高中英语真题-2014高考英语阅读理解全程冲刺训练(15)及答案

高中英语真题:2014高考英语阅读理解全程冲刺
训练（15）及答案
阅读理解
阅读下面短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳答案。

A
How would you like to teach yourself, rather than have teach ers? According to the ’s Department of Education and Skills, stu dents will teach themselves in the schools of the future. This m eans that there will be no more problems such as finding enoug h teachers.
Estelle Morris, the UK Education Secretary, opened the 2002 Education Technology Conference in recently. To start the con ference, she presented a video showing a computer—generated model of the school of tomorrow.
Greater use of computer technology and classroom assistant s will help students develop their own way of learning, Morris sa id. She added that this is a more exciting as well as a more inte resting way of learning.
At the same time, teachers will be “freed from their traditional
role as the source of all knowledge”.
Children of all abilities will “form the curriculum(课
程)around their individual n eeds.” They will “learn in their own ti me, at their own speed and in their own environment”.
At home or at school, they will follow their learning programm es by looking at online libraries and watching lessons by world-class teachers and subject experts.
Instead of going on field trips, students will use virtual reality. If they don’t understand something, they can ask other students —
“take part in virtual communities with learners with similar need s”—or e-
mail their teachers. They will hand in their work electronically to be “auto-marked”.
The classroom of the future is fast becoming a reality.
And the Department of Education will soon produce a guide t o help schools adapt buildings for new technology, Morris said. These ideas are based on the government’s plan to create an education system that provides students with a strong groundin g of knowledge and skills at primary school level. And provides the chance for students to develop their individual skills at seco ndary school level.
36. According to the ’s Department of Education and Skills, the
school of the future will ______.
A. cause more problems such as being able to find enough teac hers
B. set no homework and no tests for students
C. make good use of the computer technology and classroom a ssistants
D. enable students to learn by themselves without teachers
提示:依据第一段最后一句排除A项；依据第七段最后一句排除B项；第七段说如果学生有问题，可向老师发e-mail，因而不可说without teachers，排除D项。

C项与第三段内容一致，故为正确答案。

答案:C
37. Estelle Morris thinks that computer technology does good to teachers in ________.
A. helping students develop their own way of learning
B. enabling students to experience interesting and exciting way s of learning
C. providing students with knowledge of all sorts
D. not being considered the source of various knowledge
提示:依据第四段判断正确答案为D项。

答案:D
38. If the students do not understand something, they can ____ ___.
A. go on a field trip
B. go to ask their teachers to help them
C. send e-mail to ask for a teacher’s help
D. have a look at other learners’ homework
答案:C 依据第七段“…or e-mail their teachers”
39. If s a student is under the ’s newly-
developed education system,he will be ________.
A. provided with a basic knowledge from the beginning
B. given more knowledge at primary school level
C. helped to use computers better
D. supplied chance to develop their basic skills
答案: A 依据最后一段
“that provides students with a strong grounding of knowledge a nd skills at primary school level”
Passage Eight(The Development of Cities)
Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of t
he American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physic al expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelera ted the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas o f unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, hor se railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the premodern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now t hose who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertain ment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of alm ost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate develop ment and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of , most of them located in o utlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plot ted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxio us to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real esta te developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the regi on in just thirty years – lots that could have housed five to six mi llion people.
Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a hu ge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around and other citi
es. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansi on related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl w as essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of sm all investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to fu ture land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for re sidential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-
class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. is a prime example of this process. R eal estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than popula tion growth.
1.With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly co ncerned?
[A] Types of mass transportation.
Instability of urban life.
[C] How supply and demand determine land use.
[D] The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion.
2.Why does the author mention both Boston and ?
[A] To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth.
To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation.
[C] To show mass transportation changed many cities.
[D] To contrast their rate of growth.
3.According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of resi
dential expansion?
[A] It was expensive.
It happened too slowly.
[C] It was unplanned.
[D] It created a demand for public transportation.
4.The author mentions in the second paragraph as an example of a city,
[A] that is large.
that is used as a model for land development.
[C] where the development of land exceeded population growth .
[D] with an excellent mass transportation system.
Vocabulary
1.revise 改变
2.fabric 结构
3.catalyze 催化，加速
4.sort out 把……分门别类，拣选
5.omnibus 公共汽车/马车
6.trolley （美）有轨电车，（英）无轨电车
7.periphery 周围，边缘
8.sprawl 建筑物无计划延伸，蔓延，四面八方散开
9.lot 小片土地
10.underscore 强调，在下面划横线
11.transit lines 运输线路
12.subdivision （出售的）小块土地，再划分小区
写作方法与文章大意
文章论述了“公共交通从三方面改变了城市的社会和经济结构。

