Is shouting helpful when you feel painful?

    You are running around in the park fall and hurt yourself. “Ow!”you cry. Crying out when we get hurt is a natural instinct(本能）. But what is it about this sound that makes us shout it out?

    A new report by scientists from the National University of Singapore now believes they have found the answer: shouting the word “Ow” actually interferes(干预） with pain messages traveling to the brain. So by shouting it out, we feel less painful！

    The scientists tested how long volunteers could hold their hands in very cold water. There were five rounds of the experiment. In the first round, they were allowed to shout“ow” when they felt pain. In another round, they had to stay silent.

    The results showed that volunteers were able to keep their hands in the cold water longer when they were allowed to shout out. They managed around 30 seconds on average(平均）, five seconds more than when they had to remain silent.

    “We found that a simple sound such as ‘ow’help people deal with pain，” the report said.

    What’s more the expressions of pain are shared among languages. While cries of “ow”or “ouch”are heard in English, South Africans yell “eina”, Italians shout “ahia”and Chinese “aiyou”.

   Scientists said in their report that, “The sounds have something in common, the mouth simply opens the tongue lies low and the lips unrounded. It is a simple sound that requires little control while making the volume loudest.”So these sounds are useful to shout if we feel pain.

 Let us suppose it is now about the year 2060. Let’s imagine that it is about sixty years from now. Of course, things have changed and life is very different.

 Voyage
 Voyages to the moon are being made every day. It is as easy to take a holiday on the moon today as it was for the people in 1960 to take a holiday in Europe. At a number of scenic spots on the moon, many hotels have been built. The hotels are air-conditioned, naturally. In order that everyone can enjoy the beautiful scenery on the moon, every room has at least one picture window. Everything imaginable is provided for entertainment of young and old.

 Food

 What are people eating now? People are still eating food. But many foods now come in pill form, and one day the food that goes into the pill continues to come mainly from green plants.

 Farming
 Since there are several times as many people in the world today as there were a hundred years ago, most of our planet’s surface has to be filled. The deserts are irrigated with water and crops are no longer destroyed by pests. The harvest is always good. Farming, of course, is very highly developed. Very few people have to work on the farm. It is possible to run the farm by just pushing a few buttons now and then.
  Health

  People are now largely vegetarians(素食者). You see, as the number of people increases, the number of animals decreases. Therefore, the people have to be vegetarians and we are healthier both in our bodies and in our minds, and we know the causes and cure of disease and pain, and it is possible to get rid of diseases. No one has to be ill any more. Such would be our life in 2060.

 Scientists in Argentina have created the world's first cow to own two human genes that will enable it to produce human-like milk，which is matchless up to now. It is a breakthrough in the area of clone.

    Genetic engineering was used to introduce the “mothers' milk” genes into the animal before birth，according to the National Institute of Agribusiness Technology in Buenos Aires.

    As an adult the cloned cow “will produce milk that is similar to humans” in what will prove “a development of great importance for the nutrition of infants”. it said in a statement.

    “The cloned cow，named Rosita ISA. is the first one born in the world that owns two human genes that contain the proteins present in human milk，”the statement said.

    In April，scientists in China published details of research showing that they had created GM Holstein dairy cows which produced milk containing proteins found in human breast milk.

    But the Argentine team says the Chinese only introduced one human gene，whereas their research involved two genes meaning the milk will more closely resemble that of humans.

    Rosita ISA was born on April 6 and was delivered by Caesarean section because she weighed around 100 pounds，roughly twice the normal weight of Jersey cows.

    Adrian Mutto，from the National University of San Martin said “Our goal was to raise the nutritional value of cows' milk by adding two human genes，the protein lactoferrin and lysozyme，which can provide newly-born babies with anti-bacterial and anti-viral(抗病毒)protection.”

    Cristina Kirchner，President of Argentina，said that the scientific institute “makes all Argentines proud.” She also revealed that she had rejected the “honor” of having the cow named after her. “They came to tell me that the name is Cristina，but what woman would like to have a cow named after her? It appeared to me to be more appropriate to call it Rosita.”

   The computer is a useful machine. It is the most important invention in many years. The oldest kind of computer is the abacus(算盘), used in China centuries ago, but the first large, modern computer was built in 1946. A computer then could do maths problems quite fast.

  Today computers are used in many ways and can do many kinds of work. In a few years the computer may touch the life of everyone, even people in faraway villages.

