题目内容

Americans drove more miles in 2015 than any year since the U.S. government started keeping records 45 years ago. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDT) recently reported that Americans drove a record of 3.148 trillion miles last year. In case you are wondering, that is enough to take 337 round trips from Earth to Pluto.

There are a number of reasons why Americans are driving more miles. The social experts agree that the first is the price of gas, which has dropped to the level of the year 2004 in the past year. The American Automobile Association (AAA) said that the average price of gas was just $1.71 a gallon. That could be the lowest price since 2004.

P.J. Sriraj, a director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Chicago, notes that the lower cost to fill up a car is just one reason. Another reason is that more Americans are back to work after the 2008 economic recession, and they drive to their jobs.

Besides, more Americans have to travel a long distance every day between home and the office. There are a lot of Americans who must travel more than 45 miles per day for their jobs. And as for many, there is not enough public transportation.

Because of the heavy traffic, roads are becoming more and more crowded. While modern cars are more fuel-efficient, the improvement is not enough to offset more cars on the road. “There is no doubt that driving more will make the air dirtier,” said P.J. Sriraj. And many Americans showed a great concern in a recent survey.

1.The USDT report shows that in 2015 ________.

A. Americans drove record-breaking miles

B. Americans drove 3.148 trillion miles a day

C. Travel to Pluto was popular with Americans

D. The government began to record driving miles

2.P.J. Sriraj thinks the reason why Americans drove more miles is ________.

A. the low prices of gas and cars B. the 2008 economic depression

C. the Urban Transportation Center D. more people’s coming back to work

3.What makes many Americans worried?

A. Having to drive far to work. B. Having no public transportation.

C. Too many cars’ pollution of the air. D. Small improvement of modern cars.

4.How is the whole passage developed?

A. By explaining causes. B. By giving examples.

C. By following time order. D. By making comparison.

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Glacier Bay is one of the most famous parks in America, located in the state of Alaska. This park in the southeastern part of the state covers more than 1 million hectares of Alaskan wilderness. It includes mountains, glaciers (冰川), bays, and even rainforests. Glacier Bay supports hundreds of kinds of animals, including many species of birds, fish, bears, whales and sea lions.

As its name suggests, much of Glacier Bay National Park is covered by glaciers. A glacier is a large area of ice that moves slowly down a slope (斜坡) or valley, or over a wide area of land. Glaciers cover more than 5,000 square kilometers of the park.

Glacial ice has shaped the land over the last seven million years. The glaciers found in the park today are what remains from an ice advance known as the Little Ice Age. That period began about 4,000 years ago.

During the Little Ice Age, the cold weather caused the ice to grow and advance. That situation continued until about 1,700s, when the climate began to warm. The higher temperatures caused the ice to start melting. That melting led the huge glacier to separate into more than 1,000 different glaciers.

The extremely tall and jagged (参差不齐的) mountains seen in Glacier Bay National Park were formed by the ice advancing and then melting over time. The melting of the ice also created water that filled in and created the many fjords (峡湾) within the park. Fjords are narrow parts of the ocean that sit between cliffs or mountains.

The huge amount of water from the melted ice killed off many kinds of plants. Vegetation returned to the area over the next 200 years. The regrowth in plants also brought back many animals to the land. This return of life to Glacier Bay is why it is sometimes called “a land reborn” by people.

1.What is mentioned in Paragraph 1?

A. The function of Glacier Bay.

B. The climate of Glacier Bay.

C. The area of Alaskan wilderness.

D. The number of animals in Glacier Bay.

2.What happened to Glacier Bay during the Little Ice Age?

A. Many slopes or valleys came into being.

B. The glaciers grew and advanced.

C. Different glaciers became a whole one.

D. The fjords became narrow.

3.What is mainly discussed in the last paragraph?

A. How the water killed off the plants.

B. When vegetation returned to Glacier Bay.

C. What the relationship between plants and animals is.

D. Why Glacier Bay is sometimes called “a land reborn”.

I hate Black Friday sales. It’s often a gathering of people who are here for many different reasons. Some are looking for a deal on that one item for their loved one, or perhaps themselves. Their intentions are completely unrelated to the festive time of the year.

