Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men’s hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.

The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power with age.

“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,” said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. w.w.w.k.s.5.u.c.o.m

“Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70, one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,” said Goldspink. “This is part of the ageing process.”

What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one’s.

“This gender difference might just explain why women live longer than men,” said Goldspink. They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease. “The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart,” said Goldspink.

The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.

1. The underlined word “l(fā)ongevity” in the second paragraph probably refers to “________”.

A. health B. long life  C. ageing   D. effect

2. The text mainly talks about ________.

A. men’s heart cells                

B. women’s ageing process、

C. the gender difference             

D. hearts and long life

3. According to the text, the UK scientists have known that ________.

A. women have more cells than men when they are born

B. women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat

C. the female heart loses few of the cells with age

D. women never lose their pumping power with age

4. If you want to live longer, you should ________.

A. enable your heart to beat much faster       B. find out the reason for ageing

C. exercise regularly to keep your heart healthy 

D. prevent your cells from being lost

5. We can know from the passage that ________.

A. the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out

B. scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells

C. the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss

D. women over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20

President Barack Obama nominated (提名) Utah governor Jon Huntsman as ambassador (大使) to China on May 16.

Huntsman, 49, is the son of a Utah multimillionaire (千萬富翁). He served as ambassador to Singapore under former president George H.W. Bush. In 2004, he became the governor of Utah and was elected for a second term in 2008.

The governor has strong ties to China: He lived in Taiwan when he was a teenager and speaks fluent Chinese. One of his daughters was adopted (收養(yǎng)) from China. His family also has business ties with China through Huntsman Corp, a chemical company. It has operations (動作) in the country including a factory in Shanghai.

Huntsman’s nomination has been met with praise in both countries.

“Jon Huntsman is a well-regarded politician (政治家) in the US…… his experience as ambassador to Singapore and his knowledge of China, plus his wonderful Chinese language skills singled him out from the large number of candidates,” Dai Min, president of the US-based Center for America-China Partnership (中美合作中心), told China Daily.

Obama appointed Huntsman “in order to seek China’s help and cooperation” on several international and regional issues, said Yuan Peng, professor of American Studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (中國現(xiàn)代國際關(guān)系研究院).

Some people say that President Obama’s decision to name John Huntsman is a well thought out political strategy. Huntsman is a big player in the Republican Party, and a possible presidential candidate for 2012. If he really has joined the Obama administration, he has lost that possibility. Now, when Obama kicks off his re-election campaign, “ambassador” Huntsman won’t be a threat.

64.The nomination of Huntsman won praise on both sides for the following reasons EXCEPT that _________.

A. he has business ties with China

B. he can speak Chinese fluently

C. he is a very experienced politician

D. he knows China very well

65.Which of the following facts about Huntsman is NOT true ?

A. He was once ambassador to Singapore.

B. He was elected governor of Utah twice.

C. He has served two presidents as governor.

D. He spent part of his youth in Taiwan.

66.From the last two paragraphs, we can conclude that ____________.

A. Obama considers China America’s top trade partner.

B. By choosing Huntsman, Obama kills two birds with one stone.

C. Huntsman will probably run for president in 2012.

D. Huntsman will settle several international and regional issues.

Recently, a study was carried out to determine who was the greatest American president．Sixty-five presidential historians took part in it, and they judged the past forty-two American leaders based on ten leadership qualities, including public persuasiveness(信服), crisis leadership, management of the economy, moral leadership, and conduct of international relations．The historians also looked at administrative ability (管理能力), relations with Congress, ability to set goals, and the pursuit of equal justice for all．Finally, the experts took into consideration the historical period in which the president lived．

The historians chose Abraham Lincoln as American’s greatest president．He had also been named best president in a similar study in 2000．Abraham Lincoln was the president who led the nation through the Civil War in the 1860s, and was able to unite it in the end．He also took the first steps to abolish slavery in America．

Edna Medford, a professor of history at Howard University in Washington, D.C., was an adviser on this study and the earlier one．She says Abraham Lincoln is seen to represent the values the nation most honors, such as truthfulness, moderation, and respect for human rights．

The historians put American’s first president, George Washington, second on the list, while Franklin D．Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman follow in that order．John   F．Kennedy, the country’s first Roman Catholic president, is sixth on the list．Like Lincoln, Kennedy was murdered while in office．

Among recent presidents, Ronald Reagan was named the tenth best and Bill Clinton rated fifteenth, while the historians put former president George W．Bush at number thirty-six．His father, George H.W．Bush, did much better, being placed at number eighteen．

1.We learn from the text that ___________．

    A．this is the second time that Abraham Lincoln has been chosen as America’s greatest president

    B．Edna Medford didn’t take part in the study conducted in 2000．

    C．George H.W．Bush was thought to have done worse in office than George W．Bush

    D．Harry Truman was rated the fourth-best president by the study

2.Which of the following belong to the ten leadership qualities considered?

    a．Being able to persuade the public

    b．Taking effective measures during a financial crisis．

    c．Balancing home life and career．

    d．Pursuing equal justice for all．

   A．a(chǎn),b,c           B．b,c,d          C．a(chǎn),b,d          D．a(chǎn),c,d

3.Who is rated worst among the following four presidents?

