2 . The vaccine (疫苗) news continues to seem very encouraging. Britain started its mass vaccination effort and the U.S. isn’t far behind.

But there is still one dark cloud hanging over the vaccines that many people don’t yet understand.

The vaccines will be much less effective at preventing death and illness in 2021 if they are introduced into a population where the coronavirus is still severe—as is now the case in the U.S.

A vaccine is like a fire hose (消防龙头). A vaccine that’s 95 percent effective, as Moderna’s and Pfizer’s versions appear to be, is a powerful fire hose. But the size of a fire is still a bigger determinant of how much destruction occurs.

At the current level of infection in the U.S. (about 200,000 confirmed new infections per day), a vaccine that is 95 percent effective—distributed at the expected pace—would still leave a terrible toll (伤亡人数) in the six months after it was introduced. Almost 10 million or so Americans would catch the virus, and more than 160,000 would die.

This is far worse than the toll in a different situation where the vaccine was only 50 percent effective but the U.S. had reduced the infection rate to its level in early September (about 35,000 new daily cases). In that case, the death toll in the next six months would be kept to about 60,000.

It’s worth pausing for a moment on this comparison. If the U.S. had maintained its infection rate from September and Moderna and Pfizer had announced this fall that their vaccines were only 50 percent effective, a lot of people would have panicked.

But the reality we have is actually worse.

How could this be? No vaccine can get rid of a pandemic immediately, just as .no fire hose can put out a forest fire. While the vaccine is being distributed, the virus continues to do damage.

There is one positive way to look at this: Measures that reduce the virus’s spread—like mask-wearing, social distancing and rapid-result testing—can still have great consequences. They can save more than 100,000 lives in coming months.

1. How does the author mainly present his argument?

A．By giving definitions.	B．By categorizing facts.
C．By drawing comparisons.	D．By appealing to emotions.

2. Which does the author think is a better way to save lives?

A．Improving the effectiveness of the vaccines.

B．Producing a greater variety of vaccines.

C．Looking at the situation in a positive way.

D．Wearing masks and practicing social distancing.

3. What does paragraph 6 tell us?

A．The vaccines are less effective than expected.

B．The US have controlled the spread of the coronavirus.

C．The death toll in the next six months will be about 60,000.

D．Fewer people will die if the infection rate is lower.

4. What can we infer from the text?

A．The vaccine is the hope of wiping out the pandemic.

B．The public are optimistic about the effects of the vaccine.

C．The public are concerned about the high infection rate.

D．The distribution of vaccine will end the pandemic quickly.

3 . What the scientists are saying…

The first primate (灵长目动物) clones

For the first time, scientists have used the technique that produced Dolly the sheep to clone monkeys. The Chinese researchers who produced the two macaques say that having access to genetically identical primates will be a huge ____ to medical research. It will give scientists a clearer understanding of genetic ____ by enabling them to compare animals who are identical except for one tweaked gene; when ____ drugs, it will make it possible to rule out the possibility that variations in outcomes are down to genetic ____. But other experts have raised a host of ____. The somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technique involves ____ a cell nucleus to a donated nucleus-free egg that is then prompted to develop into an embryo(胚胎). Although 23 species have been cloned in this way, primates have only been cloned before using a less complex embryo-splitting technique. Similar to the process that creates twins, it can only lead to a very ____ number of genetically identical individuals. SCNT can in ____ lead to a far larger number of clones, but in the Chinese experiment, the fail rate was very high. The team implanted scores of embryos, but only two monkeys survived beyond a few days. ____ to that is the concern that by cloning a primate species, the team has broken down a significant ____ on the way to cloning humans.

Herbal remedy danger

Herbal remedies such as St. John’s wort and ginseng may be ___ when used alongside conventional drugs, reports The Guardian. In a review of medical literature, researchers at Stellenbosch University in South Africa found several __ of alternative treatments appearing to ____ with prescription drugs, resulting in potentially dangerous side effects. In one case, the autopsy (解剖) of a 55-year-old who died while swimming concluded that the ginkgo biloba supplements he had been taking may have ____ his anti-seizure (防止发作) medicine. Other cases documented patients on statins appearing to suffer complications linked to flaxseed, St. John’s wort and green tea. “If you are taking herbal remedies, you should ____it to your clinician,” said one of the report’s authors, Dr Charles Awortwe.

1.

A．threat

B．damage

C．benefit

D．potential

2.

A．variations

B．diseases

C．structures

D．factors

3.

A．manufacturing

B．applying

C．testing

D．prescribing

4.

A．mess

B．differences

C．losses

D．recombination

5.

A．concerns

B．focuses

C．funds

D．suspicion

6.

A．translating

B．transferring

C．connecting

D．reversing

7.

A．magnificent

B．astonishing

C．limited

D．accurate

8.

A．theory

B．reality

C．advance

D．addition

9.

A．Attached

B．Related

C．Compared

D．Added

10.

A．access

B．key

C．barrier

D．contribution

11.

A．harmful

B．useful

C．helpful

D．purposeful

12.

A．methods

B．figures

C．problems

D．instances

13.

A．deal

B．interact

C．mix

D．identify

14.

A．put forward

B．moved up

C．held down

D．carried on

15.

A．claim

B．avoid

C．classify

D．mention

4 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Increasingly, Americans are becoming their own doctors by going to diagnose their symptoms, order home health tests or medical devices, or even self-treat their illnesses with drugs from Internet pharmacies(药店).Some avoid doctors because of the high cost of medical care, especially    1     they lack health insurance. Or they may stay away because they find it    2    (embarrass) to discuss their weight, smoking, alcohol consumption or couch potato habits. Patients may also fear what they might learn about their health, or they distrust physicians because of negative     3     (experience) in the past. But    4    (play) doctor can also be a deadly game.

Every day, more than six million Americans turn to the Internet    5    medical answers--- and most of them aren’t nearly sceptical enough of what they find. A 2002 survey by the Pew Internet &American Life Project found that 72 percent of those    6    (survey) believe all or most of what they read on health websites. They shouldn’t look up “headache” and the chances of finding     7    (rely) and complete information, free from a motivation for commercial gain,    8     (be) only one in ten, reports an April 2005 Brown Medical School study. Of the 169 websites the researchers rated, only 16 scored as “high quality”. Recent studies found faulty facts about all sorts of other disorders, causing one research team to warn that a large amount of incomplete, inaccurate and even dangerous    9     (inform) exists on the Internet.

The problem is most people don’t know the safe way to surf the Web. “They use a search engine like Google, get 18 trillion choices and start clicking. But that’s risky, because almost anybody can put up a site that looks authoritative ( 权威的)，so it’s hard to know if what you’re reading is     10    (reason) or not,” says Dr.Sarah Bass from the National Cancer Institute.

5 . 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