1 . People have different ways of dealing with a common cold. Some take over the counter medicines such as aspirin while others try popular home remedies(治疗) like herbal tea or chicken soup. Yet here is the tough truth about the common cold: nothing really cures it.
So why do people sometimes believe that their remedies work? According to James Taylor, professor at the University of Washington, colds usually go away on their own in about a week, improving a little each day after symptoms peak, so it's easy to believe it's medicine rather than time that deserves the credit, USA Today reported.
It still seems hard to believe that we can deal with more serious diseases yet are powerless against something so common as a cold. Recently, scientists came closer to figure out why. To understand it, you first need to know how antiviral drugs work. They attack the virus by attaching to and changing the surface structures of the virus. To do that, the drug must fit and lock into the virus like the right piece of a jigsaw(拼图), which means scientists have to identify the virus and build a 3D model to study its surface before they can design an antiviral drug that is effective enough.
The two cold viruses that scientists had long known about were rhinovirus(鼻病毒) A and B. But they didn't find out about the existence of a third virus, rhinovirus C, until 2006. All three of them contribute to the common cold, but drugs that work well against rhinovirus A and B have little effect when used against rhinovirus C.
''This explains most of the previous failures of drug trials against rhinoviruses,'' study leader Professor Ann C. Palmenberg at the University of Wiscons in Madison, US, told Science Daily.
Now, more than 10 years after the discovery of rhinovirus C, scientists have finally built a highly detailed 3D model of the virus, showing that the surface of the virus is, as expected, different from that of other cold viruses.
With the model in hand, hopefully a real cure for a common cold is on its way. Soon, we may no longer have to waste our money on medicines that don't really work.
1. What does the author think of popular remedies for a common cold?| A．They are quite effective. | B．They are slightly helpful. |
| C．They actually have no effect. | D．They still need to be improved. |
| A．By breaking up cold viruses directly. |
| B．By changing the surface structures of the cold viruses. |
| C．By preventing colds from developing into serious diseases. |
| D．By absorbing different kinds of cold viruses at the same time. |
| A．The surface of cold viruses looks quite similar. |
| B．Scientists have already found a cure for the common cold. |
| C．Scientists were not aware of the existence of rhinovirus C until recently. |
| D．Knowing the structure of cold viruses is the key to developing an effective cure. |
| A．Drugs against cold viruses | B．Helpful home remedies |
| C．No current cure for common cold | D．Research on cold viruses |
2 . One day,I was taking a nap in my office when I woke up to the sound of a car crash.I sat up and looked out of the window.In the parking lot,a car had just crashed into a fence.The car must have been moving fast,because it was in bad shape.
Then I watched as the driver got out of the car.He wore loose trousers and a crumpled(褶皱的）shirt unbuttoned to show his chest hair.Immediately,I disliked him.
Then,he opened the passenger door,from which a very small child ran out.A kid in the front seat!My dislike for the man increased greatly.
As the child ran around in the parking lot,the man tried to repair the damage.He tried to pull the ruined fence back into place,but it wouldn't move.I looked out of the window,silently cheering.The man tried harder.However,suddenly,the man fell hard onto the ground with one of his shoes landing 10 feet away on the sidewalk.I think I laughed out loudly.That almost brightened my whole morning.He stood up and walked slowly to a nearby apartment.That,I thought,would be the end of it.The man was going to leave the mess behind for someone else to clean up.
However,a few minutes later the man appeared with some tools and for the next hour, I watched out of my window as he stubbornly fixed the fence.Now the fence would be extra secure,stronger than before.That man was actually a hero.My ugly assumptions(设想），I realized,were all about myself.I would never have fixed that fence and run away.
Years later I still look out of my window at the fence almost every day.It makes me wonder what else that man has improved and how I can make myself more like him.
1. In paragraph 2,the author thought of the man as______| A．irresponsible | B．impatient. |
| C．thoughtful | D．loving |
| A．the man's trying to fix the fence |
| B．the man's falling onto the ground |
| C．the man's car crashing into the fence |
| D．the man's kid running around cheerfully |
| A．The man left his shoes on the sidewalk. |
| B．The man protected his child from the car crash. |
| C．The man tried to put the damaged fence in place. |
| D．The man came back to fix and improve the fence. |
| A．No pains,no gains. |
| B．You can never be too careful. |
| C．Don't judge a book by its cover. |
| D．He who makes no mistakes makes nothing. |
3 . Whenever something looks interesting or beautiful, there is a natural desire of us to capture (捕捉) and preserve it — which means, in this day and age, that we are likely to reach for our phones to take a picture.
Though this would seem to be an ideal solution, there are two big problems associated with taking pictures. Firstly, we are likely to be so busy taking pictures that we forget to look at the world whose beauty and interest encourage us to take a photograph in the first place. And secondly, because we feel the pictures are safely stored on our phones, we never get around to looking at them, so sure are we that we’ll get around to them one day.
The first person to notice the problems was the English art critic (评论家), John Ruskin. He was a keen traveler who realized that most tourists make a poor job of noticing or remembering the beautiful things they see. He argued that humans have a natural tendency to respond to beauty and desire to have it, but there are better and worse expressions of this desire. At worse, we get into buying souvenirs or taking photographs. But, in Ruskin’s eyes, there’s just one thing we should do — attempting to draw the interesting things we see, regardless of whether we happen to have any talent for doing so.
Ruskin said, “Drawing can teach us to see: to notice properly rather than gaze absent-mindedly. In the process of recreating with our own hand what lies before our eyes, we naturally move from a position of observing beauty in a loose way to one where we acquire a deep understanding of its parts.”
Ruskin deplored the blindness and hurry of modern tourists, especially those who prided themselves on travelling around the whole Europe in a week by train, “No changing of places at a hundred miles an hour will make us stronger, happier, or wiser. There was always more in the world than men could see, if they ever walked slowly; they will see it no better for going fast. The really precious things are thoughts and sights, not pace.”
1. According to Paragraph 2, when taking pictures, people tend to ___________.| A．forget to appreciate something attractive on the spot |
| B．find it hard to learn skills of taking good pictures |
| C．find a good way to keep things in their minds |
| D．have a chance to meet the challenge of new technology |
| A．To speak it out openly. | B．To photograph it instantly. |
| C．To purchase it directly. | D．To paint it immediately. |
| A．considerate and determined | B．active and adventurous |
| C．creative and thoughtful | D．sensitive and ambitious |
| A．appreciated | B．criticized |
| C．favored | D．ignored |
