【推荐1】There is a lot of talk about “brain power.” You don’t usually hear about stomach power. As it turns out, the stomach might also be very powerful with a new electronic pill inside it. The new electronic pill, equipped with a Wi-Fi transmitter, is swallowed and can harvest energy from inside a person’s own stomach to record core（核心）body temperature and then send the health data to an outside monitor.

The model can power itself for nearly a week—much longer than current absorbable devices, which are placed inside the body and only can share health information for less than an hour. “To make the device work even longer, and see if the stomach’s acid could power the device, we used tiny pieces of copper and zinc for experiments.” said Philip Nadeau, an electrical engineer who designed the device together.

The Wi-Fi devices fit inside a capsule but unfold when they hit the stomach and deliver drugs for long periods of time before they break down and pass through the body. This Wi-Fi pill could lead to fresh opportunities for drug delivery or real-time health monitoring from inside organs, said Giovanni Traverso, a doctor and biomedical engineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who c0-led a study of the pill published recently in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Despite our many medical advances, we’re pretty bad at measuring core body temperature. A recent study of 8,600 patients found that thermometer（温度计）readings from the mouth or skin did a lousy job of measuring core temperature. Getting an accurate temperature is important.

Traverso and Nadeau are also aiming to shrink（缩小）the pill to the size of a tablet. “Temperature tracking is just the first of many ways the medical community can use the device.” Traverse thinks.

1. What is WRONG about the Wi-Fi pill?

A．The Wi-Fi device is powered by itself.

B．The pill can send health data to the doctor.

C．Nadeau is the first one to design the pill.

D．The pill can help monitor patients’ health.

2. What does the underlined word “lousy” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Accurate.	B．Unimportant.
C．Terrible.	D．Traditional.

3. What is the Traverso’s attitude to the future of the Wi-Fi pill?

A．Pessimistic.	B．Unconcerned.
C．Worried.	D．Optimistic.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．The Wi-Fi pill is too big for the patients to swallow.

B．The pill may help those with other diseases in the future.

C．Body temperature is the only one use for the Wi-Fi pill.

D．The pill has been used in many ways in medical field.

【推荐2】The Digital Revolution, also known as the Third Industrial Revolution, is the shift from mechanical and analogue electronic technology to digital electronics which began anywhere from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. Central to this revolution is the mass production and widespread use of digital logic circuits, and its derived technologies. These technological innovations have transformed traditional production and business techniques.

1980s

In developed nations, computers achieved ubiquity during the 1980s as they made their way into schools, homes, business, and industry. Automated teller machines, industrial robots, CGI in film and television, electronic music, bulletin board systems, and video games all fueled what became the zeitgeist of the 1980s. Millions of people purchased home computers, making household names of early personal computer manufacturers such as Apple, Commodore, and Tandy. To this day the Commodore 64 is often cited as the best selling computer of all time, having sold 17 million units (by some accounts) between 1982 and 1994.

1990s

The first public digital HDTV broadcast was of the 1990 World Cup that June; it was played in 10 theaters in Spain and Italy. However HDTV did not become a standard until the mid-2000s outside Japan.

The World Wide Web became publicly accessible in 1991, which had been available only to government and universities. In 1993 Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina introduced Mosaic, the first web browser capable of displaying inline images and the basis for later browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Stanford Federal Credit Union was the first financial institution to offer online internet banking services to all of its members in October 1994.

2000s

Cell phones became as ubiquitous as computers by the early 2000s, with movie theaters beginning to show ads telling people to silence their phones. They also became much more advanced than phones of the 1990s, most of which only took calls or at most allowed for the playing of simple games.

2010s

By 2012, over 2 billion people used the Internet, twice the number using it in 2007. Cloud computing had entered the mainstream by the early 2010s. By 2015, tablet computers and smart phones were expected to exceed personal computers in Internet usage. By 2016, half of the world's population was connected.

1. According to the passage, which one of the following statements is true?

A．The digital revolution only focuses on the mass production.

