The Ebola virus, which has killed more than 670 people in West Africa, is a “threat” to the UK, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has told the BBC.
A woman is being treated for ‘ Ebola-like’ symptoms at the Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital in Hong Kong after recently returning from a strip to Africa.
The woman has been given the all-clear after testing negative for Ebola, according to South China Morning Post.
The 39-year-old woman was kept in isolation while undergoing tests, but a hospital source said she did not have the virus and was in a stable condition.
Ebola virus first emerged in 1976 in outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Zaire and Sudan. Ebola that broke out in Zaire has one of the highest case fatality rates (病死率) of any human virus, roughly 90%.
Symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea, fever, weakness, headache and sore throat. Those struck down can also suffer internal and external bleeding. The virus is spread through human contact. There is no cure.
1.Which city in the text has the highest death rate by Ebola?
A.Hong Kong. B.London.
C.Sudan. D.Zaire.
2.What could we infer from the text?
A.The woman was tested positive for Ebola. B.People suffering Ebola virus will not bleed.
C.Ebola virus can be got from person to person. D.Scientists have found the solution to the virus.
3.The text is taken from ________.
A.a news report B.a story
C.a notice D.an advertisement
请阅读下面文子及图表，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
In a recent survey of 300 Chinese born after 1990, 54 percent of the respondents said they had hair loss, 51 percent had poorer eyesight, 45percent gained weight and 35 percent had weakened immunity. At the same time, about 65 percent said they always stayed up late. Meanwhile, 56.7 percent of interviewees said they didn’t know how to live a healthy life.
Wu Feng, who works at a private company in Beijing, was warned in this year’s physical examination report about hyperlipemia, a condition which he ascribed (归因于) to his diet and the fast pace of his life and work.
“At work, I usually sit in the office for hours without moving my body. And when I eat at the canteen, the food is quite oily. What’s more, I like to order fast food, such as fried chicken, at night when I work extra hours,” Wu said.
A post-90s programmer Wang Ke has been seeing abnormal parameters in his medical report in the past few years. He knew he had some bad habits, but it was not easy for him to change. “I know drinking too much milk tea is unhealthy, but I couldn’t stop myself,” he said.
（写作内容）
1. 用约30个单词概述上述信息的主要内容；
2. 结合上述信息，简要分析不健康的生活方式的危害；
3. 根据你的实际情况，谈谈如何拥有健康的生活方式。
（写作要求）
1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3. 不必写标题。
（评分标准）
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
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请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。
You Should Read Every Day, Why?
I ask you a question. When was the last time you read a book, or a magazine article? Do your everyday reading habits centre around updates on the Internet? In case you are one of innumerable individuals who don’t make a habit of reading consistently you may be passing up a great opportunity: Reading has a noteworthy number of advantages and only a couple of advantages of reading are recorded below.
Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information and you never know when it might be useful to you. The more knowledge you have, the better prepared you are to overcome any challenge you’ll ever face. Additionally, here’s a bit of food for thought: Should you ever find yourself in terrible circumstances, remember that although you might lose everything else—your job, your possessions, your money, even your health—knowledge can never be taken from you.
At the same time, the more you read, the more words you gain exposure to, and they’ll surely make their way into your everyday vocabulary. Being able to express your ideas clearly in words is of great help in any profession and knowing that you can speak to higher-ranking people with self-confidence can be a great encouragement to your self-esteem. It could even aid in your career as those who are well-read, well-spoken, and knowledgeable on a variety of topics tend to get promotions more quickly (and more often) than those with smaller vocabularies and lack of awareness of literature, scientific breakthroughs, and global events. Reading books is also vital for learning new languages, as non-native speakers gain exposure to words used in context, which will improve their own speaking and writing fluency.
When you read a book, you have to remember a lot of characters, their backgrounds, ambitions, history, as well as the various plots that weave their way through every story. That’s a fair bit to remember, but brains are wonderful things and can remember these things easily. Amazingly enough, whenever you remember something new, new synapses are formed and existing ones are strengthened. How cool that is!
