Two years ago, the Funk family of suburban Chicago adopted a Chinese baby girl who had been abandoned on a sidewalk near a Yangzhou textile factory.

Last year and halfway across the United States, the Ramirez family of suburban Miami adopted a girl who had been abandoned a week later on the same spot.

Both families named their daughters Mia. It turns out, a first name and Chinese heritage aren’t the only things the three-year-olds have in common. The girls’ mothers—Holly Funk and Diana Ramirez—met on a website for parents who had gone through international adoptions. After a flurry of e-mails comparing photographs and biographical details, DNA testing proved the families’ suspicions: The girls are probably fraternal (手足般的) twins.

“I was in shock,” said Ramirez, who lives with her husband Carlos in Pembroke Pines, Florida. “Well, now this is for real.”

The Internet and Web groups revolving around international orphanages are increasingly being used to link adopted children with biological kin(亲属). The site that the Funks and Ramirezes used has a membership of 137 people, with 15 sets of twins and seven sets of siblings whose relationships have been confirmed.

At a reunion on Friday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Mia Diamond Funk Mia Hanying Ramirez shyly surveyed each other, then reached for each other’s hand.

DNA tests established an 85 percent probability that the girls are at least half sisters. Scientists did not have a biological parent to test and reach a greater certainty, but given their ages and physical similarities, experts say it is likely they are fraternal twins.

Douglas and Holly Funk hope to take Mia to Miami in October. Both sets of parents say they are committed to staying in touch and often let the twins talk to each other on the phone.

1.. Both the adopted girls shared a first name ________.

  A. because they both came from China       

  B. because of their physical similarities

  C. because their US parents suspected they were twins

  D. for no good reason

2. Why did the girls’ mothers meet on the Internet?

  A. To compare photographs of the two girls.

  B. To communicate with other people who had adopted children abroad.

  C. To test their suspicion.

  D. To exchange experiences on adopting children.

3.Experts are still not 100 percent sure that the two girls are fraternal twins because ________.

  A. DNA tests are still not accurate enough

  B. the two girls were born by different parents

  C. the DNA of a biological parent is still missing

  D. one girl is born a week later than the other

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

  A. Adopted Twins Reunited on Internet  

  B. Adopted Twins Live happily in the US.

  C. Suspicion Turned into Reality

    D. The Story of Adopted Twins and Their Parents

It happened one morning 20 years ago. A British scientist Alec Jeffrey came across DNA fingerprinting: He identified the patterns of genetic material that are unique to almost every individual. His discovery changed everything from the way we do criminal investigations to the way we decide family law. But the professor of genetics at the University of Leicester, UK, is still surprised, and a bit worried, by the power of the technology he released upon the world.
The patterns within DNA are unique to each individual, except identical twins, who share the same pattern. The ability to identify these patterns has been used to convict(证明…有罪) murderers and to clear people who are wrongly accused. It is also used to identify the victims of war and settle disputes over who is the father of a child.
Jeffrey said he and his colleagues made the discovery by accident while tracking genetic variations(变异). But, within six months of the discovery, genetic fingerprinting had been used in an immigration case, to prove that an African boy really was his parents’ son.·In 1986, it was used for the first time in a British criminal case: It cleared one suspect after being accused of two murders and helped convict another man.
DNA testing is now very common. In Britain, a national criminal database established in 1995 now contains 2.5 million DNA samples. The U.S. and Canada are developing similar systems. But there are fears about the stored DNA samples and how they could be used to harm a person’s privacy. That includes a person’s medical history, racial origin or psychological profile. “There is the long-term risk that people can get into these samples and start getting additional information about a person’s paternity(父子关系) or risk of disease,” Jeffrey said.
DNA testing is not an unfailing proof of identity. Still, it is considered a reasonably reliable system for determining the things it is used for. Jeffrey estimates the probability of two individuals’ DNA profiles matching in the most commonly used tests at one in a billion.
【小题1】According to the text, DNA testing can NOT be used in _______ .

A．the government in Britain establishes a criminal database

B．the US and Canada develop similar systems

C．DNA samples can be used to harm a person’s privacy

D．DNA testing is too expensive and dangerous now

As a professor at a large American university, there is a phrase that I hear often from students: “I’m only a 1050. ”The unlucky students are speaking of the score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT）, which is used to determine whether they will be admitted to the college or university of their choice, or even have a chance to get a higher education at all. The SAT score, whether it is 800, 1 100 or 1550, has becomes the focus at this time of their life.

It is obvious that if students value highly their test scores, then a great amount of their self-respect is put in the number. Students who perform poorly on the exam are left feeling that it is all over. The low test score, they think, will make it impossible for them to get into a good college. And without a degree from a prestigious university, they fear that many of life’s doors will remain forever closed.

