1 . Planning a visit to the UK? Here we help with ways to cut your costs.
AVOID BIG EVENTS Big sporting events, concerts and exhibitions can increase the cost of accommodation and make it harder to find a room. A standard double room at the Thistle Brighton on the final Friday of the Brighton Comedy Festival (19 Oct.) cost £ 169. 15 at Booking.com. A week later, the same room cost £ 118.15.
If you can be flexible and want to know dates to avoid--- or you're looking for a big event to pass your time--- check out sites such as Whatsonwhen.com, which allow you to search for events in the UK by city, date and category.
STAYAWAY FROM THE STATION If traveling to your destination by train, you may want to find a good base close to the station, but you could end up paying more for the sake of convenience at the start of your holiday.
Don't be too choosy about the part of town you stay in. Booking two months in advance, the cheapest room at Travelodge's Central Euston hotel in London for Saturday 22 September was £ 95.95 . A room just a tube journey away at its Covent Garden hotel was £ 75.75 . And at Farringdon, a double room cost just £ 62.95 .
LOOK AFTER YOURSELF Really central hotels in cities such as London. Edinburgh and Cardiff can cost a fortune, especially at weekends and during big events. As a choice consider checking into a self-catering flat with its own kitchen, where you can cook. Often these flats are hidden away on the top floors of city centre buildings. A great example is the historic O'Neill Flat on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, available for £ 420 for five days in late September, with room for four adults.
GET ON A BIKE London’s "Boris bikes' have attracted the most attention, but other cities also have similar programs that let you rent a bicycle and explore at your own pace, saving you on public transport or car parking costs.
Among the smaller cities with their own programs are Newcastle (casual members pay around £ 1.50 for two hours) and Cardiff (free for up to 30 minutes, or £5 per day).
1. The Brighton Comedy Festival is mentioned mainly to show big events may ________.| A．help travelers pass time |
| B．attract lots of travelers to the UK |
| C．allow travelers to make flexible plans |
| D．cause travelers to pay more for accommodation |
| A．a hotel away from the train station | B．the tube line to Covent Garden |
| C．an ideal holiday destination | D．the name of a travel agency |
| A．lies on the ground floor |
| B．is located in central London |
| C．provides cooking facilities for tourists |
| D．costs over £100 on average per day in late September |
| A．half an hour | B．one hour |
| C．one hour and a half | D．two hours |
| A．to tell visitors how to book in advance |
| B．to supply visitors with hotel information |
| C．to show visitors the importance of self-help |
| D．to offer visitors some money-saving tips |
2 . In June,2007,a group of students from eight high schools in Winnipeg, the capital of Canada’s Manitoba province, will begin test-launching (试发射) a satellite the size of a Rubik’s cube.
The one-kilogram Win-Cube satellite, named for its home city and its shape, will be put into low orbit. Once in space, it can perform for a few months or up to several years, communicating information that could help find the early signs of earthquakes.
There are 80 similar satellite projects worldwide, but this is the first high-school based program of its kind in Canada. 30 Manitoba high school students are having a hand in designing and building the satellite, in cooperation with aerospace (航空航天的) experts and 10 students from the University of Manitoba, and with support from two other organizations.
The Win-Cube project is not something that goes on a piece of paper, it is real-world engineering, allowing high school students to have an opportunity to learn more about the exciting world of engineering through their participation in this challenging program. It is also taken as a wonderful example of the unique partnerships within Manitoba. Designing, building and lauching a satellite with high-school participation will bring this world-class educational project into reality and Manitoba closer to space.
“These Manitoba high school students deserve congratulations for their enthusiasm, innovation (创新), and a strong love for discovery,” said Education, Citizenship and Youth Minister Peter Bjornson. “We want to make science more relevant (相关的), interesting and attractive to high school students by showing them how classroom studies can relate to practical experience in the workplace or, in this case, in space,” Bjornson added.