No matter how much stress you have at work, in your personal relationships, or countless other issues faced in daily life, it all just slips away when you lose yourself in a great story. A well-written novel can transport you to other fields while an interesting article will distract you and keep you in the present moment, letting tensions drain away and allowing you to relax.
Benefits of Reading | Details |
Knowledge Accumulation | The more you read, the more adequately it 1. you for various troubles in life. Knowledge is what will stay with you2.. |
Vocabulary 3. | Your rich vocabulary may favour you in your job and make you confident when you talk with your leaders. It also means you are a great reader with rich knowledge, which gives you a big 4.over others in promotions. Words in context will help a foreign language learner use the language 5.. |
6.improvement | You will try to keep in mind the 7. of a book while reading and that is somewhat 8. for your brain. The more you try to remember, the 9.you will be at remembering. |
Stress reduction | An interesting reading will transfer your attention to its plots so that you feel 10.and forget about your worries. |
This year arrives amid a few interesting trends. More America ns are interested in local and sustainable foods: urban farming, chicken-raising. And more Americans are hunting, spending increasing time and money on that pursuit.
Viewed from the right angle, though, both these trends could have a place at the holiday table. What would happen if more Americans made Thursday's (Thanksgiving Day) meal out of wild turkeys? What if more people enjoyed a wild Christmas goose, or wild pig ham? If more did, the results might be better for the environment, for our health-and perhaps for our souls as well.
Americans' growing interest in local food is evident everywhere. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the number of farmers markets rose from 1,755 in 1994 to 8,144 this year. Cities from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Gainesville Florida, have eased restrictions on backyard chickens, some “locavores” are content to get community-supported agricultural produce delivered, and buy grass-fed beef. But for a growing number, hunting is the next step. The meat is local and avoids the ethical complications of factory farms.
Hun ting has definitely enjoyed a resurge nee. Census statistics show that the percentage of America ns who hunt -which had been falling for decades-is back up at a 20-year high.
Hank Shaw, author of the new wild bird cookbook Duck, Duck, Goose, and owner of the James Beard Award-winning website Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, calls it The Omnivore's Dilemma effect. After reading Michael Pollan's best-selling book on where food comes from many people join a community-supported agriculture group, but some get a hunting license, too.
“I can't tell you how many people I talk to who view hunting as a part of a larger, personal goal of sustainable eating,” Shaw says.
Of course, characterizing hunting this way blurs many lines. To some, shooting animals cannot possibly be an environmentally friendly activity. The existence of “hipster hunters" is also limited by cultural attitudes toward guns. It's almost impossible to legally own a hunting weapon in Brooklyn. But hunting wild animals requires the preservation of wild land -certainly an environ mental plus -and if you're going to eat meat, hunting has a lot going for it that industrial farms do not. The animal lived a free and natural life, up to its last day.
Add to this the fact that some game populations have grown unnaturally large due to the lack of predators(食肉动物). The East Coast is filled with white-tailed deer. Geese take up residence on golf courses, and wild pigs wander through the woods. In his 2012 book Nature Wars journalist Jim Sterba argued that more humans live in closer contact with wild animals than at my point in history. Hunting can keep a check on that.
Hunting can keep a check on our appetites too, Susan Cameron Devitt, a biologist who recently moved from Florida to Texas, notes that one of the things you learn quickly from hunting is how much labor goes into producing a meal. “If you buy meat at the grocery store, you can eat three servings a day, but if you imagine trying to keep that up with hunting, it just wouldn't be possible;” she says.
Which brings us back to holiday tables? In the original version of Thanksgiving and Christmas, these were special meals, based around dishes you wouldn't eat frequently. These days, you can buy turkey whenever. A wild turkey, caught and then cooked, is a different matter. A speckle-belly goose elevates the Christmas dinner in a way a regular supermarket ham does not.
