1 . According to the CDC, 1 in 110 children have some form of autism(自闭症). While symptoms vary from case to case, there are two major characteristics of the disorder. The patient experiences a deficit in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts.     1     .

There are many treatments available. Each patient is different, and there is no single treatment that is equally effective for all individuals with autism.     2    . This form of art therapy uses musical experiences and interventions to bring about great behavioral changes in the patient.

Music therapy has many health benefits on people. Studies have found that music therapy can help people reduce depression, calm anxiety, find comfort and ease muscle tension. This is not surprising, as music affects the body and mind in many powerful ways.

Music therapy is effective for autistic patients of all ages, but it has a particularly profound impact on children. A study by Kim, Wigram, and Gold found that autistic children were more responsive to their music therapy sessions than to their play sessions.     3    . In addition, the children were more responsive to the demands of their therapists during music sessions than in play sessions.

Music therapy is a safe, positive, and effective means of reaching out to autistic individuals. Music therapists draw from an extensive range of music activities to ensure the best effect.     4    . A patient might learn to play the piano to improve fine motor skills or use musical instruments to cope with unspoken emotions.

A．Through music, the children became more expressive, joyful, and socially engaged

B．For example, the therapist and patient might compose songs to help express feelings

C．It is especially effective to help children with autism in the development of life skills.

D．The patient also experiences restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests and   activities.

E．However, many studies note the music therapy has a positive effect on children with autism disorders.

F．It is ideal to begin interventions early in an individual’s development in order to ensure their highest potential.

2 . Angela Doyinsola Aina EMPOWERING BLACK MOTHERS

The U.S. spends much more on health care than any other developed country does, and yet women in the U.S. are dying of pregnancy-related causes more than they used to and more than in other developed nations. This problem is particularly dire for African Americans, who are three to four times more likely than their white counterparts to suffer pregnancy-related deaths. Black Mamas Matter Alliance (BMMA), co-founded by Angela Doyinsola Aina, launched in 2016 to address these huge disparities; the group worked with Congress to launch Black Maternal Health Week, now held each April. “What is perpetuating these adverse health outcomes is structural racism and gender oppression,” says Aina, 36.

This year, Aina is drawing on her own background in public health to ramp up BMMA’s research efforts and to promote the use of midwives and doulas, who she says can be critical resources for communities that have historically fraught relationships with the U.S. medical system. The World Health Organization named 2020 the “year of the nurse and midwife,” and Aina hopes this increased attention will help lead to more investment in black women-led health programs. “Those are the initiatives that work best,” she says, “in communities that are most impacted by health disparities.”—ABIGAIL ABRAAS

Dina Bakst HELPING WORKING WOMEN

For any American women, especially low-wage workers in physically demanding fields, having kids means jeopardizing their jobs—so much so that they may be forced to choose between a paycheck and a healthy pregnancy. That situation, says Dina Bakst, “snowballs into lasting economic disadvantage.” As co-founder of the legal advocacy organization A Better Balance, Bakst, 47, represents women who lose their jobs while pregnant. She’s championing federal legislation advancing in Congress this year to help pregnant women and new mothers get fair treatment at work: the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act would, respectively, require employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant employees, and make it easier for breastfeeding moms to pump at work. At a time when there are more women than men in the U.S. workforce, Bakst says implementing fair work-life standards—including pregnancy accommodations, paid sick days, paid family and medical leave, and quality affordable childcare—is more important than ever. “It’s absolutely essential for gender equality and for our nation’s economic security.”—KATIE REILLY

1. Which of the following word is closest in meaning to “jeopardizing”?

A．Losing.

B．Endangering.

C．Giving up.

D．Contributing to.

2. According to Angela, what is the root of health disparities between black mothers in the US and their white counterparts?

A．The inaction of the American government.

B．The ignorance of public health.

C．The social-economic inequality coded by race and gender.

D．The unpleasant relationship between minority communities and the US medical system.

3. What does Angela and Dina have in common? They are both ________.

A．health-carers

B．business women

C．lawyers

D．equalizers

3 . Directions: Complete the following passages by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need for each passage.

A. entry               B. concerns       C. expose          D. deadly            E. called            F. underestimated G. innovations       H. cautious        I. scheduled       J. generation       K. prospects

Mobile World Congress, one of the technology industry’s biggest annual events, has been     1     off because of the coronavirus outbreak. The announcement comes after more than a dozen major tech companies said they would not attend the event as the     2     outbreak continues to spread.

