As people age, the body changes in all sorts of predictable ways. Brains can slow. Wounds take longer to recover. And sleep patterns (模式) shift, too. This can come as news to many, says Michael V. Vitiello, a psychologist at the University of Washington who is expert in sleep in aging.
The most noticeable—and often most annoying—changes are how sleep and wake-up times change and sleep gets lighter, often beginning in middle age. Gone are weekend sleep to 11 a.m. and the ability to sleep through a noisy garbage truck down the block. Older drivers take longer to fall asleep, and they wake up more often. They tend to stay in the deepest stages of sleep for less time than younger adults.
Studies have found that poor sleep can create a particular threat to older adults—Falls, depression and anxiety, problems with memory, and increased suicide (自杀) risk are among the effects of sleep issues in this population group that researchers have found. But scientists are still unsure why those risk connections exist.
What is clear is the connection between good sleep and psychological well-being in older adults. A 2010 study showed us that connection when it came to sleep quality, but sleep quantity didn't show the same effects.
Experts say this may be the key to understanding sleep as you age. If you're sleeping less, but don't feel negative effects out of bed, the changes you notice may just be normal age-related. If you experience a sudden change in your sleep, or poor sleep is affecting your daily life, changing your personality, or your bedmate says you stop breathing when you snore, that could be a sign of something more serious and it's worth visiting your doctor.
1.What is one of the changes in sleep patterns with aging?
A.People tend to wake up later. B.People sleep more at weekends.
C.People take longer to fall asleep. D.People stay longer in deep sleep.
2.What will probably happen if the elderly have poor sleep?
A.They may threaten others. B.They may become anxious.
C.They may have better memory. D.They may be unaware of their risks.
3.What does the 2010 study imply?
A.Both sleep quality and quantity matter with aging.
B.Sleep quantity is the key to older people's mental health.
C.Sleeping well is good for older people's psychological health.
D.The relationship between quality and quantity is not yet clear.
4.What is the main idea of the passage?
A.Bedtime pattern changes as people age.
B.Poor sleep is more dangerous for older adults.
C.Bedtime pattern changes are not a sign of trouble.
D.People's body changes in different ways with aging.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题
As people age, the body changes in all sorts of predictable ways. Brains can slow. Wounds take longer to recover. And sleep patterns (模式) shift, too. This can come as news to many, says Michael V. Vitiello, a psychologist at the University of Washington who is expert in sleep in aging.
The most noticeable—and often most annoying—changes are how sleep and wake-up times change and sleep gets lighter, often beginning in middle age. Gone are weekend sleep to 11 a.m. and the ability to sleep through a noisy garbage truck down the block. Older drivers take longer to fall asleep, and they wake up more often. They tend to stay in the deepest stages of sleep for less time than younger adults.
Studies have found that poor sleep can create a particular threat to older adults—Falls, depression and anxiety, problems with memory, and increased suicide (自杀) risk are among the effects of sleep issues in this population group that researchers have found. But scientists are still unsure why those risk connections exist.
What is clear is the connection between good sleep and psychological well-being in older adults. A 2010 study showed us that connection when it came to sleep quality, but sleep quantity didn't show the same effects.
Experts say this may be the key to understanding sleep as you age. If you're sleeping less, but don't feel negative effects out of bed, the changes you notice may just be normal age-related. If you experience a sudden change in your sleep, or poor sleep is affecting your daily life, changing your personality, or your bedmate says you stop breathing when you snore, that could be a sign of something more serious and it's worth visiting your doctor.
1.What is one of the changes in sleep patterns with aging?
A.People tend to wake up later. B.People sleep more at weekends.
C.People take longer to fall asleep. D.People stay longer in deep sleep.
2.What will probably happen if the elderly have poor sleep?
A.They may threaten others. B.They may become anxious.
C.They may have better memory. D.They may be unaware of their risks.
3.What does the 2010 study imply?
A.Both sleep quality and quantity matter with aging.
B.Sleep quantity is the key to older people's mental health.
C.Sleeping well is good for older people's psychological health.
D.The relationship between quality and quantity is not yet clear.
4.What is the main idea of the passage?
A.Bedtime pattern changes as people age.
B.Poor sleep is more dangerous for older adults.
C.Bedtime pattern changes are not a sign of trouble.
D.People's body changes in different ways with aging.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
How old is “old” ?
How old is “old” ? 1.Two hundred years ago, you were old at 35. That was the average life then. At the turn of this century, as medical knowledge advanced, the average life span(长度) increased to 45. In 1950, 70-year-olds were really old. Today, a healthy 70-year-old is looking forward to many more active years.