  In the last few years, there have been great changes in computers. They are getting smaller and smaller, and computing faster and faster, Many scientists agree that computers can now do many things, but they cannot do everything. Who knows what the computers of tomorrow will be like? Will computers bring good things or bad things to people? The scientists of today will have to decide how to use the computers of tomorrow.

The earth's climate is largely controlled by how much of the sun's light and heat is absorbed and reflected. By absorbing the sun's heat, trees cool the air.

    The interaction of this relationship with an area's topography(地势), latitude, and altitude, can create microclimates(微气候), just as trees create microclimates almost anyplace they are by providing a windbreak and shade. Think about it: on a hot, sunny day, it's always cooler beneath a shade tree. A city with more tall trees is cooler in the summer than a similar city with fewer trees, which translates into less energy use and lower cooling costs. Also, in using less energy, less air pollution is created.

     The most important role that rural trees and forests play is taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The living tissue of a tree is a storage vault(拱顶)for carbon, which would otherwise contribute to the greenhouse effect and to global climate change. To put it most simply, more trees can decrease the rate of climate change and help us withstand its effects, potentially resulting in less

intense storms, fewer infectious diseases, a more stable water supply, and fewer wildfires.

    Trees, however, aren't affected by the effects of climate warming. Areas once too cold to support trees now can, and as forests migrate north, harmful insects that were once held at bay by winter freezes can do damage to native species. Tropical vines called lianas(藤本植物) are now growing faster than the trees they climb, causing trees in the Amazon and other rainforests to die at an alarming rate.

    Trees and forests can either be the key to slowing climate change and reducing its effects, or they can become its victims. It's up to us.

C

People from all walks of life are drawn to breathtaking Hawaii. But human outsiders are not the only living things eager to settle down there. The mongoose (a small furry animal that kills snakes and rats) is one of the most hated of these invaders (入侵者). It has brought an awful disaster to native birds on the islands of Maui, Oahu and Molokai for more than a century, and now, it seems, it is spreading. For the first time, one of the creatures has been trapped on Kauai.

“We’ve been sounding the alarm for years, but it’s a very difficult thing to prove,” said Keren Gundersen, the project manager for the Kauai Invasive Species Committee, the University of Hawaii project responsible for catching the mongoose. “It’s a game changer to actually trap one,” she added.

After Ms. Gundersen’s group heard from locals who had spotted the furry animal moving quickly around the Kauai Lagoons resort, they set dozens of live traps and tried hard to monitor them. Two months later, their work paid off. They trapped a mongoose. 

Mongooses were intentionally introduced to Hawaii. Sugarcane (甘蔗) farmers followed the example of Jamaican farmers who imported mongooses to control rat populations. In 1883 the mongooses were let loose in the fields, an approach that proved to be completely uninformed (无知的). As it turns out, rats are active at night and mongooses are active in the daytime. The native rats never came in contact with their natural enemies, and native bird populations began crashing instead.

Today, mongooses continue to eat their way through native birds’ nests and turtle eggs. Costly eradication programs are the only way of keeping the creatures out of the Hawaii islands.

The mongoose was never introduced to Kauai. Still, many have caught sight of gray-brown fur or of a furry tail, with about 70 sightings reported in the last 10 years alone. Trapping efforts continued to be fruitless. 

The trapped mongoose, a mature male, was killed in a painless way before its body was sent off for testing, the group said. Ms. Gundersen hopes that genetic analysis will show whether the mongoose came from one of the other islands. In the meantime, her group is improving its mongoose monitoring and asking locals to keep an eye out for the animals.

D

Throughout history, people have written about animal rains. Some records from about 2,000 years ago tell about fish and frog falling from the sky. There is one place where animal rain is common. In the city of Yoro, in Honduras, fish fall from the sky in May or June every year. The fish are small and silver-colored. They are even still alive. People can collect the fish to eat. But where have the fish come from?

There are some theories about animal rains. Some researchers say the fish are fresh water fish. The fish are also all blind. This leads them to believe the fish usually live under theground. They would not need tosee.

Another theory held by most researchers is that water spouts make most animal rains happen. A water spout is a tall stream of water that the wind pulls up from the sea during a violent storm. Water spouts are strong enough to lift small animals, like fish, from the water. So during a storm, a water spout gathers fish from the water into clouds. Then the clouds travel across land, following normal weather movements. Finally, the storm ends. The fish drop to land.

However, this theory does have some problems. Many people do not believe the rain of fish in Yoro comes from a water spout. That is because most animal rains do not happen often---or a year after year. But the rain of fish in Yoro happens every year, near the same time. And it has happened for over 100 years in this way!

