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Part I
Reading Passage 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on
Reading Passage 1 below.
Next Year Marks the EU's 50th Anniversary of the Treaty
A.
After a period of introversion and stunned self-disbelief, continental
European governments will recover their enthusiasm for pan-European
institution-building in 2007. Whether the European public will welcome a return
to what voters in two countries had rejected so short a time before is another
matter.
B.
There are several reasons for Europe’s recovering self-confidence. For
years European economies had been lagging dismally behind America (to say
nothing of Asia), but in 2006 the large continental economies had one of their
best years for a decade, briefly outstripping America in terms of growth. Since
politics often reacts to economic change with a lag, 2006’s improvement in
economic growth will have its impact in 2007, though the recovery may be ebbing
by then.
C.
The coming year also marks a particular point in a political cycle so
regular that it almost seems to amount to a natural law. Every four or five
years, European countries take a large stride towards further integration by
signing a new treaty: the Maastricht treaty in 1992, the Treaty of Amsterdam in
1997, the Treaty of Nice in 2001. And in 2005 they were supposed to ratify a
European constitution, laying the ground for yet more integration—until the calm
rhythm was rudely shattered by French and Dutch voters. But the political
impetus to sign something every four or five years has only been interrupted,
not immobilised, by this setback.
D.
In 2007 the European Union marks the 50th anniversary of another treaty—the
Treaty of Rome, its founding charter. Government leaders have already agreed to
celebrate it ceremoniously, restating their commitment to “ever closer union”
and the basic ideals of European unity. By itself, and in normal circumstances,
the EU’s 50th-birthday greeting to itself would be fairly meaningless, a routine
expression of European good fellowship. But it does not take a Machiavelli to
spot that once governments have signed the declaration (and it seems unlikely
anyone would be so uncollegiate as to veto it) they will already be halfway
towards committing themselves to a new treaty. All that will be necessary will
be to incorporate the 50th-anniversary declaration into a new treaty containing
a number of institutional and other reforms extracted from the failed attempt at
constitution-building and—hey presto—a new quasi-constitution will be ready.
E.
According to the German government—which holds the EU’s agenda-setting
presidency during the first half of 2007—there will be a new draft of a
slimmed-down constitution ready by the middle of the year, perhaps to put to
voters, perhaps not. There would then be a couple of years in which it will be
discussed, approved by parliaments and, perhaps, put to voters if that is deemed
unavoidable. Then, according to bureaucratic planners in Brussels and Berlin,
blithely ignoring the possibility of public rejection, the whole thing will be
signed, sealed and a new constitution delivered in 2009-10. Europe will be
nicely back on schedule. Its four-to-five-year cycle of integration will have
missed only one beat.
F.
The resurrection of the European constitution will be made more likely in
2007 because of what is happening in national capitals. The European Union is
not really an autonomous organisation. If it functions, it is because the
leaders of the big continental countries want it to, reckoning that an active
European policy will help them get done what they want to do in their own
countries.
G.
That did not happen in 2005-06. Defensive, cynical and self-destructive,
the leaders of the three largest euro-zone countries—France, Italy and
Germany—were stumbling towards their unlamented ends. They saw no reason to
pursue any sort of European policy and the EU, as a result, barely functioned.
But by the middle of 2007 all three will have gone, and this fact alone will
transform the European political landscape.
H.
The upshot is that the politics of the three large continental countries,
bureaucratic momentum and the economics of recovery will all be aligned to give
a push towards integration in 2007. That does not mean the momentum will be
irresistible or even popular. The British government, for one, will almost
certainly not want to go with the flow, beginning yet another chapter in the
long history of confrontation between Britain and the rest of Europe. More
important, the voters will want a say. They rejected the constitution in 2005.
It would be foolish to assume they will accept it after 2007 just as a result of
an artful bit of tinkering.
Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour
12:44 06 February 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi
New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre
behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her
sleep.
UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases
of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among
people taking the drug zolpidem.
While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people
with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt
a closer look at its possible side effects.
Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is
widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea.
Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis,
were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK.
A newly published report from Australia’s Federal Health Department
describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by
people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The
health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strange sleepwalking by
people taking the medication.
Midnight snack
In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her
hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman
who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. “It was only
when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the
problem was resolved,” according to the report.
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile,
has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005.
