> 【答案带解析】This is a photo of Ben’s family. He has ...
This is a photo of Ben’s family. He has a big family. Look! Ben’s grandparents are on the sofa. They are workers. They are old, so they don’t work now. Ben’s father is a doctor. He works in a hospital. He often drives his car to work. Ben’s mother is a teacher. She teaches English in our school. The man in white is Ben’s uncle. The young woman in red is Ben’s aunt. They are office workers. Ben’s family live in Beijing now. Ben and I are classmates. We are good friends.根据短文内容，选择正确答案。1.What does Ben’s grandfather do?A. A doctor.B. A teacher.C. A farmer.D. A worker.2.What do Ben’s parents do?A. They’re doctors.B. They’re teachers.C. His father is a doctor and his mother is a teacher.D. His father is a teacher and his mother is a doctor.3.Where do Ben’s uncle and aunt work?A. In an office.B. On a farm.C. In a hospital.D. In a school.4.Where do Ben’s family live now?A. In Canada.B. In China.C. In England.D. In America.5.Which of the following is NOT true?(下面哪一个选项不正确)A. Ben’s family is big.B. Ben and I are in the same class.C. Ben’s mother is my Chinese teacher.D. Ben’s aunt is in red in the photo. 
试题分析：本文叙述了本的全家福和他的家人工作生活情况。本的祖父母是工人。他的父亲是一名医生，母亲是一名教师。他的叔叔和婶婶是办公室职员。他们一家现在住在北京。
5. in our school.可知本的母亲是一名英语教师，不是语文教师。故选C。
考点：日...
考点分析：
考点1：日常生活类
日常生活类阅读理解：
& & 阅读能力是中学生学习英语应具备的一种基本能力。学习英语的一个重要目的在于获取信息。通过阅读这一重要手段，我们可以大量地获取知识，拓展知识面，还可以增强语感，培养敏捷的思维能力。
阅读理解也是各地中考试题的必考题型之一，在中考试题中占有较大比例，主要考查学生通过文字获取信息的能力。在中考中，阅读的篇数一般是三到四篇，选材范围越来越广，除故事、幽默、人物轶事外，科普性文章也多了起来。体裁也趋于多样化，有记叙文、说明文、应用文等。还要求学生能理解及解释图表多提供的简单信息等。三四篇短文中有的难度跨度较大，以便拉开档次，体现选拔功能。并且扩大了选材范围，主要考查考生阅读所给材料，理解其中词语、句子或片段含义的能力。有时涉及对全文意思和篇章结构的理解，对一些问题作出推理和判断。阅读理解的考核中包括了对词汇、语法等语言知识的考查，要求学生具备一定的背景知识、各种常识、科普知识和一定的分析及逻辑推理能力；要求学生具有归纳段落大意、中心思想的能力。测试的方向由时间、地点、身份、人物等一些细节问题，改为测试对全文整体意义的理解程度；由考查短文的表层现象改为考对文章深层含义的理解和逻辑推断能力。另外，任务型阅读形式灵活多样，内容丰富多彩，联系实际，易考查学生的灵活运用能力和对语言的综合运用能力。在中考中占30-40分。
考点2：人物传记/故事阅读类
人物传记故事类阅读理解：
& & 阅读能力是中学生学习英语应具备的一种基本能力。学习英语的一个重要目的在于获取信息。通过阅读这一重要手段，我们可以大量地获取知识，拓展知识面，还可以增强语感，培养敏捷的思维能力。
阅读理解也是各地中考试题的必考题型之一，在中考试题中占有较大比例，主要考查学生通过文字获取信息的能力。在中考中，阅读的篇数一般是三到四篇，选材范围越来越广，除故事、幽默、人物轶事外，科普性文章也多了起来。体裁也趋于多样化，有记叙文、说明文、应用文等。还要求学生能理解及解释图表多提供的简单信息等。三四篇短文中有的难度跨度较大，以便拉开档次，体现选拔功能。并且扩大了选材范围，主要考查考生阅读所给材料，理解其中词语、句子或片段含义的能力。有时涉及对全文意思和篇章结构的理解，对一些问题作出推理和判断。阅读理解的考核中包括了对词汇、语法等语言知识的考查，要求学生具备一定的背景知识、各种常识、科普知识和一定的分析及逻辑推理能力；要求学生具有归纳段落大意、中心思想的能力。测试的方向由时间、地点、身份、人物等一些细节问题，改为测试对全文整体意义的理解程度；由考查短文的表层现象改为考对文章深层含义的理解和逻辑推断能力。另外，任务型阅读形式灵活多样，内容丰富多彩，联系实际，易考查学生的灵活运用能力和对语言的综合运用能力。在中考中占30-40分。
