2014年英语四级考试每日一练(11月12日)
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单项选择题
1、听音频:
听听力,回答题:
A.The weather forecast.
B.The cancellation of playing tennis.
C.The hot weather.
D.The tennis being played.
2、根据以下资料,回答题:
Drink from plastic bottles can raise the body's levels of a controversial "gender-bending" chemical by more than two thirds, according to tests.
Experts have been concerned about the possible health effects of bisphenolA (BPA.--an everyday chemical used in many plastic food and drink containers and tins as well as clear baby bottles--which is officially classified as toxic in some countries.A study found that participants who drank for a week from polycarbonate (聚碳酸酯) bottles showed a 69 percent increase in their urine (尿液) of BPA.
Researchers did not say how much liquid was drunk per day.Researchers from Harvard School ofPublic Health studied 77 students, who had first undergone a seven-day "washout" phase in which theydrank all cold beverages (饮料) from stainless steel bottles in order to minimise BPA exposure.
They were then given two polycarbonate bottles and asked to drink all cold beverages from themduring the next week.Previous studies have suggested that high levels of BPA consumption are linked tobirth defects, growth problems and an increased risk of heart disease.In particular there are fears thatheating the bottles, as parents would do when warming their baby's milk, causes the chemical to leak inpotentially dangerous quantities into the liquid contained within.
"If you heat those bottles, as is the case with baby bottles, we would expect the levels to beconsiderably higher.This would be of concern since infants may be particularly susceptible to BPA'shormone gland-disrupting (扰乱腺体极速分泌) potential." said the senior author of the latest study, Karin B.Michels.
Most adults carry BPA in their bodies but expert opinion on the risks is divided.The European Food Safety Authority believes that people naturally convert the chemical into less harmful substances in the body.
Previous studies had found that BPA could leach (渗出 ) from polycarbonate bottles into theircontents, but this study is the first to show the size of the corresponding increase in urinary BPAconcentrations in humans.
Harvard researcher Jenny Carwile said, "While previous studies have demonstrated that BPA is linkedto adverse health effects, this study fills in a missing piece of the puzzle--whether or not polycarbonateplastic bottles are an important contributor to the amount of BPA in the body."
What do we know about bisphenol A (BPA.from the beginning of the passage?
A.It is certain substance taken in by human beings every day.
B.It is a component contained in a number of plastic products.
C.It is an element that plays a decisive role in people's gender.
D.It is a kind of chemical that is universally regarded poisonous.
3、Questionsare based on the following passage.
In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that our appetite and food intake are influenced by a large number of factors besides our biological need for energy, including our eating environment and our perception of the food in front of us.
Studies have shown, for instance, that eating in front of the TV (or a similar distraction) can increase both hunger and the amount of food consumed. Even simple visual cues, like plate size and fighting, have been shown to affect portion size and consumption.
A new study suggested that our short-term memory also may play a role in appetite. Several hours after a meal, people's hunger levels were predicted not by how much they'd eaten but rather by how much food they'd seen in front of them in other words, how much they remembered eating..
This disparity (差异) suggests the memory of our previous meal may have a bigger influence on our appetite than the actual size of the meal. says Jeffrey M. Brunstrom, a professor of experimental psychology at the Univerity of Bristol.
"Hunger isn't controlled solely by the physical characteristics of a recent meal. We have identified an
independent role for memory for that meal,'" Brunstrom says. "This shows that the relation_ship between hunger and food intake is more complex than we thought. ""
These findings echo earlier research that suggests our perception of food can sometimes trick our body's response to the food itself. In a 2011 study, for instance, people who drank the same 380-calorie(卡路里) milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels of hunger-related hormones (荷尔蒙), depending on whether the shake's label said it contained 620 or 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reported feeling more full when they thought they'd consumed a higher-calorie shake.
What does this mean for our eating habits? Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves into eating less. the new fmdings do highlight the benefits of focusing on our food and avoiding TV and multitasking while eating.
The so-called mindful-eating strategies can fight distractious and help us control our appetite,
Brunstrom says.
What is said to be a factor affecting our appetite and food intake?
A.How we perceive the food we eat.
B.what ingredients the food contains.
C.When we eat our meals.
D.How fast we eat our meals.
4、根据以下内容回答题
The rise of the sharing economy
A) Last night 40,000 people rented accommodation from a service that offers 250,000 rooms in 30,000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for everything online. But their beds were provided by private individuals, rather than a hotel chain. Hosts and guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since its launch in 2008 more than 4 million people have used it—2.5 million of them in 2012 alone. It is the most prominent example of a huge new "sharing economy", in which people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly from each other, co-ordinated via the internet.
B) You might think this is no different from running a bed-and-breakfast (家庭旅店). owning a timeshare (分时度假房) or participating in a car pool. But technology has reduced transaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever—and therefore possible on a much larger scale. The big change is the availability of more data about people and things, which allows physical assets to be divided and consumed as services. Before the internet, renting a surfboard, a power tool or a parking space from someone else was feasible, but was usually more trouble than it was worth. Now websites such as Airbnb. RelayRides and SnapGoods match up owners and renters; smartphones with GPS let people see where the nearest rentable car is parked; social networks provide a way to check up on people and build trust; and online payment systems handle the billing.
What's mine is yours, for a fee
C) Just as peer-to-peer businesses like eBay allow anyone to become a retailer, sharing sites let individuals act as an ad hoc ( 临时的) taxi service, car-hire firm or boutique hotel (精品酒店) as and when it suits them. Just go online or download an app. The model works for items that are expensive to buy and are widely owned by people who do not make full use of them. Bedrooms and cars are the most obvious examples, but you can also rent camping spaces in Sweden, fields in Australia and washing machines in France. As advocates of the sharing economy like to put it, access trumps ( 胜过) ownership.
D) Rachel Botsman, the author of a book on the subject, says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market alone is worth $ 26 billion. Broader definitions of the sharing economy include peer-to-peer lending or putting a solar panel on your roof and selling power back to the gr/d ( 电网). And it is not just individuals: the web makes it easier for companies to rent out spare offices and idle machines, too. But the core of the sharing economy is people renting things from each other.
