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. 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. |
Mary got a little white lamb(羊羔). She tied it to a tree in her field during the day and went to take it home every evening. One evening, she found the lamb gone. Someone had cut the rope and stolen the lamb. When her husband came home, she told him what had happened. Henry at once set out to look for the thief.
It was easy to find the thief in the small village. Henry heard that his neighbor Alex got a lamb. He went to the neighbors’ house and said angrily, “Return the lamb to me, or I’ll call the police.”
Alex explained that he had bought a lamb, but it was black. Henry looked out of the window. There in the garden was a little black lamb. He felt ashamed. Then he apologized to his neighbour. While they were talking, it began to rain. He stayed in Alex’s house until the rain stopped. When he went outside, he was surprised to see the lamb changed. The lamb, which had been black half an hour before, was now almost white.
“What colour on earth is the lamb,” Henry wondered, “black or white?”
When her husband came back Mary told him __________.
A.she had got a lamb |
B.someone had stolen the lamb |
C.she had tied the lamb to the tree |
D.her son was gone |
Henry said to Alex, “If you ______ return the lamb to me, I’ll go to the police office.”
A.will | B.won’t | C.don’t | D.have to |
Henry didn’t leave the neighbor’s home ______.
A.until it began to rain |
B.until it stopped raining |
C.when it was raining |
D.before it began to rain |
To his surprised, he found a _______ lamb there instead.
A.big | B.black | C.small | D.white |
Which of the sentences is right?
A.The lamb was stolen by Alex. |
B.The lamb was bought by Alex. |
C.The lamb could change its colour. |
D.The lamb went to Alex’s house by itself. |
We each have a memory(记忆力). That’s why we can still remember things after a long time. Some people have very good memories and they can easily learn many things by heart, but some people can only remember things when they say or do them again and again. Many of the great men of the world have got surprising memories.
A good memory is a great help in learning a language. Everybody learns his mother language when he is a small child. He hears the sounds, remembers them and then he learns to speak. Some children are living with their parents in foreign countries. They can learn two languages as easily as one because they hear, remember and speak two languages every day. In school it is not so easy to learn a foreign language because the pupils have so little time for it, and they are busy with other subjects, too.
But your memory will become better and better when you do more and more exercises.
Some people can easily learn many things by heart because_______.
A.they always sleep very well | B.they often eat good food |
C.they read a lot of books | D.they have very good memories |
Everybody learns his mother language_______.
A.at the age of six | B.when he is a small child |
C.after he goes to school | D.when he can read and write |
Before a child can speak, he must_______.
A.read and write | B.make sentences |
C.hear and remember the sounds | D.think hard |
In school the pupils can’t learn a foreign language well because_______.
A.they have no good memories | B.they have no recorders |
C.they have too much time for it | D.they are busy with other subjects |
Your memory will become better and better_______.
A.if you have plenty of good food |
B.if you do more and more exercises |
C.if you do morning exercises every day |
D.if you get up early |
When Mr. David retired, he bought a small house in a village near the sea. He liked it and hoped to live a quiet life in it.
But to his great surprise, many tourists(游客)came to see his house in summer holidays, for it was the most interesting building in the village. From morning to night there were tourists outside the house. They kept looking into the rooms through the windows and many of them even went into Mr. David’s garden. This was too much for Mr. David. He decided to drive the visitors away. So he put a notice on the window. The notice said: “If you want to satisfy your curiosity(好奇心), came in and look round. Price: twenty dollars.” Mr. David was sure that the visitors would stop coming, but he was wrong. More and more visitors came and Mr. David had to spend every day showing them around his house. “I came here to retire, not to work as a guide(导游).” he said angrily. In the end, he sold the house and moved away.
Mr. David’s house was_______ that many tourists came to see it.
A.so small | B.so quiet | C.so interesting | D.such interesting |
Mr. David put a notice on the window in order_______.
