第一节 完形填空的考查重点
完形填空旨在测试考生对语言的理解程度和综合运用语言的能力。中的完形填空测试是一篇难度适中,长度为150词左右的短文。短文中留出15个空白,每个空白为一题,每题有四个选项。要求考生在全面理解内容的基础上选择最佳答案,使短文意思完整、文理通顺、结构严谨、主题明确。
完形填空难于单句填空,因为它要求应试者从单句的理解水平提高到语篇的理解水平。完形填空所设计的每一处空白在内容上都与上下文密切相关,因此在做这类考题时,我们不应像对待单句选择那样去孤立地解决某一问题。要做好完形填空,考生不但要有相当的语法、词汇、写作知识及运用技巧,而且要有一定的语篇分析能力,较好的语感和逻辑思维以及比较广泛的背景知识。
完形填空考题的设计一般是从以下三个方面出发的:语法结构,词法结构,上下文之间的逻辑关系。在15个选项中,要求填入实词的约占70%,其他为虚词的约占30%。要填的词几乎涉及各个词类,动词含有不同的时态和语态。
第二节 完形填空的解题技巧
完形填空的一般解题步骤是:
1.通读全文。首先要阅读整篇文章,理解全文内容。同时对全文的语言表达方式,比如文章用的时态、语态、文章的措辞与口气等方面得出大致印象。
2.逻辑判断。在阅读全篇的基础上,开始从头判断每个空所缺的词的语言形式,如词类、时态、语态;并判断该词应具有的符合文章上下文的词义。
3.理解选择。从给出的4个选项中,选出在语法与词义上均与原文相符合的一个。
考生要提高完形填空的成绩,首先应注重提高自己应用语言的各种能力。这就要求他们:
1.选择词时,应善于通过阅读上下文找出与空中所缺词有关的词境线索。比如,注意前面是否已经提到该词所涉及的内容,所缺词应是肯定形式还是否定形式等。
2.中的完形填空有四个给定选项,所以考生答题时可采用排除法,就是把给出的4个词中在语法或词义方面不恰当的词排除掉,从而找出正确答案。
3.做完形填空试题时,比较忌讳看一个空填一个空。这样做,尽管所选的词,可能从语法和词义上都比较合适,但由于缺乏对整篇文章的了解,可能会出现一连串选词错误,造成这些句子的句意与全篇文章的意思不和谐,甚至出现前后矛盾的现象。
4.通过对近几年完形填空试题的分析,我们发现,在所需填的词中,结构词占一定比例,但至少60%以上是实义词,难度较大。考生若没有对全文的正确理解,就不可能把这些空中所缺的词全部填对。
5.考生在阅读的过程中要注意知识的积累,特别要加强对语言感受力的培养。完形填空不是单句填空,要求通过一定的语境线索进行分析,所以考生只有通过大量的阅读,增强语感和对语言的敏感程度。
6.考试中虽然只有一篇完形填空,但选材范围很广。所以考生平日应广闻博记,熟悉各种不同文体、不同题材,以及不同语言风格的文章。
第三节 完形填空 必背文章汇总
1 Eat for a Good and Healthful Life
Food keeps us alive. It is our sustenance and our pleasure. But recently, research has shown that the eating habits of the average Americans may be dangerous to future health.
The foods Americans now choose are oftentimes too rich in calories and fats, so this article reports a new study: Diet and Health, Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk.
The study, conducted by the National Research Councils Committee on Diet and Health, concludes that balancing nutrition, calories and activity is key to enjoying a long and healthful life.
The report recommends that most Americans increase physical activity to a moderate level and make changes in food choices and calories intake to maintain ideal weight.
Most of us even those of us at ideal weight need to eat less fat so that no more than 30% of our daily calories will come from fat.
That means cutting down on red meat and whole milk dairy products. Indeed, eat fish, chicken without skin, lean meats, and low fat and no fat dairy products.
The report of the Committee on Diet and Health recommends we eat five or more 1/2 cup servings of vegetables and fruits daily especially green and yellow vegetables and citrus fruits.
Eating more fruits and vegetables doesnt have to mean increased calories intake. Many plant foods are nutrient rich; they provide many vitamins and minerals for very few calories.
Nutrient rich foods are particularly important for Americans over 50. As we age, we need to eat less because our bodies need fewer calories to function properly. But we still need full measures of vitamins and minerals to release the energy in our foods and make us feel strong and healthy. [卫生类C]
为好而健康的生活而吃饭
食品维持着我们的生存。它是我们的营养品也是我们的乐趣。但近来的研究表明,普通美国人的饮食习惯对未来健康可能是危险的。
美国人现在所选择的食物常常富含卡洛里和脂肪。所以这篇文章将报道一项新的研究:饮食与健康,减少慢性病风险的暗示。
这次由国家卫生饮食调查委员会进行的调查得出的结论认为:营养的均衡、卡洛里以及活动是健康长寿的关键。
报告建议大多数美国人把活动提高到一个适当的程度并且要改变对食物的选择和卡洛里的摄入以保持理想的体重。
大多数人甚至那些体重理想的人必须少吃脂肪,以使我们所摄入的脂肪的卡洛里不超过30%。
这意味着少吃牛羊肉以及各种各样的乳品。确实,要吃些鱼,不带皮的鸡肉、瘦肉以及低脂肪的或脱脂肪乳制品。
卫生饮食委员会建议大家每天吃5份或5份半的水果和蔬菜特别是绿色和黄色蔬菜以及柑橘类水果。
吃更多的水果和蔬菜不一定就意味着卡洛里摄入量的提高。许多来源于植物的食品维生素和矿物质很多,含热量却很少。
对于50岁以上的美国人,营养丰富的食品尤为重要。当我们变老时,我们必须吃得更少,因为我们的身体发挥正常机能所需的卡洛里减少。但我们仍然需要从食物中获得足量的维生素和矿物质来释放能量,以使我们健康强壮。[卫生类C]
2 One Good Reason to Let Smallpox Live
Its now a fair bet that we will never see the total extinction of the smallpox virus. The idea was to cap the glorious achievement of 1980, when smallpox was eradicated in the wild, by destroying the killer virus in the last two labs that are supposed to have it-one in the US and one in Russia. If smallpox had truly gone from the planet, what point was there in keeping these reserves?
