French surgeons have performed what they said on Wednesday was the world's first partial face transplant--- giving a new nose, chin and lips to a woman attacked by a dog. Specialists from two French hospitals carried out the operation on a 38-year-old woman on Sunday in the northern city of Amiens by taking the face from a brain-dead woman, who had hanged herself just hours before the operation. Her family agreed on the operation. "The patient is in an excellent state and the transplant looks normal," the hospitals said in a brief statement after waiting three days to announce the pioneering surgery. The woman had been left without a nose and lips after the dog attacked her last May, and was unable to talk or chew properly. Such injuries are "extremely difficult, if not impossible" to repair using normal surgical techniques, the statement said. The statement did not say what the woman would look like when she had fully recovered, but medical experts said she was unlikely to _ the woman who had been the source of her new face. The operation was led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, a specialist from a hospital in Lyon who has also carried out hand transplants, Skin transplants have long been used to treat burns and other injuries, but operations around the mouth and nose have been considered very difficult because of the area's high sensitivity to foreign tissue. Teams in France, the United States and Britain had been developing techniques to make face transplants a reality There was a short-term risk for the patient if blood vessels became blocked, a medium-term danger of her body rejecting the new skin and a long-term possibility that the drugs used could cause cancers. Experts say that although such medical advances should be celebrated, the transplant had thrown up moral and ethical issues. Little is known about the psychological effect of the transplant. What can we learn about the operation? A) The woman had used the dead woman' s whole face. B) There has arisen a debate about the operation. C) The woman will suffer from psychological damage soon. D) Such transplants have been performed by doctors.
B
(Question)
After many years on the endangered list of animals, Japan'sAmami Black rabbit can finally breathe a sigh of relief -- That's because this year, the rare animal is no longer in danger of dying out! The effort to save the dark-furred rabbit, often called "a living fossil", began in 1921, when the Japanese government promoted it to the status of "natural monument". This meant that it could not be hunted down for food. However, when that did not work, it got yet another promotion to "special natural monument", which meant that the rabbit could not be trapped or hunted. While that helped, it was not enough -- By 2004 with only 2,000-5,000 specimen left in the wild, the Amami rabbit was officially declared endangered! The reason for the serious population decrease was due to loss of habitat caused by forest clearing for home and agriculture use and the introduction of a new species not native to the island -- the Mongoose. Brought in to get rid of the snake population, the Mongoose instead seemed to prefer the black rabbit. In 2005, the government carried out a strict mongoose capture order and slowly but surely, the rabbit started to come back. This rabbit live in a rather unusual lifestyle. Its ideal habitat is a forest that features both trees and large grasses -- the former to find acorns to feed on and the latter, to hide its babies. That's because to protect them from being eaten by their enemies, the Amami rabbit buries them deep into the ground among the grasses and covers them up with dirt during the day. Then, in the middle of the night, still keeping a _ eye out for their enemies, it digs them out from their hiding place and feeds them. No wonder the animal is sometimes called "midnight rabbit". Though many measures have been taken to stop this furry animal from being wiped out from the world, there are many more that are still in danger. We surely hope that officials in other parts of the worldtry their best to save the endangered species. Why was the rabbit still in danger after it was promoted to "special natural monument"? A) Because it was always eaten by snakes. B) Because people still wanted to capture it for food. C) Because the rabbit lives in a rather unusual lifestyle. D) Because of loss of habitat and a new species.
(Answer)
D
Ques: We all have our ways of marking time. As a photographer,my life is measured from one story to the next. My oldest son was born in the middle of a long story about the Endangered Species Act. My daughter came along with a pack of gray wolves. Twenty stories later,though,it's the story in Alaska that I'll remember best. It was the story about the loss of wilderness--and the story during which my wife Kathy got cancer. That's the one that made time stand still. I stopped taking pictures on the day when she found that tumor .Cruelly,it was Thanksgiving. By Christmas,she had become very weak. Some days she was so sick she couldn't watch TV. Early examination saves time. But ours was not early. By the time you can feel it yourself,it's often bigger than the doctor want it to be. Cancer is a thief. It steals time. Our days are already short with worry. Then comes this terrible disease,unfair as storm at harvest time. But cancer also has the power to change us,for good. We learn to simplify,enjoying what we have instead of feeling sorry for what we don't. Cancer even made me a better father. My work had made me a stranger to my three kids. But now I pay attention to what really matters. This is not a race. This is a new way of life and new way of seeing,all from the cancer. In the end each of us has so little time. We have less of it than we can possibly imagine. And even though it turns out that Kathy's cancer has not spread,and her prognosis is good,we try to make it all count now,enjoying every part of every day. I've picked up my camera again. I watch the sky,searching for beautiful light. When winter storms come,Kathy and I gather our children and take the time to catch snowflakes on our tongues. After all,this is good. This is what we're living for. Why did the author decide to stop taking pictures? A) To cure his own disease. B) To spend more time with his wife. C) To seek a better position. D) To leave the wilderness alone.
Ans:
B