【推荐1】The Supreme Court’s decisions on physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine seeds to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering.

Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principle of “double effects”, a centuries-old moral principle holding that an action having two effects----a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen---is permissible if the actor intends only the good effect.

Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients’ pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient.

Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who "until now have very, very strongly insisted that they could not give patients sufficient medication to control their pain if that might hasten death."

George Annas, chair of the health law department at Boston University, maintains that, as long as a doctor prescribes a drug for a legitimate medical purpose, the doctor has done nothing illegal even if the patient uses the drug to hasten death. "It's like surgery, " he says. “We don't call those deaths homicides because the doctors didn't intend to kill their patients, although they risked their death. If you're a physician, you can risk your patient's suicide as long as you don't intend their suicide."

On another level, many in the medical community acknowledge that the assisted-suicide debate has been fueled in part by the despair of patients for whom modern medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying.

Just three weeks before the Court's ruling on physician-assisted suicide, the National Academy of Science (NAS) released a two-volume report, Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life. It identifies the undertreatment of pain and the aggressive use of "ineffectual and forced medical procedures that may prolong and even dishonor the period of dying" as the twin problems of end-of-life care.

The profession is taking steps to require young doctors to train in hospices, to test knowledge of aggressive pain management therapies, to develop a Medicare billing code for hospital-based care, and to develop new standards for assessing and treating pain at the end of life.

Annas says lawyers can play a key role in insisting that these well-meaning medical initiatives translate into better care. “Large numbers of physicians seem unconcerned with the pain their patients are needlessly and predictably suffering,” to the extent that it constitutes “systematic patient abuse.” He says medical licensing boards “must make it clear ... that painful deaths are presumptively ones that are incompetently managed and should result in license suspension.”

1. From the first three paragraphs, we learn that_____________

A．doctors used to increase drug dosages to control their patients' pain.

B．it is still illegal for doctors to help the dying end their lives.

C．the Supreme Court strongly opposes physician-assisted suicide.

D．patients have no constitutional right to commit suicide.

2. Which of the following statements is true according to the text?

A．Doctors will be held guilty if they risk their patients' death.

B．Modern medicine has assisted terminally ill patients in painless recovery.

C．The Court ruled that high-dosage pain-relieving medication can be prescribed.

D．A doctor's medication is no longer justified by his intentions.

3. Which of the following best defines the word “aggressive" (line 3, paragraph 7 ) ?

A．Bold.

B．Harmful.

C．Careless.

D．Desperate.

4. George Annas would probably agree that doctors should be punished if they __________.

A．manage their patients incompetently

B．give patients more medicine than needed

C．reduce drug dosages for their patients

D．prolong the needless suffering of the patients

【推荐1】The view from the top of Marina Bay Sands, a giant hotel, mall and casino, takes in the skyscrapers of Singapore, the fleets of ships entering and leaving the city's ports, the scattered tropical islands of the Singapore Strait and the crowds of soggy but determined selfie- takers trying to capture a perfect image of it all from the enormous infinity pool. Among the celebrities the hotel has lured (吸引) for a damp snap are Jing Boran and Fu Xinbo, Chinese film and music stars. China Daily, a Chinese state-owned newspaper, has declared the spot the eighth most romantic in the world. The place displays itself all over Chinese social media and offers special discounts and packages to visitors from China.

Such spin is increasingly important. Last year, for the first time, China was the biggest source of tourists to Singapore, accounting for 3. 2m of its 17. 4m visitors. Between January and September alone they spent more than $3bn ($ 2.3bn).

All across South-East Asia， tourism is booming. The number of visitors jumped by 49% between 2010 and 2015， to more than 109m. Tourism in Asia and the Pacific is growing faster than anywhere else in the world. The region receives a quarter of the world's holidaymakers (Europe’s share is still a half).

South-East Asia’s Edenic islands, ancient temples and delicious food are strong enticements (诱惑，怂恿). Visitors also flock to countries with cheap currencies: the weakness of the ringgit last year helped draw visitors to Malaysia, for example. Many countries in the region depend on the cash: tourism accounts for about 28% of Cambodia’s GDP and more than 20% of Thailand’s.

The most remarkable growth has been in tourists from China. The number visiting South-East Asia has increased fivefold over the past decade. Newly wealthy Chinese spent almost $ 26lbn travelling abroad in 2016, up from $73bn in 2011.

Indonesia, for one, has relaxed its visa rules to attract more of them. More seats on cheap flights have also helped pull in tourists: between 2013 and 2016 the number available each week on flights to South East Asia from China increased from 92,000 to 188,500.

