【每日阅读训练第二期——速度越障2系列】【2-2】【解析已上传】

shelvey

速度：

New Galleries for Islamic Art Open in New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art

计时1：
DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I'm Doug Johnson. Today we hear new music from singer Demi Lovato. We also tell about some women who play American football.
But first, we go to New York to see the new huge space for Islamic art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
(MUSIC)
Islamic Art Galleries at the Met
DOUG JOHNSON: Eight years ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York began putting many of its Islamic art pieces into storage. The museum was launching a project to greatly expand the space for the collection. Now the new Islamic art galleries have opened, and June Simms has our report.
JUNE SIMMS: New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is a major holder of Islamic art. The collection includes Korans as well as paintings, floor coverings and other objects, many of them rare. The collection represents many cultures and covers a period of thirteen hundred years.
On Tuesday, the museum reopened its collection in fifteen new spaces. The greatly expanded space for Islamic art covers about eighteen hundred square meters. The rooms are grouped by region and period, from the seventh century to the end of the nineteenth century.
Sheila Canby is the museum's chief curator of Islamic art.
SHEILA CANBY: "Our galleries are named the Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia. We have done that because that is the geographical region, area, spread that we cover."
A prayer space from Iran, covered in tiles, was placed facing east, toward Mecca. Visitors can also find handmade carpets so large that a team of people had to carry them in.
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计时2
Skilled workers from Morocco traveled to New York to help build one of the galleries. They spent eight months creating a traditional Moroccan courtyard inside the museum. It includes a fountain, columns and archways.
The new spaces include the Damascus Room. It was a room in a big Syrian house in the early seventeen hundreds. Workers took it apart and shipped it to New York, then rebuilt the room inside the museum. Experts repaired and restored each element of the carved and painted wood and the artistic tiles in the room.
Sheila Canby says the Damascus Room also includes writings, or inscriptions.
SHEILA CANBY: "Inscriptions that are poetical inscriptions that praise the house, praise the owner and praise the prophet Mohammed."
One of Sheila Canby's favorite pieces is a white bowl from the tenth century. Written on it is a saying: "lanning before work saves you from regret."
SHEILA CANBY: "That's a very charming statement, but the fact is the object itself, I think, is sublimely beautiful because of that purity of design."
Twelve hundred works are shown in the new galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. However, that represents just one-tenth of the museum's more than twelve thousand pieces of Islamic art.
Women's Football
DOUG JOHNSON: American Football has replaced baseball as America's favorite sport. Football has traditionally been played by men - big men who like to hit. However, in the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of women's professional football leagues. Faith Lapidus has our story.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The women play by the same rules and with the same level of physical contact as the men's sport. Tarsha Fain is team captain of the Baltimore Nighthawks.
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计时3：
TARSHA FAIN: "I feel women can do anything a man can do. The same way they get out there and hit, we get out there and hit too."
Fain and team owner Tanya Bryan were part of the first ever women's World Championship last year. The American team -- with Fain playing and Bryan serving as team manager -- won the gold medal.
TANYA BRYAN: "To be the first, the first time it was done, and be part of it, you know, no one else can ever say that. So it's just a wonderful feeling and I'm so proud of that."
About ten women's professional football leagues have been formed in the United States in recent years. Many have either joined with other leagues or failed. But the sport continues to grow.
