We know that hugs make us feel easy inside. And this feeling, it turns out, could actually ward off stress and protect r the immune (免疫) system, according to a new research from Carnegie Mellon University.
It’s a well-known fact that stress can weaken the immune system. In this study, the researchers sought to determine whether hugs----like social support more broadly ----could protect individuals from the increased sensitivity to illness brought on by the particular stress that come with interpersonal conflict.
“We know that people experiencing ongoing conflicts with others are less able to fight off cold viruses. We also know that people who report having social support are partly protected from the effects of stress on psychological states, such as depression and anxiety, “the study’s lead author, psychologist Dr. Sheldon Cohen , said in a statement. “We tested whether awareness of social support is equally effective in protecting us from sensitivity to infection caused by stress and also whether receiving hugs might partially account for those feeling of support and thus protect a person against infection.”
In the experiment , over 400 healthy adults filled out a questionnaire about their perceived (感知) social support and also participated in a nightly phone interview for two weeks . They were asked the frequency they engaged in interpersonal conflicts and received bugs that day.
Then, the researchers exposed the participants to a common cold virus, and monitored them to assess signs of infection. They found that both perceived social support and more frequent hugs reduced the risk of infection associated with experiencing interpersonal conflict. Regardless of whether or not they experienced social conflicts, infected participants with greater perceived social support and more frequent hugs had less severe illness symptoms.
“This suggests that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means of conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an effective means of reducing the effects of stress,” Cohen said. “The apparent protective effect of hugs may result from the physical contact itself or hugging being a behavioral indicator of support and closeness. Either way, those who receive more hugs are somewhat more protected from infection.”
If you need any more reason to go wrap your arms around someone special, consider this: hugs also lower blood pressure, reduce fearsome around death and dying, improve heart health and decrease feeling of loneliness.In Paragraph 1, the underlined words “ward off “can be replaced by ____.
| A．produce | B．increase |
| C．prevent | D．support |
Dr. Sheldon Cohen’s experiment shows that ____.
| A．hugs can hide serious illness symptoms |
| B．social conflicts can monitor signs of infection |
| C．social support can reduce the risk of having a cold |
| D．depression and anxiety result from less social support |
The passage aims to convey that ____.
| A．hugs can have protective effects |
| B．social support can sure diseases |
| C．interpersonal conflicts cause infections |
| D．stress can weaken our immune system |
The passage is most likely to be found in ____.
| A．a social science magazine |
| B．a commercial brochure |
| C．a medical report |
| D．an academic essay |
As long as you have broadband service in your home, you can turn on your desktop computer and connect to the Internet. If you have a wireless router, a device that spreads the broadband connection to other devices, you can set up a Wi-Fi network, which enables your cellphones and tablets go online too. And when you are outdoors where there is no Wi-Fi, such as in the park or at the beach, having 3G service allows you to stay connected.
It seems that lots of us have Internet coverage everywhere we go. So why have mobile companies around the world lately been so enthusiastic about a new term, “4G”? First, you need to know that the letter : “G” stands for “generation”. Even if you have no idea what 4G is, at least you can figure out that it is a step up from 3G since it’s the latest generation of mobile Internet service.
Unlike broadband, mobile Internet uses the same signal towers that provide voice service to your cellphone, which means wherever you can make phone calls with your cellphone you also have an Internet connection.
But mobile connections have their defects: they don’t carry as much information as broadband does, making opening websites and downloading music slower than they are on a Wi-Fi connection. This is why mobile connections have been constantly upgraded since the first generation was launched back in the 1980s.
According to BBC, 4G is five to seven times faster than current 3G network speeds, almost as fast as home broadband. Because of this, 4G is widely suited for services like video downloading, mapping, online shopping and even video conferencing.