E) Such "collaborative (合作的) consumption" is a good thing for several reasons. Owners make money from underused assets. Airbnb says hosts in San Francisco who rent out their homes do so for an average of 58 nights a year, making $ 9,300. Car owners who rent their vehicles to others using RelayRides make an average of $250 a month; some make more than $1,000. Renters, meanwhile, pay less than they would if they bought the item themselves, or turned to a traditional provider such as a hotel or car-hire firm. And there are environmental benefits, too: renting a car when you need it, rather than owning one, means fewer cars are required and fewer resources must be devoted to making them.
F) For sociable souls, meeting new people by staying in their homes is part of the charm. Curmudgeons (倔脾气的人) who imagine that every renter is a murderer can still stay at conventional hotels. For others, the web fosters trust. As well as the background checks carried out by platform owners, online reviews and ratings are usually posted by both parties to each transaction, which makes it easy to spot bad drivers, bathrobe-thieves and surfboard-wreckers. By using Facebook and other social networks, participants can check each other out and identify friends ( or friends of friends) in common. An Airbnb user had her apartment trashed in 2011. But the remarkable thing is how well the system usually works.
Peering into the future
G) The sharing economy is a little like online shopping, which started in America 15 years ago. At first, people were worried about security. But having made a successfal purchase from, say, Amazon, they felt safe buying elsewhere. Similarly, using Airbnb or a car-hire service for the first time encourages people to try other offerings. Next, consider eBay, Having started out as a peer-to-peer marketplace, it is now dominated by professional "power sellers" ( many of whom started out as ordinary eBay users). The same may happen with the sharing economy, which also provides new opportunities for enterprise, Some people have bought cars solely to rent them out, for example.
H) Existing rental businesses are getting involved too. Avis, a car-hire fn'm, has a share in a sharing rival. So do GM and Dalmler, two carmakers. In future, companies may develop hybrid (混合的) models, listing excess capacity (whether vehicles, equipment or office.space) on peer-to-peer rental sites. In the past, new ways of doing things online have not displaced the old ways entirely. But they have often changed them. Just as internet shopping forced Wal-mart and Tesco to adapt, so online sharing will shake up transport, tourism, equipment-hire and more.
i) The main worry is regulatory uncertainty. Will room-renters be subject to hotel taxes, for example? In Amsterdam officials are using Airbnb listings to track down unlicensed hotels. In some American cities, peer-to-peer taxi services have been banned after lobbying by traditional taxi firms. The danger is that although some rules need to be updated to protect consumers from harm, existing rental businesses will try to destroy competition. People who rent out rooms should pay tax, of course, but they should not be regulated like a Ritz-Carlton hotel. The lighter rules that typically govern bed-and-breakfasts are more than adequate.
J) The sharing economy is the latest example of the internet's value to consumers. This emerging model is now big and disruptive (颠覆性的) enough for regulators and companies to have woken up to it. That is a sign of its immense potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.
Sharing items such as cars does good to the environment.
5、 根据以下资料,回答题:
Quesaons 61 to 65 are based on thefollowingpassage.
In 2005,the medical examiner in Wichita,Kansas,noticed a cluster of deaths that were unusually similar in nature:in three years,sixteen men and women,between the ages of twenty-two and fifty-two,had died in their sleep.In the hours before they lost consciousness,they had been sluggish and dopey,struggling to stay awake.A few had complained of chest pain.“I can’t catch my breath,”one kept saying.
All of them had taken painkillers prescribed by a family practice called the Schneider Medical Clinic.
The clinic was in Haysville.a working.class suburb of Wichita.The main industries in the area were aircraft and plastics,neither of which was doing well.A mile south of the clinic,there was little except wheat fields.The chief doctor was Stephen Schneider,a fifty-one-year-old osteopath(整骨师)with sandy hair and dimples.He treated the county commissioner and the chief of police,gave physicals to the boys at the Haysville high school,and did rounds at local nursing homes.One of his patients,Jeffrey Peters,told me that Schneider reminded him of the“kind of family doctor we had forty years ago.when l was growing up—a doctor who will sit down and listen to you and ioke around and make you feel comfortable.”
On September 13,2005,Schneider arrived at work to find the clinic cordoned(包围隔离)off with police tape.He called his wife,Linda Atterbury,a blond,peppy forty-seven-year-old nurse,who was at home with their two young daughters,and told her to come to work.Agents from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration led Schneider into one of the clinic’s fourteen exam rooms and asked him why he had been prescribing so many opioid(鸦片类)painkillers.He responded that sixty per cent of his patients suffered from chronic pain,and few other physicians in the area would treat them.The agents wrote.“He tries to believe his patients whenthey describe their health problems and he will believe them until they prove themselves wrong.”When asked how many of his patients had died,Schneider said that he didn’t know…
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
What’s the similar nature of the 16 people’s death?
A.They were examined by the same medical examiner.
B.They were treated by the same docton
C.Thev all died in their sleep.
D.Their ages are roughly the same.
6、Questionsare based on the following passage
Room for all,for now.
But there are signs that the sharing site(住房分享网站)is starting to threaten budget hotels.Even as they lobby regulators to crack down on residential sharing services,hoteliers play down the threat such companies pose to their industry.The top brass at the Four Seasons and Hilton chains have all said that these firms do not compete for their core market;a vice-president of The Ritz-Carlton group recently claimed she had not even heard of Airbnb.And Airbnb itself agrees,arguing that it does not displace existing lodging but is creating new demand.“I’m optimistic that there isn’t going to be a war”with hotels.Brian Chesky,its boss,said in January.
A recent study seems to confirm that,for now at least,Airbnb is only nibbling at influence from Airbnb on business and luxury hotels.But in places where it has established a presence,it cut the revenues of budget hotels by 5%in the two years to December 2013.