According to a study done in the 1990s, the SAT is only a reliable indicator(指示物) of a student’s future performance in most cases. Interestingly, it becomes much more accurate when it is set together with other indicators——like a student’s high school grades. Even if standardized tests like the SAT could show a student’s academic proficiency（学业水平）,they will never be able to test things like confidence, efforts and willpower, and are unable to give us the full picture of a student’s potentialities（潜力）. This is not to suggest that we should stop using SAT scores in our college admission process. The SAT is an excellent test in many ways, and the score is still a useful means of testing students. However, it should be only one of many methods used.

1.The purpose of the SAT is to test students’      .

A．strong will                             B．academic ability

C．full potentialities                        D．confidence in school work

2.Students’ self-respect is influenced by their     .

A．scores in the SAT                        B．achievements in mathematic

C．job opportunities                       D．money spent on education

3.“A prestigious university” is most probably      .

A．a famous university                      B．a technical university

C．a traditional university                    D．an expensive university

4.This passage is mainly about       .

A．how to prepare for the SAT                B．stress caused by the SAT

C．American higher education                D．the SAT and its effects

Four in 10 Chinese complain about the great gap between large investments in education and its returns, a recent nationwide survey has showed.
The Horizon Research Consultancy Group polled 3,355 residents aged 16 to 60 in both urban and rural areas, including Beijing and Shanghai.
The survey found that only 16 percent of respondents believed their investments on education gave good returns.
Those with higher education voiced greater disappointment at the quality of education received, the survey showed.
People in the rural areas generally gave more positive feedback（反馈）on the quality of education than those from the cities, the survey found.
"Our education has been focusing on an examination-oriented system," Huo Qingwen, the deputy director of language education testing service center under the Beijing Foreign Studies University, told China Daily yesterday.
"The survey result doesn't surprise me, as I had heard complaints not only from the students, but also from the teachers who have been asked to focus more about the exam-passing rate," Huo said.
"The job market is still hungry for talented staff, but many graduates are not competent(胜任的) because the posts require more practical experience and creative ability of workers," Huo added.
Most university graduates prefer jobs in large cities, causing an imbalance in human resources between urban and rural areas, Hong said.
The graduates would get better job options if they chose to work at the grassroots (基础的) level because of the government's preferential policies, including the waiving of tuition for those willing to work in the country's rural and western regions, he added.
About 580,000 graduates last year found county- or village-level jobs, and more than 550,000 got jobs in the central and western regions, Ministry of Education figures showed.
"Because many graduates focus only on jobs with high salaries and that are directly relevant to their specialties, they miss other good work opportunities," Kong Xiang, a Beijing graduate who works as an English teacher in a college located at a remote area in Yunnan province, said.
The recent survey showed that education costs form one-quarter of an urban family's income, while it forms one-third of a rural family's income.
46．According to the passage, most people think that _______
A. the investments in education gave them good returns.
B. the investments in education don’t bring them good results.
C. college students are satisfied with their the education received.
D. People in the cities are more satisfied with the quality of education than those in the rural areas.
47．Which of the following is NOT mentioned?
A. China’s education has been focusing on an examination-oriented system .
B. Both the teachers and students are asked to pay more attention to the exam-passing rate.
C. The job market now does not lack university graduates.
D. Most university graduates enjoy hunting jobs in large cities.
48. What would happen to the graduates if they chose to work at the grassroots level?
A. They would get higher salaries.                        B. They would get lower salaries.
C. Their tuition would be free.                           D. They would get better job choices.
49. How much does the education cost according to the survey ?
A. One-third of a family's income.
B. one-quarter of a rural family's income.
C. 25% of an urban family's income.
D. Three in ten a rural family's income.
50. Which of the following can be the best title of this passage.
A. The gap between investments in education and its returns
B. Education and university graduates
C. China’s higher education
D. Education costs

LONDON (Reuters) — Children are dying for lack of drugs tailored to their needs, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which launched a global campaign on Thursday to promote more research into child medicine.
More than half of the drugs currently used to treat children in the industrialized world have not been specifically tested on youngsters.
The problem is even worse in developing countries where price remains a major barrier and 6 million children die each year from treatable conditions.
In the case of HIV/AIDS, the few existing pediatric therapies（儿科的疗法）developed for children generally cost three times more than adult ones.
As a result, clinicians lack clear guidelines on the best drug to use and often have to guess at the correct dose.
Fortunately, the WHO has drawn up the first international List of Essential Medicines for Children, containing 206 products considered safe for children.
“But a lot remains to be done. There are priority medicines that have not been adapted for children’s use or are not available when needed,” said Dr Hans, the U.N. agency’s director of medicines policy and standards.
Medicines that need to be adapted to children’s needs include many antibiotics, pain drugs as well as combination pills for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The agency is building an Internet entrance linking to clinical trials carried out in children and will launch a Web site with the information early next year.
Testing medicines on children has always been a controversial issue, since good ethical（伦理的）practice requires informed agreement from people participating in clinical trials, which is difficult to obtain in the case of children.
As a result, research-based drug companies have been wary of developing child-friendly medicines and general companies have been slow to produce them at lower cost.
In an attempt to deal with the issue, both Europe and the United States now have special rules offering extended patent protection for drugs that have been tested on children.
【小题1】Which of the following is the best title of the passage?