It was several years ago when my wife asked me to meet her at the local department store on Black Friday morning. They had advertised a child’s bike that she wanted to purchase for our son. We stood with a very large crowd, waiting for the manager to blow the whistle. After a while the whistle blew, it was like throwing a bucket of small fish into a tank of sharks. I suddenly felt my wife’s hope was slim. I told her that if we obtained a bike, fine, but if we did not, I was OK with that too.

As the pile of bikes began to gradually decrease in size, I saw my polite opportunity to wrap my hands around the comer of one of the boxes. I lifted it up and suddenly felt some mild resistance. I looked up see one of the largest gentlemen I had ever seen in my life. Frightening was not the word to describe his presence. He wore lots of belts of metal studded leather around both arms and even his neck. Tattoos (纹身) were an obvious passion of his.

I started to give up the box but he gently pushed it back in my direction and back into my hands. He then directed it into my shopping cart. He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Merry Christmas.” My wife and I went to the checkout, paid for the bike and went home. All the way home I was thinking that this moment was by far the best gift I had ever received for Christmas. The kindness of a stranger broke all preconceived notions (预想) I may have had of stereotypes and prejudices.

1.How did the author feel when going into the store?

A. The crowd was like small fish. B. They might not get the bike.

C. He was excited to do the shopping. D. The whistle was blown too late.

2.What happened when the author was buying the bike?

A. He was scared by a man’s look at first. B. A gentleman bought the bike for him.

C. A stranger helped him lift the box. D. He gave up the bike he first touched.

3.What can we learn from the author’s experience?

A. Look before you leap. B. Custom is a second nature.

C. Doing is better than saying. D. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

4.What may be the best title for the passage?

A. Black Friday Sales B. My son’s best bike

C. The best Christmas gift D. A strange gentleman

C

One day after we moved to our farm, I found that two of the neighbor’s cows and a calf had wandered through the fence along our woods. The neighbor, Lorne Wright showed up with his dog to herd them back into his grassland—and with part of a roll of nine-wire fence.

"There’s probably enough to reach from the road to the first brace post if you were of a mind to fix this spot," he said. My face lit right up. I wanted to be a good neighbor, but money was tight.

The next week I was pulling the old fence out of the tall grass when Bill Risk stopped his car. He said,

"Fixing fence, are you? Hear a story? A long time ago, two fellows farmed next to each other, so they agreed that each would start building fence on opposite ends of their farms and meet in the middle."

"When they finished, one said, ‘Well, it looks good.’ But the other said, ‘My half looks good, because I started where I should have, but you started your half about 2 feet over on my farm and I want it moved right away!’"

"Well, these two fellows, who could have been good neighbors, began to get angry with each other, and the bitterness went on for years. Finally one man sold his farm, and no sooner had the new owner moved in than his neighbor paid him a visit. "

"He said, ‘There has always been a problem with our line fence. Your half begins 2 feet over on my farm. It should have been moved a long time ago.’ The new neighbor thought for a moment, then said, ‘I always intend to be a good neighbor. If you think the fence is on your farm, you move it to wherever you think it should be, and you’ll never hear a complaint from me.’"

"They became good friends. And the fence was never moved. So keep that fence straight, neighbor," Bill went away, leaving me with a smile on my face as I went back to work.

【题文1】 How did the writer feel after hearing his neighbor’s words?

A. Excited. B. Embarrassed. C. Puzzled. D. Satisfied.

【题文2】After finishing their fence, the two fellows _________.

A. celebrated for building a solid fence B. have become good neighbors even since

C. started right off with hard feelings D. argued about whose fence was good

【题文3】How did the new owner treat the fence?

A. By moving it to his property. B. By finding where it should be first.

C. By taking it apart immediately. D. By allowing the neighbor to deal with it.

【题文4】What lesson can we learn from the text?

A. Good fences make good neighbors. B. Two neighbors build their fences.

C. Fences have their own stories. D. Keep your fence strong and tall.

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