To achieve the high speeds, network companies have to spend a lot of money on building new signal towers, which will eventually lead to a higher phone bill if you switch to 4G,, and you will also have to get a new phone with 4G capacity.What is paragraph 1 mainly about?
| A．The development of Wi-Fi. |
| B．Various ways to get access to the Internet. |
| C．The influences of the Internet on our life. |
| D．The convenience of using cellphones. |
The underlined word “defects” in Paragraph4 probably means_______.
| A．disadvantages | B．functions |
| C．qualities | D．benefits |
What is the weakness of 3G compared with 4G?
| A．Its voice is not as clear as 4G. |
| B．It can’t satisfy the users’ basic needs. |
| C．Its network speeds are much slower. |
| D．It has much less popularity than 4G. |
What does the author think of 4G service?
| A．Its service is worth the price. |
| B．There is no need to develop it. |
| C．It takes time to be widely used. |
| D．It provides good service at a higher price. |
Einstein was born in 1879 in Germany. As a child, he was slow to learn to talk. As a pupil, he was backward. But when he was fourteen years old， he became clever. He taught himself math from textbooks. He studied hard because he wanted to be a physicist.
In 1901，Einstein began teaching. In 1902 he continued his studies at the University of Zurich. Several years later, he formulated (系统地阐述)his famous Theory of Relativity (相对论). To most people the law of relativity is difficult to explain. But once Einstein explained it very well to a group of young students. He said, "When you sit with a good girl for two hours, you think it is only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it's two hours. That is relativity."
After Hitler came into power in Germany, Einstein went to America. In 1940 Einstein became an American citizen. In 1955， Einstein's life ended at the age of seventy-six. The law of relativity is ______ .
| A．very hard for most people to understand |
| B．too hard for Einstein himself to explain |
| C．too hard to explain to anybody except Einstein |
| D．easy to understand only for the young students |
When did Einstein become an American citizen?
| A．He was an American citizen until 1940. |
| B．Not until he had reached the age of 61 did he become an American citizen. |
| C．He did not become an American citizen until 1955. |
| D．He became an American citizen in the year when Hitler came into power. |
Which of the following do you think is true?
| A．The Germans owed their scientific progress to Einstein. |
| B．The Americans owed all their economic development to Einstein. |
| C．Einstein owed a great deal to the modem world. |
| D．Einstein made a very great contribution to modem science. |
The title for this passage should be "______ ".
| A．Theory of Relativity |
| B．An American Citizen |
| C．Albert Einstein |
| D．Einstein's Contribution |
Facing the threat of the Internet， the traditional newspaper is thinking about what it can do to meet the challenge. To make teens get into the habit of reading，the French government is considering what kind of efforts it should pursue. It seems that the two questions have nothing to do with each other, but a recent announcement made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy has connected these two issues together. The announcement gives an answer to both of them.
President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a rescue plan for France's ailing print media，including measures to save printing and distribution costs. The plan also gives French teenagers a surprise as their 18-year-old birthday gift ： France will offer all 18-year-olds a free daily copy of the newspaper of their choice.
"The habit of reading the press should start at a very young age," Sarkozy said，presenting the conclusion after talking to a group of journalists and officials in Paris. The President said the newspapers themselves would provide free copies for 18-year-olds, while the state would cover the cost of delivering them to many thousands of homes.
The plan is an attempt to introduce teenagers，who frequently only get their news online, to the delights of the printed world. A similar idea has been tested by L' Ouest-France (法兰西部报)over the past few years. It offered some 18 to 24-year-olds a free paper once a week for a year. L' Ouest-France reported that 15% of young people wanted to continue with a paid subscription after the year was over.
People in France welcomed the plan which should get more kids interested in current affairs and make reading be a pastime，as well as rescue the newspaper industry. What does the underlined word "ailing" (in Paragraph 2)probably mean?
| A．newly established | B．in difficult situations |
| C．most popular | D．warm-hearted |
It can be inferred from the passage that ______ .
| A．the government will pay for the delivery of newspapers to 18-year-olds |
| B．the government will buy newspapers for 18-year-olds for one day |
| C．some of the government officials are against the plan |
| D．President Nicolas Sarkozy would like to help the government |
What is people's reaction to the plan in France?
| A．They think it a waste of money. |
| B．They will buy newspapers themselves for 18-year-olds. |
| C．They think highly of it and support it. |
| D．They are worried that the young will leave the Internet. |
Which of the following can serve as the best title for the passage?
| A．A surprising plan from the President |
| B．Help rescue the newspaper industry |
| C．Form the reading habit for the young |
| D．Free newspapers fly to teens |
Australian scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo farts contain no methane (甲烷)and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.
