Will there be an outbreak of bird flu that th...

Will there be an outbreak of bird flu that threatens humans? Many experts disagree on when or whether a human pandemic (大流行病) will occur, but do say there is a chance that the virus could mutate(变异), leading to widespread infection.1.Here’s what you need to know to help keep yourself healthy.

Stock up on food, water and household supplies. If there is a bird flu pandemic, you'll want to minimize your chance of catching it by staying indoors; you might even be required to stay home if the government asks that people remain in quarantine (隔离期). You’d better stock up today on at least 2-week worth of essentials such as water, food, emergency and medical supplies. 2.

Have an outbreak plan. It may feel odd or uncomfortable to talk to family members and loved ones about the worst-case pandemic scenario. But if that scenario strikes, you’ll all be much better off if you have a plan decided on and ready. 3. Figure out how you would care for them and what your first response and responsibilities would be; this is an especially important conversation to have with those with special care needs.

4. Things like keeping a balanced diet, exercising regularly and getting sufficient rest can help keep you healthy in an outbreak and also keep you from catching the common cold. Particularly in a flu outbreak situation, it will be important to wash our hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Be diligent about covering coughs and sneezes with tissues.

Moreover, know your essential health information such as blood type, allergies, and past or current medical conditions. Make a list of that essential information for all the members of your family. 5. And do make sure everyone in your household knows where to find it.

A.Work out regularly to stay slim.

B.Pick up the habits of healthy behavior.

C.It is wise to keep it somewhere safe and visible.

D.It’s important to ask yourself these questions before a pandemic occurs.

E.Talk with your friends and family about how you’d respond to an epidemic.

F.In that case, the best thing you can do right now is to prepare for that possibility.

G.That will help you get through an extended time at home if an outbreak happens.

高二英语七选五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

As artificial intelligence (AI) systems become more subtle, we can expect them to be used more often in the world of human medicine and healthcare. AI is designed to imitate the human brain in decision making and learning, so with the computing power to learn tasks in days or even hours, it is possible to create medical AIs that rapidly outperform doctors in certain tasks.

Most of the AI systems working in medicine employ smart algorithms ( 算 法 ), with the machine and　 deep learning techniques, and are supported by speech recognition and computer or machine vision to make their decisions. It will be some time before researchers can develop artificial general intelligence systems capable of abstracting knowledge and developing their own experiences to share with other AIs. But firms like Microsoft, Google, Apple,

IBM and Facebook are preparing themselves up to deliver the most advanced AI personalized healthcare possible for patients around the world.

Data plays a hugely important role in helping AI systems learn about human medicine. AI systems are trained on large data sets gathered from real-life cases. Providing amounts of detailed patient information is a decisive factor for their success.

One of the most important areas for influencing global health is in the field of epidemiology ( 流行病学).

Predicting disease outbreaks can save millions of lives by having resources ready should the worst happen. Another field where medical AIs are making rapid advances is in diagnostics. Doctors base a lot of decisions on information from X-ray, CT and MRI images. Speeding up diagnoses from patient scans can rapidly improve patient care and outcomes.

Cardiologist (心脏病医生) Rima Arnaout developed an AI that beat human experts at correctly interpreting echocardiograms by 92 percent to 79 percent. She said that despite the result there is no hope of AI replacing human doctors any time soon. "As cardiologists, we read the images and then go see the patient," she said. "So we’re both reading images and practicing medicine. I don't think that the second piece will be taken over so quickly."

1.The purpose of this text is to introduce ________.

A.the speech recognition of AI systems

B.the computer vision of AI systems

C.the rise of AI systems in medicine

D.the development of AI in tech firms

2.What is the key to making medical AI systems successful?

A.Arriving at decisions.

B.Providing patient data.

C.Predicting disease outbreaks.

D.Speeding up diagnoses.

3.What can we infer from Rima's words?

A.She prefers practicing medicine to reading images.

B.AIs do better than cardiologists in seeing patients.

C.She is confident in the irreplaceable role of human doctors.

D.AIs are unable to read images with current technology.

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析

The World Health Organization (WHO), in cooperation with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO), has identified best practices for the naming of new human diseases, with the aim to minimize unnecessary negative effect of disease names. “We now have a name for the disease and it’s COVID-19, “ WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.

