Computers Help Fire Fighters
In Kansas City, Missouri, a computer helps fire fighters. The computer contains information about every one of the 35000 street addresses in the city. When fire fighters answer a call, the computer will give them important about the burning building, its position and almost all the ways of helping fire fighters with the problems facing them. For example, it can give medical information about invalids living in a burning building. With this information, the fire fighters can take special care to find these sick persons and carry them away quickly and safely.
The Kansas City computer system also keeps a medical record of each of the city’s 9000 fire fighters. The kind of information is especially useful when a hospital can treat the injured. With this information, doctors at the hospital can treat the injured fire fighters more quickly and easily.
1. Missouri is most likely the name of ___________.
A. a well—known river B. the head of the fire fighters
C. a state in the USA D. a new kind of computer
2. The computer can give ______________.
A. useful and useless information about the city
B. useful information about everyone living in the city
C. useful information about every street address in the city
D. information about every town around the city
3. In this passage the word “invalid” means a person __________.
A. who is badly injured B. who is helped by firemen
C. who wants to be a firemen D. who has become weak through illness or injury
4. If injured, the firemen will ___________.
A. be treated at once with the computer’s help B. hardly get any treatment
C. ask doctors and nurses for help D. be taken to hospital by the computer
Poorer children would be offered the chance to attend lessons on Saturday to help catch up with their middleclass peers (同龄人), the shadow schools secretary, Michael Gove, said today.The Conservatives would give English state schools the freedom to choose to have longer teaching hours and extra classes at the weekend, he told the Association of Teachers and Lecturers’annual conference.
Gove said the move would help to close the achievement gap with richer children whose parents could afford extras such as tutoring and music lessons.
He told delegates (代表) in Manchester: “For children who come from homes where parents don’t have the resources to provide additional stretch and cultural experiences, there are benefits in having those children in the learning environment, in school, for longer.”
“Parents would love to have schools starting earlier in some circumstances, and certainly going on later in the afternoon, given the reality of their working lives,” he said. He held up the example of Kipp (Knowledge is Power Program) schools in the US, which are often based in the poorest communities and open from 7:30 am to 5pm on weekdays, plus Saturdays.
But it would be up to schools to decide to offer longer hours, Gove added.
Parents said Saturday classes could become a “badge of dishonor”if pupils were forced to go, while teachers raised concerns about their workload.
Margaret Morrissey, of Parents Outloud, said: “I think the suggestion the government made about one-to-one teaching for these kids would be a more preferable way of improving these children’s performance. I’m just not sure whether taking away a child at weekends is actually going to make them cleverer in the week.”
The ATL’s general secretary, Mary Bousted, said: “If we want Saturday schools, then we need more teachers doing the extra hours, not the same teachers working longer.”
66. The program is intended for children____________.
A. who are from middle-class families
B. whose parents can’t afford extra help
C. who perform poorly academically
D. whose weekends are mostly unoccupied
67. “Additional stretch” in Paragraph 4 probably refers to_________.
A. music lessons
B. physical relaxation
C. entertainment activities
D. out-of-school improvement
68. Why did Gove mention Kipp schools in the US?
A. To make a comparison.
B. To introduce a new program.
C. To seek supportive evidence.
D. To prove his program is better.
69. What is Margaret Morrissey’s opinion about the new program?
A. Favourable. B. Doubtful. C. Optimistic. D. Acceptable.
70. Which of the following is true?
A. Teachers may not like the program.
B. Schools are trying to make profits.
C. The program is already under way.
D. The program is popular with children.
Across the United States, there are several places where two independent towns grew together to become one city — but kept both their names. 
WinstonSalem is one of them. It’s a midsized city in what’s called the plateau（high land）, between the Atlantic Coast and the inland mountains in the state of North Carolina. The Winston part is a relatively new place, founded early this century. It’s home to the nation’s biggest openair tobacco market.
The giant R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s headquarters is in WinstonSalem, and Winston is the name of one of Reynolds’bestknown cigarette brands. Fastgrowing Winston soon surrounded the much older town of Salem, so in 1913, people in the area voted to combine them into a single place.