So, how old is old? The answer is one you’ve heard many times, from all sorts of people. “You are as old (or young) as you feel!” The calendar(日历) simply tells you how many years you have lived. 2.
Once an unknown author wrote , “ 3.Nobody grows old by living a number of years; people grow old by giving up their goals.”
4.Alice Brophy, when she was with the New York City commission for the Aging, said, “It upsets me when people say, ‘Gee, you look young for your age!’ What does that mean? Is there some model that you’re supposed to look a certain way at 65 and 75 and 85? You know you can die old at 30 and live young at 80.”
There are many wrong ideas about aging. 5.Here are some of the more common ones. For example, most older people are in poor health, or older people are unable to change.
A.Old is a point of view.
B.It’s extremely terrible to be grown old.
C.The answer has changed over the years.
D.Your body tells you how well you’ve lived.
E.Older people are stubborn, unable to change.
F.Youth is not a time of life but it is a state of mind.
G.These ideas stereotype (固化) people on the basis of age.
高二英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析
Bill Gates’ body might live in the present, but his brain lives in the future. He has made a career out of predicting what will happen in matters of computing, public health and the environment. He correctly predicted the rise of smartphones and social media, and his latest predictions could come true, too. Here’s what Gates predicts for the future of our world.
In his Annual Letter 2015, Gates made the prediction that Africa’s agriculture industry would increase productivity by 50% by 2030. Now the continent buys about $50 billion worth of food from other countries each year, although 70% of people in Africa are farmers. “In the next 15 years，however，creations in farming will solve the food problem in Africa,” Gates wrote. “The world has already developed crops that are more productive; with all the technologies, African farmers could possibly double their harvests.”
By 2035, there could be almost no poor countries. In his Annual Letter 2014, Gates bravely predicted that continued levels of foreign help could mean there would be almost no more poor countries by 2035. “Almost all countries will be what we now call lower-middle income or richer,” Gates explained. “Countries will learn from their most productive neighbors and benefit from things like better seeds and the digital revolution. ”
By 2030, the world will discover a clean-energy breakthrough to power our world. One of Gate’s more hopeful predictions which came in 2016 said that wind, solar, or some other renewable resources would power most of the world within 15 years. “The difficulty we face is big, perhaps bigger than many people imagine,” he wrote in his letter. “But so is the chance to make things better.” Many of the poor countries he visited had no running water or electricity. At night this meant they couldn’t light or power their homes, and keep businesses open.” If the world can find a type of cheap, clean energy, it will do more than prevent climate change,” he wrote. “It will change the lives of millions of the poorest families.”
1.What does the author think of Gates’ predictions?
A.They sound quite unreal. B.They are mainly about computers.
C.They will probably come true. D.They haven’t produced any end result.
2.How is the agriculture in Africa?
A.It is losing its workforce. B.It is in need of productivity.
C.It can satisfy the local needs. D.It is as backward as Africa’s industry.
3.What should poor countries do according to Gates?
A.Use expensive seeds. B.Expect less foreign help.
C.Rely on the digital revolution. D.Learn from the experience of other countries.
4.What’s Gates’ attitude to clean-energy development?
A.It’s no easy task. B.It’s hard to imagine.
C.It can put climate change to an end. D.It has little to do with poor families.
高二英语阅读选择简单题查看答案及解析
Most of the new diseases we humans have faced in the past several decades have come from animals. The more we come into contact with wild animals, the more we risk a so-called disease “spillover” from animals to humans.
“As people move and wildlife move in response to a changing environment, humans and wildlife and animals will come in contact more regularly,” said Jeanne Fair from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Fair argues that by shifting animal habitats, climate change will also make the opportunities for disease spillover more frequent. “Everything is sort of shifting and will shift into the future as the environment changes through climate change,” Fair said.
Scientists, including climatologists and epidemiologists (流行病学家) on Fair’s team at Los Alamos, are beginning to model how changes to the climate will impact the spread of infectious diseases. It’s early days for this kind of research, but previous studies suggest that extreme weather has already played a role in at least one outbreak. Scientists say drought and deforestation have combined to force bats out of rain forests and into orchards (果园) in Malaysia to find food. Those bats, a common disease reservoir, then passed the Nipah virus through pigs to humans for the first time in the late 1990s.
“We’re going by the past data to really predict what’s going to happen in the future,” Fair said, “And so, anytime you increase that wildlife-human interface, that’s sort of an emerging disease hot spot. And so, that’s just increasing as we go forward.”
