Cyclist Alain Such has been dropped from the Ingotel cycling team for two years after a positive drug test at the Institute of drug Free Sport. “ I was flabbergasted.” Said Didier Garcia, from Team Ingotel. “Alain joined our team last month and we had no idea that he was being examined.”

    It's a story that has become more and more familiar in recent years. Dr. Mohammad Farnood, a leading sports scientist from Cairo, Egypt, said, “ It is thought that some athletes will look for other ways to improve performance in addition to using drugs.”

    However, it has not always been against the law. In the Olympics in 1904, Thomas Hicks won the marathon after using drugs in the middle of the race. In fact, the first one didn't make him feel better for long, so he was given another and, as a result, he fell down soon after finishing and knew nothing. Another one may well have killed him.

    Things are very different today. Some scientists are considering the possibilities of using genetic engineering to further develop athletes' abilities. “If it works with no risk of discovering,” said Dr Farnood, “ then it's likely to become common practice for athletes.”

    Researchers are looking at the possibility of identifying “athletic” genes and correcting weak ones. Put into practice, this would make a person healthier and stronger. Once scientists understand what genes of top athletes look like , it might even become possible to identify “athletic” genes in young people, and then money could be spent on children who have the most promising genes.

    “People are beginning to recognize that genetics can in many ways do good to our society, for example in saving lives and in creating better quality food for people.” Dr Farnood says. “ So, is it fair to use genetic engineering in sport? You could ask if it's fair for some runners to use the latest scientifically developed footwear. The key question is whether it's available to everyone.”

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    My mother is a hard-working and kind woman. She is very busy from morning till night. As a teacher, she works hard.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Both my brother and I love her dearly as she loves us.

    My mother has been teaching math at a middle school in my hometown. She goes to work early in the morning and does not return home until late in the afternoon.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} She treats them with patience and teaches them well. For her excellent quality and very good teaching results, she has been elected as a model teacher several times.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Every day, when she comes back home from work, she sets about doing housework, sweeping the living room and bedrooms or cleaning the furniture, and putting everything in good order. She seems to be busy all the time. As she has been very busy working every day, she looks older than her age. But she looks as cheerful and happy as ever. Mother never buys expensive dresses for herself, but she often buys some inexpensive but high quality clothes for us.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} She just eats a plain meal outside when she is too busy to cook herself. She lives a busy yet simple life, without any complaints.

    Often she says to us, “work while you work, and play while you play. That is the way to be happy and gay. If you do not work, you will become lazy and be of no use to society”. What a piece of good advice this is! {#blank#}5{#/blank#} This advice of hers will always serve as a guide to my behavior. My mother is great indeed, and I always feel proud of her.

A. She enjoys listening to classic music.

B. As a mother, she takes good care of us and gives us every comfort.

C. She loves her students and cares for them.

D. She never goes to expensive restaurants to enjoy meals.

E. My mother is hard-working and never wastes money.

F. I never forget it and always bear it in my mind.

G. Can you tell us something about your mother?

    First opened to the public in 1976,the California State Railroad Museum is one of Sacramento's largest and most popular visitor destinations.Over 500,000 people visit the museum every year,with guests traveling from throughout the world to experience this world-famous place.

    The museum consists of six original buildings.The main exhibit building,the Railroad History Museum,totals 100,000 square feet.Completed at a cost of US $16.1 million,it opened in May 1981.

    Hours: The museum is open daily (except on Thanksgiving,Christmas and New Year's Day) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. From May 28 to September 3,the museum will be open until eight o'clock in the evening.

    Admission: US $10 for adults,US $5 for youths aged six to seventeen;Children aged five and under are free; Cash,personal checks,traveler's checks and credit cards are accepted for payment.

    Location: The California State Railroad Museum is located at the corner of Second and “I” street in Old Sacramento.

    Parking: A limited number of spaces are available for parking on the streets near the museum.However,these spaces are not suitable for guests visiting longer than 90 minutes.All-day parking is available in the large public garage at the “I” Street entrance to Old Sacramento,for a small fee.

    Food Service: Many restaurants are located near the museum.These range from reasonably priced, family-friendly places to some of the finest dining restaurants in the city.

    Accessibility: The museum is fully accessible to people with disabilities.Certain exhibits and programs have limited accessibility,due to factors such as narrow and historic stairways.

