One special grandmother is lending 100 years of wisdom to strangers on New York City’s upper West side. Her office attracts many New Yorkers, who wait for a chat with the woman.
Inside the office, you will find a laptop with 100-year-old grandmother Eileen Wilkinson waiting to chat. She may live across the country in Washington State, but thanks to her grandson, Mike Matthews, who is a social professor at New York University, she is now sharing words of wisdom for a chat.
“You can be anything you want, ” Eileen said. “Don’t complain about anything. You can do something about it.”
Over the past three months, hundreds of people have stopped by, chatting with Eileen as if they were old friends. “She completely gets a kick out of meeting New Yorkers because they are so open about their lives, ” said Matthews.
A music student asked for advice on a performance. Others were curious about life in 1917.
One boy said he was already planning his next visit. “She is so wise and energetic,” he said. “And she really doesn't look 100 years old. She looks as if she was in her early late 80s.”
Eileen spent most of her life as a homemaker and mother. She said truly listening gave her advice-giving ability and she was honest.
Eileen hosts online chats and has two accounts of the social media. “It works both ways because I get great joy talking to them, ” she said. Eileen isn't slowing down any time soon, bringing new meaning to the saying, “The road to your grandma’s house is never long.” She said the secret to her long life was living a good life.
1. How does Eileen help strangers?| A．By chatting with them. |
| B．By working for them. |
| C．By lending money to them. |
| D．By giving speeches to them. |
| A．She is a responsible mother. |
| B．She is good at performing. |
| C．She is full of energy and wisdom. |
| D．She is a woman of caring for education. |
| A．Set up online chats. |
| B．Make her life simple. |
| C．Bring new meaning to the saying. |
| D．Continue to share her wisdom. |
| A．Ways of Living a Good Life. |
| B．A Special 100-year-old Woman. |
| C．Helping the Strangers Is Interesting. |
| D．The Secret to a 100-year-old Woman’s Long Life. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】The Gift of Life
Most couples demonstrate their love on February 14 with flowers or chocolates.But these four men and women have offered the ultimate loving gesture—the gift of life.Each sacrifice has enabled their loved ones to live full and active lives again after serious illness.
I’D Do THE SAME FORHER
Michele Johnson，53，has been married to Gay，57，for 26 years.
With her husband suffering from a congenital(先天性的)kidney condition，in 2013 Michele gave him one of hem.Gay said:“I needed to be hooked up to a dialysis(透析)machine.I had no quality of life at all.However，I felt great as soon as I woke up after the operation.I told her I’d do the same for her.”
I LOVE BRENDA TO BITS
Brenda Green，62，met her husband Keith，63，when she was 24 and they married five years later.When Brenda was told five years ago she needed a kidney transplant，she cried.IⅡgive you mine.”Keith said without hesitation.“Brenda is my wife and I love her to bits.”
MY WIFE’S MY HERO
Stephen Heavyside，61，and wife Patricia，62，have been married for 40 years.Stephen said:“I was diagnosed with adult polycystic kidney disease five years ago.Patricia took good care of me and donated a kidney.This has brought us even closer.”
He said“Patricia’s gift changed my life.She is my hero.”
DECISION WAS EASY
Anna Stevens，48，and husband Gary，53，of Watford，Herts，have been wed for 23 years.Anna donated a kidney to her husband.She said of the transplant:“It was the easiest decision I’ve ever made.”Gary said.“There’s only two words that I can use to describe her: My angel.”
1. How was Michele Johnson’s husband before the operation?| A．He suddenly suffered from kidney disease. |
| B．He had to be on dialysis a long time. |
| C．He didn’t want to live any longer. |
| D．He felt great in spite of the sickness. |
| A．They had been married for a long time. |
| B．They had got along well with each other. |
| C．She took good care of him after he got ill. |
| D．He recovered because of his wife’s gift. |
| A．Four wives donated their kidneys to their husbands. |
| B．They had all been married more than 20 years. |
| C．The patients suffered from congenital kidney disease. |
| D．They demonstrate their love with flowers or chocolates. |
【推荐2】I’m running some 3,550 kilometers. To be more precise, this jog is mostly around my neighborhood in Ottawa. It is the distance by air to Vancouver that my friend Lucy and I are doing. If we make it, Lucy and I will get on a plane to Vancouver and compete in one of the BMO Vancouver Marathon weekend races. We may not win medals, but for sure we’ll have cake for my seventy-fifth birthday at the finish line.