MWC had been     3     to take place in Barcelona from February 24-27. It typically draws more than 100,000 attendees and over 2,400 companies, including the sector’s biggest players who use it to launch new products and showcase their latest     4    .

The event’s cancellation is a “huge disappointment,” Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, said in a statement. “It’s the highlight of the mobile industry calendar,” Wood said. “The impact on small companies who have invested a disproportionate amount of their budgets and time on this event should not be     5    . MWC is an anchor event for many and now they face the challenge of having to figure out what the best way to salvage(抢救) something from this difficult situation.”

GSMA had initially planned to go forward with the event despite the coronavirus scare. It said in a February 9 statement that it would conduct health checks and do additional cleaning around the venue, and would not allow     6     to any attendees who had been to China in the previous two weeks. About 5,000 to 6,000 people typically attend the event from China, according to GSMA.

But by Wednesday, a slew of major tech players had announced they would not attend the event, including Amazon (AMZN), Ericsson (ERIC), Facebook (FB), Sony (SNE), Intel (INTC), Cisco (CSCO) and LG (LPL), among others. “Due to the outbreak and continued     7     about novel coronavirus, Amazon will withdraw from exhibiting and participating in Mobile World Congress 2020,” Amazon said in a statement Monday. Amazon’s cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services, was due to host a dozen sessions covering topics such as 5G connectivity and artificial intelligence.

The latest company to withdraw from the world’s biggest mobile event was Nokia (NOK), which on Wednesday said it had made the “     8     decision” to cancel its participation rather than potentially     9     its employees to the coronavirus.

The summit would have had a difficult time going forward without some of its headline participants. The loss of Nokia and Ericsson, the two European suppliers of 5G equipment, was particularly damaging for a conference focused on the development and use of the next     10     mobile networks.

4 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

IPhone users can no longer download a popular epidemic-themed smartphone game in China as the country is fighting the deadly COVID-19 coronavirus.

The removal of the game “Plague” in the Chinese market is certain to reignite a debate over     1     Apple should remove apps from its App Store on the request of governments around the world. The App Store is the only way for most users to install software on iPhones, and it has become a magnet for criticism because Apple enables countries to remove apps they don’t like, effectively censoring free expression. Plague’s creators said in statements that it was the most popular paid game in China for many years and that it     2     (not mean) to sensationalize disease outbreaks.

Plague is one of the most popular iPhone games, and has been consistently in the top of Apple’s App Store charts     3     its launch in 2012. It’s a simulation in which users play as an infectious disease     4     goal is to wipe out the world’s population. On Thursday, it was the top paid game in the United States. It has also risen in China, according to estimates from Sensor Tower,     5     app analytics firm. It had been downloaded 2.2 million times in China, with about 9% of those downloads since the start of January. It was the No.3 paid app in China before     6    (remove), Sensor Tower said. It was the best-selling app in China at one point in January, according to the BBC.

Games are particularly closely regulated in China. In Plague’s case, the removal comes shortly     7     Apple set a deadline for app developers to comply with a 2016 regulation about paid mobile games in the country. The regulation requires that game makers who want to charge for in-app purchases     8     (get) a license or approval number from the General Administration of Press and Publication of China. That approval number has to be provided to Apple by June 30, CNBC reported,     9     (cite) a message to developers.

China is the world’s largest mobile games market. The government has signaled for years that it is trying to gain     10    (strong) control over concerns     11     eye problems, playing time and “loot boxes” or in-app purchases with an element of randomness. In China, video games     12     be approved by regulators in order to be released and monetized. In 2018, the Chinese government froze game approvals, and they slowly started to ramp up through 2019, which Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned on a conference call with analysts in October.

5 . ______ the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation.

A．Although

B．Unless

C．If

D．As

6 . It was ________ I came across my best friend ________ I realized I had left the book at home that we had attempted to finish together today.

A．when; that

B．that; when

C．that; that

D．when;when

7 . Google’s £ 400m acquisition of the UK artificial intelligence research company DeepMind in 20l4 was testimony to the quality of British scientific research. Furthermore, the insistence of the three UK co-founders that their company would not move to California was seen as evidence of London’s potential to become a successful centre for technology innovation. Four years later, the future of the UK capital’s tech aspirations and of DeepMind’s centre of gravity look a lot less certain.