B．The World Wide Web became available to government and universities in 1991.

C．Phones of the 1990s merely made calls.

D．The number of people using the Internet in 2007 is approximately 1 billion.

2. What does the underlined word in Paragraph Two refer to?

A．Wide existence.	B．Abrupt disappearance.
C．Quick movement.	D．Abundant amount.

3. How does the writer develop the whole passage?

A．By presenting times.	B．By making comparisons.
C．By listing data.	D．By drawing conclusions.

4. What is the best title for this passage?

A．The Traditional Production	B．The Digital Revolution
C．The Connected Population	D．The World Wide Web

【推荐3】The rise of the Internet has been one of the most transformative developments in human history, comparable in impact to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph. Over two billion people worldwide now have access to vastly more information than ever before, and can communicate with each other instantly, often using Web-connected mobile devices they carry everywhere. But the Internet’s tremendous impact has only just begun.
“Mass adoption of the Internet is driving one of the most exciting social, cultural, and political transformations in history, and unlike earlier periods of change, this time the effects are fully global,” Schmidt and Cohen write in their new book The New Digital Age.
Perhaps the most profound changes will come when the five billion people worldwide who currently lack Internet access get online. The authors do an excellent job of examining the implications of the Internet revolution for individuals, governments, and institutions like the news media. But if the book has one major shortcoming, it’s that authors don’t spend enough time applying a critical eye to the role of Internet businesses in these sweeping changes.
In their book, the authors provide the most authoritative volume to date that describes — and more importantly predicts — how the Internet will shape our lives in the coming decades. They paint a picture of a world in which individuals, companies, institutions, and governments must deal with two realities, one physical, and one virtual.
At the core of the book is the idea that “technology is neutral, but people aren’t.” By using this concept as a starting point, the authors aim to move beyond the now familiar optimist vs. pessimist dichotomy (对立观点) that has characterized many recent debates about whether the rise of the Internet will ultimately be good or bad for society. In an interview with TIME earlier this week, Cohen said although he and his co-author are optimistic about many aspects of the Internet, they’re also realistic about the risks and dangers that lie ahead when the next five billion people come online, particularly with respect to personal privacy and state surveillance(监视).
1. In what way is the rise of the Internet similar to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph?

A．It transforms human history.

B．It revolutionizes people's thinking.

C．It is adopted by all human beings.

D．It makes daily communication easy.

2. In what respect is the book The New Digital Age considered inadequate?

A．It lacks an objective evaluation of the role of Internet businesses

B．It fails to look into the social implications of the Internet.

C．It fails to recognize the impact of the Internet technology.

D．It does not address the technical aspects of Internet communication.

3. What will the future be like when everybody gets online?

A．People don’t have to travel to see the world.

B．People will have equal access to information.

C．People will be living in two different realities.

D．People don’t have to communicate face to face.

4. What does the passage say about the authors of The New Digital Age?

A．They leave many questions unanswered concerning the Internet.

B．They don’t take sides in analyzing the effects of the Internet.

C．They have explored the unknown territories of the virtual world.

D．They are optimistic about the future of the Internet revolution.

【推荐1】In agricultural, pre-industrial Europe, “you’d want to wake up early, start working with the sunrise, have a break to have the largest meal, and then you’d go back to work,” says Ken Albala, a professor of history at the University of the Pacific. “Later, at 5 or 6, you’d have a smaller supper.”

This comfortable cycle, in which the rhythms of the day helped shape the rhythms of the meals, gave rise to the custom of the large midday meal, eaten with the extended family. “Meals are the foundation of the family,” says Carole Counihan, a professor at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, “so there was a very important interconnection between eating together and strengthening family ties.”

Since industrialization, maintaining such a slow cultural metabolism has been much harder, with the long midday meal shrinking to whatever could be stuffed into a lunch bucket or bought at a food stand. Certainly, there were benefits. Modern techniques for producing and shipping food led to greater variety and quantity, including a dramatic increase in the amount of animal protein and dairy products available, making us stronger than our ancestors.

