In the Caucasus region of the Soviet Union, nearly 50 out of every 100,000 people live to celebrate their 100^th birthday, and many don’t stop at 100! By comparison, in America only 3 people in 100,000 reach 100. But these Soviet old people aren’t alone. The Pakistani Hunzas, who live high in the Himalaya Mountains, and the Vilacbambans of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador seem to share the secret of long too.

These peoples remain healthy in body and spirit despite the passage of time. While many older persons in industrial societies become weak and ill in their 60s and 70s, some Soviet Georgians, aged 110 to 140, work in the fields beside their great- great- grandchildren. Even the idea of aging is foreign to them. When asked, “At what age does youth end?”, most of these old people has no answer. Several replied, “Well, perhaps at age 80.” The very youngest estimate was age 60.

What accounts for this ability to survive to such old age, and to survive so well? First of all, hard physical work is a way of life for all of these long-lived peoples. They begin their long days of physical labor as children and never seem to stop. For example, Mr. Rustam Mamedov is 142 years of age. He remember his life experiences: the Grimean War of 1854; the Turkish War of 1878; the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. His wife is 116 years old. They have been married for 90 years. Mr. Mamedov has no intentions of retiring from his life as a farmer. “Why? What else would I do?” he asks. Oh, he has slowed down a bit. Now he might quit for the day after 6 hours in the field instead of 10.

All these people get healthful rewards from the environment in which they work. They all come from mountainous regions. They live and work at elevations of 5,000 to 12,000 feet (1,660 to 4,000 meters) above sea level. The air has less oxygen and is pollutionfree. This reduced-oxygen environment makes the heart and blood vessel system stronger.

Another factor that may contribute to the good health of these people is their isolation. To a great extent, they are separated from the pressures and worried of industrial society.

Inherited factors also play some role. Most of the longest-lived people had parents and grandparents who also reached very old ages. Good family genes may, therefore, be one factor in living longer.

Finally, although these three groups don’t eat exactly the same foods, their diets are similar. The Hunzas, Vilacbambans, and Soviets eat little animal meat. Their diets are full of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, cheese, and milk. They never eat more food than their bodies need.

It is clear that isolation from urban pressures and pollution, clean mountain air, daily hard work, moderate diets, good genes, and a youthful approach to life all contribute to the health and remarkable long life of all these people.

 

1. What kinds of things contribute to the remarkable long life of these peoples?

A. Moderate diets                    B. Clean mountain air.

C. Daily hard work.                  D. All the above factors（因素）.

2. How do you think the author feels about these long-lived people?

A. He is impressed with them          B. He doesn’t care.

C. He doesn’t like them.             D. He admires them.

3.According to the passage, the phrase “the passage of time” means         .

A. have time to do what they want     B. being on time

C. time going by                      D. limited time

4.In the passage, why does the author describe Mr. Mamedov?

A. An example of a typical long life among these people.

B. An example of an unusual long life among these people.

C. An explanation of why he is still healthy.

D. An example of why his wife died early than him.

5.What is the main subject of this article?

A. Mr. Mamedov’s life.

B. A description of several societies where people live a long time.

C. Suggestions for how you can live long life.

D. People are healthy in mountainous regions.

 

Sometimes children do not do what their parents tell them to do. When this happens, a parent tries to help the child to do the right thing. When this does not work, the parent usually punishes the child.

There are many things that a parent can do. One thing that people have done is to spank (打屁股) the child. When a parent spanks a child, they will use their hand or a hard object to strike them on their bottom. This is meant to show the child that they have done something wrong.

One parent remembers being spanked when he was a child. His parents used a wooden spoon. When he spanked his own children with his hand, he saw that he put a red mark on his child’s leg. He never did that again.

One problem with spanking is that it teaches the child to hit someone when they do not like what the other person is doing. Another problem with spanking is that the parent is usually angry and can hit the child too hard. Sometimes parents will use spanking for everything and not try other ways to get the child to do the right thing.

Many parents are not sure of what to do instead of spanking. Some people think that their religion tells them that spanking is okay. Some think that the law lets them do it. The courts (法院) say that parents have the right to teach their children how to behave.

Other things should be tried before a parent decides to spank a child. Telling the child exactly what is wanted from them can be one thing. Giving a child more than one choice is another thing that can be tried. Getting down to the child’s level and taking a more child-friendly approach (方法) can help as well.

1.According to the passage, when children do something wrong, one thing that parents usually do to punish them is to ________.

A. strike them on the bottom     B. try to help them do the right thing

C. teach them what to do         D. take them to court

2. Which of the following is NOT the problem caused by spanking?

A. It teaches the child to hit others when they offend（使人不快） him or her.

B. The parent may get angry and hit the child too hard.

C. Sometimes parents may use spanking for everything.

D. It makes parents try other ways to make the child do right.

3.Which of the following can best describe the writer’s attitude towards spanking?

