50. The country whose situation is similar to that of Tuvalu is       .

A. Australia          B. New Zealand  

C. the Maldives       D. the United States

                           E

It seems that great artists and scientists often suffer from mental problems. Both Einstein and Dickens had mental illness. Now scientists have started to look at whether mental illness and genius are linked.

Dr Adele Juda studied 5,000 creative people in Germany. She found there were more people with mental illness in this group than in the general population. Poets had the highest rate of mental illness, followed by musicians, with lower numbers for painters and architects.

Other scientists did research which also showed a strong link between mental problems and creativity. But, it did nothing to explain it.

Dr Ruth Richards of Harvard University made a breakthrough. Instead of studying creative people, she took a group of psychiatric (精神病的) patients and tested them for creativity. The patients got much higher scores than a normal group.

Also, the patients’ close relatives were much more creative than the patients and a normal group. This suggests that the key to the link between creativity and mental illness is in our genes (基因).

But this is a problem. According to Darwinism, harmful genes should be removed. Some scientists believe that evolution (进化) has created a balance, where the madness of a few people leads to the development of the whole human race.

Geniuses may be mad, bad or just difficult to under- stand, but their discoveries have improved the world we live in. It seems that a little creative madness is good for us all.

46. For some people, it may be better       .

A. to wear a seat belt for health reasons

B. not to wear a seat belt for health reasons

C. to get a valid medical certificate before wearing a seat belt

D. to pay a fine rather than wear a seat belt

                         D

You might think that “global warming” means nothing more than a rise in the world’s temperature But rising sea levels caused by it have resulted in the first evacuation(撤离) of an island nation-the citizens of Tuvalu will have to leave their homeland.

    During the 20th century, sea level rose 8-12 inches. As a result. Tuvalu has experienced lowland flooding of salt water which has polluted the country’s drinking water.

    Paani Laupepa, a Tuvaluan government official, reported to the Earth Policy Institute that the nation suffered an unusaually high number of fierce storms in the past ten years. Many scientists connect higher surface water temperatures resulting from global warming to greater and more damaging storms.

    Laupepa expressed dissatisfaction with the United States for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement calling for industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions(排放), which are a main cause of global warming. “By refusing to sign the agreement, the US has effectively taken away the freedom of future generations of Tuvaluans to live where their forefathers have lived for thousands of years,” Laupepa told the BBC.

    Tuvalu has asked Australia and New Zealand to allow the gradual move of its people to both countries.

    Tuvalu is not the only country that is vulnerable(易受影响的) to rising sea levels. Maumoon Gayoon, president of the Maldives, told the United Nations that global warming has made his country of 311,000 an “endangered nation”.

 0  304655  304663  304669  304673  304679  304681  304685  304691  304693  304699  304705  304709  304711  304715  304721  304723  304729  304733  304735  304739  304741  304745  304747  304749  304750  304751  304753  304754  304755  304757  304759  304763  304765  304769  304771  304775  304781  304783  304789  304793  304795  304799  304805  304811  304813  304819  304823  304825  304831  304835  304841  304849  447348 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网