words: 407 time: 7'
請閱讀下面短文，從短文後各題所給的A、B、C、D四個選項中，選出最佳選項。
Will COVID-19 come back every year?
Could spring be the thing that saves us from COVID-19? President Donald Trump has suggested that heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus so it will go away in April. It’s not a totally strange suggestion, given that flu and lots of other viruses really are seasonal, usually with the infection spreading quickly in the colder winter months.
But experts say we don’t yet know enough about coronavirus to tell whether it’s likely to be seasonal. More importantly, though, a virus doesn’t just go away because it’s warm. If coronavirus cases drop off in summer, that just means there’s a risk of it resurging in fall. And if it does come back, that means our efforts to actually stop it have failed.
“The factors that make some viruses seasonal are complex and, in some ways, still kind of a mystery,” said Wan Yang, professor of epidemiology (流行病學) at Columbia University. “Heat does play a role. Viruses tend to survive better in cold weather — kind of the opposite of how bacteria do better in warmth,” she added.
But humidity (溼度) turns out to be a bigger player here. A virus like the flu spreads when people sneeze and spray droplets and virus into the air. Humidity affects how long those droplets hang out where humans can breathe them in. “We know, for example, that the flu virus survives longer in drier air,” Yang said. The air is drier in winter, and that could help explain why winter is the prime season for flu.
Another of the biggest factors in whether a virus becomes seasonal is whether it reaches the level of a regional or global epidemic. We can stop that from happening, as with SARS, by tightly monitoring the spread of a novel virus and cutting off the virus’ access to new hosts. But if we don’t do it effectively, a new virus can easily become seasonal.
The novel coronavirus doesn’t seem to put us at a disadvantage. There seem to be asymptomatic (無症狀的) cases, and mild ones. But there’s evidence suggesting people can spread the virus before they’re even showing symptoms themselves. That makes it more challenging for public health experts to stop the virus. When asked how likely it was that COVID-19 could become seasonal, Yang said, “Nobody knows.” “The WHO still says there’s hope we can get this under control.”
Reading comprehension
( ) 1. What does the underlined word “resurging” in paragraph 2 probably mean?
- A. Rising.
- B. Sweeping.
- C. Returning.
- D. Disappearing.
( ) 2. Which is a factor in making some viruses seasonal?
- A. Low latitude.
- B. Cold weather.
- C. High altitude.
- D. Extreme climate.
( ) 3. What’s Wan Yang’s attitude towards whether COVID-19 could become seasonal?
- A. Certain.
- B. Negative.
- C. Uncertain.
- D. Indifferent.
( ) 4. What could a country do to stop the spread of a novel virus?
- A. Wait for the season to change.
- B. Hold all events and activities on time.
- C. Separate the people infected with the virus.
- D. Force the world’s worst-hit country to make an apology.
語言知識點，大家要掌握哦！
- spray v. 噴
eg. Someone had sprayed blue paint over his car.
- how likely it is / was that ... ……可能性有多大
eg. If your judgments are well revised, then you have a sense of how likely it is that your judgment is correct.
參考答案：1-4 CBCC
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