考点3：记述文
记叙文阅读理解：
& & 阅读能力是中学生学习英语应具备的一种基本能力。学习英语的一个重要目的在于获取信息。通过阅读这一重要手段，我们可以大量地获取知识，拓展知识面，还可以增强语感，培养敏捷的思维能力。
阅读理解也是各地中考试题的必考题型之一，在中考试题中占有较大比例，主要考查学生通过文字获取信息的能力。在中考中，阅读的篇数一般是三到四篇，选材范围越来越广，除故事、幽默、人物轶事外，科普性文章也多了起来。体裁也趋于多样化，有记叙文、说明文、应用文等。还要求学生能理解及解释图表多提供的简单信息等。三四篇短文中有的难度跨度较大，以便拉开档次，体现选拔功能。并且扩大了选材范围，主要考查考生阅读所给材料，理解其中词语、句子或片段含义的能力。有时涉及对全文意思和篇章结构的理解，对一些问题作出推理和判断。阅读理解的考核中包括了对词汇、语法等语言知识的考查，要求学生具备一定的背景知识、各种常识、科普知识和一定的分析及逻辑推理能力；要求学生具有归纳段落大意、中心思想的能力。测试的方向由时间、地点、身份、人物等一些细节问题，改为测试对全文整体意义的理解程度；由考查短文的表层现象改为考对文章深层含义的理解和逻辑推断能力。另外，任务型阅读形式灵活多样，内容丰富多彩，联系实际，易考查学生的灵活运用能力和对语言的综合运用能力。在中考中占30-40分。
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 NameAge(年龄)FromTel.Zhong Nan40BeijingGao Ming13ShanghaiMartin28England1.Gao Ming is from ____.A. the U.S.A.
B. ChinaC. Japan2.Martin is ____.A. English（英国人）
B. Japanese(日本人)
C. Chinese(中国人)3.Is Zhong Nan from China?A. No, he is.
B. No, he isn’t.
C. Yes, he is.4.How old is Zhong Nan?A.
C. 405.His telephone number is . Who is he?A. He is Gao Ming.B. He is Zhong Nan.
C. He is Martin. 
I have a friend. His name is James. He’s an English boy. He is thirteen years old. He is tall. He has a round face, big eyes and a big nose. His mouth is wide, but his ears are small. His hair is short. 根据短文内容，选择正确答案。1.James is my ____.A. studentB. teacherC. friendD. sister2.James is ____.A. 12B. 13C. 14D. 153.James comes from ____.A. CanadaB. JapanC. ChinaD. England4.James has ____ hair.A. shortB. longC. bigD. small5. ____ is James.A. B. C.D.  
name is Li Ying. I’m twelve. I’m from Ningde(宁德). Now I’m in Beijing Ren'ai International School. I’m
Class Five, Grade One. Miss Gao
my English teacher. She is
old teacher. I have a pen, a ruler and two
in my pencil-box(文具盒). Liu Ping is in Grade One, too. She is
Guangzhou(广州). She is my good
. We are in
same class. Now she
at school（在学校）. I think she is at home. Look！That is a
, but it is not my book.1.A. IB. MyC. Your2.A. from
B. toC. in3.A. isB. areC. am4.A. aB. anC. the5.A. busesB. desksC. pencils6.A. for
B. toC. from7.A. friendB. teacherC. student8.A. theseB. theC. an9.A. isB. isn’tC. are10.A. eraserB. rulerC. book 
从方框中选择适当的句子补全对话。(10分)A: Hello!B: Hello,Jane!
