Over half the world's people now live in cities. The latest "Global Report on Human Settle

第1题

Paper was invented by the Chinese in the first century AD.Paper was not made in southern E

urope until about the year 1100. Scandinavia——which now makes a great deal of the world’s paper——did not begin to make it until 1500. Most paper is made from wood. Paper-making is an important industry and paper from Britain is sold to many countries such as Australia and South Africa.Some of the wood used in the British paper making industry comes from trees grown in Britain,but wood is also bought from other countries such as Norway.One tree is needed for every four hundred copies of a forty-page newspaper.If half the adults in Britain buy one daily paper,this uses up over a thousand trees a day.All over the world,trees are world, trees are being cut down faster than they are being planted, so there may be a serious need for paper at the beginning of next century . When we think of paper, we think of newspaper, books, letters and writing paper.But there are many other uses.Only half of paper is used for books,and newspaper,etc. Paper is very good for keeping you warm.Each year,more and more things are made of paper. But the latest in paper making seems to be paper houses. Wher was paper invented？ A. In China

B. In southern Europe

C. In Scandinavia

D. In Britain

Scandinavia began to make paper__________.A.in 1100

B.in 1400

C.in 1500

D.in the first century

Every four hundred copies of a forty-paper newspaper will need _____________.A.half a tree

B.one tree

C.two trees

D.more than one tree

All over the world, trees are being cut down___________than they are being plantedA.more slowly

B.much faster

C.much more slowly

D.faster

The latest things made of paper are___________.A.chairs

B.tables

C.clothes

D.houses

请帮忙给出每个问题的正确答案和分析，谢谢！

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第2题

听力原文：We are now living in a world in which robots are taking over much of the work.Rob

听力原文： We are now living in a world in which robots are taking over much of the work.Robots make our cars, fly our planes and work out wages.

But these robots are not mechanical men and women.They do not look like us.They are machines specially built to do some of the things that human beings can.

Although they may not look like us,robots need some human features in order to be able to do human work.First of all they need some kind of brain.Their "brain" is a computer,which has a memory to human member instructions and ability to control other equipment.Another essential feature of many robots is an arm that can do the kind of things that human beings can with their arms.One-armed robots are now coming into widespread use in industry.They are being used,for example,on car assembly lines.

The great advantage of robots over human workers is that they can work non-stop for long periods. They never get tired,and always work with the same accuracy.They can also work in conditions that humans could not bear.Last but not least,as more robots are built,their cost will come down.

Although robots are rapidly taking over many jobs in industry, they seem a long way from taking over in the home. The problem is that it would take a very complex and costly robot to perform. half the tasks involved in housework.

According to the speaker,what can the present-day robots do？

A．Drive cars.

B．Fly planes.

C．Pay wages.

D．Repair machines.

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第3题

听力原文：There have been many great inventions, things that change the way we live. The fi

听力原文： There have been many great inventions, things that change the way we live. The first great invention was one that is still very important today--the wheel. This made it easier to carry heavy things and to travel long distances.

For hundreds of years after that there were few inventions that had as much effect as the wheel. Then in the early 1800s the world started to change. There was little unknown land left in the world. People did not have to explore much any more. They began to work instead to make life better.

In the second half of the 19th century many great inventions were made. Among them were the camera, the electric light and the radio. These all became a big part of our life today.

The middle part of the 20th century brought new ways to help get over diseases. They worked very well. They made people healthier and let them live longer lives, By the 1960s most people could expect to live to be at least 60.

By this time most people had a very good life. Of course new inventions continued to be made. But man now had a desire to explore again. The world was known to man, but the stars were not. Man began looking for ways to go into space. Russia made the first step. Then the United States took a step. Since then other countries, including China and Japan, have made their steps into space.

(23)

A．In the second half of the 19th century.

B．In the 1960s.

C．In the first half of the 20th century.

D．In the early 1800s.