Yet plenty has been lost too, even in cultures that still live to eat. Take Italy for example. It’s no secret that the Mediterranean diet is healthy, but it was also a joy to prepare and eat. Italians, says Counihan, traditionally began the day with a small meal. The big meal came at around 1 p.m. In between the midday meal and a late, smaller dinner came a small snack. Today, when time zones have less and less meaning, there is little tolerance for offices’ closing for lunch, and worsening traffic in cities means workers can’t make it home and back fast enough anyway. So the formerly small supper after sundown becomes the big meal of the day, the only one at which the family has a chance to get together. “The evening meal carries the full burden that used to be spread over two meals,” says Counihan.

1. What do we learn about people in pre-industrial Europe?

A．They had to work from early morning till late at night.

B．Their life was much more comfortable than that of today.

C．They were so busy working that they only ate simple meals.

D．Their daily routine followed the rhythm of the natural cycle.

2. What does Professor Carole Counihan say about pre-industrial European families eating meals together?

A．It enabled families to save a lot of money.

B．It was characteristic of the agrarian culture.

C．It brought family members closer to each other.

D．It was helpful to maintaining a nation’s tradition.

3. What does “cultural metabolism” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Pace of life.	B．Changes in lifestyle.
C．Social progress.	D．Evolutionary adaptation.

4. What does the author say about Italians of the old days?

A．They were expert at cooking meals.	B．They enjoyed cooking as well as eating.
C．They ate a big dinner late in the evening.	D．They ate three meals regularly every day.

【推荐2】There is a time when many Americans question whether a college degree is worth its cost. However, a recent study found Americans who completed college or university are more likely to have friends and are less lonely than those who only finished high school.

Daniel Cox, adviser of the Survey Center on American Life, said that in general Americans are experiencing a “friend depression”, meaning a decrease in their number of friends. Ox noted “Americans have fewer close friends today than we did in the early '90s. But men and those without a college degree were particularly affected because they seem to have experienced a much more dramatic decrease over that period.”

The Center questioned 5,054 people this past summer. It found Americans with a college degree feel more socially connected and are more active in their communities than people who didn't go to college. As a result, those who completed college report feeling less lonely.

Prior to research showed that Americans who didn't go to college are less likely to marry. A 2012 study found that college-educated women were much more likely to get married than women who dropped out of high school. A 2013 study of people born between 1957 and 1964 found that both men and women who didn't finish high school were less likely to marry than those with more education.

Today,65 percent of college-educated Americans over age 25 are married. About 50 percent of people with a high school qualification, or who dropped out of high school, are married. Those numbers were different in 1990, when marriage rates among the college educated were at 69 percent, compared with 63 percent for those who did not go to college, says a Pew research report.

The American Community Life Survey found around 1 in 10 college graduates say they have no close social connections. That number rises among Americans without a degree, where almost 1 in 4 say they have no close friends.

1. According to the text, the college or university students face __________ than those who only finished high school.

A．more psychological problems

B．more lonely and make less friends

C．less lonely and make less friends

D．less lonely and make more friends

2. Why are some studies mentioned in paragraph 4?

A．To provide proof for the research.

B．To analyze the reasons for loneliness.

C．To show the importance of marriage.

D．To compare differences in generations.

3. In which column of a magazine may this text appear?

A．Entertainment.	B．Education.
C．Technology.	D．Health.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Social problems in the American society.

B．Reasons for Americans' low marriage rates.

C．Links between education and social interaction.

D．Discussions about whether to get a college degree.

【推荐3】When we meet someone for the first time, we usually get a vague sense of what kind of person they are by the way they shake hands, talk, or walk. In the age of social networking, however, first impressions are sometimes made even before we actually meet someone in person -- that is, by looking at their profile photo.