Ghoncheh Mossanen is an offensive specialist for the Nighthawks. She has played football for 28 years. Mossanen says the sport is her therapy. It is what she looks forward to the most.
GHONCHEH MOSSANEN: "I feel there's a transformation when I go from putting on my gear and stepping on this football field. It's a huge mental transformation."
Mossanen moved to America from Iran as a child. She remembers the first time she ever played football – at a game in her neighborhood.
GHONCHEH MOSSANEN: "I remember getting the phone call from my cousin saying ‘come on out, we need one more person to play.' I didn't know what it was. I had never played the game and I remember going out there and just fell in love with it."
Most of the other players on the Nighthawks have also played since they were children. Most played unofficially or in non-contact leagues. But for team owner Tanya Bryan, women's football was a completely new experience.
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计时4：
TANYA BRYAN: "It's funny. I didn't even realize the sport existed for women. And I got a phone call from a friend of mine and she said there was an opportunity to own a team in Baltimore. And I thought it sounded really exciting and I said yes, and four years later here I am."
When Bryan bought the team she did not expect to make money right away. After four years, she is no longer losing money. But Bryan says what was most important to her was giving young women a chance to play ball.
TANYA BRYAN: "Most of the time as women growing up we're told, you know - not to be aggressive, and you know not to be assertive. And it's nice to have an outlet where you can come somewhere and let all of that out. You know you can be loud. You can hit somebody. You can just let it all go. And you know I think it's really, it's really healthy, you know. Great athleticism is required for football and the team camaraderie is just fantastic."
The teamwork was great in the team's recent game against the Philadelphia Firebirds. After a slow first half, the Nighthawks score ... and hang on for an eight to nothing win.
GHONCHEH MOSSANEN: "Its elation! I mean the team deserves it. We've been playing hard. It's amazing. Now it's our chance to make the championship."
The Nighthawks did not win the championship. But, they say having a chance to play this traditionally men's sport against other women is itself a victory. I'm Faith Lapidus.
Demi Lovato "Unbroken"
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计时5：
DOUG JOHNSON: Singer Demi Lovato has a new album. "Unbroken" comes after a difficult year for the former Disney star. Last November she left her show and her concert series to enter a treatment center. Bob Doughty has our story and plays music from the new record.
BOB DOUGHTY: Unlike so many young stars, Demi Lovato did not enter treatment to deal with a drug or alcohol problem. Lovato was suffering from an eating disorder and other self-destructive behaviors. After she left treatment last January, she was very open about what happened to her. She said she had been bullied since middle school, mostly about her weight. She said her unhealthy relationship with food resulted.
Now the nineteen year old says she feels like a different person. She told MTV that she is excited about her life now.
"Unbroken" seems to represent the new hope she has. The first single from the album was "Skyscraper," a song about rising from ruins.
(MUSIC)
Demi Lovato is an activist for efforts to end bullying in America's schools. She also has advice for girls with eating disorders. She says to speak up and not to be afraid to get help.
The second single from "Unbroken" is "Who's That Boy?" The teenager has described it as a fun and sexy song.
(MUSIC)
We leave you with Demi Lovato performing, "Give Your Heart a Break."
(MUSIC)
DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written by June Simms and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer.
If you have a question about American life, send it to mosaic@voanews.com or click on the Contact Us link at 51voa.com. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English.
Join us again next week for music and more on AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
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越障：

