V reading comprehension

Close Reading
Directions There are 30 passages in this section. Read carefully and then answer the questions that follow.
Passage 1
According to the World Health Organization, malaria kills about 3,000 people a day, as many as 70% of whom are children under the age of five. Many groups of researchers are working on vaccines against the disease, but most agree that any vaccine that results will be imperfect. Nobody is expecting to confer full immunity with a vaccine, because the organisms that cause malaria are not viruses or bacteria (the traditional targets of vaccination) but single-celled animal-like creatures. These are a lot more complex and diverse than traditional vaccine targets. It is therefore hard to prime the immune system against all the strains of them that may cause the disease.
That might not be thought to matter much, on the basis that some protection is better than none. But a paper by Sylvain Gandon, Margaret Mackinnon and their colleagues at the University of Edinburgh, published in this week's Nature, shows that this isn't necessarily so. Partially effective vaccines may end up doing more harm than good. The researchers' mathematical models suggest that such vaccines may provoke the evolution of particularly virulent strains of the pathogen that causes the disease.
To understand why an imperfect vaccine might increase a disease's virulence, consider the matter from the pathogen's point of view. The main cost of increased virulence is that it will shorten the lifespan of the host, reducing the chances of the disease being transmitted to new hosts. On the other hand, a pathogen benefits from increased virulence because pathogenic organisms that are more virulent are less easily defeated by a host's immune system. That means that once a pathogen gets into a new host, it has a better chance of establishing itself.
In nature, the balance between these two forces is what governs the virulence of a given disease. The effect of a vaccine that confers full immunity, from the pathogen's point of view, is to reduce the size of its host population, since only unprotected individuals can then be infected. If anything, that will tend to reduce virulence, since the pathogen will have to hang on longer between transmission opportunities, and so will "want" its host to survive. But a vaccine that confers only partial immunity will increase host survival anyway, allowing pathogens that are not affected to "bank" this increased survival by becoming more virulent themselves.
This means two things. First, in the long run, the vaccinated will be no better off than they would otherwise have been. Second, the unvaccinated are actually worse off, since the newly virulent strain will spread at the expense of the older, less virulent ones. That is something that policymakers need to consider carefully if and when they are presented with a vaccine against malaria.
1. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
A. Malaria kills about 3,000 people a day.
B. 70% of the victims of malaria are children.
C. No vaccine at present is perfect against malaria.
D. A vaccine will increase host survival anyway.
2. What does the word 'virulent' mean in the third paragraph?
A. Fatal. B. Poisonous. C. Risky. D. Perilous.
3. How does an imperfect vaccine increase a disease's virulence?
A. By shortening the lifespan of the host.
B. By breaking the balance between the two forces that govern a disease's virulence.
C. By reducing the size of the host population.
D. By allowing pathogens that are not affected to become more virulent themselves.
Passage 2
The writers of murder stories go to a great deal of trouble to keep us guessing right up to the end. In actual fact, people often behave more strangely in real life than they do in stories.
The following advertisement once appeared in a local newspaper. "An opportunity to earn $ 250 in a few minutes. A man ... willing to take chances wanted for an out-of-the-ordinary job which can be performed only once." A reader found this offer very generous and applied to the advertiser. But a hit suspicious. He gave a false name. Soon afterwards, he received a reply. Enclosed in the envelope was a typed note instructing him to ring a number if he was still interested in the job. He did so and learnt on the telephone that the advertiser wanted him "to get rid of somebody" and would discuss it more fully with him next day. But the man told the police and from then on acted under their instructions. The police saw two men meet and watched them as they drove away together. In the car the advertiser came to the point at once: he told the man he wanted him to shoot his wife. The reason he gave was that he was suffering from an incurable disease and wanted to live in a warmer country, but his wife objected to this. Giving the man some money, the advertiser told him to buy a gun and warned him to be careful of the dog which though would not bite, might attract attention. He also gave him a photograph of his wife so that he would
be able to recognize her. After that, the advertiser suggested that the man should "do the job" next morning. Meanwhile he would prepare his wife by telling her that a young man was going to call. After the murder, they would meet again outside a railway station and the money would be paid as arranged. The second meeting never took place, for the advertiser was arrested shortly afterwards and charged with attempting to persuade someone to murder his wife.