If Airbnb were to keep growing at its current rate,the Texas study suggests that by 20 1 6 the dent in budget hotels’takings will be 10%.Wim their high fixed costs,that could push many ofthem into the red.of course.Airbnb may hit me limits of either supply or demand before then,but smaller hotels are already blaming it for their woes.“I see a direct correlation between our revenues going down and Airbnb’s going up,”says Vijay Dandapani,the president of Apple Core Hotels in New York.“We had continued growth until Airbnb.”The financing round that Airbnb has iust closed,valuing it at more than all but the four largest global hotel groups,suggests that investors agree.
Concur,a travel-and expense-management firm.has seen its corporate clients’Airbnb bookings grow from a rounding error at the start of 2012 to more than lmillion so far this year.If Airbnb can integrate with online travel agencies such as Expedia and increase the share of its hosts that provide instant booking coniirmation.business hotels may find themselves with a surprisingly unignorable competitor.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
What is the reaction of other competitors to the appearance of Airbnb?
A.They highlight the threat it poses to their industries.
B.They never pay attention to this unworthy competitor.
C.They did not obviously worry about the appearance of Airbnb.
D.TheY are optimistic about their close cooperation in future.
填空题
7、Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.
Walking, if you do it vigorously enough, is the overall best exercise for regular physical activity. It requires no equipment, everyone knows how to do it and it carries the 47 risk of injury. The human body is designed to walk. You can walk in parks or along a river or in your neighborhood. To get 48 benefit from walking, aim for 45 minutes a day, an average of five days a week.
Strength training is another important 49 of physical activity. Its purpose is to build and 50 bone and muscle mass, both of which shrink with age. In general, you will want to do strength training two or three days a week, 51 recovery days between sessions.
Finally, flexibility and balance training are 52 important as the body ages. Aches and pains are high on the list of complaints in old age. The result of constant muscle tension and stiffness of joints, many of them are 53 ., and simple flexibility training can 54 these by making muscles stronger and keeping joints lubricated (润滑). Some of this you do whenever you stretch. If you watch dogs and cats, you'll get an idea of how natural it is. The general 55 is simple: whenever the body has been in one position for a while, it is good to 56 stretch it in an opposite position.
A.allowing
B.avoidable
C.briefly
D component
E.determined
F.helping
G.increasingly
H.lowest
I.maintain
J.maximum
K.prevent
L.principle
M.provoke
N.seriously
O.topic
第(47)题__________
简答题
8、
B) Fires, power surges, and floods, they're all facts of life. We read about them in the morning paper and see them on the evening news. We sympathize with the victims and commiserate over their bad luck. We also shake our heads at the digital consequences—melted computers, system failures, destroyed data. Yet, somehow, many of us continue to live by that old mantra of denial: "It won't happen to me." Well, the truth is, at some point you'll probably have to deal with at least one disaster. That's just how it goes, and in most aspects of our lives we do something about it. We buy insurance. We stow away provisions. We even make disaster plans and run drills. But for some reason, computer disaster recovery is a blind spot for many of us. It shouldn't be. Home computers contain some of our most important information, both business and personal, and making certain our data survives a disaster should be a priority. Moreover, even the smallest disaster can be a serious disruption. Personal computers have become an integral part of the smooth-running household. We use them to communicate, shop, and do homework, and they're even more vital to home office users. When home office computers go down, many small businesses grind to a halt. Fortunately, taking steps to recover from disasters and minimize their effects is quite straightforward. With a good offsite storage plan and the right tools, you can bounce back quickly and easily from minor computer disasters. And, should a major calamity strike, you can rest assured your data is safe.
Offsite Storage: Major Disasters
C) House fires and floods are among the most devastating causes of personal computer destruction. That's why a solid offsite backup and recovery plan is essential. Although many home users faithfully back up their hard drives, many would still lose all their data should their house flood our burn. That's because they keep their backups in relatively close to their computers. Their backup disks might not be in the same room as their computers—tucked away in a closet or even the garage—but they're not nearly far enough away should a serious disaster strike. So, it's important to back up your system to a removable medium and to store it elsewhere.
D) There are many ways to approach offsite storage. It starts with choice of backup tools and storage medium. Disaster situations are stressful, and your recovery tools shouldn't add to that stress. They must be dependable and intuitive, making it easy to schedule regular backups and to retrieve files in a pinch. They must also be compatible with your choice of backup medium. Depending on your tools, you can back up to a variety of durable disk types—from CDs to Jaz drives to remote network servers. Although many of these storage media have high capacity, a backup tool with compression capabilities is a big plus, eliminating the inconvenience of multiple disks or large uploads.
E) Once you select your tools and a suitable medium, you need to find a remote place to store your backups. The options are endless. However, no matter where you choose, be sure the site is secure, easily accessible, and a good distance away from your home. You may also want to consider using an Internet-based backup service. More and more service providers are offering storage space on their servers, and uploading files to a remote location has become an attractive alternative to conventional offsite storage. Of course, before using one of these services, make certain you completely trust the service provider and its security methods. Whatever you do, schedule backups regularly and store them far away from your home.
Come What May: Handling the Garden Variety Computer Crisis
F) Not all home computer damage results from physical disaster. Many less menacing problems can also hobble your PC or destroy your information. Systems crash, kids "rearrange" data, adults inadvertently delete files. Although these events might not seem calamitous, they can have serious implications. So, once again, it's important to be prepared. As with physical disasters, regular backups are essential. However, some of these smaller issues require a response that's more nuanced than wholesale backup and restoration. To deal with less-than-total disaster, your tool set must be both powerful and agile. For example, when a small number of files are compromised, you may want to retrieve those files alone. Meanwhile, if just your settings are affected, you'll want a simple way to roll back to your preferred setup. Yet, should your operating system fail, you'll need a way to boot your computer and perform large-scale recovery. Computer crises come in all shapes and sizes, and your backup and recovery tools must be flexible enough to meet each challenge.
The Right Tools for the Right Job: Gearing up for Disaster
G) When disaster strikes, the quality of your backup tools can make the difference between utter frustration and peace of mind. Symantec understands this and offers a range of top quality backup and recovery solutions. Norton GoBack is the perfect tool for random system crashes, failed installations, and inadvertent deletions. With this powerful and convenient solution, it's simple to retrieve overwritten files or to bring your system back to its pre-crash state. Norton Ghost is a time-tested home office solution. Equipped to handle full-scale backups, it's also handy for cloning hard drives and facilitating system upgrades. A favorite choice for IT professionals, it's the ideal tool for the burgeoning home office. You can buy Norton Ghost and Norton GoBack separately, or get them both when you purchase Norton System Works.
