通过描述一件你亲身经历的事情来说明主题“Honesty makes a difference”,要求120词以上。
Honesty makes a difference
Scientists have discovered that living to the age of 100 may have nothing to do with the lifestyle you lead and everything to do with the type of genes you have.
For the lucky carriers of “Methuselah” genes, worries over smoking, eating unhealthily and not getting enough exercise may not be as necessary as to those of us without the special gene pattern. The “Methuselah” genes could give extra protection against the diseases of old age such as cancer and heart disease. They could also protect people against the effects of the unhealthy lifestyles that we believe will lead us to an early death, scientists say. However, the genes are very rare.
The genes include ADIPOQ, which is found in about 10 percent of young people but in nearly 30 percent of people living past 100. They also include the CETP and the ApoC3 genes, which are found in 10 percent of young people, but in about 20 percent of people over 100 years old.
Some of those genes were discovered by a research group at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, led by Professor Nir Barzilai. The team studied the genes of over 500 people over 100 years old, and their children.
The studies show that tiny mutations (变异) in the make-up of some genes can greatly increase a person’s lifespan. Barzilai told a Royal Society conference that the discovery of such genes gave scientists clear targets for developing drugs that could prevent age-related diseases, allow people to live longer and stay healthy.
David Gems, a researcher at University College London, believes that drugs to slow ageing will become widespread.
“If we know which genes control longevity (长寿) then we can... target them with drugs. That makes it possible to slow down ageing,” he told The Times.
“Much of the pain and suffering in the world are caused by ageing. If we can find a way to reduce that, then we are obliged to take it.”
1.Which genes could give extra protection against the diseases of old age? (No more than 3 words) (2 marks)
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2. Whom did Barzilai’s team study? (No more than 10 words) (2 marks)
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3. What can greatly increase a person’s lifespan? (No more than 10 words) (3 marks)
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4.What can scientists do if they are aware which genes control longevity?(No more than 6 words) (3 marks)
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You want a smart phone, but just how smart do you want it? How about one that can read your mind? Well, that phone may well be on its way...
Justin Rattner, chief researcher at Intel, says that technology has developed to the point that “context-aware computing (情景感知计算)”, an idea that’s been around for twenty years, is becoming more of a reality.
That could lead to a phone that acts as a mind reader in your pocket. But rather than simply collect secrets about you, the device could do things with that information, such as predict what you might do next and make suggestions.
Rattner gave a few examples during his speech at Intel’s developer conference in San Francisco recently.
Among them is a software that Intel worked on with Fodor’s Travel, a traveling website. It learns what types of foods you like to eat and what types of places you like to visit, based on searches you type into the phone or places you searched using GPS (全球定位系统). The software makes similar recommendations when you visit a new city.
Tech companies are already working to predict what people want. Search engine Google, movie-rental service Netflix, and online radio service Pandora try to guess what people want even before they know they want it.
Putting those types of functions together with the other information that phones collect about people could pave the way for even more helpful mobile phones, Rattner said.
A challenge is training computers to look at data from “hard sensors (传感器)” (which measure place, movement, temperature and the like) and combining those findings with data from “soft sensors” (such as calendar appointments and Web browsing history).
For example, your phone could tell that you have just left school and seem to be on your way home—a location it might know from your address book. It could then tell you the best route around traffic.
Rattner added that researchers are even making steps toward the final goal—a computer understanding of thoughts.
CONCORD, N.H.—Torrential rain forced hundreds of people from their homes in parts of New England on Sunday, as water flowed over dams and washed out roads.
The governors of New Hampshire and Massachusetts declared states of emergency. Maine’s governor also declared a state of emergency for one county. “It’s a very serious situation,” said New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, adding that forecasters were predicting 12 to 15 inches of rain by the end of the storm in parts of southern New Hampshire. “It continues to change and the situation continues to worsen.”
In some towns, police and fire crews used boats to get people out of their homes and stranded cars after hundreds of roads were damaged. Others got around in kayaks(皮船). Some towns shut down, not letting anyone pass except emergency vehicles. “The town is cut right in half,” said Glenn Laramie, police chief in Andover, N.H.
A dam in Milton, N.H., was in danger of failing, which could send a 10-foot wall of water downstream, the National Weather Service said in a bulletin. People downstream were being evacuated from the town.
In Massachusetts, cars were pulled from flooded streets in downtown Peabody, about 20 miles north of Boston, and about 300 people were evacuated from an apartment complex for seniors. Businesses stacked sandbags at their doors, trying to prevent damage from water that at one point rose to waist-deep.
Some parts of New Hampshire had seen 7 inches of rain by midday Sunday and forecasters said up to 5 more inches might come during the day. About 100 residents were evacuated from their homes in Wakefield, N.H., because of concerns about two dams in the area.
Flooding in New Hampshire in October killed seven people, carried off homes and washed away miles of roads down to bedrock.
In Maine, flooding was reported on 60 roads in the southern part of the state, said governor’s spokeswoman Crystal Canney. More than 50 homes in Sanford and several in Kennebunk also were evacuated, state officials said.
1.Which is NOT true according to the article?
A. The situation in N. H. is very serious.
B. New England is a region of the U.S.
C.A state of emergency was declared in three whole states.
D. Seven people lost their lives in New Hampshire in October.
2.What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Two dams failed in New Hampshire.