In reality, of course, it was native to imagine that everyone would let go of such a potent potential weapon. 1 Undoubtedly several nations still have several. And the last official stocks of live virus bred mistrust of the US and Russia, for no obvious gain.
Now American researchers have found an animal model of the human disease, opening the way for tests on new treatments and vaccines. So one again theres a good reason to keep the virus-just in case the disease puts in a reappearance.
How do we deal with the mistrust of the US and Russia? Simple. Keep the virus under international auspices in a well-guarded UN laboratory thats open to all countries. The US will object, of course, just as it rejects a multilateral approach to just about everything. But it doesnt mean the idea is wrong. If the virus is useful, the lets make it the servant of all humanity-not just a part of it. [综合类B、理工类C、卫生类C]
一个让天花存在的好理由
目前很可能我们永远都不会看到天花的彻底绝迹。这个观念掩盖1980年的光辉成就,那时消灭了最后两个拥有这种致命病毒的实验室的病毒后。四处蔓延的天花已经被根除了。那两个实验室,一个在美国,一个在俄国。如果天花真的在这个星球上消失了,那么保留这些储备的意义何在?
当然,事实上想像每个人都会放弃这样一种有效的潜在的武器是幼稚的。无疑,几个国家仍旧有几瓶。美俄最后的官方的活病毒储备引起大家对这两个国家的不信任,因为并没有获得明显的收获。
现在美国研究者们发现了人类疾病的动物版,为试验新的治疗方法和新的疫苗开辟了道路。因此,再次存在着一个保存病毒的理由万一这种病卷土重来。
我们怎样应付对美国和俄国的不信任呢?很简单。把病毒放在国际赞助的、被严密监视和向所有国家开放的联合国实验室中。针对的对象当然是美国,因为它反对任何事务的多边化。但是这并不意味着这个想法是错的。如果病毒是有用的,那么让我们把它变成全人类的奴仆而不是一部分人的。[综合类B、理工类C、卫生类C]
3 Diet, Alcohol Linked to Nearly One Third of Cancers
Diet is second only to tobacco as a leading cause of cancer and, along with alcohol, is responsible for nearly one third of cases of the disease in developed countries, a leading researcher said on Tuesday.
Dr. Tim Key, of the University of Oxford, told a cancer conference that scientists are still discovering how certain foods contribute to cancer, but they know that diet, alcohol and obesity play a major role.
Five percent of cancers could be avoided if nobody was obese, he said.
While tobacco is blinked to about 30 percent of cancer cases, diet is involved in an estimated 25 percent and alcohol in about six percent.
Obesity raises the risk if breast, wind, bowel and kidney cancer, while alcohol is known to cause cancers of the mouth, throat and liver. Its dangerous impact is increased when combined with smoking.
Key told the meeting of the charity Cancer Research UK that other elements of diet linked to cancer are still unknown but scientists are hopping that the EPIC study, which is comparing the diets of 500,000 people in 10 countries and their risk of cancer, will provide some answer.
Early results of the study have revealed that Norway, Sweden and Denmark have the lowest consumption of fruit and vegetables among European countries while Italy and Spain have the highest. Eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day is recommended to reduce the risk of cancer.
Key, principal scientist on the EPIC study, said it is looking at dietary links to some of the most common cancers including colorectal, breast and prostate. [卫生类C]
饮食,酒精与大约三分之一的癌症有关
一位重要的研究者在星期二说,饮食是仅次于吸烟的导致癌症的原因,在发达国家饮食和酒精导致了大约1/3的癌症。
牛津大学的提姆 凯博士在癌症会议上说,科学家们正在研究特定的食物是怎样导致癌症的,但是他们知道,饮食、酒精和肥胖起了很大作用。
他说:如果没有肥胖的人,癌症能够减少5%。
然而吸烟和大约30%的癌症有关,饮食和大约25%的癌症有关,酒精和大约6%的癌症有关。
肥胖增加了乳腺、子宫、肠和肾脏得癌症的危险,而人们知道酒精会导致嘴、喉咙和肝脏的癌症。以上因素如果和抽烟共同发生,危险性就会更大。
凯在英国慈善癌症研究会议上说,人们还不知道与癌症相关的饮食中的其他因素,但是科学家们希望EPIC研究能够给出答案。EPIC研究正在比较10个国家50万人的饮食和患癌症的比例。
这个研究的早期结果揭示挪威、瑞典和丹麦消费水果和蔬莱的量在欧洲国家中是最低的,而意大利和西班牙的水果和蔬菜消费量是最大的。专家推荐每天至少食用五份水果和蔬菜来减少得癌症的风险。
EPIC研究的带头科学家凯说他们现在正在关注饮食和一些非常普遍的癌症之间的联系,包括直肠癌、乳腺癌和前列腺癌。[卫生类C]
4 Passive Smoking Is Workplace Killer
Pressure mounted on Britain on Monday to take action on passive smoking with new research showing second-hand smoke kills about one worker each week in the hospitality industry.
Professor Konrad Jamrozik, of Imperial College in London. Told a conference on environmental tobacco that second-hand smoking kills 49 employees in pubs. Restaurants and hotels each year and contributes to 700 deaths from lung cancer, heart disease and stroke across the total national work force.
Exposure in the hospitality industry at work outweighs the consequences of exposure of living with a smoker for those staff, Jamrozik said in an interview.
Other researchers have measured the levels of exposure to passive smoking but Jamrozik calculated how it would translate into avoidable deaths.
His findings are based on the number of people working in the hospitality industry in Britain, their exposure to secondhand smoke and their suffering of dying form it.
