Gene technology to benefit people
Among all the fast growing science and technology, the research of human genes, or biological engineering as people call it, is drawing more and more attention now. Sometimes it is a hot topic discussed by people.
The greatest thing that gene technology can do is to cure serious diseases that doctors at present can almost do nothing with, such as cancer and heart disease. Every year, millions of people are murdered by these two killers. And to date, doctors have not found an effective way to cure them. But if the gene technology is applied, not only these two diseases can be cured completely, bringing happiness and more living days to the patients, but also the great amount of money people spend on curing their diseases can be saved, therefore it benefits the economy as well. In addition, human life span(寿命) can be prolonged.
Gene technology can help people to give birth to more healthy and clever children. Some families, with the English imperial(皇室) family being a good example, have hereditary(遗传的) diseases. This means their children will for sure have the family disease, which is a great trouble for these families. In the past, doctors could do nothing about hereditary diseases. But gene technology can solve this problem perfectly. The scientist just need to find the wrong gene and correct it and a healthy child will be born.
Some people are worrying that the gene research can be used to manufacture human beings in large quantities. In the past few years, scientists have succeeded in cloning a sheep; therefore these people predict that human babies would soon be cloned. But I believe cloned babies will not come out in large quantities, for most couples in the world can have babies in very normal way. Of course, the governments must take care to control gene technology.
1.What does "these two killers" in the second paragraph refer to?
A.Gene technology and another treatment of the two diseases.
B.The two murderers who killed the cloned baby
C.The two diseases of cancer and heart disease
D.Hereditary diseases and cancer
2.What’s the main idea of the third paragraph?
A.How gene technology can be applied in the field of treating hereditary diseases.
B.Gene technology can be used to clone human babies.
C.Gene technology can help people to give birth of a baby.
D.Gene technology can help the English imperial family out
3.In what way gene technology can help to treat hereditary diseases?
A.Using gene technology, people with hereditary diseases can have more living days.
B.Using gene technology, scientist finds the wrong gene and corrects it.
C.Using gene technology, human babies can be cloned.
D.Doctors can cure cancer and heart disease with the help of gene technology.
4.What is the main purpose of writing this passage?
A.Expressing the writer’s idea that gene technology will benefit people
B.Telling people the advantages of gene technology
C.Telling the readers that gene technology will not benefit people
D.Explaining that gene technology will also do harm to the humanity
Your teenage best friend could be good for your long-term mental health，according to a new study published in the journal Child Development According to the findings, teenagers aged 15 to 16 who had a close friendship rather than a larger group of friends they were less close to had a greater sense of self-worth by the time they were 25 years old. Those people with a very close best friend were also less likely to experience depression and social anxiety, the study found．
“Close friendship strength in mid-adolescence predicted relative increases in self-worth and decreases in anxiety and depressive symptoms by early adulthood，”the authors, led by Rachel K, Narr，a postdoctoral student focused on clinical psychology at the University of Virginia, wrote.
A past research has suggested that adolescent friendships are important. Friendships during the teenage years predict academic success and improved mental health. But the new research further explores the type of friendships teenagers have. “My hunch（预感）was that close friendships compared to broader friendship groups and popularity may not function the same way,” Narr told Quartz. "Being successful in one is not the same as being successful in the other."
Many study participants did not continue to have a close relationship with their high-school best friend, leading the researchers to wonder what exactly was responsible for the mental health benefits. They suspected that the skills and ability to build such a friendship may be more important than the friendship itself.
And as the researchers point out, those skills are not necessarily brought to bear in the world of social media. "As technology makes it increasingly easy to build a social network of shallow friends, focusing time and attention on developing close connections with a few individuals should be a priority," study co-author Joseph Allen said in a statement.
1.What is the benefit of having a close teenage friendship?
A.Excellent performance in high school. B.A larger group of friends.
C.Mental health by early adulthood. D.A large social network in the future.
2.What can we learn about the past research?
A.It attached great significance to adolescent friendships.
B.It was totally different from the new research.
C.It helped improve teenagers' mental health.
D.It compared broader friendship groups with popularity.
3.What did the researchers think might lead to the mental health benefits?
A.Not continuing to have a close relationship. B.Having a best friend in high school.
C.Understanding the world of social media. D.Knowing how to build a close friendship
4.What did the researcher Joseph suggest?
A.Learning to use social media.
B.Broadening your social circle.
C.Improving the skills of making friends.
D.Concentrating on high-quality relationship.
Most people agree that eating healthy food is important. But sometimes making good food choices can be difficult. Now, there are apps that can help people learn about the food they eat to improve their health and their dining out experience.
Open Table app
Open Table app helps people choose restaurants when they want to go out to eat. It is a free service that shows users restaurant available based on where and when they want to dine. It gives users points when they make reservations(预定),which can add up to discounts on restaurant visits.
Max McCalman's Cheese&Wine Pairing app
Wine and cheese can be a great combination. But which wines go best with which cheeses? Max McCalman's Cheese&Wine Pairing app can help. It provides information about hundreds of different cheeses and suggests wines to pair with each. Max McCalman's Cheese&Wine Pairing app is free.