A.to drive the visitors away |
B.to satisfy the visitor’s curiosity |
C.to let visitors come in and look round |
D.to get some money out of the visitors |
The notice made the visitors_______.
A.more interested in his house |
B.lost interest in his house |
C.angry at the unfair price |
D.feel happy about the price |
After Mr. David put up the notice_______.
A.the visitors didn’t come any longer |
B.fewer and fewer visitors came to see his house |
C.more and more tourists came for a visit |
D.no tourist would pay the money for a visit |
At last he had to sell his house and move away because_______.
A.he did not like it at all |
B.he could not work as a guide |
C.he made enough money and wanted to buy a new expensive house |
D.he could not live a quiet life in it |
A newspaper reporter’s job can be very interesting. He meets all types of people and lives quite a busy life. He is on the rush for news all the time, then after several years he may get a desk job, and life becomes a bit more settled. Let’s look at his work a little more closely. In a day he may have to interview the prime minister of a foreign country, and the next day he may be writing about a football match. Sometimes he may be so busy that he has hardly any time to sleep. And at other times he may go on for days looking out for news materials yet return empty-handed.
In the beginning, a reporter has to cover a very wide field. After the early years he becomes more specialized in his work. For example, he may finally be asked to write only on court cases or politics or sports. Some reporters may become so specialized that they are asked only to write on a special thing: horse racing, for example. In most newspaper houses there is at least one special racing correspondent. Some newspapers have book reviews. Their job is delightful. They read the latest book and then write reviews on the ones they like. Then there are those who write on films, so they get to see them even before they are shown in the cinema. How lucky, you would say!
A reporter’s job can also be very dangerous. A number of them have died rushing from one assignment to another, and if there is a flood or a riot(暴乱) they may get hurt or even be killed. Three years ago there was a reporter whose camera was smashed by a group of men, because they were angry with him for taking their picture. Dangerous or not, one thing is certain, and that is, their job is never dull!What does the underlined phrase “on the rush” mean in the passage?
A.on the beach | B.on the spot | C.in a hurry | D.in no time |
Reporters who write on films are said to be lucky because they _____.
A.can see more film stars |
B.can see the films before most people see them in the cinema |
C.can pay less than other people |
D.can write anything they like |
A reporter’s work becomes dangerous when _____.
A.there is an interview with the prime minister | B.there is a football match |
C.he is seeing a horror film | D.there is a flood or a riot |
From the passage we can infer that, to be a good reporter, he must be all of the following except _____.
A.brave | B.quick in mind | C.strong | D.well-informed |
Water is very important to living things. Without water there can be no life on the earth. All animals and plants need water. Man also needs water. We need water to drink, to cook our food and to clean ourselves. Water is needed in offices, factories and schools. Water is needed everywhere.
There is water in seas, rivers and lakes. Water is found almost everywhere. Even in the desert part of the world, there is some water in the air. You can not see or feel it when it is a part of the air. The water in the seas, rivers and lakes is a liquid, the water in the air is a gas, and we call it water vapour (蒸气).
Clouds are made of water. They may be made of very small drops of water. They may also be made of snow crystals(结晶体). Snow crystals are very very small crystals of ice. Ice is frozen water. It is a solid. There can be snow and ice everywhere in winter.
Water may be a solid or a liquid or a gas. When it is a solid, it may be as hard as a stone. When it is a liquid, you can drink it. When it is a gas, you can not see or feel it.Where can we find water?
A.Water can be found almost everywhere |
B.We can find water when it turns into vapour. |
C.Water is only in seas and rivers. |
D.We can see water in deserts here and there. |
We can drink water when it is.
A.a solid | B.in the air | C.aliquid | D.turned into ice |
Clouds are made of.
A.seas, rivers and lakes | B.solid, liquid and gas |
C.very small drops of water or snow crystals | D.blocks of ice |
Water has three states(状态). They are .
A.solid, liquid and gas |
B.solid, vapour, snow |
C.drops of water, blocks of ice and crystals of water |
D.ice,snow and air |