Scientists have discovered a special biological behavior in dolphins（海豚） that could lead to a treatment for late-onset diabetes（晚发的糖尿病） in humans. Studies on dolphins found that healthy dolphins switch into a diabetic-like state overnight when they are not feeding, but return to normal when they eat the following morning.
The extraordinary finding has led scientists to suggest that dolphins have “genetic switch” that allows them to imitate diabetes while they are not feeding for a night, without suffering any ill effect.
If researchers can identify a similar genetic pathway in human, they may be able to develop drugs to effectively switch off diabetes. Some 2.2 million people in Britain have type 2 (or late-onset) diabetes, a figure that is expected to reach 4 million by 2025 as a consequence of rising levels of obesity（肥胖）.
The tissues of people with type 2 diabetes have become resistant to insulin（胰岛素） so they lose the ability to control sugar levels in their blood. The condition can damage the heart, eyes, kidneys（肾脏） and nerves and contribute to 5% of all deaths, according to the World Healthy Organization.
Dolphins appear to imitate diabetes to keep high levels of blood sugar when food is rare. Like humans, dolphins need some sugar in their blood for their brains to function normally. Venn-Watson’s team analyzed 1,000 blood samples（样本） from 52 dolphins while they didn’t eat anything overnight and fed in the morning. At night time, the dolphins’ metabolism（新陈代谢）changed greatly and showed similar characteristics to that seen in people with type 2 diabetes.
“It is our hope that this discovery can lead to new ways to prevent, treat and maybe even cure diabetes in humans,” said Stephanie Venn-Watson, director of clinical research at the National Marine Foundation in San Diego.What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Humans get some idea of treating diabetes from dolphins. |
| B．Dolphins can switch into a diabetic-like state overnight. |
| C．Humans can suffer the same disease as dolphins. |
| D．Dolphins should be fed regularly to avoid diabetes. |
The key to applying the finding to curing human diabetes lies in ____________.
| A．producing insulin in a larger amount |
| B．developing drugs from healthy dolphins |
| C．identifying a similar genetic pathway in human |
| D．analyzing more blood samples from hungry dolphins |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Scientists have found a similar genetic switch in humans. |
| B．More British people will suffer type 2 diabetes due to obesity. |
| C．2.2 million people with type 2 diabetes die in Britain every year. |
| D．Dolphins imitate diabetes to avoid a high blood sugar level. |
What will happen to dolphins if not fed for a night according to Venn-Watson?
| A．Their metabolism breaks down. |
| B．They become resistant to insulin. |
| C．Their heart and kidneys are damaged. |
| D．They keep high levels of blood sugar. |
Many people think that listening is a passive business. It is just the opposite. Listening well is an active exercise of our attention and hard work. It is because they do not realize this, or because they are not willing to do the work, that most people do not listen well.
Listening well also requires total concentration upon someone else. An essential part of listening well is the rule known as ‘bracketing’. Bracketing includes the temporary giving up or setting aside of your own prejudices and desires, to experience as far as possible someone else’s world from the inside, stepping into his or her shoes. Moreover, since listening well involves bracketing, it also involves a temporary acceptance of the other person. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will seem quite willing to open up the inner part of his or her mind to the listener. True communication is under way and the energy required for listening well is so great that it can be accomplished only by the will to extend oneself for mutual growth.
Most of the time we lack this energy. Even though we may feel in our business dealings or social relationships that we are listening well, what we are usually doing is listening selectively. Often we have a prepared list in mind and wonder, as we listen, how we can achieve certain desired results to get the conversation over as quickly as possible or redirected in ways more satisfactory to us. Many of us are far more interested in talking than in listening, or we simply refuse to listen to what we don’t want to hear.