But for the frenzied holidaying to continue to grow, infrastructure must improve, reckons Paul Yong of DBS, a Singaporean bank. Airports in places such as Manila and Jakarta are crumbling and surrounded by snaking traffic. Plans are afoot to increase annual capacity at Bangkok’s airports by tens of millions over the next four years. Hanoi’s Noi Bai will be expanded at a cost of $5.5bn to accommodate 35m passengers by 2020. Airports in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are to be upgraded too.

Other threats to thriving tourism are far harder to plan around, Travel operators tremble at the thought of economic downturns, volcanic eruptions and epidemic diseases. The head of one luxury holiday company says the regional outbreak of SARS, a respiratory disease, more than 15 years ago almost brought the industry to its knees. Political spats between China and its neighbours are another problem. So too is the manner in which Chinese visitors have been vilified in the region for snaffling prawns at buffets, barging into queues and misbehaving on planes. It makes many of them feel unwanted. But given that just 135m of China's 1. 4bn people have ever travelled abroad, South East Asian countries should prepare to welcome many more Chinese — even when they clog up the infinity pool.

1. What can Marina Bay Sands be defined as?

A．A base for making films and musicals.

B．A complex for consumption and recreation.

C．A romantic spot for newly-married couples.

D．A financial center for international businessmen.

2. Who account for the biggest share of holidaymakers to South-East Asia?

A．Locals.

B．Chinese.

C．Singaporeans.

D．Europeans.

3. Which of the following factors may attract more foreigners to South-East Asia?

A．The convenient transportation.

B．The improvement of local security.

C．The relatively economical prices.

D．The extreme poorness in that region.

4. Which may NOT explain the sharp growth in tourists from China?

A．The rise of Chinese financial capacity.

B．The strong desire to consume in cash.

C．Various preferential treatments in that region.

D．Rich resources of tourism in these countries.

5. What is the top priority of these South-East Asian countries?

A．To upgrade their basic facilities.

B．To advertise their quality service.

C．To weaken their cheap currencies.

D．To slow down the growth in tourism.

6. What should Chinese visitors pay attention to while traveling in that area?

A．They should mind their manners.

B．They should handle political conflicts.

C．They should prevent epidemic diseases.

D．They should avoid natural disasters.

【推荐2】Millions of Americans sit behind a computer screen, chained to their desk all day because the vast majority of stable, high-paying professions(职业) are “office jobs”. However, having a successful career does not require you to sit behind a desk and plug away at a computer all day.

In fact, there are a large number of non-desk jobs in a variety of industries that are growing and offering workers a direct path to the middle class, according to a new analysis of labor market information from CareerBuilder. While most of the highest-paying non-desk jobs are medical professions that require a doctoral or professional degree, there are 170 non-desk professions that pay $15 per hour or more, do not require a bachelor’s degree(学士学位) for a typical entry-level position, and have seen at least 6 percent job growth over the last four years.

“The US workforce has gradually changed to office-based work because of the rise of the professional service economy and productivity gains associated with information technology,” Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources Officer at CareerBuilder, said in a statement. “But some of the healthiest areas of job growth year after year are in middle-skill professions that don’t require workers to sit in front of computer monitors and phones for 40 hours a week.”

Here are the top-paying jobs that don’t require you to work at a desk in various kinds — none of which require a four-year college degree — and their hourly salary(工资) and growth rate since 2010: professional assistants(助理) : $26.57, 14 percent; elevator repairers: $37.81, 6 percent; mechanical engineering technicians: $25.19, 10 percent; and electromechanical(电动机械的) technicians: $24.68, 8 percent.

While they tend to pay less than traditional office jobs, non-desk professions provide a variety of benefits. Haefner points to a 2014 CareerBuilder survey that discovered workers who don’t work at a desk all day are less likely to complain about their work environment and less likely to report being overweight.

1. What does the underlined phrase “plug away” in the first paragraph probably mean?

A．Turn off a switch.	B．Look for a job.
C．Keep on working	D．Give up working

2. What conclusion can we draw from the second paragraph?

A．A non-desk job may provide you with a middle-class life.

B．The last four years has seen an increase in desk jobs.

C．The college degree is the ticket to a position.

D．A non-desk job cannot offer you a secure life.

3. What is the key reason for the US workforce to change to office-based work?

A．High salary.	B．Medicine.
C．Information technology.	D．Service industries.