The workout for big birthdays represents a big change for me. I used to hate birthdays, especially those milestone ones. No longer feeling young is horrible. As I approached my sixtieth birthday, Lucy suggested setting targets to mark milestone birthdays. “That way you are looking forward to something, not dreading it,” she pointed out.
By doing those expanding my world or demanding new skills, I feel myself growing, not shrinking. For my sixtieth, I got it into my head that I should do an Olympic distance triathlon (铁人三项赛), which turned out to be a real milestone. After over four hours on the course, I was last among the 95 competitors. But I was the oldest woman competing, so that made me first in my age category. Since then, I’ve looked on the special days as a call for trying something different. For my sixty-fifth birthday, I went to run a half marathon. And I finished seven activities that took me out of my “comfort zone” at seventy.
I’m fortunate to have celebrated so many birthdays in good health and spirits, so whether I succeed in running to Vancouver or not, I’m grateful for the opportunity. One thing I’ve learned in taking up these challenges is that there are many possibilities for new adventures and achievements, even as we grow older. So do spend every day of every year with a definite end in view, which will release your energy and make you happy.
1. How does the author plan to celebrate her 75th birthday?| A．Joining in a marathon race. | B．Going jogging across Canada. |
| C．Flying to Vancouver with a friend. | D．Running 3,550km in her neighborhood. |
| A．Demanding. | B．Fearing. | C．Changing. | D．Accepting. |
| A．It inspired her to accept challenges. | B．It changed her attitude to birthdays. |
| C．It proved she was in good condition. | D．It drove her to step outside her comfort zone. |
| A．Living with a clear goal. | B．Doing exercise to keep healthy. |
| C．Facing adventures bravely. | D．Settling into old age positively. |
When I was in primary school, I was actually a little shy. One thing that absolutely terrified me was speaking in front of many people, whether strangers or acquaintances (熟人). It was my sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Bamick, who helped me get past that. That year we had to present four oral book reports in front of the class. Some of the kids were even glad to do it, but I was scared to death. Mr. Bamick recognized my fear, so he told me to do a report on a book that was about something that really interested me. So I did the first report on baseball.
When it came time for me to present it to the class, Mr. Bamick cut me some slack and let me read the report rather than deliver it from memory. Some of my classmates criticized me for the delivery, but Mr. Bamick defended me. By the end of the year I had completed all four of the oral book reports. It wasn’t easy or comfortable for me, but I did it.
Years later I realized that Mr. Bamick did me a great favor in sixth grade. One of the opportunities I get when I win a tennis tournament (锦标赛) is to make comments to the fans who attend the match. Some of these are carried live on television and all of them are before thousands of people. It’s still not one of my favorite things to do, but, with Mr. Bamick’s help, I get through it from time to time. Before long, I was asked to bring my favorite childhood teacher to a national event in Dallas. I was excited when Mr. Bamick joined me for the event. It meant a lot to me that he was there.
We all need heroes in our lives. They can be role models or they can be important anchors in our world. Mr. Bamick believed in me and helped me to believe in myself. It was he who helped me build the person I became.
1. In what aspect did Mr. Bamick help the author? (no more than 10 words)2. What does the underlined part “cut me some slack” mean in paragraph 2? (no more than 10 words)
3. What is probably the author’s job? (no more than 5 word)
4. How did the author feel when seeing Mr. Bamick again years later? (no more than 5 words)
5. Why does the author regard Mr. Bamick as her role model? Please explain. (no more than 20 words)
【推荐1】It has become a daily routine(常规) for the students on bus No.7 in Arlington, Washington to wave to the “grandma in window”.
Every day for the past five years, you could find the old lady Louise Edlen sitting at her dining room table having breakfast as the kids were passing by. But one day in early October this year she was not found sitting in her usual place.
The kids didn’t see their old friend for a few days. They got worried. Finally, they learned that she had suffered a stroke(中风). “It was kind of heartbreaking to us because she was always there in the past five years,” seventh-grader Axtin Bandewerfhorst said.
But she was upset and was obviously still thinking about the 20 boys and girls who passed by her home every day. The day after the bus driver Carol Mitzelfeld brought a bouquet of flowers from the students to Edlen, the kids looked out of the window to find a sign reading “Thank you”.
“That really made me happy,” 10th-grader Cheyanne Holt said. “It shows how much we mean to her.”