”采用分类写法。

文章一开始就提出三方面：第一，促进城市实质性的扩展；第二，把人和土地分民别类加以利用；第三，加速了城市生活的不稳定性。

然后就是三方面的具体内容。

答案详解
1.D 公共交通运输对城市扩展的影响。

文章开门见山提出这一点“公共交通运输从三个根本方面改变了美国城市的社会和经济结构。

”后面文章内容就是三方面的具体化。

A. 公共交通运输类型。

B. 城市生活的不稳定性。

C. 供需如何决定土地利用。

这三项文中作为具体问题提到，并不是文章涉及的主要题目。

2.C 说明公共交通改变了许多城市。

答案箭第一段第四句“举例说，1850年，波士顿市界离老的商业地区几乎不到2英里，到了这世纪末，其半径扩至10英里。

现在供得起的人们可以住得很远，远离老的城市中心，仍然来回去那里上班、购物和娱乐”。

第七句，“举例说，在1890至1920年期间，据记载，芝加哥市界内有约250，000个新的住宅楼区大多数设在郊区。

经过同样这段时期，市区外，但仍在芝加哥大都市地区内，又计划建造了550，000个住宅楼区。

”
A. 表示成长的正反两方面效果。

B. 举有无公共交通运输的城市为例。

D. 对比两者成长率；都不是本文中举两城市例子的目
的。

3.C 没有计划。

见第二段第三句起“城市扩展蔓延根本无计划，好几千个小的投资商进行扩展，毫不考虑相互协调配合利用土地，也不考虑未来土地利用。

”
A. 太贵和
B.太慢，两个选项，文内没有提。

D. 它创造了对公共交通运输的需求。

这不是住宅扩展的一个缺点，而是三个根本改变城市的一个方面。

见第一段第三句：“通过大量开发未占土地扩建住宅，公共汽车、马车、铁路、来回火车，有轨电车把已有人定居的居住区向外扩展了三四倍，比他们先现代时期的市中心更远。

”
4.C（第二段中以芝加哥城市例子说明）土地开发超过人口增长速度。

答案详见第二段“这些购买和置备土地建设住宅，特别是购置临近城市或就在市界外的土地，抢在交通线路和中产阶层的居民进去之前。

他们这样做的目的是创造一种需求，也是响应这种需求。

芝加哥就是这种过程的典型例子。

那里的房地产小块土地比人口增长快得很多很多。

”
A. 城市大。

B. 用作土地开发的样板。

D. 具有优越的公共的交通系统。

阅读理解
Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy, but this one is clean a
nd cool. Fox Point is a very new47-
unit living building in South Bronx, one of the city’s poorest area s. Two-thirds of the people living there are formerly (以
前) homeless people, whose rent is paid by the government. Th e 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 ca rbon 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 rec eived support from Enterprise Community Partners (ECP), whic h helps build affordable housing by providing support to housin g developers.
ECP has created national standards for healthy, environmentall y (环境方
面) clever and affordable homes which are called, the Green Co mmunities Standards. These standards include water keeping, energy saving and the use of environmentally friendly building materials. Meeting the standards increases housing constructio n costs by 2%, which is rapidly paid back by lower running cost s. Even the positioning of a window to get most daylight can hel p save energy.
Michael. , 's mayor, plans to create 165,000 affo
rdable housing units for500,000 New Yorkers. Almost 80% of N ew ’s greenhouse-
gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caus ed, by housing. So he recently announced that the city’s Depart ment 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 projec ts to follow ECP’s green standards.
Similar measures have been taken by other cities such as Clev eland and Denver, but ’s DHPD is the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country.
( ) 1. What is the purpose of describing the boiler room in the fir st paragraph?
A. To explain the measures the city takes to care for poor peopl e.
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.
( ) 2. 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.
( ) 3. It can be learned from the text that,
A. is seriously polluted
B. people’s daily life causes many carbon emissions in
C. a great number of people in don't have houses to live in
D. some other cities have developed more affordable housing t han
( ) 4. 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 hou sing.