4. Of the four sentences, which best expresses the meaning of the opening sentence?
A. The writers of murder stories meet with a lot of trouble.
B. Usually the stories show us who is the murderer in the middle.
C. While reading, we can easily guess who is the real murderer.
D. The murder stories often lead us in a round-about way.
5. When a reader saw the advertisement, .
A. he applied for the job under a false name
B. he was eager to get it
C. he was doubtful whether such a generous offer could be true
D. he was sure he was the man the advertiser was looking for
6. When the police received the report, __
A. they arrested the advertiser at once
B. they sent a dog to keep watch on him
C. they didn't arrest him until they got enough evidence
D. they arrested him after his wife was killed
Passage 3
Danny and Sylvia, about the stormy marriage and showbiz collaboration of entertainer Danny Kaye and his wife, songwriter Sylvia Fine Kaye, debuted last fall as a production of American Century Theater. It was reprised last spring. Now the show, written by Kaye's long-ago publicist Bob McElwaine and composer Bob Bain, is about to open in a New York theater festival. It will play from Thursday through Sept. 22. McElwaine, a former advertising man and Hollywood press agent, worked for the volatile Kayes from 1952 to 1958. "They just devoured my whole life, you know? I tried to leave several times," he recalled recently. At 79, the writer still marvels at Danny Kaye's ability to charm an audience with patter songs (many written by Sylvia) and other inspired stage silliness. "He had the ability to become a child, which was quite remarkable," said MeElwaine. "Danny Kaye was a consummate professional, a perfectionist. I think it was Sylvia who converted him into being a perfectionist. '
Danny and Sylvia contains three songs that Kaye actually performed -- Minnie the Moocher, Tschaikowsky and AnaWle of Paris -- the last the only song by Sylvia Fine Kaye to which McElwaine and American Century Theater could get the rights. The other 25 numbers in the show were written by MeElwaine and Bain, 78, pals since high school in Culver City, Calif.. Bain is a big band veteran and former guitarist-arranger on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Brian Childers, who won a Helen Hayes Award in May for his portrayal of Kaye, will again play the role in New York. "I read every book, I watched every movie ... to get every little twitch, every little move," said Childers. (Among Kaye's best-known films are The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Hans Christian Andersen, Knock on Wood and On the Double. ) "Again, it's not an impersonation, it's a tribute," the actor emphasized. Perry Payne, a cabaret performer in New York, filled in for Sylvia.
Tony winner Thommie Walsh, a frequent collaborator of Payne's, will direct. "She really wanted money and she was very stylish and she was very cool and she smoked like a chimney and she was not necessarily polite,,' said Payne of Sylvia. Her research was more limited than that of Childers: "Whereas Brian could look at footage and tapes and scripts ... I just had to imagine Sylvia, but I heard I'm pretty close."
Danny Kaye died in 1987 and Sylvia Fine Kaye in 1991. Of the New York debut, McElwaine mused, "I was always afraid of going to New York with it because it's not a sophisticated kind of story. It's a love story, and I worried that the New York critics will go, 'Where's all the dirt? Where's the gossip?' ... We'll just have to take a chance and see what happens."
7. What is true of Danny and Sylvia?
A. They are two imaginary characters in a play.
B. They were both famous singers in the 1950s.
C. They were a couple who cooperated in their professional career.
D. They only performed on the stage.
8. Who are the actor and actress in the play Danny and Sylvia?
A. Bob McElwaine and Bob Bain.
B. Brian Childers and Johnny Carson.
C. Perry Payne and Thommie Walsh.
D. Brian Childers and Perry Payne.
9. Of the two roles, Danny and Sylvia, which is more difficult to play?
A. Danny, because of his stormy character.
B. Sylvia, because the acting of her is based on imagination.
C. Danny, because it's hard to sing all the songs in the play.
D. Sylvia, because audience have their own interpretation of a "cool" woman.
Passage 4
Early one morning more than a hundred years ago, an American inventor called Elias Howe finally fell asleep. He had been working all night on the design of a sewing-machine but he had run into a very difficult problem: it seemed impossible to get the thread to run smoothly around the needle.
