Dieters are often advised to stop drinking alcohol to avoid the extra calories lurking in a glass of wine or a favorite cocktail．But new research suggests that women who regularly consume moderate（适度的） amounts of alcohol are less likely to gain weight than nondrinkers and are at lower risk for obesity （fatness）．
The findings, reported this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, are based on a study of 19,220 United States women aged 30 to 40 who fall into the “normal weight” based on their body mass index．Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston tracked the women’s drinking habits over 13 years．About 60 percent of the women were light or regular drinkers, while about 40 percent reported drinking no alcohol．
Over the course of the study, 41 percent of the women became overweight．Although alcohol is packed with calories, the nondrinkers in the study actually gained more weight over time: nine pounds, on average, compared with an average gain of about three pounds among regular moderate drinkers．The risk of becoming overweight was almost 30 percent lower for women who consumed one or two alcohol drinks a day, compared with nondrinkers．
The findings are certain to be confusing for women who continue to receive conflicting messages about the health benefits and risks of alcohol．Although moderate drinking is associated with better heart health, regular drinking also increases breast cancer risk．
The trend toward less weight gain among drinkers doesn’t appear to hold true for men．A 2003 study of British men showed that regular drinkers gained more weight than nondrinkers．Studies suggest that drinking alcohol has different effects on eating habits among men and women．Men typically add alcohol to their daily caloric intake, whereas women are more likely to substitute（替代）alcohol for food．In addition, there may be differences in how men and women metabolize（代谢）alcohol．Metabolic studies show that after men drink alcohol, they experience little if any metabolic change．But alcohol appears to slightly speed up a woman’s metabolism．
The findings don’t mean women should rush to drink alcohol to lose weight．Other research shows that once a person is already overweight, her alcohol metabolism is more efficient, and so an overweight woman may gain more weight from alcohol than a lean（瘦的） woman．The data do, however, suggest that for many women facing weight problems, the extra calories are probably not coming from alcoholic drinks．According to the study, which of the following regular drinker is less likely to gain weight than nondrinkers?
A B C DThat men regular drinkers gained more weight than women regular drinkers is due to the following except ______．
| A．women are more likely to substitute alcohol for food． |
| B．men drink alcohol much faster than women． |
| C．men and women metabolize alcohol differently． |
| D．men have different effects on eating habits with women． |
The underlined word “whereas” may probably mean _______．
| A．so | B．in order that | C．but | D．and then |
What can a dieter probably do before reading this passage?
| A．Rush to drink alcohol to lose weight |
| B．Add alcohol to his or her daily caloric intake． |
| C．Face the weight problems alone． |
| D．Try to stop drinking any alcohol or wine． |
People talk about energy everywhere. Green energy, for example. Then, energy independence. It has a nice ring to it. Doesn’t it? If you think so, you’re not alone, because energy independence has been the dream of American president for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession(经济衰退).
"Energy independence" and its rhetorical(修辞的) companion "energy security" are, however, unreliable concepts that are rarely thought through. What is it that we want independence from, exactly?
Most people would probably say that they want to be independent from imported oil. But there are reasons that we buy all that oil from elsewhere.
The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running. Yes, there is a trickle(涓涓细流) of biofuel(生物燃料) available, and more may become available, but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction.
Second, Americans have basically decided that they don’t really want to produce all their own oil. They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad. Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the name of environmental protection. To what extent are Americans really willing to tolerate the environmental influence of domestic(国内的) energy production in order to cut back imports?
Third, there are benefits to trade. It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit. And although you don’t read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of oil products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.
There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to keep its economy stable. When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices. At the same time, we get massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.What does the author say about energy independence for America?
| A．It sounds very attractive. |
| B．It ensures national security. |
| C．It will bring oil prices down. |
| D．It will protect the environment. |
Why does America rely heavily on oil imports?
| A．It wants to expand its storage of raw oil. |
| B．Its own oil reserves are quickly running out. |
| C．Its own oil production falls short of demand. |
| D．It wants to keep its own environment untouched. |
What does the author say about oil trade?
| A．It improves economic efficiency. |
| B．It makes for economic recession. |
| C．It brings benefit only to the sellers. |
| D．It saves the cost of oil exploration. |
What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
| A．To explain the increase of international oil trade. |
| B．To raise Americans' awareness of the energy crisis. |
| C．To argue for America’s dependence on oil imports. |
| D．To stress the importance of energy protection. |
Whenever people think of charity, the first word that jumps into their mind may be money donated to the needy. However, Wugging, or web-use giving, describes the act of giving to charity at no cost to the user. By using Everyclick. com, which is being added to a number of university computers across the UK, students can raise money every time they search, but it won’t cost them a penny.