A: Hi, Kangkang!B: Are free this Sunday?A: Yes.
B:Would you like to go to the West Hill for a picnic?A:Oh,
B:Please tell Maria about it.A:Sure.
B:See you then.A:
从Ⅱ栏中找出Ⅰ栏各句的应答语。(5分)Ⅰ
Ⅱ1.How are you ?
A. It’s nice.2.What do you think of the fish?
B. He’s short.3.What time is it ?
C.It’s six o’clock.4.What does your brother look like?
D.Fine,thank you.5.Why not go for a picnic with us? E. Good idea. Let’s go. 
题型：阅读理解
难度：困难
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牛津小学英语6b期末试卷及答案
提问者采纳
14.35. It often rain in spring there. Do he have any cousins. _______
31?28.20. There are many sheeps on the farm. Nancy is going to play piano at the concert._______ 47. I think Tom ‘s hair is shorter than Jack. She reads as better as us. __________(he) student Helen is with him.4. She __________(like) singing and dancing. Don&#39. Your mother looks ys about a kilometer way. I read English for a hour every morning. Mr Wu is a teacher. He like playing football very much. Mike&#39.11. What ‘s four and seven. My schoolbag is new. How many computers can you look at in the picture.21.________20. The football is under the teachers&#39?_________51. I __________(have)m going to play the game and some friends. My favourite subject are Maths and Science. Shall we listening to music now. I often go __________(walk) in the countryside.22. She isn ‘t as shorter as her sister. Mr Smith __________(come) from Australia. Do more exercise. Do you have one. Do you have breakfast at six, there is a Sports Festival at our school.66._______41. There are 3 peoples in my family. ________ 50.7. We want to met Miss Gao on Sunday. Then I __________(have) breakfast at six thirty. What ‘s the time do you have lunch.________28
April. What lessons do you have in Tuesday. I want to __________(buy) some interesting books at the bookshop. You _________(get) stronger. Grandma Zhang is about __________(six).41. It&#39. He __________(do not)want bread for breakfast.11.12.12. Are you still in the bed. Is Tom ride a bike. They don&#39?43. It ‘s his. I ‘d like a VCD of __________(Japan) cartoons.5. I ‘d like you to go to the playground with I.33._______5.45.31?26. There are two windows on the wall.2.________59. Can I have a look at . Is Yang Ling&#39?18.65. We can say a lot of English. You can take bus No.38.25.______44.________9. Su Hai usually play the piano in the evening? -No? _________37, the trees __________(turn) green and the flowers start to __________(grow)?35. We are same age.16. Shall we __________(meet) at three thirty in front of the cinema.30. TheYang Ling is sitting under a big tree. You can take bus No.50. Shall we started our lesson now. __________ you __________(watch) cartoons yesterday.75. He would like go to the supermarket.51.2. Would you please to close the door. One of us are in the room.52. There are much people in the street? --He is in a books store.47;s kite higher than Liu Tao. I think it ‘s Lucy ‘s. It&#39._______26.8, Tom? Yes？46._______24?_______ 48. Can you pick __________(they) for me. Is this your pencil case?______30.60. We _________ (have) an English class. Last week. They __________(have) a football match in the school next Sunday.6?_________67. You need buy a new school bag. I want to buy a interesting book about football.37. Can you fly a kite or to skate. The Music Club ___________(give) a concert in the school this weekend. ________63.3 in front of the cinema.________
49. Jim is not __________(do) well in PE.40. I __________(get) up at six this morning. The hot coffee near the clock is of the doctor. Black.44. Your pen is nice.68. “__________(stop) thief. My mother look younger than my aunt._________68. David swims fast than Jim. Helen __________(play) the violin at the concert next Sunday, she _________(like)_________(dance). How can I get to the History Museum, please?_______23. I ‘d
