Passage 1
Two legal cases, one in Germany and one still ongoing in the UK, show how the limits ofpatient confidentiality are being tested, and how this challenges long-established medical norms.
In a trial coming up at the High Court in London soon, a woman is suing the hospital that diagnosed her father with Huntington's disease for not informing her. Huntington's is a fatal,incurable neurodegenerative (神经变性的) disorder caused by a mutation (突变) in a single gene. Every child of an affected parent has a 50 per cent chance of inheriting the mutation.
The woman argues that, had she known her father's diagnosis, she wouldn't have given birth to her daughter, who is now herself at risk of Huntington's. Currently, in the UK as in many other countries, doctors are legally obliged to respect the confidentiality of patients unless they consent to their information being shared.
Guidelines issued by professional organisations do acknowledge that situations can arise where a doctor has a duty of disclosure to third parties even in the absence of consent. The High Court trial will test whether that duty of disclosure should also be recognised in law.That could bring some much needed clarity to the area, but also create new problems. What if I test positive for a disease-causing gene variant and my family members, who didn't consent to be tested themselves, don't want to know they are at risk?
This question was raised by a German case in which a woman sued a doctor for telling her that her ex-husband had Huntington's, meaning that their two children were at risk. The doctor acted with the consent of his patient, the ex-husband, but the woman's lawyers argued that the information was useless to her because the condition can't be cured and the children were too young to be tested anyway. Knowing her ex-husband's diagnosis without being able to act on it, the woman claimed, had sent her into a reactive depression and left her unable to work.
The German case ended with a final decision that favoured the doctor, despite the fact that, unlike in the UK, the right not to know is legally protected in Germany, with respect to genetic information.
Balancing these various rights isn't easy. In most cases, a gene test is likely to reveal only an increased risk of disease. The real problem is that the law is black-and-white, while predictive medicine is all about grey.

A.Treating the same disease

B.Revealing patients' illness

C.Evaluating hospitals' work

D.Establishing medical norms

A.The woman was optimistic about her father's health

B.The Huntington's disease was ignored in the hospital

C.The father hoped to have his disease concealed from his family

D.The doctors were careful about revealing medical evidence

A.remains a minor issue

B.needs further judgement

C.causes few problems

D.aids legal reform

A.got devastated upon hearing about her ex-husband's disease

B.had to bring her children to hospital to test for Huntington's

C.sued the doctor for delaying the treatment of her ex-husband

D.blamed her ex-husband for lacking concern for their children

A.The law reduces the risk of a crime in many areas

B.The law deals with various problems in people's life

C.The law gives a distinction between right and wrong

D.The law takes effect in a few rather than all aspects

Passage 2
Whether in public or private schools, teachers worried that their students with poor writing skills will suffer in college and the workplace. Some felt torn between their desire to enforce the rules and their fear of sucking the joy out of self-expression. And many were uncertain about how to help teenagers who didn't learn the foundations of grammar.
Eighteen teachers met for a class last week with Mary Norris, a veteran copy editor at The New Yorker. The Academy for Teachers sponsored the class in the Manhattan offices of Scholastic, a publishing company.
Ms. Norris began with a lighthearted demonstration of her perfectionism. Then she led the group in fixing mistakes she found in the media. Pointing to one example, she stressed that to put a comma between a subject and verb is a great error.
Catherine Conley, a teacher at St.Jean Baptiste High School, said that is“something my students love to do.
As the day went on, teachers expressed more concerns. They said formal grammar lessons have fallen by the wayside because of time constraints, an emphasis on hands-on projects and other priorities. Schools focus on reading comprehension and material emphasized on state tests, they said.
Erika Stark, who teaches English at Bronxdale High School, said her supervisors want her to concentrate on meaning and analysis, not grammar, but she couldn't ignore her 10th-graders' mistakes.
Several teachers said they struggle to deal with how much to be purists about spelling and punctuation (标点) in the era of texting. Their students often use abbreviations (缩写) in homework, such as “u” for “you," and some see a period as a sign of aggression.
Ambar Paulino, an English teacher at DeWitt Clinton High School, said some of her students use slang such as “ain't” and neglect subject-verb agreement when they speak. They don't realize they need to be more formal in academic writing. “T'm trying to find a balance so I'm alowving my students to find their voice but still follow some of the rules," she said.
Teresa Genaro, who teaches literature at the Packer Collegiate Institute, said she could envisage a day when writers no longer use capital letters at all. She corrects students who fail to capitalize “I” or “Catholic," but also questions the necessity because she understands their intent.
Ms. Genaro has her students write about rules that they think should be abandoned and why.“They are very compelling," she said.

