Passage Four
    
    One of Britain’s bravest women told yesterday how she helped to catch suspected (可疑的) police killer David Bieber—and was thanked with flowers by the police. It was also said that she could be in line for a share of up to the ￡30,000 reward money。
    
    Vicki Brown, 30, played a very important role in ending the nationwide manhunt. Vicki, who has worked at the Royal Hotel for four years, told of her terrible experience when she had to steal into Bieber’s bedroom and to watch him secretly. Then she waited alone for three hours while armed police prepared to storm the building。
    
    She said: “I was very nervous. But when I opened the hotel door and saw 20 armed policemen lined up in the car park I was so glad they were there. ”
    
    The alarm had been raised because Vicki became suspicious (怀疑) of the guest who checked in at 3 pm the day before New Year’s Eve with little luggage and wearing sunglasses and a hat pulled down over his face. She said: “He didn’t seem to want to talk too much and make any eye contact (接触). ” Vicki, the only employee on duty, called her boss Margaret, 64, and husband Stan McKale, 65, who phoned the police at 11 pm。
    
    Officers from Northumbria Police called Vicki at the hotel in Dunston, Gateshead, at about 11:30 pm to make sure that this was the wanted man. Then they kept in touch by phoning Vicki every 15 minutes。
    
    “It was about ten past two in the morning when the phone went again and a policeman said ’Would you go and make yourself known to the armed officers outside?’ My heart missed a beat. ”
    
    Vicki quietly showed eight armed officers through passages and staircases to the top floor room and handed over the key。
    
    “I realized that my bedroom window overlooks that part of the hotel, so I went to watch. I could not see into the man’s room, but I could see the passage. The police kept shouting at the man to come out with his hands showing. Then suddenly he must have come out because they shouted for him to lie down while he was handcuffed (带上手铐). ”
    
    36. The underlined phrase “be in line for” (paragraph 1) means 。
    
    A. get B. be paid C. ask for D. own
    
    37. Vicki became suspicious of David Bieber because 。
    
    A. the police called her
    
    B. he looked very strange
    
    C. he came to the hotel with little luggage
    
    D. he came to the hotel the day before New Year’s Eve
    
    38. Vicki’s heart missed a beat because 。
    
    A. the phone went again
    
    B. she would be famous
    
    C. the policemen had already arrived
    
    D. she saw 20 policemen in the car park
    
    39. David Bieber was most probably handcuffed in 。
    
    A. the passage B. the man’s room
    
    C. Vicki’s bedroom D. the top floor room
    
    40. The whole event probably lasted about hours from the moment Bieber came to the hotel to the arrival of some armed officers。
    
    A. 6 B. 8 C. 11 D. 14
    
    SectionB
    
    Directions：In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For questions41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A~G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps。(10points)
    
    Researchers have found that drugs used to treat human seizures can delay aging in worms by as much as 50 percent. The roundworms used for the study are similar to humans in their molecular makeup, raising the
    
    possibility that the drugs could also extend the life span of humans。
    
    41
    
    “By finding a class of drugs that delays aging we have found a relationship between the function of the nervous system and aging that was not well understood, ” said Kerry Komfeld, a geneticist at the Washington
    
    University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. The findings are detailed this week in the journal Science。
    
    The discovery came out of the thesis work by one of Komfeld’s graduate students, Kimberley Evason. About four years ago, Evason began exposing groups of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans to commercially available drugs to see if the drugs would delay aging or promote longevity。
    
    42
    
    Over eight months the scientists tested 20 drugs, all with negative results. Finally they tested the anticonvulsant drug ethosuzimide. Researchers found that the drug extended the life span of roundworms from 16. 7 days to 19. 6 days, a 17 percent increase。
    
    43
    
    The discovery that the drugs extend the life span of roundworms could have important implications fox human aging as well. There are strong similarities on the molecular level between the proteins and genes that
    
    constitute the worm and those that make up other animals, including humans。
    
    “Many basic processes are highly related, including neural function, insulin signaling, and probably important aspects of the aging process, ” Komfeld said. “There’s every reason to think that these animals an a good model for higher animals, such as people. ”
    
    44
    
    Ethosuzimide, which was developed in the 1950s, is commonly used to treat epilepsy, though it is no known precisely how the drug controls convulsions. There is no anecdotal evidence that it has had an anti-aglng effect in people. The next step, Komfeld says, is to test if the drugs have an anti-aging effect on animal like flies and mice。
    
    Very little is known about the aging process. From genetic analysis, researchers have found that an in sulin-like signaling system regulates aging and longevity. A good diet can delay aging and extend a person life span. But scientists know virtually nothing about the effect of drugs on aging. “It’s a big void, ” Konfeld said。
    
    In addition to delaying age-related degenerative changes, the drugs also increased neuromuscular activty, suggesting a link between the neuromuscular system and the aging process。
    
    45
    
    There may also be other targets not yet explored that affect aging and neuromuscular function. Said Kornfeld: “The process of aging remains mysterious. ”
    
    A. But Komfeld said scientists will not know about the applicability of the drugs in humans until a similar study is done on humans. “What’s very encouraging is that these drugs were developed to treat humans, and they are well understood, because they’ve been used for a long time, ” he said。
    
    B. Later the scientists discovered that two related anticonvulsant drugs also lengthened the lives of the worms-in the case of one drug, by almost 50 percent. “This was a big surprise to use, Komfeld said. ”“We didn’t think anticonvulsant drugs had any particular relationship to aging. That connection was completely unexpected. ”
    
    C. Roundworms are a poor subject for experiments, because they are not like humans, even though their molecules are similar. For example, they have no bones, nor do they show emotions, making it difficult to know how exactly human subjects would react to these drugs in large quantities. However, using the worms allows experiments to be conducted quickly, because they do not live for long。
    
    D. “Somehow the neural activity seems to regulate the aging of all of the body the skin, musculature, and reproductive tract, ” Kornfeld said. “Somehow the nervous system coordinates the progress of all these tissues, evidently, though the life stages. But we don’t know how it does that. ”
    
    E. The discovery may also shed light on the little-understood aging process. Since the drugs act on the neuromuscular systems of both humans and worms, the findings hint at a link between neural activity and aging。
    
    F. Unlike vertebrates, the worms are ideal subjects for the study of aging because of their short life spans, which last only a couple of weeks in a laboratory. The worm is well known in genetics, and the worm’s genome has been sequenced。
    
    G. Use of this drug has been permitted by law since 1998 and wider use is now expected as a result of the studies. “We can clearly link this drug with human aging, but we still need to find proof, says Kornfeld optimistically. ”
    

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