Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy, but this one is clean and cool. Fox Point is a very new 47-unit living building in South Bronx, one of the city’s poorest areas. Two-thirds of the people living there are formerly (以前) homeless people, whose rent is paid by the government. The rest are low-income families.  The boiler room has special equipment, which produces energy for electricity and heat. It reuses heat that would otherwise be lost to the air, reducing carbon emissions(碳排放)while also cutting costs.

Fox Point is operated by Palladia, a group that specializes in providing housing and services to needy people. Palladia received support from Enterprise Community Partners (ECP), which helps build affordable housing by providing support to housing developers.

ECP has created national standards for healthy, environmentally (环境方面) clever and affordable homes which are called, the Green Communities Standards. These standards include water keeping, energy saving and the use of environmentally friendly building materials.  Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%, which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs. Even the positioning of a window to get most daylight can help save energy.

Michael Bloomberg, New York's mayor, plans to create 165,000 affordable housing units for 500,000 New Yorkers. Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caused by housing. So he recently announced that the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (DHPD) , whose duty is to develop and keep the city’s supply of affordable housing, will require all its new projects to follow ECP’s green standards.

Similar measures have been taken by other cities such as Cleveland and Denver, but New York’s DHPD is the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country.

What is the purpose of describing the boiler room in the first paragraph?

A. To explain the measures the city takes to care for poor people. 

B. To suggest that affordable housing is possible in all areas.

C. To show how the environment-friendly building works.

D. To compare old and new boiler rooms.

What is an advantage of the buildings meeting the Green Communities Standards?

A. Lower running costs.         B. Costing less in construction.   

C. Less air to be lost in hot days  .D. Better prices for homeless people.

It can be learned from the text that_______________.           

A. New York City is seriously polluted

B. people’s daily life causes many carbon emissions in New York City

C. a great number of people in New York City don't have houses to live in

D. some other cities have developed more affordable housing than New York City

What is the main purpose of this text?

A. To call on people to pay more attention to housing problems.

B. To prove that some standards are needed for affordable housing.

C. To ask society to help homeless people and low-income families.

D. To introduce healthy, environmentally clever-and affordable housing.

Charlotte Hollins faces a battle. The 23-year-old British farmer and her 21-year-old brother Ben are fighting to save farm that their father worked on since he was 14. Although confident they will succeed, she is aware of farming’s many challenges.

“You don’t often get a day off. Supermarkets put a lot of pressure on farmers to keep prices low. With fewer people working on farms it can be isolating,” she said. “There is a high rate of suicide and farming will never make you rich!”

Like others around the world, Charlotte’s generation tend to leave the farm for cities.

Oliver Robinson, 25, grew up in Yorkshire. But he never considered staying on his father and grandfather’s land. “I’m sure Dad hoped I’d stay,” he said. “I guess it’s a nice, straightforward life, but it doesn’t appeal to me. For young, ambitious people, farm life is hard.”

For Robinson, farming doesn’t offer much “in terms of money or lifestyle”. Hollins agrees that economic factors stop people from enjoying the rewards of farming. He describes it as a career that provides “for a vital human need”, allowing people to work “outdoors with nature.”

Farming is a big political issue in the UK. The “Buy British” campaigns urge consumers not to purchase cheaper imported foods. The 2001 foot and mouth crisis closed thousands of farms, stopped meat exports, and raised public consciousness about the troubles on UK farms.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s 2005 campaign to get children eating healthily also highlighted the issue.

This national concern gives hope to farmers competing with powerful supermarkets. While most people buy food from the big supermarkets, hundreds of independent Farmers’ Markets are becoming popular.

“I started going to Farmers’ Markets in direct defiance(违抗) of the big supermarkets. I seriously objected to the super-sizing of everything－what exactly do they put on our apples to make them so big and red? It’s terrible,” said Londoner Michaela Samson, 31.

1.What are the challenges that British farmers face according to Charlotte Hollins?

a. loneliness                       b. thin profits

c. a lack of good equipment        d. long working hours but slow results

A．abc              B．abd              C．acd              D．bcd

2.Why did Oliver Robinson refuse to stay on the farm?

A．He hoped for a simpler life

B．He was fed up with a hard farm life.

C．Farm life was too demanding though he liked it.

D．He hoped for something challenging and rewarding.

3.What happened in 2001 to the British beef farmers?

A．British people ate more British beef.

B．To be a beef farmer became profitable.

C．Diseaes dramatically reduced the amount of beef available.

D．Foreign farmers stopped selling beef to Britain.

4.Which of the following is an advantage of Farmers’ Markets?

A．Lower prices.                          B．Flexible sizes.

C．Convenient location.                     D．Healthier food.

5.What can we conclude from the last two paragraphs?

A．Things are improving for independent farms in the UK.

B．Farming in the UK can now match the powerful supermarkets.

C．Most British people are doubtful of food in supermarkets.

D．Most British people have realized the problems facing farms and begun to help save them.

 

 

第二部分 阅读理解(共25小题。第一节每小题2分，第二节每小题1分；满分45分)

第一节 阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

When students think of learning a foreign language, the first thought is of books, exercises, and audio cassettes．Those are important to learning but sometimes a little bit boring．Therefore, it is time for us to spice things up a bit.

Things like a cellphone can keep your interest level high．It’s a perfect study material．You have it with you day after day, you are familiar with how it works and you can use it to practice whenever you have time．You don’t need to have your books by your side or stay in your room to listen to tapes.

Let’s take a look at how to add your cellphone to your study tools.

Set up your cellphone to use the language you want to study．Go to the menu, find settings, locate language and change it to English or Spanish, which benefits your language learning.