When you know where your food comes from, when you've labored to bring it to your table, you more naturally feel grateful for the amazing abundance of this planet. “There's no better way to engage with nature than to seek dinner within it” says Shaw.
1.What can we learn about the trends?
A.Few people regard hunting as a part of a personal goal of sustainable eating.
B.Hunting in the USA is consistent with the cultural attitude to guns.
C.The media play a part in promoting the popularity of hunting.
D.Hunting is likely to replace industrial farms
2.The underlined phrase “game populations” in paragraph 8 refers to ______
A.the number of hunters
B.the number of wild animals and birds
C.animals and birds caught through hunting
D.campaigns to ban the hunting of wild animals and birds
3.The underlined part in Paragraph 9 implies ______
A.some hunters do not have the desire to eat meat from industrial farms
B.hunting provides hunters with three servings a day
C.some hunters do not have a healthy appetite
D.hunting helps hunters control their appetite
4.What can we infer from the last but one paragraph?
A.In the past, people ate turkeys only on Thanksgiving Day.
B.Supermarket turkeys will not be accepted by people any more.
C.Wild turkeys are more delicious then those bought from grocery stores.
D.Wild turkeys help bring back the festive atmosphere of Thanksgiving Day.
5.According to the last paragraph, hunting is beneficial for ______
A.our mental health B.our physical fitness
C.the environment D.farmers’ markets
Amid weak job and housing markets, consumers are saving more and spending less than they have in decades and industry professionals expect that trend to continue. Consumers saved 6.4 percent of their after-tax income in June. Before the recession, the rate was 1 to 2 percent for many years. In June, consumer spending and personal incomes were essentially flat compared with May, suggesting that the American economy, as dependent as it is on shoppers opening their wallets and purses, isn’t likely to rebound anytime soon.
On the bright side, the practices that consumers have adopted in response to the economic crisis ultimately could make them happier. New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses.
If consumers end up sticking with their newfound spending habits, some tactics (策略) that retailers and marketers began using during the recession could become lasting business strategies. Among those strategies are offering goods that makes being at home more entertaining and trying to make consumers feel special by giving them access to exclusive events and more personal customer service.
While the current round of stinginess may simply be a response to the economic downturn, some analysts say consumers may also be permanently adjusting their spending based on what they’ve discovered about what truly makes them happy or fulfilled.
“This actually is a topic that hasn’t been researched very much until recently,” says Elizabeth W. Dunn, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of British Columbia, who is at the forefront of research on consumption and happiness. There’s massive literature on income and happiness. It’s amazing how little there is on how to spend your money.
Studies over the last few decades have shown that money, up to a certain point, makes people happier because it lets them meet basic needs. The latest round of research is, for lack of a better term, all about emotional efficiency: how to reap the most happiness for your dollar.
So just where does happiness reside for consumers? Scholars and researchers haven’t determined whether Armani will put a bigger smile on your face than Dolce & Gabbana. But they have found that our types of purchases, their size and frequency, and even the timing of the spending all affect long-term happiness.
One major finding is that spending money for an experience — concert tickets, French lessons, sushi-rolling classes, a hotel room in Monaco — produces longer-lasting satisfaction than spending money on plain old stuff.
“‘It’s better to go on a vacation than buy a new couch’ is basically the idea,” says Professor Dunn.
Thomas DeLeire, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin discovered that the only category to be positively related to happiness was leisure: vacations, entertainment, sports and equipment like golf clubs and fishing poles.
1.What’s the dark side of American consumers’ saving more and spending less?
A.The job and housing markets will become even weaker.
B.There is little hope that the American economy will recover soon.
C.More and more retailers and marketers will have to go bankrupt.
D.It’s possible that the American economy will rebound sooner.
2.What will happen if customers keep their spending habits formed in the economic downturn?
A.They will get goods and services much cheaper.
B.It’s likely that they spend more time indoors.
C.Retailers will change their business strategies.
D.They will enjoy better services and experiences.