HappyCow app
Vegetarians do not eat animal meat. Vegans do not eat any animal products. The HappyCow app is made for both groups. Users can search for vegetarian-vegan restaurants and stores around the world.
LocalEats app
Restaurant chains, like McDonalds, can be found almost anywhere a person might travel. But sometimes travelers want to eat like locals. The LocalEats app is designed for that. It can help you find local restaurants in major cities in the US and in other countries. It costs about a dollar.
Where Chefs Eat app
“Where Chefs Eat”is a 975-pagc book. Most people would not want to carry that around. But there is a much lighter app version of the same name for just $15. Six hundred chefs provide information on 3,000 restaurants around the world on the Where Chefs Eat app.
1.What do the first two apps have in common?
A.They are both free of charge. B.Discounts are provided on both
C.Best wines can be reserved on both D.They tell you where to have the best food.
2.Who is HappyCow app probably designed for?
A.Friends drinking wines together. B.Chefs enjoying meat very much．
C.People who want to go on a diet. D.Those often eating in a restaurant.
3.Where can we most likely see the text?
A.On a tourism guide. B.In a cellphone application introduction
C.In a students' textbook D.On a scientific discovery TV program
阅读下面短文，根据内容写一篇 60 词左右的内容概要。
Nowadays the business of fast food is developing at a rapid speed. Have you ever thought twice before deciding to eat fast food? Even if it is easy to buy and cheap, the risks outweigh(胜过) the five minutes of satisfaction that fast food brings. There are many risks when it comes to eating food that’s made in just a few of seconds.
What you eat can affect your health. People who are addicted to fast food are more likely to suffer from various life-threatening diseases. Obesity(肥胖) can come when fast food is bought often. Fast food is made from a lot of fats and high calories. If it isn’t removed, then you can grow to become obese. Even a small quantity of fast food contains many calories. People are fooled by its appearance and they tend to eat more. Thus, without knowing, they consume a lot of calories. What’s worse, obesity isn’t the only risk. Heart disease is also a danger. The more fats, sugar and salt you eat, the weaker your heart can grow.
Another concern for most consumers is that they can’t keep track of the sources of the food supplies in fast food restaurants. They never know about the living conditions of the animals killed for meat in those restaurants, like cows, pigs, and chicken. A recent study has suggested that bacteria have been found in about 38% fast food. Even some soft drinks are now infected by food-borne illnesses that usually come from meat.
Although fast food is one of the easiest and cheapest ways of eating, the health risks aren’t worth your life, and risking your life for something that isn’t good for you could cost thousands of dollars in hospital bills. It is important to eat healthily and make good choices when deciding what to put in your body. Don’t be lazy and pick up fast food on your way home from work.
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用本单元所学单词或短语填空
1.______ vt.影响
2.______ vt.破坏;毁坏
3.______ vt.供应;供给
4.______造成损害
5.______向……提供……
阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。
Most of the survivors have to stay in the open area overnight after a 7.1-magnitude quake toppled (使倒塌)houses, cut off power and first-aid materials supply in northwest China’s Qinghai Province Wednesday while rescuers face difficulties in searching for the buried.
Rescuers have set up more than 40 tents for survivors in the Gyegu Town, near the epicenter (震中) in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu in southern Qinghai. But the effort seems far less than enough for the area inhabited by some 100,000 people.
Many people sought temporary shelters in buildings that remained unaffected by the tremor (轻微地震).
In the yard of Yushu’s Sports Committee, nearly 1,000 people were sitting or lying on the ground in sheer (完全的, 十足的) darkness. Some wrapped themselves up with quilts taken out from the debris (碎片, 残骸).
Some brought their own tents and others turned on the lights of motorcycles.
“I’m hungry and thirsty. We’ve been waiting for help since the morning,” said Zhaxi Toinzhub.
The woman said her three children were still buried in the rubble (碎石, 瓦砾).
The National Meteorological Station forecast Wednesday that temperatures may hit minus 3 degrees Celcius at night and 15 degrees Celcius in the daytime in the coming days.
The town would see strong winds and sunny weather in the coming days, providing favorable conditions for rescue operations.
The town is located in a remote area in Qinghai and the quake and ensuing (随后的) landslides have damaged roads, causing great difficulties for rescuers and, especially, machines from outside to enter the region.
“Rescuers had to dig with bare hands or iron sticks Wednesday, looking forward to the arrival of digging machines,” said a rescuer surnamed Wang, who was working at a collapsed hostel.
“The searching operation became even harder at night without lighting facilities,” he said.
In addition, rescuers may easily get exhausted working at a place with an altitude (海拔) of above 4,000 meters.
Thousands of rescuers and medical staff are rushing to Yushu from many regions of China, bringing machines, disaster-relief materials and medicines to the quake-hit town. Governments, organizations, enterprises and individuals are offering donations of money and materials to the region.
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