1 . The Justice of the Court
The purpose of the American court system is to protect the rights of the people. According to American law, if someone
In order to arrest a person, the police
The next step is for the suspect to go before a judge. The judge decides whether the suspect should be kept in jail or
The suspect returns to court a week or two later. A lawyer from the district lawyer’s office presents a case against the suspect. This is called a(n)
At the trial, a jury of 12 people listens to the evidence from both lawyers and hears the testimony of the witnesses. Then the jury goes into a private room to consider the evidence and decide whether the defendant is guilty of the crime. If the jury decides that the defendant is innocent, he goes free.
The American justice system is very complex and sometimes operates slowly. However, every step is designed to protect the rights of the people. These
A.is guilty of | B.is responsible for | C.is accused of | D.is ashamed of |
A.unpleasant | B.inexperienced | C.paralleled | D.innocent |
A.On the contrary | B.As a result | C.In addition | D.In other words |
A.responsibility | B.convincing | C.humanity | D.initiative |
A.are obliged to | B.might as well | C.are entitled to | D.are qualified to |
A.reasonably | B.formally | C.readily | D.occasionally |
A.locked up | B.set free | C.concerned about | D.cared for |
A.put up | B.put forward | C.put on | D.put through |
A.process | B.decision | C.opportunity | D.hearing |
A.victims | B.claims | C.evidence | D.information |
A.sufficient | B.fantastic | C.demanding | D.economic |
A.call on | B.call at | C.call up | D.call for |
A.Besides | B.However | C.Therefore | D.Consequently |
A.booking | B.sentencing | C.punishing | D.releasing |
A.common | B.substantial | C.individual | D.popular |
2 . Huge health care bills, long emergency-room waits and the inability to find a primary care physician just scratch the surface of the problems that patients face daily.
Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and cost. The U.S. takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialist rather than the primary care physician.
A recent study analyzed the providers who treat Medicare beneficiaries (老年医保受惠人). The startling finding was that the average Medicare patient saw a total of seven doctors—two primary care physicians and five specialists—in a given year. Contrary to popular belief, the more physicians taking care of you don’t guarantee better care. Actually, increasing fragmentation of care results in a corresponding rise in cost and medical errors.
How did we let primary care slip so far? The key is how doctors are paid. Most physicians are paid whenever they perform a medical service. The more a physician does, regardless of quality or outcome, the better he’s reimbursed (返还费用). Moreover, the amount a physician receives leans heavily toward medical or surgical procedures. A specialist who performs a procedure in a 30-minute visit can be paid three times more than a primary care physician using that same 30 minutes to discuss a patient’s disease. Combining this fact with annual government threats to indiscriminately (任意地) cut reimbursements, physicians are faced with no choice but to increase quantity to boost income.
Primary care physicians who refuse to compromise quality are either driven out of business or to cash-only practices, further contributing to the decline of primary care.
Medical students are not blind to this scenario. They see how heavily the reimbursement deck is stacked against primary care. The recent numbers show that since 1997, newly graduated U. S. medical students who choose primary care as a career have declined by 50%. This trend results I emergency rooms being overwhelmed with patients without regular doctors.
How do we fix this problem?It starts with reforming the physician reimbursement system. Remove the pressure for primary care physicians to squeeze in more patients per hour, and reward them for optimally (最佳的) managing their diseases and practicing evidence-based medicine. Make primary care more attractive to medical students by forgiving students loans for those who choose primary care as a career and reconciling the marked difference between specialist and primary care physician salaries.
We’re at a point where primary care is needed more than ever. Within a few years, the first wave of the 76 million Baby Boomers will become eligible for Medicare. Patients older than 85, who need chronic care most, will rise by 50% this decade.
Who will be there to treat them?