The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of
bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including
reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a
transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after
taking zolpidem.
Hypnotic effects
There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem
with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes
deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called
gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep
sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility.
The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse
effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely
in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur.
Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and
drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep
medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours
can have risky consequences.
“When people do something in which they’re not in full control it’s always
a danger,” says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research
Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research
practices.
Tried and tested
“The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the
drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side
effects,” says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in
Boulder, US.
Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange
side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of
the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island,
US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not
carry as great a risk of addiction.
And Wright notes that some of the reports of “sleep-driving” linked to
zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug
right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time
they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before
going to bed.
The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively
investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual
side effects.
The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a “special concern”
for people taking the drug. “It’s a possible rare adverse event,” says
Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange
sleepwalking behaviours “may not necessarily be caused by the drug” but instead
result from an underlying disorder. She says that “the safety profile [of
zolpidem] is well established”. The drug received approval in the US in
1993.
雅思阅读模拟题：Food agency takes on industry
Food agency takes on industry over junk labels
Felicity Lawrence
Thursday December 28, 2006
The Guardian
1. Consumers are to be presented with two rival new year advertising
campaigns as the Food Standards Agency goes public in its battle with the
industry over the labelling of unhealthy foods.
2. The Guardian has learned that the FSA will launch a series of 10-second
television adverts in January telling shoppers how to follow a red, amber and
green traffic light labelling system on the front of food packs, which is
designed to tackle Britain's obesity epidemic.
3. The campaign is a direct response to a concerted attempt by leading food
manufacturers and retailers, including Kellogg's and Tesco, to derail the
system. The industry fears that traffic lights would demonise entire categories
of foods and could seriously damage the market for those that are fatty, salty
or high in sugar.
4. The UK market for breakfast cereals is worth ￡1.27bn a year and the
manufacturers fear it will be severely dented if red light labels are put on
packaging drawing attention to the fact that the majority are high in salt
and/or sugar.
5. The industry is planning a major marketing campaign for a competing
labelling system which avoids colour-coding in favour of information about the
percentage of "guideline daily amounts" (GDAs) of fat, salt and sugar contained
in their products.
6. The battle for the nation's diet comes as new rules on television
advertising come into force in January which will bar adverts for unhealthy
foods from commercial breaks during programmes aimed at children. Sources at the
TV regulators are braced for a legal challenge from the industry and have
described the lobbying efforts to block any new ad ban or colour-coded labelling
as "the most ferocious we've ever experienced".
7. Ofcom's chief executive, Ed Richards, said: "We are prepared to face up
to any legal action from the industry, but we very much hope it will not be
necessary." The FSA said it was expecting an onslaught from the industry in
January. Senior FSA officials said the manufacturers' efforts to undermine its
proposals on labelling could threaten the agency's credibility.
8. Terrence Collis, FSA director of communications, dismissed claims that
the proposals were not based on science. "We have some of the most respected
scientists in Europe, both within the FSA and in our independent advisory
committees. It is unjustified and nonsensical to attack the FSA's scientific
reputation and to try to undermine its credibility."
9. The FSA is understood to have briefed its ad agency, United, before
Christmas, and will aim to air ads that are "non-confrontational, humorous and
factual" as a counterweight to industry's efforts about the same time. The
agency, however, will have a tiny fraction of the budget available to the
industry.
10. Gavin Neath, chairman of Unilever UK and president of the Food and
Drink Federation, has said that the industry has made enormous progress but
could not accept red "stop" signs on its food.
11. Alastair Sykes, chief executive of Nestlé UK, said that under the FSA
proposals all his company's confectionery and most of its cereals would score a
red. "Are we saying people shouldn't eat confectionery? We're driven by
consumers and what they want, and much of what we do has been to make our
products healthier," he said.
12. Chris Wermann, director of communications at Kellogg's, said: "In
principle we could never accept traffic light labelling."
13. The rival labelling scheme introduced by Kellogg's, Danone, Unilever,
Nestlé, Kraft and Tesco and now favoured by 21 manufacturers, uses an
industry-devised system based on identifying GDAs of key nutrients. Tesco says
it has tested both traffic lights and GDA labels in its stores and that the
latter increased sales of healthier foods.
14. But the FSA said it could not live with this GDA system alone because
it was "not scientific" or easy for shoppers to understand at a glance.
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