Attempt a guess at the following question: In the English-speaking world, which country has the least affordable homes? You are wrong if you guessed the US, even with the housing bubble （气泡） and main sadness. Nor is it the UK, where prices have risen because demand is far from supply. According to a recent survey of 227 cities around the globe, you must go south of the equator （赤道） to Australia to find the priciest homes．
The report measured a city’s housing market along the following guidelines. An “affordable” home required three times or less of the average family’s income to purchase. At four times earnings, a home fell into the “unaffordable” category. And a “seriously unaffordable” home needed five times a family’s income. In Australia, homes in the least affordable city cost just about 9.5 times the average income. Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne were only a little under this figure．
Australian officials offered little comment, apart from a general statement on the dismal findings. These prices make the possibility that many Australians will one day own a home largely unbelievable. Land rationing （配给制） and excessive development charges have raised prices, and the problem will only be solved through urgent action by the Rudd government．
Some American cities were also included on the least affordable list, four of which were in California. America is still involved in a mortgage（抵押）crisis, though, affecting the affordability of homes. Yet a number of US cities garnered “affordable” status, namely Dallas and Kansas. Australia had no cities listed in the top fifty places with affordable homes．
The survey suggests that you can find affordable homes in most places, just not if you’re Australian and choose to live down under．To buy an affordable house, you should pay _____．
| A．3 times or less of the average family’s income |
| B．4 times or less of the average family’s income |
| C．5 times or less of the average family’s income |
| D．9.5 times or less of the average family’s income |
What caused the prices of houses to increase in Australia?
| A．The rising family’s income． |
| B．The demand over supply. |
| C．The excessive development charges． |
| D．The decrease of land． |
The underlined word “dismal” in Paragraph 3 may mean _____．
| A．cheerful | B．satisfactory |
| C．difficult | D．sad |
What might be the most suitable title for the passage?
| A．Affordable Houses | B．A House is a Dream First |
| C．Housing Bubble | D．Homes Too Expensive |
There is an endless supply of stories about sleepwalkers (梦游者). People have been said to climb on roofs, solve mathematical problems, write music, walk through windows, and do murder in their sleep.
In Revere, Massachusetts, a hundred policemen searched for a lost boy who left his home in his sleep and woke up five hours later on a strange sofa in a strange living room, with no idea how he had got there.
At the University of Lowa, WWW.K**S*858$$U.COMa student was reported to have the habit of getting up in the middle of the night and walking three-quarters of a mile to the Lowa River. He would take a swim and then go back to his room to bed.
An American expert on sleep claims (声称) that he has never seen a sleepwalker. He is said to know more about sleep than any other living man, and during the last thirty-five years he has lost a lot of sleep watching people sleep. He says, “Of course, I know that there are sleepwalkers because I have read about them in the newspapers. But none of my sleepers ever walked, and if I were to advertise for sleepwalkers for an experiment, I doubt whether I would get many takers (应征者).”
Sleepwalking, however, is a scientific reality. It is one of those strange things that sometimes look quite fantastic (怪诞的). Doctors say that sleepwalking is much more common than is generally supposed. Many sleepwalkers do not try to find help and their sleepwalking is never recorded. Generally speaking, sleepwalkers are people who ________.
| A．climb on roofs | B．walk through windows |
| C．do fantastic things during their sleep | D．walk in a half-awake state |
It was reported that a boy ________.
| A．was found on a strange sofa, telling how he had got there |
| B．slept in his own room but woke up in a strange room |
| C．lost his way five hours after he left home |
| D．was searched for by policemen when he lost his way |
There was a college student who got into the habit of ________.
| A．getting up in the middle of the night and walking down to the river |
| B．walking three-quarters of a mile every day |
| C．swimming in the Lowa River before going to bed |
| D．walking about before he went to bed |
Why do people think sleepwalking is nothing but a fantastic thing which doesn’t have any explanation?
