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Is Loneliness a Health Epidemic (流行病)？
Over the last twenty years, more and more studies reveal increasing numbers of people experience loneliness regularly. In the face of such a situation, earlier this year, Britain appointed its first “minister for loneliness”, who is charged with dealing with what the Prime Minister called the “sad reality of modern life”.
Public-health leaders immediately praised the idea-and for good reason. In recent decades, researchers have discovered that loneliness left untreated is not just psychically painful; it also can have serious medical consequences. And numerous studies have linked loneliness to heart disease, cancer, depression, diabetes and suicide. Vivek Murthy, the former United States surgeon general, has written that loneliness is associated with a reduction in life span similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.
Anxiety about loneliness is a common feature of modern societies. Today, two major causes of loneliness seem possible. One is that societies throughout the world have embraced a culture of individualism. More people are living alone, and aging alone, than ever. Liberal social policies have turned workers into unstable free agents, and when jobs disappear, things fall apart fast. Labor unions, civic associations, neighborhood organizations, religious groups and other traditional sources of social unity are in steady decline. Increasingly, we all feel that we’re on our own.
The other possible cause is the rise of communication technology, including smartphones, social media and the Internet. A decade ago, companies like Facebook, Apple and Google promised that their products would help create meaningful relationships and communities. On the contrary, we’ve used the media system to deepen existing divisions, at both the individual and group levels. We may have thousands of “friends” and “followers” on Facebook and Instagram, but when it comes to human relationships, it turns out there’s no choice but to build them the old-fashioned way, in person.
But is loneliness, as many political officials and experts are warning, a growing “health epidemic”? I don’t believe so, nor do I believe it helps anyone to describe it that way. Social disconnection is a serious matter, yet — if we arouse a panic over its popularity and impact, we’re less likely to treat it properly.
In places like the United States and Britain, it’s the poor, unemployed, displaced and migrant populations that suffer most from loneliness. Their lives are unstable, and so are their relationships. When they get lonely, they are the least able to get adequate social or medical support.
I don’t believe we have a loneliness epidemic. But millions of people are suffering from social disconnection. Whether or not they have a minister for loneliness, they deserve more attention and help than we’re offering today.
Is Loneliness a Health Epidemic? | |
Introduction | •The severity of loneliness resulted in the 1. of “minister for loneliness” in Britain. |
Consequences of loneliness | •If left untreated, people 2. from loneliness may well develop physical and mental illnesses. |
•Similar to negative effects caused by smoking and obesity, loneliness is to blame for 3. deaths. | |
Possible 4.of loneliness | •In a culture laying emphasis on individualism, it has become too easy to be alone. Meanwhile, with sources of social unity declining 5.people lack opportunities to be connected. |
• 6. to what technological companies promised, the growth of using modem technology actually leads people to split up, as there is no 7. for face-to-face communication. | |
Writer’s attitudes towards loneliness | •Overstatement about loneliness may panic people, which is likely to lead to 8. treatment of the problem. |
•There is no epidemic, but people at a(n)) 9. are in need of adequate social or medical support, and those disconnected from society are 10. of more concern. |
In January 2017, snow began’ to fall across the Apennines. From his home in the Rome suburbs, Edward watched the weather with concern. He and his wife, Caroline, had planned an overnight getaway to the hotel. But now he wondered whether they should go with the road covered with snow. Edward phoned the hotel, whose owner, Del Rosso, advised Edward to use chains on his tyres.
After a short talk, Edward and Caroline decided to make the trip. By the time they neared the resort (度假胜地) six hours later, they were battling a total whiteout. When they finally reached the hotel, they were cold and exhausted. They checked into their room, trying to forget their long day in the car.
Suddenly, the hotel began to shake. The windows rattled, and the water in the tub spilt over the edges. An earthquake with a magnitude of 5. 7 had struck the mountain. Edward had had enough. “Let’s get out of here,” he told his wife, dressing quickly. They were about to head to the parking lot when the snow on the mountain began to slide.
Martin, the resort’s caretaker, had been working in the tiny boiler hut about 30 yards from the main building when he noticed something abnormal. Standing on an empty snowfield, he gazed at a trail of complete destruction — it was as if a giant rake (耙子) had been dragged down the mountain, pulling down beech trees, crushing cars, chewing up everything in its path.
Finding a signal with his phone seemed to take forever. In fact, it took two hours before Martin finally spoke with the chief of the region’s rescue team.
“We’re coming,” Crocetta promised.
