People living in the country enjoy several advantages that people living in the city cannot enjoy. They are in closely contact with nature. They make friends with trees and stones. They can own dogs. They breathe fresh air. They fight with strong winds. They listen to the songs of birds.
This contact with nature is good for health. There are many diseases that are common in the city. but are not to be found in the country. For example, near-sightedness is almost unknown to country people.
Because of the absence of cars, one can walk more freely in the country than in the city. There are no rules of the road nor traffic signs to obey.
People living in the country can easily get fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and fresh milk. And they get them at lower prices than in the city.
Country life is economical in other ways, too. There are practically no temptations (诱惑)to waste money.
Country people are mostly honest. They say what they mean, and make and keep promises with sincerity (诚意). They do not put on air. They do not pretend to have those ridiculous (荒谬的) manners which are necessary in what we call polite society.What can’t country people often enjoy ?
| A．Musical concerts. |
| B．Fresh air. |
| C．Song of birds. |
| D．Close contact with nature. |
What is probably more expensive in country than in the city ?
| A．Vegetables. | B．Beer. |
| C．Milk. | D．Fruit. |
What is NOT true of country life ?
| A．The traffic accident rate is very high in the country. |
| B．Living in the country saves one a lot of money. |
| C．Country people enjoy better health than the city people. |
| D．Country people are honest. |
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage ?
| A．People living in the country enjoy no advantages. |
| B．People living in the city are in close contact with nature. |
| C．People living in the country suffer from more diseases than those living in the city. |
| D．The prices of farm products are lower in the country than in the city. |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage ?
| A．The Disadvantages of Living in the Country. |
| B．The Expenses of Living in the Country. |
| C．Country Life. |
| D．Healthy Country People. |
What’s the greenest place in America? If you answered something like the warm sunlight of Santa Barbara, you’d be wrong. The greenest place in America has almost no sign of nature— the buildings outnumber the trees— and the air isn’t all that great. What it has is density(密度)and efficiency— the twin qualities that finally define green in the global warming time. Applying those standards，the greenest place in America is New York City— particularly，the overcrowded，overpriced island of Manhattan, which produces 30％ less per-capita(人均)greenhouse gas than that of the nation．
It’s that density that makes Manhattan so green. Manhattan’s population density is 800 times the national average. Density comes with negatives，certainly— small living spaces，air pollution— but it also enables amazing efficiencies．Over 80％ of Manhattanites travel to work by public transport, by bike or on foot— compared to an average of about 8％ everywhere else in the country. Manhattan’s apartment buildings are far more energy-efficient than the houses in the suburbs.
What’s true of New York City is more or less true of other American urban areas, which explains why a growing part of the environmental movement now focuses on greening cities, hoping to attract more Americans back downtown. There’s an effort to make cities more sustainable(可持续的)，by improving public transport，reducing air pollution and upgrading energy efficiency. But even more important, it is quite urgent to change decades of government policies that have been in favor of the suburbs，with disastrous consequences for energy，the environment and the climate.
That’s exactly the difficult point. For all the high efficiency and convenience and richness of living in a city，there are disadvantages too．New York，for example，has some of the highest childhood asthma(哮喘)rates in the U.S.
So it’s welcome news that New York has continued to push its P1aNYC scheme, a long-term program to make the city greener and more sustainable over the next decades. Recently it announced an update to the plan that includes phasing out heavy heating oils in New York City apartment buildings by 2030，to be replaced with cleaner natural gas.Manhattan is considered as the greenest place in America because of its__________
| A．buildings and trees | B．density and efficiency |
| C．sunlight and nature | D．transport and population |
We can infer from the passage that___________.
| A．New Yorkers have urged the city government to carry out green policies |
| B．the public transport and living space are quite satisfactory in New York |
| C．life in the countryside is more comfortable and energy efficient than that in cities |
| D．the significance of making cities greener is gained in promoting energy efficiency |
The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refers to___________.
| A．New York city | B．PlaNYC scheme |
| C．Manhattan | D．Santa Barbara |
The underlined part “phasing out” in the last paragraph probably means___________.
| A．rapidly promoting dealing with |
| B．widely suggesting researching on |
| C．gradually stopping using |
| D．immediately forbidding producing |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Manhattan the Greenest Place in America? |
| B．The Higher Density，the Greener City? |
| C．PlaNYC Scheme：New York City’s Future |
| D．Living in Cities Does Good to the Environment |
Hong Kong plays host to exciting events ranging from colourful festivals to world class arts and sports events. When planning your next visit，be sure to include these signature events in your plans.