COVID-I9, which has now spread to many countries, has much in common with seasonal flu. They are both viral infections(病毒感染) ,share similar symptoms and seriously can spread from human to human. In the midst of flu season in much of the northern hemisphere, telling the difference between the two will be vital in stopping its spread.

Human coronaviruses (冠状病毒), of which there are four, can cause lung problems similar to flu. However, COVID-19 is more serious than a “typical one,” says Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University of Reading. “There is no antibodies (抗体) in the population so it has potential for a global spread, “warns Jones.

As with the Ebola epidemic (埃博拉病毒)，which peaked in the middle of the last decade, fears around the new coronavirus are rising due to a lack of knowledge over its nature. Medical advice is similar across those countries with confirmed cases of the infection. In many western countries, authorities are asking those who think they are infected to call an ambulance rather than visiting a hospital, where they could potentially pass on the virus. Similar advice has been issued in China and other Asian countries.

1.What’s the aim of confirming the name for the disease?

A.To reduce the bad influence of misusing name.

B.To make the disease known to all of us.

C.To raise awareness of this disease.

D.To minimize the risk of global spread.

2.COVID-19 has much in common with seasonal flu EXCEPT that_____.

A.they are both viral infections

B.they have similar symptoms

C.they can spread from human to human

D.they have potential for a global spread

3.According to paragraph 4, what is the main reason for the panic focused by COVID-19?

A.Shortage of drugs. B.A lack of knowing it.

C.Weak control measures. D.Speed of spreading.

4.What’s Ian Jones’s attitude towards the spread of COVID-19?

A.Indifferent. B.Confident.

C.Worried. D.Discouraged.

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析

Nature can provide almost everything human beings need if we follow her rules. But if we break the rules, she is likely to be cruel and lash out at us.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 in China and some other countries is an example. Dr Peter Daszak, president of the US-based health organization, said, “This outbreak is a lesson for us. On a global scale (规模), human population density (密度), wildlife diversity, and land use change are what drive new pandemics (流行病).”

In ancient times, people needed to rely on nature to survive so they held it in awe (敬畏). For example, the American Indians believed that humans are a part of nature and nature is a part of humans. Chinese ancients always tried to keep the harmony between nature and human beings.

However, as human beings master more knowledge and make more advanced tools, people try to change and even conquer nature. They use more land to make buildings and capture wild and rare animals to suit their own needs. In this process, humans gradually lose contact with nature and even throw it out of balance.

Although we don’t know for sure what first caused the COVID-19 outbreak, it’s time for people to reflect on our relationship with our planet and reconnect with this world and everything that we’ve been given. After all, nature is not the place to visit. It’s our home.

1.What does the phrase “lash out at” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A.Control. B.Challenge. C.Destroy. D.Punish.

2.What lesson did Daszak think human beings should learn from the COVID 19 outbreak?

A.Humans should live peacefully with nature.

B.Bats are one of the most dangerous wild animals.

C.We should stop the wildlife trade around the world.

D.It’s impossible to prevent new pandemics globally.

3.What is the main idea of Paragraph 4?

A.How human activities cause global warming.

B.How human beings break the balance of nature.

C.How human beings become their own masters.

D.How humans use technology to improve their lives.

4.What is the author’ s purpose in writing this article?

A.To reflect on the COVID-19 outbreak.

B.To explain what led to the COVID-19 outbreak.

C.To describe experts’ predictions on new pandemics.

D.To compare ancient and modern attitudes toward nature.

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

For all the technological wonders of modem medicine, health care-with its fax machines and clipboards(写字板)—is out of date. This outdated era is slowly drawing to a close as the industry catches up with the artificial-intelligence ( AI) revolution.

Eric Topol, an expert in heart disease and enthusiast for digital medicine, thinks AI will be particularly useful for such tasks as examining images, observing heart traces for abnormalities or turning doctors' words into patient records. It will be able to use masses of data to work out the best treatments, and improve workflows in hospitals. In short, AI is set to save time, lives and money.

The fear some people have is that AI will be used to deepen the assembly-line culture of modem medicine. If it gives a “ gift of time” to doctors, they argue that this bonus should be used to extend consultations, rather than simply speeding through them more efficiently.