Jamrozik said the findings would apply to most countries in Europe because, to a greater or lesser extent, levels of smoking in the community are similar.
Professor Carol Black, president of the Royal College of Physicians. Which sponsored the meeting, said the research is proof of the need for a ban on smoking in public places.
Environmental tobacco smoke in pubs, bars, restaurants and other public places is seriously damaging to the health of employees as wells as the general public, she said in a statement.
Making these places smoke-free not only protects vulnerable staff and the public, it will also help over 300,000 people in Britain to stop smoking completely. she added.
Ireland recently became the first country to introduce a national ban on smoking in public places. New York and parts of Australia have taken similar measures. [卫生类C]
被动吸烟是工作场所的杀手
当新的研究表明在服务行业二手烟每星期导致一个工人死亡后,英国在星期一就受到新被动吸烟采取行动的强大压力。
伦敦皇家学院的康拉德 吉姆罗兹克教授在环境烟草大会上说,在酒馆、酒吧、饭店和旅馆,二手烟每年杀死49个工作人员,使全国的工作人员中的700人因为肺癌、心脏病以及中风而死亡。
吉姆罗兹克在一次访谈中说:对员工来说在服务行业工作比和吸烟者一起生活产生的后果更严重。
其他的研究者衡量受到被动吸烟威胁的程度,而吉姆罗兹克计算这将如何转化成可以避免的死亡。
他的发现基于英国服务行业的工作人数,他们受到了二手烟的危害并且有可能因此而死亡。
吉姆罗兹克说这些发现应该用于欧洲大部分国家,因为在这些社会中吸烟的程度或多或少有相似性。
主办这个会议的皇家医学院院长卡罗 布莱克教授说,这个研究证明需要禁止在公共场所吸烟。
她在一次讲话中说:酒馆、酒吧、饭店和其他公共场所的环境烟草正在严重地损害着工作人员和大众的身体健康。
她又补充说:使这些场所禁烟不仅能够保护易受伤害的工作人员和公众,还可以帮助英国30万人完全戒烟。
爱尔兰最近成为第一个实行全国公共场所禁烟的国家。纽约和澳大利亚的某些地区也实施了相似的政策。[卫生类C]
5 Breastfeeding Can Cut Cardiovascular Risk
Breastfeeding can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke later in life and could prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths each year, researchers said on Friday.
Babies who are breastfed have fewer childhood infections and allergies and are less prone to obesity. British scientists have now shown that breastfeeding and slow grown in the first weeks and months of life has a protective effect against cardiovascular disease.
Diets that promote more rapid growth put babies at risk many years later in terms of raising their blood pressure, raising their cholesterol and increasing their tendency to diabetes and obesity the four main risk factors for stroke and heart attack, said Professor Alan Lucas of the Institute of Child Health in London.
Our evidence suggests that the reason why breast-fed babies do better is because they grow more slowly in the early weeks.
Lucas said the effects of breastfeeding on blood pressure and cholesterol later in life are greater than anything adults can do to control the risk factors for cardiovascular disease, other than taking drugs.
An estimated 17 million people die of various disease, particularly heart attack and strokes, each year, according to the World Health Organisation.
Lucas and his colleagues compared the health of 216 teenagers who as babies had either been breastfed or given different nutritional baby formulas. They reported their findings in The Lancet medical journal.
The teenagers who had been breastfed had a 14-percent lower ratio of bad to good cholesterol and lower concentrations of a protein that is a marker for cardiovascular disease risk.
The researchers also found that regardless of the childs weight at birth, the faster the infants grew in the early weeks and months of life, the greater was their later risk of heart disease and stroke. The effect was the same for both boys and girls.
The more human milk you have in the newborn period, the lower your cholesterol level is, the lower your blood pressure is 16 years later, Lucas said. [卫生类B]
母乳喂养能够减少心血管疾病的危险
专家在周五说母乳喂养能够减少今后生活中出现心脏病和中风的可能,并且每年可以避免成千上万的死亡。
用母乳喂养的婴儿在童年比别的儿童更少感染疾病或过敏,并且更少肥胖。英国科学家目前指出,母乳喂养和在出生后的前几个星期和月份内生长缓慢可以起到避免心血管疾病的保护作用。
伦敦儿童卫生学院的阿兰 卢卡斯教授说:促进快速生长的饮食会使婴儿在多年之后容易得血压高、胆固醇高、糖尿病及肥胖症这是导致中风和心脏病的四个危险因素。
我们的证据显示母乳喂养的孩子之所以更健康,是因为它们在生命的最初几个星期里生长得更慢。
卢卡斯说母乳喂养对今后生活中血压和胆固醇的作用比除吃药之外成年人为控制导致心血管病的因素而使用的任何方法都有效。
根据世界卫生组织报告,每年大约有1700万人死于心血管病,特别是心脏病和中风。
卢卡斯和他的同事比较了216个十几岁的青少年的健康状况,他们幼年时有的是母乳喂养的,有的食用的是营养配方奶粉。他们在兰斯特医学杂志上发表了他们的发现。
在坏胆固醇和好胆固醇的比例方面,吃母乳的青少年的比例低14%,并且他们的蛋白质积聚也比较低,而蛋白质积聚是导致心血管病的因素之一。
研究者还发现,不论孩子出生时的体重是多少,孩子在最初几个星期或几个月里长得越快,他们在今后的生活中的心脏病和中风的危险就越大。这种作用对男孩女孩都一样。
卢卡斯说:在新生期间喝越多的人奶,16年后胆固醇水平和血压就越低。[卫生类B]
6 Healthy Food
Street sellers, particularly in developing countries, supply large amounts of food for people on low incomes. This sector also employs some 6% ~ 25% of the work force, mainly women, in developing countries, and provides markets for agricultural and other produce. In many countries, however, the authorities are not willing to recognize it as a formal sector of the food supply system, they may ignore it In food control programs of even try to put and end to it.