According to a recent study, these social images say a lot about our personality. In the study, a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in the US used software to analyze the profile pictures of 66,000 users of one US social platform. At the same time, about 434 participants were asked to complete a survey about their personality type.

According to the results, open people are more likely to pose in an unusual way and use objects such as glasses or a guitar in their profile photo because they enjoy new and exciting experiences. Meanwhile, neurotic people often hold back their negative emotions. They try to avoid showing their face; instead, they use an image of something like a pet, a car, or a building. That’s because neurotic people are strongly influenced by the ‘‘strong social norm (规范) against a very sad or angry appearance in profile pictures.’’

Apart from the objects in profile pictures, the colors used in them also give us some information about the photo’s owner. For example, extraverts were found to have the most colorful profile images, as they want to emphasize their personality and show themselves off.

Daniel Preoiuc-Pietro from the University of Pennsylvania wrote in the research paper, ‘‘Social media photos usually represent an extension of one’s self, but they also allow a user to shape his or her own personality and idealized view.’’ So, when choosing a profile photo, maybe we should ask ourselves first what kind of image we’d like to show. After all, first impressions always last.

1. Why do neurotic people often avoid showing their face in their profile photo?

A．Because they are fond of pets, cars and buildings.

B．Because they want to enjoy new experiences.

C．Because they don’t want to show their negative emotions.

D．Because they are not confident about themselves.

2. What does the underlined word in Para.4 refer to?

A．Open people.	B．Neurotic people.
C．Negative people.	D．Popular people.

3. What is the writer’s attitude towards the choice of a profile photo?

A．Casual.

B．Cautious.

C．Worried.

D．Unclear.

4. What does this text mainly talk about?

A．The importance of the first impression.

B．Some advice on how to choose a profile photo.

C．The difference between open people and neurotic people.

D．The relationship between one’s profile photo and his personality.

【推荐1】It used to be mostly the army that used small, unpiloted aircraft, called “drones”. The little planes were very costly. But as they have dropped in price more people have begun to use them.

The fast rate of development of computer technology, image sensing equipment, satellite navigation and smart phones has led to lower-priced drones. Researchers and developers have learned how to build smaller and less costly drones. Nowadays, moviemakers are using drones to film from the sky. Historians use them when they explore ancient buildings. Rescue workers use them to look for people. And now farmers are also using them to watch over their crops.

Romain Faroux is a French businessman, whose father was a farmer. He believed drones could help farmers. He has helped create a company which has developed a small drone that could be controlled by people on the ground. It’s called “Agridrone”. It uses a special sensor to examine crops. The technology used on the drone is similar to that used on a smartphone -- except it has wings. A computer program directs the drone to fly over the crops. The sensor on the drone records four different-colored “bands” of sunlight that are reflected off the crops.

Jean-Baptiste Bruggeman is another farmer in France who is using a drone. He says the drone flies over his crops at different times of the season and provides a lot of information about his crops. The pictures taken by the drone show him the exact amount of fertilizer the crops need. It also shows exactly where the fertilizer is needed.

Romain Faroux says farmers use information provided by the Agridrone to place fertilizer only in areas where it is needed. This saves money and reduces pollution. Before they used the drones, farmers would put the same amount of fertilizer everywhere. Drones also save time because farmers can examine up to three hectares (英亩) in about a minute.

1. Why do rescue workers and farmers begin to use drones?

A．Because they are affordable now.

B．Because their sizes have become smaller.

C．Because they can save people a lot of time.

D．Because the technology has been developed.

2. What is the sensor on the drone mainly used for?

A．Helping the sunlight shine on the crops.

B．Directing the wings to fly over the crops.

C．Examining the different colors of the crops.

D．Recording the sunlight “bands” reflected off the crops.

3. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 3 probably refer to?

A．A smartphone.	B．A sensor.
C．A drone.	D．A band.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Crops will be harvested by drones soon.

B．Drones will be widely used in different fields.

C．French farmers use drones to examine their crops.

D．Farmers develop special drones for their crops.