Forever young?
A way to counteract part of the process of growing old
BIOLOGISTS have made a lot of progress in understanding ageing. They have not, however, been able to do much about slowing it down. Particular versions of certain genes have been shown to prolong life, but that is no help to those who do not have them. A piece of work reported in this week’s Nature by Darren Baker of the Mayo Clinic, in Minnesota, though, describes an extraordinary result that points to a way the process might be ameliorated. Dr Baker has shown—in mice, at least—that ageing body cells not only suffer themselves, but also have adverse effects on otherwise healthy cells around them. More significantly, he has shown that if such ageing cells are selectively destroyed, these adverse effects go away.
The story starts with an observation, made a few years ago, that senescent cells often produce a molecule called P16INK4A. Most body cells have an upper limit on the number of times they can divide—and thus multiply in number. P16INK4A is part of the control mechanism that brings cell division to a halt when this limit is reached.
The Hayflick limit, as the upper bound is known (after Leonard Hayflick, the biologist who discovered it), is believed to be an anticancer mechanism. It provides a backstop that prevents a runaway cell line from reproducing indefinitely, and thus becoming a tumour. The limit varies from species to species—in humans, it is about 60 divisions—and its size is correlated with the lifespan of the animal concerned. Hayflick-limited cells thus accumulate as an animal ages, and many biologists believe they are one of the things which control maximum lifespan. Dr Baker’s experiment suggests this is correct.
Age shall not weary them
Dr Baker genetically engineered a group of mice that were already quite unusual. They had a condition called progeria, meaning that they aged much more rapidly than normal mice. (A few unfortunate humans suffer from a similar condition.) The extra tweak he added to the DNA of these mice was a way of killing cells that produce P16INK4A. He did this by inserting into the animals’ DNA, near the gene for P16INK4A, a second gene that was, because of this proximity, controlled by the same genetic switch. This second gene, activated whenever the gene for P16INK4A was active, produced a protein that was harmless in itself, but which could be made deadly by the presence of a particular drug. Giving a mouse this drug, then, would kill cells which had reached their Hayflick limits while leaving other cells untouched. Dr Baker raised his mice, administered the drug, and watched.
The results were spectacular. Mice given the drug every three days from birth suffered far less age-related body-wasting than those which were not. They lost less fatty tissue. Their muscles remained plump (and effective, too, according to treadmill tests). And they did not suffer cataracts of the eye. They did, though, continue to experience age-related problems in tissues that do not produce P16INK4A as they get old. In particular, their hearts and blood vessels aged normally (or, rather, what passes for normally in mice with progeria). For that reason, since heart failure is the main cause of death in such mice, their lifespans were not extended.
The drug, Dr Baker found, produced some benefit even if it was administered to a mouse only later in life. Though it could not clear cataracts that had already formed, it partly reversed muscle-wasting and fatty-tissue loss. Such mice were thus healthier than their untreated confrères.
Analysis of tissue from mice killed during the course of the experiment showed that the drug was having its intended effect. Cells producing P16INK4A were killed and cleared away as they appeared. Dr Baker’s results therefore support the previously untested hypothesis that not only do cells which are at the Hayflick limit stop working well themselves, they also have malign effects (presumably through chemicals they secrete) on their otherwise healthy neighbours.
Regardless of the biochemical details, the most intriguing thing Dr Baker’s result provides is a new way of thinking about how to slow the process of ageing—and one that works with the grain of nature, rather than against it. Existing lines of inquiry into prolonging lifespan are based either on removing the Hayflick limit, which would have all sorts of untoward consequences, or suppressing production of the oxidative chemicals that are believed to cause much of the cellular damage which is bracketed together and labelled as senescence. But these chemicals are a by-product of the metabolic activity that powers the body. If 4 billion years of natural selection have not dealt with them it suggests that suppressing them may have worse consequences than not suppressing them.
By contrast, actually eliminating senescent cells may be a logical extension of the process of shutting them down (they certainly cannot cause cancer if they are dead), and thus may not have adverse consequences. It is not an elixir of life, for eventually the body will run out of cells, as more and more of them reach their Hayflick limits. But it could be a way of providing a healthier and more robust old age than people currently enjoy.
Genetically engineering people in the way that Dr Baker engineered his mice is obviously out of the question for the foreseeable future. But if some other means of clearing cells rich in P16INK4A from the body could be found, it might have the desired effect. The wasting and weakening of the tissues that accompanies senescence would be a thing of the past, and old age could then truly become ripe.
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GMAT单项攻克

