There are some steps you can take yourself to avoid catching a cold. Contrary to popular belief colds are not caused by exposure to severe weather. Colds are caused by viruses(病毒)in the body, and you" re better off out on the ski slopes or even waiting for the bus on a snowy day than you are in a warm room, surrounded by friends, co-workers, or fellow students, who just may be passing the virus around. If you feel a chill when you" re coming down with a cold, you" re already sick. A chill is an early symptom: it" s the cold that caused the chill, not the other way around. While the virus can spread through the air when a cold-sufferer coughs, surprisingly, this is not the most common route of transmission. Numerous studies have now shown that the overwhelming majority of colds are "caught" by hand contact. A cold-sufferer rubs her nose, thereby transferring the virus to her hand. Then a friend comes to visit. " don" t kiss me," she cautions, so the friend steps back and presses her hand. The friend then wipes her own nose or eye —and several days later she is stricken with a cold. Or parents pick up their child" s discarded tissues and carefully throw them away but fail to wash their hands afterward. Cold virus also can be transferred to objects—telephones, towels, plates—and remain infec-tious(有传染性的)for up to three hours. Frequent hand washing—on the part of the cold-sufferer as well as other members of the household—will minimize the spread of viruses in this way.(265 words)

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】解析：第二段第二句“大量的调查显示大部分的感冒是由手的接触引起的”，故B正确。第一段第二句“与普遍的想法不同，感冒并不是因恶劣的天气引起的”，故推知大部分人认为感冒是由恶劣天气引起的，严寒也属于恶劣天气，故A正确。第三段第一句“感冒病毒可以转移到物体上，而且传染性可以保持长达三个小时”，故c正确。第二段已经提到大部分的感冒是由手的接触引起的，D显然不对。