Passage 2

On Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported the first confirmed case of H1N1 in a house pet, a 13-year-old domestic shorthaired cat. The animal likely contracted the virus from its owners, veterinarians say, since two of the three family members living in the cat's household had recently suffered from influenza-like illness. Late last week, when the cat came down with flu-like symptoms — malaise, loss of appetite — its owners brought it to Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine for treatment. The family mentioned to the vet that they had also recently battled illness, which led to testing the pet for H1N1.

It's not yet clear how vulnerable cats, dogs and other household animals may be to the new virus, but the Iowa cat's case reinforces just how different H1N1 is from seasonal flu viruses. Although some household cats and certain wild cats in zoos have gotten ill with avian influenza, and dogs have their own canine version of the flu virus, pets don't normally get sick with the regular human flu. "There has never been a report of human seasonal influenza affecting cats or dogs," says Dr. Julie Levy, director of Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program at the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Florida.

It's possible that the Iowa cat's case may be a bellwether of future pet disease, but it's also possible it was just a fluke event. At the cat's advanced age, its immune system may not have been as adept at fending off influenza as that of a younger animal — similar to the vulnerability seen in aging humans. Still, says Dr. Ann Garvey, state public-health vet at the Iowa Department of Public Health, "We just don't know, we really don't."

Garvey notes that despite nearly 25,000 cases of positive, lab-confirmed H1N1 in people reported in the U.S. since last spring, the Iowa cat is the first pet to be documented with the virus. But before pet owners start suspecting Fido and Fluffy of being H1N1 hotbeds, Garvey stresses that so far, no cases of influenza of any kind in pets — including cases of bird flu — are known to have moved from animals into people. And even among the animals, the virus does not appear to spread easily, which may further suggest that pets are not ideal reservoirs for influenza.

That's good news for pet lovers and flu worriers. And so is the fact that the cat seems to be recovering well from its bout with H1N1. "Both the owners and the cat are recovering," says Garvey. As for anyone else who is worried about spreading H1N1 flu to their pets, vets recommend following the same guidelines that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest for protecting family members — wash your hands frequently, cover your coughs and try to avoid close contact with your furry friends until you're well.

26. Which of the following can be diagnosed as flu according to the passage?

A. constant cough B. running nose　　C. decreased desire for eating D. loss of weight

27. Dr. Levy maintains that ______.

A. human virus is unlikely to pass on to household pets.　　B. H1N1 can be treated likewise to regular seasonal flu.

C. Wild cats can be particularly vulnerable to flu virus.　　D. Canine version of the flu virus is shared among cats.

28. From paragraph 3, we may learn that ______.

A. H1N1 may not be the sole contributor to the Iowa cat’s condition

B. Smaller animals are more proficient to defeat the invasion of flu

C. The fact that aged people have higher risk is not proved true yet.

D. The immune system of the Iowa cat has already been destroyed

29. According to Dr. Garvey, the flu virus _____.

A. was first documented in the Iowa cat　　B. could be easily transferred to human beings.

C. spread faster than any other type of bird flu　　D. might be effortlessly fended off by various pets.

30. The tone used by the author seems to be_____.

A. neutral B. optimistic C. subjective D. worried

Passage 3

Do you think you're more likely to look at an online ad if it contains 1) a picture, 2) an animation, or 3) just text? The answer: just text. Surprised? Well, now consider the man who was checking his e-mail when he came across a dating-service ad featuring a picture of a bikini-clad woman. He looked at the woman's face and chest once — and then at the surrounding text five times.

The Internet has cracked open a brave new world for folks whose job it is to spend ad dollars. The ability to track where a Web-user clicks provides a sort of precision intelligence advertisers could have only dreamed of in decades past. But before a click comes a look, and according to new research, advertisers are often wrong about what attracts our attention.

The findings are presented in a chapter of a new book, Eyetracking Web Usability, by Jakob Nielen and Kara Pernice of the consultancy Nielsen Norman Group. Don't let the bland title fool you — what Nielsen and Pernice have done is track the eye movements of hundreds of people as they navigate Web sites, looking up advice on how to deal with heartburn, shopping for baby presents, picking cell-phone features, learning about Mikhail Baryshnikov. By bouncing infrared beams off a person's retinas and recording head movement with a camera, the researchers were able to deduce what sort of ads garner attention in real time — a methodology that runs laps around later asking people to recall what they saw.

Now, looking at an ad and being vaguely aware of it are two different things. Plenty passes through our peripheral vision, but because of the way the eye works, we only thoroughly see things that we stop at and observe deliberately. By that measure, people in the study saw 36% of the ads on the pages they visited — not a bad hit rate. The average time a person spent looking at an ad, though, was brief — one-third of a second.

Interestingly, people who were just browsing the Web only looked at 5% more ads than those trying to accomplish a specific task. Even when we're on a mission, we're still fairly willing to stop and look at an ad. Though there was one sort of web site where ads rarely registered: pages built around search boxes, Google's tribute to white space on its home page might be sleek design.

Then there was the result that most surprised the researchers: Text-only ads received the most looks. Part of that might be because we accidentally think text-only ads are part of the information we're looking for. But as Nielsen explains it, the nature of the Web itself might be coming into play, as well. Unlike television, which is a passive medium, the Web is all about taking action.

31. It can be inferred from the beginning that _____.

A. it takes longer for a man to observe a woman than to read the text ad.

B. the customer attention is more often than not ignored by advertisers.

C. Tracing back to the user used to be thought of as an impossibility.

D. A brave new world is open to those who enjoy spending money

32. Ordinary people browse the internet for the sake of ____

A. buying gifts for kids　　B. offering professional advice

C. exchanging mobile phones　　D. studying Russian history

33. “peripheral”(Paragraph 3) probably means _____.

A. accurate B. comprehensive C. misty D. intentional

34. It can be concluded that ads. attract the most attention because _____.

A. information tends to be disguised in text ads.　　B. we’re willing to stop a task and to read ads.

C. search boxes are designed for catching attention.　　D. the interactive Internet plays an undeniable role.

35. What is going to be discussed in the following paragraphs?

A. An example to show how Web works for text-only ads.

B. A summary of what those researchers have discovered.

C. An introduction to TV channels showing text ads.

D. A transition to online ads in the form of animation