【正文】 e the puter in free time and bee familiar with its operation. (D) To store as many telephone numbers and addresses as you can. 20.(A) Graduating students. (B) Trainee managers. (C) Professional secretaries. (D) Lowlevel administrative staff. SECTION 2: READING TEST (30 miniutes) Directions: In this section you will read several passages. Each one is followed by several questions about it. You are to choose ONE best answer, (A), (B), (C) or (D), to each question. Answer all the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. Question 15 Life expectancy in the richest countries of the world now exceeds the poorest by more than 30 years, figures show. The gap is widening across the world, with Western countries and the growing economies of Latin America and the Far East advancing more rapidly than Africa and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Average life expectancy in Britain and similar countries of the OECD was in 202005, an increase of more than seven years since 197075 and almost 30 years over the past century. In subSaharan Africa, life expectancy has increased by just four months since 1970, to years. Narrowing this health gap will involve going beyond the immediate causes of disease—poverty, poor sanitation and infection—to tackle the causes of the causes —the social hierarchies in which people live, says the report published by the Global Commission on the Social Determinants of Health established by the WHO in 2020. Professor Sir Michael Marmot, chairman of the mission, who first coined the term status syndrome, said social status was the key to tackling health inequalities worldwide. In the 1980s, in a series of groundbreaking studies among Whitehall civil servants, Professor Marmot showed that the risk of death among those on the lower rungs of the career ladder was four times higher than those at the top, and that the difference was linked with the degree of control the individuals had over their lives. He said yesterday that the same rule applied in poorer countries. If people increased their status and gained more control over their lives they improved their health because they were less vulnerable to the economic and environmental threats. When people think about those in poor countries they tend to think about poverty, lack of housing, sanitation and exposure to infectious disease. But there is another issue, the social gradient in health which I called status syndrome. It is not just those at the bottom of the hierarchy who have worse health。s role in peacekeeping missions abroad. (B) To stop the country39。ll talk about what other effects watching TV might produce on children. Children should be _______ (1) a lot of television, many experts and parents agree, but there is at least one circumstance when it might be beneficial: _______ (2). A recent study conducted by Italian researchers found that children _______ (3) immediately preceding and during blood tests experienced less pain than children whose mothers _______ (4) during the procedure, or children whose mothers were present but _______ (5). The research, led by Carlo Brown, MD, at the University of Siena, is published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, _______ (6) the study. None received any type of anesthesia。 the children and their mothers _______ (7). Both the group whose mothers attempted to distract them from the blood tests and those whose mothers simply observed reported _______ (8) than the group who watched cartoons. For that group, the levels of pain were less and the children were better able to _______ (9). One of the possible explanations is that children might have _______ (10) during the procedures, exacerbating their perception of pain. The higher pain level reported by children during _______ (11) shows the difficulty mothers have in interacting positively _______ (12) in their children39。s air force transport mission in Iraq. (C) To override the lower house39。 it is all the way along the scale. Those second from the bottom have worse health than those above them but better health than those below. The interim report of the mission, in the online edition of The Lancet, says the effects of status syndrome extend from the bottom to the top of the hierarchy, with Swedish adults holding a PhD having a lower death rate than those with a master39。s Snake River Valley, where potato farmers depend on electric pumps to water their crops, the state39。 is clearly gathering momentum, says Martin Kushler of the American Council for an EnergyEfficient Economy in Washington. More states seem to be calling every week to find out about this. Although California pioneered the idea 25 years ago—and strengthened incentives and penalties last month—interest is picking up again because of global warming, experts say. The main idea is that by rearranging the incentive structure, regulators can give utilities clear incentives to push energy efficiency and conservation without hurting their bottom lines. Under the new rules in California, for example, electric utilities could make as much as $150 million extra if they can persuade Californians to save some $2 billion worth of power, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. This is a vital step in the globalwarming fight, says Audrey Chang, an NRDC researcher. It represents, we hope, a historic shift toward decoupling that is going to help bend the energy demand curve downwards. Beside Idaho, states that this year adopted decoupling for some or all of its electric power industry include New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. At least nine other states have seen major decoupling proposals this year. Idaho Power is happy that its key fixed costs—plants and