Sports Star Yao Ming If Yao Ming is not the biggest sports star in the world, he is almost certainly the tallest. At 2. 26m, he is the tallest player in the National Basketball Association(NBA)and holds the record as the most towering Olympian ever to compete in the Games. But what really stands out about the giant center is his celebrity(名气). Few, if any, Chinese athletes are as well-known as Yao around the world. People across the globe are fascinated with Yao, not only for his basketball prowess(杰出的才能),but also for being a symbol of international commerce. When Yao joined the Houston Rockets as the No. 1 pick in the 2002 NBA draft(选拔), he was the first international player ever to be selected first. His assets on the court are clear enough— no NBA player of his size has ever possessed his mobility, so he is a handful(难对付的人)for opponents on either end of the court. But what makes Yao invaluable to the Rockets organization is his role as a global citizen and as a bridge to millions of potential basketball fans in China. When it was announced in February that Yao would miss the rest of the NBA season and possibly the Olympics with a stress fracture(骨折)in his left foot, a collective shudder(震动)spread across China. After considerable debate and discussion, Yao opted to get his foot surgically treated in an operation that placed several tiny screws across the bone, to offer his overburdened foot more support. The surgery was a success, and though the estimated four-month recovery period will leave him little time to prepare with Team China, Yao has vowed to be ready for the Beijing Olympics. Yao wrapped up a 10-day trip to China, where he underwent a series of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)treatments, hoping to accelerate his recovery process. Western experts are generally skeptical of TCM’ s benefits, although new research from the University of Rochester suggests that a certain compound derived from shellfish may indeed stimulate bone repair. “ There is no reason to dismiss TCM,“ Yao told a press conference in Beijing. “ It’ s been used in our country for thousands of years. I don’ t think that it’ s short on science. “

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Time to Stop Traveling by Air Twenty-five years ago a young British man called Mark Ellingham decided that he wanted a change of scenery. So he went to Australia, stopping off in many countries in between. He also decided to write about the experience and produced a guide for other travelers making similar journeys. In 1970,British airports were used by 32 million people. In 2004,the figure was 216 million. In 2030,according to government forecasts, it will be around 500 million. It’ s a growth driven by the emergence of low cost airlines, offering access to all parts of the world for less than ￡100. This has made a huge contribution to global warming. One return flight from Britain to the US produces the same carbon dioxide(二氧化碳)as a year’ s motoring(驾车). A return flight to Australia equals the emissions(排放)of three average cars for a year. And the pollution is released at a height where its effect on climate change is more than double that on the ground. Mark Ellingham built his business on helping people travel. Now he wants to help people stop—at least by air. He is calling for a ￡100 green tax on all flights to Europe and Africa, and ￡250 on flights to the rest of the world. He also wants investment to create a low-carbon economy, as well as a halt to airport expansion. Mark Ellingham’s commitment is important because his readers aren’ t just the sort of young and adventurous people who would happily jump on a plane to spend a weekend exploring a foreign culture. They are also the sort of people who say they care about the environment. It’ s a debate that splits people down the middle. The tourist industry has responded by offering offsetting(补偿)schemes. A small increase in the price of a ticket is used to plant trees. But critics say that it is not enough to just be carbon neutral. We should be actively cutting back on putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And for the average person, making a plane journey will be his or her largest contribution to global warming. It may be good to repair the damage we do. But surely it is better not to do the damage in the first place.