| A．It is so common that it needn’t be recorded. |
| B．Scientists take no interest in it. |
| C．Most sleepwalkers do not seek help for their problem. |
| D．No records about it have been made. |
Japanese people,who never miss a chance to be photographed,were lining up to get their pictures on a postage stamp．Vanity（虚荣）stamps with personal photographs went on sale for the first time in Japan as part of an international postage stamp exhibition．The customer’s photo was taken with a digital camera and then printed on stamp sheets,a process that takes about five minutes．Sold in a sheet of 10 stamps for $8．80,little more than the cost of lunch in Tokyo,each stamp printed a different scene from a traditional painting along with the photo．
The stamps can be used normally to mail a letter,and postal officials hope they will help encourage interest in letter writing in the Internet age．“Certainly e-mail is a useful method of communication,but letters are fun in a different way,”said Hatsumi Shimizu an official in the Post Ministry．“We want to show young people that letters can be fun too．”[
While similar stamp sheets appeared in Australia in 1999 and are now sold in some nations and territories,Japan’s fondness for commemorative photos is likely to make them especially popular here．Indeed,officials had prepared 1 000 sheets but they were sold out in less than 30 minutes．Although the stamps are currently only available as a special service during the exhibition,postal officials said they may start selling them on a regular basis in the future．The best title of this passage might be______．
| A．Never Miss a Chance to be Photographed |
| B．Your Own Face on a Postage Stamp |
| C．First Japanese Postage Stamps with a Photo |
| D．Letters are as Fun as E-mails |
By saying“little more than the cost of lunch in Tokyo”,the author really means______．
| A．this service is not very expensive |
| B．the cost of this service is very high |
| C．food in Tokyo is very dear |
| D．$8．80 is a very small amount of money |
The purpose of this activity is______．
| A．to make the international postage stamp exhibition more interesting |
| B．to make more stamps for normal use |
| C．to draw interest in writing letters |
| D．to satisfy Japan’s fondness of commemorative photos |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Japanese people like to take photos． |
| B．This kind of stamps must be used to mail letters． |
| C．Japanese people can get this kind of stamps easily after the stamp exhibition． |
| D．This service is more popular in Japan than in other places． |
If women are mercilessly exploited（剥削） year after year, they have only themselves to blame．Because they tremble at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion, they are always taken advantage of by the designers and the big stores．Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be put aside because of the change of fashion．
Changing fashions are nothing more than the intentional creation of waste．Many women spend large sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn．Women who cannot afford to throw away clothing in this way, waste hours of their time changing their old-fashioned dresses．Skirts are lengthened or shortened; neck-lines are lowered or raised, and so on．
No one can claim that the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society．Fashion designers are rarely concerned with necessary things like warmth, comfort and durability （耐用）．They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfort, as long as they look right．There can hardly be a man who hasn't at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shaking in a thin dress on a winter day, or picking her way through deep snow in high heeled shoes．
When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion, the conclusions to be drawn are obvious．Do the constantly changing fashions of women's clothes, one wonders, reflect basic qualities of inconstancy and instability? Men are too clever to let themselves be cheated by fashion designers．Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualities of stability and reliability? That is for you to decide．Designers and big stores always make money_________．
| A．by mercilessly exploiting women workers in the clothing industry |
| B．because they are capable of predicting new fashions |
| C．by constantly changing the fashions in women's clothing |
| D．because they attach great importance to quality in women's clothing |
To the writer, the fact that women change their old-fashioned dresses is seen as ___________．
| A．a waste of money |
| B．a waste of time |
| C．an expression of taste |
| D．an expression of creativity |
New fashions in clothing are created for ___________．
| A．the commercial exploitation of women |
| B．the women's strength of character |
| C．basic qualities of inconstancy and instability |
| D．an important contribution to society |
By saying "the conclusions to be drawn are obvious" （ Line One to Line Two, Paragraph Four）, the writer means that ___________．
| A．women's inconstancy in their choice of clothing is often laughed at |
| B．women are better able to put up with discomfort |
| C．men are also exploited greatly by fashion designers |
| D．men are more reasonable in the matter of fashion |
Disposing（处理）of waste has been a problem since humans started producing it．As more and more people choose to live close together in cities,the waste-disposal problem becomes increasingly difficult．
