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. |
Are you a problem shopper? The answer is “Yes”, if you or someone else thinks that you sometimes get carried away with shopping. In other words, do you or does someone else think you are occupied in extreme shopping? If people have regrets later about their shopping, or have an “out-of-control” feeling about the quantities of what they buy or the amount of credit they use, they may be considered to be problem shoppers.
Extreme shopping can lead to a more serious problem – addictive shopping. Addictive shoppers feel driven by the desire to shop and spend money. They experience great tension which drives them to shop and spend money and they feel a “rush” during the time they are occupied with the shopping activity.
Extreme or addictive shopping may result from long-time unpleasant feelings, of which anxiety, pain and shame are common ones. When we feel bad inside, we often do something to make ourselves feel better. In this case, we often go shopping.
A few people shop to relieve their boredom or emptiness. For some people, the motivation is a desire for status, power, beauty or success. Some love to shop as it makes them feel valued in the eyes of the shop assistants. Others shop simply because it makes them forget, at least temporarily, tension, fear or unhappiness in their life.
Besides, shopping malls are designed to encourage continual shopping. For instance, there are some malls where you can’t see clocks displaying the time because they don’t want you to become too aware of the time you spend there. What’s more, food courts, coffee shops and restrooms are provided, so you don’t have to leave the mall because of your physical needs.
Therefore, once you become aware of how market forces work, you will certainly come to control your shopping behavior. For example, how much time you will spend and what areas you will visit can be decided before you enter the mall. Keep a written account of what items you will buy and how much money you will spend. Make a plan for what you are going to buy before you feel the urge to shop and then stick to it. That is vital for gaining self-control.Which of the following people may not be problem shoppers?
| A．Those who cannot control the amount of credit they use. |
| B．Those who feel sorry for their shopping. |
| C．Those who are occupied in too much shopping. |
| D．Those who just walk around the shopping malls. |
According to the passage, what may not result in addictive shopping?
| A．The desire for status, power, beauty or success. |
| B．The awareness of how market forces work. |
| C．Boredom, emptiness, tension, fear or unhappiness in people’s life. |
| D．Long-time bad feelings of anxiety, pain and shame. |
What does the author suggest to control our shopping behaviour?
| A．Never going to the shopping malls because there are many tricks. |
| B．Applying for a credit card before we go shopping. |
| C．Making a shopping list before we go shopping. |
| D．Making the shopping time as short as possible. |
The author writes this passage to.
| A．inform the shopping malls how to attract more shoppers |
| B．tell a shopping story |
| C．scold the problem shoppers |
| D．provide solutions to the problem shopping. |
Back those photos up
The images were striking. Homes on the East Coast were washed away by Superstorm Sandy. People were in tears, picking up faded photographs, among their only remaining possessions.
If that doesn’t move you to get serious about safekeeping your lifetime of memories, what will? The digital age offers tools never imaginable before—including one-click access to a lifetime of family photos.
Here is a brochure on how to back up (存) your photos and save them online, where they can live forever and be accessible in good times and bad.
Scanning
The first step for those old photos is to scan them and save them to a digital format. Most printers come with scanners these days, so that’s an easy but extremely time-consuming step.
Storing the photos
With your scans in place, import the photos into your computer, and back them up.
You could make multiple copies of the disks and spread them to loved ones. Or you could choose external(外接的) hard drives or USB thumb drive, and add your photo and video collection from your computer.
Online backup
If you need lots of space, look at a pure online backup service, Caronite.
Caronite backs up 300 million files daily. Once you sign up, it starts to pick up everything you have on your hard drive. But photo collection on your computer’s main hard drive charges for $59 a year.
Cloud Storage
For folks who don’t need automatic backup, but instead want to take a more active approach, Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft’s SkyDrive let you store files online by yourself, share and instantly access them. All offer free options—2GB of free storage for Dropbox, 5GB for Google and 7GB for SkyDrive. But if you want more, you need to pay.
Bottom Line
The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and easiest. But drives can fail. Online services are more expensive, but more secure. With more of us switching back and forth between our computers, such services are the best way to get access to our data from wherever we are.Why does the author mention Superstorm Sandy?
| A．To tell the background of the scanning photos. |
| B．To describe a severe natural disaster. |
| C．To attract the readers’ interest in the backups. |
| D．To win the readers’ sympathy. |
What can we know from the passage?
| A．Scanning photos take little time but costs a lot. |
| B．Caronite charges for backing up photos from hard drive. |
| C．Google Drive offers unlimited free photo storage on line. |
| D．The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and safest. |
Which of the following allows storing files automatically?
| A．Dropbox. | B．SkyDrive. | C．Caronite. | D．Flash drive. |
The main purpose of the passage is to _____.
| A．introduce some of the storage services |
| B．tell real stories about storage services |
| C．describe the functions of storage services |
| D．argue about the advantage of storage services |
In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what "keeping up with the Joneses" is about. It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbors.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighborhood. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbors.