There are two possible contaminants: pathogenic micro-organisms and hazardous chemicals. As far as micro-organisms are concerned, there is apparently no convincing evidence that street foods are more involved in the transmission of infection than foods obtained in, e.g., hotels. Studies in Egypt and else-where have found street foods to compare not unfavorably with hotel foods in respect of contamination with micro-organisms-some street foods were found to be contaminated with pathogens, but so were foods from four-and five-star hotels in the same area.
Hazardous chemicals have been found in street foods, and food exposed for sale on roadsides may become contaminated by lead from vehicle exhausts.
Health dangers may arise from: purchase of raw around of poor quality; improper storage, processing, and cooking, leading to reuse of water; limited piped drinking-water; lack of refrigeration; unsatisfactory waste-disposal facilities; and personal cleanliness.
The authorities should take into account the potentials of different categories of food for transmitting disease, and should control appropriately for the different categories sellers of bottled drinks require less control than those of food. Dry foodstuff, dried grains, and sugared foods are less likely to transmit disease than gravies, cooked rice, and low-acid milk, egg, and meat products. Similarly foods which are thoroughly cooked and eaten at once are safer than precooked food kept at high temperatures for several hours. [卫生类B]
健康食品
街头小贩,特别是在发展中国家,为低收入的人们提供了大量的食品。在发展中国家,这个部门雇佣了6% ~ 25%的劳动力,特别是妇女,而且为农业生产和其他生产提供市场。但是在许多国家,官方不愿承认这是食品供应系统的一个正式部门。他们在食品控制纲要中可能对它忽略不计,甚至企图终止这个部门。
有两种可能的污染源:致病的微生物,有毒的化学制品。就微生物而言,没有明显的有力证据证明街头食品比旅馆的食品更能传播传染病。埃及和其他地方的研究已经发现在微生物污染方面街头食品并不比旅馆食品差人们发现一些街头食品被病原体所污染,但在相同地区的一些四、五星级的旅馆中的食品同样也受到病原体的污染。
街头食品已经被发现含有有毒化学物,而且在路边摆着卖的食品可能被汽车废气中的铅所污染。
对健康的威胁主要源于:购买质量不好的原材料,不适当的储藏、加工以及烹饪,重复用水,有限的管道饮用水,缺乏冷藏;以及不能令人满意的废物清除设备;没有经验或不讲个人卫生。
当局应该考虑到各种食品传播疾病的可能,而且应当对不同种类加以适当地控制对于卖瓶装饮料的要求要比卖食品的要求少。粮食、干蔬菜和糖类食品要比肉汁、米饭以及低酸牛奶,鸡蛋以及肉制品传播疾病的可能性要小。同样的立即吃掉的煮熟的食品要比在高温里放了几个小时还没煮的食品安全得多。[卫生类B]
7 Many Childrens Deaths Preventable: WHO
Over five million children die each year from disease, infections and accidents related to their environment although many of these deaths are largely preventable, says the World health Organization.
On Monday, the WHO asked governments and citizens around the world to take action to create healthy environments for children as it celebrated World Health Day.
The biggest threats to childrens health lurk in the very places that should be safest-home, school and community, said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the WHO at the days launch in New Delhi, India.
Every child has the right to grow up in a healthy home, school and community. They future development of our children-and of their world-depends on their enjoying good health now. We have their future in our hands. Now we must work more effectively together to reduce the risks from the environment which our children face, Brundtland said.
This years theme, Healthy Environments for Children focuses on the many dangers faced by children in and around the places where they live and play.
These include inadequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation, insect-borne diseases, air pollution, chemical hazards and injuries from traffic, falls, burns and drownings.
Communities around the world organized events to promote awareness of childrens health issues, which included drawing contests for schoolchildren in Vietnam, street plays in India, puppet shows in Namibia professional lectures for policy makers in Germany and elsewhere.
Activities also took place in cities across Canada on Monday, including Calgary, Montreal, Halifax and Ottawa.
Although children under five represent only 10 per cent of the worlds population, they bear 40 per cent of the global disease burden, says the WHO. And as much as one-third of the total burden of disease may be caused by environmental factors.
World health Day has been celebrated on April 7th since 1950. Each year the WHO chooses a theme to highlight areas of particular concern. Last years theme, Move for health, focused on promoting physical activity as part of healthy living. [卫生类A]
世界卫生组织:许多孩子的死亡是可以预防的
世界卫生组织报告,每年都有500万以上的儿童死于与他们所处环境有关的疾病、感染或事故,尽管其中的许多情况都是可以预防的。
周一,世界卫生组织在庆祝世界卫生日时,呼吁全世界的政府和人民都采取行动,为孩子们创造一个健康的环境。
世界卫生组织的总干事高 哈兰姆 布朗德特兰博士今天在印度新德里的启动仪式上说:家庭、学校和社会应该是最安全的地方,可是对儿童健康的最大威胁就是存在于这些本该是最安全的地方。
每个孩子都有权享受在家庭、学校和社区健康成长的权利。我们孩子们未来的发展和他们的世界的发展都取决于他们现在是否能享有良好的家庭。布朗德特兰博士说,我们现在应当更有效地工作,以减少我们孩子所面临的来自环境的危险。
今年的主题为孩子创造健康环境重点关注在孩子们居住和玩耍的地方所可能面临的危险。
这些危险包括,利用不到安全的饮用水和卫生的环境、昆虫传播的疾病、空气污染、化学品的危害和交通事故、摔跤、烧伤、溺水带来的伤害。
世界各地的团体组织各种各样的活动来提高对儿童健康问题的认识,像在越南举行的学龄儿童的绘画比赛、印度的街头表演、纳米比亚的木偶剧以及在德国及其他一些地方面向政策制定者们所做的一些职业讲座。
周一,包括卡尔加里、蒙特利尔、哈利法克斯和渥太华在内的加拿大各城市也举行了各种活动。
世界卫生组织说,尽管5岁以下的儿童只占世界人口的10%,但他们却背负着全球疾病总量的40%,而全球疾病总量的1/3是由环境因素导致的。
自从1950年以来,每年的4月7日都作为世界卫生日来庆祝。而且每年世界卫生组织都选择一个主题来强调某一领域的特殊问题。去年的主题是为健康而行动,强调了增强体育运动作为健康生活的一部分。[卫生类A]
8 Scientists Develop Ways of Detecting Heart Attack
German researchers have come up with a new generation of defibrillators and early warning software aimed at offering heart patients greater protection from sudden death from cardiac arrest.