While the usual image of greenhouse gas pollution is a billowing smokestack pushing out carbon dioxide，livestock passing wind contribute a surprisingly high percentage of total emissions in some countries.
"Fourteen percent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep，" said Athol Klieve，a senior research scientist with the Queensland state government.
"And if you look at another country such as New Zealand, which has got a much higher agricultural base，they're actually up around 50 percent," he said.
Researchers say the bacteria also makes the digestive process much more efficient and could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers.
But it will take researchers at least three years to isolate the bacteria，before they can even start to develop a way of transferring it to cattle and sheep.
Another group of scientists, meanwhile, has suggested Australians should farm fewer cattle and sheep and just eat more kangaroos.
The idea is controversial (争议)，but about 20 percent of health conscious Australians are believed to eat the national symbol already.
"It's low in fat，it's got high protein levels and it's very clean in the sense that basically it's the ultimate free range animal (散养动物)，" said Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales's institute of environmental studies. According to the passage, global warming is now mainly caused by ______.
| A．methane | B．carbon dioxide |
| C．livestock passing wind | D．not mention in this passage |
What does the underlined phrase "the idea" (Paragraph 9)refer to?
| A．Australians should give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep. |
| B．The bacteria could make the digestive process much more efficient. |
| C．Australians should farm fewer cattle and sheep and just eat more kangaroos. |
| D．The bacteria could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers. |
How will Australian scientists solve the problem of global warming?
| A．Eating more kangaroos. |
| B．Killing more cattle and sheep. |
| C．Letting cattle and sheep pass less wind. |
| D．Transferring the special bacteria in kangaroos' stomachs to cattle and sheep. |
Mr. Brozina is a single father and an elementary school librarian who reads aloud for a living. When his daughter, Kristen, hit fourth grade, he proposed The Streak： to see if they could read together for 100 straight bedtimes without missing once.
When The Streak reached 100, they celebrated with a pancake breakfast, and Kristen whispered， "I think we should try for 1,000 nights."
Mr. Brozina was delighted, but what he was thinking was, a thousand nights? ！ "I thought, we'll never do it，" he recalled. "And then we got to 1,000, and we said, ‘How can we stop? ’"
For 3, 218 nights (and some mornings, if Mr. Brozina was coming home too late to read) ，The Streak went on. It progressed from picture books to middle-school classics to Harry Potter, Agatha Christie, Dickens and Shakespeare，continuing on, until Kristen's first day of college.
In those nine-plus years, they survived many close calls. When Kristen was still in elementary school，her father went to Washington. "The phone rang at 10:45 at the hotel and it was Kristen," Mr. Brozina recalled. "She said, ‘ Dad, we forgot The Streak！’ Fortunately, I always traveled with several books and we read right then and there."
This spring, Kristen graduated from Rowan University. She has performed as you'd expect for a product of The Streak，an English major with a 3. 94 average. She also won two national writing contests ，was an editor of the humor arid literary publications and won the annual English department award.According to the passage, Mr. Brozina and his daughter read together for ______ .
| A．100 bedtimes |
| B．1，000 nights |
| C．over nine years |
| D．nearly 3,000 nights and some mornings |
In the passage, the underlined phrase "The Streak" in Paragraph 1 probably means ______ .
| A．the period of time for reading together |
| B．the children's book |
| C．the special night |
| D．the school work |
How has Kristen benefited from reading with her father?
| A．She has grown closer to her father. |
| B．She has become a school librarian herself. |
| C．She has performed well at university. |
| D．She has won many reading awards. |
This passage is about a father who ______ .
| A．is very strict in his work |
| B．enjoys reading when travelling |
| C．makes his daughter love reading |
| D．has a hard time bringing up his daughter |
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