People may never know the scientific reason behind Yoro’s rain of fish. But the people of Yoro do not need a scientific explanation. They call it a miracle (奇迹).

    A food additive is any substance that is added to food. Many people are put off by the idea of “chemicals in food”. The truth is that all food is made up of chemicals. Natural substances like milk, as well as man-made ones like drinks on sale in the market, can be described by chemical formulas. Some chemical substances are indeed harmful, but a person who refused to consume any chemicals would find nothing to eat.

The things we eat can be divided into natural and man-made substances. Some people feel that only natural foods are healthy and that all man-made ingredients are to be avoided. But many natural chemicals, found in plants and animals, are harmful when eaten, and some laboratory-made substances increase the nutritional value of food. Other chemicals have natural and man-made forms that are exactly alike: Vitamin C is Vitamin C, whether it comes from a test tube or from an orange. Like “chemical”, “man-made” doesn’t necessarily mean “not fit to eat”.

Food additives are used for many reasons. We add sugar and salt and other things to foods we prepare at home to make them taste better. Food producers have developed a range of additives that stabilize, thicken, harden, keep dry, keep wet, keep firm, or improve the appearance of their products. Additives can make food more convenient or nutritious, give it a longer shelf life, and make it more attractive to the consumer, thus increasing the sales and profits of the producers. 

Food additives are presently the centre of a storm of serious argument. Food producers have been known to use additives that have not been proved safe; some substances in common use have been proved unsafe and have been taken off the market. Many people feel there’s a risk of eating food to which anything has been added. But food additives are now regulated by the FDA of the federal government, and new additives are subjected to strict testing before they can be placed on the market. For most people, the chances of developing serious side effects from the long-term use of presently approved food additives are very slim.

B

‘Iris scan (虹膜扫描) ， please,’ the bank’s computer voice tells you . You step up and the computer reads your eye , comparing it to the stored file it has of your iris. The images had better match—otherwise you won’t be able to get your money.

 Iris scanning and other technologies , such as fingerprint and voice scanning , have appeared in many science fiction movies in the past. Today , these advanced technologies are part of the real world. They are common at work, the bank, the airport, and your local prison. The iris scan, fingerprint scan, and voice scan are all examples of biometrics( 生物测定学) a fast developing area of automatic personal identification technology . Basically , biometrics uses various ways to verify a person’s identity , based on the individual’s unique characteristics ,including fingerprints , voices, irises, body heat patterns, facial images, handprints , signatures and so on.

Biometrics identification systems have a number of advantages over password systems. The primary advantage is that an individual has to be physically present in order to be identified. Another important advantage is that there are no passwords to remember , forget, lose or steal.

 The voice scan is the simplest and most affordable form of biometrics . It only requires a computer, a microphone and the correct software. The software records a subject’s voice and then compares it to a stored voice sample for identification purposes.

 For additional safety, fingerprint and handprint scans can also be employed . Fingerprint scans take the image of a fingerprint and compare it to a stored file of prints. Handprint scans identify the unique features of a hand.

  Iris scans currently give the highest level of accuracy among all the available biometrics systems. Another technology , full facial scans , is currently in use at border crossings and airports. Facial scanning equipment can actually track and identify moving faces within a crowd.

 The potential of biometrics is exciting and encouraging . With continued development , testing , and application , current technologies will become even more effective in the future. Soon , the days of password and car keys will be gone . Just don’t leave home without your fingerprints!

（安徽卷）

    Think about the different ways that people use the wind．You can use it to fly a kite or to sail a boat．Wind is one of our cleanest and richest power sources（来源），as well as one of the oldest．Evidence shows that windmills（风车）began to be used in ancient Iran back in the seventh century BC．They were first introduced to Europe during the 1100s，when armies returned from the Middle East with knowledge of using wind power．

    For many centuries，people used windmills to grind（磨碎） wheat into flour or pump water from deep underground．When electricity was discovered in the late 1800s，people living in remote areas began to use them to produce electricity．This allowed them to have electric lights and radio．However，by the 1940s when electricity was available to people in almost all areas of the United States，windmills were rarely used．

    During the 1970s，people started becoming concerned about the pollution that is created when coal and gas are burned to produce electricity．People also realized that the supply of coal and gas would not last forever．Then，wind was rediscovered，though it means higher costs．Today，there is a global movement to supply more and more of our electricity through the use of wind．