【推荐2】Conditions for growing pumpkins were poor in some areas of the United States this year. The East and parts of the Midwest suffered heavy rains and extreme heat. So the supply for sale has decreased, making prices higher than last year.

Still, many people are buying the large, round fruit. Pumpkins are an important part of the American celebration of Halloween on October thirty-first. Many families visit farms or markets so their children can pick out the pumpkins they want. They remove the insides of the pumpkin and cut pieces from the outside to make a face. Sometimes they place and light candles inside their carved pumpkin faces. People place the pumpkins outside their homes or in their windows.

Americans also use pumpkins for cooking, especially during the American holiday of Thanksgiving in late November. Tradition says early settlers ate pumpkin pie, or something similar to it. Pumpkins belong to the gourd(葫芦) family. They are related to melons, cucumbers and squashes(西葫芦). Some people call pumpkins vegetables. But others, including scientists, call them fruit. Pumpkins have hard skins and seeds in the center. And they contain more Vitamin A than almost any other fruit.

People have grown pumpkins in North and Central America for thousands of years. Pumpkins grow on vines or bushes. Most weigh only a few kilograms. But some pumpkins grow to be huge. A farmer from the state of Rhode Island recently won a competition with a pumpkin that weighed 681 kilograms. It could be the largest in the world. Such super pumpkins are often shown at agricultural fairs.

People use pumpkin in pies, bread, cakes and other baked foods. Many Americans also like to eat baked pumpkin seeds. Americans can also buy processed(加工过的) pumpkin in cans. However, experts say it is not a good idea to process fresh pumpkin at home to use in the future because dangerous bacteria(细菌) can develop. But whole pumpkins can be stored well for weeks in a cool, dark place.

1. According to the text, why are the prices of pumpkins higher than those of last year?

A．Because you can only buy pumpkins on the farms this year.

B．Because there are more people buying the large, round fruit this year.

C．Because conditions for growing pumpkins were not as good as those of last year.

D．Because heavy rains and extreme heat in Mideast resulted in the lower production.

2. People in America use pumpkins except for         .

A．decorating houses	B．cooking materials
C．celebrating Halloween	D．making candles

3. From the text we can infer that        .

A．processed pumpkins go bad easily	B．pumpkins are actually fruit, not vegetables
C．Vitamin A in pumpkins is the most in fruits	D．the larger a pumpkin is, the sweeter it will be

【推荐3】Researchers have just offered evidence in a study that says obesity appears to spread through social ties, much like a virus. When one person gains weight, their close friends often follow. But the finding might also offer hope.

If friends help make obesity acceptable, then might also be influential in losing the fat. The researchers note that support groups are already an effective tool in dealing with other socially influenced problems, like alcoholism.

The findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, The researchers used information collected from 12,000 people. It was collected between 1971 and 2003 as part of the Framingham Heart Study.

The information was highly detailed. There was even contact information for close friends of the people in the study.

The researchers examined more than 40,000 social ties. They found that a person’s chances of becoming severely overweight increased by 57% if a friend had become obese.

A sister or brother of a person who became obese had a 40% increased chance of becoming obese. The risk for a wife or husband was a little less than that.

Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School was a lead investigator in the study. He says there is a direct causal relationship between a person getting fat and being followed in weight gain by a friend.

The study found that the sex of the friends was also an influence. In same-sex friendships a person had a 70% increased risk of becoming obese. Men had a 44% increased risk of becoming obese after weight gain in brother. In sisters, it was 67%.

The researchers also considered the effect of where people lived in relation to each other. James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, was the other lead investigator. He says a friend who lives a few hundred kilometers away has as much influence as one in the same neighborhood. He says the study demonstrates the need to consider that a major part of people’s health is tied to their social connections.

Both investigators say their research shows that obesity is not just a private medical issue, but a public health problem.

1. What does the underlined sentence in Para. 2 mean?

A．Obesity has a negative influence on a close friend.

B．Friends might also play a part in losing weight.

