1 . Walking Under Liverpool

In most ways, the English city of Liverpool is no different from other large cities. It is full of people, restaurants, museums, and shops. However, Liverpool stands out in one interesting way.     1     For many years, the tunnels (地道) were nearly forgotten. There was no evidence that the tunnels were real. In 2001, a small group of curious people were delighted to discover that the old ales were true. A huge network of tunnels snaked under the city.

We now know that the tunnels were built sometime in the early 1800s. A man named Joseph Williamson designed them.     2     Why did Williamson want the tunnels? Were they ever used? If so, for what? We can only guess.

    3     Many people were jobless at that time, and Williams on was known to be kind. Perhaps he came up with the tunnel project so that he could offer people jobs. Another guess is that Williamson used the tunnels for secret business.

Still others think that Williamson built the tunnels for safety reasons. Perhaps he was afraid that some type of dangerous event would happen.     4    

    5     Williamson did not tell many people why he built the tunnels. Maybe he wrote down his reasons and put the papers somewhere in the tunnels. Perhaps those papers will one day be found. For now, the mystery of the Williams on Tunnels remains.

A．But there is a lot we still don’t know.

B．The ideas are interesting, but no one knows the truth.

C．Under the busy streets, there are miles of old tunnels.

D．Some people who study the tunnels have got new findings.

E．One idea is that Williamson, who was rich, was trying to help others.

F．Nor does anyone know for sure even how many of the tunnels there are.

G．The tunnels would have offered protection for himself and his loved ones.

2 . Sometimes it’s hard to let go. For many British people, that can apply to institutions and objects that represent their country’s past-age-old castles, splendid homes… and red phone boxes.

Beaten first by the march of technology and lately by the terrible weather in junkyards (废品场), the phone boxes representative of an age are now making something of a comeback. Adapted in imaginative ways, many have reappeared on city streets and village greens housing tiny cafes, cellphone repair shops or even defibrillator machines (除颤器).

The original iron boxes with the round roofs first appeared in 1926. They were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of the Battersea Power Station in London. After becoming an important part of many British streets, the phone boxes began disappearing in the 1980s, with the rise of the mobile phone sending most of them away to the junkyards.

About that time, Tony Inglis’ engineering and transport company got the job to remove phone boxes from the streets and sell them out. But Inglis ended up buying hundreds of them himself, with the idea of repairing and selling them. He said that he had heard the calls to preserve the boxes and had seen how some of them were listed as historic buildings.

As Inglis and, later other businessmen, got to work, repurposed phone boxes began reappearing in cities and villages as people found new uses for them. Today, they are once again a familiar sight, playing roles that are often just as important for the community as their original purpose.

In rural areas, where ambulances can take a relatively long time to arrive, the phone boxes have taken on a lifesaving role. Local organizations can adopt them for l pound, and install defibrillators to help in emergencies.

Others also looked at the phone boxes and saw business opportunities. LoveFone, a company that advocates repairing cellphones rather than abandoning them, opened a mini workshop in a London phone box in 2016.

The tiny shops made economic sense, according to Robert Kerr, a founder of LoveFone. He said that one of the boxes generated around $13,500 in revenue a month and cost only about $400 to rent.

Inglis said phone boxes called to mind an age when things were built to last. “I like what they are to people, and I enjoy bringing things back,” he said.

1. The phone boxes are making a comeback ______.

A．to form a beautiful sight of the city

B．to improve telecommunications services

C．to remind people of a historical period

D．to meet the requirement of green economy

2. Why did the phone boxes begin to go out of service in the 1980s?

A．They were not well-designed.	B．They provided bad services.
C．They had too short a history.	D．They lost to new technologies.

3. The phone boxes are becoming popular mainly because of ______.

A．their new appearance and lower prices	B．the push of the local organizations
C．their changed roles and functions	D．the big funding of the businessmen