party.54.55. _______17.5. I very much like autumn. I told him to took bus No. Do you have some storybooks, I __________(do). How many building are there in the street. We __________(see) a film this evening. We ‘re the same ages._________60.6?3. I eyes are bigger than his . My mother wears new trouser today.27, a lake and many trees near our house._______40. We can __________(make) snowmen in winter. Su Yang&#39. -Do Sam doing his homework? There&#39? ________ 35.13. Where&#39. _______10.8. I see a Beijing opera show last year. We had a English lesson in the afternoon, you can take a taxi._______45?________66. Peter likes make model planes at home. I want to __________(write) a letter to my friend. Are your hair as long as hers?52.9.74. I can __________(jog) to school in the morning. How can I get the Bank of China. Her name __________(be)Susan.39. David and Mike likes watching football games.23.7? ________ 36. _________62. Wang Bing ____________(run) as fast as Gao Shan. Which season are you like best.48.________4.24.________ 6?58. Helen is doing well in PE than Nancy. ______18. You and I _________(be) twelve. Yang Ling&#39? ________38. There are a hill. Sorry. Which season do you like __________(well), you __________(get) stronger. It ‘s time for have some rest. They play the football every day. Is it yours?36. Tom is going to play basketball and his friends._______39. The woman in black is old than Mrs. I like read books about music.25; desk. My mum say Jimmy is also her child.32.22. The girl is15 minute younger than her sister. He __________(see) a Beijing opera show tomorrow.23. David __________(go) to school at 7. Her gloves is too big and too old. Gao Shan is siting by the window. Ws uncle is stronger and tall than her father. We __________(have) a Science Festival last month. Is She come from America. I __________(go) to school at about seven fifteen?14._______42. Go along this street and the park is at your left? In Jiangsu. I like to __________(pick) apples in the countryside. What are you go to do tomorrow?29?17;s and Su Hai&#39?30.48. Jim __________(live) in London?
They ‘re eleven. Who is taller?72. He __________(live) in China now.28.34?47. She often __________(go) shopping with her mother.4? It ‘s __________(snow).________19. There is some people in the room.20, he is. Dt;s Nanjing and Suzhou? It ‘s not __________(me). I ___________ (jump) higher than some of the girls in my class? I __________(like) autumn __________(well)? No.45._______16.76? No. I want to buy some presents to my friends?_______11. Look. Kate has an apple. He often do homework at home. There is interesting something in this book, you and David, his or hers.16. How many green watch can you see on the shell, and turn left at second crossing.49? Good idea.________12. There are some orange juice in the glass. The weather in New York is cold than in Nanjing. ________ 33.51. __________(do) you watch TV last night. Helen __________(like) to __________(draw) pictures in the park. We ‘re all __________(China).________15._________改错题21. What ‘s __________(she) favourite subject. In spring? Fifty yuan.49.13. Jim is not as stronger as the other boys.70. Who goes to school earlier.18?_______8, I have.38, he isn&#39. 32?_________22.53. Mum and I __________(see) a Beijing opera show this afternoon?________3.19. I am three months older than he. Whose key is this. ________64?61;t go to school in sunday.19. Are there __________(some) water in the bottle.3. Gao shan is thiner than his brother?________2.21. Who can find he!” A young woman shouted. He is asking YangLing how to get to there._______14:00 every morning?__________55, please._________69. How many maps are there in the study. _________54. The girl in the yellow bowl is watching the snow, the book is there.32, it isn ‘t mine book. Show us they stamps.71. My brother is good in Chinese. There are a little dog and two cats under the tree._________58. Shall we __________(meet) at seven thirty at the school gate. Play basketball is Harry ‘s favorite sport.46. These are beautifully flowers.29. You can __________(turn) left at the second crossing牛津小学英语六年级英语改错选择测试题用所给词语的适当形式填空1. -What are they doing?
