Women who own cats are more likely to have mental health problems and kill themselves because they can be infected by a common parasite that can be caught from cat litter, a study has found.

Researchers found women infected with the Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) parasite(刚地弓形虫), which is spread through contact with cat waste or eating undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables, are at increased risk of attempting suicide.

The study involved more than 45,000 women in Denmark. About a third of the world’s population is infected with the parasite, which hides in cells in the brain and muscles, often without producing symptoms.

The infection, which is called toxoplasmosis(弓形虫病), has been linked to mental illness, such as schizophrenia(精神分裂症), and changes in behavior.

The study’s senior author Doctor Teodor Postolache, an associate professor of psychiatry(精神病学) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the United States, said, “We can’t say with certainty that T. gondii caused the women to try to kill themselves, but we did find a predictive association between the infection and suicide attempts later in life that deserves additional studies.”

Doctor Albert Reece, vice president of medical affairs at the University of Maryland, said, “T. gondii infection is a major public health problem around the world, and many people don’t realize they’re infected.

“Dr Postolache is a leading expert on suicide neuroimmunology(神经免疫学). Suicide is a critically important mental health issue. About one million people commit suicide and another 10 million attempt suicide worldwide each year. We hope that this type of research will one day help us find ways to save many lives that now end too early in suicide.”

Dr. Postolache’s research team at the University of Maryland was the first to report a connection between T. gondii and suicidal behavior in 2009. He is cooperating with researchers in Denmark, Germany and Sweden to confirm and investigate the way leading to this association.

The T. gondii parasite thrives in the intestines of cats, and it is spread through their waste. All warm-blooded animals can become infected through contact with it. Humans can become infected by changing their infected cats’ litter boxes, eating unwashed vegetables, drinking water from a polluted source, or by eating undercooked or raw meat.

Not washing kitchen knives after preparing raw meat before handling another food item also can lead to infection. Pregnant women can pass the parasite directly to their unborn babies and are advised not to change cat litter boxes to avoid possible infection.

Babies don’t produce antibodies to T. gondii for three months after they are born, so the antibodies present in their blood represented infection in the mothers. The scientists studied Danish health patients to determine if any of these women later attempted suicide, including cases of violent suicide attempts which may have involved guns, sharp instruments and jumping from high places.

The study found that women infected with T. gondii were one and a half times more likely to attempt suicide compared to those who were not infected, and the risk seemed to rise with increasing levels of the T. gondii antibodies.

Dr Postolache noted limitations to the study, such as the inability to determine the cause of the suicidal behavior.

The findings were published online in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

1.The objects of the research are women from _____.

A. Demark                                      B. the USA                            C. Germany                          D. Sweden

2.The common way which is more likely to be infected with the disease is _____.

A. to eat unwashed vegetables or undercooked meat

B. to clean a place where a cat once lived for a time

C. to pass the infection to her unborn baby during a woman’s pregnancy

D. to reuse kitchen tools which have been used to cut raw meat

3.What is the consequence if a woman is infected with the parasite in the passage?

A. Having a high fever.                                                      B. Doing deliberate self-harm.

C. Keeping a depressed mood.                                       D. Becoming bad tempered.

53.

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A. Women have a higher risk to be infected by the parasite than men.

B. The result of the research may help the scientists to find ways to stop suicide in advance.

C. The scientists will continue their research into the possible connection.

D. The risk of being infected seems to rise with the decreasing levels of the antibodies.

5.Which of the following statements would probably be the best title of the passage?

A. Why are women more likely to commit suicide?

B. Women should keep away from cats.

C. Ways found to deal with women’s mental problems.

D. Are women who own cats at a suicide risk?

 

Swimming is one of those activities that can be learned early in life.Little children can learn to swim as soon as they walk.In fact,you need the same skills in walking as in swimming. However,I believe that five is the best age to learn.By five or six,a child knows fear of water,a very important thing to know.It's wise to be afraid,to recognize true danger.Young ones understand that the water can sometimes be very dangerous. 

To really benefit from swimming,every swimmer should learn,as soon as possible,these four basic strokes;butterfly,backstroke,breastroke,and crawl.I feel that one of these-the breaststroke-is different from the others,since some young swimmers use this stroke naturally,without any training. 

In swimming there are certain rules every swimmer should follow: 

1.Never swim alone!No matter how good you are in the water,don't risk drowning by swimming alone.If you swim by yourself,with no life guards or friends with you,you may get into trouble. 

2.Don't go beyond your abilities.Most swimmers know enough not to swim too far from the bank or the beach,Showing off by doing dangerous tricks is no good.  Swim safely and you will continue to swim and alive. 

3.Don't smoke.Swimming depends on a healthy body;good lungs are part of it. 

4.Work at any activity that builds muscles. 

1.Little children can learn to swim as soon as _____. 

A.they can talk

B.they start walking

C.they have no fear of the water

D.they are five or six years old

2.The author believes that fear of water is_____. 

A.stupid

B.sensible(明智的)

C.dangerous

D.not smart

3.According to the passage,you should not swim alone because_____. 

A.the water is too cold

B.your parents would not be happy

C.something in the water might attack

D.you might drown

 

If you want to keep healthy, you should have good habits. What is a habit? It is something we do very often. We don’t even think when we do it. It has become a part of our lives.

“Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” This is an old English saying. Do you know what it means? It means that we must go to bed early at night and get up early in the morning. If we do, we shall be healthy, rich and clever.

Is this true? Perhaps it is. We know the body must have enough sleep. Boys and girls need eight or nine hours’ sleep every day.

