&8226;The pie chart shows the human resources components of an international company.
&8226;Using the information from the pie chart, write a short report and make some suggestions about the human resources components.
&8226;Write 120-140 words on a separate sheet.
Microbubbles: A new technique to treat disease involves the careful injection of tiny, drug-coated bubbles in the bloodstream.
A Thilo Hoelscher, a neurologist at the University of Califomia, San Diego, is a man with a plan. His plan is to deal with strokes by blowing bubbles at them. The bubbles in question would be small enough to inject into blood vessels leading to the affected part of the brain. When they got to the blood clot that caused the stroke, they would be jiggled into action by the application of ultrasound. The result would be myriads of tiny jackhammers chipping away at the clot before it had a chance to cause too much permanent damage.
B What makes this approach particularly interesting is that Dr Hoelscher wants to start treating stroke patients as soon as they are heaved into an ambulance, rather than waiting until they arrive in the emergency room. He plans to start a feasibility study before the end of the year in which some of San Diego's ambulances will be equipped with portable ultrasonic transducers. Andrei Alexandrov, a pioneer in therapeutic-ultrasound research who now directs the stroke centre at the University of Alabama, is pursuing a similar approach. He is designing an easy-to-use ultrasound helmet that an emergency-room nurse can attach before administering a vial of microbubbles. Both schemes are examples of a new idea in medicine, Which is to use tiny bubbles of gas not merely to highlight organs during ultrasonic scanning, as has been done for several years, but also as a form. of treatment. With clinical trials now getting under way, experts think it will take around five years for these new therapies to reach patients.
C Microbubbles are not just any old bubbles. They contain a chemically stable gas, such as perfluoropropane, instead of air. This gas is encapsulated in a fatty shell rather like a very small balloon. Even the largest microbubbles being tested for medical use are only five microns across, less than the diameter of a red blood cell. More advanced bubbles are only a few hundred nanometres across and can move easily through the lining of a blood vessel. They may also, crucially, be able to cross the blood-brain barrier, a tightly sealed layer of cells that protects the brain from dangerous chemicals including many drugs. If you put such a drug in the surface layer of a microbubble, you might be able to smuggle it into the brain.
D Having got into the brain (or anywhere else), a well-designed microbubble should also be able find a particular target. That is because the fatty layer can include molecules such as antibodies, which link up with proteins found on the surfaces of only one type of cell. A bubble with such an antibody in it would thus stick only to that type of cell. This sort of approach is being tested by Mark Borden and Paul Dayton, who work at another of the University of California's campuses, in Davis. They have demonstrated in rats that bubbles with an appropriate outer layer can be equipped with molecules that stick specifically to diseased cells. These molecules are initially hidden under a polymer layer to prevent the immune system from destroying the bubbles. When the bubble arrives at its target, however, it is blasted with ultrasound in a way that exposes the molecule and makes the bubble stick.
E The two researchers can also use sound waves to steer bubbles towards a target, as if those bubbles were surfing a wave in the sea. Moreover, they can slow the bubbles down when they arrive where they are wanted. Once the bubbles have stuck good and fast to their targets, turning up the ultrasound still further will burst them, so that they release their payloads precisely where they can do most good. The result is smaller, better-aimed doses of drugs, which should mean fewer side-effects. In principle, such paytoads could be small-molecule drugs such as those used for cancer chemotherapy. They could be therapeutic prot
Earthquakes are probably one of the most frightening and
destructive happenings of nature that man experiences. They
have caused the death of many human beings, much suffering
and greatly damage to property. Today, the study of earthquake 【S1】________.
has grown greatly with scientists all over the world 【S2】________.
investigating the causes of earthquakes. Scientists hope that their
studies will improve ways of predicting earthquakes and also
develop ways to reduce its destructive effects. 【S3】________.
The scientific study of earthquakes is fairly new. Until the
18th century many factual descriptions of earthquakes were 【S4】________.
recorded. In general, people did not understand the cause of
earthquakes. Many believe they were a punishment from God 【S5】________.
and a warning for them to repent (忏悔). One early theory was
that earthquakes were caused by air rushed out caves deep in the 【S6】________.
interior of the earth.
On Nov. 1, 1755, a serious earthquake occurred near Lisbon,
Portugal. Shocks from the quake had felt in many parts of the world. 【S7】________.
After the quake, Portuguese priests were asked to observe and to
make written records. These records were the first system attempt 【S8】________.
to document the effects of an earthquake. Since that time, detailed
records have been kept to almost every major earthquakes. 【S9】________.
Currently, scientists are making studies to enable them to
predict earthquakes. But at the present time, the ability to predict the
time, place, and size of earthquakes are very limited. 【S10】________.
【S1】
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Directions: Translate the following text into Chinese.
If people mean anything at all by the expression "untimely death", they must believe that some deaths run on a better schedule than others. Death in old age is rarely called untimely -- a long life is thought to be a full one. But with the passing of a young person, one assumes that the best years lay ahead and the measures of that life was still to be taken.
History denies this, of course. Among prominent summer deaths, one recalls those of Marilyn Monroe and James Deans, whose lives seemed equally brief and complete. Writers cannot bear the fact that poet John Keats died at 26, and only half playfully judge their own lives as failures when they pass that year. The idea that the life cut short is unfulfilled is illogical because lives are measured by the impressions they leave on the world and by their intensity and virtue.