湖北省武汉市高考英语 阅读理解训练题(15)

- 1 - 武汉市2014高考英语阅读理解训练题（15）附答案

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – People who drink two or more sweetened soft drinks a week

have a much higher risk of pancreatic cancer (胰腺癌), an unusual but deadly cancer,

researchers reported on Monday.

People who drank mostly fruit juice instead of sodas did not have the same risk,

the study of 60,000 people in Singapore found.

Sugar may be to blame but people who drink sweetened sodas regularly often have

other poor health habits, said Mark Pereira of the University of Minnesota, who led

the study.

"The high levels of sugar in soft drinks may be increasing the level of insulin（胰岛素）in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth,"

Pereira said in a statement.

Writing in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, Pereira and

colleagues said they followed 60,524 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Health

Study for 14 years.

Over that time, 140 of the volunteers developed pancreatic cancer. Those who drank

two or more soft drinks a week had an 87 percent higher risk of being among those

who got pancreatic cancer.

Pereira said he believed the findings would apply elsewhere.

"Singapore is a wealthy country with excellent healthcare. Favorite pastimes(消遣) are eating and shopping, so the findings should apply to other western countries,"

he said.

But Susan Mayne of the Yale Cancer Center at Yale University in Connecticut was

cautious.

"Although this study found a risk, the finding was based on a relatively small

number of cases and it remains unclear whether it is a causal（因果的）connection

or not," said Mayne, who serves on the board of the journal, which is published by

the American Association for Cancer Research. - 2 - Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, with 230,000 cases

globally. In the United States, 37,680 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

in a year and 34,290 die of it.

13. We can infer from Pereira’s words that ________.

A. the healthcare in Singapore should be greatly improved

B. 2 soft drinks a day are considered harmful to health

C. sugar might not be the only cause of pancreatic cancer

D. 87 out of 140 volunteers developed pancreatic cancer

14. How does Susan seem to feel about the findings of the study?

A. Doubtful B. Satisfied.

C. Worried. D. Hopeful.

15. The best title of the text might be .

A. The Deadliest Forms of Cancer

B. Sugary Soft Drinks Lead to Cancer

C. A Study in University of Minnesota

D. Drink Fruit Juice Instead of Sodas

参考答案 (D) DBD

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河北省高考英语二轮复习专题训练：阅读理解（48）

Terraforming (Earth-forming) other planets, also known as planetary engineering

(行星工程), seems like a task still centuries away for mankind to accomplish. However,

it is a vigorous topic that attracts both popular and scientific interest. Why should

the possibility of terraforming other planets be studied when it may be centuries

before we know enough to even decide if it’s a good idea?

Mankind is getting more and more hard facts about other planets. The atmosphere

of Venus has been explored; robots have surveyed the surface of Mars; Mercury, Jupiter - 3 - and Saturn have been studied by spacecraft. Speculations have been answered; new

questions have been raised, and enough hard data is right now becoming available to

allow us to make the first attempt of planetary engineering.

In the past, people with excellent ideas about terraforming have kept them to

themselves, or buried them in a desk drawer because they did not realize that anyone

else was interested. But now, a wide circle of people has begun to do this kind of

work. For instance, NASA funded a project on transforming Mars.

There are several strong reasons which demand that the possibilities of terraforming

be studied carefully. First, it’s an exciting idea of a possible future for human

beings. Such thinking has a valuable role in providing options for our future

directions. Secondly, the techniques of terraforming will also help contemporary

technologies in weather and climate control. Thirdly, such study may assist us in

detecting any possible existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI, The Search

for Extraterrsstial Intelligence, 地外文明搜索) and alien (异己的) civilizations on

other planets.

Though the mission is far beyond our reach at the moment, we should at least keep

our options open. Through debate and study on this subject, the possibility of

rebuilding other planets to make them suitable homes for people may come true some