Where can sport lovers order tickets for sports events?
| A．At www．hkticketing．com． |
| B．At www． hksevens．com． |
| C．At Hong Kong Stadium． |
| D．At Auditorium，Kwai Tsing Theatre． |
How much should you pay at least to attend both the jazz concert and Writer’s Block?
| A．HK $260. | B．HK $310. | C．HK $440. | D．HK $500. |
In which event can audience see Woody Allen in person?
| A．Affordable Art Fair. |
| B．Jazz Concert— HKCO + Howard MeCrary. |
| C．Writer’s Block. |
| D．Hong Kong Sevens 2014. |
Will online courses transform world of education?
Some may wonder what it feels like to attend a class at Stanford University. The recently popular MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) can satisfy this desire. But they are also most likely to change the situation of higher education. Only last month，both Peking University and Tsinghua University announced plans to start open online course on the edX platform，one of the world’s major providers of MOOCs，to explore this new form of online education.
Gaining momentum(势头)
“It’s not only a change of platforms from offline to online. It’s more about a reform of
teaching methods，even the whole education system，”said Chen Jining，president of Tsinghua University.
The potential of MOOCs to reform education has been obvious in the US ever since the immediate popularity of the course Artificial Intelligence，taught by Stanford University professor Sebastian Thrun, who later co-founded Udacity, a platform with 1.6 million enrolled(注册) students in 200 countries. According to Nature magazine，by June 2013，74 percent of universities in the US offered some type of online course. Lu Fang, vice-president of Fudan University，explains the appeal of MOOCs as a simple case of supply and demand：“The demand for high quality educational resources from both enrolled students and professionals is feeding the rise of MOOCs，in which classes usually taught by top teachers are available to everyone，”said Lu.
Too early to replace
With easy access and free of charge, MOOCs are said to have the potential to change the present education system. But there are barriers，because hardly any universities offer degree certificates, as college administrators point out, it’s difficult to confirm if students are foaming anything in MOOCs，reposed USA Today．
The Wall Street Journal also reposed that，presently，a typical MOOC student is likely to have
already graduated from college and is using the course to explore an interest or acquire professional
skills. Even so, an increasing number of undergraduates are signing up.
“What we are really establishing(创建)are educational pathways for people who want skills that are related to contemporary jobs，”Thrun told The Wall Street Journal．MOOCs have been considered likely to reform education since___________．
| A．the founding of Udacity |
| B．the wide application of online education |
| C．the popularity of the course Artificial Intelligence |
| D．the opening of MOOCs on the edX platform in China |
According to Lu Fang, MOOCs have become popular because___________．
| A．high quality educational resources are in demand |
| B．students can attend courses in famous universities |
| C．college students have access to famous teachers |
| D．MOOCs have brought about revolution in education |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Most of the MOOCs focus on professional training for college graduates． |
| B．There are barriers for MOOCs to replace the present education system． |
| C．International companies prefer applicants who graduate from MOOCs． |
| D．More and more undergraduates have realized the limits of MOOCs． |
The author’s attitude towards MOOCs is___________．
| A．doubtful | B．negative | C．critical | D．optimistic |
Tasha Tudor(August 28，1919 — June 18，2008) was an American illustrator(插画家)and writer of children’s books. She received many awards and honors for her contributions to children’s literature. When people talk about her creativity in artwork，she said,“I do it to support my dogs and my four children.”Her great publishing record, the number of magazine stories that have been written about her over the years, and her admirers have no effects on her at all.