C. To ask society to help homeless people and low-
income families.
D. To introduce healthy, environmentally clever-
and affordable housing.
语篇解读：本篇文章为科技说明文。

作者以Fox Point居住群的boiler rooms为切入点，阐述此类房子的环保节能的优点，以及各城市特别是纽约队建造此类建筑的积极响应。

1. 答案：C
考点：作者的写作意图
解析：从第一段最后两句，作者描述开水房仅是从一个侧面展示整个建筑群的节能，环保，可以得出答案。

2. 答案：A
考点：细节理解
解析：依据文章第三段倒数第二句：
Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%, which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs.可得到答案。

句意为“达到这一标准会将建筑成本提高2%，但很快会被它的低成本运行成本补回”
3. 答案：B
考点：细节理解
解析：依据文章第四段第二句：
Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse-
gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caus ed, by housing..可得出答案
4. 答案：D
考点：作者的写作目的
解析：本文主要让读者了解这类健康、环保、经济类住房。

阅读理解
阅读下面短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳答案。

A
Many people think a telephone is essential. But I think it is a pest and a time waster. Very often y
ou find it impossible to escape from some idle or curious chatter -
box, or from somebody who wants something for nothing. If you have a telephone in your own house, you will admit that it tend s to ring when you are asleep, or in the middle of a meal or a co nversation, or when you are just going out, or when you are taki ng your bath. Are you strong minded enough to ignore it, to say to yourself,“Ah, well, it will all be the same in a hundred years’ ti me” You are not. You think there may be some important news or messages for you. I can assure you that if a message is reall y important it will reach you sooner or later. Have you never rus
he
d dripping from th
e bath, or chewing from the table, or dazed fro m the bed, only to be told that you are a wrong number?
But you will say, you need not have your name printed in the telephone directory, and you can have a telephone which is onl y usable for outgoing calls. Besides, you will say, isn’t it importa nt to have a telephone in case of emergency—
illness, an accident, or fire? Of course, you are right, but here in a thickly populated country like one is seldom fa
r from a telephone in case of dreadful necessity.
I think perhaps I had better try to justify myself by trying to pr ove that what I like is good. I admit that in different circumstanc es—
if I were a tycoon(business VIP),for instance, or bed ridden I mi ght find a telephone essential. But then if I were a taxi-
driver I should find a car essential.
Let me put it another way: there are two things for which the English seem to show particular talent; one is mechanical inven tion, the other is literature. My own business happens to be with the use of words but I see I must now stop using them. For I ha ve just been handed a slip of paper to say that somebody is wai ting to speak to me on the telephone. I think I had better answer it. After all, on e never knows, it may be something important.
36.The passage is mainly discussing _______.
A. that we should be strong enough to ignore a phone call
B. that important message will reach you sooner or later
C. whether it’s necessary to answer all phone calls
D. whether it is necessary to have a telephone
提示:通读全文，尤其是文章的第一段和最后一段可以得出此结论。