Ethnic Tensions in Belgium Belgium has given the world Audrey Hepburn, Rene Magritte(surrealist artist), the saxophone(萨克斯管)and deep-fried potato chips that are somehow called French. But the story behind this flat, twice-Beijing-size country is of a bad marriage between two nationalities living together that cannot stand each other. With no new government, more than a hundred days after a general election, rumors run wild that the country is about to disappear. “We are two different nations,an artificial state. With nothing in common except a king, chocolate and beer“ , said Filip Dewinter, the leader of the Flemish Bloc, the extreme-right Flemish party. Radical Flemish separatists like Mr. Dewinter want to divide the country horizontally along ethnic and economic lines: to the north, Flanders—where Dutch(known locally as Flemish)is spoken and money is increasingly made;to the south, French-speaking Wallonia, where today old factories dominate the landscape. The area of present-day Belgium passed to the French in the 18th century. Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815,Belgium was given to the kingdom of the Netherlands, from which it gained independence as a separate kingdom in 1830. Since then, it has struggled for cohesion(结合). Anyone who has spoken French in a Flemish city quickly gets a sense of the mutual hostility that is part of daily life there. But there are reasons Belgium is likely to stay together, at least in the short term. The economies of the two regions are tightly linked, and separation would be a financial nightmare. But there is also deep resentment in Flanders that its much healthier economy must subsidize(补贴)the south,where unemployment is double that of the north. French speakers in the south, meanwhile, favor the status quo(现状). Belgium has made it through previous threats of division. Although some political analysts believe this one is different, there is no panic just now. “We must not worry too much,“ said Baudouin Bruggeman, a 55-year-old school-teacher. “Belgium has survived on compromise since 1930. You have to remember that this is Magritte’ s country, the country of surrealism. Anything can happen. “

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Medicine Award Kicks off Nobel Prize Announcements Two scientists who have won praise for research into the growth of cancer cells could be candidates for the Nobel Prize in medicine when the 2008 winners are presented on Monday, kicking off six days of Nobel announcements. Australian-born US citizen Elizabeth Blackburn and American Carol Greider have already won a series of medical honors for their enzyme(酶|)research and experts say they could be among the front-runners for a Nobel. Among the pair’ s possible rivals are Frenchman Pierre Chambon and Americans Ronald Evans and Elwood Jensen, who opened up the field of studying proteins called nuclear hormone receptors As usual, the tight-lipped award committee is giving no hints about who is in the running before presenting its decision in a news conference at Stockholm’ s Karolinska Institute. Alfred Nobel, the Swede who invented dynamite(炸药),established the prizes in his will in the categories of medicine,physics,chemistry,literature and peace. The economics prize is technically not a Nobel but a 1968 creation of Sweden’ s central bank. Nobel left few instructions on how to select winners,but medicine winners are typically awarded for a specific breakthrough rather than a body of research. Hans Jornvall, secretary of the medicine prize committee, said the 10 million kronor(瑞典克朗)(US $ 1.3 million)prize encourages groundbreaking research but he did not think winning it was the primary goal for scientists. “ Individual researchers probably don’ t look at themselves as potential Nobel Prize winners when they’ re at work, “Jornvall told The Associated Press. “They get their kicks from their research and their interest in how life functions. “ In 2006, Blackburn, of the University of California, San Francisco, and Greider, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, shared the Lasker prize for basic medical research with Jack Szos-tak of Harvard Medical School. Their work set the stage for research suggesting that cancer cells use telomerase(端粒酶)to sustain(维持)their uncontrolled growth.

Cultural Differences People from different cultures sometimes do things that make each other uncomfortable, sometimes without realizing it. Most Americans have【C1】______been out of the country and have very【C2】______experience with foreigners. But they are usually spontaneous(由衷的),friendly and open, and enjoy【C3】______new people, having guests and bringing people together formally or informally. They tend to use first names【C4】______most situations and speak freely about themselves. So if your American hosts do something that【C5】______you uncomfortable, try to let them know how you feel. Most people will【C6】______your honesty and try not to make you uncomfortable again. And you’ll all【C7】______something about another culture! Many travelers find【C8】______easier to meet people in the US than in other countries. They may just come up and introduce themselves or even invite you over【C9】______they really know you. Sometimes Americans are said to be superficially(表面上)【C10】______. Perhaps it seems so,but they are probably just having a good time. Just like anywhere else, it【C11】______time to become real friends【C12】______people in the US. If and when you【C13】______with American friends,they will probably【C14】______introducing you to their friends and family,and if they seem proud to【C15】______you,it’ s probably because they are. Relax and enjoy it!

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The word “towering“ in Paragraph 1 means______.

Opponents find it very difficult to control Yao Ming because of his______.

Yao Ming had to undergo a series of TCM treatments because______.

Which statement about Yao Ming is NOT true?

In general, the Western experts’ attitude towards TCM is______.