H) Life's disasters, large and small, often catch us by surprise. However, with a little planning and the right tools, you can reduce those disasters to bumps in the road. So, don't wait another day. Buy a good set of disaster recovery tools, set up an automatic backup schedule, and perform a dry run every now and again. Then, rest easy.
对应题目:
You should take steps to recover from computer disasters so as to minimize their effects.
9、去年冬季以来,中国不少城市雾霾天气频频出现。特别是作为首都的北京,严重的雾霾天气更是引起了人们的关注。雾霾天气严重地影响了人们的出行和身体健康。在北京城市道路上,很多车辆因为能见度过低,只能在路上堵着。人们行走在路上都要戴着口罩。很多媒体报道称口罩已经卖脱销。大气污染现象已经成为困扰北京的难题,人们急需要解决这些问题,从而为该地区的人们带来更好的生活保障。
10、回答题:
A) The effect of television on children has been debated ever since the first sets were turned on. Nowthree new studies find that too much tube time can lower test scores, retard learning and even predict college performance. The reports appear in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Ado-lescent Medicine.
B) In the first report, researchers studied the effect that having a TV in a child's bedroom can have onthird graders. "We looked at the household media environment in relation to academic achievementon mathematics, reading and language arts tests," said study author Dina L.G. Borzekowski, an as-sistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
C) Borzekowski and her colleague, Dr. Thomas Robinson of Stanford University, collected data on386 third graders and their parents about how much TV the children watched, the number of TVsets, computers and video game consoles in the household and where they were. They also collecteddata on how much time the children spent using the different media, as well as the time spent doinghomework and reading. The researchers found that the media in the household, where it is and howit is used can have a profound effect on learning. "We found that the household media environmenthas a very close association with performance on the different test scores," Borzekowski said.
D) "A child who has a TV in his or her bedroom is likely to have a score that is eight points lower ona mathematics test compared to a child who doesn't have a TV in the bedroom," she noted. Thesechildren also scored lower on the reading and language arts tests. However, children who have ac-cess to a home computer are likely to have higher scores on each of the tests compared with chil-dren who don't have access to a home computer, Borzekowski noted.
E) The reasons why TV has this negative effect are not clear, Borzekowski said. "When there's TVin the bedroom, parents are less likely to have control over the content and the amount watched,"Borzekowski said. "They are also unable to know how early or how late the set is on. This seemsto be associated with kids' performance on academic tests." Borzekowski believes that content andthe time the TV is on may be the primary reasons for its negative effect. "If the TV is in the familyroom, then parents can see the content of what children are watching," she said. "Parents can chooseto sit alongside and watch, or turn the set off. A simple and straightforward, positive parenting strat-egy is to keep the TV out of the child's bedroom, or remove it if it's already there."
F) In the second report, Dr. Robert J. Hancox from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand,and colleagues found, regardless of your intelligence or social background, if you watch a lot of TVduring childhood, you are a lot less likely to have a college degree by your mid-20s. In their study,the researchers followed 1,037 people born in 1972 and 1973. Every two years, between the ages of5 and 15, they were asked how much television they watched. The researchers found that those whowatched the most television during these years had earned fewer degrees by the time they were 26."We found that the more television the child had watched, the more likely they were to leave schoolwithout any qualifications," Hancox said in a prepared statement. "Those who watched little televi-sion had the best chance of going on to university and earning a degree."
G) Hancox's team found that watching TV at an early age had the most effect on graduating from col-lege. "An interesting finding was that although teenage viewing was strongly linked to leavingschool without any qualifications, it was earlier childhood viewing that had the greatest impact ongetting a degree," he said. "This suggests that excessive television in younger children has a long-lasting adverse effect on educational performance."
H) In the third paper, Frederick J. Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis from the University of Washington report that, for very young children, watching TV can result in lower test scores inmathematics, reading recognition and reading comprehension. "We looked at how much televisionchildren watched before age 3 and then at ages 3 to 5," Zimmerman said. "We found that for chil-dren who watched a small amount of TV in the earlier years, there was co nsiderable beneficial ef-fect compared to children who watched a lot of TV."
I) For children aged 3 to 5, the effect was not as clear, Zimmerman said. "There were some beneficialeffects of watching TV on reading, but no beneficial effects for math or vocabulary," he noted. "Theworst pattern was to watch more than three hours of TV before age 3. Those kids had a significantdisadvantage compared to the other kids." Parents should follow the American Academy of Pediat-rics recommendation, which is no TV for children under 2, Zimmerman said. "Personally, I feel thecutoff should be children under 3, because there is just not any good content for children under 3."
J) One expert believes that TV can have both positive and negative effects, but it all depends on whatchildren are watching. "Content matters," said Deborah L. Linebarger, an assistant professor at theUniversity of Pennsylvania, who co-authored an accompanying editorial. "Educational content hasbeen found to be related to performance on school readiness tests, higher grades when they are teen-agers, whereas, non-educational content tends to be associated with lower academic performance."
K) Another expert agrees. "TV watching takes up space that could be used by more useful things," saidDr. Christopher P. Lucas, a clinical coordinator at the Early Childhood Evaluation and TreatmentProgram at the New York University Child Study Center. "TV is not necessarily toxic, but is some-thing that has to be done in moderation; something that balances the other needs of the child forhealthy development."
L) Lucas puts the responsibility for how much TV kids watch and what they watch squarely on par-ents. "The amount of TV watching certainly has a link with the reduced amount of time reading ordoing homework," he said. "The key is the amount of control parents have in limiting the amount ofaccess. Get the TV out of the bedroom; be aware of what is being watched; limit the amount of TVwatching."
According to Borzekowski, children having chances to use a family computer are likely to acquire better results on the different tests.
1、听音频:
点击播放
听听力,回答题:
A.The weather forecast.
