2392.During the COVID-19 crisis,even the simple act of buying groceries has been completely transjye.aimed.For seniors,this task is even more challenging.Concordia University's ACT project team has joined with community partners in the neighbourhood to fill this gap.They've rapidly created a new program—COVID-19 Grocery Response NDG. The program uses a model that pairs volunteers with seniors,based on availability and language.Those volunteers are trained by ACT's team via video conferencing and then given a list of older adults.The volunteer calls the individuals and takes their order,working with grocery offerings of a Provigo store in the area.When the call is over,the order gets sent to Provigo,which gathers and delivers the order to the senior.It won't take the place of the work of the food bank;seniors are paying for their groceries. There is also an important social element in the call,which doubles as a friendly check-in.The volunteer chats a bit with the senior,who may be very lonely and anxious.One volunteer says it has also been a rewarding experience and gives her the opportunity to help others while staying at home,which they are all being encouraged to do. The program is a response to a number of factors,including the fact that many older adults are on a fixed income and may not have the Internet access needed to order groceries online.It is targeting seniors who aren't able to access New Hope's usual meals on wheels service. So far the project is a success,with a growing number of volunteers and seniors.As for what's next,Concordia is optimistic but acknowledges that the team will need to be nimble to accommodate the changing realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.We are at a critical time and we need to do everything we can,together,to help out.
(1)What do the volunteers do to help the seniors?
A.Help them pay the bill. B.Send their order to the store. C.Write a shopping list for them. D.Deliver their groceries to the door. (2)What can we infer about the program from paragraph 3?
A.It benefits both sides. B.It helps the store survive. C.It goes beyond expectation. D.It encourages people to purchase online. (3)Who might be the potential client of the program?
A.Daisy aged 45 with a heavy debt. B.David who enjoys meals on wheels service. C.Alexander aged 75 with a retirement pension. D.Elspeth who knows nothing about online shopping. (4)What does the underlined word "nimble" probably mean?
2396.Whale researchers believe they have found a new way to measure the amount of stress felt by whales when they experience serious threats,such as being hit by a ship,and they say the technique could help protect the huge sea creatures from dying off. American Rosalind Rolland is the lead scientist on the project.She and her team are with the New England Aquarium in Boston,Massachusetts.They measured stress hormones (荷爾蒙) by studying baleen,a substance found in the upper part of the mouth of some kinds of whale.She explains that the baleen serves as a record that shows a spike in stress hormones when whales face dangers such as a changing climate and ship strikes.Scientists can then read these records,similar to reading the rings on a tree. Understanding the information is important because whales who often feel stressed are less likely to be reproductive and more likely to become sick.That combination is not good for the whale population,which is already dangerously low. The scientists did their work on a whale that had become trapped in fishing equipment,which some scientists estimate kills up to 300,000 whales and dolphins annually.It was finally killed by Inuit hunters who found it trying to drag the fishing equipment.The hunters said the whale seemed to lack energy.When scientists examined the dead whale,they found its mouth showed an increase in stress hormones 20 times greater than normal. Regina Asmutis-Silvia is a biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation in Massachusetts.She didn't participate in the research,but she says it is important. "We clearly understand that stress is bad for humans.We also need to understand that stress is bad for other animals,too," she adds.
(1)What does the text mainly tell us?
A.The dangers the whale often faces. B.The measures to stop sea life being hit. C.A discovery to measure stress on whales. D.A way to protect the mouth of the whale. (2)Which of the following can best replace "spike" underlined in Paragraph 2?
A.Rise. B.Change. C.Crash. D.Slide. (3)What may a whale living a stressful life be like?
A.Calm and fierce. B.Unhealthy and unable to reproduce. C.Uneasy and energetic. D.Sizeable and likely to lose appetite. (4)Why does the author mention the words by Regina?
A.To move on to another topic. B.To stress the importance of the finding. C.To tell the necessity of studying other animals. D.To show the similarity between humans and animals.
2398.It wouldn't be surprising if we found it difficult to recognise the difference between reality and virtuality in the future. It wouldn't be surprising if we found it difficult to