C．One might have a positive influence on one’s friend.

D．Friends usually don’t follow each other to lose weight.

2. Who is mostly likely to gain weight?

A．A man who has a fat brother	B．A husband who has a fat wife
C．A wife who has a fat husband	D．A woman who has a fat female friend

3. Which of the following statements doesn’t the passage agree with?

A．You are sure to lose weight if you have a skinny friend.

B．If one gains weight, one’s friends are likely to get fat.

C．A person’s health is closely linked with his /her social relationship.

D．Even if the friend lives far away, the influence still remains.

4. The reason why the study involves both family members and friends is that_______.

A．researchers fail to find a more different sample

B．researchers have different ideas for family members and friends

C．researchers can meet these people regularly

D．researchers can compare the results

【推荐1】E-cigarettes lead to as many lung diseases as tobacco products, a new study has found. The report from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill compared saliva(唾液) samples from tobacco smokers, e-cigarette smokers and nonsmokers. Researchers found that e-cigarette smokers were likely to develop dangerous proteins associated with lung diseases. The study adds to a growing body of evidence proving that e-cigarettes might not be the perfect alternative smokers addicted to tobacco are looking for.

Last year a Surgeon General’s report claimed that the use of e-cigarettes among a certain group of people jumped 900 percent from 2011to 2015 and more studies were carried out to research their side effects. That same year, the FDA put e-cigarettes in the tobacco products the administration monitors.

Previous research from UCLA has proven that e-cigarettes can cause lifelong damage to one’s heart, and that one puff (吸一口烟) of an e-cigarette is all it takes to increase one’s risk of having a heart attack. For the new study UNC researchers observed 15 e-cigarette users, 14 cigarette smokers and 15 nonsmokers. The study revealed that e-cigarette smokers have raised levels of NET-related proteins in their airways, the increased levels of which can lead to lung illnesses, making it difficult for patients to breathe.

Study author Dr Mehmet Keismer said, “There is confusion about whether e-cigarettes are ‘safer’ than cigarettes because the potential adverse effects of e-cigarettes are only beginning to be studied. Our results suggest that e-cigarettes might be just as bad as cigarettes. ” Dr Keismer also stressed that e-cigarettes come with their own harmful risks along with those linked to tobacco, which challenges the concept that switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes is a healthier alternative.   

A citizen named Dyclna said, “The e-cigarettes probably make you cough less, but nobody gives a warning about your lungs. For producers, it’s just a money thing — it’s just about getting profits from it. The problem is that our government just stands there with its hands behind the back. ”

1. Why did the FDA list e-cigarettes into monitored products?

A．It might have realized the harm of them.	B．It wanted to improve their quality.
C．It aimed to reduce their illegal sales.	D．It might be warned by the government.

2. What does Dyclna mainly want to express?

A．E-cigarettes are safer than regular ones.

B．E-cigarettes can only benefit few people.

C．Producers make a high profit from e-cigarettes.

D．Governments are to blame for e-cigarettes’ consumption.

3. What is the best title for the text?

A．E-cigarettes: A new way of smoking.

B．E-cigarettes: A better way than tobacco?

C．E-cigarettes: The harmful proteins it produces.

D．E-cigarettes: The urgent need of government control.

【推荐2】One advantage of the Internet is shopping conveniently online for clothes; one disadvantage of the Internet is also shopping conveniently online for clothes.

“Nothing fits,” said Lam Yuk Wong, a senior in electrical and computer engineering at Rice University. “Everyone says this. They order clothes and they don’t fit. People get very unhappy.”

Wong and her design partner, Xuaner “Cecilia” Zhang, are Team White Mirror, creators of what they call a “virtual (虚拟) fitting room”. Their goal is simple and consumer-friendly: to let online clothing shoppers have a perfect fit and a perfect look when shopping every time.

