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Hearing loss, that’s an older person’s problem, right? Think again. Noise, not age, is the leading cause of hearing loss. While hearing problems are common among older folks, damage from everyday noise is growing among younger Americans, including those in their teens and 20s.
The latest research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) shows some 40 million Americans ages 20 to 69 suffering hearing damage from everyday loud noise, including heavy traffic, noisy restaurants, rock concerts, sporting events and loud music via earbuds(耳塞). Among 12- to 19-year-olds, researchers estimate some 17 percent show evidence of noise-induced hearing loss in one or
both ears. Worse, many Americans don’t even realize their hearing has been affected.
In the CDCP’s analysis of more than 3,500 hearing tests, one out of four adults claimed their hearing was just fine and reported no job-related noise, yet hearing tests indicated they already had noise-induced hearing loss. This type of damage causes a alarming drop in the ability to hear high-pitched sounds, and it was evident in those as young as 20.
“We have government standards in the workplace to protect workers from noise, but nothing protects you from a society getting noisier every year,” says audiologist Jack Scott, of the Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning at Northwestern University. Even in protected parks and wildlife areas, a recent study found that noise pollution from traffic, logging and drilling has doubled, drowning out the natural sounds of birds and rushing water.
Sarah Sydlowski, the audiology director of the hearing implant program at the Cleveland Clinic, puts the problem this way: “The baby boomer generation is dealing with skin cancer from the tanning they did as teens. This generation will have to deal with the consequences of noise exposure that damaged their hearing.” Many young adults don’t realize that hearing loss is permanent. When loud noise kills the sensitive inner-ear cells that allow us to hear, they don’t regenerate. “The hearing you have when you’re
born is all you get. Those cells can’t be replaced,” says Sydlowski says. “And the damage is cumulative（累
积的）,” adds Scott. The more often the ears are exposed to damaging noise, the more cells die, leading to damaged hearing day by day.
Part of the reason hearing damage is showing up earlier is today’s improved portable devices. The sound level 28 years ago from the Walkman, with its weak headphones, was much lower than today’s high-fidelity smartphones with earbuds that deliver louder sound much closer to the eardrum. A study that compared hearing tests of teens found the levels of mild hearing loss jumped 30 percent. But don’t just blame the earbuds, says Sydlowski. People underestimate what a safe level of sound is, “especially when they’re already in a noisy environment.” Both she and Scott say a common problem among their younger patients is turning up the sound in their earbuds to mask the noise around them.
To protect your hearing, follow these tips:
Turn down the volume. If you’re listening to music through your earbuds, “any volume level higher than 50 percent is risky,” says Sydlowki.
Limit your exposure. Do not attend fitness classes with deafening music (or at least move away from the speakers, advises Sydlowski) and sports stadiums with ear-splitting crowd noise.
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①One by one, prejudices are disappearing in the West. People may harbour private suspicions that other people’s race or sex makes them inferior—but to say so openly is totally taboo. One old prejudice remains respectable, though. Just ask a childless person.
②They are not charged to special taxes, as they were in Soviet Russia; nor are they driven from their
homes, as they still are in some poor countries. The childless nonetheless come in for a lot of criticism. Some point out that non-parents are failing to produce the future workers who will pay for their pensions. Childless politicians are charged with not having a proper stake（利害关系）in society. “He talks to us about
the future, but he doesn’t have children!” complained Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founder of the National Front party, of Emmanuel Macron, who went on to win the French presidency. Similar attacks on Theresa May and Angela Merkel also failed—but researchers find that many voters quietly agree.
③The charges against the childless should be thrown out, along with other social prejudice. In many
rich countries, between 15% and 20% of women, and a slightly higher proportion of men, will not have children. The share is rising. Some have medical problems; others do not meet the right person in time; still others decide they do not want them. Whatever the cause, the attacks on the childless are baseless.
④If non-breeders are selfish, they have a strange way of showing it. They are more likely to set up
charitable foundations than people with children, and much more likely to donate money to good causes. According to one American estimate, the mere fact of not having children raises the amount a person leaves to charity by a little over $10,000. The childless are thus a small but useful counterweight to the world’s parents, who stop social immobility by passing on their social and economic advantages to their children.