B. Flood in New Hampshire.
C. State of emergency in New England.
D. Severe floods in three U.S. states.
3.In paragraph 4, the underlined word “evacuate” most probably means“ ”.
A. rescue B. trapped C. send away D. wash away
4.Which is NOT a part of New Hampshire?
A. Peabody B. Concord C .Milton D. Andover
5.What was mentioned to cope with the situation?
A. Some towns shut down. B. Some dams were open.
C. People all left their homes. D. Some temporary houses were built.
A 26-year-old Montreal man appears to have succeeded in his quest to barter a single, red paper clip(夹子) all the way up to a house. It took almost a year and 14 trades, but Kyle MacDonald has been offered a two-storey farmhouse in Kipling, Sask., for a paid role in a movie.
MacDonald began his quest last summer when he decided he wanted to live in a house. He didn’t have a job, so instead of posting a resumé, he looked at a red paper clip on his desk and decided to trade it on an Internet website. The response was immediate —a fish pen was offered for exchange. MacDonald then bartered the fish pen for a handmade doorknob from a potter in Seattle.
In Massachusetts, MacDonald traded the doorknob for a camp stove. He traded the stove to a U.S. soldier in California for a generator. Then he exchanged the generator for an “instant party kit” — an empty keg(小桶) and an illuminated Budweiser beer sign. MacDonald then traded the keg and sign for a snowmobile. He bartered all the way up to an afternoon with rock star Alice Cooper, a KISS snow globe and finally a paid role in a Corbin Bernsen movie.
“Now, I’m sure the first question on your mind is, ‘Why would Corbin Bernsen trade a role in a film for a snow globe? A KISS snow globe,’ MacDonald said on his website.”Well, Corbin happens to be arguably one of the biggest snow globe collectors on the planet.
Now, the town of Kipling, Sask., Canada, with a population of 1,100, has offered MacDonald a farmhouse in exchange for the role in the movie. The town is going to hold a competition for the movie role.
MacDonald said: “There’re people all over the world that are saying that they have paper clips clipped to the top of their computer, or on their desk or on their shirt, and it proves that anything is possible and I think to a certain degree it’s true.”
MacDonald, who has attracted international media attention in his quest, said the journey has turned out to be more exciting than the goal. “This is not the end. This may be the end of this part of the story, but this story will go on.”
1.The best title for this passage is “ ”.
A.A lucky paper clip B. From poor to rich
C.A lucky young man D. From paper clip to house
2.The underlined word in line 1 means .
A. to get something for free B. to sell something at a price
C. to sell goods on the Internet D. to exchange goods for other goods
3.Which shows the correct order of the trades?
A. Paper clipsnow globesnowmobilehouse
B. Paper clipkeg of beerdoorknobsnowmobile
C. Paper clipcamp stovesnowmobilemovie role
D. Paper clipkeg of beercamp stovesnowmobile
4.Which statement about MacDonald’s trades is TRUE?
A. All of his trades were done in his country.
B.A film role was offered due to Bernsen’s hobby.
C. They took over a year and some of them were really unbelievable.
D. The house in Kipling has been offered to MacDonald to attract media.
5.What can we learn about MacDonald?
A. He wanted to gain fame through his quest.
B .His success largely depended on the Internet.
C. He never expected his aim could be achieved.
D. He intends to begin another quest on the Web.
Tokyo is one of those places that you can love and hate at the same time.
In Tokyo there are always too many people in the places where I want to be. Of course there are too many cars. The Japanese drive very fast, but in Tokyo they often spend a long time in traffic jams. Tokyo is not different from London, Paris and New York in that. It is different when one wants to walk.
At certain times of the day there are a lot of people on foot in London’s Oxford Street. But the streets near the Ginze in Tokyo always have a lot of people on foot, and sometimes it is really difficult to walk. People are very polite; there are just too many of them.
The worst time to be in the street is at 11:30 at night. That is when the nightclubs are closing and everybody wants to go home. There are 35,000 nightclubs in Tokyo, and you do not often see one that is empty.
During the day, most people travel to and from work by train. Tokyo people buy six million train tickets every day. At most stations, trains arrive every two or three minutes, but at certain hours there do not seem to be enough trains. Although they are usually crowded, Japanese trains are very good. They always leave and arrive on time. On a London train you would see everybody reading a newspaper. In Tokyo trains everybody in a seat seems to be asleep, whether his journey is long or short.
In Tokyo, I stood outside the station for five minutes. Three fire-engines raced past on the way to one of the many fires that Tokyo has every day. Tokyo has so many surprises that none of them can really surprise me now.
1.Tokyo is different from London in that .
A. there are many traffic jams
B. nightclubs are sometimes empty
C. wherever I want to be, it’s too crowded
D. it is more difficult to go somewhere on foot
2. According to the passage, Japanese trains .
A. are always punctual
B. often delay at most situations
C. are crowded because they are often late
D. are the last means people use to travel to and from work
3.What is the story mainly about?
A. The writer’s impression of Tokyo.
B. The reasons why the writer loves Tokyo.
C. Different means of transportation in Tokyo.
D. Many surprises that Tokyo has brought to the writer.
4.Fires break out in Tokyo according to the writer.
A. very seldom B. quite frequently
C. three times a day D. the most often in the world
5.Which of the following is NOT true about Tokyo?
A. Tokyo people are friendly.
B. There are more trains than cars.
C. Fire-engines are very busy in the city.
D. The streets become more crowded at 11:30 at night.