Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Popping food into the microwave for a couple of minutes may seem utterly harmless, but Europe’s stock of these quick-cooking ovens emit as much carbon as nearly 7 million cars, a new study has found. And the problem is growing. With costs falling and kitchen appliances becoming “status” items, owners are throwing away microwaves after an average of eight years. This is pushing sales of new microwaves which are expected to reach 135 million annually in the EU by the end of the decade.
A study by the University of Manchester calculated the emissions of CO2—the main greenhouse gas responsible for climate change—at every stage of microwaves, from manufacture to waste disposal. “It is electricity consumption by microwaves that has the biggest impact on the environment,” say the authors. The authors also calculate that the emissions from using 19 microwaves over a year are the same as those from using a car. According to the same study, efforts to reduce consumption should focus on improving consumer awareness and behaviour. For example, consumers could use appliances in a more efficient way by adjusting the time of cooking to the type of food.
However, David Reay, professor of carbon management, argues that, although microwaves use a great deal of energy, their emissions are minor compared to those from cars. In the UK alone, there are around 30 million cars. These cars emit more than all the microwaves in the EU. Backing this up, recent data show that passenger cars in the UK emitted 69 million tons of CO2 in 2015. This is 10 times the amount this new microwave oven study estimates for annual emissions for all the microwave ovens in the EU. Further, the energy used by microwaves is lower than any other from of cooking. Among common kitchen appliances used for cooking, microwaves are the most energy efficient, followed by a stove and finally a standard oven. Thus, rising microwave sales could be seen as a positive thing.
What does Professor David Reay try to argue?
(A)There are far more emissions from cars than from microwaves.
(B)People should be persuaded into using passenger cars less often.
(C)The UK produces less CO2 than many other countries in the EU.
(D)More data are needed to show whether microwaves are harmful.
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Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
A South Korean city designed for the future takes on a life of its own
A) Getting around a city is one thing — and then there’s the matter of getting from one city to another. One vision of the perfect city of the future: a place that offers easy access to air travel.
In 2011, a University of North Carolina business professor named John Kasarda published a book called Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next. Kasarda says future cities should be built intentionally around or near airports. The idea, as he has put it, is to offer businesses “rapid, long-distance connectivity on a massive scale.”
B) “The 18th century really was a waterborne (水运的) century, the 19th century a rail century. the 20th century a highway, car, truck century一and the 21st century will increasingly be an aviation century, as the globe becomes increasingly connected by air,” Kasarda says. Songdo, a city built from scratch in South Korea, is one of Kasarda’s prime examples. It has existed for just a few years.“ From the get-go, it was designed on the basis of connectivity and competitiveness,”says Kasada. “The government built the bridge directly from the airport to the Songdo International Business District. And the surface infrastructure was built in tandem with the new airport.”
C) Songdo is a stone’s throw from South Korea’s Incheon Airport, its main international hub (枢纽). But it takes a lot more than a nearby airport to be a city of the future. Just building a place as an “international business district” doesn’t mean it will become one. Park Yeon Soo conceived (构想) this city of the future back in 1986. He considers Songdo his baby. “I am a visionary,” he says. Thirty years after he imagined the city, Park’s baby is close to 70 percent built, with 36.000 people living in the business district and 90,000 residents in greater Songdo. It’s about an hour outside Seoul, built on reclaimed tidal flats along the Yellow Sea, There’s a Coast Guard building and a tall trade tower, as well as a park, golf course and university.
D) Chances are you’ve actually seen this place. Songdo appears in the most famous music video ever to come ou of South Korea. “Gangnam Style” refers to the fashionable Gangnam district in Seoul. But some of the video was filmed in Songdo.“I don’t know if you remember, there was a scene in a subway station. That was not Gangnam. That was actually Songdo,” says Jung Won Son, a professor of urban development at London’s Bartlett School of Planning, “Part of the reason to shoot there is that it’s new and nice.”
E) The city was supposed to be a hub for global companies, with employees from all over the world. But hat’s not how it has turned out. Songdo’s reputation is as a futuristic ghost town. But the reality is more complicated. A bridge with big, light-blue loops leads into the business district. In the center of the main road, there’s a long line of flags of the world. On the corner, there’s a Starbucks and a 7-Eleven--all of the international brands that you see all over the world nowadays.
F) The city is not empty. There are mothers pushing strollers, old women with walkers -- even in the middle of the day. when it’s 90 degrees out. Byun Young-Jin chairs the Songdo real estate association and started selling property here when the first phase of the city opened in 2005. He says demand has boomed in the past couple of years. Most of his clients are Korean. In fact, the developer says, 99 percent of the homes here are sold to Koreans. Young families move here because the schools are great. And that’s the problem: Songdo has become a popular Korean city 一more popular as a residential area than a business one. It’s not yet the futuristic international business hub that planners imagined. “It’s a great place to live. And it’s becoming a great place to work,” says Scott Summers, the vice president of Gale International, the developer of the city. The floor-to-ceiling windows of his company’s offices overlook Songdo Central Park, with a canal full of kayaks and paddle boats. Shimmering (闪烁的)glass towers line the canal’s edge.