At 12 o ‘clock. These are new nice __________(watch).34;s parents are all doctors. Please turn right at the five crossing. This is their plans for the weekend. Let me telling you a story.62._______27.3 and get off at the three stop.59.9.
________ 34.42.37. I __________(be) a boy. ______ 46. Sam goes to school by foot. He is on holiday in china.42?41. I would like to do your penfriend. __________57? _______ 7, your or your father. _________56. I like __________(watch) TV at home in the evening?57.________29. The thief stole my purse and run out of the shop.54;s about two kilometer away?33. Pick up it. What are you going to do in Sunday morning. He can play the volleyball. Ben run faster than me. Do you have any problems of your homework. I have many money in my pocket(口袋）.2 and got off at the third stop. I have some writing paper an a envelope. Please try the dress in.53? Yes. How much is the trousers?______43, please. I ‘ll __________(give) my e-mail address to Mike.44. What time do you have the breakfast. Christmas is on 25th of December. _________52;t laugh at I.63. --Where is Tom. How about your. What ‘s the weather like in winter. Getting there faster.69.26.27? Yes.43? _________53.67. 改错题11.50. Liu Tao and Wang Bing __________(run) faster than some of the boys in my class. I&#39!_______21. The boys and girls are talk about the football match?24. Is he jump farther than his friend. Go along the street.77. ________61. How about gs cousin is thinner than them.17. Are there some pictures on the wall? -They is eating. __________(do) you visit your grandma last week.15. Does Jim write careful.31.56._______13. ________65;s two. Does
cartoons.10.________25. It ‘s two o ‘clock in the afternoon. There are three windows and a door on the wall. My father is
tall than my mother.15. I usually go rowing and fish. I would like to know many about you?73.64. Can I __________(have) some apples. Jim have a dictionary. The weather in winter is as colder as in spring. I like __________(sing).10.40. The policemen ‘s __________(wife) sit under the tree.39. It is half past then in Sunday morning. Li Ming __________(read) a story in the newspaper yesterday afternoon.36. Who ‘s ruler is longer
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出门在外也不愁Original content and news about the autism epidemic from the perspective that autism is treatable. Anaylsis of current media treatment of autism and the environmental causes of autism.
For the moment, the front runner for the GOP nomination for president is someone who agrees that vaccinations are the root of the autism epidemic. Let's stipulate that this is astounding!
By John StoneAfter years of secrecy on the matter confirmation has finally come to light that Guardian ‘Bad Science’ journalist Ben Goldacre is the son of Oxford professor of public health  Michael  J Goldacre (). Prof Goldacre has been director since 1986 of the UK Department Health funded Unit of Healthcare Epidemiology ().  The family relationship is mentioned in a review of Goldacre junior’s Bad Science book in the peer-review journal Medicine, Conflict and Survival  (25, p.255-7, 2009)by Dr Ian Fairlie, but there has been a long term lack of candour about the matter. While the reasons for the secrecy remain unknown it is possible that if the relationship, which has never before been mentioned in the mainstream media or scientific publications, had been common knowledge it might have raised questions about the independence of the younger Goldacre’s views.  Goldacre senior was a co-author of a study of the effects of GlaxoSmithKline’s notorious Urabe strain version of MMR, Pluserix, after it was suddenly withdrawn from public use in 1992 (): the Unit has produced several MMR related studies.Ben Goldacre’s column which started in 2003 has featured his largely epidemiological approach to health issues, most prominently MMR and autism. Coming apparently from nowhere, journalistically speaking, he was promoted to the role of an “opinion leader” from the outset. His early article MMR: Never mind the facts won the accolade of the GlaxoSmithKline sponsored Association of British Science Writers’ award for the best feature article of 2003. The article, however, used flawed epidemiology for which he later offered no defence (), as well as including an anonymous attack on Andrew Wakefield by one of Wakefield’s colleagues. This was just the first of several notable interventions Ben Goldacre in the MMR affair. A stock-in-trade has been his generalised attacks on parents of MMR damaged children. His Bad Science blogsite for a long time offered this intimidatory advice to would-be contributors:“..personal anecdotes about your MMR tragedy will be deleted for your own safety”()A fundamental of Ben Goldacre’s journalistic method is the ad hominem and he always talks across opponents: he can always depend on the greater prominence of his published views and he never answers the many awkward criticisms.The Goldacre dynasty seem to be one of several with on-going connections with the MMR affair:
*Dr Evan Harris, the former MP, who accompanied Brian Deer to make accusations against Andrew Wakefield and colleagues, and led a debate under privilege in the House of Commons making further allegations of unethical practices () is the son of paediatrician Prof Frank Harris who sat on the Committee on Safety in Medicines and the adverse reactions to vaccine committee ARVI in the early 1990s when Pluserix MMR vaccine had to be withdrawn () , () , ().