B.The cancellation of playing tennis.
C.The hot weather.
D.The tennis being played.
2、根据以下资料,回答题:
Drink from plastic bottles can raise the body's levels of a controversial "gender-bending" chemical by more than two thirds, according to tests.
Experts have been concerned about the possible health effects of bisphenolA (BPA.--an everyday chemical used in many plastic food and drink containers and tins as well as clear baby bottles--which is officially classified as toxic in some countries.A study found that participants who drank for a week from polycarbonate (聚碳酸酯) bottles showed a 69 percent increase in their urine (尿液) of BPA.
Researchers did not say how much liquid was drunk per day.Researchers from Harvard School ofPublic Health studied 77 students, who had first undergone a seven-day "washout" phase in which theydrank all cold beverages (饮料) from stainless steel bottles in order to minimise BPA exposure.
They were then given two polycarbonate bottles and asked to drink all cold beverages from themduring the next week.Previous studies have suggested that high levels of BPA consumption are linked tobirth defects, growth problems and an increased risk of heart disease.In particular there are fears thatheating the bottles, as parents would do when warming their baby's milk, causes the chemical to leak inpotentially dangerous quantities into the liquid contained within.
"If you heat those bottles, as is the case with baby bottles, we would expect the levels to beconsiderably higher.This would be of concern since infants may be particularly susceptible to BPA'shormone gland-disrupting (扰乱腺体极速分泌) potential." said the senior author of the latest study, Karin B.Michels.
Most adults carry BPA in their bodies but expert opinion on the risks is divided.The European Food Safety Authority believes that people naturally convert the chemical into less harmful substances in the body.
Previous studies had found that BPA could leach (渗出 ) from polycarbonate bottles into theircontents, but this study is the first to show the size of the corresponding increase in urinary BPAconcentrations in humans.
Harvard researcher Jenny Carwile said, "While previous studies have demonstrated that BPA is linkedto adverse health effects, this study fills in a missing piece of the puzzle--whether or not polycarbonateplastic bottles are an important contributor to the amount of BPA in the body."
What do we know about bisphenol A (BPA.from the beginning of the passage?
A.It is certain substance taken in by human beings every day.
B.It is a component contained in a number of plastic products.
C.It is an element that plays a decisive role in people's gender.
D.It is a kind of chemical that is universally regarded poisonous.
3、Questionsare based on the following passage.
In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that our appetite and food intake are influenced by a large number of factors besides our biological need for energy, including our eating environment and our perception of the food in front of us.
Studies have shown, for instance, that eating in front of the TV (or a similar distraction) can increase both hunger and the amount of food consumed. Even simple visual cues, like plate size and fighting, have been shown to affect portion size and consumption.
A new study suggested that our short-term memory also may play a role in appetite. Several hours after a meal, people's hunger levels were predicted not by how much they'd eaten but rather by how much food they'd seen in front of them in other words, how much they remembered eating..
This disparity (差异) suggests the memory of our previous meal may have a bigger influence on our appetite than the actual size of the meal. says Jeffrey M. Brunstrom, a professor of experimental psychology at the Univerity of Bristol.
"Hunger isn't controlled solely by the physical characteristics of a recent meal. We have identified an
independent role for memory for that meal,'" Brunstrom says. "This shows that the relation_ship between hunger and food intake is more complex than we thought. ""
These findings echo earlier research that suggests our perception of food can sometimes trick our body's response to the food itself. In a 2011 study, for instance, people who drank the same 380-calorie(卡路里) milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels of hunger-related hormones (荷尔蒙), depending on whether the shake's label said it contained 620 or 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reported feeling more full when they thought they'd consumed a higher-calorie shake.
What does this mean for our eating habits? Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves into eating less. the new fmdings do highlight the benefits of focusing on our food and avoiding TV and multitasking while eating.
The so-called mindful-eating strategies can fight distractious and help us control our appetite,
Brunstrom says.
What is said to be a factor affecting our appetite and food intake?
A.How we perceive the food we eat.
B.what ingredients the food contains.
C.When we eat our meals.
D.How fast we eat our meals.
4、根据以下内容回答题
The rise of the sharing economy
A) Last night 40,000 people rented accommodation from a service that offers 250,000 rooms in 30,000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for everything online. But their beds were provided by private individuals, rather than a hotel chain. Hosts and guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since its launch in 2008 more than 4 million people have used it—2.5 million of them in 2012 alone. It is the most prominent example of a huge new "sharing economy", in which people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly from each other, co-ordinated via the internet.
B) You might think this is no different from running a bed-and-breakfast (家庭旅店). owning a timeshare (分时度假房) or participating in a car pool. But technology has reduced transaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever—and therefore possible on a much larger scale. The big change is the availability of more data about people and things, which allows physical assets to be divided and consumed as services. Before the internet, renting a surfboard, a power tool or a parking space from someone else was feasible, but was usually more trouble than it was worth. Now websites such as Airbnb. RelayRides and SnapGoods match up owners and renters; smartphones with GPS let people see where the nearest rentable car is parked; social networks provide a way to check up on people and build trust; and online payment systems handle the billing.
What's mine is yours, for a fee
C) Just as peer-to-peer businesses like eBay allow anyone to become a retailer, sharing sites let individuals act as an ad hoc ( 临时的) taxi service, car-hire firm or boutique hotel (精品酒店) as and when it suits them. Just go online or download an app. The model works for items that are expensive to buy and are widely owned by people who do not make full use of them. Bedrooms and cars are the most obvious examples, but you can also rent camping spaces in Sweden, fields in Australia and washing machines in France. As advocates of the sharing economy like to put it, access trumps ( 胜过) ownership.
D) Rachel Botsman, the author of a book on the subject, says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market alone is worth $ 26 billion. Broader definitions of the sharing economy include peer-to-peer lending or putting a solar panel on your roof and selling power back to the gr/d ( 电网). And it is not just individuals: the web makes it easier for companies to rent out spare offices and idle machines, too. But the core of the sharing economy is people renting things from each other.