It wasn’t until toward the end of my doctor career that I have found the knowledge that one is being truly listened to is frequently therapeutic(有疗效的). In about a quarter of the patients I saw, surprising improvement was shown during the first few months of psychotherapy (心理疗法), before any of the roots of problems had been uncovered or explained. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, but chief among them, I believe, was the patient’s sense that he or she was being truly listened to, often for the first time in years, and for some, perhaps for the first time ever.The phrase “stepping into his or her shoes” in paragraph 2 probably means _____.
| A．preparing a topic list first |
| B．focusing on one’s own mind |
| C．directing the talk to the desired results |
| D．experiencing the speaker’s inside world |
What is mainly discussed in Paragraph 2 ?
| A．How to listen well. | B．What to listen to. |
| C．Benefits of listening. | D．Problems in listening |
According to the author , in communication people tend to ________.
| A．listen actively | B．set aside their prejudices |
| C．listen purposefully | D．open up their inner mind |
According to the author , the patients improved mainly because _______.
| A．they were taken good care of |
| B．they had partners to talk to |
| C．they knew they were truly listened to |
| D．they knew the roots of problems |
What type of writing is the article likely to be ?
| A．Science fiction | B．A news report |
| C．A medical report | D．Popular science |
The view over a valley of a tiny village with thatched (草盖的) roof cottages around a church; a drive through a narrow village street lined with thatched cottages painted pink or white; the sight over the rolling hills of a pretty collection of thatched farm buildings—these are still common sights in parts of England. Most people will agree that the thatched roof is an essential part of the attraction of the English countryside.
Thatching is in fact the oldest of all the building crafts practiced in the British Isles(英伦诸岛). Although thatch has always been used for cottage and farm buildings, it was once used for castles and churches too.
Thatching is a solitary (独立的) craft, which often runs in families. The craft of thatching as it is practiced today has changed very little since the Middle Ages. Over 800 full-time thatchers are employed in England and Wales today, maintaining and renewing the old roofs as well as thatching newer houses. Many property owners choose thatch not only for its beauty but because they know it will keep them cool in summer and warm in winter.
In fact, if we look at developing countries, over half the world lives under thatch, but they all do it in different ways. People in developing countries are often reluctant to go back to traditional materials and would prefer modern buildings. However, they may lack the money to allow them to import the necessary materials. Their temporary mud huts with thatched roofs of wild grasses often only last six months. Thatch which has been done the British way lasts from twenty to sixty years, and is an effective defiance against the heat. Which of the following remains a unique feature against the heat_______.
| A．Narrow streets lined with pink or white houses. |
| B．Rolling hills with pretty farm buildings. |
| C．Cottages with thatched roofs. |
| D．Churches with cottages around them. |
What do we know about thatching as a craft?
| A．It is a collective activity. |
| B．It is practised on farms all over England. |
| C．It is quite different from what it used to be. |
| D．It is in most cases handed down among family members. |
People in developing countries also live under thatch because.
| A．thatched cottages are a big tourist attraction |
| B．thatched roof houses are the cheapest |
| C．thatch is an effective defense against the heat |
| D．they like thatched houses better than other buildings |
We can learn from the passage that.
| A．thatched cottages in England have been passed down from ancient times. |
| B．thatching is a building craft first created by the English people. |
| C．the English people have a special liking for thatched houses. |
| D．most thatched cottage in England are located on hillsides. |
What happens inside the skull of a soccer player who repeatedly heads a soccer ball? That question motivated a challenging new study of the brains of experienced players that has caused discussion and debate among soccer players, and some anxiety among those of us with soccer-playing children.
For the study, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York selected 34 adults, men and women. All of the volunteers had played soccer since childhood and now competed year-round in adult soccer leagues. Each filled out a detailed questionnaire developed especially for this study to determine how many times they had headed a soccer ball in the previous year, as well as whether they had experienced any known concussions (脑震荡) in the past.
Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned, using a complicated new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can’t be seen during most scans.
According to the data they presented at a Radiological Society of North America meeting last month, the researchers found that the players who had headed the ball more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball fewer times.
This pattern of white matter loss is “similar to those seen in traumatic (外伤的) brain injury”, like that after a serious concussion, the researchers reported, even though only one of these players was reported to have ever experienced a concussion.