Jeffrey Shaman, head of the climate and health program at Columbia University’s public health school, argues we don’t yet know whether climate change will cause a net increase in infectious disease rates globally. For example, mosquitoes carry disease that affects millions of people across the world every year. As their habitats expand in some parts of the world, they might contract diseases elsewhere. Shaman says what we know for certain about climate change is that it will make it harder to predict where disease outbreaks will pop up.
1.How does climate change affect the spread of disease according to Fair?
A.By breaking animals’habits. B.By increasing animals’varieties.
C.By promoting animals’breeding. D.By changing animals’living environment.
2.What is the example of bats for in paragraph 3?
A.Explaining the influence of Nipah virus.
B.Proving the harm of bats to human beings.
C.Showing the effects of climate change on disease.
D.Presenting scientists’early study about the cause of disease.
3.What can we infer from Fair’s words in paragraph 4?
A.Humans should give up studying animals.
B.Frequent contact with animals can cause disease outbreaks.
C.Disease hot spots will disappear if animals die out.
D.Past data can solve the problems in the future.
4.What could be the best title for the text?
A.Climate Change and Disease Spillover
B.Animals’Interaction with Humans
C.Early Studies about Extreme Weather
D.Scientists’Prediction for Disease Outbreaks
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
Have you ever wondered why some days all you want to do is snack?
Under normal circumstances, we feel hungry when we have burnt up the food we have eaten as energy and our blood sugar and insulin (胰岛素)levels begin to drop. Ghrelin, a hormone connected to appetite, then communicates this to the brain, which is how we feel the need to eat. But some sorts of things can influence this process.
According to a 2011 study by researchers at Columbia University in the US, those who are lack of sleep eat almost 300 calories a day more than those who get enough sleep. This is because levels of the hormone ghrelin, which tells the brain we need to eat, increase when we don’t get enough sleep.The Columbia researchers noted that the women who didn’t get enough sleep took in more fat rising by around 30g on sleep-lack days－four times as much as the average increase for men.
The bright blue light emitted by devices such as smartphones and tablets may give an unwelcome encouragement to your appetite. Research this year found that your appetite continued to increase when you are exposed to the light. It also changed people’s metabolism(新陈代谢), as blood tests showed that the blue-light subjects had higher insulin and glucose levels. One possible explanation is that bright blue light at night confuses our body clock, which has a role in controlling when we feel the need to eat.
1.What really causes people to feel hungry?
A.Our brain. B.A hormone. C.Our appetite. D.Blood sugar.
2.Which of the following is true?
A.Women take in fat easily.
B.Lack of sleep may lead to hunger.
C.The body clock does harm to hunger.
D.Blue-light subjects control appetite.
3.What does the underlined word “emitted” mean in Paragraph 4?
A.Broken out. B.Picked up. C.Taken place. D.Given off.
4.What is the purpose of the passage?
A.To analyse a food study.
B.To report the situation of health.
C.To tell the factors influencing hunger.
D.To introduce the importance of snack.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
As is often the case, it is human nature to lead a sedentary（久坐的）lifestyle and most of us are so involved in our busy schedules that we don't even notice our bad habits. Many worry about the right time or "right age" to start working out. 1. Here're some practical tips to help you get fit.
Master your mind. Most people argue that they are too tired or old to start exercising. Doing so is much easier than trying to change the busy lifestyle. Change your mindset and be more confident in improving your health. 2.
Easy does it. Once you have chosen a fitness program, start slowly and increase it in stages. Begin with just a few minutes of gentle exercises and stretches. 3. About 30 minutes should be devoted to your workout. As your body starts to respond and your muscles get used to the exercises, you can gradually increase the length of your workout.
Always warm up. Always remember to warm up your muscles before exercising. Gentle warm-ups will reduce your risk of injury, aches and pains, and increase blood circulation and flexibility.
4. There's no quick access to getting fit. It's a common mistake to do too much too soon. If you don't know how to balance your needs and your expectations, you might seriously injure your muscles or just create stress.
Cool down. When you finish your routine, you need to cool your muscles and let your heart rate slow gradually. 5.
A.Don't overload your body.
B.Never ignore your potentials.
C.Tell your body to be more active and say, "I can do it."
D.However, nobody cares about what you have done for them.
E.Go next to some mild activity such as walking, jogging or cycling.
F.Cooling down will help your body to return to its pre-exercise level.