⑤The fact that so many senior politicians lack offspring（子孙）ought to put to rest the idea that they
do not care for society. Five of the G7 countries are led by childless men and women. Mr Macron, Mrs May, Mrs Merkel, Shinzo Abe and Paolo Gentiloni have their faults, but they are not notably less able than Justin Trudeau (who has three children) let alone Donald Trump (who has five). Their opportunities for nepotism
（裙带关系）are limited. And they spare their countries dynastic politics.
⑥The charge that childless people fail to pull their weight in population is correct, but is less serious than it appears. Those who do not have children do put pressure on public pension systems. Governments
have to do unpopular things like making pensions less generous, as Japan has done, or accepting more immigrants, as some Western countries have done. But to sustain （ 维 持 ） public pensions in the long
term, countries do not actually need more parents. What they need instead is more babies. It is possible to combine a high rate of childlessness with a high birth rate, provided people who become parents have more than one or two children. That was the pattern in many Western countries a century ago. Ireland, yet another country with a childless leader, still manages it today.
⑦The childless also do everyone else a favour by creating wonderful works of art. British novelists
have been especially likely to have no offspring: think of Hilary Mantel, P.G. Wodehouse and the Brontë sisters. In September last year Britain put Jane Austen on its ten-pound note. That decision has was controversial, though it was hard to see why. Few people have written as shrewdly（出神入化）about money
or about families—even though Austen did not marry, and had no children.
1.What is the main idea of Paragraph 2?
A. The childless often get punished in society.
B. The childless often come under sharp criticism.
C. Most successful politicians have no children
D. Childlessness affects the result of an election.
2.The childless are prejudiced because people think the childless .
A. have a strange way to show selfishness
B. set a bad example for young people
C. are not as able as those with children
D. are the government’s financial burden
3.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 6 refer to?
A. Accepting more immigrants.
B. Reducing the pensions for the aged.
C. Encouraging parents to have more children.
D. Supporting the political leaders with no children.
4.What is the author’s attitude towards the childless?
A. Understanding B. Skeptical
C. Disappointed D. Reserved
5.Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?(①to⑦ represent Paragraphs 1 to 7)
A. 
B. 
C. 
D. 
6.What is the best title for the passage?
A. In defence of the childless
B. In hope of having a child or not
C. Reasons for not having children
D. Measures to address aging problems
I’d be lying if I said a dog-like robot opening a door for another dog-like robot doesn’t creep me out. A full discussion of robot dogs is for another day, but for now, researchers studying the cognition（认知） and
welfare of real dogs have a less threatening view of dogs and technology, particularly when touchscreens are involved.
Like you, animals can learn to interact with the content displayed on touchscreens, and their touch reveals something about their choice, which in turn reveals something about their mind. Animals both on and off land can be trained to use touchscreens — from chimpanzees to dogs, cats, and even dolphins, among others. Touchscreen studies have explored how and what dogs categorize, their ability to learn by
exclusion（排除）, and how they discriminate between different images. An added bonus is that, once a dog
has mastered the touchscreen, humans can remove themselves from the study and can’t unconsciously give signals to the dog.
Researchers are now posing a new set of questions: are touchscreens beneficial to the user? Can touchscreens exercise the dog’s mind, in addition to serving as a window into it?
No better place to start than with older pet dogs, a group facing a unique set of challenges. Aging dogs can have reduced physical activity compared to their younger counterparts. Less attention is often given to their learning, training and other mental activities; after all, who hasn’t heard the wrong proverb, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” But dog minds are not meant to be inactive. Instead, “studies point to the fact that aging seems to be slowed by mental and physical stimulation, and thus stopping these activities might actually lead to faster aging in dogs.”
Lisa Wallis and colleagues at the Senior Family Dog Project at ELTE University in Budapest are exploring the effects of touchscreens on dog physiological, behavioral, and cognitive well-being.