The Win-Cube program is mainly aimed at inspiring a strong desire for discovery on the part of the students. It also shows Manitoba’s devotion to research and innovation and the development of a skilled workforce — all important drivers of knowledge-based economic growth.
1. According to the passage, the Win-Cube satellite is_______.| A．named after Manitoba and its shape |
| B．intended for international communication |
| C．designed like a Rubik’s cube both in shape and size |
| D．challenged by university students around the world |
| A．those Manitoba high school students are worth praising |
| B．the study of space can be practically made in classroom |
| C．Manitoba high schools are famous for the sutdy of space |
| D．scientific research is too far away from high school students |
| A．find the early signs of earthquakes |
| B．relate studies to practical experience |
| C．help high school students study real-world engineering |
| D．inspire a strong desire for discovery among the students |
| A．Manitoba School | B．Win-Cube Program |
| C．Space Cooperation | D．Satellite Launching |
3 . In its early history, Chicago had floods frequently, especially in the spring, making the streets so muddy that people, horses, and carts got stuck. An old joke that was popular at the time went something like this: A man is stuck up to his waist in a muddy Chicago street. Asked if he needs help, he replies, “No, thanks. I've got a good horse under me.”
The city planner decided to build an underground drainage (排水) system, but there simply wasn't enough difference between the height of the ground level and the water level. The only two options were to lower the Chicago River or raise the city.
An engineer named Ellis Chesbrough convinced me the city that it had no choice but to build the pipes above ground and then cover them with dirt. This raised the level of the city's streets by as much as 12 feet.
This of course created a new problem: dirt practically buried the first floors of every building in Chicago. Building owners were faced with a choice: either change the first floors of their buildings into basements, and the second stories into main floors, or hoist the entire buildings to meet the new street level. Small wood-frame buildings could be lifted fairly easily. But what about large, heavy structures like Tremont Hotel, which was a six-story brick building?
That's where George Pullman came in. He had developed some house-moving skills successfully. To lift a big structure like the Tremont Hotel, Pullman would place thousands of jackscrews (螺旋千斤顶) beneath the building's foundation. One man was assigned to operate each section of roughly 10 jackscrews. At Pullman's signal each man turned his jackscrew the same amount at the same time, thereby raising the building slowly and evenly. Astonishingly, the Tremont Hotel stay open during the entire operation, and many of its guests didn't even notice anything was happening. Some people like to say that every problem has a solution. But in Chicago's early history, every engineering solution seemed to create a new problem. Now that Chicago's waste water was draining efficiently into the Chicago River, the city's next step was to clean the polluted river.
1. The author mentions the joke to show ______.| A．horses were fairly useful in Chicago |
| B．Chicago's streets were extremely muddy |
| C．Chicago was very dangerous in the spring |
| D．the Chicago people were particularly humorous |
| A．get rid of the street dirt | B．lower the Chicago River |
| C．fight against heavy floods | D．build the pipes above ground |
| A．change | B．lift |
| C．repair | D．decorate |
| A．It went on smoothly as intended. |
| B．It interrupted the business of the hotel. |
| C．It involved Pullman turning ten jackscrews. |
| D．It separated the building from its foundation. |
| A．popular life styles and their influences |
| B．environmental disasters and their causes |
| C．engineering problems and their solutions |
| D．successful businessmen and their achievements |
Have your parents ever inspected your room to see if you cleaned it properly? Imagine having your entire houses, garage, and yard inspected at any time -- with no warning. Inspections were a regular part of lighthouse (灯塔) living, and a keeper's reputation depended on results. A few times each year, an inspector arrived to look over the entire light station. The inspections were supposed to be a surprise, but keeper sometimes had advance notice.
Once lighthouses had telephones, keepers would call each other to warn that the inspector was approaching. After boats began flying special flags noting the inspector aboard, the keeper's family made it a game to see who could notice the boat first. As soon as someone spotted the boat, everyone would do last-minute tidying and change into fancy clothes. The keeper then scurried to put on his dress uniform and cap. Children of keepers remember inspectors wearing white gloves to run their fingers over door frames and windowsills looking for dust.
