Channel
C. cross-channel ferries D. what crossing the Channel by ferry is like
69. The word hazard is closest in meaning to ________.
A. trouble B. danger C. enemy D. problem
70. We can infer from the passage that _______.
A. if there is a gale warning from the BBC, the ferries will stop operating.
B. the traffic on the Channel is very busy only in winter
C. ferries are busiest in the afternoon
D. the crew of the ferry listens to the weather reports four times a day
71. Where does this passage most probably appear?
A. In a dictionary. B. In a novel.
C. In a transportation magazine. D. In a geography textbook.