题目内容
Babies born in summer are more likely to become short-sighted in late life, a study has shown.
As many as a quarter of all cases of short-sightedness are caused by too great an exposure to sunlight in the first weeks of life, say eye experts.
They are advising all parents to put sunglasses on their babies during the first weeks.
Scientists had already established that over-exposure to sunlight caused short-sightedness in animals.
Researchers who compared the months in which babies were born with whether they needed glasses later on say the principle also applies to humans.
A study of almost 300,000 young adults─the largest of its kind─showed that those born in June and July had a 25 per cent greater chance of becoming severely short-sighted than those born in December or January. Research leader Professor Michael Belkin, of Tel Aviv University, said it was because prolonged illumination(光照) causes the eyeball to lengthen, causing short-sightedness.
Hence the more light a newborn is exposed to, the more the eyeball lengthens and the worse the short-sightedness will be.
The mechanism which lengthens the eyeball is associated with levels of melatonin(褪黑激素), a pigment (色素) which protects the skin against harmful rays of the sun.
In young babies not enough melatonin is released as protection, meaning they are more vulnerable to sunburn and changes to eyeball shape.
Sight expert Professor Daniel O’Leary, of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, said “At the moment we don’t know the precise cause of why light exposure affects sight, but the evidence seems to prove that it is one of the reasons for people becoming short-sighted.”
55. Babies born in summer are more likely to be short-sighted ____________.
A. because the summer sun is too strong for babies
B. because babies born in summer have lengthened eyeballs
C. if they are exposed to much sunlight in the first weeks after they are born
D. if parents don’t know a proper way to protect their babies’ eyes
56. Melatonin is a kind of material to ___________.
A. prevent the eyes from becoming near-sighted
B. protect the skin from harmful sun rays
C. make our body strong
D. protect babies’ eyes from summer sun
57. From what Professor Daniel O’Leary says we can conclude that ___________.
A. there is no evidence that short-sightedness is related to exposure to sunlight
B. whether light exposure affects sight still needs to be further proved
C. he believes that light exposure can cause short-sightedness
D. he tries to give the cause of why light exposure affects sight
58. The underlined word “vulnerable” in the passage probably means __________.
A. easy to be harmed B. resistant
C. protective D. changeable
55-58 CBCA
根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
【小题1】 But science may have just proved them right – because beautiful women are more likely to have daughters than their plainer counterparts, according to a study.
As parents tend to pass on genes that determine looks, this could result in handsome men becoming rather thin on the ground. 【小题2】 For example, Yasmin Le Bon is signed to the same modelling agency as daughter Amber, and Jerry Hall’s daughters Elizabeth and Georgia Jagger have both taken to the catwalk.
Dr Satoshi Kanazawa, of the London School of Economics, analysed data from a survey of 17,000 babies born in Britain in March 1958 and tracked them throughout their lives. 【小题3】 When they reached 45, they were asked about the gender of any children they had.
Those rated as attractive were equally likely to have a son or daughter as their first child – but the unattractive sorts were more likely to have a son. 【小题4】
Dr Kanazawa believes that parents tend to produce children who benefit from their own features. 【小题5】 So it pays for attractive women to have daughters. But couples blessed with strength and aggression rather than looks are better off having boys, as these characteristics are of more use to males.
| A.Women are becoming more beautiful over the generations because attractive women have more children than plain ones. |
| B.Single girls have always complained that good-looking men are difficult to find. |
| C.Beauty is of more benefit to a woman than a man. |
| D.At the age of seven, their attractiveness was rated by their teachers. |
F. And it may also explain why many models have daughters who follow in their fascinating footsteps.
G. Famously good-looking parents like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are more likely to have girls than uglier couples.
根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
71 But science may have just proved them right – because beautiful women are more likely to have daughters than their plainer counterparts, according to a study.
As parents tend to pass on genes that determine looks, this could result in handsome men becoming rather thin on the ground. 72 For example, Yasmin Le Bon is signed to the same modelling agency as daughter Amber, and Jerry Hall’s daughters Elizabeth and Georgia Jagger have both taken to the catwalk.
Dr Satoshi Kanazawa, of the London School of Economics, analysed data from a survey of 17,000 babies born in Britain in March 1958 and tracked them throughout their lives. 73 When they reached 45, they were asked about the gender of any children they had.
Those rated as attractive were equally likely to have a son or daughter as their first child – but the unattractive sorts were more likely to have a son. 74
Dr Kanazawa believes that parents tend to produce children who benefit from their own features. 75 So it pays for attractive women to have daughters. But couples blessed with strength and aggression rather than looks are better off having boys, as these characteristics are of more use to males.
|
A.Women are becoming more beautiful over the generations because attractive women have more children than plain ones. |
|
B.Single girls have always complained that good-looking men are difficult to find. |
|
C.Beauty is of more benefit to a woman than a man. |
|
D.At the age of seven, their attractiveness was rated by their teachers. |
E. Put another way, the beautiful women were more likely to have daughters.
F. And it may also explain why many models have daughters who follow in their fascinating footsteps.
G. Famously good-looking parents like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are more likely to have girls than uglier couples.