So to welcome Edlen home from the hospital, they made her a sign of their own: a photo of the kids waving from inside the bus.
“Carol told us that a lot of times she even does not remember her daughter’s name, but she always remembers to wave to the kids on the bus,” Bandewerfhorst said. “That made me feel really special.”
Louise’s husband, Dave Elden, said, “The students’ daily move gives her something to look forward to every day.”
Elden has returned home, and is back to waving to the students every day.
1. When does the No. 7 bus pass Louise’s house?| A．In the morning. | B．At noon. |
| C．In the evening. | D．At night. |
| A．In front of the hospital. | B．On the school bus. |
| C．At the gate of the kids’ school. | D．In front of the dining room window. |
| A．she forgot her daughter’s name | B．the kids didn’t visit her |
| C．she couldn’t see those kids as usual | D．her illness made her suffer quite a lot |
Many pets got separated from their families almost two years ago, when Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast. A New Jersey family was one of them. They lost their dog. He got away from their backyard during the storm.
Chuck James said that his family searched for the brown-and-white dog named Reckless for months after the October 2012 storm. Reckless was a cute dog which brought much pleasure to the whole family, and the youngest daughter Tiffany loved him most. They played together, watched TV together, ate popcorn together and Reckless even saw Tiffany off when she headed for the kindergarten every morning. Chuck James kept searching for the lovely dog in every possible way, but no luck.
“We reported him missing and called the shelters from time to time, just hoping they had him,” James said. “We always kept our hopes up, but finally it was time to move on.”
James said the family had planned to get a new dog. The dog was to be a tenth birthday surprise for their eldest daughter, Ally. The family of five went to the Monmouth County SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) to adopt a new animal. When James and his wife walked close to the first cage, they saw a familiar face inside.
“He was a little bigger than I remembered because they had fed him well,” James joked. “But then he was lying on my wife’s feet and I knew it was him. It was unbelievable. I know this dog is meant to be with our family.”
When SPCA officials asked if they could prove the animal was their dog, a friend sent a selfie showing the family, with their dog before Sandy hit the East Coast.
“We’re all so happy to have him back.” James said. The family is living in hotel while their home is being repaired. This weekend, the James went on camping trip with Reckless to celebrate the dog’s return
1. What happened to the James when Super Storm Sandy hit the East Coast?| A．Their house lay in ruins after the storm. |
| B．Their pet dog Reckless went missing. |
| C．Their pet dog Reckless was adopted by another family. |
| D．They found their pet dog Reckless badly injured. |
| A．an animal hospital | B．one of their friends’ houses |
| C．the Monmouth County SPCA | D．the backyard which was under repair |
| A．document | B．credit card | C．text message | D．picture |
| A．A dog got separated from his family in a storm. |
| B．A lost dog found his way home with difficulty. |
| C．A family looked for a new dog but found the old one instead. |
| D．Dogs are always devoted friends of human beings. |
【推荐3】At 19, determined not to spend my gap year stuck at home, I took off with a friend and we traveled around Europe for months. We stayed in the cheapest accommodation and lived on bread and cheese.
This was 1990, a time before mobile phones and the Internet, when the primary contact with home was mails from the post office. Before I left, Mom had made me a money bag and a sleeping sheet to avoid unclean bedding. She didn’t want me to go, and these gifts were her way of telling me to have a wonderful time.
It’s only now, as my 18-year-old daughter is preparing to leave on her own gap year trip, that I understand how Mom felt.
While working multiple jobs and saving money, my daughter has also researched where to stay, how to get around and what to do before setting off. She rarely asks for my opinion and I am unsure whether I should wade in (介入) or back off. I want to be supportive but not too involved. I want to be cool but not aloof (漠不关心的) . I want to be like the perfect travel guide.
After all, when she first mentioned gap year travel, I was encouraging, wanting her to have her own experiences that shape her. Though I’m not quite ready, this trip is about her. This is not 1990 and I am not stuck at home waiting for a letter. Therefore, I haven’t concentrated too long on the idea of her not being here. I have promised not to bother her with messages, but at least I know she can contact me when she wants to.
