1 . Modern medicine and the latest technology can save many lives. If you live in a country where healthcare is readily available and accessible, then your chances of recovering from illnesses or accidents are very good. But for many people in the US who are uninsured (无保险的), they can’t afford these new medical treatments. That’s why Doctor Demetrio Aguila in Norfolk lets poor patients pay for surgery (外科手术) through volunteer work.

“For years I had been doing surgery for patients and taking care of their health problems. Then I would find out months later, sometimes years later, that I had caused their financial ruin,” Aguila said. Serious illnesses can completely deplete a family’s savings, leaving them no choice but to go bankrupt (破产).

Then he formed Healing Hands M25 as a way to give poor patients the medical fees they need by donating their time to community service. The process is pretty simple. They practice partners with local charitable organizations. The patient picks the charity and donates his time and sweat; Aguila determines the amount of volunteer hours the patient has to complete. “We’ve lowered the cost of healthcare. We’ve made it fair for everybody involved,” Aguila said.

The first patient to participate in the program was Jeffrey Jenson who worked for 560 hours to pay for surgery on his leg. Jenson asked his friends and family to help him complete the hours. Jenson said that his volunteer work greatly affected his life as much as the surgery. “The M25 program is not about money — it’s about if people come together to help other people, then the community becomes better,” said Jenson.

This program is a big win for the patients, the local community, and Dr Aguila who knows he has done everything he could to help his patients.

1. How does Aguila make poor patients pay for surgery?

A．In cash.	B．Through an insurance company.
C．By doing volunteer work.	D．By serving the doctor.

2. What does the underlined word “deplete” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Set aside.

B．Use up.

C．Cut down.

D．Add to.

3. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．What Healing Hands M25 does.

B．How Healing Hands M25 works.

C．Why Aguila runs Healing Hands M25.

D．Why patients choose Healing Hands M25.

4. What is Jenson’s attitude towards the M25 program?

A．Positive.

B．Negative.

C．Objective.

D．Unconcerned.

2 . In the 12th century, physician Ibn Zuhr conducted some animal research to assess the surgical procedures that could be applied to humans. Since then, animal testing has been considered the most efficient way to develop new drugs. New medical treatments and drugs are tested on animals first to determine their effectiveness or safety levels before they are finally tested on humans. However, it remains controversial whether it is morally right or wrong to use animals for experiments.

The use of animals for medical purposes is seen to be necessary by many scientists. Researchers usually begin their trials using rats. If the tests are successful, further tests are done on monkeys before using human beings. For testing, such tiered(分层的) rounds are important because they reduce the level of error and negative side effects. Some argue that animal testing has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments and there is no adequate alternative to testing on a living, whole-body system. Moreover, there are regulations for animal testing that limit the misuse of animals during research. They serve as evidence that animals are well taken care of and treated well instead of being intentionally harmed.

However, some other experts and animal welfare groups have opposed such practice, considering it as inhumane(不人道的) and claiming it should be banned. According to Humane Society International, animals used in experiments are commonly subjected to force-feeding, radiation exposure, operations to deliberately cause damage and frightening situations to create depression and anxiety. They also hold the view that animals are very different from human beings and therefore are poor test subjects. Drugs that pass animal tests are not necessarily safe. Animal tests on the arthritis (关节炎) drug Vioxx showed it would have a protective effect on the hearts of mice, yet the drug went on to cause about 27,000 heart attacks before being pulled back from the market.

It’s safe to say that using animals for tests will continue to be debated in many years to come. Despite the benefits of animal testing, some of the concerns need to be addressed with adequate regulations to ensure that animals are treated humanely.

1. Why is animal testing considered necessary?

A．Rats are more similar to humans than monkeys.

B．Other testing alternatives may not replace animals.

C．Animal testing can show every side effect of drugs.

D．Animal testing has been in practice since the 12th century.

2. What suffering do animals go through during experiments according to the passage?

A．Eating poisonous food.	B．Being killed deliberately.
C．Breathing in polluted air.	D．Having unnecessary operations.

3. The author uses the example of Vioxx to tell us that ________.

A．animal testing helps find the cure for arthritis

B．some drugs need to be withdrawn from the market

C．animals cannot necessarily produce accurate results

D．a drug should be tested many more times before its release

4. Which will the author probably agree with?

A．Scientists should reduce the number of animals used in research.

B．Experts should try hard to determine whether animal tests are harmful.

C．Relevant organizations should show more concern about the animals’ welfare.

D．The authorities should issue new laws to guarantee animals’ rights during research.

3 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Sanfutie is a bandage made of traditional Chinese herbal medicine. It is believed that     1     (receive) Sanfutie during the hottest summer days is effective for coughs, asthma, and arthritis. The treatment    2     (base) on the TCM principle of yin and yang, which believes the balance of both elements in the body is vital for good health. Sanfutie contains a paste of herbs that are “hot” in nature, and when    3     (apply) to specific acupuncture points (穴位), usually on the back and neck, it refills the body with the yang elements.