E) Such "collaborative (合作的) consumption" is a good thing for several reasons. Owners make money from underused assets. Airbnb says hosts in San Francisco who rent out their homes do so for an average of 58 nights a year, making $ 9,300. Car owners who rent their vehicles to others using RelayRides make an average of $250 a month; some make more than $1,000. Renters, meanwhile, pay less than they would if they bought the item themselves, or turned to a traditional provider such as a hotel or car-hire firm. And there are environmental benefits, too: renting a car when you need it, rather than owning one, means fewer cars are required and fewer resources must be devoted to making them.
F) For sociable souls, meeting new people by staying in their homes is part of the charm. Curmudgeons (倔脾气的人) who imagine that every renter is a murderer can still stay at conventional hotels. For others, the web fosters trust. As well as the background checks carried out by platform owners, online reviews and ratings are usually posted by both parties to each transaction, which makes it easy to spot bad drivers, bathrobe-thieves and surfboard-wreckers. By using Facebook and other social networks, participants can check each other out and identify friends ( or friends of friends) in common. An Airbnb user had her apartment trashed in 2011. But the remarkable thing is how well the system usually works.
Peering into the future
G) The sharing economy is a little like online shopping, which started in America 15 years ago. At first, people were worried about security. But having made a successfal purchase from, say, Amazon, they felt safe buying elsewhere. Similarly, using Airbnb or a car-hire service for the first time encourages people to try other offerings. Next, consider eBay, Having started out as a peer-to-peer marketplace, it is now dominated by professional "power sellers" ( many of whom started out as ordinary eBay users). The same may happen with the sharing economy, which also provides new opportunities for enterprise, Some people have bought cars solely to rent them out, for example.
H) Existing rental businesses are getting involved too. Avis, a car-hire fn'm, has a share in a sharing rival. So do GM and Dalmler, two carmakers. In future, companies may develop hybrid (混合的) models, listing excess capacity (whether vehicles, equipment or office.space) on peer-to-peer rental sites. In the past, new ways of doing things online have not displaced the old ways entirely. But they have often changed them. Just as internet shopping forced Wal-mart and Tesco to adapt, so online sharing will shake up transport, tourism, equipment-hire and more.
i) The main worry is regulatory uncertainty. Will room-renters be subject to hotel taxes, for example? In Amsterdam officials are using Airbnb listings to track down unlicensed hotels. In some American cities, peer-to-peer taxi services have been banned after lobbying by traditional taxi firms. The danger is that although some rules need to be updated to protect consumers from harm, existing rental businesses will try to destroy competition. People who rent out rooms should pay tax, of course, but they should not be regulated like a Ritz-Carlton hotel. The lighter rules that typically govern bed-and-breakfasts are more than adequate.
J) The sharing economy is the latest example of the internet's value to consumers. This emerging model is now big and disruptive (颠覆性的) enough for regulators and companies to have woken up to it. That is a sign of its immense potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.
Sharing items such as cars does good to the environment.
5、 根据以下资料,回答题:
Quesaons 61 to 65 are based on thefollowingpassage.
In 2005,the medical examiner in Wichita,Kansas,noticed a cluster of deaths that were unusually similar in nature:in three years,sixteen men and women,between the ages of twenty-two and fifty-two,had died in their sleep.In the hours before they lost consciousness,they had been sluggish and dopey,struggling to stay awake.A few had complained of chest pain.“I can’t catch my breath,”one kept saying.
All of them had taken painkillers prescribed by a family practice called the Schneider Medical Clinic.
The clinic was in Haysville.a working.class suburb of Wichita.The main industries in the area were aircraft and plastics,neither of which was doing well.A mile south of the clinic,there was little except wheat fields.The chief doctor was Stephen Schneider,a fifty-one-year-old osteopath(整骨师)with sandy hair and dimples.He treated the county commissioner and the chief of police,gave physicals to the boys at the Haysville high school,and did rounds at local nursing homes.One of his patients,Jeffrey Peters,told me that Schneider reminded him of the“kind of family doctor we had forty years ago.when l was growing up—a doctor who will sit down and listen to you and ioke around and make you feel comfortable.”
On September 13,2005,Schneider arrived at work to find the clinic cordoned(包围隔离)off with police tape.He called his wife,Linda Atterbury,a blond,peppy forty-seven-year-old nurse,who was at home with their two young daughters,and told her to come to work.Agents from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration led Schneider into one of the clinic’s fourteen exam rooms and asked him why he had been prescribing so many opioid(鸦片类)painkillers.He responded that sixty per cent of his patients suffered from chronic pain,and few other physicians in the area would treat them.The agents wrote.“He tries to believe his patients whenthey describe their health problems and he will believe them until they prove themselves wrong.”When asked how many of his patients had died,Schneider said that he didn’t know…
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
What’s the similar nature of the 16 people’s death?
A.They were examined by the same medical examiner.
B.They were treated by the same docton
C.Thev all died in their sleep.
D.Their ages are roughly the same.
6、Questionsare based on the following passage
Room for all,for now.
But there are signs that the sharing site(住房分享网站)is starting to threaten budget hotels.Even as they lobby regulators to crack down on residential sharing services,hoteliers play down the threat such companies pose to their industry.The top brass at the Four Seasons and Hilton chains have all said that these firms do not compete for their core market;a vice-president of The Ritz-Carlton group recently claimed she had not even heard of Airbnb.And Airbnb itself agrees,arguing that it does not displace existing lodging but is creating new demand.“I’m optimistic that there isn’t going to be a war”with hotels.Brian Chesky,its boss,said in January.
A recent study seems to confirm that,for now at least,Airbnb is only nibbling at influence from Airbnb on business and luxury hotels.But in places where it has established a presence,it cut the revenues of budget hotels by 5%in the two years to December 2013.
If Airbnb were to keep growing at its current rate,the Texas study suggests that by 20 1 6 the dent in budget hotels’takings will be 10%.Wim their high fixed costs,that could push many ofthem into the red.of course.Airbnb may hit me limits of either supply or demand before then,but smaller hotels are already blaming it for their woes.“I see a direct correlation between our revenues going down and Airbnb’s going up,”says Vijay Dandapani,the president of Apple Core Hotels in New York.“We had continued growth until Airbnb.”The financing round that Airbnb has iust closed,valuing it at more than all but the four largest global hotel groups,suggests that investors agree.