From a historical and tourist point of view, Salem, or Old Salem, as it’s called today, is the interesting and unusual part of town.
Salem was founded in the 1700s by the Moravians. They spoke German, and their community was religiously based, with single men and single women living apart in separate dormitories. The Moravians greatly valued women’s work and brainpower. In fact, one of the nation’s oldest boarding schools for young women— the Moravians’Salem Academy founded in 1772 — is still in operation.
Over the years, Salem lost its Moravian character. That all changed, though, when a nonprofit group began to rehabilitate the historic area. These days Old Salem is what’s called a living history museum, with exhibits, music, and tours of 18th-century houses, taverns and Moravian dormitory buildings just seven blocks from the tallest skyscraper in Winston-Salem.
The historic community is booming again. Just as R. J. Reynolds is taking in millions of dollars making cigarettes across town, Old Salem is generating about S| 15 million a year in tourism revenue and donations.
61. From the passage we can know that____________.
A. Winston-Salem is the name of a city
B. Salem is home to the tobacco market
C. the city Winston-alem has two names
D. Old Salem is the name of a tobacco brand
62. It can be inferred from Paragraph 3 that__________.
A. the two cities benefited each other
B. Salem developed faster than Winston
C. R.J. Reynolds Company has moved into Salem
D. the combination meets the wishes of the people
63. The city Salem is special for its__________.
A. boarding school B. lifestyle and tradition
C. respect for brainpower D. religious belief
64. The underlined word “rehabilitate” in Paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to “_________”.A. reconstruct B. evaluate C. enlarge D. decorate
65. What will probably be talked about in the following part?
A. Some other attractions in Winston-Salem.
B. How Winston makes profits from tourism.
C. Other examples of cities combined by two parts.
D. Something about the boarding school for women.
In their book Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living, Robert and Brenda Vale say keeping a mediumsized dog has the same ecological impact as driving 10,000 km a year in a 4.6 liter Land Cruiser.
“We’re not actually saying it is time to eat the dog. We’ re just saying that we need to think about and know the ecological impact of some of the things we do and that we take for granted.”
Constructing and driving the jeep for a year requires 0.41 hectares of land, while growing and manufacturing a dog’s food takes about 0.84 hectares — or 1.1 hectares in the case of a large dog such as a German shepherd.
Convincing flesheating cats and dogs to go vegetarian for the sake of the planet is a nonstarter, the Vales say. Instead they recommend keeping “greener”, smaller, and more sustainable pets, such as goldfish, chickens or rabbits.
The book’s playful title, and serious suggestion that pet animals may be usefully “recycled”, by being eaten by their owners or turned into pet food when they die, may not appeal to animal fans.
Annoying as the idea may be, the question is valid given the planet’s growing population and limited resources, Robert Vale said.
“Issues about sustainability are increasingly becoming things that are going to require us to make choices which are as difficult as eating your dog. It’s not just about changing your light bulbs or taking a cloth bag to the supermarket,” he said.
“It’s about much more challenging and difficult issues,” he added. “Once you see where cats and dogs fit in your overall balance of things, you might decide to have the cat but not also to have the two cars and the three bathrooms and be a meat eater yourself.”
56. The authors gave their book the playful title to________.
A. make it amusing B. create a vivid image
C. show writing skills D. arouse people’ s concern
57. In Paragraph 3 the writer mainly wants to tell us________.
A. the amount of consumed land
B. the neglected ecological impact
C. some familiar examples
D. some actual figures
58. What does “sustainability” mean according to the passage?
A. Going vegetarian.
B. Raising cats and dogs.
C. Using a cloth bag.
D. Keeping a greener life.
59. Who may not like the idea of “recycling” pet animals?
A. Manufacturers.B. Drivers.
C. Animal fans. D. The authorities.
60. What do the authors think of living a sustainable life?
A. Challenging. B. Inspiring. C. Inviting. D. Touching.
When you are little, it’s not hard to believe you can changed the world. I remember my enthusiasm when, at the age of 12, I addressed the people at the Rio Earth Summit. “I am only a child,” I told them. "Yet I know that if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this would be. In school you teach us not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do? You grownups say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make your actions reflect your words."