    Photography: We welcome photography for personal use.Hand-held cameras are allowed;however,tripods are not permitted for safety reasons.A Morning for Photographers at the museum is a special event.Tripods are allowed during this event.

    I know that there are times when friends are apart for a while – or even forever – and that your lives take different paths. Yet, I always hope for a happy ending. I know that friends reconnect again when it makes sense.

    My friend Julie and I had a long period in our friendship. We used to see each other daily. I would eat brown rice in her kitchen while we shared our secrets.

    Later, we celebrated each other's weddings. My husband and I welcomed Julie's first son (born on my birthday). By the time he was learning to walk, Julie and her family had moved to another city. We spoke on the phone sometimes and exchanged Christmas cards.

    After they welcomed their third son, they moved to Edmonton, which is a farther city. We haven't seen each other since then. They changed their phone numbers. I received a letter from her, but I couldn't find that envelope later. I e-mailed her a few times, but didn't get a reply.

    It was painful not to be in touch with an old friend. I let it go. I knew that Julie and I would reconnect again, when it made sense.

    Last year, Julie's husband got in touch with me on Facebook. I felt something bad, and soon my feeling proved true: Julie had passed away the month before. She died of cancer.

    I regretted that I had not been part of Julie's support system, or the last years of her joyous, painful time on Earth. I cried. I'm so sorry, Julie, for counting on more chances.

    Last week, I donated my hair in memory of Julie to make wigs (假发) for cancer patients. It was a small way of showing that I loved her and will never forget her. And that I look forward to us reconnecting again – when it makes sense.

    Friends always ask why I, a middle-aged woman with no athletic talent, travel to perilous places—the jungles of Thailand or Borneo, for example, where the water is often unsafe and the food risky; places with infectious diseases, poisonous snakes and the wildest animals; some places where the locals are just a few generations past headhunting.

    I never know how to answer. My travel decisions assumed a new gravity nine years ago after I suffered a stroke. To prevent another stroke, my doctors told me, I'd have to take dangerously high levels of blood thinner (血液稀释剂) for the rest of my life and any travel would be risky.

    I had to think about what was important to me: family, of course, and friends. But then what? No matter how many times I thought about it, no bucket list was complete without travel. Then I had to decide how I might manage the risk. I had to decide how lucky I felt.

    My return to travel after my stroke came in baby steps. The first real test of my travel courage came nine months after my stroke when I joined my husband, Jack, on a business trip to China. After we'd toured the remains of a Tang dynasty temple on a high mountain, Jack wanted to ride down on a toboggan (长雪橇).

    Before the stroke it would've seemed like fun. But now? I hesitated. My mental klaxon (高音喇叭) screamed warnings about the consequences of a cut, a fall, and a crash. Then, gaining confidence from who knows where, I lowered myself carefully into the toboggan, which marked my adventure travel comeback.

    In the years since then, I've traveled about twenty-five percent of the time. Through it all, my lucks held out—no deadly falls, no car accidents or serious infections. For me, adventure travel is a risk worth taking. Travel broadens my world and keeps me connected to nature. What's more, saying "yes" to travel keeps me connected to myself.

    About one million adults in the USA need someone to help them eat. Researchers at the University of Washington are working on a robotic system that can help make it easier. After identifying different food on a plate, the robot can decide how to use a fork to pick up and deliver the desired bite to a person s mouth.

    "Being dependent on a caregiver to feed every bite every day takes away a person's sense of independence," said the researcher. "Our goal with this project is to give people a bit more control over their lives the idea was to develop a feeding system that would be attached to wheelchairs and feed people whatever they wanted to eat.

    "When we started the project, we realized there are so many ways that people can eat a piece of food depending on its size, shape or consistency(坚实度)," said the researcher, "So we set up an experiment to see how humans eat common foods. "

    The researchers arranged plates with about a dozen different kinds of food, ranging in consistency from hard carrots to soft bananas. Then the team gave volunteers a fork and asked them to pick up different pieces of food and feed them to a model. The fork contained a sensor to measure how much force people used when they picked up food.

    To design a feeding strategy that changes based on the food item, the researchers combined two different algorithms (算法). First they used an object-detection algorithm called Retina Net, which scans the plate, identifies the types of food on it and places a frame around each item. Then they developed SPNet, an algorithm that examines the type of food in a specific frame and tells the robot the best way to pick up the food.

    The team is currently working with the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology to get advice from caregivers and patients on how to improve the system to meet people's need.