Since the global financial crises , the export of Chinese goods has managed to ____ roughly, and now everything goes well in foreign trade.

A. close up           B. keep up            C. add up            D. hold up

 

A Charlotte, N.C., man was charged with first-degree murder of a 79-year-old woman whom police said he scared to death. In an attempt to evade policemen after a bank robbery, the Associated Press reports that 20-year-old Larry Whitfield broke into the home of Mary Parnell. Police say he didn’t touch Parnell but that she died after suffering a heart attack that was caused by terror. Can the guy be held responsible for the woman’s death? Prosecutors(公诉人) said that he can under the state’s murder rule, which allows someone to be charged with murder if he or she causes another person’s death while committing or fleeing from a severe crime like robbery—even if he or she doesn’t kill someone on purpose.

But, medically speaking, can someone actually be frightened to death? We asked Martin Samuels, chairman of the neurology department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Absolutely, no question about it.

The body has a natural protective method called the fight-or-flight response(战或逃反应), which was originally described by Walter Cannon，the chairman of Harvard University’s physiology department from 1906 to 1942. If, in the wild, an animal is faced with a life-threatening situation, the autonomic nervous system responds by increasing heart rate, increasing blood flow to the muscles, and slowing digestion, among other things. All of this increases the chances of succeeding in a fight or running away from an aggressive beast. This process certainly would be of help to primitive humans. However, in the modern world there is obvious decline of the fight-or-flight response.

The autonomic nervous system uses the chemical messenger to send signals to various parts of the body to activate the fight-or-flight response. This chemical is toxic in large amounts; it damages the organs such as the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. It is believed that almost all sudden deaths are caused by damage to the heart. There is almost no other organ that would fail so fast as to cause sudden death. Kidney failure, liver failure, those things don’t kill you suddenly.

By the way, any strong positive or negative emotions such as happiness or sadness can cause the same result. There are people who have died in intercourse or in religious passion. There was a case of a golfer who hit a hole in one, turned to his partner and said, “I can die now”, and then he dropped dead. For about seven days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon there was an increase of sudden cardiac death among New Yorkers.

1. Why the Charlotte, N.C., man was charged?

A. Because he threatened the policemen to kill an old woman.

B. Because he caused an old woman’s terror and she died.

C. Because he beat an old woman and caused her heart attack

D. Because he murdered an old woman while robbing a bank.

2. Which of the following about the fight-or-flight response is true?

A. The fight-or-flight response was raised and proved by Martin A. Samuels.

B. It is a natural protective method that can’t be found in all creatures but humans.

C. The ancient humans had a superior fight-or-flight response than modern ones.

D. The fight-or-flight response is beneficial to both our actions and organs.

3.What activity can we infer is less likely to damage the organs?

A. Winning a big lottery.                   B. Missing a dead family.

C. Watching a horror movie.                 D. Listening to a sweet song.

4. The purpose of the passage is_________.

A. to explain why people will die of a heart attack

B. to offer some advice on protecting us from heart failure

C. to compare different kinds of feelings to cause a death

D. to show strong emotions can cause a sudden death

 

 

The sudden death of Kim Jong-il(金正日) had a short-term effect on Asian trade, _______the dropping of stocks（股票） in some Asian countries.

A．relying on

B．accounting for

C．resulting from

D．standing for

 

At Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, the lights are controlled by sensors that measure sunlight. They dim immediately when it’s sunny and brighten when a passing cloud blocks the sun.

A wall of windows at a University of Pennsylvania engineering building has built-in blinds (百叶窗) controlled by a computer program that follows the sun’s path. Buildings are getting smarter and the next generation of building materials is expected to do even more.

Windows could catch the sun’s energy to heat water. Sensors that measure the carbon dioxide breathed out by people in a room could determine whether the air conditioning needs to be turned up.

Many new materials and technology have been designed in the last 15 years. They are now being used in a wave of buildings designed to save as much energy as possible. They include old ideas, like “green roofs”, where a belt of plants on a roof helps the building keep heat in winter and stay cool in summer, and new ideas, like special coating for windows that lets light in, but keeps heat out.

As technologies such as sensors become cheaper, their uses spread.

The elevators (电梯) at Seven World Trade Center, which is under construction in New York, use a system that groups people traveling to nearby floors into the same elevator, thus saving elevator stops. People who work in the building will enter it by swiping (刷) ID cards that will tell the elevators their floor, readouts will then tell them which elevator to use. The building also has windows with a coating that blocks heat while letting in light.

More new building materials and technology are in development. A Philadelphia building firm is now working on “smart wrap” that uses tiny solar collectors to catch the sun’s energy and transmitters (传输器) as wide as a human hair to move it. They are expected to change the face of the construction industry in the next ten years or so.

1.________ will be developed and used in the construction industry.

A. “Green roofs” that cool or heat buildings   

B. “Smart wrap” that catches the sun’s energy

C. Sunlight-measuring sensors that control lights

D. Window coating that lets light in, but keeps heat out

2. The elevators at Seven World Trade Center are special because they can ________.

A. send people to floors with fewer stops       B. teach people how to use their ID cards

C. make people stay very cool in summer         D. help people go traveling in the building

3. The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refers to ________.

A. a human hair B. smart wrap          C. the sun’s energy D. a transmitter

4.What might be the most suitable title for the text?

A. Buildings Are Becoming Smarter           B. Buildings Are Getting More Sunlight

C. Buildings Are Lacking in Much Energy         D. Buildings Are Using Cheaper Materials

 

       New York: When the first plane struck 1 World Trade Center at 8:48 am on Tuesday, the people in 2 World Trade Center who saw the instant (瞬间的) damage to the other tower realized clearly what they, too, must do: get out fast.

Katherine Ilachinsiki, who had been knocked off her chair by the blast (一阵)of heat exploding from the neighboring tower, was one of those. Despite her 70 years of age, Mrs Ilachinsiki, an architect working on the 91^st floor of 2 World Trade Center, the south tower, went for the stairs. Twelve floors above her, Judy Wein, an executive (经理), cried sharply and set off too.

But others up and down the 110 floors, many without seeing the damage across the way and thus unclear about what was happening, were not so sure. And the 18 minutes before the next plane would hit were ticking off.

Most people had no idea about what was the best thing to do, formal announcements inside the south tower asked people to stay put, assuring them that the building was sound and the threat was limited to the other tower.

Some left, others stayed. Some began to climb down and, when met with more announcements and other cautions (警告) to stop or return, went back up. The decisions made in those instants proved to be of great importance, because many who chose to stay were killed completely when the second plane crashed into the south tower.

One of those caught in indecision (犹豫不决) was the executive at Fuji Bank USA.

Richard Jacobs of Fuji Bank left the 79^th floor with the other office workers, but on the 48^th floor they heard the announcement that the situation was under control. Several got in the lifts and went back up, two minutes or so before the plane crashed into their floor.

“I just don’t know what happened to them,” Mr Jacobs said.

1.From the passage, we know that the south tower was hit by the plane ________.

A．at 8:30	B．18 minutes earlier than the north tower
C．at around 9:06	D．at 8:48

2.The underlined words “stay put” means ________.

A．stay in the building	B．leave at once
C．put everything back and then leave	D．keep silent

3.Which floor was hit by the second plane?

A．The 91st floor

B．The 103rd floor

C．The 60th floor

D．The 79th floor

4.Fewer people would have died if       .

A．more announcements had been made	B．people hadn’t used the lifts
C．the attack had happened on a weekend	D．the people had obeyed the office rules