1 . My husband and I used to live in the city, but we often faced a lot of problems there. There was a lot of late-night noise. It was difficult to find parking. And the rent of the apartment was high.

Finally, my husband and I decided to move to the suburbs (郊区) outside Boston. We started looking for our new home. It turned out that many other people were also moving to the suburbs and it wasn’t easy to find a nice house there. Finally, we went to see a small and dark house. It needed a lot of work. But it was well built and it was on a street where we could walk to Starbucks, restaurants and bus stops. Well, before I knew it, we had made an offer and the house became ours.

On our first night in the house I cried for five hours. I thought we had made the wrong choice and I wanted to go back to the city. The house was smelly and old. And many families and old people lived around it. But after thinking of the problems we had when we were living in the city, I calmed down. Besides, our new home wasn’t that bad, after all. I had a driveway of my own. There were three big bedrooms and a backyard for my dog. Oh, how lovely the sound of nothing was. I changed the house inch by inch and it became a very comfortable home.

We have been in our house for over two years until now and it’s the best move we have ever made. While I’m glad I can drive into the city in 15 minutes and enjoy all it has offered, I’m always happy to return home.

1. The writer and her husband moved to the suburbs because they ________.

A．no longer liked living in the city	B．couldn’t afford the rent in the city
C．wanted to buy a small house	D．found work there

2. On the first night in the house, the writer ________.

A．was too excited	B．felt scared living there
C．regretted moving there at first	D．was moved to tears by its quietness

3. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 show about the house?

A．It was lovely.	B．It was really quiet.
C．It had nothing in it.	D．It had beautiful sound.

4. We can learn from the passage that the writer ________.

A．hates driving to the city	B．is afraid of returning home
C．loves living in the suburbs now	D．cannot wait to go back to the city

2 . Color is fundamental in home design—something you’ll always have in every room. A grasp of how to manage color in your spaces is one of the first steps to creating rooms you’ll love to live in. Do you want a room that’s full of life? Professional? Or are you just looking for a place to relax after a long day?     1    , color is the key to making a room feel the way you want it to feel.

Over the years, there have been a number of different techniques to help designers approach this important point.     2    , they can get a little complex. But good news is that there’re really only three kinds of decisions you need to make about color in your home: the small ones, the medium ones, and the large ones.

    3    . They’re the little spots of color like throw pillows, mirrors and baskets that most of us use to add visual interest to our rooms. Less tiring than painting your walls and less expensive than buying a colorful sofa, small color choices bring with them the significant benefit of being easily changeable.

Medium color choices are generally furniture pieces such as sofas, dinner tables or bookshelves.     4    . They require a bigger commitment than smaller ones, and they have a more powerful effect on the feeling of a space.

The large color decisions in your rooms concern the walls, ceilings, and floors. Whether you’re looking at wallpaper or paint, the time, effort and relative expense put into it are significant.     5    .

A．While all of them are useful

B．Whatever you’re looking for

C．If you’re experimenting with a color

D．Small color choices are the ones we’re most familiar with

E．It’s not really a good idea to use too many small color pieces

F．So it pays to be sure, because you want to get it right the first time

G．Color choices in this range are a step up from the small ones in two major ways

3 . Amazing concept images have shown what homes of the future could look like, as preparations are made for the world’s first freefrom 3D-printed property (房产).

Experts will build a house called Curve Appeal, which will be 3D-printed off-site before being put together on-site to create two outside walls, a roof and an inside part. These four main sections will then be joined together.

Although 3D-printed buildings have been made before, this home — to be constructed in Chattanooga, Tennessee, later this year — will be the first of its kind, as it will contain no regular shapes or angles. The house is the creation of the design company WATG, based in London and California. The design for Curve Appeal draws inspiration from the Case Study House program.

The architects leading the program were famed for constantly pushing the limits in terms of minimalist (极简主义) materials, and trying to create open-plan spaces that focused on enhancing (增强) natural light. In a written statement, a spokesman for WATG said, “Employing many of the same modern design principles, Curve Appeal is the next evolutionary step. It’s important that the architecture and the environment work together harmoniously. The chosen site is steps away from the Tennessee River in a beautiful wooded, sunlit area.”