Both women are from China, Wong from Hong Kong and Zhang from Beijing. They both order most of their clothing online. They got the idea from their own experience as consumers and from listening to the complaints of friends and relatives. “They say, ‘The color is wrong’ or ‘I got the right size but it still does not fit.’ We want to make it like you’re in the store trying on the clothes,” Zhang said.

Using a Kinect developed by Microsoft for use with its Xbox 360 video game player,

Zhang scans Wong and turns   her image into, in effect, a virtual model, keeping Wong’s dimensions (尺寸), and even her skin and hair color. “We put the clothes on the shopper’s 3-D body models and show how they look when they are dressed,” Wong said. So far, Wong and Zhang have adapted the software to show dresses and shirts, and they are now working on shorts.

Asked if she thought men as well as women might be interested in using their virtual fitting room, Wong said, “I think their wives will care about this, so it will also be important to men.”

1. Why is shopping conveniently online for clothes a disadvantage?

A．Clothes bought online may not fit.

B．Students may easily get addicted to it.

C．It attracts more online clothing shoppers.

D．It causes shoppers to waste too much money.

2. Wong and Zhang got the idea to design a virtual fitting room from .

A．the Xbox 360 video game player	B．a program at their university
C．some shop-owners’ complaints	D．their shopping experiences

3. Which of the following shows the process of using the virtual fitting room?

A．scanning—trying on clothes—getting images

B．trying on clothes—getting models—scanning

C．scanning—getting models—trying on clothes

D．trying on clothes—getting images—scanning

4. What did Wong think of her virtual fitting room?

A．It is perfectly developed.

B．It will have its market share.

C．It is limited to women shoppers.

D．It is like a kind of video game player.

【推荐3】Most city parks are places where you can escape from big, ugly structures of metal and stone. The Manhattan High Line is different. Raised 25 feet above the ground, this large metal structure once supported a rail line. The line opened in 1934 to bring trains directly into factories. It was hardly used after the 1960s, and much of it was torn down. However, one part remained in a region of Manhattan called Chelsea. Chelsea was becoming high-class as restaurants, art galleries and apartments were built, but the ugly railway structure remained as a dead weight. Everyone knew that at some time, it would have to be removed.

But the High Line was not destroyed. In fact, now the old rail line serves as one of the most peaceful places in the city, It holds an elevated park, with beautiful gardens and great views of the city. The idea to turn the rail line into a park came from Joshua David and Robert Hammond. In 1999, they attended a meeting to decide how to deal with the High Line. David and Hammond were the only people at the meeting interested in saving the historical structure. Later on, when they asked railway officials to take them up to look at the High Line, they saw a mile and a hall of wild flower growing in the middle of the city, and they realized that the High Line had potential to become a park. There was growing interest in improving city centers, and so the project quickly developed and money for construction was easily collected.

The first part of the High Line opened in 2009 and immediately became popular with tourists and locals alike. Each part of the park has a different atmosphere. Some areas are like balconies(阳台) with wonderful city views. Where the rail line goes between buildings, trees are thickly planed. Other sections have wide lawns(草坪) and walkways planed with wild flowers. Only the final section remains the way it has been for the last fifty years.

1. What is the text mainly about?

A．Closing a train line.	B．Improving city transport.
C．Protection of cultural relics.	D．An unlikely place for a park.

2. What does the underlined part “a dead weight” in paragraph 1 mean?

A．something with historical interest

B．something with potential to be better

C．something which is a danger to people

D．something useless which slows progress.

3. Why did David and Hammond originally want to save the High Line?

A．They wanted to reopen the train line.

B．They thought it had historical value.

C．They were interested in improving the city.

D．They thought it would become a good park.

4. Why were people easily persuaded by David and Hammond’s idea?

A．They wanted to make cities nicer places.

B．They wanted to see the wild flowers, too.

C．They knew the project would bring in much money.

D．They realized the High Line was historically important.

5. What can we learn about the High Line from the text?

A．Only part of the line remains.

B．The railway companies still use the line.

C．It began to become popular in the 1960.

D．It was designed by David and Hammond.