4. Which job has grown the fastest since 2010?

A．Elevator repairers.	B．Professional assistants.
C．Electromechanical technicians.	D．Mechanical engineering technicians.

【推荐1】LONDON- Britain prepares for a vote Thursday that will decide whether it leaves the European Union. The debate has centered on immigration and economic security. Both sides have lowered the tone of their arguments after a three-day suspension(暂停) of campaigning that followed the murder of an anti-Brexit lawmaker, an incident that polls(民意调查) suggest has shocked many previously undecided voters who now say they will vote to remain.

These are uncertain times in a nation whose economy is the second largest in the European Union. The risks are huge. There are warnings that leaving the 28-member group may cause the British pound to lose 15 percent of its value and bring the resignation(辞职) of David Cameron, the country's prime minister; his stay or not depends on whether Britain listens to him and votes to remain.

For months, the Leave campaign has been hitting the streets. Its arguments are based largely on immigration, and the belief that Britain has handed control of its borders(边界) to a European super state: "The U.K. has lost control over migration. We have to accept anyone into this country if they have an EU passport, no matter if they have a criminal record or not. We are not allowed to say 'no' to people and that is damaging for the security of the U.K., but it is also putting pressure on jobs and opportunities for young people," said Tom Harwood, a Brexit campaigner.

The murder of Jo Cox, an anti-Brexit, pro-immigrant lawmaker by a far right extremist(极端分子) with a history of mental problems had a serious effect on both campaigns, and on voters.

Polls since the June 16th murder showed the Leave camp losing ground, but with both sides still very close on a referendum(全民投票) that many believe could change the course of European history.

1. What does the underlined word " Brexit" in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Break the law of the European Union.

B．Break away from the European Union.

C．Build the exit to the European Union.

D．Ban the immigration into Britain.

2. What is implied from the passage?

A．The immigration has caused great concern in Britain.

B．Brexit will be good for British economy.

C．Both camps have been campaigning and debating on the streets for months.

D．The murder of Jo Cox made many voters determined to vote for the exit.

3. Which of the following statement is true?

A．Britain will leave the European Union after the vote.

B．Anyone with a passport can choose to stay and work in Britain.

C．Whether Cameron will resign depends on the result of the referendum.

D．Jo Cox was murdered by a Brexit campaigner in June 16m.

4. What's the attitude of the report to the event of Brexit?

A．Positive

B．Negative

C．Indifferent(漠不关心的)

D．Concerned.

【推荐3】In a room at Texas Children Cancer Center in Houston, eight-year-old Simran Jatar lay in bed with a drip (点滴) above her to fight her bone cancer. Over her bald (秃的) head, she wore a pink hat that matched her clothes. But the third grader’s cheery dressing didn’t mask her pain and weary eyes.
Then a visitor showed up. “Do you want to write a song?” asked Anita Kruse, 49, rolling a cart equipped with an electronic keyboard, a microphone and speakers. Simran stared. “Have you ever written a poem?” Anita Kruse continued. “Well, yes,” Simran said.
Within minutes, Simran was reading her poem into the microphone. “Some bird soaring through the sky,” she said softly. “Imagination in its head…” Anita Kruse added piano music, a few warbling (鸣, 唱) birds, and finally the girl’s voice. Thirty minutes later, she presented Simran with a CD of her first recorded song.
That was the beginning of Anita Kruse’s project, Purple Songs Can Fly, one that has helped more than 125 young patients write and record songs. As a composer and pianist who had performed at the hospital, Kruse said that the idea of how she could help “came in one flash”.
The effect on the kids has been great. One teenage girl, curling (蜷缩) in pain in her wheelchair, stood unaided to dance to a hip-hop song she had written. A 12-year-old boy with Hodgkin’s disease who rarely spoke surprised his doctors with a song he called I Can Make It.
“My time with the kids is heartbreaking because of the severity of their illnesses,” says Anita Kruse. “But they also make you happy, when the children are smiling, excited to share their CD with their families.”
Simran is now an active sixth grader and cancer-free. From time to time, she and her mother listen to her song, Always Remembering, and they always remember the “really sweet and nice and loving” lady who gave them a shining moment in the dark hour.
1. Simran Jatar lay in bed in hospital because ________.

A．most of her hair had fallen out

B．she was receiving treatment for cancer

C．she felt depressed and quit from school

D．she was suffering from a pain in her back

2. What do we know about Anita Kruse’s project?

A．It helps young patients record songs.

B．It is supported by singers and patients.

C．It aims to replace the medical treatment.