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第4题

When the world was a simpler place, the rich were fat, the poor were thin, and right-think

ing people worried about how to feed the hungry. Now, in much of the world, the rich are thin, the poor are fat, and right-thinking people are worrying about obesity.

Evolution is mostly to blame. It has designed mankind to cope with deprivation, not plenty. People are perfectly tuned to store energy in good years to see them through lean ones. But when bad times never come, they are stuck with that energy, stored around their expanding bellies.

Thanks to rising agricultural productivity, lean years are rarer all over the globe. Modernday Malthusians, who used to draw graphs proving that the world was shortly going to run out of food, have gone rather quiet lately. According to the UN, the number of people short of food fell from 920m in 1980 to 799m 20 years later, even though the world's population increased by 1.6 billion over the period. This is mostly a cause for celebration. Mankind has won what was, for most of his time on this planet, his biggest battle: to ensure that he and his offspring had enough to eat. But every silver lining has a cloud, and the consequence of prosperity is a new plague that brings with it a

host of interesting policy dilemmas.

As a scourge of the modern world, obesity has an image problem. It is easier to associate with Father Christmas than with the four horses of the apocalypse. But it has a good claim to lumber along beside them, for it is the world's biggest public-health issue today—the main cause of heart disease, which kills more people these days than AIDS, malaria, war; the principal risk factor in diabetes; heavily implicated in cancer and other diseases. Since the World Health Organisation labelled obesity an "epidemic" in 2000, reports on its fearful consequences have come thick and fast.

Will public-health warnings, combined with media pressure, persuade people to get thinner, just as they finally put them off tobacco？ Possibly. In the rich world, sales of healthier foods are booming (see survey) and new figures suggest that over the past year Americans got very slightly thinner for the first time in recorded history. But even if Americans are losing a few ounces, it will be many years before the country solves the health problems caused by half a century's dining to excess. And, everywhere else in the world, people are still piling on the pounds. That's why there is now a consensus among doctors that governments should do something to stop them.

The author write this passage mainly to ______.

A．bring up some warnings.

B．tell the reader some new facts.

C．discuss a solution to a problem.

D．persuade the reader to keep fit.

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第5题

It was once thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cit

ies with factories and heavy automobile traffic. Today, we know that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is literally worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the entire eastern half of the United States and led to health warnings in rural areas away from any major concentration of manufacturing and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be affected by air pollution. Some scientists feel that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a "greenhouse effect"—holding in heat reflected from the earth and raising the world's average temperature. If this view is correct and the world's temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be under water.

Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particular matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth's temperature — a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to a new ice age, and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. At present we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen (though one recent government report prepared by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very likely). Perhaps, if we are very lucky, the two tendencies will offset each other and the world's temperature will stay about the same as it is now.

As pointed out at the beginning of the passage, people used to think that air pollution ______.

A．caused widespread damage in the countryside

B．affected the entire eastern half of the United States

C．had damaged effect on health

D．existed merely in urban and industries areas

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第6题

With the development of the society, especially the development of economy, the life both

in countryside and city changes a lot. Who are still dwelling on the old life？ In the villages of the English countryside there are still people who remember the good old days when no one bothered to lock their doors. There simply wasn't any crime to worry about.

Amazingly, these happy times appear still to be with us in the world's biggest community. A new study by Dan Farmer, a gifted programmer, using an automated investigative program of his own called SATAN, shows that the owners of well over half of all World Wide Web sites have set up home Without fitting locks to their doors.

SATAN can try out a variety of well-known hacking tricks on an Internet site without actually breaking in. Farmer has made the program publicly available, amid much criticism. A person with evil intent could use it to hunt down sites that are easy to burgle.

But Farmer is very concerned about the need to alert the public to poor security and, so far, events have proved him right. SATAN has done more to alert people to the risks than cause new disorder.