Concur,a travel-and expense-management firm.has seen its corporate clients’Airbnb bookings grow from a rounding error at the start of 2012 to more than lmillion so far this year.If Airbnb can integrate with online travel agencies such as Expedia and increase the share of its hosts that provide instant booking coniirmation.business hotels may find themselves with a surprisingly unignorable competitor.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
What is the reaction of other competitors to the appearance of Airbnb?
A.They highlight the threat it poses to their industries.
B.They never pay attention to this unworthy competitor.
C.They did not obviously worry about the appearance of Airbnb.
D.TheY are optimistic about their close cooperation in future.
填空题
7、Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.
Walking, if you do it vigorously enough, is the overall best exercise for regular physical activity. It requires no equipment, everyone knows how to do it and it carries the 47 risk of injury. The human body is designed to walk. You can walk in parks or along a river or in your neighborhood. To get 48 benefit from walking, aim for 45 minutes a day, an average of five days a week.
Strength training is another important 49 of physical activity. Its purpose is to build and 50 bone and muscle mass, both of which shrink with age. In general, you will want to do strength training two or three days a week, 51 recovery days between sessions.
Finally, flexibility and balance training are 52 important as the body ages. Aches and pains are high on the list of complaints in old age. The result of constant muscle tension and stiffness of joints, many of them are 53 ., and simple flexibility training can 54 these by making muscles stronger and keeping joints lubricated (润滑). Some of this you do whenever you stretch. If you watch dogs and cats, you'll get an idea of how natural it is. The general 55 is simple: whenever the body has been in one position for a while, it is good to 56 stretch it in an opposite position.
A.allowing
B.avoidable
C.briefly
D component
E.determined
F.helping
G.increasingly
H.lowest
I.maintain
J.maximum
K.prevent
L.principle
M.provoke
N.seriously
O.topic
第(47)题__________
简答题
8、
Preparing for Computer Disasters
A) Summary: When home office computers go down, many small businesses grind to a halt. Fortunately, taking steps to recover from disasters and minimize their effects is quite straightforward.B) Fires, power surges, and floods, they're all facts of life. We read about them in the morning paper and see them on the evening news. We sympathize with the victims and commiserate over their bad luck. We also shake our heads at the digital consequences—melted computers, system failures, destroyed data. Yet, somehow, many of us continue to live by that old mantra of denial: "It won't happen to me." Well, the truth is, at some point you'll probably have to deal with at least one disaster. That's just how it goes, and in most aspects of our lives we do something about it. We buy insurance. We stow away provisions. We even make disaster plans and run drills. But for some reason, computer disaster recovery is a blind spot for many of us. It shouldn't be. Home computers contain some of our most important information, both business and personal, and making certain our data survives a disaster should be a priority. Moreover, even the smallest disaster can be a serious disruption. Personal computers have become an integral part of the smooth-running household. We use them to communicate, shop, and do homework, and they're even more vital to home office users. When home office computers go down, many small businesses grind to a halt. Fortunately, taking steps to recover from disasters and minimize their effects is quite straightforward. With a good offsite storage plan and the right tools, you can bounce back quickly and easily from minor computer disasters. And, should a major calamity strike, you can rest assured your data is safe.
Offsite Storage: Major Disasters
C) House fires and floods are among the most devastating causes of personal computer destruction. That's why a solid offsite backup and recovery plan is essential. Although many home users faithfully back up their hard drives, many would still lose all their data should their house flood our burn. That's because they keep their backups in relatively close to their computers. Their backup disks might not be in the same room as their computers—tucked away in a closet or even the garage—but they're not nearly far enough away should a serious disaster strike. So, it's important to back up your system to a removable medium and to store it elsewhere.
D) There are many ways to approach offsite storage. It starts with choice of backup tools and storage medium. Disaster situations are stressful, and your recovery tools shouldn't add to that stress. They must be dependable and intuitive, making it easy to schedule regular backups and to retrieve files in a pinch. They must also be compatible with your choice of backup medium. Depending on your tools, you can back up to a variety of durable disk types—from CDs to Jaz drives to remote network servers. Although many of these storage media have high capacity, a backup tool with compression capabilities is a big plus, eliminating the inconvenience of multiple disks or large uploads.
E) Once you select your tools and a suitable medium, you need to find a remote place to store your backups. The options are endless. However, no matter where you choose, be sure the site is secure, easily accessible, and a good distance away from your home. You may also want to consider using an Internet-based backup service. More and more service providers are offering storage space on their servers, and uploading files to a remote location has become an attractive alternative to conventional offsite storage. Of course, before using one of these services, make certain you completely trust the service provider and its security methods. Whatever you do, schedule backups regularly and store them far away from your home.
Come What May: Handling the Garden Variety Computer Crisis
F) Not all home computer damage results from physical disaster. Many less menacing problems can also hobble your PC or destroy your information. Systems crash, kids "rearrange" data, adults inadvertently delete files. Although these events might not seem calamitous, they can have serious implications. So, once again, it's important to be prepared. As with physical disasters, regular backups are essential. However, some of these smaller issues require a response that's more nuanced than wholesale backup and restoration. To deal with less-than-total disaster, your tool set must be both powerful and agile. For example, when a small number of files are compromised, you may want to retrieve those files alone. Meanwhile, if just your settings are affected, you'll want a simple way to roll back to your preferred setup. Yet, should your operating system fail, you'll need a way to boot your computer and perform large-scale recovery. Computer crises come in all shapes and sizes, and your backup and recovery tools must be flexible enough to meet each challenge.