1. We learn from the passage that people tend to believe that ________.A.the more costly the medicine, the more effective the cure |
B.seeing more doctors may result in more diagnostic errors |
C.visiting the same doctor on a regular basis ensures good health |
D.the more doctors a patient sees, the better |
A.increase their income by working overtime |
B.improve their expertise and service |
C.see more patients at the expense of quality |
D.make various deals with specialists |
A.Bridge the salary gap between specialist and primary care physicians. |
B.Extend primary care to patients with chronic diseases. |
C.Recruit more medical students by offering them loans. |
D.Reduce the tuition of students who choose primary care as their major. |
A.The Health Care in Trouble | B.The Imbalance System |
C.The Declining Number of Doctors | D.The Ever-rising Health Care Costs |
3 . In his 1930 essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren”, John Keynes, a famous economist, wrote that human needs fall into two classes: absolute needs, which are independent of what others have, and relative needs, which make us feel superior to our fellows. He thought that although relative needs may indeed be insatiable (无止境的), this is not true of absolute needs.
Keynes was surely correct that only small part of total spending is decided by the desire for superiority. He was greatly mistaken, however, in seeing this desire as the only source of insatiable demands.
Decisions to spend are also driven by ideas of quality which can influence the demand for almost all goods, including even basic goods like food. When a couple goes out for an anniversary dinner, for example, the thought of feeling superior to others probably never comes to them. Their goal is to share a special meal that stands out from other meals.
There are no obvious limits to the escalation of demands for quality. For example, Porsche, a famous car producer, has a model which was considered perhaps the best sports car on the market. Priced at over $120,000, it handles perfectly well and has great speed acceleration. But in 2004, the producer introduced some changes which made the model slightly better in handling and acceleration. People who really care about cars find these small improvements exciting. To get them, however, they must pay almost four times the prices.
By placing the desire to be superior to others at the heart of his description of insatiable demands, Keynes actually reduced such demands. However, the desire for higher quality has no natural limits.
1. According to the passage, John Keynes believed that ________.A.desire is the root of both absolute and relative needs |
B.absolute needs come from our sense of superiority |
C.relative needs alone lead to insatiable demands |
D.absolute needs are stronger than relative needs |
A.Understanding | B.Increase | C.Difference | D.Decrease |
A.absolute needs have no limits |
B.demands for quality are not insatiable |
C.human desires influences ideas of quality |
D.relative needs decide most of our spending |
4 . LONDON (Reuters) — Quiet place — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth is preparing to have her swans counted.
Buckingham Palace has announced that the annual Swan Upping, a tradition dating back to the 12th century which involves a census (审查) of the swan population on the River Thames, will be conducted by the Queen’s official Swan Marker from July 20 to 24.
“With the assistance of the Queen’s Swan Warden, Professor Christopher Perrins of the University of Oxford, the swans and young cygnets (小天鹅) are also assessed for any signs of injury or disease,” Buckingham Palace said in announcing the count.
The process involves the Swan Marker, David Barber, rowing up the Thames for five days with the Swan Warden in traditional skiffs while wearing special scarlet uniforms and counting, weighing and measuring swans and cygnets.
It may seem odd, but it is very important to the Queen. According to custom, Britain’s sovereign owns all unmarked, mute swans in open water, but the Queen now exercises the right only on stretches of the Thames and its nearby tributaries.
In medieval times, the Swan Marker would not only travel up the river counting the swans, but would catch as many as possible as they were sought after for banquets and feasts.
This year, the Swan Marker and the Swan Warden are particularly keen to discover how much damage is being caused to swans and cygnets by attacks from dogs and from discarded fishing tackle (渔具).
It is also an important year because Queen Elizabeth has decided to join her team of Swan Uppers for part of the census. She will follow them up the river and visit a local school project on the whole subject of swans, cygnets and the Thames.
“Education and conservation are essential to the role of Swan Upping and the involvement of school children is always a rewarding experience,” Buckingham Palace said.