Some people go to bed late at night and get up late in the morning. This is a very bad habit. Then you will not think or do your work well. Of course, you can’t be healthy, wealthy or wise.

When we get up early in the morning, we can go out and do morning exercises. Exercise means doing things with the body. Walking, running jumping, swimming, and playing ball games are all exercise. If we don’t exercise, our body will become weak.

Exercise helps the blood (血液) to move around inside our body. Blood takes food to all parts of our body.

Our body also needs air to breathe. Without air, we will die. We must have lots of clean fresh air if we want to be healthy. That is why many people like to go out to do morning exercise.

1 From the passage we know that it is good for our health to ____ .

A. eat a lot         B. go to bed early   C. get up late      D. go to bed late

2 How long should young boys and girls need to sleep a day?

A. More than ten hours                B. Over eleven hours.

C. Less than seven hours.             D. Eight hours or so.

3 If we want to keep healthy, we must ____ .

A. eat more food                         B. sleep more     C. get up late D. take enough exercise

4 Which of the following habits is NOT GOOD?

A. Don’t go to bed until twelve o’clock..

B. Take a walk after supper.

C. Run in the open air early in the morning.

D. Climb hills for half an hour early in the morning.

5 Which sport is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A. Jumping.       B. Swimming.    C. Riding.          D. Running.

 

Our cat has a sweet nature, and she can let us know what she wants. When we fail to meet her needs, she gently leads us in the proper direction. When I forget to fill her water bowl early in the morning, she runs after my legs, and then pushes me in the direction of her bowl. She doesn’t get irritated (生气的); instead, she expresses her wishes in the best way. And I always understand what she is telling me.

One day I found myself envying her simple expression. How many times had I expected my husband or my children to know my wants without my ever giving voice to them? How many times had I been disappointed that they couldn’t understand when I needed a hug, a compliment or a chocolate bar?

After a pleasant afternoon with my husband, I wanted to stop somewhere nice and have dinner, but he didn’t understand my hints (暗示). “Couldn’t you see that I wanted to go out to dinner?” I complained when he pulled into our driveway.

“Why didn’t you say so? I can’t read your mind,” he answered in impatience. His words gave me pause. Had I expected him to read my mind? Why hadn’t I expressed my desire more clearly? I realized I had fallen into the female trap of “If you love me, you can read my mind.”

Now, I state my needs clearly and directly. I look at my cat and know she agrees.

1. Why was the author disappointed in her husband or her children?

A. Her husband didn’t give her a hug.       B. Her children didn’t give her a chocolate bar.

C. They didn’t give her a compliment.       D. They didn’t understand her mind.

2. What will the author do if she wants something from her husband now?

A. She will give him her hints.            B. She lets him guess what she wants.

C. She tells him her needs directly.        D. She buys what she wants herself.

3. What can we learn from the underlined sentence in the fourth paragraph?

A. I realized what I did was wrong.      B. My husband stopped me from saying something.

C. I stopped and didn’t go with my husband.  D. My husband prevented me from going on.

4. What would be the best title of the text?

A. How does a cat ask for something?  B. Learn how to read your cat’s mind

C. A lesson from a cat               D. Guess what others think

 

The history of nomenclature (命名) in Britain is so old that no one knows the beginning of the story. Since written history began, people have had names. It is therefore impossible to do more than guess at how the earliest given names were chosen. Most names appear to have had some sort of original meaning, usually descriptive, rather than being simply a pleasing collection of sounds.

These descriptive names developed both from nouns and adjectives. The Irish Gaelic people  used descriptive nouns and adjectives which were meaningful. Early in prehistory some descriptive names began to be used again and again until they formed a name pool for that particular culture. Parents would choose names from the pool of existing names rather than invent new ones for their children.

With the rise of Christianity (基督教), Christians were encouraged to name their children after the holy people of the church. These early Christian names can be found in many cultures today, in various forms. The pool of names in use in England changed basically after the Norman came in 1066. Then French names of Germanic origin became popular within three generations. As a result names like Emma, Matilda, Richard, and William, became common in English nomenclature. At the same time a few Old English names, like Edward and Alfred remained because they were names of holy people or kings; others were kept because they were used with slight changes by Germanic names from the Normans like Robert.

Surnames developed from bynames, which are additional ones used to differentiate people with the same given name.  These bynames fall into particular patterns.  These started out as specific  to a person and were taken down from father to son between the twelfth and sixteenth century. The noble usually used taken-down surnames early or the peasants did so later.

1.We can infer from the text that    .

A.the first given names had not any actual meanings

B.people probably had names when there was no written language

C.the history of nomenclature is shorter than written history

D.names began to be used long after there was written language

2. The underlined word “they” (in Para.3) refers to “    ”.

A.Old English names               B.other names

C.names of Germanic origin  D.names of holy people

3.According to the text, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A.Robert is a Germanic name from the Normans.

B.Church didn’t encourage nomenclature used in the church.

C.Names like Emma and William were the most popular in 1066.

D.Names like Edward and Alfred were French names of Germanic origin.

4. Give the right order of surname development in history.

(a)People used bynames to differ people with the same given names.

(b)People chose given names from the pool of existing names.

(c)Bynames started out as specific to a person.

(d)Surnames became popular with common people.

(e)Surnames were taken down from father to son in noble families.

A.b-a-e-c-d          B.a-b-c-d-e   C.a-b-c-e-d         D.b-a-c-e-d

5. Which group of words can best describe the development of British nomenclature?

A.Additional, Particular and Various

B.Meaningful, Christian and Foreign

C.Descriptive, Meaningful and Germanic

D.Old English-styled, Christian and Original

 

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