It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They had to move back to an apartment in New York City. Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbors. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it "Keeping up with the Joneses” because "Jones" is a very common name in the United States. "Keeping up with the Joneses" came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand's series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are "Joneses" in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ______.
| A．want to be as rich as their neighbors |
| B．want others to know or to think that they are rich |
| C．don't want others to know they are rich |
| D．want to be happy |
It can be inferred from the story that rich people like to ________.
| A．live outside New York City |
| B．live in New York City |
| C．live in apartments |
| D．live with many neighbors |
What's the author's attitude to keeping up with the Joneses?
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. | C．Supportive. | D．Objective. |
In the UK, we like a good bargain. People flock to the sales in January, when stores slash their prices to get rid of all their winter stock. But surprisingly, the British hate haggling. In markets you might see the odd British person battling with a stall owner to bring down the price of a pair of trousers or some furniture. Generally, though, people from the UK are too reserved to haggle. If we think the price of something we want is too high, we’ll simply move on and try somewhere else.
The act of bargaining with someone is very theatrical, in my opinion. It’s a test to see who can stand their ground for the longest. But it is not in British people’s nature to “perform” in public, especially around strangers.
However, in the US, people are generally more willing to haggle. And if you wander into a market, you’re likely to hear a number of phrases that Americans reserve for such occasions.
First, “you drive a hard bargain” is commonly said by the customer to indicate they think the stall holder is working very hard, probably a little too hard, to get the price he wants.
Or you might hear the buyer telling a stall holder that “the kid’s gotta have braces”, which means they don’t have enough spare money lying around to afford the price being offered.
If the customer is really shocked at the price suggested by the seller, they also might say “you’re killing me” to indicate that they think the price is far too high.
In Britain, it’s difficult to imagine anyone saying anything along these lines. If I were forced to bargain, I’d probably say, very simply: “I’m going to make you an offer.” If that offer were refused, I think I’d just walk away.The underlined word “haggling” can be replaced by _______.
| A．arguing | B．bargaining | C．performing | D．insisting |
Why don’t the British haggle generally?
| A．They don’t think it is polite behavior. |
| B．They have sales every January. |
| C．They can always get a better price somewhere else. |
| D．They dislike openly expressing feelings or opinions. |
The underlined phrase “you drive a hard bargain” means_______.
| A．the seller has a lot of deals on offer. |
| B．the buyer will make a final offer |
| C．the stall holder is too insistent |
| D．the buyer doesn’t have a lot of spare money |
What’s the author’s attitude toward bargaining?
| A．Negative. | B．Careless. | C．Positive. | D．Critical. |
How does the passage mainly develop?
| A．By providing examples. |
| B．By making comparision. |
| C．By analyzing causes and effects. |
| D．By following the order of importance. |
The opening of the Sherlock Holmes Museum to the public on March 27, 1990, was an event that should have happened several decades ago. Baker Street is, after all, one of the world’s most famous streets because of its long association with the great detective.
Thousands of people all over the world write to Sherlock Holmes, they form clubs and societies in his honor, and they celebrate his anniversaries. Now it is also possible to see where and how he lived in Victorian times!
Here visitors will recognize familiar objects mentioned in the stories. You can take as many photographs as you want (the maid will be pleased to assist) and when you are ready to leave, a ride home in a horse-drawn carriage will complete your 19th century experience!
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson lived at 221b Baker Street from about 1881 to 1904. Apartment 221b was on the first floor of a lodging house, which they rented from a Mrs Hudson. The famous study that Holmes and his friend Dr Watson shared for almost 25 years is on the first floor overlooking Baker Street.
We know from Doctor Watson’s descriptions that their sitting room overlooking Baker Street was “illuminated(照明、照亮) by two broad windows” and that it was quite small.
Doctor Watson’s bedroom was on the second floor next to Mrs Hudson’s room and it overlooked an open yard at the back of the house. These rooms are used today for exhibits, where center stage is taken by a magnificant bronze bust(半身像)of Mr Holmes. Visitors can browse through literature, paintings, photographs and newspapers of the period. Memorabilia（纪念品） from the adventures and a selection of letters written to and from Mr Holmes are also on display.
The museum’s large and attractive souvenir shop is located on the ground floor. Here you will find a unique collection of gifts, objects of art, figures, busts, prints, books, playing cards, T-shirts, －novelties of every description available exclusively to museum visitors.According to the article, we can conclude that Sherlock Holmes’ admirers .
| A．expect replies from him |
| B．made the opening of the museum possible |
| C．treat him as if he were a real person |
| D．often adapt his books into films or plays |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．The sitting room is small but has two big windows. |
| B．Mrs Hudson’s rooms are not used as exhibit rooms. |
| C．Mr Holmes’ and Dr Watson’s bedrooms are on the same floor. |
| D．Mr Holmes and Mrs Hudson shared ownership of Apartment 221b Baker Street. |
When in the museum, which of the following can visitors not do?
| A．Take photos of the rooms or objects on show |
| B．Buy unusual and interesting souvenirs |
| C．Learn some news of Mr Holmes’s times |
| D．Ask the maid to serve you tea in the Victorian times |