Despite the serious nature of inspections, they resulted in some funny moments. Betty Byrnes remembered when her mother did not have time to wash all the dishes before an inspection. At the time, people did not have dishwashers in their homes. In an effort to clean up quickly, Mrs. Byrnes tossed all the dishes into a big bread pan, covered them with a cloth and stuck them in the oven. If the inspector opened the oven door, it would look like bread was baking. he never did.
One day, Glenn Furst's mother put oil on the kitchen floor just before the inspector entered their house. Like floor wax, the oil made the floors shiny and helped protect the wood. This time, though, she used a little too much oil. When the inspector extended his hand to greet Glenn's mother, he slipped on the freshly oiled surface. "He came across that floor waving his arms like a young bird attempting its first flight," Glenn late wrote. After he steadied himself, he shook Glenn's mother's hand, and the inspection continued as though nothing had happened.
1. What does Paragraph 1 tell us about the inspection at the light station?
| A．It was carried out once a year. |
| B．It was often announced in advance. |
| C．It was important for the keeper's fame. |
| D．It was focused on the garage and yard. |
| A．one of the members saw the boat |
| B．a warning call reached the lighthouse |
| C．the keeper put on the dress uniform and cap |
| D．the inspector flew special flags in the distance |
| A．result in some fun |
| B．speed up washing them |
| C．make her home look tidy |
| D．be a demand from the inspector |
| A．an empty pan |
| B．many clean dishes |
| C．pieces of baked bread |
| D．a cloth covering something |
| A．to try his best to keep steady |
| B．to show his satisfaction with the floor |
| C．to extend a warm greeting to Glenn's mother |
| D．to express his intention to continue the inspection |
| Forget Cyclists, Pedestrians are Real Danger We are having a debate about this topic. Here are some letters from our readers. ■Yes, many cyclists behave dangerously. Many drivers are disrespectful of cyclists. But pedestrians are probably the worse offenders. People of all ages happily walk along the pavement with eyes and hands glued to the mobile phone, quite unaware of what is going on around them. They may even do the same thing while crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing or elsewhere. The rest of us have to evade (避让) them or just stand still to wait for the unavoidable collision. The real problem is that some pedestrians seem to be, at least for the moment, in worlds of their own that are, to them, much more important than the welfare of others. ——Michael Horan ■I love the letter from Bob Brooks about cyclists (Viewpoints, May 29). I am afraid they seem to think they own the roads. I was walking across Altrincham Road one morning when a cyclist went round me and on being asked what he was doing he shouted at me. The government built a cycle lane on the road but it is hardly used. The police do nothing. What a laugh they are! The cyclists should all have to be made to use the cycle lanes and wear helmets, fluorescent (发荧光的) jacket and lights at night and in the morning they should pay some sort of tax and be fined for not wearing them. ——Carol Harvey ■Cyclists jump on and off pavements (which are meant for pedestrians), ride at speed along the pavements, and think they have a special right to go through traffic lights when they are on red. I was almost knocked down recently by a cyclist riding on the pavement when there was a cycle lane right next to him. Other road users, including horse riders, manage to obey the rules so why not cyclists? It's about time they had to be registered and insured, so when they do hit a pedestrian or a vehicle, or cause an accident, at least they can be treated and there might be an opportunity to claim. ——JML Write to Viewpoints of the newspaper. |
1. Michael Horan wrote the letter mainly to show that _______.
| A．drivers should be polite to cyclists |
| B．road accidents can actually be avoided |
| C．sine pedestrians are a threat to road safety |
| D．walking while using phones hurts one's eyes |
| A．be provided with enough roads |
| B．be asked to ride on their own lanes |
| C．be made to pay less tax for cycling |
| D．be fined for laughing at policemen |
| A．Very few drivers are insured. |
| B．Cyclists ride fast on pavements. |
| C．Pedestrians go through red traffic lights. |
| D．Horse riders disrespect other road users. |
| A．accidents | B．vehicles |
| C．pedestrians | D．cyclists |
| A．real source of road danger |
| B．ways to improve road facilities |
| C．measures to punish road offences |
| D．increased awareness of road rules |
6 . A recent study of ancient and modern elephants has come up with the unexpected conclusion that the African elephant is divided into two distinct species.
