1 . Up to 90% of school leavers in major Asian cities are suffering from myopia — short-sightedness, a study suggests. Researchers say the “extraordinary rise” in the problem is being caused by students working very hard in school and missing out on outdoor light.

Eye experts say that you are short-sighted if your vision is blurred(模糊的) beyond 2m. It is often caused by an elongation (拉伸) of the eyeball that happens when people are young. According to the research, the problem is being caused by a combination of factors — a commitment to education and lack of outdoor light.

Professor Morgan who led this study argues that many children in South East Asia spend long hours studying at school and doing their homework. This in itself puts pressure on the eyes, but exposure to between two and three hours of daylight helps maintain healthy eyes.

Cultural factors also seem to play a part. Across many parts of South East Asian children often have a lunchtime nap. According to Professor Morgan they are missing out on natural light to prevent short-sightedness.

A big concern is the numbers of the students suffering from “high” myopia. One in five of these students could experience severe visual impairment(障碍) and even blindness. These people are at considerable risk-sometimes people are not told about it and are just given more powerful glasses-they need to be warned about the risk and given some self-testing measures so they can get to an ophthalmologist and get some help.

For decades, researchers believed there was a strong genetic component to the condition. But this study strongly suggests an alternative view. “Any type of simple genetic explanation just doesn’t fit with that speed of change; gene pools just don’t change in two generations. Whether it’s a purely environmental effect or an environmental effect playing a sensitive genome, it really doesn't matter, the thing that’s changed is not the gene pool—it's the environment.”

1. As is mentioned above, which factor mainly results in students' myopia in South East Asia?

A．Lack of research into the problem.	B．Genetic faults of the people.
C．Elongation of the eyeball.	D．The shortage of outdoor light.

2. Which of the following statements do you think Professor Morgan agrees with?

A．A lunchtime nap is helpful in reducing myopia.

B．Glasses keep myopia from getting even worse.

C．It's necessary to treat myopia with an operation.

D．It's of vital importance to reduce educational pressure.

3. What's the main idea of the last paragraph?

A．Short-sightedness has nothing to do with changes in gene pools.

B．Gene remains the main cause of the long-standing problem.

C．An environmental effect playing a sensitive genome counts.

D．The environment is to blame for the extraordinary rise in myopia.

4. What's the best way to take care of your eyes according to the passage?

A．Look at the sun from time to time.	B．Do eyes exercise regularly.
C．Spend more time in the open air.	D．Equip the classroom with better lights.

2 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. Which age group do the two speakers most likely belong to?

A．Young.

B．Middle-aged.

C．Old.

2. Which part of the body is probably OK with the woman?

A．Her arms.

B．Her back.

C．Her leg.

3. Why can’t the man do gardening a lot?

A．Because of his back trouble.	B．Because of his leg trouble.
C．Because of his arm trouble.

3 . Eyesight plays a very important role in our daily life. Every waking moment, the eyes are working to see the world around us. Over forty percent of Americans worry about losing eyesight, but it's easy to include steps into our daily life to ensure healthy eyes. Here are five suggestions for a lifetime of healthy eyesight:

·Schedule yearly exams.     1    Experts advise parents to bring babies 6 to 12 months of age to the doctor for a careful check. The good news is that millions of children now can have yearly eye exams and following treatment, including eyeglasses.

·Protect against UV rays (紫外线). Long-term stay in the sun creates risk to your eyes. No matter what the season is, it's extremely important to wear sunglasses.     2    

·    3    Two-thirds of Americans spend up to seven hours a day using computers or other digital (数字的)products.   This frequent eye activity increases the risk for eye tiredness. Experts recommend （建议）that people practice the 20/20/20 rule: every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and look at something 20 feet away.
·    4      As part of a healthy diet, eat more fruits and vegetables each day. Vitamins   C and E help protect eyesight and promote eye health.

·Practice safe wear and care of contact lenses (隐形眼镜). Many Americans use contact lenses to improve their eyesight. While some follow the medical guidance for wearing contact lenses, many are breaking the rules and putting their eyesight at risk.      5       Otherwise, you may have problems such as red eyes, pain in the eyes, or a more serious condition.

A．Have your eyes checked as early as possible.

B．Give your eyes a break.

C．Parents usually don’t care about their own eyesight.

D．They can properly protect your eyes.

E．Stay in good shape by taking more vitamins.

F．Always follow the doctor’s advice for appropriate（恰当的；合适的）wear.

G．Eat your greens.

4 . Researchers at Brigham found about one in five teenagers now have some degree of hearing damage. The researchers did not say why hearing loss has risen, but other experts have strong suspicions. One likely culprit, they say, is MP3 players.