DeepMind’s announcement last week that it would transfer control of its health unit to a new Google Health division in California has raised questions about data privacy. The health unit has access to the records of 1. 6m patients of Britain’s National Health Service. After four years of relative operating freedom, the company is confronting the hard reality of being owned by Google. For Google, however, which has been patient so far about its return on investment, the time for DeepMind’s work to be commercialised-specifically a patient management App called Streams-appears to have arrived.

The UK Company founded by Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman has repeatedly vindicated Google’s assessment of its world class artificial intelligence research. In2016, its AlphaGo programme beat the world’s best player of the fiendishly complex board game “Go” after thousands of practice games. In2017 its progeny, AlphaGo Zero, did it again---without any expert human input.

When algorithms beat humans at their own games it is impressive; when they start beating them at their work it becomes unsettling. This year, another DeepMind algorithm proved better than retinal specialists at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital at making referrals when tested on patient scans.

This was clear progress. DeepMind’s health work is what is most immediately relevant to Britons since, through a partnership with the Royal Free Hospital, it has access to the data of so many patients. The move to California has understandably raised privacy concerns at a time when big tech companies, including Facebook, are coming under growing scrutiny for the careless way they have exploited private data for commercial gain. Moreover, the transfer appears to contravene promises by DeepMind that “at no stage will patient data ever be linked or associated with Google accounts, products or services”. It is worrying that at the same time DeepMind’s independent review panel-set up to scrutinize its sensitive relationship with the NHS-is also being wound up.

DeepMind, which sees the move as a way of ensuring millions benefit from its work, claims that its contracts with the NHS are sufficient to protect patients’ data, which will remain under the strict control of Britain’s health service. Google has said nothing. There is a clear need for both companies to offer much greater assurances.

Last year, DeepMind set up an ethics and society department, whose independent advisers were selected for their integrity. They had a reputation for asking tough questions which set the company apart in the tech sector. If indeed the founders believed this culture would be unaffected by the gravitational pull of a buyer as powerful as Google, they were naive. WhatsApp and Instagram made the same mistake.

But for the sake of the NHS patients whose data are at issue, it is to be hoped that the same culture and integrity survives in California. The Silicon Valley mantra of “move fast and break things” might work for companies developing software. It has no place governing healthcare and technology.

1. The first paragraph is used to_________.

A．take about the future of DeepMind

B．remind readers of the cost of Google’s acquisition of DeepMind

C．leading to the problems that DeepMind will face

D．highlighting the quality of British scientific research

2. What is the real reason of Information leakage of private data?

A．DeepMind has no relative operating freedom.

B．Google Health division is allowed to retrieve the records of 1. 6m patients.

C．Britain’s National Health Service leaks the private data of their patients.

D．Some companies have collected private data for commercial gain carelessly.

3. Which one is not true according to this passage?

A．Both Google and DeepMind should offer the public much greater assurances.

B．WhatsApp and Instagram are likely to leak information of their clients.

C．People feel nervous about algorithms employed by high-tech.

D．The ethics and society department set up by DeepMind may work.

4. What is the author’s attitude toward the Silicon Valley mantra?

A．Critical	B．Positive
C．Negative	D．Ambiguous

8 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box.   Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. adapt     B. challenging     C. points     D. infection     E. vulnerable     F. optimistic G. transmissible     H. restrictions       I. lessened     J. impact     K. moderate

When Will Life Return to Normal?

If 2020 felt hellish, be warned that we aren’t out of the fire yet, even if we are moving in   the right direction. Welcome to 2021, aka purgatory.

There is little doubt that vaccines hold the key to ending the pandemic. A recent modeling study predicted that vaccinating just 40 per cent of US adults over the course of 2021 would reduce the coronavirus     1     rate by around 75 per cent and cut hospitalizations and deaths from covid-19 by more than 80 per cent.

But all this is still some way off. In the meantime, we will have to    2     to a middle ground where some people are protected but not others. As Adam Kleczkowski, a mathematical biologist at the University of Strathclyde UK,     3     out, supplies of the various vaccines are limited, distributing them is    4    , immunity takes a few weeks to develop and the protection they offer isn’t 100 percent.