In Germany alone around 100,000 people die annually as a result of cardiac arrest and many of these cases are caused by disruption to the hearts rhythm. Those most at risk are patients who have already suffered a heart attack, and for years the use of defibrillators has proved useful in diagnosing life-threatening disruptions to heart rhythms and correcting them automatically by intervening within seconds. These devices take on a range of functions, such as that of pacemaker.
Heart specialists at Freiburgs University Clinic have now achieved a breakthrough with an implanted defibrillator capable of generating a six channel electrocardiogram within the body. This integrated system allows early diagnosis of acute blood flow problems and a pending heart attack. It will be implanted in patients for the first time this year. Meanwhile, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Mathematics in Kaiserslautern have developed new computer software that renders of ECG data more precise.
The overwhelming majority of patients at risk will not have an implanted defibrillator and must for this reason undergo regular ECGs. Many of the current programs only take into account a linear correlation of the data. We are, however, making use of a non linear process that reveals the chaotic patterns of heart beats as an open and complex system, Hagen Knaf says, In this way changes in the heart beats over time can be monitored and individual variations in patients taken into account. An old study of ECG data, based upon 600 patients who had suffered a subsequent heart attack, enabled the researchers to compare risks and to show that the new software evaluates the data considerably better. [卫生类A]
科学家探索发现心脏病的方法
德国研究者们发明了新一代的除颤器和旨在为心脏病人提供更多保护,使他们免遭心脏停止导致的突然死亡的早期预报软件。
仅在德国每年就有10万人死于心脏停止。其中大部分是由于心律中断导致的。危险最大的是那些已经犯过一次心脏病的病人。几年来除颤器被证实在探测心律中止和在几秒钟内实施自动干涉以调整心律的诊断中是有用的。这种方法起到了很多作用,例如起搏器。
弗莱伯大学诊所的心脏病专家已经在内置除颤器方面取得了突破性成就。这种除颤器可以在体内产生六个频道的心电图。这个综合体系使血液流通问题和即将发生的心脏病可被早些诊断出来。今年它将第一次被植入病人体内。同时,凯瑟劳特的弗劳胡佛实用数学学院的研究者开发了一种新计算机软件。这种软件使心电图数据更加准确。
大部分有风险的患者不能用内置除颤器,因此必须接受常规的心电图检查。目前的许多计划只把数据的线性关系考虑在内。但是我们现在使用的是能够将心脏跳动的混乱模式作为一个直观而又复杂的系统揭示出来的非线性处理方法。海根 纳夫说,这样心脏跳动频率的变化就会受到控制,而病人个人的特征也会得到考虑。一个基于600位连续犯心脏病的患者的以前的心电图数据研究使科学家们能够比较两种风险,结果显示新软件明显能更好地处理心电图数据。[卫生类A]
9 Captain Cook Arrow Legend
It was a great legend while it lasted, but DNA testing has finally ended a two-century-old story of the Hawaiian arrow carved from the bone of British explore Captain James Cook who died in the Sandwich Islands in 1779.
There is no Cook in the Australian Museum, museum collection manager Jude Philip said not long ago in announcing the DNA evidence that the arrow was not made of Cooks bone. But that will not stop the museum from continuing to display the arrow in its exhibition, Uncovered: Treasures of the Australian Museum, which does include a feather cape presented to Cook by Hawaiian King Kalaniopuu in 1778.
Cook was one of Britains great explorers and is credited with discovering the Great South Land now Australia, in 1770. He was clubbed to death in the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii.
The legend of Cooks arrow began in 1824 when Hawaiian King Kamehameha on his deathbed gave the arrow to William Adams, a London surgeon and relative of Cooks wife, saying it was made of Cooks bone after the fatal fight with islanders.
In the 1890s the arrow was given to the Australian Museum and the legend continued until it came face-to-face with science.
DNA testing by laboratories in Australia and New Zealand revealed the arrow was not made of Cooks bone but was more likely made of animal bone, said Philp.
However, Cooks fans refuse to give up hope that one Cook legend will prove true and that part of his remains will still be uncovered, as they say there is evidence not all of Cooks body was buried at sea in 1779. On this occasion technology has won, said Cliff Thornton, president of the Captain Cook Society, in a statement from Britain. But I am sure that one of these days ... one of the Cook legends will prove to be true and it will happen one day. [理工类C]
库克船长弓箭的传说
这本是个绝妙的传说,但DNA测试最终结束了这个长达两个世纪之久的古老故事。传说是关于一支据说是用1779年在桑伟奇群岛死去的英国探险家船长詹姆士 库克的遗骨刻成的夏威夷弓箭。
在不久前DNA证据宣布该弓箭并非来自于库克船长的遗骨时,澳大利亚博物馆收藏经理尤帝 菲利普说:澳大利亚博物馆里并没有库克的遗骨。但这并不能停止博物馆在展览会上展出弓箭。考古发现:澳大利亚博物馆的宝藏展览中的确还展示了一个在1778年夏威夷国王卡兰尼欧普送给库克的一个羽毛斗篷。
库克是英国最伟大的探险家之一,他在1770年发现了南大陆,也就是现在的澳大利亚。此后在桑伟奇群岛被棒击致死。
库克弓箭传说始于1824年,当时夏威夷国王卡在弥留之际将弓箭赐给了库克妻子的亲戚,一名伦敦外科医生威廉 亚当斯,并告诉他弓箭是在那次致命殴打后用库克的遗骨做成的。
在19世纪90年代,弓箭被交给澳大利亚博物馆。这个传说直到与科学直接接触才停止。
据菲利普说,澳大利亚和新西兰的试验室的DNA测试证实弓箭并非取材于库克的遗骨,而更可能来自动物的骨头。
但是,库克迷们却不肯放弃希望。他们期待库克传说之一将会被证明是正确,并且他的部分遗骨还会被发现。正如他们所说,有证据表明库克的遗骨并不是在1779年全都葬身大海了。库克船长协会的会长克利夫 托马森在一个来自英国的声明中说:在这个问题上,科技取得了胜利。我坚信某一天库克传说之一将会被证明是真的。[理工类]
10 Singing Alarms Could Save The Blind
If you cannot see, you may not be able to find your way out of a burning building and that could be fatal. A company in Leeds could change all that with directional sound alarms capable of guiding you to the exit.