That is a fine idea, but as health swallows an ever-bigger share of national wealth, greater efficiency is exactly what is needed, at least so far as governments and insurers are concerned. Otherwise, rich societies may fail to cope with the needs of ageing and growing populations. An extra five minutes spent chatting with a patient is costly as well as valuable. The AI revolution will also enable managerial accountants to adjust and evaluate every aspect of treatment. The autonomy of the doctor will surely be weakened, especially, perhaps, in public-health systems which are duty-bound to cut unnecessary costs.

The Hippocratic Oath(誓言) holds that there is an art to medicine as well as a science, and that “warmth, sympathy and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug”. There's lots of sense in it: the patients of sympathetic physicians have been shown to recover better. Yet as the supply of human carers fails to satisfy the demand for health care, the future may involve consultations on smartphones and measurements monitored by chatbots. The considerately warmed stethoscope ( 听诊器) ,placed gently on a patient's back, may become a relic of the past.

1.What's Dr Topol's attitude toward AI's coming into medicine?

A.Concerned. B.Doubtful. C.Optimistic. D.Cautious.

2.What does the author of the text attach more importance to?

A.Medical costs. B.National wealth.

C.Longer consultation. D.Greater efficiency.

3.Why is the Hippocratic Oath mentioned?

A.To prove the bright future of AI.

B.To show the advantage of a human doctor.

C.To explain medical equipment is more important.

D.To argue a human doctor performs as well as a robot.

4.What may be the best title for the text?

A.Health care and AI B.AI and its applications

C.Doctors and Patients D.Dr Topol and digital medicine

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析

Following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP), also named COVID-19 by WHO, there is a general fear of the unknown virus as its full effects remain to be seen. Fever, coughing, sore throat, difficulty breathing —the NCP’s symptoms are similar to the common cold or the flu, but it’s potentially more dangerous.

Viruses could be deadly, like HIV and Ebola. But what are viruses? How can they cause so much trouble?

Viruses are non-living organisms (有机体) approximately one-millionth of an inch long. Unlike human cells or bacteria, they can’t reproduce on their own. Instead, they invade the cells of living organisms to reproduce, spread and take over.

Viruses can infect every living thing – from plants and animals down to the smallest bacteria. For this reason, they always have the potential to be dangerous to human life. Sometimes a virus can cause a disease so serious that it is fatal. Other viral infections trigger no noticeable reaction.

Viruses lie around our environment all of the time, waiting for a host cell to come along. They can enter our bodies by the nose, mouth, eyes or breaks in the skin. Once inside, they try to find a host cell to infect. For example, HIV, which causes AIDS, attacks the T-cells of the immune system.

But the basic question is, where did viruses first come from? Until now, no clear explanation for their origin exists. “Tracing the origins of viruses is difficult”, Ed Rybicki, a virologist (病毒学家) at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, told Scientific American, “because viruses don’t leave fossils and because of the tricks they use to make copies of themselves within the cells they’ve invaded”.

However, there are three main hypotheses (假说) to explain the origin of viruses. First, viruses started as independent organisms, then became parasites (寄生者). Second, viruses evolved from pieces of DNA or RNA that “escaped” from larger organisms. Third, viruses co-evolved with their host cells, which means they existed alongside these cells.

For the time being, these are only theories. The technology and evidence we have today cannot be used to test these theories and identify the most plausible explanation. Continuing studies may provide us with clearer answers. Or future studies may reveal that the answer is even murkier (含糊不清的) than it now appears.

1.What can we learn about viruses from the text?

A.Viruses have nothing to do with the common cold.

B.Viruses are really small living organisms.

C.Viruses can’t reproduce unless they find a host cell.

D.Viruses enter our bodies mainly through the mouth, nose and hair.

2.Which of the following might explain the origin of viruses?

A.They evolved from the fossils of large organisms.

B.They evolved from parasites into independent organisms.

C.They evolved from the T-cells in animals.

D.They evolved along with their host cells.

3.The underlined word “plausible” in the last paragraph probably means ________.

A.reasonable B.common

C.creative D.unbelievable

4.What can we conclude from the text?

A.Viruses live longer in human host cells than in animals’.

B.Viruses will become more like bacteria as they evolve.

C.It may take a long time to understand the origin of viruses.

D.The author is optimistic about future virus research.

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析

Being able to tell human faces apart is a skill that almost every person has,although some are far better at it than others.But a new study says that this is not just a skill that humans have. Even fish can do it.