*Paul Nuki, the Sunday Times features editor, who hired journalist Brian Deer to investigate Andrew Wakefield with the statement “I need something big” on “MMR” ( ) was the son of Prof George Nuki who was on the Committee on Safety of Medicines when MMR and Pluserix were introduced in the late 1980s.
*The Davis brothers Sir Crispin and Sir Nigel. Sir Crispin was CEO of Reed Elsevier, publishers of the Lancet, when Lancet editor Richard Horton denounced Andrew Wakefield to the BBC but was also a non-executive director of MMR defendants GlaxoSmithKline, and Sir Nigel was the High Court judge who upheld the Legal Services Commission to withhold funding from the MMR case a week later without disclosing a family connection to the case (). Sir Crispin gave evidence against Andrew Wakefield to a Commons committee as CEO of Reed Elsevier, cross-examined by Evan Harris, in which he neither disclosed his GSK directorship or his brother’s judicial involvement in the case ().
* In 2009 James Murdoch CEO of News International, publishers of the Sunday Times joined the board of GSK, with a responsibility to &review external issues that might have the potential for serious impact upon the group's business and reputation& (). This was immediately followed by renewed “overkill” type attacks in Times newspapers on Andrew Wakefield by Brian Deer and others.
For several years Ben Goldacre kept his distance from the Deer allegations against Wakefield, preferring to use the epidemiological literature to combat and deride concern about MMR and autism. In another ABSW award winning article Don’t dumb me down sponsored by Syngenta he wrote:“people periodically come up to me and say, isn't it funny how that Wakefield MMR paper turned out to be Bad Science after all? And I say: no. The paper always was and still remains a perfectly good small case series report, but it was systematically misrepresented as being more than that, by media that are incapable of interpreting and reporting scientific data.” ()Remarkably, Evan Harris - who originally made the allegations about scientific fraud against Wakefield and colleagues under privilege in a House of Commons debate in March ; – was on the panel of judges that made the award ().