Their recent conference paper gives us a look at how dogs learn to use the touchscreen and the direction of future research. Over the course of a number of sessions, dogs learned that when they nose-touch a particular image on the screen, a food treat pops out. At first, only a single image appears on the screen. Once the dogs reliably learn to nose-touch the image, they move on to discrimination training where two images appear together and only one image is “correct.” Only two out of one hundred thirty dogs were unable to grasp the task, and three displayed frustration suggesting touchscreens are within the capacity of the majority of senior dogs.
Wallis and colleagues will continue investigating long-term effects of touchscreen use, but it seems promising. “The positive association to the touchscreen is so strong that on several occasions when the dog was alone (the trainer had stepped out to answer the phone), and the feeder failed, dogs continued to work on the touchscreen with no reward until the end of the session.” Owners, even those initially skeptical, were impressed by the strategies their dogs used. They also observed that dogs slept soundly upon returning home from touchscreen sessions, highlighting that mental activity can have some of the same effects as physical exercise.
Further studies will explore the effects of long-term touchscreen use on dog personality, activity levels, measures of well-being, and influence on the dog-human bond. Stay tuned.
1.What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?
A. Animals can decide the content shown on touchscreens.
B. Animals naturally have the ability to use touchscreens.
C. People can discriminate between dogs’ abilities by exclusion.
D. People can tell dogs’ needs through their touch on the screen.
2.By using the proverb in paragraph 4, the author intends to stress .
A. aging dogs are too old to learn new skill
B. aging dogs experience a decline in energy
C. training younger dogs is more productive
D. training aging dogs is possible and beneficial
3.What is revealed by the research conducted by Lisa Wallis?
A. The dogs master the touchscreen use step by step.
B. Rewards are a must for dogs to finish the session
C. The dogs regard nose-touch as a form of physical exercise.
D. It remains to be seen whether it has a positive effect on dogs.
4.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. How robot dogs have threatened the world.
B. How people establish better dog-human bonds.
C. How touchscreens can be employed to train dogs.
D. How long-held myths about dogs mislead people.
So called “sin taxes” on sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco not only work, but will help rather than improperly punish the poor, according to a major new international analysis.
Just a day before the UK brings in a levy on sugary drinks, experts are urging every country in the world to use taxes to keep people from the eating, drinking and smoking habits that will damage their health.The experts analyzed the effects of taxes on sugary drinks, tabacco and alcohol in countries that have introduced them and found that the criticism that they are punishing the poorest in unfounded.
Experts did a survey. They looked at 13 countries: Chile, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Albania, Poland, Turkey, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Niger, Nigeria, India and Timor-Leste. They found that wealthier families generally spend more on alcohol, soft drinks and snacks. In India, for instance, wealthier households spent seven times more on alcohol and three times more on soft drinks and snacks compared to poorer households. So those households end up paying a larger proportion of any tax.
On the other hand, taxes have a greater impact on the smaller household budgets of poorer families. They respond by buying less, with greater benefits for their health. In the UK, say the authors, the response to the possible introduction of a minimum price for alcohol was estimated to be 7.6 times larger in the poorest households, compared with the wealthiest.
In Mexico, the introduction of a sugary drinks tax resulted in an average of 4.2 litres less of soft drinks purchased per person, with a 17% decrease in purchases among lower income groups and almost no change in higher income groups. In Lebanon, they say, a 50% increase in the price of cigarettes would lead to twice as many people quitting smoking in poorer households as wealthy families.
“The evidence suggests that concerns about higher taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and soft drinks harming the poor are overstated,” said Dr Rachel Nugent from RTI International in Seattle, USA, and chair of the Lancet Taskforce on NCDs and economics.
“Some degree of taxation on tobacco is common in many countries, and while we are starting to see progress on alcohol taxes, there is much more governments should be doing – in both high and low income countries – to consider the careful introduction of taxes on other unhealthy products like soft drinks and snacks. Price policies such as taxes will be a key part of the response to rising rates of non-communicable
diseases(慢性非传染病).”
