2014高考英语二轮阅读理解专题训练精品题：18.docVIP

2014高考英语阅读理解专题训练二轮精品题（18）及答案 阅读理解 The common cold is the worlds most widespread illness, which is a plague that man receives. The most widespread mistake of all is that colds are caused by cold. They are not. They are caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated Arctic regions, explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contract again with infected people from the outside 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, seldom caught colds. In the Second World War, prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camp, naked and starved, were astonished to find that they seldom had colds. At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being 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 a room. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers 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 winter? Despite the most hard research, no one has yet found out the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and that 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-killers such as aspirin, but all that they do is to relieve the symptoms. 67. The writer offered ___ ex