1. What do we know about the author’s travel in 1990?| A．She traveled around Europe alone. | B．She probably contacted home by letter. |
| C．She worked multiple jobs while traveling. | D．She booked her accommodations online. |
| A．She was worried about the cost of the trip. |
| B．She had little knowledge about the destination. |
| C．She was unsure of how involved she should be. |
| D．She doubted her daughter’s ability to look after herself. |
| A．Tum a blind eye to her daughter. | B．Take charge of her daughter’s trip. |
| C．Contact her daughter as often as possible. | D．Stay connected but not disturb too much. |
| A．To analyse parent-child relationship. |
| B．To suggest how to plan a gap year trip. |
| C．To compare different gap year travel experiences. |
| D．To share mixed feelings about her daughter’s trip. |
【推荐1】Time spent in a bookshop can be most enjoyable, whether you are a book-lover or merely go there to buy a book as a present. You may even have entered the shop just to find shelter from a sudden shower.
Whatever the reason, you can soon become totally unaware of your surroundings. The desire to pick up a book with an attractive dust-jacket is irresistible but you might end up with a rather dull book. A book-lover rarely adopts this method of selection. All too often you soon become absorbed in some book or other, and usually it is only much later that you realize you have spent far too much time there and must dash off to keep some forgotten appointment — without buying a book, of course.
This opportunity to escape the realities of everyday life is, I think, the main attraction of a bookshop. There are not many places where it is possible to do this. A music shop is very much like a bookshop. You can wander round such places to your heart’s content. If it is a good shop, no assistant will approach you with the unavoidable greeting: “Can I help you, sir?” You needn’t buy anything you don’t want. In a bookshop an assistant should remain in the background until you have finished browsing. Then, and only then, are his services necessary. Of course, you may want to find out where a particular section is, but when he has led you there, the assistant should retire considerately and look as if he is not interested in selling a single book.
You have to be careful not to be attracted by the variety of books in a bookshop. It is very easy to enter the shop looking for a book on, say, ancient coins and to come out carrying a copy of the latest best-selling novel and perhaps a book about brass-rubbing — something which had only uncertainly interested you up till then. This volume on the subject, however, happened to be so well illustrated and the part of the text you read proved so interesting that you just had to buy it. This sort of thing can be very dangerous. Apart from running up a huge account, you can waste a great deal of time wandering from section to section.
1. What is most likely to happen to a book-lover in a bookshop?| A．Lost in some book, he forgets something else important. |
| B．Annoyed by the shop assistant, he dashes off for an appointment. |
| C．Attracted by its cover, he buys some book turning out to be a dull one. |
| D．Unsatisfied with its surroundings, he leaves the shop without buying a book. |
| A．greet customers in a more suitable manner |
| B．retire from the job if he has no passion for it |
| C．leave customers alone before services are needed |
| D．offer nice services from the very moment customers step into the shop |
| A．ignore the latest best-selling novel |
| B．be trapped in a dangerous situation |
| C．buy some book you are not at all interested in |
| D．buy other books instead of those you initially want |
A device that uses the sun is a good way to dry food. There are several kinds of solar dryers. The easiest to build is called the direct dryer. The sun shines directly on the food being dried. The direct dryer is a box with holes in it so that air can enter and leave the box. It has a cover made of clear glass or plastic. When the sun shines into the box, heat is produced. The heat is trapped inside the box and cannot escape back through the cover. The heat dries the food.
The solar dryer works better if the sides of the box are black. This is because dark colors hold heat while light colors reflect it. One way to make the sides black is to use wood that has been blackened by fire.
If you use black paint instead, be sure the paint contains no lead. Lead is poisonous to people, especially children.
The box can be made of almost any material such as wood, concrete or sheet metal. The dryer should be two meters long, one meter wide and twenty-three to thirty centimeters deep. The sides and bottom should have additional material, called insulation, to keep the heat from escaping.
The surface on which the food is placed should permit air to enter from below and pass through to the food. A surface made of wires with small square openings works very well. You should use wire with the largest openings or squares that do not allow the food to fall through. Air that comes in from below the wire surface will also carry away water evaporated from the food as it dries.
A direct dryer will dry most vegetables in two-and-one-half to four hours at temperatures from forty-three to sixty-three degrees Celsius. Fruits take longer, from four to six hours at the same temperatures.
Solar food drying is fast, safe and low-cost. It is also healthy because nutrients such as vitamin C are kept in the food. Solar dried food also tastes and looks good.