A.Their difficulty of starting a career

B.Their failure in self-expression

C.Their refusal to learm anything

D.Their poor grammar in writing

A.She photocopies articles every day

B.She sponsored the teachers' class

C.She manages a publishing house

D.She taught in the teachers' class

A.Grammar lessons

B.Reading programs

C.Hands-on projects

D.Test preparations

A.teaching students to be formal in academic writing

B.righting some shortened words in their students' writing

C.concentrating on meaning and analysis in their teaching

D.stressing subject-verb agreement in the literature teaching

A.They cry for the permission to find their voice

B.They deem some grammar rules unecessary

C.They feel compelled to learn proper writing

D.They expect the abandonment of capital letters

Passage 3
Healthy children come in all shapes and sizes. Being physically fit is more important than Body Mass Index (BMI) when it comes to getting good grades. A new study by Dr.Robert R. Rauner and colleagues from Lincoln Public Schools and Creighton University in Nebraska found that aerobic (有氧运动的) fitness has a greater effect on academic performance than weight.
The study found that although BMI is an important indicator for overall health, it did not have a signifcant effect on test scores. Dr. Rauner and his team found that aerobically-fit children were 2.4 times more likely to pass math tests and 2.2 times more likely to pass reading tests than aerobically-unfit children. Even though the consequences of childhood obesity are well known, many school districts across the country have reduced physical education classes and recess time. This new study highlights that regular activity is an important part of closing the achievement gap. Forcing kids to sit still and cram for tests without including a regular outlet for physical activity can backfire (适得其反). According to Dr. Rauner,“Schools sacrificing physical education and physical activity time in search of more seat time for math and reading instruction could potentially be pursuing a counterproductive approach."
The study notes that both aerobic fitness and socio- economic status have a similar impact on academic performance. Among poorer children who received a free or reduced lunch at school, the odds of passing the tests were still greater than those of students who were aerobically-unfit, but not as high as those not receiving a free or reduced lunch. Because aerobic fitness is easier to improve than socio- economic status, Dr. Rauner is pushing for regular physical activity to be built into the school schedule.
Rauner says that physical education has been treated as optional for U.S. schools in the past few decades,“but I am hopeful we have passed that low point...and can reverse things.
"There is well-established research showing that physical and mental well-being are connected," says Rebecca Hashim, a clinical psychologist. “Some programs to treat depression use physical exercise, and studies with children show that exercise can raise self-esteem. If they feel better about themselves, perhaps they will do better academically. It makes sense," she said. "There is no known negative effect of exercise, so if it could improve well-being, why not put resources behind it?"

A.affect academic performance in school

B.determine whether a child is healthy

C.get considerable attention in schools

D.get neglected in a child's upbringing

A.passed the given tests effortlessly

B.were slimmer than the aerobically-unfit

C.were enthusiastic in doing the given task

D.got better scores than the aerobically-unfit

A.a hint to researchers

B.a warning to schools

C.a guideline for students

D.a suggestion to parents

A.The former is easier to improve.

B.The latter's role has been ignored.

C.The latter is more important.

D.The former's role has been overstressed.

A.What measures are taken to close the academic gap.

B.Why physical exercise boosts academic performance.

C.When it is proper and effective to do physical exercise.

D.How well some programs are used to treat mental illness.

