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 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 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 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? 5
| 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. |
The other day I heard a few local musicians talking, "I hate all the pianos in this town and I hate that rubbish they play on the radio. They cannot even understand rhythm (韵律).""Nobody wants to pay musicians anything. I’m sick of all the people who want you to play without paying you.” One younger musician said, "There are a couple of clubs who want me to play for a few nights a month, and I’m trying to find other places to play. I’m also planning to join in several summer festivals this year." I really liked what the younger musician said so I made friends with him.
Attitudes are important. Whether they’re positive or negative (消极的), they’re all rubbing off on you. If you’re around people who are always complaining(抱怨) or blaming (责备) others, it is possible that you will start doing the same as well. If you spend lots of time with people who don’t support your dreams, it is time to take a look at the people you call "friends".
There is an easy exercise you can try. Make a list of the people who you often stay with, and simply stop spending time with the negative people on your list. Set a new standard for yourself and don’t become friends with people who fall below that standard. The choice is always yours to make. Of course, this exercise is entirely different from making friends only for the good of oneself. We really should try to help and spend time with those who are working towards a goal or dream.The musicians’ conversation at the beginning is to show that ______.
| A．musicians’ living conditions are not good |
| B．people in that town have poor taste in music |
| C．different people have different attitudes |
| D．young people are more likely to succeed |
The underlined part "they’re rubbing off on you" in Paragraph 2 means ______.
| A．they’ll push you ahead | B．they’ll have an influence on you |
| C．they’ll keep you from moving on | D．they’ll help you realize your dreams |
Why did the author want to make friends with the younger musician?
| A．He is more active than the others. |
| B．He can earn more than the others. |
| C．He has more things to do than the others. |
| D．His attitude is more positive than the others. |
By doing the exercise mentioned in Paragraph 3, you can ______.
| A．make the right kind of friends |
| B．improve your ability to make friends |
| C．develop a better relationship with your friends |
| D．make some new friends with the same interests as you |
We can get the following information from the passage EXCEPT ______.
| A．the younger musician is a positive person and would be a good friend |
| B．one will start complaining if one spends too much time with negative people |
| C．the exercise can help you keep close to really helpful friends |
| D．one should avoid making friends with people who have lots of difficulties |
Recently, a scientist did some experiments．He left a group of 4-year-olds in a room with a bell and a candy．If they rang the bell, he would come back and they could eat the candy．If, however, they didn't ring the bell and waited for him to come back on his own, they could then have two candies.
In videos of the experiment, he can see the children kicking, hiding their eyes--trying to exercise self-control so they can wait and get two candies．The results are different．Some broke down and rang the bell within a minute．Others lasted 15 minutes.
The children who waited longer went on to get higher SAT scores．They got into better colleges and had better adult success．The children who rang the bell quickest were more likely to have received worse teacher and parental evaluations （评价） 10 years later and were more likely to have drug problems at age 32.
The experiments are worth noting because people spend a lot of time thinking about how to improve education, how to become rich．But when the result is not good, they will come back to ask "how do we get people to get the sort of self-control that leads to success?" This is to enter the world of human nature.
So these experiments along with everyday experience, tell us that self-control is most important．Young people who can sit through sometimes boring classes to get a degree can work hard in order to learn a language well．They can avoid drugs and alcohol．For people without self-control skills, however, school is a series of failed ordeals（煎熬）．No wonder they drop out and their later life is a group of foolish ideas, such as drug use, stealing and so on.The scientist did some experiments to .
| A．test children's self control and later success |
| B．test children's intelligence of ringing the bell |
| C．find good ways of training children to learn |
| D．prove that children's education is important |
We can learn from the experiment that
| A．all children tried to ring the bell for more candies |
| B．some children didn't get any candy in the end |
| C．the children have different self- control |
| D．the last one to ring the bell is most successful |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．Ways of self-control training |
| B．Experiments on children's ringing the bell |
| C．Higher score, better achievements |
| D．Self-control is the key to success |
Do other countries’ students also have so much homework? What do they usually do in their free time? You may feel curious about them.
On April 8, a report came out on the lives of high school students in China, Japan, South Korea and the US. It surveyed around 6,200 students from the four countries last year. You will find the answers to many of your questions in this report.
Who studies hardest?
Chinese students spend the most time studying. Nearly half of Chinese students spend more than two hours on their homework every day. That’s much more than students of the US (26.4%), Japan (8.2%) and South Korea (5.2%).
Who sleeps most often in class?
Japanese students fall asleep in class most often. About 45% of them said they sometimes doze offin class. In South Korea, it’s 32%; in the US, 21%; and 5% in China.
South Korean students don’t like taking notes. About 70% said they write down what the teacher says in class, many fewer than in Japan (93%), China (90%) and the US (89%).
Who is the most distracted (分心的)?
