1. (2022九下·瑞安开学考) 阅读理解

Could a Chewing Gum Reduce COVID-19 Spread? Researchers believe it can. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are working to create a special chewing gum that could help reduce the spread of COVID-19 by "neutralizing". The virus so a person can't transmit it to someone else.

Experts agree that vaccinations are the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but it's also known that vaccinated people can still transmit the virus. The researchers are hoping that their chewing gum will give people a low—cost way lo further prevent COVID-19 from spreading. "The spread of Omicron in our real life depends on its ability of escaping antibodies, so neutralizing the virus is the first place. This gum offers a chance to neutralize the virus in the saliva giving us a simple way to possibly cut down on the disease transmission. "Henry Daniell, the leader of the research, told Penn Today.

The special gum has ACE2 that is from a plant, showed in lab studies to neutralize the virus. When researchers stuck saliva from COVID-19 patients to the chewing gum, they happily found the levels of virus were drastically reduced to the point that the virus was almost unable to be checked.

The research is still in its early stages, and the researchers are working on doing experiments in humans to test if the gun is safe and effective. If the gum works, Penn Today reported it could be used in situations where people need to be in close to each other—such as a plane journey, for example to reduce the risk of passing the virus to others.

"We are already using masks and other ways to reduce the chance of transmission, "Daniell said. "This gum could be used as an additional tool in that fight."

Before researchers can bring their chewing gum to market, they have to test how much of it could be used per day, which will be based on how long it takes the virus to copy. However, if it does prove to be an effective tool, Daniell told "hundreds of millions of chewing gum" could be produced in three months.

1. （1） According to the passage, the best way to prevent COVID-19 is to _____now.

   A . chew gum B . wear masks C . take vaccinations D . eat ACE2
3. （2） The underlined word drastically in Paragraph 3 means_____.

   A . differently and suddenly B . completely and rapidly C . slowly and quietly D . hard and finally
5. （3） We can infer that _____from the passage.

   A . this special gum may be popular in the markets and cinemas B . scientists have showed this special gum is safe in humans successfully C . we should chew this special gum as much as possible D . people can buy this special gum cheaply from the market now
7. （4） The purpose of this passage is to______.

   A . prove the virus can be controlled easily B . show chewing gum can neutralize the virus C . tell us a new way to stop COVID-19 D . help us to know how harmful COVID-19 is