An MP3 player can be dangerous to hearing when its decibel level is turned up too high. High-decibel sounds can damage nerve endings, called hair cells. If a sound is loud enough, the damage can be permanent. A loud sound can shake the membrane (薄膜) on which the hair cells sit- “like an earthquake”. That shake can break or even uproot hair cells. When that happens, the hair cells are finished. Human ears cannot regrow hair cells. Therefore, when listening to an MP3 player, set a volume limit and avoid exposure to loud sounds.

On the other hand, the loudness of today’s music may not be totally under your control. Music companies have been purposely turning up the volume. It’s a trend called the fight for loudness.

Play a CD from the 1990s. Then play a newly released tune. Don’t touch the volume control. You’ll probably notice that the new CD sounds louder than the old one. Why? Sound engineers who create CDs are using dynamic range compression (压缩), a technology that makes the quiet parts of a song louder and the loud parts quieter. The overall effect of compression is a louder recording.

Many musicians and sound engineers aren’t pleased. They say that compression is driving down the quality of today, s music, making it sound flat and blaring. Gray Hobish, a sound engineer, explains that music should be a combination of loudness and softness. But music companies want to make music louder so it will stand out. That’s important in the competition among recording companies.

What about listeners? Many teenagers listen to music on the go in noisy places and through headphones, all of which reduce sound quality. So young listeners may not notice the poorer quality of modem recordings. “To their ears,” says Hobish, “the music sounds fine. And they are not aware of the hidden threat of the music they are enjoying.”

1. The phrase “like an earthquake” in Para. 2 aims to explain       .

A．that volume can strongly affect parts of the ear

B．how our body is unable to regrow hair cells

C．how much damage the ear can avoid

D．that hair cells are easily damaged

2. What can we learn about today’s music business?

A．New technology improves the quality of music.

B．Young listeners today prefer louder sound.

C．Music companies sacrifice quality for loudness.

D．Sound engineers face tough competition.

3. What is probably the best title for the passage?

A．The Loudness War

B．Your Hearing Is Going!

C．The Damaged Ears

D．Are You a Good Listener?

5 . Lifelong Musicians Have Better Hearing

Playing a musical instrument throughout your life protects your hearing, a Canadian study suggests. The study, which was published in Psychology and Aging, carried out hearing tests on 74 adult musicians and 89 non-musicians.     1    

Action on Hearing Loss said all people - including musicians - should try to prevent hearing damage.    2     By sixty, 10-30% of people have moderate hearing loss. By eighty, that goes up to as many as 60%. Problems are particularly seen in the central auditory processing system, which is associated with understanding speech, especially when there is background noise.

Then a research, by a team at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, looked at adults were affected as they aged. They chose both musicians and non-musicians from the age of 18 to 91 and divided them into different groups based on the age. Again musicians were significantly better at picking out speech against noise in all the age ranges.

    3     Benjamin Zendel, who was part of the research team, said: “We found that being a musician may contribute to better hearing in old age, probably due to musicians using their hearing systems at a high level on a regular basis. This advantage widened considerably for musicians as they got older when compared to similar-aged non-musicians.”

This study suggests that musicians might be more able to deal with the consequences of hearing loss.    4     As Dr. Ralph Holme said, all people-including musicians-should try to prevent hearing damage in the first place. It’s necessary for everyone who plays a musical instrument or listens to loud music to wear hearing protection.    5    

A．Hearing normally declines as people age.

B．Previous studies explained the reasons for hearing loss.

C．That can effectively reduce the risk of damaging their hearing permanently.

D．Still, it is far better to minimize damage by using appropriate ear protection.

E．They believed musicians are also likely to experience age-related hearing problems.

F．The researchers concluded that lifelong musicianship delays age-related changes in hearing.

G．It found a 70-year-old musician’s was as good as that of a 50-year-old who didn’t play.

6 . Transplant (移植) recipient John Bell knows exactly where to find his first heart-the damaged one he lived with for 72 years. It’s floating in a container of formaldehyde (福尔马林) at a large storage facility at Baylor University Medical Center, along with hundreds of other human hearts. When he returns to the hospital for a checkup with his cardiologist (心脏病专家), Bell expects to stop by to pay his old heart a visit. Why? Because at Baylor, he can do something almost no one else in the world has ever done. He can hold his heart in his hands.

“It was fairly emotional, that first encounter,” says Bell. “I can’t actually explain why.”

Bell is one of more than 70 heart-transplant patients who have participated in Baylor’s Heart-to-Heart program. It was launched in 2014 by William C. Roberts, MD. Baylor is unique in allowing transplant patients to “meet” their old hearts. “Probably 99.5 percent of hospitals throw the hearts away after they send out a report,” Dr. Roberts says. “We keep them all.” They are used for further research.