1. In medieval times, ________.A.swans were better protected than now |
B.a lot of swans were killed by dogs |
C.swans were a delicious dish on royal banquets |
D.common people could catch the swans |
A.remains almost unchanged in the past years |
B.involves a lot of royal members |
C.sometimes lasts longer than before |
D.is always guarded by special soldiers |
A.Britain’s Queen is concerned about swans. |
B.Britain’s Queen orders a count of swan. |
C.An old tradition in Buckingham Palace. |
D.Queen Elizabeth will count swans herself. |
A.districts | B.banks | C.trees | D.branches |
A. peaked B. faintest C. factor D. accumulating E. masked F. expands G. lighten H. tricky I. phenomena J. unimaginable K. emitted |
Astronomers measure total starlight
All the light from all the stars that have ever existed. It is a quantity of
From the earliest,
The astronomers based their calculation on measurements of the extragalactic background light (EBL), a cosmic fog of radiation that has been
The latest observations, collected over nine years by Nasa’s Fermi space telescope, use the light from blazars—super—massive black holes that emit powerful jets of gamma rays—as beacons (信号灯) to
One added complication was that, while starlight is accumulating over time, the cosmic fog is simultaneously being diluted as the universe
The measurements suggest that star formation
6 . Nowadays, body language has played a more and more important part in daily communication among people. To avoid confusion and embarrassment in cross-cultural communication, it’s necessary to have fluency in some common body language worldwide.
In Australia, it is very rude to wink (眨眼) at women.
In Brazil, pulling down the lower lid (眼睑) of the right eye means that the listener doesn’t believe what you’re saying. In India, holding your ear means either “honesty” or “I’m sorry”.
In Indonesia, hands on hips while talking means that you’re angry and it is also impolite.
In Japan, It’s unacceptable for two adults of the same sex to hold hands while walking together A smile can mean happiness, anger, or sadness. When someone praises you, respond by waving your hand back and forth in front of your face. Because it is considered impolite to show their teeth. women usually cover their mouths when they laugh. To make a promise, two people generally book their little fingers together.
In South Korea, when talking to someone, keep your hands in full view. It is rude to keep your hands behind your back or in your pockets.
In Spain, snapping the thumb and first finger together a few times is a form of applause. If you think the person you are talking about is mean, ta p your left elbow with your right hand. If you’ve heard the story that someone is telling before, put your right hand behind your head and pull your left ear.
In Sri Lanka, moving your head from side to side means “yes” and nodding your head up and down means “no”!
In Thailand, people point to an object with their chins, not their hands.
Have you learned the meanings of the above body languages in different countries? Keep these in mind and you’ll realize that they’re very helpful one day.
1. In which country do women cover their mouth while laughing?A.In China. | B.In America. | C.In Africa. | D. In Japan. |
A.Wave their hands back and forth in front of their face. |
B.Put their hands on haps all the time. |
C.Snap the thumb and first finger together several minutes. |
D.Clap their hands together for a few minutes. |
A.Moving your head from side to side to means “yes” in Thailand. |
B.When talking to someone, make sure others can see your both hands in South Korea. |
C.Adult women in Japan of ten hold their hands when walking together. |
D.In Indonesia, pulling down the lower lid of the left eye means the listener doesn’t believe what you’re saying. |
A.Body language is of great importance in daily communication. |
B.Understanding the meaning of some gestures in foreign countries is helpful. |
C.The same movement may deliver different meanings in different cultures. |
D.We should use body language in daily communication with others. |
7 . In Japan many workers for large corporations have a guarantee of lifetime employment. They will not be laid off during recessions or when the tasks they perform. are taken over by robots. To some observers, this is capitalism at its best, because workers are treated as people not things. Others see it as necessarily inefficient and believe it cannot continue if Japan is to remain competitive with foreign corporations more concerned about profits and less concerned about people.
Defenders of the system argue that those who call it inefficient do not understand how it really works. In the first place not every Japanese worker has the guarantee of a lifetime job. The lifetime employment system includes only “regular employees”. Many employees do not fall into this category, including all women. All businesses have many part-time and temporary employees. These workers are hired and laid off during the course of the business cycle just as employees in the United States are. These “irregular workers” make up about 10 percent of the nonagricultural work force. Additionally, Japanese firms maintain some flexibility through the extensive use of subcontractors. This practice is much more common in Japan than in the United States.