D．It offers patients chances to realize their dreams.

3. What does the case of a 12-year-old boy suggest?

A．Most children are naturally fond of music.

B．He was brave enough to put up performance.

C．The project has positive effect on young patients.

D．Singing is the best way to treat some illnesses.

4. What is probably the best title for the passage?

A．Purple Songs Can Fly

B．Singing Can Improve Health

C．A Shining Moment in Life

D．A Kind Woman—Anita Kruse

【推荐1】Great work is work that makes a difference in people’s lives, writes David Sturt, Executive Vice President of the O.C. Tanner Institute, in his book Great Work: How to Make a Difference People Love. Sturt insists, however, that great work is not just for surgeons or special-needs educators or the founders of organizations trying to eliminate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The central theme of Great Work, according to Sturt, is that anyone can make a difference in any job. It’s not the nature of the job, but what you do with the job that counts. As proof, Sturt tells the story of a remarkable hospital cleaner named Moses.

In a building filled with doctors and nurses doing great life-saving work, Moses the cleaner makes a difference. Whenever he enters a room, especially a room with a sick child, he engages both patients and parents with his optimism and calm, introducing himself to the child and, Sturt writes, speaking “little comments about light and sunshine and making things clean.” He comments on any progress he sees day by day (“you’re sitting up today, that’s good.”) Moses is no doctor and doesn’t pretend to be, but he has witnessed hundreds of sick children recovering from painful surgery, and parents take comfort from his encouraging words. For Matt and Mindi, whose son McKay was born with only half of a heart, Moses became a close friend. As Sturt explains, “Moses took his innate (与生俱来的) talents (his sensitivity) and his practical wisdom (from years of hospital experience) and combined them into a powerful form of patient and family support that changed the critical-care experience for Mindi, Matt and little McKay.”

How do people like Moses do great work when so many people just work? That was the central question raised by Sturt and his team at the O.C. Tanner Institute, a consulting company specialized in employee recognition and rewards system.

O.C. Tanner launched an exhaustive Great Work study that included surveys to 200 senior executives, a further set of surveys to 1,000 managers and employees working on projects, an in-depth qualitative study of 1.7 million accounts of award-winning work (in the form of nominations (提名) for awards from corporations around the world), and one-on-one interviews with 200 difference makers. The results of the study revealed that those who do great work refuse to be defeated by the constraints of their jobs and are especially able to reframe their jobs: they don’t view their jobs as a list of tasks and responsibilities but see their jobs as opportunities to make a difference. No matter, as Moses so ably exemplifies (例证), what that job may be.

1. According to Sturt, which of the following is TRUE?

A．It’s not the nature of the job, but what you do that makes a difference.

B．Anyone in the world is responsible to delete poverty and change the world.

C．Anyone can make a difference in people’s lives no matter what kind of job he does.

D．Surgeons, special-needs educators and founders of organizations can succeed more easily.

2. According to this passage, how does Moses, a common hospital cleaner, make a difference in people’s lives?

A．By keeping optimistic and calm when facing patients and their parents at hospital.

B．By showing his special gift and working experience when working at hospital.

C．By showing his sympathy and kindness to patients when entering their rooms.

D．By pretending to be a doctor or nurse when entering a room with a sick child.

3. The word “constraints” in the last paragraph probably refers to ______.

A．demands

B．advantages

C．disadvantages

D．limitations

4. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Great work is work that makes a difference in people’s lives no matter what you do.

B．If a boss has trouble recognizing his employees, he can ask O. C. Tanner for advice.

C．Moses makes a difference through his sensitivity and his practical wisdom.

D．Those who do great work are never defeated by others or their jobs themselves.

【推荐2】

It’s common knowledge that the woman in Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting seems to look back at observers, following them with her eyes no matter where they stand in the room. But this common knowledge turns out wrong.

A new study finds that the woman in the painting is actually looking out at an angle that’s 15. 4 degrees off to the observer’s right-well outside of the range that people normally believe when they think someone is looking right at them. In other words, said the study author, Horstmann, “She’s not looking at you. “ This is somewhat ironic, because the entire phenomenon of a person’s gaze (凝视) in a photograph or painting seeming to follow the viewer is called the “Mona Lisa effect” . That effect is absolutely real, Horstmann said. If a person is illustrated or photographed looking straight ahead, even people viewing the portrait from an angle will feel they are being looked at. As long as the angle of the person’s gaze is no more than about 5 degrees off to either side, the Mona Lisa effect occurs.