The players who had headed the ball about 1,100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at recalling lists of words read to them, forgetting or fumbling the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.The passage is most probably a______.
| A．news report |
| B．research report |
| C．story for soccer players |
| D．text for doctors |
In which way can we find the structural changes in the brain?
| A．Computerized test. | B．Questionnaire.. |
| C．Scanning. | D．M.R.I. technique. |
From the passage we can conclude that frequent heading may have_____.
| A．significant effect on brain |
| B．little effect on one’s brain |
| C．nothing to do with the brain injury |
| D．one’s memory improved |
The underlined word "fumbling" is closest in meaning to______.
| A．remembering | B．misunderstanding |
| C．recalling | D．missing |
The associates I hired in my bicycle and lawn mower shop like myself were never perfect; however, they were excellent. Working with them as they improved taught me new ways to show forgiveness, understanding, and patience.
One day the placement officer asked me to interview a young man who was having trouble finding a job. He told me that David was a little shy, did not talk much and was afraid to go on with interviews. He requested that I give David an interview just for practice. He plainly told David that I had no positions open at the time and the interview was just for practice.
When David came in for the interview, he hardly said a word. I told him what we did at the bicycle shop and showed him around. I told David to keep showing up because the number one thing an employer wanted in an associate was dependability.
David was very quiet ( he was evaluated as a slow learner in school). Every ten days or so, for weeks after the interview, David walked into the bicycle shop and stood by the front door. He never said a word, just stood by the door.
One day, shortly before Christmas, a large truck came to the shop, packed with 250 new bicycles. It had to be unloaded right away or the driver would leave.
It was raining. Some of my workers (without physical limitations) chose not to brave the weather to get into work, so I was short-handed. It seemed everything was going wrong and on top of it, David came in the front door and just stood there. I looked at him and shouted, “Well, all right! Fill out a time card and help me unload this truck!”
David worked for my bicycle shop for eighteen years. He came to work every day thirty minutes early. He could talk; however, he rarely chose to. He drove my truck and made deliveries. The customers would praise David, saying, “He doesn’t talk, but he really shows you how to operate a lawn mower!”The author gave David an interview to _______
| A．find a person who is reliable |
| B．find a part-time worker in need |
| C．give him some practice |
| D．show sympathy for him |
The author finally hired David because________
| A．there were no other workers in the shop then |
| B．he needed someone who was willing to work then |
| C．David kept showing up |
| D．he realized David was dependable |
We can infer from the last paragraph that_______
| A．some customers just play jokes on David |
| B．David has had his character changed through work |
| C．the author prefers David to be more outgoing源:Z。xx。k.Com] |
| D．the author feels lucky to hire David |
The author’s tone in describing David is full of ______
| A．pity | B．wonder |
| C．disappointment | D．appreciation |
The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers．It has been made to help you better manage your money．The Winners Club is a transaction account （交易账户） where you receive a key-card so you can get to your money 24/7 —that's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
It's a club with impressive features for teenagers:
●No account keeping fees!
You’re no millionaire so we don't expect you to pay large fees．In fact, there are no accounts keeping or transaction fees!
●Excellent interest rates!
You want your money to grow．The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits （储蓄） without taking them out in a month．
●Convenient
Teenagers are busy —we get that．You may never need to come to a bank at all．With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet．You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account．This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part-time job!
●Mega magazine included
Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money．There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members．
The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers．And it is so easy to join．Simply fill in an application form．You will have to get permission from your parent or guardian （so we can organize that cool key-card） but it is easy．We can't wait to hear from you．It's the best way to choose to be a winner!Which of the following is TRUE about the Winners Club?
| A．Special gifts are ready for parents． |
| B．The bank opens only on work days． |
| C．Services are convenient for its members． |
| D．Fees are necessary for the account keeping． |
The Winners Club provides magazines which ____．
| A．encourage spending |
| B．are free to all teenagers |
| C．are full of adventure stories |
| D．help to make more of your money |
What is the purpose of this passage?
| A．To set up a club． |
| B．To provided part-time jobs． |
| C．To organize key-cards |
| D．To introduce a new banking service． |