“How long will it take?” asked Martin.
“Five or six hours.”
Eight hours after Martin had talked to Crocetta, the rescuers finally arrived. There was no movement anywhere — no human sound, just rubble (碎石).Edward lay in a coffin-sized pocket of air beneath 30 feet of snow, ice, and rubble. He could hear nothing of what was happening at the surface. Shock had set in, and he felt no pain, no hunger, no cold. Each time Edward awoke, he faced a new terrible reality: he was buried alive. Despair suddenly seized him. He asked himself, who is going to save us?
Nick and three other rescuers kept digging on, breaking blade after blade on their circular saws (圆锯), battling toward a faint cell signal detected deep in the ruins. Suddenly they heard a voice. They silenced their saws and listened. It was Edward. He was still fading in and out of consciousness. A vision of his wife stayed with him, an angel of mercy, he thought. She assured him he would be OK.
“Edward, we are here!” Nick shouted, ten feet above where the trapped man lay.” Are you injured? Are you bleeding?”
As the voices and the buzzing of saws grew louder, Edward became more alert. “Where is my wife?”
“We put her in the car because it’s cold,” Nick lied.
At last, at around six in the morning, Nick’s saw broke through a final thick layer of insulation (隔绝). He pointed his light toward the opening and spotted Edward’s back. Nick could see how the angled beams had created a cocoon that prevented Edward from being crushed to death. Those near him had not been so lucky: Squeezed in the space with him were the bodies of two women — one supporting his head, one curled (卷曲) beneath his left leg.
Rescuers raised the concrete beams off Edward’s limbs with a jack (千斤顶). “You are a superhero,” Nick said as he reached beneath Edward’s armpits and gently lifted him out of his tomb.
Five days after his rescue, Edward was given the heartbroken news that his wife had died. Her body had been found, crushed by debris, near where Edward had been trapped. The angel who had appeared to him in his dreams had, somehow, never left his side.
1.Edward was advised to use chains on his tires in order to .
A.protect the tyres
B.reduce the risk of slipping
C.make the car stronger
D.put on the weight of the car
2.What did Martin see after noticing something abnormal?
A.A beautiful scenery of snow.
B.The cars crushed by the trees.
C.A giant rake dragged down the mountain.
D.The snow swallowing everything on its way.
3.It took Martin two hours to get in touch with the rescue team because .
A.his phone was out of power
B.the signal was not strong enough
C.he was too scared to make the call
D.the line was too busy to get through
4.What was Edward’s condition after he was trapped?
A.He was lucky to be safe and sound.
B.He was optimistic and waiting for the rescue patiently.
C.He was in a bad state and came back to life once in a while.
D.He was seriously injured and out of consciousness completely.
5.Nick lied to Edward when he asked about his wife because .
A.he didn’t want Edward to lose hope
B.he was a dishonest rescuer and often lied to others
C.he wanted to play jokes with Edward to relax him
D.he wanted to distract his attention to reduce his pain
6.What does the author want to convey to us?
A.Rescuers are true superheroes.
B.Where there is life, there is hope.
C.Love can help a man survive a disaster.
D.A snow crash goes hand in hand with an earthquake.
Climate change will bring and has already brought a wide variety of threatening destruction to human existence. Some of these are well-known and already operative, like the wildfires racing along California’s freeways or the permanent droughts that have been upsetting Mediterranean farmers. But are these all terrible disasters we can come up with that are brought about by climate change?
Absolutely not. None of the challenges posed by our warming climate has appeared larger in the popular imagination than sea-level rise, as global populations and wealth are heavily concentrated in low-lying coastal cities. The best available models suggest that 37 million people currently live in places that will be below high tide by 2050-in an optimistic low-carbon-emissions scenario (设想).
Or rather, that’s what such models suggested before this week. On Tuesday, a new study revealed that those alarming statistics were wildly inaccurate. The actual impacts of sea-level rise are going to be much, much worse.
Previous estimates of the impact that rising tides would have on coastal cities relied on essentially a three-dimensional map of Earth obtained from satellite readings. But those readings were fundamentally unreliable because they often measured the planet’s upper surfaces — such as treetops and tall buildings — rather than its ground level. These mistakes led scientists to overestimate the elevation (海拔) of many regions of Earth.
In a new study published by the journal Nature Communications, scientists from Princeton, University detail this methodological problem, then use artificial intelligence to determine the previous literature’s error rate. Their research yields some amazing updates to our conventional understanding of what the next century has in store for our coastlines.