So is the Net becoming more secure？ Far from it. In the early days, when you visited a Web site your browser simply looked at the content. Now the Web is full of tiny programs that automatically download when you look at a Web page, and run on your own machine. These programs could, if their authors wished, do, all kinds of nasty things to your computer.

At the same time, the Net is increasingly populated with spiders, worms, agents and other types of automated beasts designed to penetrate the sites and seek out and classify information. All these make wonderful tools for antisocial ,people who want to invade weak sites and cause damage.

But let's look on the side. Given the lack of locks, the Internet is surely the world's big gest(almost) crime-free society. Maybe that is because hackers are fundamentally honest. Or that there currently isn't much to steal. Or because vandalism isn't much fun unless you have a peculiar dislike for someone.

Whatever the reason, let's enjoy it while we can. But expect it all to change, and security to become the number one issue, when the most influential inhabitants of the Net are selling services they want to be paid for.

By saying"...owners of well over half of all World Wide Web sites have set up home with out fitting locks to their doors" (Line 3-4, Para.2), the author means that______.

A．those happy times appear still to be with us

B．there simply wasn't any crime to worry about

C．many sites are not well-protected

D．hackers try out tricks on an Internet site without actually breaking in

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第7题

听力原文：Public schools in the United States are under the control of the individual state

听力原文： Public schools in the United States are under the control of the individual states. Sometimes the state hands its control over to a smaller area, a county or city.

Most Americans start school at the age of five when they enter kindergarten. Children do not really study at this time. They only attend for half the day and learn what school is like.

Children attend elementary school for the next six years. They ]earn to read and write and work with numbers. They also study the world and its people.

After they leave elementary school, children go to junior high school for three years and senior high school for another three years. This is called secondary education. In some places the children go to elementary school for eight years and high school for four. At any rate, elementary and secondary education together take twelve years to complete, excluding kindergarten.

(40)

A．The individual citizens control.

B．The individual states control.

C．The country controls.

D．Individual cities or village control.

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第8题

In 1798 the political economist Malthus predicted that in time mankind would face starvati

on, having outgrown the available food supplies. Today, a century and a half later, there are still experts who forecast the same global disaster—unless urgent measures are taken to prevent it. By the end of the present century there may well be over five thousand million people living on this globe, an increase of over fifty percent on todays figure. In order to keep pace with this increase in mankind the farmers of the world will have to step up their production of food by at least two percent every year. Such a rate of increase has never been maintained in any country by conventional methods of agriculture, despite modern mechanization and the widespread use of fertilizers. There are no large worthwhile reserves of potential farmland remaining, and good fertile land is continually being changed into industrial use. Moreover, erosion of the soil takes a constant toll (损失). Intensive research, carried out over many years in all manners of climate conditions, has produced a revolutionary method of growing crops without using any soil at all. Hydroponics (水栽法), as this technique is called, may well be the answer to all our food worries; already it has accomplished wonders in producing huge crops. Hydroponics was once a complicated and expensive business, now it is well out of the experimental stage. Labor costs are far lower than when normal methods of agriculture are employed. In fact, it is a completely automatic system. There is no hard manual work, no digging or ploughing, and no weeding to speak of. Yields can be far higher than they are in soil.

Which of the following best sums up the whole passage？

A．Malthus" prediction has been proved to be correct by modern experts.

B．Hydroponics is a new development in agriculture.

C．Hydroponics may be the answer to the world food shortage in the future.

D．Conventional methods of agriculture should be improved so as to step up food production by two percent every year.

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第9题

听力原文：England became a stronghold of the Protestant version of Christianity during the

听力原文： England became a stronghold of the Protestant version of Christianity during the 16th Century. In thel7th century, the British people developed a system of government by parliament which was later copied in many other countries. During the18th Century, the great revolutions in farming and industry that later took place worldwide, began in Britain. Steam power, steam trains, coal mines and water power began to transform. the means of transport and production. The world's, first industrial cities grew in the Midlands. Then, in thel9th Century, the development of a massive British Empire brought power and wealth to the nation. By the time Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837, Britain had be come the world's greatest power.