Sound Alert, a company run by the University of Leeds, is installing the alarms in a residential home for blind people in Sommerset and a resource centre for the blind in Cumbria. The alarms produce a wide range of frequencies that enable the brain to determine where the sound is coming from.
Deborah Withington of Sound Alert says that the alarms use most of the frequencies that can be heard by humans. It is burst of white noise that people say sounds like static on the radio. she says. Its life-saving potential is great.
She conducted an experiment in which people were filmed by thermal-imaging cameras trying to find their way out of a large smoke-filled room. It took them nearly four minutes to find the door without a sound alarm, but only 15 seconds with one.
Withington studies how the brain processes sounds at the university. She says that the source of a wide band of frequencies can be pinpointed more easily than the source of a narrow band. Alarms based on the same concept have already been installed on emergency vehicles.
The alarms will also include rising or falling frequencies to indicate whether people should go up or down stairs. They were developed with the aid of a large grant from British Nuclear Fuels. [理工类C]
警报器救盲人
如果看不见,那你可能会因找不到路而逃不出一幢失火楼房,那将是致命的。英国利兹市的一家公司发明的一种可指方向的警报器可能会把你引向出口。
声音警报是一家由利兹大学设立的公司。该公司现在正在为位于萨莫塞特的一家盲人收容所和位于卡姆布雷亚的一家盲人资源中心安装此种装置。这种警报器发出的频率范围广,使人脑可以判断出声音的来源。
该公司的戴博拉 威星顿称此种警报器使用人类可以听到的大部分音频。她说:它们是一种突出的频谱连续而均匀的噪音。人们感觉它们听上去就像是收音机发出的静电噪声,其在救人方面潜力巨大。
她进行了一次试验。她让人们在一所充满浓烟的大屋子里设法找到出路,同时她用热效应成像摄像机进行拍摄。在没有警报器时,这些人用了近4分钟才找到门,而在警报器的指引下,只用了15秒。
她在大学里对人脑如何处理声音进行研究,并提出与波段窄的频率相比,人们更容易发现波段宽的音响源。基于此理论的警报器已被应用于急救车上。
这种警报器也容纳了音频的升降,以指示人们上、下楼。这种设备是得到英国核燃料组织的大笔资助才开发成功的。[理工类C]
11 Car Thieves could Be Stopped Remotely
Speeding off ina stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in a nasty surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer and a radio signal from a control center miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again.
For now, such devices are only available for fleets of trucks and specialist vehicles used on construction sites. But remote immobilization technology could soon start to trickle down to ordinary cars, and are be available to ordinary cars in the UK in two months.
The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car incorporates a miniature cellphone, a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS satellitepositioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the unit to block the vehicles engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted.
There are even plans for immobilizers that shut down vehicles on the move, though there are fears over the safety implications of such a system.
In the UK. An array of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. The pattern of vehicles crime has changed, says Martyn Randall of Thatcham, a security research organization based in Berkshire that is funded in part by the motor insurance industry.
He says it would only take him a few minutes to teach a novice how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old.
Modern cars are a far tougher proposition, as their engine management computer will not allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition key. In the UK, technologies like this have helped achieve a 31 per cent drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997.
But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars. Often by getting hold of the owners keys in a burglary. In 2000, 12 per cent of vehicles stolen in the UK were taken using the owners keys double the previous years figure.
Remote-controlled immobilization system would put a major new obstacle in the criminals way by making such thefts pointless. A group that includes That cham, the police, insurance companies and security technology firms have developed standards for a system that could go on the market sooner than the customer [理工类C]
远程制止偷车贼
超速驾驶在偷来的汽车里,偷车贼以为自己大获全胜。但是他马上就会又惊又恼。车上已经被装了远程制动装置,一个几英里以外的控制中心发来的无线信号将确保盗贼一旦启动引擎,他就不能再次发动汽车了。
目前,这种装置只用于卡车队或者用于建筑工地的特殊车辆上。但是远程制动技术很快就会逐步应用到普通汽车上。并且应该在两个月之内用在英国的普通汽车上。
计划是这样的。把一个集合有微型无绳电话,微量处理器,存储器以及全球定位系统的卫星接收器的控制盒子安装在汽车上。如果汽车被盗,一个被编码的无绳电话信号就会告诉这个装置停止车辆引擎控制系统来阻止引擎再次被启动。
甚至还有一些人主张计划将制动装置装在运行着的车辆上,可是这一来人们就会担心这个系统的安全性。
在英国,一系列的技术装置已经让盗车贼步履维艰了。玛丁兰多来自位于贝克郡的一个由汽车保险工业投资成立的名为撒策姆的安全研究机构。他说:车辆盗窃的手法已经有所改变。
他还声称只要是10年以上的汽车,他就能用几样简单的工具在几分钟之内教会一个新手怎样偷车。
现代车却远没有这么简单,因为它们的引擎管理计算机装置只有接收到一个独一无二的由点火钥匙发送过来的身份密码才可以启动汽车。自1997年以来,在英国,技术人员已经利用此项技术帮助减少了31%的涉及车辆犯罪案。
但是不死心的盗贼们却还在一直想方设法偷车。例如很多时候,他们在夜里盗走主人的汽车钥匙进而偷车。在2000年,英国12%的车辆被盗案是由于主人的钥匙被盗,这个数字比前一年增长了1倍。
远程控制的制动系统给盗贼设置了一个全新的障碍。包括撒策姆,公安部门,保险公司以及安全技术公司的这样一个群体已经为体系开发出了一个标准,将比顾客所预期的更早地被很快推广到市场上。[理工类C]
12 Squishy Cellphones Add a Buzz to Calls
Vibrating rubber cellphone could be the next big thing in mobile communications. They allow people to communicate by squishing the phone to transmit vibrations along with their spoken words. According to a research team at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge. Massachusetts, the idea will make phoning more fun.