The discovery was made by researchers at York and Harvard universities when they were examining the genetic relationship between the ancient woolly mammoth and mastodon to modern elephants — the Asian elephant, African forest elephant and African savanna elephant.
Once they obtained DNA sequences from two fossils, mammoths and mastodons the team compared them with DNA from modern elephants. They found to their amazement that modern forest and savanna elephants are as distinct from each other as Asian elephants and mammoths.
The scientists used detailed genetic analysis to prove that the African savanna elephants and the African forest elephants have been distinct species for several million years. The divergence of the two species took place around the time of the divergence of Asian elephants and woolly mammoths. This result amazed all the scientists.
There has long been debate in the scientific community that the two might be separate species but this is the most convincing scientific evidence so far that they are indeed different species.
Previously, many naturalists believed that African savanna elephants and African forest elephants were two populations of the same species despite the elephants’ significant size differences. The savanna elephant has an average shoulder height of 3.5metres while the forest elephant has an average shoulder height of 2.5metres. The savanna elephant weighs between six and seven tons, roughly double the weight of the forest elephant. But the fact that they look so different does not necessarily mean they are different species. However, the proof lay in the analysis of the DNA.
Alfred Roca, assistant professor in the department of Animal Sciences at the University of Minois, said, “We now have to treat the forest and savanna elephants as two different units for conservation purpose. Since 1950 all African elephants have been conserved as one species. Now that we know the forest and savanna elephants are two very distinct animals, the forest elephant should become a bigger priority for conservation purpose.”
1. One of the fossils studied by the researchers is that of ________.| A．the Asian elephant | B．the forest elephant |
| C．the savanna elephant | D．the mastodon elephant |
| A．evolution | B．exhibition | C．separation | D．examination |
| A．DNA | B．height | C．weight | D．population |
| A．The conservation of African elephants. |
| B．The purpose of studying African elephants |
| C．The way to divide African elephants into two units |
| D．The reason for the distinction of African elephants |
| A．Naturalist’s Belief about Elephants. | B．Amazing Experiment about Elephants |
| C．An Unexpected Finding about Elephants | D．A Long scientific Debate about Elephants |
7 . The behaviour of a building’s users may be at least as important as its design when it comes to energy use, according to new research from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). The UK promises to reduce its carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, part of which will be achieved by all new homes being zero-carbon by 2016. But this report shows that sustainable building design on its own — though extremely important—is not enough to achieve such reductions: the behaviour of the people using the building has to change too.
The study suggests that the ways that people use and live in their homes have been largely ignored by existing efforts to improve energy efficiency, which instead focus on architectural and technological developments.
“Technology is going to assist but it is not going to do everything,” explains Katy Janda, a UKERC senior researcher, “consumption patterns of building users can defeat the most careful design.” In other words, old habits die hard, even in the best-designed eco-home.
Another part of the problem is information. Households and bill-payers don’t have the knowledge they need to change their energy-use habits. Without specific information, it’s hard to estimate the costs and benefits of making different choices. Feedback facilities, like smart meters and energy monitors, could help bridge this information gap by helping people see how changing their behaviour directly affects their energy use; some studies have shown that households can achieve up to 15 percent energy savings using smart meters.
Social science research has added a further dimension, suggesting that individuals’ behaviour in the home can be personal and cannot be predicted—whether people throw open their windows rather than turn down the thermostat, for example. Janda argues that education is the key. She calls for a focused programme to teach people about buildings and their own behaviour in them.