答案:D
37.Judging from the passage, who is strong-
minded enough to ignore a phone call?
A. The author.
B.A tycoon.
C.A taxi-driver.
D. Hardly anyone.
答案:D 大意理解，文章的第二段第三段可以看出
38.According to the passage, the author________.
A. thinks the telephone should go out of our life
B. likes to be different from other people
C. thinks the telephone is annoying
D. speaks favourably of a telephone
提示:文章的第二句就说明了作者的观点，后面又作了进一步的补充说明。

答案:C
39.In the author’s opinion, which of the following is NOT true?
A. Nearly everyone has been told a wrong number.
B. It’s necessary for everyone to have a telephone.
C. He himself can not decide whether to answer a call.
D.A telephone directory may bring in unexpected calls.
提示:从文章的第二段得出答案。

答案:B
2014高考英语阅读理解全程冲刺训练（15）及
答案
阅读理解
阅读下面短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳答案。

A
How would you like to teach yourself, rather than have teachers? According to the ’s Departm ent of Education and Skills, students will teach themselves in the schools of the future. This me ans that there will be no more problems such as finding enough teachers.
Estelle Morris, the UK Education Secretary, opened the 2002 Education Technology Confere nce in recently. To start the conference, she presented a video showing a computer—generated model of the school of tomorrow.
Greater use of computer technology and classroom assistants will help students develop thei r own way of learning, Morris said. She added that this is a more exciting as well as a more inter esting way of learning.
At the same time, teachers will be “freed from their traditional role as the source of all knowle dge”.
Children of all abilities will “form the curriculum(课
程)around their individual needs.” They will “learn in their own time, at their own speed and in th eir own environment”.
At home or at school, they will follow their learning programmes by looking at online libraries and watching lessons by world-class teachers and subject experts.
Instead of going on field trips, students will use virtual reality. If they don’t understand someth ing, they can ask other students—
“take part in virtual communities with learners with similar needs”—or e-
mail their teachers. They will hand in their work electronically to be “auto-marked”.
The classroom of the future is fast becoming a reality.
And the Department of Education will soon produce a guide to help schools adapt buildings f or new technology, Morris said. These ideas are based on the government’s plan to create an education system that provides students with a strong grounding of knowledge and skills at prim ary school level. And provides the chance for students to develop their individual skills at secon dary school level.
36. According to the ’s Department of Education and Skills, the school of the future will ______.
A. cause more problems such as being able to find enough teachers
B. set no homework and no tests for students
C. make good use of the computer technology and classroom assistants
D. enable students to learn by themselves without teachers
提示:依据第一段最后一句排除A项；依据第七段最后一句排除B项；第七段说如果学生有问题，可向老师发e-mail，因而不可说without teachers，排除D项。

C项与第三段内容一致，故为正确答案。

答案:C
37. Estelle Morris thinks that computer technology does good to teachers in ________.
A. helping students develop their own way of learning
B. enabling students to experience interesting and exciting ways of learning
C. providing students with knowledge of all sorts
D. not being considered the source of various knowledge
提示:依据第四段判断正确答案为D项。