I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur（刺激） action. Now, a decade from Rio, after I've sat through many more conferences, I'm not sure what has been accomplished. My confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual's voice to reach them has been deeply shaken.
When I was little, the world was simple. But as a young adult, I'm learning that as we have to make choices--education, career, lifestyle--life gets more and more complicated. We are beginning to feel pressure to produce and be successful. We are learning a shortsighted way of looking at the future, focusing on four-year government terms and quarterly business reports. We are taught that economic growth is progress, but we aren't taught how to pursue a happy, healthy or sustainable way of living. And we are learning that what we wanted for our future when we were 12 was idealistic and naïve（天真）.
Today I'm no longer a child, but I'm worried about what kind of environment my children will grow up in. I know change is possible, because I am changing, still figuring out what I think. I am still deciding how to live my life. The challenges are great, but if we accept individual responsibility and make choices, we will rise to the challenges, and we will become part of the positive tide of the change. I hope this goal will be met through our common efforts. Thank you all.
57．The purpose of what the speaker said at the age of 12 was to .
A．end poverty and make school beautiful
B．find environmental answers and show off
C．focus people’s attention on some social problems
D．find a wonderful place and clean it up
58．What does the underlined word “ovation” in the second paragraph refer to?
A．A long period of laughing.
B．A cold and unfriendly welcome.
C．An expression used for greeting.
D．Great applause or cheering.
59．The information in the text is presented mainly through .
A．question and answer B．a personal lecture[来
C．cause and effect D．listing steps in a process
60．Which of the following best describes the speaker?
A．He is an experienced educator. B．He is an impolite man.
C．He is a man of great worries. D．He is a man of social responsibility.
Frederick Law Olmsted （1822 - 1903）, a Connecticut farm boy, saw his first public park in Liverpool, England, as he accompanied his brother on a walking tour. He was impressed by the park’s winding paths, open fields, lakes and bridges. Perhaps the most wonderful things of all was that the park was open to everyone.
A moment beginning in 1840 to set aside park land on New York City’s Manhattan Island has successful result in 1856 with the purchase of 840 acres of rocky and swampy （沼泽） land, bought with about $ 5 million in state funds. Olmsted’s chance meeting with a project organizer led to his applying for the job of park manager. In 1857 Olmsted was appointed manager of the proposed park, and the clearing of the site began.
Calvert Vaux, a British architect, asked Olmsted to collaborate with him on a park design, and Olmsted agreed. Vaux saw the park as a work of art, while Olmsted saw the park as a place for people to escape the noise of the city. Together they invented a plan that would give the persons and animals living in the city a quiet, green park and would also preserve and increase the good qualities of the natural features of the land. The commissioners voted in favor of Vaux and Olmsted’s plan, and in 1858, the two became the official designers of New York City’s Central Park.
It took millions of cartloads of topsoil to build Central park’s gentle slopes, shady glens, and steep, rocky ravines. Five million trees were planted, a water – supply system was laid, and bridges, arches, roads and paths were constructed. The park officially opened in 1876, and today, well over a century later, people still escape the noise of the city in Olmsted and Vaux’s great work of art.
53．What is the text mainly about?
A．A history of the planning of Central park.
B．An engineering plan for Central Park.
C．A biography of Frederick Law Olmsted.
D．A guided walking tour of Central park.
54．Olmsted became manager of Central Park because of .
A．his friendship with Calvert Vaux
B．his hard work in clearing the land
C．his winning a design competition
D．a chance meeting with one of the park’s organizers
55．The underlined word “collaborate” in the third paragraph means .
A．disagree B．comment C．vote D．work together
56．Which of the following is true about Central Park?
A．It is out of date nowadays.
B．The designers came from the same country.
C．It is an old park in America.
D．It is only for people who can well afford it.