The Heart-to-Heart program happened almost by accident. With all those organs stored on the hospital’s shelves, Dr. Roberts would sometimes take a curious patient to visit his or her old ticker. But the doctor discovered that the visits could provide a kind of teachable moment. “Many of the patients are overweight, and I show them the fat on the heart,” says Dr. Roberts. “Some people have so much fat on their hearts that they float in a container of water.”

There’s a larger lesson too. “I try to stress to these people that they are very lucky. They are one of the few that get a heart,” he says. There are an estimated six million Americans living with heart failure, but only 2,000 to 3,000 receive hearts each year in the United States.

Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “ticker”？

A．Friend.	B．Enemy.
C．Heart.	D．Part.

7 . Missing out on deep sleep can leave you feeling slow-acting and sensitive in the morning, but the consequences don’t necessarily end there. Over time, too little deep sleep may also do harm to your heart by contributing to high blood pressure, a new study suggests.

Healthy young and middle-aged adults spend about 25 percent of their sleeping hours in the stages known as deep sleep. This sleep stage has been shown to be important for memory and other mental performance. The new study adds to the growing evidence that deep sleep is also essential to our metabolism (新陈代谢) and heart health.

The research should be considered “exploratory”, and it doesn’t prove a direct link between sleep patterns and high blood pressure. But it suggests that an important aspect of successful aging is the preservation of good sleep quality”. Older people tend to get less deep sleep as they age, find fighting this natural decline —through healthy sleep habits, for example—could be an “extraordinarily important strategy” for heading off high blood pressure.

Sleep problems have been linked to high blood pressure before. Sleep apnoea, a disorder in which a person wakes up struggling for breath time and time again, is strongly linked to high blood pressure, though it’s not clear whether the disorder causes high blood pressure.

Susan Redline, a professor of sleep medicine, says going to bed and waking up at the same time each day, especially keeping away from alcohol and tobacco before going to bed and other good “sleep hygiene (卫生)” can help people sleep longer.

However, the researchers followed the men’s sleep only on a single nights, and they likewise measured blood pressure just once or twice. Therefore, the study failed to rule out factors besides sleep quality, such as diet or medical conditions, which may independently contribute to high blood pressure. More research will be needed to address these shortcomings, the study notes. Nor is it clear whether habitual sleep loss has long-term effects on overall sleep quality and deep sleep.

1. What effect does lack of deep sleep have on people?

A．Their hearts stop functioning.

B．Their metabolism always accelerates.

C．They are less easily hurt in body and spirit.

D．They may perform worse physically and mentally.

2. What does the underlined word “apnoea” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Habit.

B．Medicine.

C．A condition where somebody stops breathing temporarily.

D．A disease which somebody suffers from because of overwork.

3. Which of the following is typically good sleep hygiene according to the text?

A．Getting up soon after waking up.

B．Going to bed early by taking sleep medicine.

C．Avoiding alcohol and tobacco before bedtime.

D．Trying to sleep as long as possible every day.

4. What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A．Major findings of the study.

B．Some limitations of the study.

C．Different factors affecting sleep quality.

D．Some possible causes of high blood pressure.

8 . Transplant (移植) recipient John Bell knows exactly where to find his first heart-the damaged one he lived with for 72 years. It’s floating in a container of formaldehyde (福尔马林) at a large storage facility at Baylor University Medical Center, along with hundreds of other human hearts. When he returns to the hospital for a checkup with his cardiologist (心脏病专家), Bell expects to stop by to pay his old heart a visit. Why? Because at Baylor, he can do something almost no one else in the world has ever done. He can hold his heart in his hands.

“It was fairly emotional, that first encounter,” says Bell. “I can’t actually explain why.”

Bell is one of more than 70 heart-transplant patients who have participated in Baylor’s Heart-to-Heart program. It was launched in 2014 by William C. Roberts, MD. Baylor is unique in allowing transplant patients to “meet” their old hearts. “Probably 99.5 percent of hospitals throw the hearts away after they send out a report,” Dr. Roberts says. “We keep them all.” They are used for further research.

The Heart-to-Heart program happened almost by accident. With all those organs stored on the hospital’s shelves, Dr. Roberts would sometimes take a curious patient to visit his or her old ticker. But the doctor discovered that the visits could provide a kind of teachable moment. “Many of the patients are overweight, and I show them the fat on the heart,” says Dr. Roberts. “Some people have so much fat on their hearts that they float in a container of water.”

There’s a larger lesson too. “I try to stress to these people that they are very lucky. They are one of the few that get a heart,” he says. There are an estimated six million Americans living with heart failure, but only 2,000 to 3,000 receive hearts each year in the United States.