答案:D
38. If the students do not understand something, they can _______.
A. go on a field trip
B. go to ask their teachers to help them
C. send e-mail to ask for a teacher’s help
D. have a look at other learners’ homework
答案:C 依据第七段“…or e-mail their teachers”
39. If s a student is under the ’s newly-developed education system,he will be ________.
A. provided with a basic knowledge from the beginning
B. given more knowledge at primary school level
C. helped to use computers better
D. supplied chance to develop their basic skills
答案: A 依据最后一段
“that provides students with a strong grounding of knowledge and skills at primary school level”
Passage Eight(The Development of Cities)
Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three funda mental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it acceler ated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residenti al expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settle d regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the premod ern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of lay scarcely two miles from the old business distri ct; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertai nment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between
1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borde rs of , most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plott ed outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the poss ibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the regio n in just thirty years – lots that could have housed five to six million people.
Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vac ant, land around and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansio n related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was c arried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to futu re land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly lan d near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-
class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. is a pri me example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than populati on growth.
1.With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?
[A] Types of mass transportation.
Instability of urban life.
[C] How supply and demand determine land use.
[D] The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion.
2.Why does the author mention both Boston and ?
[A] To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth.
To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation.
[C] To show mass transportation changed many cities.
[D] To contrast their rate of growth.
3.According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion?
[A] It was expensive.
It happened too slowly.
[C] It was unplanned.
[D] It created a demand for public transportation.
4.The author mentions in the second paragraph as an example of a city,
[A] that is large.
that is used as a model for land development.
[C] where the development of land exceeded population growth.
[D] with an excellent mass transportation system.
Vocabulary
1.revise 改变
2.fabric 结构
3.catalyze 催化，加速
4.sort out 把……分门别类，拣选
5.omnibus 公共汽车/马车
6.trolley （美）有轨电车，（英）无轨电车
7.periphery 周围，边缘
8.sprawl 建筑物无计划延伸，蔓延，四面八方散开
9.lot 小片土地
10.underscore 强调，在下面划横线
11.transit lines 运输线路
12.subdivision （出售的）小块土地，再划分小区
写作方法与文章大意
文章论述了“公共交通从三方面改变了城市的社会和经济结构。

