1 . Ever since the University of Bologna in Haly was founded in 1088 as the first modern university, most people have associated great universities,with major cities.    1    

Colleges and universities in the U.S.,though, have followed a different pattern. To be sure, leading universities such as the University of Chicago and Columbia University in New York City call major urban centers home.    2    In some cases, the university is, for all practical

purposes, the whole town.

    3     Many early colleges and universities were founded by religious (宗教的) groups that sought to educate students far from the distractions of city life. When Harvard University was founded in 1636 by Congregationalist Church ministers, Cambridge, where the university is now located, was quite separate from Boston. Moreover, when the U.S. began building a network of public universities in the 1860s to bring agricultural and technical research and know-how to the westward- spreading frontier, most were located in small towns.     4    

Given the huge diversity of U.S. higher education, the message for international students shopping for a great university is doubled.    5    Don't be put off if you have never heard of the city or town where a school is located. Top-rated colleges and universities located in lesser

known places may amaze you in an unimaginable manner with their high quality and a significant number of their international students.

A．Bloomington is also a great college town.

B．Think the Sorbonne in Paris or Peking University.

C．Set your sights beyond the most well-known schools.

D．One reason: there were no major cities there at the time.

E．There was no better recipe for popularity than small campuses.

F．Part of the explanation for this lies in America's distinctive history.

G．But many are located in cities and towns most people have never heard of.

2 . Indonesia has said the country would be removing its capital city, in part because it's sinking into the Java Sea. Jakarta is one of the fastest sinking cities in the world, according to the World Economic Forum, due to rising sea levels and the over-extraction of groundwater. But it isn't the only city in trouble. Here's a look at some others that are also at risk.

Houston

Houston has been sinking for decades and, like Jakarta, the over-extraction of groundwater is partly to blame.

The Houston Chronicle reported that parts of Harris County, which contains Houston, have sunk between 10 and 12 feet (about 3 meters), since the 1920s, according to data from the US Geological Survey. Areas have continued to fall as much as 2 inches per year, an amount that can quickly add up.

Lawmakers have tried to address the issue, creating a special purpose district meant to regulate the withdrawal of groundwater in 1975. But the problem has persisted, with privately owned wells and water suppliers continuing to pull from aquifers (蓄水层).

Lagos

The city of Lagos sits on the coast of Nigeria, constructed partly on the mainland, partly on some nearby islands. It's also Africa's most populous city. Its geography makes Lagos especially easily flooded, and the coastline has already been eroding. As sea levels rise due to global warming, the city is increasingly at risk.

One study from 2012 revealed that, because Nigeria's coastline is so low, a sea level rise of just 3 to 9 feet (about 1 to 3 meters) "will have a catastrophic effect on the human activities in these regions."

Washington

Washington is one of the most important cities in the US — and it's also sinking. Research from 2015 showed that America's capital will drop more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) in the next 100 years.

But unlike Jakarta, Washington's sinking has nothing to do with aquifers or rising sea levels — it's actually because of an ice sheet from the last ice age. A mile-high ice sheet pushed land beneath the Chesapeake Bay upward. When the ice sheet melted, thousands of years ago, the land settled back down. The researchers now believe that the area is gradually sinking, a process that could last thousands of years.

1. What is the common reason for the sinking between Houston and Jakarta?

A．the soft land	B．rising sea level
C．the eroding coastline	D．over-extraction of groundwater

2. What does the writer’s attitude towards the result of Huston lawmakers addressing the sinking problems?

A．positive	B．indifferent
C．unknown	D．negative

3. Which of the following sinking cities has a striking different reason with others?

A．Houston	B．Lagos
C．Washington	D．Jakarta

3 . In the middle of the Pacific Ocean lies the tiny island nation of Tuvalu，the fourth smallest country in the world. This group of four islands and five atolls (islands made from coral) is famous for its sandy beaches and turquoise (蓝绿色的) waters and has long been a popular tourist destination for nearby New Zealanders. However, the nation of Tuvalu is at risk of soon no longer existing; not because of war or political change, but because it will be covered by the rising ocean.

Tuvalu is experiencing the harmful effects of global warming. As global temperatures rise, so does the ocean temperature. Due to the scientific law of “thermal expansion,” when water heats it get bigger.     1     Most experts claim that the effects of climate change will make Tuvalu uninhabitable within the next 50 years. Problems are already emerging. As sea levels rise, ocean water containing high levels of salt is travelling further and further inland destroying the little amount of soil Tuvaluans have to grow crops.

Even before Tuvaluans began to suffer from the effects of climate change, lift on Tuvalu was tough.     2     Most of the land on an atoll is rock-hard arid any soil that exists on it is usually thin and poor for growing crops. The nation has always had to import food apart from fish.

More serious than Tuvalu’s lack of home-grown food has been its lack of drinking water.    3     Therefore, Tuvaluans depend almost entirely on rainwater for their water needs. Unfortunately, due to a geographical phenomenon known as La Nina, Tuvalu often suffers from long periods of drought. In autumn 2010, after seven months of no rain, the Prime Minister had to declare a state of emergency riot only because of a lack of drinking water, but also because the water left was polluted with cholera (霍乱)     4    

Tuvalu’s problems have led some of its 11, 000 inhabitants to consider migrating to Australia or New Zealand.    5     They know they’ll have to someday, but for as long as possible, they want to remain and make the world aware of what is happening to their homeland due to chimate change.

A．It was a desperate situation and, but for emergency shipments from New Zealand and Australia, many Tuvaluans would have died.

B．This is largely due to the geological makeup of atolls.

C．Unlike normal islands, atolls have no rivers or streams, which means that most of Tuvalu has no groundwater to use for drinking.

D．Tuvalu’s representatives demanded that nations should take a more responsible rote in reducing gas emissions.

E．Therefore, sea levels are rising and for low-lying Tuvalu, this spells disaster.

F．However, they ate not willing to abandon the land of their forefathers so easily.

G．And as a member of the United Nations, they are doing just that.