WhenvisitingNewYorkCitywithyou-优题课

Farming is moving indoors, where the sun never shines, where rainfall is irrelevant (无关的) and where the climate is always right. The perfect crop field could be inside a windowless building with controlled light, temperature，humidity，air quality and nutrition. It could be in a New York high- rise or a complex （建筑群） in the Saudi desert. It may be an answer to the world’s food problems.
The world already is having trouble feeding itself. Half the people on Earth live in cities, and nearly half of those – about 3 billion – are hungry or ill–fed. Food prices, currently increasing, are badly affected by dryness, floods and the cost of energy required to plant, harvest and transport it. And prices will only get more unstable. Climate change makes long-term crop planning uncertain. Farmers in many parts of the world already are using water available to the last drop. And the world is getting more crowded: by mid-century, the global population will grow from 6.8 billion to 9 billion.
To feed so many people may require expanding farmland at the expense of forests and wilderness, or finding ways to greatly increase crop output.
Gertjan Meeuws and three other Dutch bioengineers grow vegetables and house plants in closed and regulated environments. In their research station, water flows into the pans when needed, and the temperature is kept constant. Lights go on and off, creating “day” and “night”, but according to the rhythm of the plant.
Meeuws says a building of 100 square meters and layers of plants could provide a daily diet of 200 grams of fresh fruit and vegetables for the entire population of Ken Bosch, about 140,000 people. Their idea isn’t to grow foods that require much space, like corn or potatoes.
Sunlight is not only unnecessary but can be harmful. Plants need only specific wavelengths of light to grow. Their growth rate is three times faster than under greenhouse conditions. They use about 90 percent less water than outdoor agriculture. And city farming means producing food near the consumer, so there’s on need to transport it long distances.
According to the text, Gertjan Meeuws’ farming _______.

A．can be used for corn production

B．is much like greenhouse farming

C．is adaptable to any environment

D．uses more water than outdoor farming

What is the second paragraph mainly about ?

A．The effect of climate	B．The hungry people in cities.
C．The world’s food problem.	D．The world’s increasing population.

What is the purpose of the text ?

A．To compare traditional and indoor farming.

B．To discuss the influence of climate change.

C．To explain the world’s food problem.

D．To introduce a new model of farming.

Last Sunday, I waked into the house in the afternoon to find my brother rushing around in a hurry. As soon as I took my coat off, my little brother placed a bunch of papers in my hands and asked me to fold them up so they could fit into an envelope as quickly as possible. He said it needed to get done quickly before it turned dark.
I was a little surprised that something could be so urgent on a Sunday. It wasn’t until I was halfway through that I actually looked at what I was folding. After I read it, it put the biggest smile on my face. It was a lovely letter to all the residents （居民）in my neighborhood. My brother was asking everyone to let him know if anyone needed help. He left his contact information and said that anyone that needed help should get in touch with him and he would figure something out. He also asked people to get in touch if they were able to help out.
London received an unusual amount of snow last week, and the city was completely under- prepared for it. So it was quite difficult to get anywhere. Only the major roads had been cleared, and smaller roads and pavements could be quite treacherous. There are a good number of old people in our little community. So my brother thought that the snow may have posed （造成）some difficulty for some of them, particularly because we live on a hill.
A few elderly people got in touch with him asking for help for things they needed. One of them was especially grateful because his caregiver couldn’t make it. To our surprise, he got more responses from people offering to help. Then he received help from people who wanted to help. Everyone was really touched and wrote to my brother wonderful email. One of our neighbors wrote email saying that although she wasn’t able to help, she was “very proud of having a neighbor like him who puts other people’s interests first.”
The author’s brother wrote the letter to _______.

A．ask for help from his neighbors

B．give a hand to those in need of help

C．require his neighbors to clear the snow

D．raise money for the old people in his community

What can we learn from the text?

A．Few people were willing to help out.

B．The snow was unexpectedly heavy.

C．Most residents in the community are elderly people.

D．The community was completely cut off from the outside world.

The underlined word “treacherous” in Paragraph 3 probably means “_______”.

A．dirty

B．dangerous

C．safe

D．crowded

One of their neighbors sent email to the author’s brother to ________.