1. Why does Bell want to visit his old heart?

A．He intends to take it back home.

B．He expects to observe and hold it.

C．He wants to compare his with that of others.

D．He thinks it is a good chance to learn about oneself.

2. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “ticker”？

A．Friend.	B．Enemy.
C．Heart.	D．Part.

3. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that       .

A．Dr. Roberts is an excellent teacher

B．Most people are overweight in the U.S.

C．The Heart-to-Heart program is important

D．Hearts are in great need in the U.S.

9 . Are you content with the shape of your nose? If not, the climate may be to blame, not your parents.

This is according to a recent study carried out by scientists from Pennsylvania State University, US. They found that climate played a key role in shaping our noses. The findings were based on an examination of the size and shape of noses of 476 people from four regions — West Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Northern Europe, using 3D facial imaging technology.

“People have thought for a long time the difference in nose shape among humans across the world may have arisen as a result of natural selection because of climate,” Arslan Zaidi, one of the lead authors of the study, told the Guardian. But while previous studies were based on measurements from human skulls(头骨), Zaidi and his team looked at nose shape itself.

The result showed that wider noses are more common in warm and humid climates, while narrower noses are more common in cold and dry climates. That, Zaidi said, could be because narrower nasal passages (鼻道) help to increase the wet content of air and warm it, which is easier on our lungs. This, in turn, led to a gradual decrease in nose width in populations living far away from the equator (赤道).

More study is still needed to test the link between climate and nose shape, but Zaidi believes the current findings are valuable in understanding potential health issue. “As we become more of a global community, we are going to come across climates that we are not adapted to,” he told the Guardian. This means moving to a very different climate might increase the risk of breathing problems.

However, he added, “This may not be necessarily true for various reasons such as of modern medicine and the fact that our current climate is very different from what it used to be.”

1. According to the passage, people from China might have ________ noses than those from Norway.

A．wider	B．narrower
C．smaller	D．bigger

2. Narrower noses are helpful to ________.

A．cool the air	B．warm the air
C．take in more oxygen	D．dry the air

3. What can be learned about the study?

A．Shapes of our noses are determined by our parents.

B．Nose shape helps people adapt to the environment.

C．Zaidi’s team measured human skull using 3D technology.

D．It’s certain that people living nearby equator will suffer from more breathing problems.

4. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

A．What factors shape noses	B．How to make your nose attractive
C．Nose shapes cause breathing problems	D．Climate shapes noses

10 . Humans were designed to stand upright(直立). And yet in this modern world, too many of us spend our days with our heads lowered for a simple reason: we’re staring at the tiny screen of a smart phone.

People spend an average of 2 to 4 hours each day with their neck bent while shooting off emails or texts. That’s 700 to 1,400 hours a year. The success of social media has led to a rapid development of bad smart phone posture.

The average adult head weighs 10 to 12 pounds when it’s in the upright position. However, because of the gravity, bending your head at a mere 15 degree puts 27 pounds of pressure on your spine(脊椎)；a 30 degree neck bend could equal(等于) 40 pounds of pressure; a 45 degree bend adds the force of 49 pounds, according to the research from Dr. Kenneth Hansraj from New York. These stresses may lead to many problems.

It’s no secret that correct posture is better for your back. According to the researchers, good posture is described as ears aligned(成一条直线) with the shoulders. In proper alignment, spinal stress disappeared. It is the best position for the spine. Standing tall doesn’t just make you look better; it improves your health, too. Other studies have found good posture has even been connected to ways of behaving. People who have poorer posture often have poorer physical and emotional health.

The researchers describe bad posture（姿势）as “the head in a forward position and the shoulders dropping forward in a rounded position”. Bad posture has been connected to many medical problems, including headaches and other problems, depression and heart disease. This is why Hansraj said it’s important to be mindful of your smart phone posture. While it is nearly impossible to avoid the technologies that cause these problems, people should make an effort to look at their phones with a correct posture.

1. Through the underlined sentence in paragraph 2, the author wants to show that _______.

A．the social media have its bad side

B．the social media have made a great success

C．people have to use social media unavoidably

D．more and more people are using smart phones

2. What does the third paragraph mainly tell us?

A．It’s healthy to bend your back regularly.

B．Your back is getting exercise as you bend it.

C．The average weight of an adult head always changes.

D．The more you bend your neck, the heavier the head becomes.

3. What is the correct posture?

A．Bend your head within 15 degrees.

B．Raise and lower your head in turn.

C．Drop your head forward in a rounded position.

D．Keep the positions of the neck and shoulders in a line.

4. Where does the text most probably come from?

A．A text book.	B．A health report.
C．A research plan.	D．A book review.