[填空题]
{{B}}Lessons from the 1918 Flu{{/B}}
The last time a now influenza virus reached pandemic levels was in 1968,
but the episode was not significantly deadlier than a typical had fin season.
Few people who lived through it even knew it occurred. Still, it killed 34,000
Americans. The 1918 pandemic was far more lethal. It killed 675,000 Americans at
a time when the U.S. population was 100 million. Fifty million to 100 million
people purished worldwide in the 1918 pandemic, according to Nobel laureate F.
Macfarlane Burnet. The flu killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has ’killed
in 24 years. The difference in the death toll between 1918 and 1968 had little
to do with such medical advances as antibiotics for secondary bacterial
infections. The 1968 virus was simply much less virulent. But it wasn’t just the
virus. As with Hurricane Katrina, some of the deaths in 1918 were the
government’s responsibility. Surgeon Gene
[单项选择]A. He has just recovered from the flu. B. He won’t be able to go to the play.
C. He heard that the play isn’t very good. D. He has already seen the play.
[填空题] Lessons from the Titanic
From the comfort of our modern lives we tend to look back at the mm of the twentieth century as a dangerous time for sea travelers. With limited communication facilities, and shipping technology still in its infancy in the early nineteen hundreds, we consider ocean travel to have been a risky business. But to the people of the time it was one of the safest forms of transport. At the time of the Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912, there had only been four lives lost in the previous forty years on passenger ships on the North Atlantic crossing. And the Titanic was confidently proclaimed to be unsinkable. Her builders, crew and passengers had no doubt that she was the finest ship ever built. But still she did sink on April 14, 1912, taking 1,517 of her passengers and crew with her.
The RMS Titanic left Southampton for New York on April 10, 1912. On board were some of the richest and most famous people of