A. favorable  B. indifferent    C. interested  D. unfavorable

4.From this passage, we can conclude that ________.

A. Good children always do the right thing.

B. Parents should try their best to avoid spanking their children.

C. Parents have no choice but to spank their children when they do something wrong.

D. Children can have more than one choice to avoid being spanked.

 

 

A. Using expensive testing equipment B. Staffing a modern hospital C. Testing becoming a great help D. Cost of medical accidents E. Cost of training medical workers F. Measures of reducing medical costs

1._____________________

Physicians’ fees are only one reason for rising health costs in the United States. Medical research has produced many tests to diagnose, or discover, patients’ illness. Physicians usually feel obliged to order enough tests to rule out all likely causes of a patient’s symptoms. A routine laboratory bill for blood tests can easily be more than $100.

2. _____________________

Sophisticated new machines have been developed to enable physicians to scan body organs with a clarity never before possible. One technique involves the use of ultrasound – sound waves beyond the frequencies that human beings can hear – to produce images. Others use computers to capture and analyze images produced by X-rays or magnetic fields. These machines are extremely expensive: The price of a single machine can exceed one million dollars.

3._____________________ 

New technologies also mean new personnel. Physicians, nurses and orderlies can no longer staff a hospital alone. Hospitals now require a bewildering number of technical specialists to administer new tests and operate advanced medical equipment.

4._____________________

Physicians and hospitals also must buy malpractice insurance to protect themselves should they be sued for negligence by patients who feel they have been mistreated or have received inadequate care. The rates for this insurance have been raised very steeply in the last ten years, as patients have become more medically knowledgeable, and as juries sometimes awarded very large amounts of money to injured patients.

5. _____________________

As a result, hospital costs and physicians’ fees rose steadily through the 1990s. Government agencies became convinced that it was necessary to limit rising medical costs. One approach is to require hospitals to prove that a need exists for new buildings and services. Hospitals also have faced pressure to run their operations more efficiently, and to decrease the duration of hospital stays for patients receiving routine treatment or minor surgery.

 

Recently there was a major discovery in the scientific research—the mapping of all DNA in a human gene（基因）is complete. Couple of years ago, this seems an impossible task for scientist to accomplish. All this progress in science leads us to believe that the day, when the human being will be cloned, is not far away. Human cloning has always been a topic of argument，in terms of morality or religion.

Taking a look at why cloning might be beneficial, among many cases, it is arguable that parents who are known to be at risk of passing a genetic limitation to a child could make use of cloning. If the clone was free of genetic limitations. Then the other clone would be as well. The latter could foe inserted in the woman and allowed to ripen to term. Moreover，cloning would enable women, who can’t get pregnant, to have children of their own.

Cloning humans would also mean that organs could be cloned, so it would be a source of perfect transfer organs. This, surely would be greatly beneficial to millions of unfortunate people around the world that are expected to lose their lives due to failure of single(or more) organ(s）.It is also arguable that a ban on cloning may be unlawful and would rob people of the right to reproduce and limit the freedom of scientists.

Arguments against cloning are also on a perfectly practical side. Primarily, I believe that cloning would step in the normal “cycle”of life. There would be a large number of same genes., which reduce the chances of improvement，and, in turn, development-the fundamental reason how living things naturally adapt to the ever-changing environment. Life processes failing to do so might result in untimely disappearance. Furthermore, cloning would make the uniqueness that each one of us possesses disappea. Thus, leading to creation of genetically engineered groups of people for specific purposes and, chances are, that those individuals would be regarded as “objects” rather than people in the society.

Scientists haven’t 100 percent. guaranteed that the first cloned will be normal. Thus this could result in introduction of additional limitations in the human “gene-pool”.

Regarding such arguable topics in “black or white” approach seems very innocent to me personally. We should rather try to look at all “shades: of it. I believe that cloning is only legal if its purpose is for cloning organs, not humans. Then we could regard this as for “saving life” instead of “creating life”. I believe cloning humans is morally and socially unacceptable.

1.Which of the following is true according to the passage？

    A. Genetic limitation will be beneficial for some women

   B. A large number of genes will prevent us from developing

   C. Prohibition of cloning might limit the freedom of scientists

   D. First cloned humans might be normal according to scientists

2.What’s the author’s opinion on cloning?

   A. Cloning should be entirely banned

   B. Cloning should be used in creating life

   C. Cloning will take away the right to reproduce

   D. Cloning is acceptable if it is used for cloning organs

3.Where can you read this article?

   A. In a story book.                   B. In a magazine.   C. In a science fiction D. In a brochure

4.  Which of the following shows the structure of the passage

 

语音题（每小题1分，共5分）

1.sunlight  A. truly   B. subjective  C .unique   D. jungle

2. creature  A. bread  B. great      C. sneaker   D. leather

3. hunger   A. singer   B. outstanding  C. swing    D .finger

4. approach  A. church B .machine   C .moustache  D  stomach

5. false     A all     B. bald      C. facial    D. central