In its optimistic scenario, the Princeton study projects that lands currently occupied by 150 million people will lie below high tide in 2050. But as warming destroys many of the world’s agricultural regions, climate change could accelerate migration from rural areas to coastal cities.
The new study does include one piece of slightly encouraging news. While previous models suggested that 28 million humans currently live in places that already lie below high tide, the actual number is closer to 110 million — which means seawalls and other barriers have proven sufficient to keep many cities dry even as sea levels have risen around them. Still, the scale of barrier construction necessary to save low-lying cities from collapse is now, apparently, far greater than previously understood when the task already looked terribly expensive, particularly for developing countries.
If the Princeton researchers’ projections are correct, avoiding mass death and suffering in the coming decades will require not only rapidly reducing carbon emissions and strengthening construction of seawalls but also furthering mass migrations away from low-lying cities and islands and toward higher ground.
1.The first paragraph is mainly intended to .
A.introduce the topic of this passage
B.show various disasters caused by climate change
C.call on people to fix attention on climate change
D.lay emphasis on the seriousness of climate change
2.All the following statements are true EXCEPT .
A.the Princeton study reveals an optimistic picture of sea rising. . .
B.the three-dimensional map produced by satellite is not accurate
C.some measures are mentioned by the writer to deal with sea rising
D.more people are likely to live in coastal cities in the coming years
3.We can see something encouraging from the Princeton study that .
A.it’s cheap to construct seawalls as well as other barriers
B.the scale of barrier construction is much greater than before
C.developed countries have less trouble in dealing with rising sea levels
D.seawalls do have the function to prevent coastal cities being drowned
4.What can be a suitable title for the passage?
A.How to protect cities from rising seas.
B.Rising seas are going to drown more cities.
C.Climate change is endangering human existence.
D.Less emission of carbon, fewer fires and droughts.
A scientific approach to reducing poverty’s many harmful effects via field experiments in schools and other real-world settings has won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, both of MIT, and Michael Kremer of Harvard University will receive equal shares of the prize of 9 million Swedish kronor. Duflo is only the second woman ever to be awarded the economics Nobel. “Poverty has deep roots, and we use an experimental approach to examine particular aspects of this problem and determine what interventions (干预) work.” Duflo said.
More than 700 million people globally live in extreme poverty. Half of the world’s children leave school without basic language or math skills. Roughly 5 million children under age 5 annually die from diseases that could have been prevented with inexpensive treatments.
The three winners design and test interventions aimed at specific ways to alleviate poverty’s effects on education, health care and other areas. Such studies are especially important because policies intended to fight poverty can often cause opposite results.
In the mid-1990s, Kremer led a team that tested a range of interventions aimed at improving learning among students attending schools in western Kenya. Banerjee and Duflo, often with Kremer, then performed similar studies in other countries. One important line of research developed “Teaching at the Right Level” programs, which enable teachers in low-income, developing nations to target instruction to students’ learning levels. Teachers in these programs learn ways to keep students from falling behind rather than forcing them through a one-size-fits-all curriculum for each grade.
A 2011 study led by Duflo, for instance, found that grade 1 test scores in a Kenyan school increased when teachers divided students into smaller classes based on their initial learning levels.
A string of studies in the. same vein led by the 2019 winners took randomized controlled trials and field experiments from ignored status to standard practice in developing nations.
These studies showed that the virtually unanswerable question “How can we fight global poverty?” could be broken into smaller, testable questions such as “Why do children not attend school?” and “Why do small-scale farmers not use technologies such as modern seeds and fertilizer (肥料) that are known to be profitable?”
1.What does the underlined word “alleviate” in Paragraph 4 most probably mean?
A.relieve
B.remove
C.control
D.transform
2.It can be inferred that the method the 2019 winners applied to education .
A.is more suitable for high-level students
B.is an intervention initially created by Duflo
C.will surely get rid of the deep roots of poverty
D.takes into consideration students learning levels
3.What can we learn from the experimenting approach the three economists adopt?
A.The authorities concerned should make policies based on scientific findings.
B.Field experimenting is the most scientific way to find whether interventions work.
C.Education should be paid more attention to due to its important part in fighting poverty.
D.It may be helpful to narrow down the scale of a problem by focusing on specific aspects.
Today scientists are creating cool designs with smoother moves. Let’s check out the science behind four awesome robots.