The Right Tools for the Right Job: Gearing up for Disaster
G) When disaster strikes, the quality of your backup tools can make the difference between utter frustration and peace of mind. Symantec understands this and offers a range of top quality backup and recovery solutions. Norton GoBack is the perfect tool for random system crashes, failed installations, and inadvertent deletions. With this powerful and convenient solution, it's simple to retrieve overwritten files or to bring your system back to its pre-crash state. Norton Ghost is a time-tested home office solution. Equipped to handle full-scale backups, it's also handy for cloning hard drives and facilitating system upgrades. A favorite choice for IT professionals, it's the ideal tool for the burgeoning home office. You can buy Norton Ghost and Norton GoBack separately, or get them both when you purchase Norton System Works.
H) Life's disasters, large and small, often catch us by surprise. However, with a little planning and the right tools, you can reduce those disasters to bumps in the road. So, don't wait another day. Buy a good set of disaster recovery tools, set up an automatic backup schedule, and perform a dry run every now and again. Then, rest easy.
对应题目:
You should take steps to recover from computer disasters so as to minimize their effects.
9、去年冬季以来,中国不少城市雾霾天气频频出现。特别是作为首都的北京,严重的雾霾天气更是引起了人们的关注。雾霾天气严重地影响了人们的出行和身体健康。在北京城市道路上,很多车辆因为能见度过低,只能在路上堵着。人们行走在路上都要戴着口罩。很多媒体报道称口罩已经卖脱销。大气污染现象已经成为困扰北京的难题,人们急需要解决这些问题,从而为该地区的人们带来更好的生活保障。
10、回答题:
A) The effect of television on children has been debated ever since the first sets were turned on. Nowthree new studies find that too much tube time can lower test scores, retard learning and even predict college performance. The reports appear in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Ado-lescent Medicine.
B) In the first report, researchers studied the effect that having a TV in a child's bedroom can have onthird graders. "We looked at the household media environment in relation to academic achievementon mathematics, reading and language arts tests," said study author Dina L.G. Borzekowski, an as-sistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
C) Borzekowski and her colleague, Dr. Thomas Robinson of Stanford University, collected data on386 third graders and their parents about how much TV the children watched, the number of TVsets, computers and video game consoles in the household and where they were. They also collecteddata on how much time the children spent using the different media, as well as the time spent doinghomework and reading. The researchers found that the media in the household, where it is and howit is used can have a profound effect on learning. "We found that the household media environmenthas a very close association with performance on the different test scores," Borzekowski said.
D) "A child who has a TV in his or her bedroom is likely to have a score that is eight points lower ona mathematics test compared to a child who doesn't have a TV in the bedroom," she noted. Thesechildren also scored lower on the reading and language arts tests. However, children who have ac-cess to a home computer are likely to have higher scores on each of the tests compared with chil-dren who don't have access to a home computer, Borzekowski noted.
E) The reasons why TV has this negative effect are not clear, Borzekowski said. "When there's TVin the bedroom, parents are less likely to have control over the content and the amount watched,"Borzekowski said. "They are also unable to know how early or how late the set is on. This seemsto be associated with kids' performance on academic tests." Borzekowski believes that content andthe time the TV is on may be the primary reasons for its negative effect. "If the TV is in the familyroom, then parents can see the content of what children are watching," she said. "Parents can chooseto sit alongside and watch, or turn the set off. A simple and straightforward, positive parenting strat-egy is to keep the TV out of the child's bedroom, or remove it if it's already there."
F) In the second report, Dr. Robert J. Hancox from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand,and colleagues found, regardless of your intelligence or social background, if you watch a lot of TVduring childhood, you are a lot less likely to have a college degree by your mid-20s. In their study,the researchers followed 1,037 people born in 1972 and 1973. Every two years, between the ages of5 and 15, they were asked how much television they watched. The researchers found that those whowatched the most television during these years had earned fewer degrees by the time they were 26."We found that the more television the child had watched, the more likely they were to leave schoolwithout any qualifications," Hancox said in a prepared statement. "Those who watched little televi-sion had the best chance of going on to university and earning a degree."
G) Hancox's team found that watching TV at an early age had the most effect on graduating from col-lege. "An interesting finding was that although teenage viewing was strongly linked to leavingschool without any qualifications, it was earlier childhood viewing that had the greatest impact ongetting a degree," he said. "This suggests that excessive television in younger children has a long-lasting adverse effect on educational performance."
H) In the third paper, Frederick J. Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis from the University of Washington report that, for very young children, watching TV can result in lower test scores inmathematics, reading recognition and reading comprehension. "We looked at how much televisionchildren watched before age 3 and then at ages 3 to 5," Zimmerman said. "We found that for chil-dren who watched a small amount of TV in the earlier years, there was co nsiderable beneficial ef-fect compared to children who watched a lot of TV."
I) For children aged 3 to 5, the effect was not as clear, Zimmerman said. "There were some beneficialeffects of watching TV on reading, but no beneficial effects for math or vocabulary," he noted. "Theworst pattern was to watch more than three hours of TV before age 3. Those kids had a significantdisadvantage compared to the other kids." Parents should follow the American Academy of Pediat-rics recommendation, which is no TV for children under 2, Zimmerman said. "Personally, I feel thecutoff should be children under 3, because there is just not any good content for children under 3."
J) One expert believes that TV can have both positive and negative effects, but it all depends on whatchildren are watching. "Content matters," said Deborah L. Linebarger, an assistant professor at theUniversity of Pennsylvania, who co-authored an accompanying editorial. "Educational content hasbeen found to be related to performance on school readiness tests, higher grades when they are teen-agers, whereas, non-educational content tends to be associated with lower academic performance."
K) Another expert agrees. "TV watching takes up space that could be used by more useful things," saidDr. Christopher P. Lucas, a clinical coordinator at the Early Childhood Evaluation and TreatmentProgram at the New York University Child Study Center. "TV is not necessarily toxic, but is some-thing that has to be done in moderation; something that balances the other needs of the child forhealthy development."
L) Lucas puts the responsibility for how much TV kids watch and what they watch squarely on par-ents. "The amount of TV watching certainly has a link with the reduced amount of time reading ordoing homework," he said. "The key is the amount of control parents have in limiting the amount ofaccess. Get the TV out of the bedroom; be aware of what is being watched; limit the amount of TVwatching."
According to Borzekowski, children having chances to use a family computer are likely to acquire better results on the different tests.
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