1. In which way will the food be fried quickly?| A．Let the sun shine directly on the food. |
| B．Make the sides of the box black. |
| C．Make wood be the sides of the box. |
| D．The box must be made of blackened wood. |
| A．sink into | B．change into gas or steam |
| C．flow away | D．flow into |
| A．Water in the food may cause poisonous substances. |
| B．The sun shines into the box and be trapped. |
| C．Dark colours hold heat better than light colours. |
| D．It takes longer for vegetable to be fried. |
| A．the way to dry food. |
| B．Solar Food Dryers |
| C．The device that uses the sun |
| D．The way to keep food safe. |
【推荐3】“Don’t tell anyone”. We hear these words when someone tells a secret to us. But it can be hard to keep a secret. We’re often tempted to “spill the beans”, even if we regret it later.
According to Asim Shah, professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Bchavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, US, keeping a secret may well “become a burden”. This is because people often have an “obsessive (无法摆脱的) and anxious urge to share it with someone”.
An earlier study, led by Anita E. Kelly, a scientist at the University of Notre Dame, US, suggested that keeping a secret could cause stress. People entrusted with secrets can suffer from depression, anxiety, and body aches, reported the Daily Mail.
But with secrets so often getting out, why do people share them at all? Shah explained that people often feel that it will help them keep a person as a friend. Another reason people share secrets is guilt over keeping it from someone close to them. A sense of distrust can develop when people who are close do not share it with each other. “Keeping or sharing secrets often puts people in a position of either gaining or losing the trust of someone.” according to Shah.
He added that talkative people could let secrets slip out. But this doesn’t mean that it is a good idea only to share secrets with quiet people. A quiet person may be someone who keeps everything inside. To tell such a person a secret may cause them stress, and make them talk about the secret.
Shah said that to judge whether to tell someone a secret, you’d better put yourself in their position. Think about how you would feel to be told that you mustn’t give the information away. Shah also recommended that if you accidentally give up someone’s secret you should come clean about it. Let the person know that their secret isn’t so secret anymore.
1. The underlined phrase “spill the bean” is closest in meaning to ________.| A．let out a secret | B．tell the truth |
| C．eat our words | D．take gossip |
| A．is oft often obsessed with a certain threat |
| B．often would rather not have been told about it |
| C．usually has a strong desire to keep it until death |
| D．may suffer from physical or psychological problems |
| A．Quiet people are more likely to keep the secrets to themselves. |
| B．Sharing secrets helps establish friendship or get over the sense of guilt. |
| C．It’s better to inform others of the chances of your leaking secrets beforehand. |
| D．Putting yourself in others’ shoes helps realize the difficulty of keeping secrets. |
| A．Walls have ears. |
| B．Still tongues make wise heads. |
| C．A word spoken is past recalling. |
| D．Every wall has a crack. |
【推荐1】You’ve got to get an early start tomorrow, but you’re not sleepy yet. Blame your brain, at least in part. Yet that same brain is still under construction. And much of that important work takes place while you sleep. Here’s what’s happening and why it matters.
Today’s lifestyle is one reason for late bedtimes. Many teens don’t finish with after-school activities, part-time jobs, dinner, and homework until 10 p.m. or later. Add in some time for relaxing, especially time for screens, and bedtime may not roll around until 11 p.m. or nearly midnight. In response, the brain cuts back melatonin（褪黑素）, a hormone that promotes sleep. Even without modern technology, though, teens change their daily cycle for sleeping, waking, and various other activities.
The rest of the world doesn’t change, however. So most teens must head to school before they’ve gotten the 8.5 to 9. 5 hours of sleep recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. And that’s a serious public health problem. For one thing, lack of sleep makes it harder to pay attention. When studies compared teens who had earlier and later school start times, they found that those who had more time to sleep did better in class. They also suffered fewer accidents in sports, driving, and other activities. Lack of sleep could also hurt mental health. Studies have found an inverse correlation（负相关）between teens’ amount of sleep and depression and other mental illnesses. As sleep time went down, the risks for the mental illnesses went up. Beyond that, teens lacking in sleep report more relationship problems and feelings of inadequacy.
Lots of issues remain for sleep researchers to explore. For now, though, studies are clear：Teens’ brains need sleep.
1. Teen’s lifestyle today most likely leads to _______.| A．the change of daily cycle |
| B．the rise of melatonin release |
| C．the growth of relaxing time |
| D．the decrease of technology use |
| A．poorer concentration | B．lower illness risk |
| C．stronger relationship | D．greater emotional change |
| A．sleep issues are extremely hard to solve |
| B．school time is generally impossible to adjust |
| C．enough sleep is clearly beneficial to teens’ health |
| D．the brain is chiefly responsible for teens’ sleep problems |
【推荐2】Everywhere I look outside my home I see people busy on their high-tech devices, while driving, walking, shopping, even sitting in toilets. When connected electronically, they are away from physical reality.
