How far would you be willing to go to satisfy your need to know? Far enough to find out your possibility of dying from a terrible disease? These days that’s more than an academic question, as Tracy Smith reports in our Cover Story.

There are now more than a thousand genetic（基因的）tests, for everything from baldness to breast cancer, and the list is growing. Question is, do you really want to know what might eventually kill you? For instance, Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson, one of the first people to map their entire genetic makeup, is said to have asked not to be told if he were at a higher risk for Alzheimer’（老年痴呆症）.

“If I tell you that you have an increased risk of getting a terrible disease, that could weigh on your mind and make you anxious, through which you see the rest of your life as you wait for that disease to hit you. It could really mess you up.” Said Dr. Robert Green, a Harvard geneticist.

“Every ache and pain,” Smith suggested, could be understood as “the beginning of the end.”“That ’s right. If you ever worried you were at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, then every time you can’t find your car in the parking lot, you think the disease has started.”

Dr. Green has been thinking about this issue for years. He led a study of people who wanted to know if they were at a higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s. It was thought that people who got bad news would, for lack of a better medical term, freak out. But Green and his team found that there was“no significant difference”between how people handled good news and possibly the worst news of their lives. In fact, most people think they can handle it. People who ask for the information usually can handle the information, good or bad, said Green.

71.The first paragraph is meant to__________.

A. ask some questions                        B. introduce the topic

C. satisfy readers’ curiosity                 D. describe an academic fact

【答案】B

【解析】通过两个问题引出话题。

72.Which of the following is true of James Watson？

A. He is strongly in favor of the present genetic tests.

B. He is more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

C. He believes genetic mapping can help cure any disease.

D. He doesn’t want to know his chance of getting a disease.

【答案】D

【解析】根据第二段Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson, one of the first people to map their entire genetic makeup, is said to have asked not to be told if he were at a higher risk for Alzheimer’。“James Watson要求如果他的基因表明他有很高的老年痴呆症的可能不要告诉他。”

73.According to Paragraphs 3 and 4, if a person is at a higher genetic risk, it is__________.

A. advisable not to let him know          B. impossible to hide his disease

C. better to inform him immediately      D. necessary to remove his anxiety

【答案】A

【解析】根据这两个自然段可知，如果你提前被告知你将来可能患某种可怕的疾病会mess you up。

74.The underlined part“freak out”in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to“_________”.

A. break down                     B. drop out            C. leave off            D. turn away

【答案】A

【解析】根据下文But的转折，以及no significant difference可知，freak out的意思是A（精神垮掉）。

75.The study led by Dr. Green indicates that people__________.

A. prefer to hear good news         B. tend to find out the truth

C. can accept some bad news              D. have the right to be informed

【答案】C

【解析】根据第五段内容 In fact, most people think they can handle it可知答案选C.

 Learn and Earn

Charlie and Jackie joined a wholesale company together just after graduation. They both worked very hard. After several years, the boss made Jackie sales manager but Charlie  __36__  a salesman. One day Charlie could not  __37__ it any more. He handed in his resignation letter (辞职信) to the boss and complained that the boss did not  __38__ hard-working employees, but only raised those who tried to please him. He thought that it was really __39___.

The boss knew that Charlie had spared no  __40__ for the company all these years, but in order to help Charlie to realize the  __41__ between him and Jackie, the boss asked Charlie to do the  following. “Go and __42__ if there is anyone selling watermelons in the market.” Charlie went, returned and  __43__ said, “Yes.” The boss asked, “How much per kilogram?” Charlie went back to the market to ask and returned to  __44__, “$ 12 per kg.”

The boss told Charlie that he would ask Jackie the  __45__ question. Jackie went, returned and said, “Boss, only one person selling watermelons. $ 12 per kg, $ 100 for 10 kg. He has a  __46__of 340 melons. On the table are 58 melons, and every melon weighs about 15 kg, __47__  from the South two days ago. They are fresh, red, and of good  __48__.”

Charlie was  __49___ and he realized the difference between himself and Jackie. He decided not to  __50__ but to learn from Jackie.

My dear friends, you know, a more  __51__ person is more observant, thinks more and understands in __52__. For the same matter, he sees several years ahead,  __53__ you see only tomorrow. The difference between a year and a day is 365 times, so how could you  __54__  ?

Think: how far have you seen ahead in your life? How __55__ are you?

The agreement indicates that the two companies will _____ with each other again.

Some years ago the captain of a ship was very interested 36   medicine. He always  37  medical books to sea and liked to talk about different diseases. One day a lazy sailor on his ship pretended 38 ill. He lay on his bunk（铺位） and groaned as if he 39  very sick. The captain came to see him and was very pleased to have a patient to   40   .  He told the man to rest for a few days and   41 the other sailors do his work. Three days later 42   sailor pretended that he had   43 with his chest. 44   the captain looked in his medical books and told the “sick” man 45.

The other sailors were very 46 because they had   47 work to do. The patients had the best food and laughed at their friends when the captain was not 48 .  49  the mate（大副）decided to punish the sick men and mixed up some soap, soot（烟灰）, glue and other unpleasant things. Then he got   50   from the captain to give his new medicine to the “sick” men. When they tasted the medicine, they really did feel ill. It was  51horrible that one of the patients jumped out of his bunk, ran up on deck and climbed the  52  mast（桅杆）on the ship. The captain 53  that the men had tried 54 him. So he made them 55 very hard for the rest of the ship on the sea.

14.A At first     B. At the beginning    C. At last   D. At the end

I'll be a photographer. I'm going to bring bits of Australia back home with me. I told myself this before, yet I feel so doubtful on this plane that's flying me thousands of miles away. I was so confident yesterday .But today I don't belong to this plane where men sit with briefcases reading newspapers. They're all adults.

I've never been out of the US. And now ,I'm traveling into Australia alone, a world I know nothing about. A part of me recognizes it as home.

I remember little about my mother, but I remember she had an Australian accent and golden hair. She wan fun and she would often take us to New Jersey beaches, where we would spend the whole day taking walks along the shore. My mom told me that in Australia, Christmas was always spent on the beach with friends and family, and everyone wore Santa hat with their bathing suits. It never got cold and bitter there. My mom was different and I was proud of her.

I don't know how she met my father. but after they met several years, they got married and moved into an apartment in New Jersey. Then I was born and we were a perfect family of three who went out to dinner and watched movies in the dark and loved each other.

I know things have been hard on my father since my Mom died years ago. It's hard for me, too, and I have to experience the wonderful place my mom grew up in and loved. My mom talked about Australia so much and now I have to see this place.

This is an adventure.

1.How did the author feel when he was on the plane?

2.The author traveled to Australia alone mainly because he wanted to__.

3.The third paragraph is mainly concerned with__.

4.What can we learn from the passage?

5.Where did the author most probably write this passage?