| 1. 难度：中等 | |
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How would you like to teach yourself, rather than have teachers? According to the UK’s Department of Education and Skills, students will teach themselves in the schools of the future. This means that there will be no more problems such as finding enough teachers. Estelle Morris, the UK Education Secretary, opened the 2002 Education Technology Conference in London recently. To start the conference, she presented a video showing a computer—generated model of the school of tomorrow. Greater use of computer technology and classroom assistants will help students develop their own way of learning, Morris said. She added that this is a more exciting as well as a more interesting way of learning. At the same time, teachers will be “freed from their traditional role as the source of all knowledge”. Children of all abilities will “form the curriculum(课程)around their individual needs.” They will “learn in their own time, at their own speed and in their own environment”. At home or at school, they will follow their learning programmes by looking at online libraries and watching lessons by world-class teachers and subject experts. Instead of going on field trips, students will use virtual reality. If they don’t understand something, they can ask other students—“take part in virtual communities with learners with similar needs”—or e-mail their teachers. They will hand in their work electronically to be “auto-marked”. The classroom of the future is fast becoming a reality. And the Department of Education will soon produce a guide to help schools adapt buildings for new technology, Morris said. These ideas are based on the UK government’s plan to create an education system that provides students with a strong grounding of knowledge and skills at primary school level. And provides the chance for students to develop their individual skills at secondary school level. 1.According to the UK’s Department of Education and Skills, the school of the future will ______. A. cause more problems such as being able to find enough teachers B. set no homework and no tests for students C. make good use of the computer technology and classroom assistants D. enable students to learn by themselves without teachers 2.Estelle Morris thinks that computer technology does good to teachers in ________. A. helping students develop their own way of learning B. enabling students to experience interesting and exciting ways of learning C. providing students with knowledge of all sorts D. not being considered the source of various knowledge 3. If the students do not understand something, they can _______. A. go on a field trip B. go to ask their teachers to help them C. send e-mail to ask for a teacher’s help D. have a look at other learners’ homework 4. If s a student is under the UK’s newly-developed education system,he will be ________. A. provided with a basic knowledge from the beginning B. given more knowledge at primary school level C. helped to use computers better D. supplied chance to develop their basic skills
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| 2. 难度：中等 | |
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Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the premodern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years – lots that could have housed five to six million people. Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth.
1.With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned? [A] Types of mass transportation. [B] Instability of urban life. [C] How supply and demand determine land use. [D] The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion. 2.Why does the author mention both Boston and Chicago? [A] To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth. [B] To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation. [C] To show mass transportation changed many cities. [D] To contrast their rate of growth. 3.According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion? [A] It was expensive. [B] It happened too slowly. [C] It was unplanned. [D] It created a demand for public transportation. 4.The author mentions Chicago in the second paragraph as an example of a city, [A] that is large. [B] that is used as a model for land development. [C] where the development of land exceeded population growth. [D] with an excellent mass transportation system.
Vocabulary 1.revise 改变 2.fabric 结构 3.catalyze 催化，加速 4.sort out 把……分门别类，拣选 5.omnibus 公共汽车/马车 6.trolley （美）有轨电车，（英）无轨电车 7.periphery 周围，边缘 8.sprawl 建筑物无计划延伸，蔓延，四面八方散开 9.lot 小片土地 10.underscore 强调，在下面划横线 11.transit lines 运输线路 12.subdivision （出售的）小块土地，再划分小区
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| 3. 难度：中等 | |
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Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy, but this one is clean and cool. Fox Point is a very new47-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 Palladian, a group that specializes in providing housing and services to needy, people. Palladian 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 for500,000 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. 1. 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. 2. 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. 3. 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 4. 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.
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| 4. 难度：简单 | |
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Many people think a telephone is essential. But I think it is a pest and a time waster. Very often you find it impossible to escape from some idle or curious chatter-box, or from somebody who wants something for nothing. If you have a telephone in your own house, you will admit that it tends to ring when you are asleep, or in the middle of a meal or a conversation, or when you are just going out, or when you are taking your bath. Are you strong minded enough to ignore it, to say to yourself,“Ah, well, it will all be the same in a hundred years’ time” You are not. You think there may be some important news or messages for you. I can assure you that if a message is really important it will reach you sooner or later. Have you never rushed dripping from the bath, or chewing from the table, or dazed from the bed, only to be told that you are a wrong number? But you will say, you need not have your name printed in the telephone directory, and you can have a telephone which is only usable for outgoing calls. Besides, you will say, isn’t it important to have a telephone in case of emergency—illness, an accident, or fire? Of course, you are right, but here in a thickly populated country like England one is seldom far from a telephone in case of dreadful necessity. I think perhaps I had better try to justify myself by trying to prove that what I like is good. I admit that in different circumstances—if I were a tycoon(business VIP),for instance, or bed ridden I might find a telephone essential. But then if I were a taxi-driver I should find a car essential. Let me put it another way: there are two things for which the English seem to show particular talent; one is mechanical invention, the other is literature. My own business happens to be with the use of words but I see I must now stop using them. For I have just been handed a slip of paper to say that somebody is waiting to speak to me on the telephone. I think I had better answer it. After all, one never knows, it may be something important. 1.The passage is mainly discussing _______. A. that we should be strong enough to ignore a phone call B. that important message will reach you sooner or later C. whether it’s necessary to answer all phone calls D. whether it is necessary to have a telephone 2.Judging from the passage, who is strong-minded enough to ignore a phone call? A. The author. B.A tycoon. C.A taxi-driver. D. Hardly anyone. 3.According to the passage, the author________. A. thinks the telephone should go out of our life B. likes to be different from other people C. thinks the telephone is annoying D. speaks favourably of a telephone 4.In the author’s opinion, which of the following is NOT true? A. Nearly everyone has been told a wrong number. B. It’s necessary for everyone to have a telephone. C. He himself can not decide whether to answer a call. D.A telephone directory may bring in unexpected calls.
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