Reading Comprehension
A
A blocked airway (气道) can kill someone in three to four minutes, but it can take more than eight minutes for an ambulance to arrive. So a simple procedure such as opening someone’s airway can save their life while they’re waiting for emergency medical help. This means you’re more likely to give first aid to someone you know than a stranger.
There are many misconceptions (误解) surrounding first aid. Below are the “most popular” ones with details of what you should do.
Top four first aid misconceptions:
1. You should put butter or cream on a burn. The only thing you should put on a burn is cold water — keep the butter for cooking. Put the affected area under cold running water for at least ten minutes.
2. The best way to treat bleeding is to put the wound under a tap. If you put a bleeding wound under a tap, you wash away the body抯 clotting agents (t凝血剂) and make it bleed more. Instead, put pressure on the wound with whatever is available to stop or slow down the flow of blood. As soon as possible call 999. Keep pressure on the wound until help arrives.
3. Nosebleeds are best treated by putting the head back. If you put the head back during a nosebleed, all the blood goes down the back of the airway. Instead, advise them to tilt (倾斜) their head forwards and ask them to pinch (捏) the end of their nose and breathe through their mouth.
4. You need lots of training to do first aid. You don’t — what you mostly need is common sense. You can learn enough first aid knowledge in a few minutes to save someone’s life — whether it’s from reading a book, attending a course or watching videos online.
Remember that anyone can save a life.
1. The most important point to save an airway blocked person’s life is to ____.
A. keep his airway open
B. ensure the ambulance’s arriving time
C. keep the surroundings quiet
D. ask for emergency medical help immediately
2. If a person is burnt, what you should do immediately is _____.
A. put some cream on the burn area
B. heat up some butter for the burn
C. place the burn under cold running water
D. wash the affected area for a long time
3. If a bleeding wound is put under a tap, what will happen?
A. It will help the bleeding stop at once.
B. The wound will help produce more clotting agents.
C. It will produce more pressure on the wound
D. The wound will bleed more and it is hard to stop the bleeding.
4. Which of the following statements is RIGHT?
A. When a person’s nose bleeds, please put the head back.
B. You can learn first aid quickly in different ways.
C. When a person is burnt, keep pressure on the burn until help arrives.
D. Not everyone can do first aid to save a life.
5. The passage mainly tells us ____.
A. how to learn first aid by yourself
B. some misunderstandings about first aid
C. the importance of first aid
D. how to help the medical team save a life
B
A paper shows that researchers in Japan have successfully grown fully-functioning mouse skin in a laboratory, from a set of reprogrammed cells. Researchers were able to grow the independent sections of mouse skin tissue thanks to an advance from nearly a decade ago, when researchers learned how to take young cells and reprogram them to grow into a different kind of cell. In this case, cells from mice were redirected to become skin cells.
Skin grafts(移植) are a big deal in the world of life-saving technology, as functioning skin is slow to create from grafts, leaving the body vulnerable(易受伤害的). Healthy skin produces vitamins, protects the body from infection, and regulates body temperatures. But current graft techniques don’t create a solution that can do that immediately. In fact, the “skin” grown in labs for grafting before isn’t nearly as complex as what you’ve already got on your body. In many cases it’s less like a full organ and more like a top layer, able to cover an exposed area until the rest of the body regenerates underneath.
But this new progress is divergent: The skin is already fully functional on its own, producing everything from hair to sweat, just like normal skin does. That means it’s rapidly speeding up the healing process. But lab-grown skin doesn’t just cause major breakthroughs for burn treatments. Lab-grown, fully functional skin could have another value to the world: getting rid of animal testing. Because fully functioning samples of human cells would be more effective for testing of those products than animal friends.
Of course both grafting and testing advances are still a few steps down the road. While mice responded well to these skin samples, the technology needs to be adapted for human use. Scientists estimate(估计) they’re 5 to 10 years from actually being able to successfully replicate(复制) the process with human skin.
1. The functions of healthy skin include ____.
① Preventing infections.
② Speeding up the healing progress.
③ Producing vitamins.
④ Adjusting body temperature.
A. ①②④
B. ②③④
C. ①③④
D. ①②③
2. What does the underlined word “divergent” mean?
A. Creative.
B. Different.
C. Valuable.
D. Helpful.
3. What can we know about lab-grown fully functional skin?
A. It has great medical value.
B. It’s expensive to make it.
C. It will bring great profit.
D. It’s an independent section of the body.
4. It can be known from the passage that ____.
A. the new skin has already been widely used on humans
B. the new skin is too complex to be made
C. it is not long for scientists to develop the new skin
D. scientists have to do more research on the new skin
C
Many science fiction stories tell about explorers arriving in a new world. The explorers then use some kind of high-tech device(设备) to test for breathable air or signs of life. But here on Earth, science fiction is becoming a reality through a new sampling technology called environmental DNA(eDNA).
Ryan Kelly, an ecologist, works in a laboratory with other researchers studying the genetic material released by living creatures. “Essentially we can take a sample of soil or air or water, and we can sequence(按顺序排好) the DNA out of it and tell you what is there.” Ryan Kelly says they are studying water samples collected from Puget Sound. He says the cost of gene sequencing has dropped in recent years. That makes DNA testing more widely available.
Caren Goldberg heads the new eDNA lab at Washington State University. She is one of the first biologists to take the technology from the testing phase to actually using it. “It is extremely useful for species that are really hard to find. I have spent many hours looking for species that I was pretty sure were there — looking under rocks, looking in water, doing all kinds of surveys.” Caren Goldberg sees eDNA as a way to get answers more efficiently, safely and with less destruction compared to traditional survey techniques.
Animal experts in Vietnam are using eDNA to find the last, wild Yangtze giant softshell turtles. One researcher on the Caribbean island of Trinidad is using the sampling technology to find endangered golden treefrogs. And in Madagascar, it is being used to identify amphibian diseases.
Ms. Goldberg has used eDNA testing to confirm the local extinction, disappearance, of a leopard frog in the American state of Idaho. She has also been asked to document the spread of the New Zealand mudsnail(泥螺) in the state of Washington.
Now, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management wants Caren Goldberg to look for the Columbia spotted frog in two other western states. The rare amphibian is a candidate for the federal government’s threatened species list.
Scientists working with the technology say they do not expect robots to replace field biologists anytime soon. But the old-fashioned field work could soon be more targeted.
1. Environmental DNA can be used to ____.
A. help explore the new world
B. save the endangered species
C. write the science fiction stories
D. identify the creatures that live in a certain place
2. Why is DNA testing more widely available now?
A. Because the samples are easy to find.
B. Because it costs less money than before.
C. Because it is considered the most effective way.
D. Because many scientists are working with the technology.
3. According to this passage, ____.
A. eDNA technology is used widely
B. eDNA technology has replaced the field research
C. eDNA technology will not destroy the environment
D. eDNA technology isn’t used well
4. What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. How scientists use eDNA technology to confirm species.
B. Environmental DNA technology brings great advantages to scientists.
C. Science fiction becomes a reality for species surveys.
D. Environmental DNA technology has already
replaced biologists’ field trip.