People have been influenced to become technology addicted. One survey reported that "addicted" was the word most commonly used by people to describe their relationship to iPad and similar devices. One study found that people had a harder time resisting the allure of social media than they did for sleep, cigarettes and alcohol.
The main goal of technology companies is to get people to spend more money and time on their products, not to actually improve our quality of life. They have successfully created a cultural disease. Consumers willingly give up their freedom, money and time to catch up on the latest information, to keep pace with their peers or to appear modern.
I see people trapped in a pathological(病态的) relationship with time-sucking technology, where they serve technology more than technology serves them. I call this technology servitude. I am referring to a loss of personal freedom and independence because of uncontrolled consumption of many kinds of devices that eat up time and money.
What is a healthy use of technology devices? That is the vital question. Who is really in charge of my life? That is what people need to ask themselves if we are to have any chance of breaking up false beliefs about their use of technology. When we can live happily without using so much technology for a day or a week, then we can regain control and personal freedom, become the master of technology and discover what there is to enjoy in life free of technology. Mae West is famous for proclaiming the wisdom that "too much of a good thing is wonderful." But it's time to discover that it does not work for technology.
Richard Fernandez an executive coach at Google acknowledged that "we can be swept away by our technologies." To break the grand digital connection people must consider how life long ago could be fantastic without today's overused technology.
1. What does the underlined word "allure" in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Advantage. | B．Attraction. | C．Adaption. | D．Attempt. |
| A．To attract people to buy their products. | B．To provide the latest information. |
| C．To improve people's quality of life. | D．To deal with cultural diseases. |
| A．People will get sick when using technology. |
| B．People have realized the harm of high-tech devices. |
| C．People can regain freedom without high-tech devices. |
| D．People may enjoy life better without overused technology. |
| A．Neutral. | B．Indifferent. | C．Disapproving. | D．Supportive. |
【推荐3】For lots of animals---humans included---lazing about in the sunshine is one of life's greatest pleasures. But unfortunately, this leisure comes with a cost: sunburn. And, while its most likely victims are the fairer-skinned among us, animals are at risk of sunburn, too. But if this can happen to animals too, why, then, don't we ever see sunburned fish?
"If you think of it, the sun has been here forever in terms of our planet, and all individuals have been exposed to it," said Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, a molecular epidemiologist from the Autonomous University of Queretaro, in Mexico. So, it's a pretty strong selective pressure that the sun has put on animals and that has led to many mechanisms of reacting to it."
Some of these mechanisms are obvious: hair, fur, wool, feathers and scales（鱼鳞）on many creatures create a barrier between sunshine and skin.
But, "marine mammals（海洋哺乳动物）, and specifically cetaceans（whales, dolphins and porpoises）, are an exception because they don't have fur; they don't have scales," said Acevedo-Whitehouse, who has been studying sunburn in whales for over five years.
In skin samples taken from the backs of blue, sperm and fin whales on their cross-ocean migrations, Acevedo-Whitehouse and her colleagues discovered signs of sunburn from the whales' hours spent breathing and socializing at the surface. But crucially, they also discovered that whales have specialized mechanisms that help them cancel out this burn. "The common adaptation of cetaceans is that they appear to be very effective at repairing damage," she said.
Some whales generate colors that darken and protect their skin; others have genes（基因）that set off a protective stress response in the skin. There are even whales that have developed a hard, keratinized layer（角质层）that protects the delicate skin below. "We were excited to see there isn't really evidence of skin cancer in whales," Acevedo-Whitehouse said. Now, they're trying to understand precisely how those healing mechanisms work.
1. Which of the following problems is the text trying to solve?| A．Do whales ever get sunburnt? |
| B．How do whales avoid sunburn? |
| C．Do animals ever get sunburnt? |
| D．How do mammals protect skin? |
| A．Whales don't have fur to protect themselves. |
| B．Whales can protect their skin even without fur. |
| C．Whales build a wall between sunshine and skin. |
| D．Whales' reacting mechanism is obviously found. |
| A．Breathing. | B．Socializing above water. |
| C．Sunbathing. | D．Surfacing for a long time. |
| A．rapid healing | B．self-made sun cream |
| C．protective coats | D．impossibility of cancer |
