阅读理解It''s a rough world out there. Step outside and you could break a leg slipping on your doormat. Light up the stove and you could burn down the house. Luckily, if the doormat or stove failed to warn of coming disaster, a successful lawsuit might compensate you for your troubles. Or so the thinking has gone since the early 1980s, when juries began holding more companies liable for their customers'' misfortunes. 　　Feeling threatened, companies responded by writing ever-longer warning labels, trying to anticipate every possible accident. Today, stepladders carry labels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might--surprise! -- fall off. The label on a child''s Batman cape cautions that the toy "does not enable user to fly." 　　While warnings are often appropriate and necessary--the dangers of drug interactions, for example--and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isn''t clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lose when injured customers take them to court. 　　Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn''t have changed anything. In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. "We''re really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets aren''t designed to prevent those kinds of injuries," says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete''s injury. At the same time, the American Law Institute--a group of judge, lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight--issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones. "Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities," says a law professor at Cornell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines. If the moderate end of the legal community has its way, the information on products might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and not as protection against legal liability.

阅读理解Passage Four: Questions are based on the following passage

阅读理解Passage Three Back when Disney products were to be watched, not experienced Walt Disney had a theme park that felt like stepping into a magical new place

阅读理解Text 1 Andy lived high in the Rocky Mountains

阅读理解Most people consider dieting to mean eating less in order to lost weight

阅读理解Questions 11 to 20 are based on the following passage

阅读理解Passage 2 The year was 1932

阅读理解One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded hit on Boxing Day 2004. The resulting tsunami devastated huge swaths of the Indian Ocean coastline and left an estimated quarter of a million people dead across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Aid agencies quickly arrived to help battered and traumatised survivors. Mental health care was a massive part of the emergency response but the World Health Organization (WHO) promptly did something it has never done before or since. It specifically denounced a type of psychological therapy and recommended that it shouldn’t be used. The therapy was a single session treatment called “ psychological debriefing,” which involved working with disaster victims to encourage people to supposedly “process” the intense emotions by talking through them in stages. It was intended to prevent later mental health problems by helping people resolve difficult emotions early on. The only trouble was that it made things worse. Studies had shown that people given post-disaster psychological debriefing were subsequently more likely to suffer mental health problems than people who had had no treatment at all. Guidance from the world’s most influential health authority had little effect, and the therapy was extensively used. The reluctance to do things differently was tied up with some of the least-appreciated facts about our reactions to disaster. In our trauma-focused society, it is often forgotten that the majority of people who experience the ravages of natural disaster, become the victims of violence or lose loved ones in tragedy will need no assistance from mental health professionals. Most people will be shaken up, distressed and bereaved, but these are natural reactions, not in themselves disorders. Only a minority of people — rarely more than 30% in well-conducted studies and often considerably less — will develop psychological difficulties as a result of their experiences, and the single most common outcome is recovery without the need of professional help. But regardless of the eventual outcome, you are likely to be at your most stressed during the disaster and your stress levels will decrease afterwards even if they don’t return to normal. Your body simply cannot maintain peak levels of anxiety. These are important facts to bear in mind because, from the point of view of the disaster therapist, psychological debriefing seems to work — stress levels genuinely drop. But what the individual therapist can’t see is that this would happen more effectively, leaving less people traumatised, if they did nothing.

阅读理解From the passage we learn that changes in the heating system of a building can result in _________.

阅读理解Questions 1to 10 are based on the following passage

阅读理解What do the works by Shepherd and Smith have in common?

阅读理解[A]Thefirstpublishedsketch,ADinneratPolarWalkbroughttearstoDickensseyeswhenhediscovereditinthepagesofTheMonthlyMagazineFromthenonhissketches,whichappearedunderthepennameBozinTheEveningChronicle,earnedhimamodestreputation.[B]TherunawaysuccessofThePickwickPapers,asitisgenerallyknowntoday,securedDickenssfame.TherewerePickwickcoatsandPickwickcigars,andtheplump,spectacledhero,SamuelPickwick,becauseanationalfigure.[C]SoonafterSketchesbyBozappeared,apublishingfirmapproachedDickenstowriteastoryinmonthlyinstallments,asabackdropforaseriesofwoodcutsbythethen-famousartistRobertSeymour,whohadoriginatedtheideaforthestory.Withcharacteristicconfidence,DickenssuccessfullyinsistedthatSeymourspicturesillustratehisownstoryinstead.Afterthefirstinstallment,DickenswrotetotheartistandaskedhimtocorrectadrawingDickensfelt,wasnotfaithfulenoughtohisprose.Seymourmadethechange,wentintohisbackyard,andexpressedhisdispleasurebycommittingsuicide.Dickensandhispublisherssimplypressedonwithanewartist.Thecomicnovel,ThePosthumousPapersofthePickwickClub,appearedseriallyin1836and1837andwasfirstpublishedinbookformin1837.[D]CharlesDickensisprobablythebest-knownand,tomanypeople,thegreatestEnglishnovelistofthe19thcentury.Amoralist,satirist,andsocialreformer,DickenscraftedcomplexplotsandstrikingcharactersthatcapturethepanoramaofEnglishsociety.[E]Soonafterhisfathersreleasefromprison,Dickensgotabetterjobaserrandboyinlawoffices.HetaughthimselfshorthandtogetanevenbetterjoblaterasacourtstenographerandasareporterinParliament.Atthesametime,Dickens,whohadareporterseyefortranscribingthelifearoundhim,especiallyanythingcomicorodd,submittedshortsketchestoobscuremagazines.[F]DickenswasborninPortsmouth,onEnglandssoutherncoast.HisfatherwasaclerkintheBritishNavyPayoffice--arespectableposition,butwithlittlesocialstatus.Hispaternalgrandparents,astewardandahousekeeper,possessedevenlessstatus,havingbeenservants,andDickenslaterconcealedtheirbackground.Dickensmothersupposedlycamefromamorerespectablefamily.YettwoyearsbeforeDickensbirth,hismothersfatherwascaughtstealingandfledtoEurope,nevertoreturn.ThefamilysincreasingpovertyforcedDickensoutofschoolatage12toworkinWarrensBlackingWarehouse,ashoe-polishfactory,wheretheotherworkingboysmockedhimastheyounggentleman.Hisfatherwasthenimprisonedfordebt.ThehumiliationsofhisfathersimprisonmentandhislaborintheblackingfactoryformedDickenssgreatestwoundandbecamehisdeepestsecret.Hecouldnotconfidethemeventohiswife,althoughtheyprovidetheunacknowledgedfoundationofhisfiction.[G]AfterPickwick,Dickensplungedintoableakerworld.InOliverTwist,hetracesanorphansprogressfromtheworkhousetothecriminalslumsofLondon.NicholasNickleby,hisnextnovel,combinesthedarknessofOliverTwistwiththesunlightofPickwick.ThepopularityofthesenovelsconsolidatedDickensasanationallyandinternationallycelebratedmanofletters.