Passage 31 (31/63)

The number of women directors appointed to corporate boards in the United States has increased dramatically, but the ratio of female to male directors remains low. Although pressure to recruit women directors, unlike that to employ women in the general work force, does not derive from legislation, it is nevertheless real.
Although small companies were the first to have women directors, large corporations currently have a higher percentage of women on their boards. When the chairs of these large corporations began recruiting women to serve on boards, they initially sought women who were chief executive officers (CEO’s) of large corporations. However, such women CEO’s are still rare. In addition, the ideal of six CEO’s (female or male) serving on the board of each of the largest corporations is realizable only if every CEO serves on six boards. This raises the specter of director over-commitment and the resultant dilution of contribution. Consequently, the chairs next sought women in business who had the equivalent of CEO experience. However, since it is only recently that large numbers of women have begun to rise in management, the chairs began to recruit women of high achievement outside the business world. Many such women are well known for their contributions in government, education, and the nonprofit sector. The fact that the women from these sectors who were appointed were often acquaintances of the boards’ chairs seems quite reasonable: chairs have always considered it important for directors to interact comfortably in the boardroom.
Although many successful women from outside the business world are unknown to corporate leaders, these women are particularly qualified to serve on boards because of the changing nature of corporations. Today a company’s ability to be responsive to the concerns of the community and the environment can influence that company’s growth and survival. Women are uniquely positioned to be responsive to some of these concerns. Although conditions have changed, it should be remembered that most directors of both sexes are over fifty years old. Women of that generation were often encouraged to direct their attention toward efforts to improve the community. This fact is reflected in the career development of most of the outstandingly successful women of the generation now in their fifties, who currently serve on corporate boards: 25 percent are in education and 22 percent are in government, law, and the nonprofit sector.
One organization of women directors is helping business become more responsive to the changing needs of society by raising the level of corporate awareness about social issues, such as problems with the economy, government regulation, the aging population, and the environment. This organization also serves as a resource center of information on accomplished women who are potential candidates for corporate boards.
1. The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about achievement of the “ideal” mentioned in line 14?
(A) It has only recently become a possibility.
(B) It would be easier to meet if more CEO’s were women.
(C) It is very close to being a reality for most corporate boards.
(D) It might affect the quality of directors’ service to corporations.
(E) It would be more realizable if CEO’s had a more extensive range of business experience.
2. According to the passage, the pressure to appoint women to corporate boards differs from the pressure to employ women in the work force in which of the following ways?
(A) Corporate boards are under less pressure because they have such a small number of openings.
(B) Corporate boards have received less pressure from stockholders, consumers, and workers within companies to include women on their boards.
(C) Corporate boards have received less pressure from the media and the public to include women on their boards.
(D) Corporations have only recently been pressured to include women on their boards.
(E) Corporations are not subject to statutory penalty for failing to include women on their boards.
3. All of the following are examples of issues that the organization described in the last paragraph would be likely to advise corporations on EXCEPT
(A) long-term inflation
(B) health and safety regulations
(C) retirement and pension programs
(D) the energy shortage
(E) how to develop new markets
4. It can be inferred from the passage that, when seeking to appoint new members to a corporation’s board, the chair traditionally looked for candidates who
(A) had legal and governmental experience
(B) had experience dealing with community affairs
(C) could work easily with other members of the board
(D) were already involved in establishing policy for that corporation
(E) had influential connections outside the business world
5. According to the passage, which of the following is true about women outside the business world who are currently serving on corporate boards?
(A) Most do not serve on more than one board.
(B) A large percentage will eventually work on the staff of corporations.
(C) Most were already known to the chairs of the board to which they were appointed.
(D) A larger percentage are from government and law than are from the nonprofit sector.
(E) Most are less than fifty years old.
6. The passage suggests that corporations of the past differ from modern corporations in which of the following ways?
(A) Corporations had greater input on government policies affecting the business community.
(B) Corporations were less responsive to the financial needs of their employees.
(C) The ability of a corporation to keep up with changing markets was not a crucial factor in its success.
(D) A corporation’s effectiveness in coping with community needs was less likely to affect its growth and prosperity.
(E) Corporations were subject to more stringent government regulations.
7. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
(A) A problem is described, and then reasons why various proposed solutions succeeded or failed are discussed.
(B) A problem is described, and then an advantage of resolving it is offered.
(C) A problem is described, and then reasons for its continuing existence are summarized.
(D) The historical origins of a problem are described, and then various measures that have successfully resolved it are discussed.
(E) The causes of a problem are described, and then its effects are discussed.
8. It can be inferred from the passage that factors making women uniquely valuable members of modern corporate boards would include which of the following?
I. The nature of modern corporations
II. The increased number of women CEO’s
III. The careers pursued by women currently available to serve on corporate boards
(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) III only
(D) I and III only
(E) I, II, and III
答案：
deecc dbd

感谢balapupu给我们分享的解析。

CHRISTINE2010

头一次占沙发~~惊喜O(∩_∩)O~

xeyyxzty

1'08''1'12''
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4'47''
nobody figured out the reason for aging.
though some people with certain genes live longer than others, there's no help to prolong the lifespan of human beings.
there is a mechanism to control the lifespan of a cell.
a cell can only 分裂 up to 60 times to eliminate the chance to get tumors.
old cells have a kind of protein that affects cells negatively around them.
there is a research about it.
the researcher injected mice a kind of substance, and the mice live a better life.
mice in the research are “未老先衰”...like some people.
the substance changes the DNA of the mice, and the mice generated a kind of protein that 抵消 PXXX的作用
after the injection, mice lose fatty tissues and other cells originally have the PXXX protein.
death is caused by the stop of hearts, which don't have the PXXX protein, so do many other organs.
though the injection cannot prolong the lifetime, it gives older people a healthier life.
there may be a new way to prolong the lifespan in the future.有点乱~~~不知道错没错~~~