Research shows that students are extremely enthusiastic about supporting charity--88% of full time students have used the Internet to give to charity. This figure is high considering this age group is often the least likely to have their own income. 19% of 22 to 24 year olds have short-term debts of more than & 5, 000. With rising personal debt levels in this age group, due to university tuition fees or personal loans and a lack of long-term savings, traditional methods of donating to charity are often not appealing or possible.
Beth Truman, a 21-year-old recent university graduate, has used Everyclick. com to donate to her chosen charity, the RSPCA, for two years and has seen the "Wugging" grow in popularity with students. "When you’re at university you become more socially aware, but it’s sometimes hard to give to others when you have little money yourself," says Beth. "Wugging is great for people in this age group as it allows them to use the technology on a daily basis to give to charity, without costing them a single penny."
Wugging is perfect for people who want to be more socially aware and supportive but don’t feel they have the means to do so. Students using the web can raise money for causes they care about without costing them anything in terms of time or money, and charities get a valuable source of funding.
Everyclick. com works like any other search engine, allowing users to search for information, news and images but users can decide which of the UK’s 170, 000 charities they would like to support through their clicks. Everyclick. com then makes monthly payments to every registered charity. Launched in June 2005, Everyclick. com is now the eighth largest search engine and one of the busiest charity websites in the UK.According to the passage, "Wugging" is actually____.
| A．a charity-related action |
| B．a website |
| C．a school organization |
| D．a student movement |
In the case of charity, Everyclick. com____.
| A．receives much money from students |
| B．frees students of the financial worries |
| C．offers valuable information to students |
| D．praises students for their money-raising |
From the passage, we can conclude that____.
| A．most full time students do charity on the Internet every day |
| B．Everyclick. com is the busiest charity website in the UK |
| C．Everyclick. com helps students pay for further education |
| D．"Wugging" is a win-win idea for both students and charities |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．"Wugging", a popular term on the Internet |
| B．Students collect money for charity by "Wugging" |
| C．More British charities benefit from the Internet |
| D．Charity enjoys increasing popularity with the British |
People laugh and people cry. But it is thought that emotions such as anger, or joy, typically make Americans feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. The shedder of tears(落泪者) is likely to apologize, even when a great tragedy was the cause. The observer of tears is likely to do everything possible to put an end to the emotional tears. But judging from recent studies of crying behavior, both those responses to tears are often inappropriate and may even be counterproductive (适得其反).
Humans are the only animals clearly known to shed emotional tears. Since evolution has given rise to few purposeless physiological responses, it is logical to assume that crying has one or more functions that increase survival.
Although some observers have suggested that crying is a way to ask for assistance form others (as a crying baby might from its mother), the shedding of tears is hardly necessary to get help. Vo-cal (出声的) cries would have been quite enough, more likely than tears to gain attention. So, it appears that there must be something special about tears themselves.
Indeed, the new studies suggest that emotional tears may play a direct role in easing stress. University of Minnesota researchers who are studying the chemical composition of tears have recently separated two important chemicals from emotional tears. Both chemicals are found only in tears that are shed in response to emotion. Tears shed because of exposure to cut onion would contain no such substance.