阅读理解The art of living is to know 【A1】 when to hold fast and when to let go

阅读理解Passage B What we know of prenatal development makes all this attempt made by a mother to mold the character of her unborn child by studying poetry, art, or mathematics during pregnancy seem utterly impossible

阅读理解Passage Two There were many different cultures in the ancient world, but the two that had the most influence on European and American civilizations were the Greek and the Roman

阅读理解Passage Four Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage

阅读理解Passage 1 Clearly if we are to participle in the society in which we live we must communicate with other people. A great deal of communicating is performed on a person-to-person basis by the simple means of speech. If we travel in buses, buy things in shops, or eat in restaurants, we are likely to have conversations where we give information or opinions, receive news or comment, and very likely have our views challenged by other members of society. hundred years the art of mass communication has become of one of the dominating factors of contemporary society. Two things, above others, have caused the enormous growth of the communication industry. Firstly, inventiveness has led to advances in printing, telecommunications, photography, radio and television. Secondly, speed has revolutionized the transmission and reception of communications so that local news often takes a back seat to national news, which itself is often almost eclipsed by international news. No longer is the possession of information confined to a privileged minority. In the last century the wealthy man with his own library was indeed fortunate, but today there are public libraries. Forty years ago people used to flock to the cinema, but now far more people sit at home and turn on the TV to watch a programme that is being channeled into millions of homes.Communication is no longer merely concerned with the transmission of information. The modern communication industry influences the way people live in society and broadens their horizons by allowing access to information, education and entertainment. The printing, broadcasting and advertising industries are all involved with informing,educating and entertaining. Although a great deal of the material communicated by the mass media is very valuable to the individual and to the society of which he is a part, the vast modern network of communications is open to abuse. However, the mass media are with us for better, for worse, and there is no turning back. In the first paragraph the writer emphasizes the _________ of face-to-face contact in social settings. 

阅读理解Passage 2 Most of us are taught to pay attention to what is said--the words

阅读理解With only about 1000 pandas left in the world, China is desperately trying to clone the animal andsave the endangered species. That’s move similar to what a Texas AM University researcher hasbeen undertaking for the past five years in a project called “Noah’s Ark”.Dr. Duane Kraemer, a professor in Texas AM’s College of Veterinary Medicine and a pioneer inembryo transfer work and related procedures, says he salutes the Chinese effort and “I wish them allthe best success possible. It’s a worthwhile project, certainly not an easy one, and it’s very much likewhat we’re attempting here at Texas AM — to save animals from extinction.”Noah’s Ark is aimed at collecting eggs, embryos, semen and DNA of endangered animals andstoring them in liquid nitrogen. If certain species should become extinct. Kraemer says there wouldbe enough of the basic building blocks to reintroduce the species in the future.It is estimated that as many as 2000 species of mammals, birds and reptiles will become extinct overthe next 100 years. The panda, native only to China, is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 25years.This week, Chinese scientists said they grew an embryo by introducing cells from a dead femalepanda into the egg cells of a Japanese white rabbit. They are now trying to implant the embryo into ahost animal.The entire procedure could take from three to five years to complete.“The nuclear transfer of one species to another is not easy, and the lack of available panda eggscould be a major problem,” Kraemer believes. “They will probably have to do several hundredtransfers to result in one pregnancy. It takes a long time and it’s difficult, but this could begroundbreaking science if it works. They are certainly not putting any live pandas at risk, so it isworth the effort,” adds Kraemer, who is one of the leaders of the Missyplicity Project at Texas AM,the first-ever attempt at cloning a dog.“They are trying to do something that’s never been done, and this is very similar to our work inNoah’s Ark. We’re both trying to save animals that face extinction. I certainly applaud their effortand there’s a lot we can learn from what they are attempting to do. It’s a research that is very muchneeded.”

阅读理解Human needs seem endless