”采用分类写法。

文章一开始就提出三方面：第一，促进城市实质性的扩展；第二，把人和土地分民别类加以利用；第三，加速了城市生活的不稳定性。

然后就是三方面的具体内容。

答案详解
1.D 公共交通运输对城市扩展的影响。

文章开门见山提出这一点“公共交通运输从三个根本方面改变了美国城市的社会和经济结构。

”后面文章内容就是三方面的具体化。

A. 公共交通运输类型。

B. 城市生活的不稳定性。

C. 供需如何决定土地利用。

这三项文中作为具体问题提到，并不是文章涉及的主要题目。

2.C 说明公共交通改变了许多城市。

答案箭第一段第四句“举例说，1850年，波士顿市界离老的商业地区几乎不到2英里，到了这世纪末，其半径扩至10英里。

现在供得起的人们可以住得很远，远离老的城市中心，仍然来回去那里上班、购物和娱乐”。

第七句，“举例说，在1890至1920年期间，据记载，芝加哥市界内有约250，000个新的住宅楼区大多数设在郊区。

经过同样这段时期，市区外，但仍在芝加哥大都市地区内，又计划建造了550，000个住宅楼区。

”
A. 表示成长的正反两方面效果。

B. 举有无公共交通运输的城市为例。

D. 对比两者成长率；都不是本文中举两城市例子的目的。

3.C 没有计划。

见第二段第三句起“城市扩展蔓延根本无计划，好几千个小的投资商进行扩展，毫不考虑相互协调配合利用土地，也不考虑未来土地利用。

”
A. 太贵和
B.太慢，两个选项，文内没有提。

D. 它创造了对公共交通运输的需求。

这不是住宅扩展的一个缺点，而是三个根本改变城市的一个方面。

见第一段第三句：“通过大量开发未占土地扩建住宅，公共汽车、马车、铁路、来回火车，有轨电车把已有人定居的居住区向外扩展了三四倍，比他们先现代时期的市中心更远。

”
4.C（第二段中以芝加哥城市例子说明）土地开发超过人口增长速度。

答案详见第二段“这些购买和置备土地建设住宅，特别是购置临近城市或就在市界外的土地，抢在交通线路和中产阶层的居
民进去之前。

他们这样做的目的是创造一种需求，也是响应这种需求。

芝加哥就是这种过程的典型例子。

那里的房地产小块土地比人口增长快得很多很多。

”
A. 城市大。

B. 用作土地开发的样板。

D. 具有优越的公共的交通系统。

阅读理解
Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy, but this one is clean and cool. Fox Point is a very new 47-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 t o 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 st andards 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 hel p save energy.
Michael. , 's mayor, plans to create 165,000 affo
rdable housing units for500,000 New Yorkers. Almost 80% of New ’s greenhouse-
gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caused, by housing. So he recently a nnounced that the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (DHPD) , w hose duty is to develop and keep the
city’s supply of affordable housing, will require all its new projects to follow ECP’s green standar ds.
Similar measures have been taken by other cities such as Cleveland and Denver, but ’s DHPD i s the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country.
( ) 1. 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.
( ) 2. 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.
( ) 3. It can be learned from the text that,
A. is seriously polluted
B. people’s daily life causes many carbon emissions in
C. a great number of people in don't have houses to live in
D. some other cities have developed more affordable housing than
( ) 4. 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.
语篇解读：本篇文章为科技说明文。

作者以Fox Point居住群的boiler rooms为切入点，阐述此类房子的环保节能的优点，以及各城市特别是纽约队建造此类建筑的积极响应。

1. 答案：C
考点：作者的写作意图
解析：从第一段最后两句，作者描述开水房仅是从一个侧面展示整个建筑群的节能，环保，可以
得出答案。

2. 答案：A
考点：细节理解
解析：依据文章第三段倒数第二句：
Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%, which is rapidly paid back b y lower running costs.可得到答案。

句意为“达到这一标准会将建筑成本提高2%，但很快会被它的低成本运行成本补回”
3. 答案：B
考点：细节理解
解析：依据文章第四段第二句：Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse-
gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caused, by housing..可得出答案
4. 答案：D
考点：作者的写作目的
解析：本文主要让读者了解这类健康、环保、经济类住房。

阅读理解
阅读下面短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳答案。

A
Many people think a telephone is essential. But I think it is a pest and a time waster. Very oft en you find it impossible to escape from some idle or curious chatter-
box, or from somebody who wants something for nothing. If you have a telephone in your own h ouse, you will admit that it tends to ring when you are asleep, or in the middle of a meal or a con versation, or when you are just going out, or when you are taking your bath. Are you strong min ded enough to ignore it, to say to yourself,“Ah, well, it will all be the same in a hundred years’ ti me” You are not. You think there may be some important news or messages for you. I can assu re you that if a message is really important it will reach you sooner or later. Have you never rush e
d dripping from th
e bath, or chewing from the table, or dazed from the bed, only to be told that y ou are a wrong number?
But you will say, you need not have your name printed in the telephone directory, and you ca n have a telephone which is only usable for outgoing calls. Besides, you will say, isn’t it importa nt to have a telephone in case of emergency—
illness, an accident, or fire? Of course, you are right, but here in a thickly populated country like one is seldom far from a telephone in case of dreadful necessity.
I think perhaps I had better try to justify myself by trying to prove that what I like is good. I ad mit that in different circumstances—
if I were a tycoon(business VIP),for instance, or bed ridden I might find a telephone essential. B ut then if I were a taxi-driver I should find a car essential.
Let me put it another way: there are two things for which the English seem to show particular talent; one is mechanical invention, the other is literature. My own business happens to be with the use of words but I see I must now stop using them. For I have just been handed a slip of pa per to say that somebody is waiting to speak to me on the telephone. I think I had better answer it. After all, on e never knows, it may be something important.
36.The passage is mainly discussing _______.
A. that we should be strong enough to ignore a phone call
B. that important message will reach you sooner or later
C. whether it’s necessary to answer all phone calls
D. whether it is necessary to have a telephone
提示:通读全文，尤其是文章的第一段和最后一段可以得出此结论。

答案:D
37.Judging from the passage, who is strong-minded enough to ignore a phone call?
A. The author.
B.A tycoon.
C.A taxi-driver.
D. Hardly anyone.
答案:D 大意理解，文章的第二段第三段可以看出
38.According to the passage, the author________.
A. thinks the telephone should go out of our life
B. likes to be different from other people
C. thinks the telephone is annoying
D. speaks favourably of a telephone
提示:文章的第二句就说明了作者的观点，后面又作了进一步的补充说明。