American students are the most active in class, but also the most distracted: 64.2% said they chat with friends in class; 46.9% said they eat snacks in class; and 38.9% said they send e-mails or read unrelated books in class.
What do they do after school?
In their spare time, most Chinese students study or surf the Internet. Most American students hang out with their friends. Most Japanese students do physical exercise. Most Korean students watch TV.The report is about ___________.
| A．the countries | B．the subjects | C．the students’ lives | D．the high schools |
What country isn’t mentioned in the report?
| A．The US | B．South Korea | C．Japan | D．India |
__________ of the Chinese students spend more than two hours on their homework.
| A．26.4% | B．8.2% | C．5.2% | D．48.6% |
The phrase doze off means ___________.
| A．be half asleep | B．get up | C．eat snacks | D．send emails |
Once in a village, the villagers built a new church building and people came from far and wide to see it. They admired its beauty! They said it was the most beautiful building in the world. Up on the roof, a little nail（钉子）heard the people praising everything about the lovely structure – except the nail! No one even knew he was there, and he became very angry and sad.
“If I am not important, nobody will miss me if I quit!” So the nail then released (松开) its hold, got down from the roof, and fell into the mud.
That night it rained and rained. Soon, the board that had no nail was blown away, and the roof began to leak (漏水). The water flowed down along the walls and over the beautiful pictures on the walls. The plaster (石膏) began to fall, the floor was ruined, and the Bible was also ruined by water. All this was because a little nail decided to quit!
But what of the nail? While holding the board, it was not known by others but it was useful. Buried in the mud now, it was useless and would soon be eaten up by rust!
What the story wants to say is that every member is important to a whole group!
You may, like the nail, feel not important at times, but just like the nail, your absence is felt. A big building might fall to pieces. You are important to a group even if you are small.Why did the nail decide to quit?
| A．Because he was not able to hold on any longer. |
| B．Because he was angry and sad without people’s praising him. |
| C．Because he knew a big nail would replace him. |
| D．Because he had finished his task successfully. |
What’s the result of the nail’s giving up?
| A．People began to realize the importance of the nail. |
| B．The nail was put in a more important position. |
| C．Many things in the building were ruined and the nail was eaten up by rust. |
| D．The nail regretted his original decision at last. |
The passage wants to tell us that ______.
| A．no matter how small you seem, you are important to a group |
| B．it is a pity that small people are never looked up to |
| C．quit when it is necessary, and don’t care about what others say |
| D．being valued is important to a man |
Can you remember a morning when you’ve woken up to the ring of your alarm clock and wished you could stay in bed? You haven’t slept well, your hair is a mess. Worse, you can’t stop yawning. Yawning is universal to humans and many animals. Cats, dogs and fish yawn just like humans do! Yawning is an involuntary(无意识的,不自觉的) action during which you open your mouth and breathe deeply. The average duration of a yawn is about 6 seconds.
The purpose and cause of yawning are still a mystery. Scientists are not sure what causes a yawn. People yawn when they are tired or bored, but they also yawn when they aren’t. There are many ideas explaining why we yawn.
One idea is that yawning is a way for the body to become more alert by taking in more oxygen. A yawn increases the heart rate, forces carbon dioxide out of the lungs and blood stream, and brings oxygen to the brain. But one study showed that volunteers given a lot of oxygen did not yawn any less than before, while those given a lot of carbon dioxide did not yawn more.
Another idea is that early humans used yawning as a form of communication. If one decided it was time to sleep, they would tell the others by yawning and they would do it in return to show they agreed.
A third explanation comes from psychology professor Gordon Gallup of University at Albany in New York. He said that as people yawn, they cool off their brains. “Brains are like computers.” he said. “They only operate efficiently and effectively when they’re cool. Many things connected to yawning, like being tired, make the brain hot, and yawning can reduce the heat.”
Scientists have sent people into space, and created terrible nuclear weapons, but there are lots of seemingly simple things, such as why we yawn, or hiccup（打嗝）, that they can’t figure out. Next time you are in class in the morning, let out a big yawn and watch to see how many of your classmates yawn in response!What’s the purpose of the description of how bad you may feel when you’re woken up in the morning?
| A．To explain why humans yawn. |
| B．To explain how humans start yawning. |
| C．To lead into the topic of yawning. |
| D．To complain about being woken up by the clock. |
Which is not among the possible reasons for yawning mentioned in the passage?
| A．A way to show that you feel hot. |
| B．A way to get rid of carbon dioxide. |
| C．A way to cool off your brain. |
| D．A way to communicate. |
In which situation are you likely to yawn?
| A．When you feel frustrated. |
| B．The weather is hot. |
| C．Someone else yawns near you. |
| D．When you breathe in a lot of carbon dioxide. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The real reason why humans and most animals yawn. |
| B．Hiccups are an involuntary human action similar to yawns. |
| C．The more an action can be studied, the easier it is to research. |
| D．Finding out why humans yawn should be easier than sending people into space. |