More than a hundred adults and kids gath...

A farm planted levels or floors is called a vertical（垂直的）farm. A skyscraper type building can house a vertical farm. Since the garden is built upwards，rather than outwards，it requires much less space than a conventional farm.

The world is quickly running out of room for conventional farming. Vertical farms could be a key to this situation. An 18­story vertical farm could feed as many as 50,000 people，all in an area which is the size of the average city block. Vertical farms in the city could cut down on transportation costs as well. Think about the amount of fuel it takes to transport food from farmland to city. The resources saved would be surprising. Besides saving travel time，food would be delivered in fresher condition and with less damage.

There is a growing concern about the use of pesticides(杀虫剂) in agriculture today. But the vertical farm would be a greenhouse type environment, avoiding the need for a large number of pesticides. Vertical farms can be built in a contained space，therefore they are an excellent solution for living well in an environment far different from our own. Hydroponics(水耕法) could be a big part of vertical gardening. This would reduce the amount of soil needed to grow food. Of course，not all food does well with this type of planting，but there are many crops that actually seem to do better.

In some climates，a lack of sunlight creates a short growing season. The solar power option may not work as well here. The addition of grow lights would make it possible to grow crops in vertical gardens in these areas .In other words，we could grow crops in areas where we never could before.

Vertical farms may just be a concept for now，but they are a concept that will solve many of our problems in the future.

1.According to the passage, a vertical farm________.

2.Compared to the conventional farm, the vertical farm can________.

3.It can be learned from the passage that vertical farms________.

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

Traditional fairytales(童话) are being given up by parents because they are too scary for their young children, a study found．

Research uncovered that one in five parents has got rid of old literature such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Rapunzel in favor of more modern books．One third of parents said their children have been left in tears after hearing the gruesome details of Little Red Riding Hood．And nearly half of mothers and fathers refuse to read Rumplesliltshin to their kids as the themes of the story are kidnapping and killing．Similarly, Goldilocks and the Three Bears was also a tale likely to be left on the book shelf as parents felt it forgives stealing．

The survey of 2,000 adults was completed to mark the launch of the hit US drama GRIMM （ 格林童话剧） , which starts tonight at 9pm on Watch, and sees six drama series based on traditional fairytales．

The survey found a quarter of parents questioned wouldn’t consider reading fairytales to their kids．And 52 percent of the parents said Cinderella didn’t send a good message to their children as it describes a young woman doing housework all day．

Steve Hornsey, General Manager of Watch, said: "Bedtime stories are supposed to calm children down and send them off to sleep soundly．But as we see in GMMM, fairytales can be dark and dramatic so it’s understandable that parents worry about reading them to young children．As adults we can see the innocence in fairytales, but a five - year - old child could take them too literally．Despite the dark nature of classic fairytales as we see in GRIMM, good will defeat evil and there is always a moral to the story．"

The study also found two thirds of mums and dads try to avoid stories which might give their children nightmares．The most popular book read at bedtime is now 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle.

However half of parents said traditional tales are "more likely to have a strong moral message than a lot of modern kids' books, such as The Gruffato, The Hungary Caterpillar and the Mr. Men books．

1.Classical works for children are being avoided by parents they think           .

2.What does the underlined word "gruesome" mean?

3.Which stories are the popular bedtime stories that parents like to tell their children now?

4.According to Steve Hornsey , adults can see innocence in a fairy tale but a 5-year-old child might ______．

Here are some of the world’s most impressive subways

1.Which one can provide the riders some wonderful decorations at the stations?

2.________ is done with the purpose of making money．             

3.We can learn from the passage that Shanghai Metro____________．

4.What do we know about the Hong Kong MTR?

Some years ago I was offered a writing assignment that would require three months of travel through Europe. I had been abroad a couple of times，but I could hardly claim to know my way around the continent. Moreover, my knowledge of foreign languages was limited to a little college French.

I hesitated. How would I, unable to speak the language, totally unfamiliar with local geography or transportation systems, set up interviews and do research? It seemed impossible, and with considerable regret. I sat down to write a letter begging off. Halfway through, a thought ran through my mind： you can't learn if you don't try. So I accepted the assignment.

There were some bad moments. But by the time I had finished the trip I was an experienced traveler. And ever since，I have never hesitated to head for even the most remote of places，without guides or even advanced bookings, confident that somehow I will manage.

The point is that the new, the different, is almost scary by definition. But each time you try something, you learn, and as the learning piles up, the world opens to you.

I've learned to ski at 40, and flown up the Rhine River in a balloon. And I know I'll go on doing such things. It's not because I'm braver or more daring than others. I'm not. But I'll accept anxiety as another name for challenge and I believe I can accomplish wonders.

1.The author accepted the assignment because _____

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

3.We can infer from the text that the author is  _____.

4.What's the best title of the text?

When Julie was a child, she was a very big fan of animals. As a result, 36 she ever heard growing up was “Julie, you should be a vet. You’re going to be a great vet. That’s what you should do.”  37  when she got to the Ohio State University, she started studying to be a vet.

A scholarship allowed her to spend her  38  year studying abroad in Manchester, England. Away from the family  39  back home, she found herself one day sitting at her desk, surrounded by biology books and staring out the window, when it suddenly hit her: “I’m in total  40 . I don’t want to be a vet!”

 41  she thought back over all the things she’d done in her life and what had made her happy. And then it hit her—it was all of the youth leadership conferences that she had volunteered  42 , and the communications and leadership courses she had taken as elective courses back at Ohio State. “How could I have been so  43 ? Here I am in my fourth year at school and just finally realizing I’m on the  44  path. I just never took the time to  45  it until now, ” she thought.

Inspired by her new  46 , Julie spent the rest of her year in England taking courses in communications and media studies. When  47  to Ohio State, she was eventually able to  48  the administration to let her create her own program in “leadership studies”,  49  it took her 2 years longer to finally graduate. She  50  to become a senior management consultant in leadership training and development for the Pentagon. She  51  founded a drug-prevention organization that  52  the message “Lead your own life with the skill and the  53  to say no.”

So, never live someone else’s  54 . If you limit your  55  only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want.