問題詳情
請依下文回答第 23 題至第 25 題It is hard to imagine that the aches and pains that most people know as flu could mutate into a superflu that mightkill tens of millions of people within two years. And yet, if superflu strikes－as it has done three times in the pastcentury－that is what may well happen. In the global influenza pandemic of 1918, 25-50 million people died. Manyscientists believe that another influenza pandemic is inevitable some time soon. These concerns might be little morethan another background worry if it were not for the fact that there is currently a strain of bird flu in widespreadcirculation to which humans have no natural immunity. This strain has killed more than 60 people so far, about half thenumber infected. Small pockets of human-to-human transmission have already been seen, and health officials areworried that the widespread geographical extent of bird flu means that it is not a question of if a strain emerges that canbe transmitted easily between humans, but when. Worried scientists have finally managed to catch the attention ofpoliticians. Last week, the United Nations General Assembly announced a new international partnership to addressavian and pandemic influenza. World health ministers will meet in Canada next month to discuss how to poolresources, boost surveillance and improve the capacity to contain and respond to an outbreak. The World HealthOrganization (WHO) wants more governments to draw up preparedness plans and agree on how they will co-ordinatetheir responses. One leading concern is the scarcity of flu vaccine. Although the WHO’s new global stockpile ofanti-viral drugs is a good first line of defence, the only sure way of protecting billions of people against superflu is tovaccinate them. Few people would have natural immunity. It could also take six months from the appearance of thefirst superflu strain to produce a vaccine. In that time, large numbers of people would be likely to die. Anti-viral drugsrushed to the location of any outbreak might delay its spread by a month. But, even with such a delay, the world iswoefully unprepared for a pandemic. Its entire capacity for flu vaccine production is only 300 million shots a year. Yetin the case of superflu, several billion people would need vaccination－and they may need two shots at higher doses.While most people only need one shot of vaccine against chicken pox or measles to have life-long immunity, flu isdifferent. The vaccine must be produced each year from scratch because, each year, the influenza virus changes. Therace to prepare for the next strain of superflu is “both a sprint and a marathon.”
【題組】23 What is this passage mainly about?
(A)Humans do not have natural immunity to bird flu.
(B)International cooperation is optional in dealing with the deadly threat of bird flu.
(C)It is urgent for humans to prepare well for the global influenza pandemic.
(D)More research should be done on the history of the global influenza pandemic.
參考答案
答案：C
難度：適中0.5
統計：A(0),B(0),C(0),D(0),E(0)