Other researchers are looking into the usefulness of tears as a means of diagnosing human ills and monitoring drugs. At Tulane University’s Teat Analysis Laboratory Dr. Peter Kastl and his colleagues report that they can use tears to detect drug abuse, to study the causes of "dry eye" syndrome(综合症) and the effects of eye surgery, and perhaps even to measure exposure to environmental pollutants.What does the phrase "both those responses" in Paragraph 1 refer to?
| A．Crying out of sorrow and shedding tears for happiness. |
| B．The embarrassment and unpleasant feelings of the observers. |
| C．Linking illness with crying and finding the chemical composition of tears. |
| D．The tear shedder’s apology and the observer’s effort to stop the crying. |
It is known from the first paragraph that____.
| A．shedding tears gives unpleasant feelings to Americans |
| B．crying may often result in tragedy |
| C．crying usually wins sympathy from other people |
| D．one who sheds tears in public will be blamed |
What does the author say about crying?
| A．It is a pointless physiological response to the environment. |
| B．It must have a role to play in man' s survival. |
| C．It is meant to get attention and assistance. |
| D．It usually produces the desired effect. |
From the passage we can infer that____.
| A．it is unnatural for people to shed tears |
| B．we can reduce our stress by shedding tears |
| C．shedders of tears can' t get help by crying loudly |
| D．unlike animals, humans can shed tears for survival |
My old digital camera broke down, so I wanted to buy a new one. Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand. So I went on the Net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store. There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked an assistant, "Can I have one of those? " He looked perturbed(不安). "Do you want to try it first?" he said. It didn’t quite sound like a question. "Do I need to?" I replied, "There’s nothing wrong with it." This made him look a bit offended and I started to feel bad. "No, no. But you should try it," he said encouragingly, "compare it with the others.
I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.
But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The assistant seemed a sincere man. So I let him take out my chosen camera from the cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers... and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well. Why do we think that new options still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine.The shop assistant insisted that the writer should ____.
| A．trust him and stop asking questions |
| B．try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it |
| C．get more information about different companies |
| D．compare the camera he had chosen with the others |
What does the writer mean by "it would be worth half what I paid for it"(Paragraph 2)?
| A．He should get a 50% discount. |
| B．The price of the camera would soon fall. |
| C．The quality of the camera was not good. |
| D．The price of the camera was unreasonably high. |
The writer decided to try the model he had chosen because he _______.
| A．knew very little about it |
| B．wanted to make sure the one he chose would be the best |
| C．didn't trust the shop assistant |
| D．had a special interest in taking pictures of his fellow shoppers |
It can be inferred from the passage that in the writer’s opinion, _______.
| A．we waste too much money on cameras |
| B．cameras have become an important part of our daily life |
| C．we don’t actually need so many choices when buying a product |
| D．famous companies care more about profit than quality |
Though the Web is becoming increasingly popular, the TV never fails to attract people. Do you know which television network is the largest in America? It is not ABC, CBS, or Fox. Nor is it one of the cable net-works such as CNN, which carries only news and news stories. It is not ESPN, the all-sports cable net-work, or even MTV, which is famous for its music videos. Rather it is PBS, Public Broadcasting System, a non-profit public broadcasting TV service. PBS has 349 member television stations in the U. S. and some member stations by cable in Canada.
PBS only attracts a minority of all TV viewers, about 2 percent. The industry leader, NBC, however, attracts 11 percent of viewers. But the growth of public television in the past two decades has been dramatic. This is especially noteworthy(值得关注) when one considers that public television stations must often survive on very limited budgets, on viewers’ donations, and on private foundations and some governmental funding.
The level of quality of PBS programs, whether in national and international news, entertainment, or education, is excellent. Almost a whole generation of children throughout the world is familiar with Sesame Street and the characters of The Muppet Show. PBS is especially well known for the quality of its many educational TV programs. Over 95 percent of all public television stations have tele-courses. These courses are accepted and supported by more than 1, 800 colleges and universities throughout the US. Each year, over a quarter of a million students take courses this way.According to this article, PBS received part of its funding from___.
| A．the audience |
| B．public schools |
| C．advertising agencies |
| D．other television stations |
What is PBS most famous for?
| A．Cable services. |
| B．Generous donations. |
| C．Tele-courses. |
| D．Live news broadcasts. |
Which of the following is TRUE about public television stations?
| A．The majority of their viewers are minority people. |
| B．Ninety-five percent of their programs are tele-courses. |
| C．They are shrinking in number because they make no profits. |
| D．Their courses are accepted by many universities in America. |
Which of the following has the highest percentage of viewers?
| A．ABC | B．PBS |
| C．NBC | D．Fox |
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