In the northern hemisphere, he says, the most likely scenario is a third wave of covid-19 in the new year, requiring further lockdowns and    5     for up to five months. “ Realistically we’re in for a longer ride than we hope for.” he says.

Tim Spector at King’s College London, who leads the Covid-9 Symptom Study in the UK,   also predicts a third wave. But if lots of healthcare workers and    6     people have been vaccinated, the mortality rate will be lower and the pressure on the healthcare system    7     , he said at a recent Royal Society of Medicine seminar.

The upsides of ever-widening vaccination will kick in around April. He said, “I’m    8     that if we can just get our mental state together until Easter, we can hang on in there.”

There are still many things we don’t understand about this virus, however, and we may well be in for some surprises in the coming year that throw that trajectory（轨）off course. As this magazine went to press, for example, there was widespread speculation about the     9     of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus circulating in the UK that may be more highly     10    .

In Australia, the goal will be to keep the virus from resurging as the summer fades into autumn, says epidemiologist Catherine Bennett at Deakin University in Melbourne. A recent outbreak in Sydney has led to new restrictions.

9 . Delivering life-saving drugs directly to the brain in a safe and effective way is a challenge for medical providers. One key reason: the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain from tissue-specific drug delivery. Methods such as an injection or a pill aren't as precise or immediate as doctors might prefer, and ensuring delivery right to the brain often requires invasive, risky techniques.

A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis has developed a new nano-particle generation-delivery method that could someday vastly improve drug delivery to the brain, making it as simple as a sniff.

“This would be a nano-particle nasal spray, and the delivery system could allow medicine to reach the brain within 30 minutes to one hour,” said Ramesh Raliya, research scientist at the School of Engineering & Applied Science.

“The blood-brain barrier protects the brain from foreign substances in the blood that may injure the brain,” Raliya said. “But when we need to deliver something there, getting through that barrier is difficult and invasive. Our non-invasive technique can deliver drugs via nano-particles, so there's less risk and better response times.”

The novel approach is based on aerosol science and engineering principles that allow the generation of mono-disperse nano-particles, which can deposit on upper regions of the nasal cavity via spread. The nano-particles were tagged with markers, allowing the researchers to track their movement.

Next, researchers exposed locusts' antenna to the aerosol, and observed the nano-particles travel from the antennas up through the olfactory nerve, which is used to sense the smell. Due to their tiny size, the nano-particles passed through the brain-blood barrier, reaching the brain and spreading all over it in a matter of minutes.

The team tested the concept in locusts because the blood-brain barriers in the insects and humans have similarities. “The shortest and possibly the easiest path to the brain is through your nose,” said Barani Raman, associate professor of biomedical engineering. “Your nose, the olfactory bulb and then olfactory cortex: two steps and you've reached the cortex.”

To determine whether or not the foreign nano-particles disrupted normal brain function, Saha examined the physiology response of olfactory neurons in the locusts before and after the nano-particle delivery and found no noticeable change in the electro-physiological responses was detected.

This is only a beginning of a set of studies that can be performed to make nano-particle-based drug delivery approaches more principled, Raman said. The next phase of research involves fusing the gold nano-particles with various medicines, and using ultrasound to target a more precise dose to specific areas of the brain, which would be especially beneficial in brain-tumor cases.

1. This passage is mainly about ________.

A．a novel method of drug delivery	B．a challenge facing medical staff
C．a new medicine treating brain disease	D．a technique to improve doctor's ability

2. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Doctors prefer using methods like an injection to treat diseases.

B．Locusts were tagged with markers to track their movement.

C．The blood-brain barrier lowers the effectiveness of a pill.

D．The medicine could reach the brain within half an hour.

3. The researchers focused their study on locusts because ________.

A．human and locusts have similar structures that protect brain from foreign substances

B．the delivery process consists of the olfactory bulb and the olfactory cortex

C．locusts have changeable electrophysiological responses to nanoparticles

D．The shortest and possibly the safest path to the brain is through human's noses

4. ________ would most be interested in reading this passage.

A．A lung cancer patient who needs operation immediately

B．A college student who majors in medical technology

C．A senior doctor who is about to retire

D．A high school teacher who is teaching biology

10 . Philosophers ________back to Plato and the Ancient Greeks have given the area much thought and emphasis, and there is little doubt _________their work has helped shape the practice of education over the millennia.

A．dated, that

B．dating, whether

C．dating, that

D．dated, whether