During the eighteenth century,it was usual for several neighboring towns to get together to select a faraway spot as a dump site．Residents or trash haulers（垃圾拖运者）would transport household rubbish,rotted wood,and old possessions to the site．Periodically some of the trash was burned and the rest was buried．The unpleasant sights and smells caused no problem because nobody lived close by．
Factories,mills,and other industrial sites also had waste to be disposed of．Those located on rivers often just dumped the unwanted remains into the water．Others built huge burners with chimneys to deal with the problem．
Several facts make these choices unacceptable to modern society．The first problem is space Dumps,which are now called landfills,are most needed in heavily populated areas．Such areas rarely have empty land suitable for this purpose．Property is either too expensive or too close to residential neighborhoods．Long-distance trash hauling has been a common practice but once farm areas are refusing to accept rubbish from elsewhere,cheap land within trucking distance of major city areas is almost nonexistent．
Awareness of pollution dangers has resulted in more strict rules of waste disposal．Pollution of rivers,ground water,land and air is a price people can no longer pay to get rid of waste．The amount of waste,however,continues to grow．
Recycling efforts have become commonplace,and many towns require their people to take part．Even the most efficient recycling programs,however,can hope to deal with only about 50 percent of a city’s reusable waste．The most suitable title for this passage would be ______．
| A．Places for Disposing Waste | B．Waste Pollution Dangers |
| C．Ways of Getting Rid of Waste | D．Waste Disposal Problem |
During the 18th century,people disposed their waste in many ways EXCEPT for ______．
| A．burying it | B．recycling it |
| C．burning it | D．throwing it into rivers |
What can be inferred from the fourth paragraph?
| A．Farm areas accept waste from the city in modern society． |
| B．There is cheap land to bury waste in modern society． |
| C．It is difficult to find space to bury waste in modern society． |
| D．Ways to deal with waste in modern society stay the same． |
The main purpose of writing this article is to ______．
| A．draw people’s attention to waste management |
| B．warn people of the pollution dangers we are facing |
| C．call on people to take part in recycling programs |
| D．tell people a better way to get rid of the waste |
The use of the word imitation（模仿） reminds me that we ought to make some more comments on the risk of people imitating what they see on the screen in the way of crime（犯罪） or violence．First there was always a risk of children acting out scenes which could be dangerous．For example,I remember a woman who was head of a middle school telling me that she had happened to look out of her window when the children were on the playground and had seen them putting a small boy on a chair with a rope round his neck and the rope over the branch of a tree;fortunately she was in time to get there before the child was hanged．I remember a film in particular in which the hero who was imprisoned had escaped by electrocuting（通电触死） his guard,the technique of doing this being shown in detail．This was the kind of scene which we could cut for these reasons．
In films for young people and adults we always tried to keep off the screen the details of criminal techniques,such as how to open a locked door with a piece of hard plastic or how to open a safe;if we were consulted（请教） before production,I used to advise that the details should not be shown．When I gave talks in prisons about film checking I had full support for this,since fathers who were in prison for criminal offences did not want their children to get on crime．
Every time I gave a talk in a prison someone used to mention the French film Rififi．made by Jules Dassin in 1954．This remarkable film showed in great detail a robbery of a jeweller’s shop,the robbery lasting about half an hour and being backed by only natural sound．．．one of the most brilliant film sequences（连续镜头） of all time．I remember our discussion at the time．We thought that the robbery was finished only with the use of advanced and obviously expensive equipment and that only the most experienced and skilled criminals could possibly imitate it;we believed therefore that it was relatively safe．When talking in prisons some years later I learned that there had been several robberies in which the techniques had been copied,so perhaps we were wrong．The writer thinks that______．
| A．the details of the criminal technique should be kept |
| B．the details of the crime should not be shown on the screen |
| C．children should not imitate what they see on the screen |
| D．it is dangerous to imitate what they see on the screen |
What is the writer’s attitude（态度） towards the film in which the hero had escaped by electrocuting the guard?
| A．The writer likes it very much． |
| B．The writer is strongly against it． |
| C．The writer thinks the film has some value． |
| D．The writer does not show his/her attitude． |
All the following statements about“Rififi”are true EXCEPT______．
| A．that the robbery shown needs experience and skills |
| B．that some very good tools were used in the robbery |
| C．that the film showed the technique in detail |
| D．that the technique of the robbery was not imitated |
It can be inferred from the passage that______．
| A．it is hard for children to tell the differences between real life and the imaginary |
| B．only people in prison support film checking |
| C．only children imitate what they have seen on the screen |
| D．the writer used to advise the details of crime should be shown |