Following up on research studying different species’(物种)abilities to recognize human laces(sheep,dogs,cows,horses,and birds have all been tried),the researchers from the University of Oxford decided to pick an animal that does not have an evolved neocortext,the part of the brain that processes sight and sounds,and doesn’t have a close relationship with humans.That way,there would be no reason why these test subjects(实验对象)would have a past history of identifying human faces.

So they picked the archerfish,a reef fish variety that shoots water into the air to knock its prey(猎物)out of the sky.They used this adaptation to have the fish spray water at a face on a monitor hanging over their tanks for a reward.Most of the fish were able to pick apart their learned face,even when colors were taken away.

This study gives more support to the assumption that distinguishing between faces is not just a skill that big-brained organisms are born with.It is possible that a good percentage of recognizing faces is learned over time.The development of neocortext may contribute only to quickly processing a large number of faces in varying situations.

But more work needs to be conducted to find a deeper link to this possible learned behavior. The sample size of this study was very small-only eight fish were used altogether.Also,the faces displayed were only white,female faces from a German database,shown in a front view, with no expressions.Other animal trials have shown that some species,like pigeons,respond more to different angles and varied expressions.

1.The archerfish were picked as test subjects because they

A.have no evolved neocortext

B.have close relationship with human

C.have a skill of spraying water for a reward

D.have a past history of recognizing human faces

2.What is the finding of the research?

A.Some animals possess the ability to tell human faces apart.

B.Some animals gain the ability to recognize faces by learning.

C.The fish’s ability to tell human faces apart is a natural skill.

D.The fish’s ability to recognize human faces is related to neocortext.

3.What is likely to be done for further research?

A.To show more faces in a front view.

B.To display more white,female faces.

C.To test more fish samples to gather more data.

D.To test pigeons’ response to varied expressions.

4.Where is this text most likely from?

A.A diary. B.A biography. C.A mystery. D.A magazine.

高二英语阅读选择困难题查看答案及解析

Scientists believe they could bring the likes of dodos(渡渡鸟)back from the dead through cloning experiments in the near future which could see the flightless birds revived from their extinction.

The big bird, which was about a metre tall and weighed up to 18 kilograms, was native to Mauritius but became extinct in the 1600s, shortly after humans discovered the island. However, 400 years later, scientists now believe that they could bring the dodo back to life through cloning of some of its closest living relatives.

Scientists recently published a paper which identified the overall genomic structure of dinosaurs. The team achieved this by tracing the ancestors (祖先)of birds — the dinosaurs closest living relatives — to create the genomic structure. Researchers involved in the study say it is an emphatic ‘no’ when it comes to the possibility of ever being able to clone dinosaurs, but they do say that more recently extinct birds like the carrier pigeon and the dodo could be brought back due to the fact that they have such close living relatives.

University of Kent scientists Darren Griffin and Rebecca O’Connor wrote in an article for The Conversation: “We discovered that birds and most flightless dinosaurs had a lot of chromosomes (packages of DNA). Having so many allows animals to generate variation, the driver of natural selection.”

“However, though it is a long shot, it may be possible in future to use Jurassic Park technology to help avoid some of the harm that humans have caused. Mankind has seen the extinction of well-known avian dinosaurs such as the dodo and the passenger pigeon.”

“Recovery(恢复)of DNA that is a only few hundred years old from these birds is a far more realistic way. It may also be that eggs from closely related living species might just be good enough. In the right conditions we may be able to use them to resurrect some of these species from extinction.”

1.What can we learn about dodos?

A.They flew to Mauritius in the 1600s. B.They could be used to clone pigeons.

C.They would die out in the near future. D.They might be brought back to life soon.

2.How do scientists revive dodos?

A.They clone dodos’ closest living relatives. B.They trace those endangered birds closely.

C.They look for dinosaurs’ living conditions. D.They identify genomic structure of pigeons.

3.What does the underlined word “resurrect” in the last paragraph mean?

A.Learn. B.Protect.

C.Revive. D.Prevent.

4.What is the best title for the text?

A.Scientists Expect to Clone the Dodos. B.Scientists Find Close Living Relatives.

C.Dinosaurs Have Already Been Extinct. D.Some Species Have Been Discovered.

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析