G) “What’s happened is, because we focused on creating that quality of life first, which enabled the residents to live here, what has probably missed the mark is for companies to locate here,” he says. “There needs to be strong economic incentives.” The city is still unfinished, and it feels a bit like a theme park. It doesn’t feel all that futuristic. There’s a high-tech underground trash disposal system. Buildings are environmentally friendly. Everybody’s television set is connected to a system that streams personalized language or exercise classes.
H) But Star Trek this is not. And to some of the residents, Songdo feels hollow. “I’m, like, in prison for weekdays. That’s what we call it in the workplace,” says a woman in her 20s. She doesn’t want to use her name for fear of being fired from her job. She goes back to Seoul every weekend. “I say I’m prison-breaking on Friday nights.” But she has to make the prison break in her own car. There’s no high-speed train connecting Songdo to Seoul, just over 20 miles away.
I) The man who first imagined Songdo feels frustrated. too. Park says he built South Korea a luxury vehicle, “like Mercedes or BMW. It’s a good car now. But we’re waiting for a good driver to accelerate.”
But there are lots of other good cars out there, too. The world is dotted with futuristic, high-tech cities trying to attract the biggest international companies
J) Songdo’s backers contend that it’s still early, and business space is filling up—about 70 percent of finished offices are now occupied. Brent Ryan, who teaches urban design at MIT, says Songdo proves a universal principle. “There have been a lot of utopian (乌托邦的) cities in history. And the reason we don’t know about a lot of them is that a lot of them have vanished entirely.” In other words, when it comes to cities—or anything else—it is hard to predict the future.
36. Songdo’s popularity lies more in its quality of life than its business attraction.
37. The man who conceives Songdo feels disappointed because it has fallen short of his expectations.
38. A scene in a popular South Korean music video was shot in Songdo.
39. Songdo still lacks the financial stimulus for businesses to set up shop there.
40. Airplanes will increasingly become the chief means of transportation, according to a professor.
41. Songdo has ended up different from the city it was supposed to be.
42. Some of the people who work in Songdo complain about boredom in the workplace.
43. A business professor says that a future city should have easy access to international transportation.
44. Acording to an urban design professor, it is difficult for city designers to foresee what happen in the future.
45. Park Yeon So. Who envisioned Songdo, feels a parental connection with the city.
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Section C
Directions: In this section, you will hear three passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear three or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16. A) They have a stronger sense of social responsibility.
B) They are more likely to succeed in the humanities.
C) They are more likely to become engineers.
D) They have greater potential to be leaders.
17. A) Praise girls who like to speak up frequently.
B) Encourage girls to solve problems on their own.
c) Insist that boys and girls work together more.
D) Respond more positively to boys’ comments.
18. A) Offer personalized teaching materials.
B) Provide a variety of optional courses.
C) Place great emphasis on test scores.
D) Pay extra attention to top students.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.
19. A) It often rains cats and dogs.
B) It seldom rains in summer time.
C) It does not rain as much as people think.
D) It is one of the most rainy cities in the US.
20. A) They drive most of the time.
B) The rain is usually very light.
C) They have got used to the rain.
D) The rain comes mostly at night.
21. A) It has a lot of places for entertainment.
B) It has never seen thunder and lighting.
C) It has fewer cloudy days than any other coastal city.
D) It has mild weather both in summer and in winter.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
22. A) It occurs when people are doing a repetitive activity.
B) It results from exerting one’s muscles continuously.
C) It happens when people engage in an uncommon activity.
D) It comes from staining one’s muscles in an unusual way.
23. A) Blood flow and body heat increase in the affected area.
B) Body movements in the affected area become difficult.
C) They begin to make repairs immediately.
D) They gradually become fragmented.
24. A) About one week.
B) About two days.
C) About ten days.
D) About four weeks.
25. A) Apply muscle creams.
B) Drink plenty of water.
C) Have a hot shower.
D) Take pain-killers.
- 3中国家庭十分重视孩子的教育。许多父母觉得应该努力工作,确保孩子受到良好的教育。他们不仅非常情愿为孩子的教育投资,而且花很多时间督促他们学习。多数家长希望孩子能上名牌大学。由于改革开放,越来越多的家长能送孩子到国外学习或参加国际交流项目,让其拓宽视野。通过这些努力,他们期望孩子健康成长,为国家的发展和繁荣做出贡献。
- 4What recommendation does the study by the University of Manchester make?
- 5What does the passage say about the newly-approved soda tax in Philadelphia?
- 6What does the passage say about the newly-approved soda tax in Philadelphia
- 7Why are the sales of microwaves expected to rise?
- 8What will the opponents probably do to respond to the soda tax proposal?
- 9What will the opponents probably do to respond to the soda tax proposal?
- 10What is the finding of the new study?