Look at the buttons and connect those items with the new vocabulary．This enables you to master simple words and phrases with little effort．For example, each time you open up your cellphone you’ll see “messages”, “games” and “calls made”．These words begin to take root if you see them again and again.

When you have time, take out your cellphone and start hitting buttons．You’ll be surprised at all the vocabulary you can learn by playing with the different menu items．Some things you’ll recognize immediately and others you can guess just by where you find them.

It can keep your learning fresh and interesting．And that’s important because boredom is a big problem with language learners．You need variety and a cellphone is one way to get it.

1．The underlined part “spice things up” in the first paragraph means “______”.

     A．make things interesting         B．make things realistic

         C．make things helpful             D．make things obvious

2．Which of the following is NOT an advantage of using a cellphone as a study material?

     A．We can study with it at any moment.

         B．It keeps our learning interest high.

         C．We can use it to practice freely.

         D．It offers the chance to practice learning.

3．By playing with a cellphone, you can ______.

     A．learn the words in the menu

         B．remember the messages sent by others

         C．improve the techniques of playing games

         D．become familiar with different kinds of languages

4．Why did the author write the passage?

     A．To stress the importance of language learning.

         B．To introduce the latest ways of language learning.

         C．To inform how to keep your learning fresh.

         D．To explain how to use cellphones to learn language.

 

E

City officials are hoping to use the power of dog droppings. San Franciscans already recycle more than 60% of their dogs’ droppings, but in this dog-friendly town, such wastes make up nearly 4% of residential waste, or 6,500 tons a year.

Within the next few months, Norcal Waste, a company that collects San Francisco’s wastes, will begin a trial program under which it uses biodegradable (生物分解的) bags and dog-waste carts to pick up droppings at a popular dog park.

The droppings will be thrown into a machine called a methane digester (沼气处理机), which is basically a tank in which bacteria feed on droppings for weeks to create methane gas.

The methane could then be piped directly to a gas stove, a steam heater, an air turbine or anything else powered by natural gas. It can also be used to produce electricity.

Someone doubts whether this plan is practical. But Norcal Waste spokesman, Robert Reed points to San Francisco’s creative food composting (混合肥料) program, which began 10 years ago. It is a proof that an unusual idea can work in this forward-thinking city. Norcal Waste collects 300 tons of food left over after meals per day from homes and restaurants and changes it into a rich fertilizer sold to grape farms and organic farms.

Methane digesters are nothing new. The technology was introduced in Europe about 20 years ago, and more than 600 farm-based digesters are in operation there. Nine are in use on California cow farms, and chicken and pig farms elsewhere in the United States also use them.

“The main obstacle is probably getting communities around the country the courage to collect dog droppings, to give value to something we’d rather not talk about,” Brinton, a recycling and composting consultant, said. “San Francisco is probably the king of pet cities. This could be an advantage of it, which is very important.”

Some other experts believe energy production from dog droppings must become more attractive economically before it gets popular. Landfill space is relatively cheap, and natural gas and electricity also remain fairly inexpensive. However, Reed said confidently, “Now, the city authorities asked us to look at dog waste specifically.”

61. How many dogs’ droppings can be recycled at present per year in San Francisco?

A. About 6,500 tons.                    B. About 169,000 tons.

C. About 260 tons.                          D. About 3,900 tons.

62. It can be inferred from the passage that        .

A. there are many pets that are treated well in San Francisco

B. Norcal Waste is a company of refuse (垃圾) treatment, which collects dog wastes only

C. most of the farms in Europe use Methane digesters

D. Brinton doesn’t feel optimistic about the collection of dog droppings in San Francisco

63. The underlined word “obstacle” in Paragraph 7 most probably means        .

A. interest         B. effect         C. difficulty       D. purpose

64. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. San Francisco is a city full of innovation.

B. Dog droppings can be changed into methane gas in several days.

C. It is the first time to utilize animal waste in San Francisco.

D. Utilizing dog droppings presently is more economical than the landfill.

65. Which of the following can be the best title of this passage?

A. Animal wastes collection by Norcal Waste

B. Changing dog droppings into energy

C. Methane digester technology in San Francisco

D. A dog droppings composting program

 

Bicycles are very popular in China. In our country you can see bicycles almost everywhere. When you walk on the road, you will find a lot of people riding bicycles to schools, shops and anywhere else. Therefore, China is known as “the kingdom of bicycles”. In China, many families have one or two bicycles.
Compared with cars, bicycles have many advantages. First, they are much cheaper than cars. Most Chinese can’t afford cars, but they can afford bicycles. Second, bicycles are small enough to park anywhere, while cars need a larger piece of land to park. What’s more, with lower speed, bicycles are safer than cars.
However, bicycles also bring some problems. Some riders don’t obey the traffic rules and some riders don’t think about others safety. So they ride too fast. During the rush hour, too many bicycles may cause traffic accidents. We still have a long way to solve the problem.
【小题1】 Where can you see bicycles in China?

A．In the big city	B．In the town
C．Almost everywhere	D．In the countryside

【小题2】“The kingdom of bicycles” here is saying    .

A．China has plenty of bicycles	B．China makes bicycles
C．Only China has bicycles	D．All the Chinese have bicycles

【小题3】 Which of the following is NOT an advantage of bicycles

A．Bicycles are much cheaper than cars.	B．Bicycles are more beautiful than cars
C．Bicycles are easy to park	D．Bicycles are safer than cars.

【小题4】 What does the last sentence mean?

A．We should drive cars instead of riding bicycles

B．It’s too far to ride bicycles

C．We still need to do much to solve the problem

D．we should walk farther to solve the problem