If you were on the street in Mexico today you might think you were in an operating room, surrounded by doctors. You could see many concerned people with masks trying their best to stop the swine flu . And the masks aren't only being used in Mexico. A friend of mine traveling from New York City to Florida was given a mask and a pair of gloves just after he reached the airport. And another friend went to get a haircut only to be faced with a hairdresser wearing a mask! But do the masks really work? Is covering your nose and mouth the key to stopping the swine flu? To find out the truth, ABC's reporter Sharyn Alfonsi talked with germ expert Dr. Elaine Larsen. It turns out that when you sneeze the air coming out of your mouth at a speed of one hundred miles per hour carries germs which can travel anywhere around you and make people around you infected . However, whether you become infected actually depends on the weather. As Sharyn reported, when you sneeze, the germs leave your body in small drops of water coming out of your mouth. If the weather is wet, the wet air will make the small drops bigger and heavier and they drop down towards our feet. If this happens, we won't become infected. But if the air is dry, those small drops can float higher up, making it possible for them to touch someone else's nose, mouth or their mask. Larsen says the masks can stop the germs well but after a few hours, they start to get wet, holding a lot of germs they come across and causing you to breathe them in. The masks do work, but the key to stopping the germs is changing your masks often. According to Para.1, in Mexico you can see that _ . A) the patients are treated in the open air B) some doctors work in the street C) people speak little to each other in the street D) many people wear masks in the street
D
In the 19th century, there used to be a model of how to be a good person. There are all these torrents of passion flowing through you. Your job, as captain of your soul, is to erect dams to keep these passions in check. Your job is to just say no to laziness, lust, greed, drug use and the other sins. These days that model is out of fashion. You usually can't change your behavior by simply resolving to do something. Knowing what to do is not the same as being able to do it. Your willpower is not like a dam that can block the torrent of self-indulgence. It's more like a muscle, which tires easily. Moreover, you're a social being. If everybody around you is overeating, you'll probably do so, too. The 19th-century character model was based on an understanding of free will. Today, we know that free will is bounded. People can change their lives, but ordering change is not simple because many things, even within ourselves, are beyond our direct control. Much of our behavior, for example, is guided by unconscious habits. Researchers at Duke University calculated that more than 40 percent of the actions we take are governed by habit, not actual decisions. Researchers have also come to understand the structure of habits--cue, routine, reward. You can change your own personal habits. If you leave running shorts on the floor at night, that'll be a cue to go running in the morning. Don't try to ignore your afternoon snack craving. Every time you feel the cue for a snack, insert another routine. Take a walk. Their research thus implies a different character model, which is supposed to manipulate the neuralnetworks inside. To be an effective person, under this model, you are supposed to coolly examine your own unconscious habits, and the habits of those under your care. You are supposed to devise strategies to alter the cues and routines. Every relationship becomes slightly manipulative, including your relationship with yourself. You're trying to arouse certain responses by implanting certain cues. This is a bit... The 19th-century model supposedly does not work on the grounds that _ A) one's wished should be pondered before acting. B) the comparison of free will to a dam is groundless. C) it has been proved impractical and cannot hold true. D) there were many other factors beyond one's control.
A
Q: Dear editor, Mary is my friend and she is a very good-hearted girl. She's always the first to help out others. But her habits make me mad sometimes and she just won't change her ways. For most situations, that's just fine with me, as I know it's what make her who she is. However, sometimes it's just so hard for me to bear her behavior. She has recently got a cellphone, but she often borrows mine to make calls. My phone has a chain with it. She always tries to open it like her own phone. I usually open it for her, but not always, as sometimes I'm driving my car, so she needs to get it out of my purse and open it herself. This weekend we were at a party in a faraway village. She borrowed my cellphone. As it was cold outside, I let her take it outside without opening it. Now it's broken because she didn't open it properly. I wouldn't be so mad, but over the weekend she also borrowed my car and never offered to pay for the gas, which made me very angry. She should have offered to pay for the gas. As I have mentioned, she's the type to help out others when and where she can. Perhaps because of that, she thinks others should also do the same for her. Sometimes I just think she is very childish. I don't want to hurt her, but I do want to let her know that not everyone can accept that. What should I do to let her know that? Yours, Lily What is Lily's purpose in writing this letter? A) to advise us to be careful when making friends. B) To tell others what kind of person Mary is. C) To tell Mary what she thinks of her. D) To ask for advice from an editor.
A: D
*Question*
Less TV Reduce Kids Weight PALO AITO, California--"Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter--even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise," US researchers said last week. A study of 192 third and fourth grades, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds (0.91 kg) less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet. "The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity," said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician at Stanford University. " American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years," Robinson said. In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third. Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continue their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet nor took part in any extra exercise. "One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around and burning off calories," Robinson said. "Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more," Robinson added. According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV _ . A) is more than four hours a day. B) is less than four hours a day. C) doubled in the last twenty years. D) is more than on any other activities.
**Answer**
A