   A．John F．Kennedy                  B．George Washington

   C．Bill Clinton                     D．George W．Bush

4.The text is mainly about ________．

   A．the ten qualities a great president needs

   B．a(chǎn) study of American presidents

   C．the values the American nation honors most

   D．how Abraham Lincoln improved the country

Barack Obama
In the past hundred years, the U.S. presidency has turned more and more to the left – not in policy, but in handedness. Barrack Obama is the latest to join a long list of left – handed presidents from the 20th century: James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Henry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were all southpaws.
What makes lefties so electable? Some experts think left-handed people have a greater aptitude for language skills, which may help them craft the rhetoric necessary for political office. And as for the bout of recent left-handed presidents, some think it’s because teachers only recently stopped working to convert lefties to rightist at an early age.
Bill Gates
Claiming the nation’s richest man among their number is a source of considerable pride for America’s society of southpaws. In fact, the Microsoft titan and philanthropist(巨頭兼慈善家) is one of a surprising number of U.S. business moguls to be left-handed, including Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller and former IBM head Lou Gerstner. But the club seems to be a guys-only fraternity — research suggests that while left-handed men tend to earn more than their right-handed colleagues, there is no similar advantage for women. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research floated the idea that left-handed men favor "divergent" thinking, a form of creativity in which the brain moves "from conventional knowledge into unexplored association." Maybe that’s what it takes to develop a net worth estimated at $ 57 billion.
Oprah Winfrey
The talk-show queen doesn’t need much more to set her apart from the rest — what with her estimated $ 2.7 billion fortune and a magic ability to sell books just by glancing at them — but she also has the distinction of being a member of the left-handed club. Since men are more likely to be left-handed than women, that makes Oprah doubly impressive. She’s in good company: Other show-business ladies of the left – handed  persuasion include Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie
Marie Curie
Not only was atomic scientist Marie Curie left-handed, but she was the matriarch of a whole family of accomplished, southpaw scientists. Curie, who discovered the principles of radioactivity and won two Nobel Prizes, was married to fellow lefty Pierre Curie, who was instrumental in helping Marie’s atomic research and shared one of her Nobel awards. Historians believe their daughter, Irene, was also left-handed. Irene went on to win a Nobel Prize of her own with her husband — who, you guessed it, was also left-handed.
59．The underlined word “southpaws” in the last sentence of Paragraph 1 means_______.
A．people coming from the south B．powerful presidents
C．people who use their left hand D．forceful speakers
60．What makes it so easy for lefties to be elected as presidents according to the passage?
A．Their great gift for foreign language.
B．Their great language skills to make speeches.
C．The need of left – hinders in the political office.
D．Teachers stopping to force them to use their right hand.
61．It can be implied that Bill Gates, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller and Lou Gerstne_______.
A．have creative thinking              B．have formed a special club.
C．earn more money than their wives   D．a(chǎn)re wealthy philanthropists
62．The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 “She is in good company” means “_______”.
A．she works in a very good company   B．she has many good friends
C．she has got on well with others        D．she is among many female lefties

After more than a year of bitter political debate, President Obama sat down in the White House East Room on March 23 and signed the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law with a pen，and then another pen，and another．Obama used 22 pens to sign the $938 billion health care bill．

The practice of using different pens to sign important legislation（法規(guī)）dates at least as far back as Franklin Roosevelt．The reason is fairly simple．The pen used to sign historic legislation itself becomes a historical artifact．The more pens a President uses, the more thank-you gifts he can offer to those who helped create that piece of history．The White House often give pens to supporters of the newly signed legislation．When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he reportedly used more than 75 pens and gave one of the first ones to Martin Luther King Jr．And in 1996, President Clinton gave the four pens he used to sign the Line-Item Veto bill to those most likely to appreciate the bill's consequence.

    Once they're given away, some pens end up in museums; others are displayed proudly in recipients'(接受者) offices or homes．But they sometimes appear again, like in the 2008 presidential campaign（競選活動）, when John Macain promised to use the same pen given to him by President Reagan to cut pork from the federal budget．

Not every President goes for the multipen signature, however．President George W．Bush preferred signing bills with only one pen and then offering several unused "gift" pens as souvenirs．

1.We can learn from paragraph 1 that the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act        ．

         A．has been passed easily      B．was put forward one year ago

         C．becomes law in the USA    D．is unimportant

2.How are the pens dealt with after being used by President Obama?

         A．Supporters of the newly signed legislation are likely to get some of them.

         B．Obama will keep them.

         C．They will be just set aside

         D．They will be sold to the public at a high price．

3.What can we learn about John Macain?

         A．He was ever President in the USA.

         B．He took part in the 2008 presidential campaign.

         C．He never used the pen given by Reagan.

         D．He was only concerned about his own business． 

4.What does this passage mainly tell us ?

         A．Obama signed the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act．

         B．It is a practice to use multiple pens to sign important legislation in the USA．

         C．Pens are necessary in the signature.

         D．All the presidents like the multipen signature.