This is important for human interaction with on-screen characters. If you want someone off to the right side of a room to feel that a person on-screen is looking at him or her, you don’t cut the gaze of the character to that side-surprisingly, doing so would make an observer feel like the character isn’t looking at anyone in the room at all. Instead, you keep the gaze straight ahead.

Horstmann and his co-author were studying this effect for its application in the creation of artificial-intelligence avatars(虚拟头像) when Horstmann took a long look at the “Mona Lisa” and realized she wasn’t looking at him.

To make sure it wasn’t just him, the researchers asked 24 people to view images of the “Mona Lisa” on a computer screen. They set a ruler between the viewer and the screen and asked the participants to note which number on the ruler intersected(和……相交) Mona Lisa’s gaze. To calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze as she looked at the viewer, they moved the ruler farther from or closer to the screen during the study. Consistently, the researchers found, participants judged that the woman in the “Mona Lisa” portrait was not looking straight at them, but slightly off to their right.

So why do people repeat the belief that her eyes seem to follow the viewer? Horstmann isn’t sure. It’s possible, he said, that people have the desire to be looked at, so they think the woman is looking straight at them. Or maybe the people who first coined the term “Mona Lisa effect” just thought it was a cool name.

1. It is generally believed that the woman in the painting “Mona Lisa”___________.

A．attracts the viewers to look back

B．seems mysterious because of her eyes

C．fixes her eyes on the back of the viewers

D．looks at the viewers wherever they stand

2. What gaze range in a painting will cause the Mona Lisa effect?

A．

B．

C．

D．

3. The experiment involving 24 people was conducted to______.

A．confirm Horstmann’s belief

B．create artificial-intelligence avatars

C．calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze

D．explain how the Mona Lisa effect can be applied

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Horstmann thinks it’s cool to coin the term “Mona Lisa effect”.

B．The Mona Lisa effect contributes to the creation of artificial intelligence.

C．Feeling being gazed at by Mona Lisa may be caused by the desire for attention.

D．The position of the ruler in the experiment will influence the viewers’ judgement.

【推荐3】Babies are surrounded by human language, always listening and processing. Eventually, they put sounds together to produce a “Daddy” or a “Mama”. But what still confuses neuroscientists is exactly how the brain works to put it all together.

To figure it out, a team of researchers turned to a frequent stand-in (代替) for babies when it comes to language learning: the song-learning zebra finch. “We’ve known songbirds learn their song by first forming a memory of their father’s song or another adult’s song. Then they use that memory to guide their song learning,” said Neuroscientist Todd Roberts. “It’s been a long-term goal of the field to figure out how or where in the brain this memory is. This type of imitative learning that birds do is very similar to the type of learning that we engage in regularly—particularly when we’re young, we use it to guide our speech learning.”

Roberts and his team had a feeling that the interface (交叉区域) between sensory areas and motor areas in the brain was critical for this process, and they focused on a group of brain cells called the NIf.

“In order to prove that we could identify these circuits, we thought if we could implant a false memory.” First, they used a virus to cause the neurons (神经元) in the birds’ NIf to become sensitive to light. Then, using a tiny electrode as a flashlight, they activated (激活) the neurons. The length of each pulse of light corresponded with the amount of time the neurons would fire. And the birds’ brains interpreted that time period as the length of each note.

Soon enough, the birds began to practice the notes they had learned, even though they never really heard the sounds. Amazingly, the birds produced them in the correct social situations. The researchers say this is the first time anybody has found exactly a part of the brain necessary for generating the sorts of memories needed to copy sounds.

“This line of research is going to help us identify where in the brain we encode memories of relevant social experiences that we use to guide learning. We know that there are several neurodevelopmental disorders in people that have really far-reaching effects on this type of learning.”

1. The zebra finch is researched because its song-learning mode ________.

A．decides whether it will sing songs

B．helps it to say “Daddy” or “Mama”

C．is like the way babies learn speech

D．reflects its talent for imitating its father’s song

2. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．The interface in the brain.

B．Guidance from adults.

C．Imitative learning type like birds’.

D．The way of regular learning.

3. What can we learn from the research led by Roberts?

A．Scientists activated some neurons by using an electrode.

B．A bird only sings what it heard before.

C．The brain produces tiny electrodes.

D．Birds are sensitive to light.

4. What do the Roberts’ team expect of this line of research?

A．A change in our way of listening and processing.

B．A chance to have relevant social experiences.

C．A better knowledge of the secrets of learning.

D．Identification of neurodevelopmental disorders.