A．express thanks	B．lend a hand
C．show appreciation	D．ask for help

Dear Bridge of Hope supporters,
July 2010 was a productive month for the teachers at BOH. Marilyn traveled to Liberia and helped Kathleen Ngenda with her teacher training program on Basic Adult Literacy. During the eight-day training, she helped the teachers learn to pronounce, spell and write correctly. They are currently working on personal sets of cards and lists so that they can teach this concept to students in the fall. Kathleen plans on two trips back to the school to monitor teachers in their teaching.
Marilyn found a very dedicated （投入的）and enthusiastic group of elementary teachers who are focused on bettering themselves as educators. BOHUSA will offer financial support for their further educational studies this fall. Our goal is to have all staff be certified by the end of 2013.
The Liberian government recommends a C-certificate for teachers of elementary students, which can be obtained in one year of education classes (taken on Saturdays).
There is a great need to add seventh and eighth grade classrooms and a library. There is actually no room, however, and so we need to add a second floor. Currently the ground floor houses the church and the school uses this space for daily services. The first floor would give space for three more classrooms, in addition to a large reading room and computer labs. About $40,000 to 50,000 is required to meet the educational needs.
If you would like to contribute to this building project, please make out your check to:
Bridge of Hope
12002 Arnold Rd.
Orrville, Ohio 44667
Bridge of Hope Foundation is a non-profit organization. You do not have to pay tax on your contributions.
Marilyn went to Liberia to ______.

A．take a trip	B．visit a school
C．take training classes	D．help train teachers

What do we know about the school from Paragraph 4?

A．It needs repair	B．It needs expansion
C．It has no office.	D．It has an old library,

The purpose of the letter is to _________.

A．show the achievements of BOH

B．thank BOH supporters for their concern

C．raise money for an educational project

D．call people’s attention to education in Liberia

A good way to pass an examination is to work hard every day in the year. You may fail in the examination if you are lazy for most of the year and then work hard only a few days before the examination. A few days before the examination you should start going to bed early. Do not stay up late at night learning things. Before you start the examination, read carefully over the question paper. Try to understand the exact meaning of each question before you pick up your pen to write. When you have at last finished your examinations, read over your answers. Correct any mistake which you see and make sure that you have not missed anything out.
“Stay up late at night” here means .

A．sleeping in bed

B．just sitting up without doing anything

C．walking about in the room

D．working far into the night

The first thing to do after you get the question paper is to .

A．start to answer questions

B．work the difficult problems

C．have a look at the titles

D．read it very carefully

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage？

A．You must not hand in the examination paper before you check your answers.

B．You must wait till others point out mistakes in your paper.

C．You must first hand in your paper then correct the mistakes.

D．You must be the last to hand in your paper.

Our village carpenter(木匠), John Hill, came one day and made a dining table for my wife. He made it just the right size to fill the space between the two windows. When I got home that evening, John was drinking a cup of tea and writing out his bill for the job.
My wife said to me quietly, “It’s his ninth cup of tea today.” But she said in a loud voice, “It is a beautiful table, dear, isn’t it?”
“I will decide about that when I see the bill, ” I read:
One dining table, 10 November, 1989.
Cost of wood: ＄17.00
Paint: ＄1.50
Work: 8 hours (＄1 an hour) ＄8.00
Total: ＄36.50
When I was looking at the bill, John said, “It’s been a fine day, hasn’t it? Quite sunny.” “Yes,” I said, “I’m glad it is only the 10^th of November.”
“Me, too,” said John. “You wait. It’ll be a lot colder by the end of the month.”
“Yes, colder…. And more expensive! Dining tables will be ＄20 more expensive on November 30^th, won’t they, John?” John looked hard at me for half a minute. Was there a little smile in his two blue eyes? I gave his bill back to him.
“If it isn’t too much trouble, John,” I said, “Please add it up again and you can forget the date.”
I paid him ＄26.50and he was happy to get it.
Why did John talk about the weather when the writer was looking at the bill?_______

A．Because he didn’t want the writer to go through the bill carefully.

B．Because it was really a fine day.

C．Because he wanted the writer to check the bill carefully.

D．Because he wanted to tell the writer what the weather was like.

Why did the writer say that dining table would be＄ 20 more expensive on November 30^th ?__________

A．Because it was difficult to make dining tables in cold weather.

B．Because paint would be more expensive.

C．Because the cost of wood would be more expensive.

D．Because he thought John would certainly add to the cost of the dining table.

From the story we know that _____________

A．John made a mistake in the bill.

B．John tried to fool the writer in order to get more money for his work

C．John had written out the bill before the writer got home.

D．John still wanted to get ＄36.50 for his work in the end.