Indeed, Goldacre was right: the claims were convoluted and tenuous. When the GMC finally brought in its verdict against the three doctors in January 2010 it managed to find them guilty both of conducting the Legal Aid Board protocol in the Lancet study and guilty of not conducting it at the same time. Since the Lancet paper was as Goldacre had stated a ‘a perfectly good small case series report’ and “ an early report” as paper itself stated, Wakefield and colleagues were found with remarkable ingenuity to be in innumerable respects in breach of the terms of the protocol which they had reasonably pleaded they were not doing. By this stage, however, Goldacre had “dumbed” himself “down” and welcomed the verdict (). In retrospect this looks like nothing so much as an elaborate ploy in which the medical and political establishment were giving themselves a policy in case the GMC failed to bring in a guilty verdict. If this had happened the polemical position evolved by Ben Goldacre over seven years, based on dodgy epidemiology, might have provided the main defence for MMR.There have been a number of other key moments when Ben Goldacre has intervened in the MMR debate. In 2005 Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips, alone in the journalistic profession, correctly spied the weakness in the newly published Cochrane review of MMR (). While this had been successfully spun to give the impression MMR was safe, the real findings were that after sifting 5000 related studies and reviewing the 31 best the evidence base for MMR safety was “largely inadequate”, while individually several of the autism studies had come in for scathing criticism, and none of them was strong (). Goldacre berated Phillips for knowing nothing about science, but the reality was that she was the only journalist who had taken the trouble to read the small print and dared to say the emperor had no clothes. There is no doubt in this attack that ad hominem prevailed over substantive discussion of the science (). There is a dangerous message here from Goldacre of ‘leave it to the scientists’, but scientists are human, subject to institutional bullying and manipulation: many will not speak up against the powerful interests, or they speak, as did Cochrane, “with forked tongue”.  Goldacre’s attack on Phillips sounded plausible, but the problem with the literature that Cochrane reviewed was not that the science was “imperfect” as Goldacre put it, it was that it was mostly no good whatsoever. And hiding behind a few weasel statements Cochrane had said just that.In 2007 Goldacre led an attack via the Guardian on its sister newspaper the Observer contributing to the dismissal of its editor, Roger Alton. The Observer had published ahead of the GMC hearing against Drs Wakefield, Walker-Smith and Murch an account of a study which showed the autism rate amongst Cambridgeshire schoolchildren to be running at 1 in 58. One of the authors concerned about the seriousness of the situation and delays in publication had leaked an early version of the paper to the newspaper. The story was denied by lead author Simon Baron-Cohen, ridiculed by Goldacre, and the Rwanda massacre denying director of Science Media Centre, Fiona Fox, organised an institutional hanging party against the newspaper. Then, a few months later, when the furore had died down, the article had been removed, the Observer editor sacked, Baron-Cohen gave a presentation at the London IMFAR conference, which showed that story had been  correct all along () .It has been a lamentable feature of Ben Goldacre’s contribution to the public discussion of science in the UK that he has everywhere generated an atmosphere of intolerance in support of his views, and rather than raise the tone of the debate it has encouraged a new kind of scientific infantilism, in which you deride your opponents and defer to authority. The ruthlessness of this power was demonstrated when LBC radio journalist Jeni Barnett questioned the heavy-hand of the MMR lobby. She could not have been proved more right when the station was inundated by protests from Goldacre’s website, LBC removed the broadcast from its website, and Goldacre arranged for Liberal-Democrat Members of Parliament to organise a motion censuring Barnett: the second signatory inevitably being Evan Harris ( , ). A recent development in Ben Goldacre’s career has been the projection of himself as an arbiter of research ethics. It remains hard to judge the sincerity of his position. While he has recently attacked GSK over the diabetes drug Avandia  () this is only after many years of controversy surrounding the product and with the US Food and Drugs Administration about to take action. Only last year he led a hostile campaign against Express journalist, Lucy Johnston, for her reporting of GSK’s HPV vaccine Cervarix. (). Yet the long term efficacy of the product is still to be demonstrated, and to attack concerns about safety is to prejudice the issue in relation to those who suffer adverse effects. Goldacre’s angry denunciation is an essence no better than a public relations agenda (on behalf of whom?), and can only prejudice the science. Johnston, on the other hand, was just trying to report.There is not a little irony in the doctor-journalist who sells ‘MMR is Safe’ T-shirts, mugs and baby-bibs from his website ( ) calling for an end to scientific spin (). Did Cochrane say that? No, Cochrane said “The design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, both pre- and post-marketing is largely inadequate” , which is quite different. The calculation apparently would appear to be that we are by now all too stupid or too intimidated to call his bluff.  I agree with Ben Goldacre, we need an end to spin and he can start at home: we not only need to know what we are being told, we also need to know why. And we can do with an end to the totalitarian tactics.
John Stone is UK Editor for Age of Autism.}