WATG was awarded the first prize in the Freeform Home Design Challenge in 2016 and given prize money of $ 8,000 to make its plans a reality. The competition was aimed at architects, designers, engineers and artists. Participants were challenged to design a 600 to 800sq ft single-family home that rethinks traditional aesthetics (美学), ergonomics, construction, building systems and structure.

Over the last year, WATG’s Chicago office has been developing their design with Branch Technology. This project is currently underway, working towards breaking ground later this year. Once completed, the Curve Appeal home will have open and light-filled inside living spaces.

1. From the passage we can know that Curve Apple______.

A．will be different from an ordinary house

B．is the first 3D-printed building

C．has apparent walls and a roof

D．was ever built in the world

2. Where is the architecture located according to Paragraph 4?

A．Far away from the Tennessee River.

B．In the woods near the Tennessee River.

C．Between the Tennessee River and the woods.

D．Next to some modern architectures.

3. What does the Freeform Home Design Challenge do?

A．It motivates participants to design at random.

B．It emphasizes traditions rather than modernization.

C．It sponsors competitors when necessary.

D．It helps put creative ideas into practice.

4. What’s the passage mainly about?

A．What our homes will look like in the future.

B．The Freeform Home Design Challenge.

C．The world’s first freeform 3D-printed house.

D．The development of 3D in architecture.

4 . An advertisement

One of the finest buys on the market in Tara. Spacious home with large living room, separate 15-foot dining with built-in shelves, family room with fireplace, huge kitchen with lots of cabinets（柜厨）, big breakfast room, 2 baths, 4 huge bedrooms (one is separate and could be a playroom or offers a guest room with a separate entrance). There is a beautiful courtyard. Better than new with new air conditioners. Call Lane Hitch (home) 926-6043.

1. Who might buy the house after reading the above advertisement?

A．Some young students.	B．A couple with little money
C．A big rich family	D．A big poor family

2. What room has several possible uses?

A．The living room.	B．The bedroom.
C．The dining room.	D．The kitchen.

3. What is emphasized（强调）in the description of each room?

A．Floor.

B．Entrance.

C．Size.

D．Windows.

5 . When building houses, people used to think about not only the climate of the areas but also the building materials and the fashions for their houses. However, since electricity became more and more expensive, people began to pay much more attention to the energy they could get for their houses and the new ways they could find to protect their houses from both cold and heat.

Now, houses of an old yet new type have been widely built. In some parts of the world, people share their houses with their livestock (家畜). During cold weather, they gather their cows, goats, or other animals and keep them on the first floor of their houses. The reasons are that the animals can be protected from the cold and that they can help to heat the houses as well. The body heat given off by the animals rises to the second floor of the houses, where people live. By sharing their houses with their livestock, people gain a source of heat.

People who live in or near cities do not usually keep livestock. However, home builders use the fact that heat rises. This natural law can be used in building houses in these areas. Instead of keeping livestock on the first floor, builders fill it with large rocks. As they are open to the sun’s rays during cold weather, these rocks take in heat. They also give off the heat, and, of course, the warm air rises into the living areas of the houses. So these houses are energy-saving.

House-building becomes a great challenge (挑战) to building designers and energy engineers. They try to meet this challenge by learning from old traditions and by using modern technology. And someday in the future, people will be able to live in more energy-saving houses.

1. What did people begin to consider as electricity was no longer cheap?

A．The climate of their areas.	B．The energy for their houses.
C．The fashions for their houses.	D．The building materials for their houses.

2. People in some areas gain a source of heat by _________.

A．keeping their livestock downstairs

B．protecting their livestock from the cold

C．sharing their houses only with their cows

D．living on the second floor with their livestock

3. The underlined words “natural law” in the third paragraph refer to the fact that ________.

A．heat raises the temperature in the houses

B．heat goes in the upward direction

C．heat goes up if temperature is raised

D．heat increases the temperature of rocks

4. From the passage, we can conclude that __________.

A．people will no longer consider building materials in the future

B．energy-saving buildings will become more popular in the future

C．almost all people will move into the houses heated by large rocks

D．energy engineers will devote themselves only to modern technology