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。

The skin is an essential part of your body. It is the     1    (large) organ of your body,     2    can not only protect you against diseases, toxins and the sun’s rays,     3    also prevent your body from losing water. Also, it tells you    4    things are too hot or too cold, and gives you sense of touch. So if your skin gets burnt, it can be very serious.

People can get burned by many things, such     5    hot liquids, steam, fire, radiation, the sun, electricity or     6    (chemical). Burns     7    (divide) into three types,     8    (depend) on which layers of the skin are burnt.

First aid is a very important step in the treatment of burns. If you see someone get burnt, first take clothing off the burnt areas unless it is stuck to the burnt skin and cool the burnt area with cool running water. Then dry the area     9    (gentle) and cover the area with a dry, clean bandage in order not to get it infected. If the burn is serious,     10    victim should be sent to a doctor or hospital at once.

5 . What happens when you cross stem cells from a frog heart and frog skin? Not much-that is, until you program those cells to move. In that case, you've created a xenobot, a new type of organism that's part robot, part living thing.

Now a team of scientists has used living cells from frog embryos and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These millimeter-wide xenobots can move toward a specific target and pull themselves through after being cut.

These are novel living machines," says Joshua Bongarch a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont who co-led the new research. "They're neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It's a new living, programmable organism.

Xenobots borrow their name from Xenopus laevis, the name for the African clawed frog from which the researchers harvested the stem cells. They combined together well two different kinds of cells-heart and skin cells. The heart cells are competent in expanding and contracting, which aids the xenobot in locomotion, and the skin cells administer structure. Besides, they can't accomplish tasks without the help of computers.

By studying these curious organisms, researchers hope to learn more about the mysterious world of cellular communication. Plus, these kinds of robo-organisms could possibly be the key to drug transmission in the body or greener environmental clean-up techniques.

“Most technologies are made from steel, concrete, chemicals, and plastics, which degrade(降解)over time and can generate harmful ecological and health side effects the authors note in a research paper. "When these xenobots finally do stop working, they fall apart harmlessly.

“Promising as these organisms are, when we start to mess around with complex systems that we don't understand, we're going to get unintended consequences Michael Levin, a biophysicist and co-author of the study, says in a press statement.

1. What do we know about the xenobot?

A．It is not easy to degrade over time.

B．It can recover itself after being cut.

C．It will never die with a computer inside.

D．It is named after a kind of American frog.

2. What does the underlined word “locomotion" in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Appearance.	B．Position.
C．Application.	D．Movement.

3. According to the text xenobots can be employed to .

A．recycle waste in nature.

B．replace certain damaged organs.

C．deliver medicine inside patients.

D．improve communication technology.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Xenobots can be put into the market soon.

B．Xenobots are created totally by accident.

C．More research should be done on xenobots.

D．It is hard for people to understand xenobots.

6 . Researchers at the University of Scotland have discovered a protein that can influence viruses developing and even can control cancer. Now the fight is on to fully understand how it works in the hope of turning the laboratory research into a treatment.

The protein is called Hira. Technically it is a histone（组蛋白）complex, but it is easier to understand in terms of what it can do. Three years ago Dr Taranjit Singh Rai and colleagues at the Beatson Cancer Institute and Glasgow University reported that Hira could possibly suppress the division of cells that causes cancer. In the course of that research, Dr Rai found out something unusual. In the lab they have established that the Hira protein has a role to play in the anti-viral fight, thus, making it have a fundamental role to play in fighting against cancer.

The trick in using it to fight diseases may lie in increasing Hira levels in our cells. “I think what researchers might be interested in is how we can increase levels of this protein to deal with the viruses better, Dr Rai said.

Dr Rai has led an international study and support has come from Cancer Research UK and the results are published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. But there is a major concern that the research is still limited to the laboratory.

It is going to take some time, probably years, before this work can move out of the lab and into clinics and hospitals. But the researchers are excited Hira will one day be the basis of a new approach in medicine.

1. What does the underlined word “suppress" in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Motivate.

B．Monitor.

C．Control.

D．Improve.

2. What can be known from the text?

A．Hira has been used in the medical treatment.

B．More studies should be done on Hira.

C．The levels of Hira in cells are unchangeable.

D．Hira can bring about side effects.

3. What is the researchers' attitude to the future of Hira?

A．Cautious.	B．Optimistic.
C．Disapproving.	D．Doubtful.

4. What's the text mainly about?

A．A new way to use the protein.

B．A new approach to improving the division of cells.

C．A new medicine that can fight diseases.

D．A protein that can stop viruses developing.