3.What surprises Elizabeth W. Dunn according to the passage?
A.There is little about how to spend money to make people happy.
B.Consumers unconsciously adjust their spending habits to be happy.
C.People started researches on consumption-happiness relationship so early.
D.Happiness is proved to have nothing to do with consumption.
4.Scholars such as Prof. Dunn and Prof. DeLeire agree that_______.
A.richer people feel happier and more satisfied
B.most consumers prefer leading brands like Armani
C.spending on vacations brings long-term happiness
D.people should curb their spending on material thing
The other morning on the subway I sat next to an attractive young blonde woman who was reading something on her iPad. She was very well-dressed, carrying a Prada bag with tastefully applied make-up indeed, she had an unmistakable air of wealth, material success and even authority. I suspected she worked as a highly-paid Wall Street lawyer or stockbroker or something of that sort. So, I was curious to see what she was so focused on. The Wall Street Journal perhaps? The Economist?
Quite the contrary; rather, she was concentrating on a romance novel. Then I realized that I have known many women who love romance novels—smart, attractive, successful, “liberated,” modern females who nonetheless find some kind of deep satisfaction and thrill from those hyper-romantic, artificial and extremely unrealistic tales of handsome, manly heroes falling in love with virginal women, enduring a series of adventures, then no doubt having a happy ending.
These romance stories are to literature what hot dogs are to fine food. Yet, the genre(体裁) remains enormously popular. Consider some of these surprising statistics from the good folks at the Romance Writers of America (RWA):
*More than 9,000 romance titles were released last year, with sales of about $1.44 billion (more than triple the taxes produced by classic literary fiction).
*More than 90 percent of the market are women (okay, that’s not at all surprising).
* Readers are typically women between the ages 30 and 54 who are themselves involved in a romantic relationship (betraying the stereotype that only lonely women long for these tales of love and adventure).
*Almost 40 percent of romance book consumers have an annual income of between $50,000 and $99,900 (placing them firmly in the middle class).
I had thought that romance novels accounted for a very small share of the literary market, so I was quite surprised that this part has such enormous popularity. But I must wonder why so many women—forty years after the women’s liberation movement—continue to enjoy themselves in the fanciful tales?
I’m not sure if it represents a kind of “rejection” of the women’s liberation movement, but clearly something is missing in the lives of contemporary ladies. A romance author named Donna Hatch who focuses on the Regency period (early 19th century Britain) explained the appeal of such books this way: “Regency men were civilized and treated women with courtesy. When a lady entered the room, gentlemen stood, doffed their hats, offered an arm, bowed, and a hundred other little things I wish men still did today. But they were also very athletic; they hunted, raced, boxed, rode horses. They were manly. Strong. Noble. Honorable. And that is why I love them!”
Mrs. Hatch may have expressed the secret desires and attitudes of untold millions of her peers—that is, in the early 21st century, have women grown tired of the burdens and expectations that the “freedoms” they have gained give them? Is this a rejection of modern feminism? Do women long for days of old when men were masculine gentlemen and women were feminine and protected as precious treasures and regarded as possessions?
Perhaps most women (even the ones who get lost in romance novels) do not want to go all the way back but it is obvious,______.
1.What is the function of the opening paragraph?
A. To summarize the whole passage. B. To prove the author’s argument.
C. To lead in the main topic of the passage. D. To raise problems that will be solved later.
2.What does the underlined sentence in the third paragraph imply?
A. Romance novels are satisfying and thrilling.
B. Romance novels are not of much “nutrition”.
C. Romance novels are as popular as hot dogs.
D. Romance novels are an essential part of contemporary life.
3.In the author’s opinion, what is missing in the lives of contemporary women?
A. Authority. B. Dignity. C. Liberty. D. Care.
4.Which sentence can be put in the blank in the last paragraph?
A. they prefer tales of innocent romance to classics
B. they are unhappy with how the world has turned out
C. true love described in romance novels does exist in reality
D. romance novels provide them with an access to society