Many mobile phones can already be made to vibrate instead of ring when you do not want people to know you are getting a call. But these vibrations, caused by a motor spinning an eccentric weight inside the device, are too crude for subtle communication, says Angela Chang of the labs Tangible Media Group. Theyre either on or off, she says.
But when you grip Changs prototype latex cellphone, your fingers and thumb wrap around five tiny speakers. They vibrate against your skin around 250 times per second. Beneath these speakers sit pressure sensors, so you can transmit vibration as well as receiving it. When you squeeze with a finger, a vibration signal is transmitted to you callers corresponding finger. Its strength depends on how hard you squeeze.
She says that within a few minutes of being given the phones, students were using the vibration feature to add emphasis to what they were saying or to interrupt the other speaker. Over time, people even began to transmit their own kind of ad hoe Morse code, which they would repeat back to show they were following what the other person was saying. It was pretty easy to communicate, though we didnt specifically prearrange codes, says David Milovich, one of the students who tried out the device.
Chang thinks vibralanguages could take off for the same reason as texting: sometimes people want to communicate something without everyone nearby knowing what theyre saying. And imagine actually being able to shake someones hand when you close a business deal, he says. [理工类C]
可按压手机给通话增添了震动
振动橡胶手机将是移动通讯的下一个重要的事物。它们使人们能够通过按压电话机来随着他们的话传递震动的方式通讯。据马萨诸塞州剑桥市的麻省理工媒体实验室的研究小组说,这个主意可以使打电话更有趣。
许多手机已经可以在你不希望别人知道你有电话来时震动而不响铃了。但是实验室的可触摸媒体组的Angela Chang说,这种在手机内由发动机使重心离心旋转而产生的振动对敏感的通讯来说太粗糙了。她说:它们不是开着就是关着。
但是当你握着Chang的橡胶手机模型时,你的手指和拇指包着五个小喇叭。它们以每秒钟250次的频率振动,撞击着你的皮肤。在这些小喇叭下面是压力感应器,因此你就可以传递震动和接收震动了。当你下压一个手指时,一个振动信号就会传到你的呼叫者的相应的手指上。振动的力度取决于你挤压的力量多大。
她说在拿到这种手机后几分钟,学生们就可以用振动功能强调他们所说的话,或打断别的说话人了。随着时间的延长,人们开始传递他们自己的特别莫尔斯电码,他们可以重复这些电码以表明他们听懂了对方说的话。试用这种手机的学生之一David Milovich说:用它来通讯很简单,尽管我们没有特别提前制定密码。
Chang认为振动语言可以以同样的道理取代文字:有时人们想交流一些事情而不愿周围的人知道他们在说什么。她说:想像一下当你完成一笔交易时还可和别人握手。[理工类C]
13 Wonder Webs
Spider webs are more than homes, and they are ingenious traps. And the worlds best web spinner may be the Goldern Orb Weaver spider. The female Orb Weaver spins a web of fibers thin enough to be invisible to insect prey, yet tough enough to snare a flying bird without breaking.
The secret of the webs strength? A type of super-resilient silk called dragline. When the female spider is ready to weave the webs spokes and frame, she uses her legs to draw the airy thread out through a hollow nozzle in her belly. Dragline is not sticky, so the spider can race back and forth along it to spin the webs trademark spiral.
Unlike some spiders that weave a new web every day, a Goldern Orb Weaver reuses her handiwork until it falls apart, sometimes not for two years. The silky thread is five times stronger than steel by weight and absorbs the force of an impact three times better than Kevlar, a high-strength human-made material used in bullet-proof vests. And thanks to its high tensile strength, or the ability to resist breaking under the pulling force called tension, a single strand can stretch up to 40 percent longer than its original length and snap back as well as well as new. No human-made fiber even comes close.
It is no wonder manufacturers are clamoring for spider silk. In the consumer pipeline: high-performance fabrics for athletes and stockings that never run. Think parachute cords and suspension bridge cables. A steady supply of spider silk would be worth billions of dollars-but how to produce it? Harvesting silk on spider farms does not work because the territorial arthropods have a tendency to devour their neighbors.