TYPES | HOW IT WORKS | WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU | |
T-HR3
| The two-legged walking robot imitates the way people move. A human operator wears a headset with cameras that show what the robot “sees”. The human can then control the robot’s actions with his or her own human movements. | With a human helper, T-HR3 could assist people in medical facilities, burning buildings, construction sites, and even space. Its creators hope that T-HR3 will learn to do some tasks itself one day …like, say, your chores, maybe? | |
SHAPE-SHIFTIING
| When a scientist programs in a shape/ the motors change different parts of the surface to make it look like whatever the scientist wants! The shape-shifting robot can be programmed to look like just about anything small and enter tiny space. | In addition to helping scientists secretly observe animals, the shape-shifting robot might one day be used to create more immersive virtual reality experiences. Imagine being able to touch objects in your VR game and not just see them! | |
SALTO
| Rescuers have long used remote-controlled robots to search through nibble. But what’s special about Salto is its jumping ability, enabling it to reach places humans can’t. Twisted rubber bands in its legs make it bouncy enough to leap to high spaces. | Salto’s not just helpful in emergencies. Its technology might one day help fetch things from hard-to-reach places in your home, like that candy bar you hid on the top shelf of the cupboard. | |
SPOTMINI
| The four-legged robot is designed to help with house chores. With its extendable arms, Spotmini can unload dishes and put them in high shelves, grab debris (碎片) in hard-to-reach places. It can even climb stairs. | Experts say future homes will have robots doing chores so that people have more free time. Instead of earning your allowance by taking out the garbage, you might be doing robot repairs instead. | |
1.If you want to take a close picture of a poisonous snake, which robot is the most suitable?
A.T-HR3 B.SHAPE-SHIFTING C.SALTO D.SPOTMINI
2.What these robots have in common is that they .
A.work by using a remote-control
B.are designed to help with the housework
C.enable people to see whatever they “see”
D.carry out tasks where humans are hard to reach
Joe spent 16 years as a fireman and emergency medical technician. He has been honored for his_______in risking his life on numerous occasions to save others. However, one emergency call_______him to poisonous chemicals that later led to repeated strokes (中风). At only_______, the man who had grown 38 to having the physical strength and mobility to save lives was now: _______to tie his own shoes or button his own shirt. Worst of all, the strokes left him _______ seizures (痉挛) that would strike _______,
Before his health _______, Joe was known for being active and optimistic. But after his strokes, he spent day and night in bed, dangerously _______. One of his only _______ joys was Lucky, his 12-year-old Dalmatian, but Joe’s wife Kim ______________something terrible would happen to Joe when Lucky______________. She didn’t want to wait to find out, so she suggested a new dog should be ______________to the family.
Then entered Meatball. He was saved as a puppy from an Afghan war zone and brought to the United States for ______________by Puppy Rescue Mission. Joe and Kim went to the airport to meet Meatball upon his arrival. The moment Meatball came out of his cage, he peed (撒尿) all over Joe — and Joe ______________his first genuine laughter in months!
Two years later, one night, Kim was awakened by Meatball’s ______________barking. She went to see what was wrong and found Joe having a______________seizure. Joe was ______________to the hospital — Meatball had saved the day. And it wasn’t the only time. “He’s always there ______________me, helping me, making sure I’m okay,” says Joe. Since I got sick, some of my friends have fallen by the wayside,______________this beautiful dog always stays with me. That means I’m worth ______________after all. Pets are the emotional, physical, and spiritual gift we didn’t know we needed.
1.A.fear B.luck C.bravery D.hesitation
2.A.reduced B.shifted C.exposed D.attracted
3.A.committed B.accustomed C.addicted D.abandoned
4.A.afraid B.ashamed C.unable D.unwilling
5.A.to B.by C.for D.with
6.A.painfully B.separately C.randomly D.automatically
7.A.recovered B.improved C.infected D.declined
8.A.depressed B.puzzled C.excited D.embarrassed
9.A.accessible B.remaining C.selective D.meaningful
10.A.anticipated B.suspected C.predicted D.worried
11.A.passed away B.hung out C.fell out D.turned away
12.A.contributed B.offered C.added D.devoted
13.A.profit B.adoption C.release D.memory
14.A.fell into B.dived into C.burst into D.ran into
15.A.confused B.panicked C.surprised D.shocked
16.A.violent B.tough C.common D.slight
17.A.loaded B.rushed C.transferred D.admitted
18.A.praying B.guiding C.tolerating D.watching
19.A.so B.if C.and D.but
20.A.something B.anything C.everything D.nothing