Later on, in the 20th century, Britain played a vital part in saving Europe from the threat of Fascism during World War Two.

In1966, England won the Football World Cup and became World Champion. This is some thing many British people are very proud of.

Britain joined the European Community in 1973, but was still separated from mainland Europe. Finally, in 1994 the Channel Tunnel was opened, which links Britain back to the European continent.

The first men and women came to Britain over two and a half million years ago. They were hunters and gatherers of food who used simple stone tools and weapons.

Britain used to be joined to, the European land mass. It became an island separate from the rest of Europe about 8,500 years ago, when melting ice formed the English Channel.

Britain has been invaded by people from Italy, Germany, Scandinavia and France, each bringing with them their own languages and customs.

(30)

A．England won the World Cup.

B．Britain joined the European community.

C．The Channel Tunnel was opened.

D．Britain was invaded by the Romans.

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第10题

Back Down to EarthA U.S. irony: Demand for tall buildings is in short supply —by Rick Hamp

Back Down to Earth

A U.S. irony: Demand for tall buildings is in short supply

—by Rick Hampson

In this, the nation that invented the skyscraper, the tallest private building under construction is a pipsqueak (小人物) —just 30 stories.

But overseas, the sky is the limit.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the twin Petronas Towers (双子塔) are rising to the heavens

—they will be the world's tallest buildings, the first time that title has passed overseas.

It probably will stay there. Ten years ago, the world's 10 tallest buildings were in three U.S. cities; as recently as 1993 there were a half dozen proposals to build the next world champ here.

But none was ever built, and today only 10 buildings over 20 stories are going up in the entire nation. By the turn of the century, six of the world's 10 tallest are expected to be in Southeast Asia.

Has the American skyline topped out (封顶)？ Is the signal achievement of America architecture drifting toward its twilight？

"The skyscraper is an artifact of an era when technology was frail and transportation inefficient, and people had to be together to do their jobs." says David Birch, president of Cognetics, a Massachusetts marketing and economic research firm.

"The need for new ones now is nil. There is no logical reason to ever build another Empire State Building."

Last year, in fact, Bethlehem Steel closed the mill that made steel for the Empire State 65 years ago, citing the decline in high-rise construction.

Now, America has so much vacant high-rise urban office space there probably will be no need for more at least until the turn of the century.

About 43 percent of all U.S. office space was built in the last decade, as developers scrambled (争夺) to house the exploding demand. Boston, for example, increased its space from 21 million to 45 million square feet.

But after the stock market crash of 1987, the economy slowed down. The national downtown office vacancy rate is 16.7 percent, —about 2.5 times higher than the real estate industry considers healthy. In Dallas the rate is 37 percent; in Miami, 27 percent; in Baltimore, 25 percent.

In Seattle, neither the city's first skyscraper (the Smith Tower, 1914) nor its last (the AT&T Gateway Tower, 1990) are generating enough rent to service their debt.

The 62-story Gateway, which cost ＄ 200 million, was on sale earlier this year for half that price. The building has never been more than half occupied, and the original investors lost their entire investment.

Three years ago the German media conglomerate (集团公司) Bertelsmann snapped up (抢购) a new, never-been-occupied mid-Manhattan office tower for ＄119 million —a third of what it cost its bankrupt builder.

Meanwhile, fundamental changes in the way we work are reducing the future demand for office in the clouds.

Corporate America is getting leaner.

An increasingly competitive world economy forces companies to cut costs, the biggest of which are office workers and the space they occupy. U.S. companies eliminated more than a half million positions last year alone; there are fewer jobs in Manhattan now than 10 years ago.

By one estimate, Fortune 500 layoffs have made 250 million square feet of office space available for sublease (转租), the equivalent of 250 Chrysler Buildings.

The office is getting more suburban.

Suburbs are popular places for off

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

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