The use of both subcontractors and temporary workers has increased markedly in Japan since the 1974 — 1975 recession. All this leads some to argue that the Japanese system is not all that different from the American system. During recessions Japanese corporations lay off temporary workers and give less business to subcontractors. In the United States, corporations lay off those workers with the least seniority. The difference then is probably less than the term “lifetime employment” suggests, but there still is a difference. And this difference cannot be understood without looking at the values of Japanese society. The relationship between employer and employee cannot be explained in purely contractual terms. Firms hold on to the employees and employees stay with one firm. There are also practical reasons for not jumping from job to job. Most retirement benefits come from the employer. Changing jobs means losing these benefits. Also, teamwork is an essential part of Japanese production. Moving to a new firm means adapting to a different team and at least temporarily, lower productivity and lower pay.
1. according to the passage, a woman in Japan ________.A.cannot get a lifetime job | B.is impossible to get a part time job |
C.will be employed for life | D.is among the regular workers |
A.They don’t want to lose their retirement benefits. |
B.They are not adaptable people. |
C.Any change of jobs will make them less paid. |
D.They get used to the team work. |
A.Those who want to change jobs frequently in Japan should think twice. |
B.Those who are first laid off by American corporations are temporary workers. |
C.The use of subcontractors makes Japan films less flexible |
D.The Japanese system is totally different from the American system |
Computer technology has become a major part of people’s lives. This technology has its own special words. One example is the word mouse. A computer mouse is not a small animal that lives in buildings and open fields. It is a small device
If you Google someone, you might find that person’s name on a blog. A blog is the
The last time a female British scientist won the Nobel Prize for chemistry was in1964. Her name was Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin.
Hodgkin was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1910, as the eldest of four daughters of John Crowfoot and his wife Molly. The girls were sent back to England when the First World War broke out. By the time she was 11 years old, Dorothy’s schooling had been a bit hit and miss. But she had spent a term
At every stage her parents, particularly her mother, encouraged her ambitions. No one ever said to her, as they did to other clever girls at the time, that
Hodgkin was the most important leader and innovator in her field. The impact of her work led to her becoming the only female British scientist
Accurate knowledge of the shape of penicillin was very important in understanding how it
Hodgkin’s work also had a huge impact on the treatment of diabetes. In 1969, after 35 years of hard work, she figured out the 3D shape of the insulin (胰岛素) molecule. Insulin is an important hormone (激素) used by the body to process sugars in food. Understanding
Hodgkin was not only an exceptional scientist but also was, and continues to be, an inspirational role model to generations of researchers, both male and female.
How Did Yuan Longping Revolutionize China’s Rice Production?
①Yuan Longping was born in 1930 in Hubei. As a child, he was very interested in plants and other living things. He grew up to be a curious and hard-working plant scientist. Yuan wanted to solve the problem of food shortages, so he began conducting experiments to improve rice yields per hectare (10,000 m2).
②Plants come in many different varieties; for example, some types of rice have long grains, while others have short grains. For centuries, people have been crossing different plant varieties to create hybrids. Such plants proved to have desirable qualities from both parents. Yuan believed that it was possible to do the same with rice. He tried different ways of creating rice hybrids, only to discover that his attempts were unsuccessful.
③Even though it often seemed too difficult to complete this task, Yuan didn’t give up. After many years of hard work, his experiments finally bore fruit. This was a major discovery since no one had previously been able to cross two different kinds of rice. It had a huge impact: the first hybrid rice variety increased China’s rice production by 100 million tonnes in little over a decade.
④Yuan didn’t stop there — instead, he continued experimenting and created super hybrid rice with yields over 15 tonnes of rice per hectare. Thanks to Yuan’s work, China became self-sufficient in rice. Our country continued to increase its rice yields to become one of the biggest food donors in the world. In 2019, he received the Medal of the Republic for his outstanding contributions. At the age of 90, Yuan Longping still hasn’t retired. With a growing global population, the world needs to produce enough food to feed everyone, and Yuan is working to make this happen.
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