4. According to the passage, which convenience stores are generally more successful?

A. The ones in big cities.

B. The ones in the countryside.

C. The ones in Tokyo.

D. The ones in Saitama.

3. How's the convenience store sector doing in Japan?

A. It is not mentioned.

B. It's doing great. Business is booming.

C. Not very well.

D. It’s about to close.

69. What's the main goal of the proposal?

A. To give employees more free time.

B. To limit carbon dioxide emissions.

C. To sell more tobacco products.

D. To reduce each store’s profit.

68. Which of the followings was the first to try to limit convenience store hours?

A. Saitama　　　　　　　　 B. Tokyo　　　　　　　 C. Kyoto　　　　　　　　　　 D. Nomura Security

67. What was the main finding of the study?

A. Nothing enough is being done about global warming.

B. That ocean waters have warmed faster than scientists had previously thought.

C. That the warming of the world's oceans is not a threat.

D. A massive report issued last year by IPCC was wrong.

D

Japan's 24-hour convenience stores, already struggling with lagging sales and growth, may soon face yet another threat - moves to limit business hours and close the stores late at night. The district of Saitama, which borders Tokyo, may follow in the footsteps of the western city of Kyoto and urge convenience stores to close during late night hours in an effort to limit carbon dioxide(二氧化碳)emissions, Japanese media reported.

Kyoto, a former capital, wants to persuade convenience and other 24-hour stores to close late at night so as to improve evening views of the city and cut down on energy use. The Nikkei business daily said closures could last from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. The move is strongly opposed by the industry, which fears a bad impact on an already troubled sector also grappling with the specter of a higher tobacco tax, which could hit overall sales.

"Even if we only operate the stores for 16 hours, we can't stop the refrigerators," said Toshiro Yamaguchi, the president of Seven-Eleven Japan Co, which is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co Ltd, at a news conference in Saitama on Tuesday. He said such cuts in operating hours would reduce each store's profit by 20 percent. "If this happens, our current business model will lose its foundation."

Analysts said that while it is difficult to estimate the potential impact of the move without a concrete plan, their overall impression was that it was likely to be negative. "This could cut profits and lead to less efficient operations and the increased loss of opportunities," said Masafumi Shoda, an analyst at Nomura Securities. "But it depends on the store -- urban stores do better than others. There are some in the countryside that are inefficient."

Some have suggested that if governments were sincere about reducing carbon emissions there were much more efficient methods, such as cutting back on the huge number of automatic vending machines(自动售货机)

66. The new study in this passage _____________.

A. shows that thermal warming contributed to a 0.32 millimeter-per-year rise in sea levels.

B. did not reveal anything that scientists hadn't already known.

C. used new techniques to assess ocean temperatures.

D. shows that models contradict the observed data.

65. Which of the followings would be buried by the rising sea?

A. Small island nations.

B. All coastal cities around the world.

C. People who enjoy holiday on the beach.

D. Low-lying regions.

64. What happens when the ocean's temperature rises?

A. It causes sea levels to rise.

B. It causes sea levels to remain constant.

C. It causes sea levels to decrease.

D. It causes sea level to change.

63. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the article?

A. The men with low-risk prostate in the study lost weight and lowered their blood pressure.

B. A famous author and Dr. Dean Ornish led this research.

C. Dr. Dean Ornish expressed his optimism about this research in a telephone interview.

D. Conventional medical treatment has no effect on the men with prostate cancer.

C

The world's oceans have warmed 50 percent faster over the last 40 years than previously thought due to climate change, Australian and US climate researchers reported on Wednesday. Higher ocean temperatures expand the volume of water, contributing to a rise in sea levels that is submerging small island nations and threatening to great damage in low-lying, densely-populated delta regions around the globe.

The study, published in the British journal Nature, adds to a growing scientific chorus of warnings about the pace and consequences of rising oceans. It also serves as a corrective to a massive report issued last year by the Nobel-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC), according to the authors.

Rising sea levels are driven by two things: the thermal(热)expansion of sea water, and additional water from melting sources of ice. Both processes are caused by global warming. The ice sheet that sits at the top of Greenland, for example, contains enough water to raise world ocean levels by seven metres(23 feet), which would bury sea-level cities from Dhaka to Shanghai.

Trying to figure out how much each of these factors contributes to rising sea levels is critically important to understanding climate change, and forecasting future temperature rises, scientists say. But up to now, there has been a confusing gap between the projections of computer-based climate models, and the observations of scientists gathering data from the oceans.

The new study, led by Catia Domingues of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, is the first to reconcile(与…一致)the models with observed data. Using new techniques to assess ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 metres(2,300 feet)from 1961 to 2003, it shows that thermal warming contributed to a 0.53 millimetre-per-year rise in sea levels rather than the 0.32 mm rise reported by the IPCC.

62. In total, how many disease-preventing genes turned on as a result of the healthy lifestyle?

A.　　 30　　　　　 B. 453　　　　　　　　　 C.500　　　　　 D. 48