fox0923

1'1"
1'11"
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神猴怎么还不来？我就这个时间有空读越障的，本来想先去弄逻辑的，可是题目还没贴出来了，所以没办法了。神猴大人有大量哈~

fox0923

今天读的时候就有点不太清醒，前面还凑合，后面感觉精神不集中~看来生物课题还是不行。

- Biologists have been discovering the aging genes for a long time, though, they haven't found how to stay at an younger age. Dr. Baker did an experiment on mice in order to get more results.
- From the discovery, the S cells can produce the PK16, which can be used to stop the division of old cells when they reach to the limit.
- The H limit is a mechanism in human body and fights against the cancer. When genes are getting old, they will die and also affect the healthy genes around themselves.
- The experiment on mice.
1. Dr Baker chose a group of special mice, contains certain disease, namely their genes get old more rapidly than the regular mice, and placed cells with PK16 into these mice. The second genes will be active if the genes with PK16 is reactivated.
2. The experiment shows that the PK16 can stop the surround genes to be affected. If these primary genes died, then they would die themselves, and the heart and other organs won't fail followed by these genes' failure. Because the heart failure is the main reason that human are died.
- Therefore, Dr Baker proposed to have two ways to stop the division of old genes when they get to the limit.
1. One is that they can remove H limit.
2. The second is that they can suppress the production of S genes.(失忆了，回看了~~）
3. However, contrast to these two methods above, the elimination of these S genes might be the best way to halt the division.
- Since the scientists have found surprising result from the experiment of mice, so it's very possible that human will stay in a younger age and stay with a robust body.

shelvey

啊哈哈，自己的帖子自己顶！！
一到周末生物钟反掉，凌晨三点跑过来练习也是一般不错的滋味~~~
1‘16
1’32
1‘19
1’28
1‘16
越障：
biologist have made a lot of progress in understanding ageingare searching and finding a way to slow ageing,however, they failed to prolong the life. But a recent study find a kind of cell that may have some corelations with life-long.
They did an experience on mouse, giving it a kind of pill of no harm to the health.but this pill can kill the cell. This study have shown that the mouse which took the pill everyday have shorter life than the one didnt.
然后。。。。然后就忘了。。。。

mahaofei001

越障中的内容如果实现了，太可怕了。
如果天安门上的那块腊肉永生不死了，这个世界就太疯狂了。
虽说科学的进步总是相伴伦理的争论。但是长生不老是绝对不可以的。年年岁岁见九常谁受得了。

shelvey

长生不老就算了，如果每个人最后都是器官衰竭而死的，而不是有这样那样多的病痛，还有癌症什么的，那就比较满足啦~~~

fox0923

越障中的内容如果实现了，太可怕了。
如果天安门上的那块腊肉永生不死了，这个世界就太疯狂了。
虽说科学的进步总是相伴伦理的争论。但是长生不老是绝对不可以的。年年岁岁见九常谁受得了。

-- by 会员 mahaofei001 (2011/11/5 6:48:54)

mahaofei非常有想象力~

fox0923

啊哈哈，自己的帖子自己顶！！
一到周末生物钟反掉，凌晨三点跑过来练习也是一般不错的滋味~~~
1‘16
1’32
1‘19
1’28
1‘16
越障：
biologist have made a lot of progress in understanding ageingare searching and finding a way to slow ageing,however, they failed to prolong the life. But a recent study find a kind of cell that may have some corelations with life-long.
They did an experience on mouse, giving it a kind of pill of no harm to the health.but this pill can kill the cell. This study have shown that the mouse which took the pill everyday have shorter life than the one didnt.
然后。。。。然后就忘了。。。。

-- by 会员 shelvey (2011/11/5 3:11:33)

shelvey也是夜猫子阿，半夜睡不着觉上CD。