Despite his exhaustion, Howe slept badly. He tossed and turned. Then he had a nightmare. He dreamt that he had been captured by a tribe of terrible savages whose king threatened to kill and eat him unless he could build a perfect sewing-machine. When he tried to do so, Howe ran into the same problem as before. The thread kept getting caught around the needle. The king flew into a rage and ordered his soldiers to kill Howe. They advanced towards him with their spears raised. But suddenly the inventor noticed something. There was a hole in the tip of each spear. The inventor awoke from the nightmare with a start, realizing that he had just found the solution to the problem. Instead of trying to get the thread to run around the needle, he should make it run through a small hole in the center of the needle. This was the simple idea that finally enabled Howe to design and build the first really practical sewing machine. Elias Howe was far from being unique in finding the answer to his problem in this way. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light bulb, said that his best ideas came to him in dreams. So did the great physicist, Albert Einstein. Charlotte Bronte also drew on her dreams in writing Jane Eyre. The composer, Igor Stravinsky, once said the only way he could solve his problems in musical composition was to sleep on them.
To appreciate the value of dreams, you have to understand what happens when you are asleep. Even then, a part of your mind is still working. This unconscious, but still active part digests your experiences and goes to work on the problems you have had during the day. It stores all sorts of information and details which you may have forgotten or never have really noticed. It is only when you fall asleep that this part of the brain can send message to the part you use when you are awake. However, the unconscious part expresses itself through its own logic and its own language. It uses strange images which the conscious part may not understand at first. This is why dreams are sometimes called "secret messages to ourselves".
10. According to the passage, Elias Howe was __.
A. the first person we know of who solved problems in his sleep
B. the only person at the time who appreciated the value of dreams
C. the first person to design a sewing-machine that really worked
D. much more hard-working than other inventors
11. The problem Howe was trying to solve was .
A. how to stop the thread from getting caught around the needle
B. how to make thread thin enough to pull through a needle
C. how to design a needle which would not break
D. how to find a place in the machine to put the needle
12. Dreams are sometimes called "secret messages to ourselves" because __
A. only specially trained people can understand them
B. strange images are involved which have no meaning
C. we can never understand the real meaning of our dreams
D. strange images are used to communicate ideas
Passage 5
New York mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that investors who sank their paychecks into companies with no earnings and no prospects for ever having them were just as culpable for the mess in the markets as those companies that government officials say defrauded investors.
Almost as soon as the words had left his lips some people who work in the City Council were quick to deride them. Mr~ Bloomberg was asked by John Gambling, the host of the radio program, what he thought about the recent accusations that companies like Enron and WorldCom had engaged in fraudulent accounting practices that bilked investors out of millions of dollars.
"It is a disgrace if there was fraud committed," the mayor said. "People in management have a responsibility to conduct their affairs honorably and legally." But when questioned further about the Wall Street meltdown of the last two years, the mayor went on to say.. "People who were buying stocks in the stock market at multiples that never made any sense should look at themselves in the mirror. They're as responsible, I think, as those who actually committed the crimes of misstating earnings and fudging the numbers." Mr. Bloomberg appeared to be referring both to dot-coms, which traded at enormously high prices even without the benefit of actual earnings, as well as those companies that are accused of defrauding investors. Mr. Bloomberg was a critic of dot-coms during the Internet boom. "The mayor was offering the perspective that if the numbers don't make sense, either because of market hysteria or possible fraud, then people should use basic investment principles before buying shares in companies," said his spokesman, Edward Skyler. "You can't get something for nothing."
Right after the mayor's program, the phones began ringing in mad succession around the City Hall press room, with council members or council staff members offering to provide views on his comments. "Our mayor has made some unfortunate remarks that I'm sure were brought on by the frustration of seeing such a criminal misuse of the stock market," said James Sanders Jr., a councilman from Queens. "Just as we no longer say that a woman who dresses in a provocative fashion cried out for rape, nor should we say that anyone who was simply misled by the stock exchange or its members was a willing victim."
13. What did the New York mayor say in the radio program about recent accusations involving companies like Enron and WorldCom?

1. 
   These companies have defrauded investors.
   

B. Unlike other government officials, he doesn't think these companies have defrauded investors.
C. The investors who sank their paychecks into these companies are to blame.
D. Both the companies and the investors are to blame for creating a mess in the market.
14. From the third paragraph, what can you infer about the dot-coms?
A. Their stocks used to rise at multiples in the stock market.
B. They do not conduct their affairs honorably and legally.
C. They are accused of defrauding investors.
D. They have brought about the Wall Street meltdown of the last two years.
15. According to the mayor, what is the best way for the investors to avoid economic loss before buying a stock?
A. They should consult the specialists.
B. They should use basic investment principles.
C. They should make a thorough investigation of a company.
D. They should stop buying stocks altogether.