Passage2Thecommoncoldistheworl-考网

Passage 2

The common cold is the world′ s most widespread illness, which is plague that flesh receives.

The most widespread fallacy of all is that colds caused by cold. They are not. They are causedby viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact, directly orindirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expectthe Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated arctic regions explorershave reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected people from theoutside world by way of packages and mail dropped from airplanes.

During the First World War soldiers who spent long periods in the trenches, cold and wet,showed no increased tendency to catch colds.

In the Second World War prisoners at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp, naked andstarving, were astonished to find that they seldom had colds. At the Common Cold Research Unit inEngland, volunteers took part in Experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts ofbeing cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits,allowed themselves to be with cold water, and then stood about dripping wet in drafty room. Somewore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of thevolunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.

If, then, cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in thewinter Despite the most pains-taking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanationoffered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at othertimes, and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.

No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain suppressors such as aspirin,but all they do is relieve the symptoms.

The author cites the Eskimos not suffering from common colds forever to indicate __________.

A.common colds are more severe than other plagues
B.viruses are the factors causing common colds
C.common colds are full of myth
D.the idea that cold leads to colds doesn' t stand up

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答案： D

本题解析：

推断题。文章第二段说到，对于感冒，最普遍的谬论是感冒是由寒冷引起的，后面说到实际上并不是这样，“If cold causes colds，it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever．”，由这里可知，作者的意思是，如果寒冷可以造成感冒，那一直忍受寒冷的爱斯基摩人一定会一直都在感冒。即用这个例子验证寒冷不会引起感冒。故选D。