Now, scientists at the biotechnology Nexia are spinning artificial silk modeled after Goldern Orb dragline. The first step: extract silk-making genes from the spiders. Next, implant the genes into goat egg cells. The nanny goats that grown from the eggs secrete dragline silk proteins in their milk. The young goats pass on the silk-making gene without any help from us, says Nexia president Jeffrey Turner. Nexia is still perfecting the spinning process, but they hope artificial spider silk will soon be snagging customers as fast as the real thing snags bugs. [理工类C]
奇妙的网
蜘蛛网对蜘蛛来说不仅仅是家,它们还是奇妙的引虫入网的陷阱。世界最棒的织网者可能是Goldern Orb Weaver的蜘蛛。雌性的Orb Weaver可以织出很细的丝,连被捕的昆虫都看不见。但却是坚韧得可以将一只飞入网中的鸟缠住而不弄断。
那么蜘蛛网为何有如此强的力度呢?有一种网丝有超强的弹力,叫做蜘蛛的避敌丝。当雌性的蜘蛛准备织蛛网的辐条和框架时,它就用腿从一个空的喷嘴里勾出轻飘飘的丝线,放到肚子里面。避敌丝不粘,因此蜘蛛可以沿着它来回活动编织,从而来编织网的标志性螺旋。
与某些种类的蜘蛛不同,它不用每天织新网,只要网不破,就能一直用下去,有时一用就两年。柔软如丝的蛛丝的强度比相同重量的钢丝大五倍,同时可以承受的力度比一种高强度的防弹衣的人工材料大三倍多。同时由于它有很强的张力,或者说一种能够抵住被弄断的往下的拉力。一根单线可以伸长至比原始长度长40%以上,然后重新弹回至原来的长度,还像新的一样。没有一种人造纤维可以与它相媲美。
因此,生产者们强烈要求蛛丝也就不足为奇了。在消费者这一方面,人们强烈要求的是高质量的运动服和永不脱丝的长袜。试想一下另外如降落伞绳索和吊桥上的绳索。如果有稳定的蛛丝的供应,它将是一个价值上亿的产业,但问题是怎么样才能生产出稳定的蛛丝呢?试图以养蛛场收获蛛丝是行不通的,因为生长在那块地方的节肢动物有可能会吞掉它们的这些邻居。
现在,生物工艺公司Nexia的科学家们正在研制一种仿制Goldern Orb避敌丝的人工丝。第一步骤:从蜘蛛身上抽取制丝的基因,然后,将这些基因植入山羊的卵细胞中。由这些卵细胞发育生的雌山羊会在羊奶中分泌一种带丝的蛋白质。Nexia公司总裁吉弗利 特纳说:这些幼山羊不需我们的任何帮助就可以将制丝基因遗传过去。Nexia继续在完善它的制丝过程,但是他们希望这种人造蜘蛛丝能尽快地吸引住顾客,就像真正的蛛丝抓住昆虫一样。[理工类C]
14 China to help Europe Develop Gps Rival
China is to contribute to a new global satellite navigation system being developed by European nations. The Galileo satellite system will offer a more accurate civilian alternative to the Global Positioning System . Operated by the US military. China will provided 230m Euros in funding and will cooperate with technical, manufacturing and market development. China will help Galileo to become the major world infrastructure for the growing market for location services, said Loyola de Palacio, EU transport commissioner.
A new center that will coordinate co-operation was also announced by the European Commission, the European Space Agency and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology not long ago. The China-Europe Global Navigation Satellite System Technical Training and Cooperation Center will be located at Beijing University. China has a substantial satellite launch industry and could potentially help the Galileo satellites.
The US has claimed that Galileo could interfere with the US ability to downgrade the GPS service during military conflicts. European officials say this is unfounded and counter that US opposition is due to the commercial challenge Galileo would present to GPS. Galileo will be precise to within a meter, while civilian GPS service is accurate to around 10 meters.
The Galileo satellite constellation will consist of 27 operational and three reserve satellites orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 23,600 km. The satellites will be strung along three medium-Earth orbits at 56 degrees inclination to the equator and will provide global coverage. The system should be operational by 2008 and the entire project is expected to cost around 3.2 billion Euros .
The European Commission has said Galileo will primarily be used for transportation technology, scientific research, land management and disaster monitoring. Galileo will provide two signals; a standard civilian one and an encrypted, wide-band signal called the Public Regulated Service . This second signal is designed to withstand localized jamming and will be used by police and military services in Europe. European Commission officials have said China will not be given access to the PRS.
The first Galileo satellite is scheduled to launch late in 2004, Clocks on board the satellite Will be synchronized through 20 ground sensors stations, two command centers and 15 uplink stations.
Receivers on the ground will use time signals from the satellites to precisely calculate their location. A search and rescue function will also let distress signals be relayed through the constellation of satellites. [理工类B]
中国帮助欧洲发展全球定位系统的竞争
中国要捐助欧洲国家正在开发的全新的全球卫星定位系统。伽利略人造卫星系统将提供了一个较美国军事机构使用的全球定位系统更为精确的民用系统。中国将提供两亿三千万欧元的资金,并且协助技术、制造以及市场拓展的开发。欧洲交通委员罗瑶拉 德 帕若索说:中国将帮助伽利略成为成长中的定位服务市场的主要世界基础设施。
不久前,欧洲贸易委员会、欧洲航天局和中国科技部还宣称将建立一个新的中心来协助合作。中国欧洲全球定位卫星系统技术培训和合作中心将设在北京大学。中国具有一个非常有实力的卫星发射工业,有可能帮助发射伽利略卫星。
美国声称伽利略会在军事斗争中干扰美国的能力并消减全球定位系统在使用。欧洲官员称这种说法无事实根据,并对美国所谓的伽利略会对全球定位系统在商业上构成挑战的说法持反对意见。伽利略将精确到l米,而民用全球定位服务只精确到10米。
伽利略人造卫星群由27个运用卫星和3个储备卫星构成,并在地球表面23600千米的高度运行。卫星将与3个中等地球轨道并排在与赤道56度的倾斜角度上运行,并且可以覆盖全球。这个系统将在2008年启动,整个项目将耗资32亿欧元。
欧洲贸易委员会说伽利略最初将被用于交通技术、科学研究、陆地管理和自然灾害监控两种信号:一种是标准民用信号,另一种是公共调控服务系统加密信号。第二种信号是为抵抗地方交通堵塞而设计的,将被用于欧洲公安和军事事业。欧洲贸易委员会官员说中国将无权使用公共调控服务系统。
第一个伽利略人造卫星将在2004年底发射。这架卫星上的钟表将与20个地面感应站、2个指挥中心和15个上行站时间同步。
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