Essentially, everyone has two ages: a chronological(按时间计算的) age, how old the calendar says you are, and a biological age, basically the age at which your body functions as it compares to average fitness or health levels.
“Chronological age isn’t how old we really are. It’s merely a number,” said Professor David Sinclair at Harvard University. “It is biological age that determines our health and ultimately our lifespan(寿命). We all age biologically at different rates according to our genes, what we eat, how much we exercise, and what environment we live in. Biological age is the number of candles we really should be blowing out. In the future, with advances in our ability to control biological age, we may have even fewer candles on our birthday cake than the previous one.”
To calculate biological age, Professor Levine at Yale University identified nine bio-markers that seemed to be the most influential on lifespan by a simple blood test. The numbers of those markers, such as blood sugar and immune measures, can be put into the computer, and the algorithm (算法) does the rest.
Perhaps what’s most important here is that these measures can be changed. Doctors can take this information and help patients make changes to lifestyle, and hopefully take steps to improve their biological conditions. “I think the most exciting thing about this research is that these things aren’t set in stone,” Levine said. “People can be given the information earlier and take steps to improve their health before it’s too late.”
Levine even entered her own numbers into the algorithm. She was surprised by the results. “I always considered myself a very healthy person. I’m physically active; I eat what I consider a fairly healthy diet. But I did not find my results to be as good as I had hoped they would be. It was a wake-up call,” she said.
Levine is working with a group to provide access to the algorithm online so that anyone can calculate their biological age, identify potential risks and take steps to improve their own health in the long run. “No one wants to live an extremely long life with a lot of chronic diseases,” Levine said. “By delaying the development of mental and physical functioning problems, people can still be engaged in society in their senior years. That is the ideal we should be pursuing.”
1.Biological age depends on __________.
A.what the calendar says about our age
B.when we start to take outdoor exercise
C.whether we can adapt ourselves to the environment
D.how well our body works compared with our peers’
2.What does the author mean by saying the underlined part in Paragraph 2?
A.We are chronologically older than last year.
B.We might be less happy than the previous year.
C.We don’t have to celebrate our birthday every year.
D.We may be biologically younger than the year before.
3.What does the author want to tell us by Levine’s example in Paragraph 5?
A.It is necessary to change our diet regularly.
B.The test results may give us wrong information.
C.Waking up early in the morning is good for our fitness.
D.The algorithm can reveal our potential health problems.
4.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A.Bio-markers Can Make Us Younger
B.Chronological Age and Biological Age
C.Old People can Still be Engaged in Society
D.Biological Age can Lag behind or Exceed Chronological Age
When 19-year-old Sophia Giorgi said she was thinking of volunteering to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation (基金会)，nobody understood what she was talking about .But Sophia knew just how important Make – A –Wish could be because this special organization had helped to make a dream come true for one her best friends .We were interested in finding out more ,so we went along to meet Sophia listen to what she had to say .
Sophia told us that Make – A –Wish is a worldwide organization that started in the United States in 1980.”It’s a charity(慈善机构)that helps children who have got very serious illnesses. Make – A –Wish help children feel happy even though they are sick, by making their wishes and dreams come true ,” Sophia explained .
We asked Sophia how Make – A –Wish had first started .She said it had all begun with a very sick young boy called Chris ,who had been dreaming for a long time of becoming a policeman .Sophia said lots of people had wanted to find a way to make Chris’s dream come true ----so, with everybody’s help , Chris, only seven years old at the time ,had been a “policeman” for a day .” when people saw how delighted Chris was when his dream came true, they decided to try and help other sick children too ,and that was the beginning of Make – A –Wish,” explained Sophia
Sophia also told us the Foundation tries to give children and their families a special, happy time. A Make-A-Wish volunteer visits the families and asks the children what they would wish for if they could have anything in the world. Sophia said the volunteers were important because they were the ones who helped to make the wishes come true. They do this either by providing things that are necessary, or by raising money or helping out in whatever way they can.
1.Sophia found out about Make-A-Wish because her best friend had .
A.volunteered to help it B.benefited from it
C.dreamed about it D.told the author about it
2.According to Sophia, Make-A-Wish .
A.is an international charity
B.was understood by nobody at first
C.raises money for very poor families
D.started by drawing the interest of the public
3.What is said about Chris in Paragraph3?
A.He has been a policeman since he was seven.
B.He gave people the idea of starting Make-A-Wish
C.He wanted people to help make his dream come true.
D.He was the first child Make-A-Wish helped after it had been set up.
4.Which of the following is true about Make-A-Wish volunteers?
A.They are important for making wishes come true.
B.They try to help children get over their illnesses.
C.They visit sick children to make them feel special.
D.They provide what is necessary to make Make-A-Wish popular.
Do you want to go out to eat with your kids? Here are some restaurants that are good for kids in downtown Los Angeles.
Grand Café
Tel: (213) 356-4155
Do you need a place that opens as early as your kids wake up? Then go to Grand Café. Families can order breakfast off the menu or enjoy the buffet. Because of the variety, buffets seem to be an easy option for families with picky eaters. There are many options for the different moods of all family members.