G.But it's never too late for them to start exercising and all they need is enough determination.
高二英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析
Shinrin- yoku means"forest bathing".Forest bathing doesn't mean you take a bath in the forest;rather,you simply go for a walk in the woods or a city park,where you slacken by using all your senses to experience nature.
Yoshifumi Miyazaki,from Chiba University,is among a growing number of scientists who have begun studying the science behind the effects of nature on human health.In his book Shinrin-yoku:The Japanese Art of Forest Bathing,Miyazaki explains the techniques of forest bathing.
Miyazaki has an interesting theory about why shinrin-yoku is so effective.He points out that for more than 99,99%of the time,humans have lived in a natural environment.In fact,in 1800,only 3%of the world's population lived in cities,and by 2016,this figure reached 54%. This is only going to get worse;officials predict that by 2050,66%will live in cities.
This suggests we live in our modern society with bodies that are still used to the natural environment,he writes in the book,because"genes cannot change over just a few hundred years".The science behind the research studies he presents in the book makes a convincing case that forest bathing is an effective method for reducing stress in today's world.
Now city planners are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of nature and are creating new kinds of "parks”out of empty spaces.There' re also more city gardens where people can grow vegetables.For kids,kitchen gardens in schools are becoming popular.As Miyazaki stresses,you don't have to find a formal park or garden to practice shinrin-yoku. Instead,you can enjoy the effects of nature wherever there' re plants.
Better yet,he says,we can bring nature closer to where we spend most of our time.Miyazaki's research has shown that just increasing the amount of plants in a room can affect the relaxation benefits of the room.What's more,even when people simply look at flowers,their bodies relax and stress levels decrease.
1.What does the underlined word in Paragraph 1 mean?
A.Behave. B.Entertain.
C.Anticipate. D.Relax.
2.How does the author mainly develop the third paragraph?
A.By giving examples.
B.By listing figures.
C.By making remarks.
D.By presenting research findings.
3.Why does forest bathing work effectively according to Miyazaki?
A.Human genes can change easily. B.Nature is part of the modern society.
C.Human body can integrate into nature. D.People can always get excited in nature.
4.Which of the following will Miyazaki agree on forest bathing?
A.It is easy to operate.
B.It is meant for gardeners.
C.It is unaffordable in the city.
D.It is inconvenient to practice.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
U.K. astronomer Martin Rees says that in future, some people may decide to leave Earth in order to live on other worlds. Finally, he added, they might use high technologies to change themselves to adapt to their new environment.
“They will find themselves ill-adapted to conditions there, so they will redesign themselves using powerful genetic engineering (基因工程) technologies,” Rees says. “These techniques will, I hope, be kept under control on Earth; but those on other planets will be freer to try.”
“We should surely wish them luck in changing their children to adapt to outer planets. This may be the first step towards the development of a new species,” says Rees. He says that these “post-humans” could one day turn into “fully inorganic intelligences” which may not even need an atmosphere to live and may grow well in zero-gravity environments, which ordinary people are not adapted to. “So it is in deep space, not on Earth, that ‘brains’ may develop powers that humans can’t even imagine,” says Rees.
Rees also warns that human beings shouldn’t fall back on the idea that they can avoid disaster on Earth by heading deeper into space. “It’s dangerous to think that space offers an escape from Earth’s problems,” he says. “We must solve them here. Dealing with climate change is a doddle compared with changing other planets; there’s no environment in our solar system as mild as even the top of Qomolangma.”
This isn't the first time Rees has made interesting predictions. Last year, Rees predicted possible dangers of nuclear physics (核物理学) tests taking place on Earth. “Maybe a black hole could form, and then take in everything around it,” he said. However, some scientists were not worried about this prediction. Stefan, a physicist, said he wouldn't be “losing any sleep” over that prediction.
1.What might be Rees’s prediction?
A.People might live on other planets soon.
B.Space technologies might be improved greatly.
C.People might avoid using genetic technology in outer space.
D.Space exploration might lead to genetically-changed humans.
2.Which of the following might be a description of “post-humans” ?
A.They have better survivability.
B.They are sensitive to zero gravity.
C.They are as smart as ordinary people.
D.They cannot adapt to the global environment.
3.What might the underlined part “a doddle” Paragraph 4 mean?
A.The top dog. B.A hot potato.
C.A piece of cake. D.A white elephant.
4.What did Stefan think of Rees’s prediction?
A.It was doubtful.
B.It made great sense.
C.It required special attention.
