听力原文: English premier league club Manchester United announced on Tuesday that they have reached agreement with Real Madrid on the transfer of David Beckham on a fee of 35 million euros (approximately 40 million US dollars). Manchester United said on its official website that the deal is expected to be completed in July, upon approval by the beards of Manchester United and Real Madrid, and on the provision of satisfactory payment guarantees. David Beckham, who still has two years remaining on his contract with United, has agreed on personal terms with Real Madrid, said the statement.
What is the news mainly about?
A. English Prime Minister met David Beckham.
B. David Beckham was to transfer to Real Madrid.
C. David Beckham still has two years remaining on his contract with United.
D. Manchester United and Real Madrid announced to have a football match.
The Death of a Spouse
For much of the world, the death of Richard Nixon was the end of a complex public life. But researchers who study bereavement wondered if it didn’t also signify the end of a private grief. Had the former president merely run his allotted fourscore and one, or had he fallen victim to a pattern that seems to afflict long- time married couples: one spouse quickly following the other to the grave?
Pat, Nixon’s wife of 53 years, died last June 'after *a long illness. No one knows for sure whether her death contributed to his. After all, he was elderly and had a history of serious heart disease. Researchers have long observed that the death of a spouse particularly a wife is sometimes followed by the untimely death of the grieving survivor. Historian Will Durant died 13 days after his wife and collaborator, Ariel; Buckminster Fuller and his wife died just 36 hours apart. Is this more than coincidence?
"Part of the story, I suspect, is that we men are so used to ladies feeding us and taking care of us," says Knud Helsing, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Public health, "that when we lose a wife we go to pieces. We don’t know how to take care of ourselves." In one of several studies Helsing has conducted on bereavement, he found that widowed men had higher mortality rates than married men in every age group. But, he found that widowers who remarried enjoyed the same lower mortality rate as men who’d never been widowed.
Women’s health and resilience may also suffer after the loss of a spouse. In a 1987 study of widows, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, and UC, San Diego, found that they had a dramatic decline in levels of important immune - system cells that fight off disease. Earlier studies showed reduced immunity in widowers.
For both men and women, the stress of losing a spouse can have a profound effect. "All sorts of potentially harmful medical problems can be worsened, "says Gerald Davison, professor of psychology at the University of Southern California. People with high blood pressure, for example, may see it rise. In Nixon’s case, Davison speculates, "the stroke, although not caused directly by the stress, was probably hastened by it." Depression can affect the surviving spouse’s will to live; suicide are elevated in the bereaved, along with accidents not involving cars.
Involvement in life helps prolong it. Mortality, says Duke University psychiatrist Daniel Blazer, is higher in older people without a good social - support - system, who don’t feel they’re part of a group or a family, that they "fit in" somewhere. And that’s a more common problem for men, who tend not to have as many close friendships as women. The sudden absence of routines can also be a health hazard, says Blazer. "A person who loses a spouse shows deterioration in normal habits like sleeping and eating." he says. "They don’t have that other person to orient them, like when do you go to bed, when do you wake up, when do you eat, when do you take your medication, when do you go out to take a walk? Your pattern is no longer locked into someone else’s pattern, so it deteriorates."
While earlier studies suggested that the first six months to a year - or even the first week -- were times of higher mortality for the bereaved, some newer studies find no special vulnerability in this initial period. Most men and women, of course do not die as a result of the loss of a spouse. And there are ways to improve the odds. A strong sense of separate identity and lack of over - dependency during the marriage are helpful. Adult sons and daughters, siblings and friends need to pay special attention to a newly widowed parent. They can make sure that he or she is socializing, getting proper nutrition and medical care, expressing emotion and, above all, feeling needed and appreciated.
According to researchers, Richard Nixon’s d
A. caused by his heart problems.
B. indirectly linked to his wife’s death.
C. the inevitable result of old age.
D. an unexplainable accident.
听力原文: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon backed up his call m for an immediate ceasefire following eight months of fighting with the Palestinians by ordering Israel’s army to cease all pre-emptive strikes against them.
A senior aide to Palestinian President Yasser Ararat termed the truce offer "a lie" and said yesterday a Palestinian "status of self-defence" would continue as long as Israel occupied land in the west Bank and Gaza strip.
US President George W. Bush welcomed Sharon’s statement White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters in Washington on Tuesday. Fleischer added the United States "would welcome a similar statement" from the Palestinians.
Sharon called for a ceasefire at a news conference on Tuesday in which he rejected a total freeze of Jewish settlement activity, part of a plan by a US-led committee for ending lsraeli-Palestinian violence.
"I’propose to our neighbours that we work together to reach an immediate ceasefire and hope the Palestinians will answer the call postively," Sharon said at the news conference."
"This is only a manoeuvre by Sharon’s government aimed at allevating international pressure on Israel, which was condemned for excessive use of force," countered the Arafat aide, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman.
Israeli soldiers came under Palestinian fire in several parts of Gaza late on Tuesday and a roadside bomb exploded or its border with Egypt, which Israel patrols under interim peace deals, the army said. The soldiers returned fire. Israeli- li army spokesman Ron Kitrey said that, under the new guidelines, soldiers would "protect themselves and prevent terror attacks, "but would not initiate any fighting with Palestinians.
he said they would require government approval to enter areas under Palestinian control or carry out reprisal at- tacks, a change from a policy where Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer had given field commanders a free hand to launch incursions.
At least 444 Palestinians, 87 lsraelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in late September after peace talks stalled.
Palestinians say that ______.
A. Israeli Prime Minister is sincere to call for ceasefire
B. Sharon’s appeal to stop ongoing violence is a "lie"
C. they believe this time will soon witness ceasefire
D. they feel relieved America supports ceasefire