Tel: (213) 623-8301
Nickel Diner was listed in Los Angeles Magazines as one of “LA’s Best New Restaurants”. The space is small, but the menu is wonderfully large. The atmosphere is quiet and relaxed, which makes it easy to bring the kids. One of the most attractive things about Nickel Diner is its unique menu of breakfast foods.
Lucky Strike Bowl
Tel: (213) 542-4880
There’s nothing like a good game of bowling to add some happiness to the family outing. Why not take the family to a place where you can bowl while eating? Try their homemade Belgium fries, the mini burgers, flatbread pizza, or crispy tacos. Downtown LA’s Lucky Strike Bowl will never make you and your kids disappointed.
Kula
Tel: (213) 290-9631
Kula is an exciting sushi bar and is a big hit for little sushi eaters. Kula’s concept includes providing “a high standard of natural organic foods” and they use 100% organic rice. If your child is not a sushi eater, there are also many other options.
1.Who would most probably go to eat at Grand Café?
A.People who love organic foods.
B.People who want to play while eating.
C.People who love a quiet eating environment.
D.People who want to serve themselves in a restaurant.
2.Which of the following aspects of Kula most attractive to eaters?
A.It has many other options. B.It offers very healthy foods.
C.It allows kids to run around. D.It offers different kinds of rice.
3.What is the purpose of the passage?
A.To encourage people to go to Los Angeles.
B.To compare some kid-friendly restaurants.
C.To recommend some nice foods in the city.
D.To recommend some kid-friendly restaurants.
My job was to make classroom observations and encourage a training program that would enable students to feel good about themselves and take charge of their lives. Donna was one of the volunteer teachers who participated in this ________.
One day, I entered Donna’s classroom, took a seat in the back of the room and ________. All the students were working on a ________. The student next to me was filling her page with “I Can’ts.” “I can’t kick the soccer ball.” “I can’t get Debbie to like me.” Her page was half full and she showed no ________ of stopping. I walked down the row and found everyone was writing sentences, ________ things they couldn’t do.
By this time the activity aroused my ________, so I decided to check with the teacher to see what was going on but I noticed she too was ________ in writing. “I can’t get John’s mother to come for a parents’ meeting.” ……I felt it best not to ________.
After another ten minutes, the students were ________ to fold the papers in half and bring them to the front. They placed their “I Can’t” statements into an empty shoe box. Then Donna _____ hers. She put the lid on the box, tucked(塞进) it under her arm and headed out the door. Students followed the teacher. I followed the students. Halfway down the hallway Donna got a shovel(铁铲) from the tool house, and then marched the students to the farthest corner of the playground. There they began to ________. The box of “I Can’ts” was placed at the ________ of the hole and then quickly covered with dirt. At this point Donna announced, “Boys and girls, please join hands and ________ your heads.” They quickly formed a circle around the grave(墓地).
Donna delivered the eulogy(悼词). “Friends, we gathered here today to ________ the memory of ‘I Can’t.’ He is ________ by his brothers and sisters ‘I Can’ and ‘I Will’. May ‘I Can’t’ rest in ________.”
She turned the students ________ and marched them back into the classroom. They celebrated the ________ of “I Can’t”. Donna cut a large tombstone(墓碑) from paper. She wrote the words “I Can’t” at the top and the date at the bottom, then hung it in the classroom. On those rare occasions when a student ________ and said, “I Can’t,” Donna ________ pointed to the paper tombstone. The student then remembered that “I Can’t” was dead and chose other statement.
1.A.job B.project C.observation D.course
2.A.checked B.watched C.noticed D.waited
3.A.task B.computer C.problem D.farm
4.A.scenes B.senses C.marks D.signs
5.A.discussing B.doing C.describing D.drawing
6.A.curiosity B.suspect C.sympathy D.worry
7.A.trapped B.strict C.busy D.successful
8.A.insert B.interrupt C.talk D.request
9.A.taught B.shown C.forced D.instructed
10.A.added B.wrote C.made D.folded
11.A.cry B.pray C.dig D.play
12.A.back B.bottom C.top D.edge
13.A.drop B.raise C.fall D.lift
14.A.keep B.thank C.forgive D.honor
15.A.remembered B.punished C.removed D.replaced
16.A.silence B.heart C.peace D.memory
17.A.down B.up C.off D.around
18.A.birth B.passing C.loss D.starting
19.A.awoke B.reminded C.forgot D.apologized
20.A.simply B.hardly C.seriously D.angrily
阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。
“Poor but honest.” “The deserving poor.” These words always come to my mind 1. I think of “the poor”. But I also think of people 2., perhaps through alcohol or drugs，have ruined not only their own lives but also the lives of others in order to give way to their own pleasure. Perhaps alcoholism and drug addiction really are “diseases”, as many people say, but my own feeling-based, of course, not on any serious study, is that most alcoholics and drug addicts belong to the “undeserving poor”. And that is largely 3. I don’t give spare change to beggars.
阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。
The animals 1. (keep) together in small spaces, with no privacy and little opportunity2. mental and physical exercise. This results in unusual and self-destructive behavior 3. (call) zoochosis. A worldwide study of zoos found that zoochosis is common among animals kept in small spaces or cages. Another study showed that elephants spend 22 percent of their time making repeated head movements or biting cage bars, and bears spend 30 percent of their time 4. (walk) back and forth, a sign of unhappiness and pain.