Passage 4
At the age of 97, John Goodenough became the oldest person ever to win a Nobel Prize. The chemistry professor thereby settled an old score: 33 years before he won the award his employer, the University of Oxford, tried to make him retire before he wanted to. He “fled", in his words, to Texas where he has spent the entire intervening period happily working.
Professor Goodenough's work ethic demonstrates what is wrong with the often told story in rich countries about the young shouldering an ever greater burden as they support an ageing population. Those like the professor who might once have been pensioned off by their mid-sixties are now working longer. The young, meanwhile, do not go off to earn as early as they once did, and spend far longer studying.
Social scientists have traditionally used a “dependency ratio” comparing the number of those between the ages of 15 and 64 to everyone else in order to assess the sustainability of welfare states. Those of “working age" must support those who cannot work. A high dependency ratio means fewer people are funding health care, education and social security programmes.
This vision of the workforce is out of date. Advances in medicine mean many people can, and choose to, work far longer than the age of 65. Others, especially the low paid, who have not accumulated private pension rights, have been forced to continue working as state pension ages have increased.
As globalisation and automation have reduced the number of manufacturing jobs in rich countries, workers in the west have been able to keep going for longer. Physical labour wore out the bodies of factory workers and miners, but accountants and call centre operators face different kinds of stress.
In the US, where overall participation in the labour force has been declining since the financial crisis, those above the age of 65 are more likely to be in work now than before 2008. This pattern is the same across rich countries.
The traditional definition of“working age" is redundant. The 15-64 age band should be put out to grass. Instead, experts should use a version that reflects the new milestones in the developed world.
The University of Oxford still has a retirement age of 67, arguing that it needs to “refresh" the ranks of senior academics. Professor Goodenough is a reminder that allowing them to recharge might be more appropriate.

A.He began to study chemistry 33 years ago

B.He failed to find a new employer in Texas

C.He left the University of Oxford in his 60s

D.He won the Nobel Prize for chemistry twice

A.Young people tend to start work at a later age

B.Old people make more money than young people

C.The white-collar should extend their working age

D.Those like Goodenough should depend on the young

A.The high-paying jobs exceed the low-paying ones

B.The government finances the welfare system

C.The dependency ratio needs a constant increase

D.The working people support those unable to work

A.An engineer

B.A call operator

C.A factory worker

D.An accountant

A.It needs supporting

B.It is very disastrous

C.It needs updating

D.It is very flexible

Passage 5
The United States has had its most devastating wildfire season on record, with more than eight million acres of land burned across the country this year. Regenerating the forests that sat on much of that land would ordinarily take years and involve hundreds of people manually replanting young trees grown in dedicated nurseries.
Seattle-based DroneSeed has a much faster and more effective solution. The company uses fleets of drones (无人机) to reforest areas that have burned down, dropping what it calls "seed vessels" into areas where they have the best chance of growing back.
The eight-foot drones, up to five at a time flying together on pre-programmed routes, can cover up to 50 acres a day and each carry as much as 57 pounds of seed vessels."We are six times faster than a tree planter out there with a shovel who's doing about two acres a day," DroneSeed CEO Grant Canary said.
Replanting forests from the air is not a new approach, with planes or helicopters often used to scatter seeds. Experts say that method is cheaper and easier than traditional hand planting but may not be as effective."Just throwing forest tree seeds out of airplanes can be successful, and it's a lot cheaper than manual planting," said Ralph Schmidt, a geology professor. "Growing seedlings (幼苗) in nurseries and manually planting them will always have a much higher success rate than aerial sowing, but it is much more expensive."
Selecting the right species of seed and the right place to drop them is key, Schmidt added.
DroneSeed is trying to find a middle ground with its unique seed vessels. The specially designed packets consist of a combination of fertilizers, nutrients and pest deterrents (杀虫剂) that help the seeds take root more effectively- without having to be physically buried in the ground."The vessel absorbs moisture so that it can avoid drying out. It's also pest-proof so that the seed can avoid getting eaten," Canary said.
Drones aren't the only technology the company uses to make replanting more effective. It also deploys Lidar, the sensing technology used by self-driving cars to map the world around them, to create a 3D model of the land. That's coupled with sensors that measure different wavelengths of light to tell the difference between areas of gravel and places where healthy soil may be better suited for trees to grow.

A.improve soil

B.replant trees

C.carry out fire drills

D.remove manual-labor

A.programmed routes

B.high efficiency

C.body structure

D.seed vessels

A.The coverage of land

B.The selection of seeds

C.The survival of trees

D.The reduction of costs

A.They contain filtered water

B.They carry growth promoters

C.They are buried in the ground

D.They are attractive to pests

A.DroneSeed's ambitious plan

B.DroneSeed's business scope

C.Lidar's strong and weak points

D.Lidar's mechanism and function