Much of Tasha’s artwork and her reading are done in the wintertime.“I love winter. It’s delightful，”she says.“I don’t have to go anywhere because I work at home. If I’m snowed in，I can stay this way for months.”She hopes for early, deep snow to protect her garden from the hardship of the New England winter，and when it comes she puts on snowshoes when she needs to get down the mile-long dirt path that leads to the road.
Given her enjoyment of winter and her fantasy(梦幻)way of life，it’s not surprising that Tasha’s Christmas is a storybook holiday. She hangs flowers over the front door. Her tree comes from the woods,
and it goes up on Christmas Eve，lit by homemade candles and decorated with her great- grandmother’s collection that dates from 1850. In a place of honor on the tree are large cookies cut into the shapes of her animals.
The grandchildren and friends get presents from Tasha’s old dolls；so do the animals and they
have their own Christmas tree. “Of course，it’s a known fact that all the animals talk on Christmas
Eve,”she has written. Small, handmade gifts fill a big wooden box
At the end 0f each year, Tasha can look back and know that her life is perfect，that she has
again ignored the twentieth century，and that the magic continues. And for the rest of us，here’s
a bit of advice, Tasha style：“Nowadays, people are so restless．If they took some tea anti spent more time rocking on the porch(门廊)in the evening listening to light music，they might enjoy life more.”Tasha loved winter because it allowed her to ____________．
| A．read stories to her grandchildren |
| B．show her DIY snowshoes to kids |
| C．stay indoors working mid reading |
| D．enjoy bicycle tiding along the path |
From the passage, we can learn that Tasha’s life is ____________．
| A．modern and fashionable | B．simple and fantastic |
| C．lonely and hard | D．adventurous and inspiring |
Which of the following is TRUE about Tasha?
| A．She cared little about fame. |
| B．She created an animal fund. |
| C．She wrote many stories for magazines. |
| D．She bought presents for her relatives. |
In which section of a paper can you probably read the article?
| A．Travel. | B．Sports. | C．Economy. | D．People. |
Driving a car is not just handling controls and judging speed and distance. It requires you to predict what other road users will do and get ready to react to something unexpected. When alcohol is consumed, it enters your bloodstream and acts as a depressant (抑制药), damaging eyesight, judgment and co-ordination(协调), slowing down reaction time and greatly increasing the risk of accidents. Even below the drink driving link, driving will be affected.
Alcohol may take a few minutes to be absorbed into the bloodstream and start action on the brain. Absorption rate is increased when drinking on an empty stomach or when consuming drinks mixed with fruit juice. To get rid of alcohol from the body is a very slow process and it is not possible to speed it up with any measures like taking a shower or having a cup of tea or coffee.
The present Road Traffic Ordinance states clearly that the limit of alcohol concentration is: ● 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of blood; or
● 22 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath; or
● 67 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of urine (尿液).
Drivers who cause traffic accidents, or who commit a moving traffic offence or are being suspected of drink driving will be tested.
Any drive found drinking beyond the limit will be charged. The driver declared guilty may be fined a maximum of HK $25,000 and be sentenced to up to 3 years in prison and punished for 10 driving-offence points; or temporarily banned from driving.
The same punishment applies to failing to provide specimens (样本) far breath, blood or urine tests without good excuse.
Drink driving is a criminal offence. Be a responsible driver, think before you drink. For the safety of yourself and other road users, never drive after consuming alcohol.The first paragraph is mainly about ________.
| A．the introduction of driving skills |
| B．the damage of drinking to your body |
| C．the effect of drinking on driving |
| D．the process of alcohol being absorbed |
The underlined word “it” in the second paragraph refers to “________”.
| A．alcohol | B．absorption | C．blood | D．process |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Drinking below the drink driving limit has no effect on driving. |
| B．Alcohol is taken in more quickly when drunk with fruit juice. |
| C．Having a cup of tea helps to get rid of alcohol from the body. |
| D．50 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of breath is below the drink limit. |
A drive suspected of drink driving ________.
| A．should provide specimens for testing |
| B．will be forbidden to drive for 3years |
| C．will be punished for 10 driving-offence points |
| D．should pay a maximum fine of HK $25,000 |