D.It questioned many popular beliefs.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
Natural disasters take many different forms and can happen without warning. Earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, droughts, typhoons, and hurricanes are all natural disasters.
The earthquake of 26 December 2004 resulted in one of the worst natural disasters in living memory. It was a massive underwater quake and occurred in the Indian Ocean. This caused a huge tsunami （海啸）to cross the Indian Ocean. It destroyed coastlines and communities and brought death and destruction to many people. The survivors needed fresh water, food and shelter as well as medical help. People from all over the world gave money.
The surface of the Earth has not always looked as it does today; it is moving continuously （although very slowly） and has done so for billions of years. This is one cause of earthquakes,when one section of the Earth crashes with another. Scientists can predict where this might happen and the area between plates is called a fault line. However, earthquakes do not always happen on Fault lines, which is why they are so dangerous and unpredictable.
All the disasters are very dangerous and continue to kill thousands of people each year, but they are nowhere near the most dangerous disaster to ever happen on earth. One type of event in the earth's history has regularly killed millions of beings: asteroid （小行星）impacts （撞击）. About once every million years the Earth is hit by a piece of rock and ice from space large enough to cause massive destruction （including earthquakes, volcanoes and ice ages） and sometimes to kill entire species. Sixty-five million years ago more than half the earth's species were killed by such a disaster, including all the dinosaurs（恐龙）. Disasters on the Earth may seem dangerous, but the biggest threat to humans is likely to come from space.
1.What did the world do when the tsunami occurred in the Indian Ocean?
A.They gave away money to the beggars.
B.They sponsored to help the people survive.
C.They donated their possessions to the survivors.
D.They helped rebuild the coastlines and communities.
2.What can scientists predict about earthquakes?
A.The possible time. B.The possible climate.
C.The possible place. D.The possible frequence.
3.Which is the best heading that matches Paragraph 3?
A.What do earthquakes destroy? B.Why do earthquakes happen?
C.How can we prevent earthquakes? D.Which is the most dangerous natural disaster?
4.Where does the author think the most dangerous natural disaster will come from?
A.Space. B.Earth. C.Humans. D.Wild animals.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析
Throughout history, humanity has existed side-by-side with viruses and bacteria. From the bubonic plague to smallpox, humanity has evolved to resist these bacteria and viruses. However, there are now new ways for them to infect us.
Climate change is melting permafrost(冻土) areas that have been frozen for thousands of years. As the permafrost melts, so too the ancient bacteria and viruses that have been frozen. These ancient bacteria and viruses, which previously lay inactive in the ice, may spring back to life as the earth’s climate warms.
In August 2016, a 12-year-old boy in the Arctic Circle died and at least twenty people there were hospitalized after having been infected by anthrax(炭疽).
Experts studied and concluded that over 75 years ago, a reindeer infected with anthrax died and its body was frozen and trapped under a layer of permafrost. It stayed there, with the disease inactive, until a heatwave in the summer of 2016. The heatwave melted the permafrost and exposed the reindeer body, which then released the infectious pathogen(病原体) into the nearby water and soil, and then into the food supply. More than 2,000 reindeer feeding near the body became infected, which then led to a small number of human cases.
While you may think the incident is isolated to that area, the fact that long-inactive viruses and bacteria might wake up soon due to climate change will affect us all. Pathogenic viruses might be preserved in old permafrost layers, including some that have caused global epidemics in the past.
With climate change, who knows what deadly viruses and bacteria hidden beneath permafrost areas are threatening us. Perhaps it is time for everyone to do their part to stop global warming.
1.What does the underlined “new ways” refer to?
A.Ancient bacteria and viruses came back to life.
B.Bacteria and viruses have evolved into new types.
C.Bacteria and viruses become more resistant to medicine.
D.Ancient bacteria and viruses remain active in frozen permafrost.
2.Which is the right order of the case of anthrax in 2016?
① A 12-year-old boy died and many others were infected.
② Over 2,000 reindeer feeding near the body became infected.
③ The bacteria went into the nearby water, soil, and then food supply.
④ The permafrost melted and the bacteria in the dead reindeer woke up.
A.④ ③ ② ① B.④ ② ③ ① C.① ② ④ ③ D.① ③ ④ ②
3.Why does the writer write this text?
A.To introduce an ancient virus, anthrax.
B.To call on people to stop global warming.
C.To encourage people to study ancient viruses.
D.To warn of the danger of melting permafrost.
4.In which section can we most possibly read this text on a website?
A.Geography. B.Environment. C.Education. D.Medicine.
高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析