1. As to energy use, the new research from UKERC stresses the importance of________.| A．zero-carbon homes | B．the behaviour of building users |
| C．sustainable building design | D．the reduction of carbon emissions |
| A．the ways | B．their homes | C．developments | D．existing efforts |
| A．The importance of changing building users, habits. |
| B．The necessity of making a careful building design. |
| C．The variety of consumption patterns of building users. |
| D．The role of technology in improving energy efficiency. |
| A．can be bridged by feedback facilities | B．affects the study on energy monitors |
| C．brings about problems for smart meters | D．will be caused by building users’ old habits |
| A．The social science research is to be furthered. |
| B．The education programme is under discussion. |
| C．The behaviour of building users is unpredictable. |
| D．The behaviour preference of building users is similar. |
In Mrs. Totten’s eighth-grade math class at Central Avenue School in Anderson, Indiana, we were learning to add and subtract decimals (小数).
Our teacher typically assigned daily homework, which would be recited in class the following day. On most days, our grades were based on our oral answer to homework questions.
Mrs. Totten usually walked up and down the rows of desks requesting answers from student after student in the order the questions had appeared on our homework sheets. She would start either at the front or the back of the classroom and work toward the other end.
Since I was seated near the middle of about 35 students, it was easy to figure out which questions I might have to answer. This particular time, I had completed my usual two or three problems according to my calculations.
What I failed to expect was that several students were absent, which threw off my estimate. As Mrs. Totten made her way from the beginning of the class，I desperately tried to determine which math problem I would get. I tried to work it out before she got to me, but I had brain freeze and couldn’t function.
When Mrs. Totten reached my desk，she asked what answer I’d got for problem No. 14. “I…I didn’t get anything,” I answered，and my face felt warm.
“Correct,” she said.
It turned out that the correct answer was zero.
What did I learn that day? First, always do all your homework. Second, in real life it isn’t always what you say but how you say it that matters. Third，I would never make it as a mathematician.
If I could choose one school day that taught me the most, it would be that one.
1. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 indicate?
| A．It is wise to value one’s time. |
| B．It is important to make an effort |
| C．It is right to stick to one’s belief. |
| D．It is enough to do the necessary. |
| A．recite their homework together |
| B．grade their homework themselves |
| C．answer their homework questions orally |
| D．check the answers to their homework questions |
| A．asked questions in a regular way |
| B．walked up and down when asking questions |
| C．chose two or three questions for the students |
| D．requested her students to finish their usual questions |
| A．the class didn’t begin as usual |
| B．several students didn’t come to school |
| C．he didn’t try hard to make his estimate |
| D．Mrs. Totten didn’t start from the back of the class |
| A．An Unforgettable Teacher |
| B．A Future Mathematician |
| C．An Effective Approach |
| D．A Valuable Lesson |
内容：
1.说明设计理由
2.介绍新功能。
注意;:
1.词数不少于120个字
2.不能使用真实姓名和学校名称。
Mom clearly explained her
“Learn to iron a shirt,” Mom said, “and you can iron anything.”
But ironing shirts was not
As for technique, Mom
Over the years, I’ve learned to iron shirts skillfully, which gives me a sense of
| A．reasons | B．rules | C．emotions | D．methods |
| A．helpful | B．confident | C．powerful | D．independent |
| A．conclusion | B．suggestion | C．impression | D．observation |
| A．useful | B．easy | C．special | D．suitable |
| A．direct | B．single | C．smooth | D．strange |
| A．doubt | B．pressure | C．surprise | D．danger |
| A．went away | B．fell down | C．jumped off | D．looked up |
| A．taught | B．chose | C．forced | D．sent |
| A．touch | B．design | C．see | D．admire |
| A．honesty | B．freedom | C．justice | D．pride |
| A．Instead | B．Besides | C．Otherwise | D．However |
| A．Make up | B．Deal with | C．Ask for | D．Rely on |