The UK sugar tax is a levy on the manufacturers of 18p per litre for drinks containing 5g of sugar per 100ml and 24p on those with 8g per 100ml.Many companies have reformulated their products, often swapping artificial sweeteners for sugar. Some – like Coca-Cola – have decided to stick to the original recipe and the price will rise, although the bottles and cans will shrink to reduce the impact.
1.What do we know about the “sin taxes”?
A. They receive warm welcome in developing countries.
B. They help people get rid of unhealthy lifestyles.
C. They have the same effects on the poor and rich.
D. They have a deeper influence on groups with high income.
2.Which of the following is TRUE about the responses to “sin taxes”?
A. The public have turned a deaf ear to it.
B. The government has introduced taxes on snacks.
C. Many companies have raised the price of their products.
D. Coca-Cola will use smaller packages to counter the impacts.
3.The author support his ideas in the passage by .
A. giving examples
B. telling stories
C. analyzing causes and effects
D. reasoning and concluding
1.According to the passage, which of the following is TERE?
A. Those Americans who live above the poverty line won’t go hungry.
B. 13 million American children are food insecure for lack of transportation.
C. Among all the states in the USA, food insecurity in Mississippi is severest.
D. Neighborhood banks have no additional requirements for food packaging.
2.What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
A. To warn readers against dangers of insecure food.
B. To urge readers to help the poor out of poverty.
C. To inform readers of the severe food shortage in America.
D. To advocate readers contributing to food relief in America.
Wildflowers in a mountain meadow are a gift of nature. But what about those wildflowers blooming along busy__________? Well, nature had a__________.
Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson, the wife of our thirty-sixth President, Lyndon B. Johnson wanted
______to be a national priority.
As a little girl growing up in “deep east Texas,” wildflowers helped her get through__________times. Her mother had died when she was five, and her father__________most of his time at the general store he
owned. Her older brothers were away at school,______ Lady Bird turned to nature for
______. “Nature was my friend and my teacher,” she says. “It was a joy to me, and it’s never___________ me.”
After high school, Lady Bird left home for the University of Texas in Austin. _________ she found joy in nature—in the vast quantities of Texas bluebonnets（德克萨斯州羽扇豆）. It was there that Lady Bird met and fell in love with Lyndon B. Johnson. He proposed to her on their first ____________.
“The whole country __ the President,” Lady Bird said, “but only one man selects the First Lady—and it is highly___________ that he was thinking of her as First Lady when he proposed!”
When she got to know the __ disappearance of “America the Beautiful” due to land development and pollution, Lady Bird __ the President to propose a Highway Beautification Act that allocated money to ___________roadsides. The act was passed in 1965.
Lady Bird __________ that many wildflowers, like people, were immigrants. “They __________ the nation on the wheels of covered wagons, perhaps ___________ in the pockets of children.”
Lady Bird is certainly our First Lady of__________. She has made us see that highways can be beautiful.
She is the reason why wildflowers now__________our travels through almost every state.
1.A. streets B. highways C. roads D. lanes
2.A. helper B. discoverer C. creator D. protector
3.A. liberty B. traffic C. justice D. beauty
4.A. lonely B. exciting C. happy D. disappointed
5.A. wasted B. spent C. found D. killed
6.A. so B. but C. or D. for
7.A. aid B. company C. rescue D. happiness
8.A. ignored B. scared C. troubled D. failed
9.A. Absolutely B. Naturally C. Again D. Often
10.A. date B. try C. vote D. appearance
11.A. shapes B. serves C. selects D. supports
12.A. unlikely B. unnecessary C. unusual D. uncertain
13.A. sudden B. complete C. gradual D. final
14.A. warned B. persuade C. forced D. ordered
15.A. lengthen B. widen C. monitor D. landscape
16.A. let out B. found out C. pointed out D. figured out
17.A. visited B. left C. passed D. crossed
18.A. then B. even C. yet D. still
19.A. wildflowers B. wagons C. roadsides D. travels
20.A. decide B. guide C. brighten D. shorten
