Britain’s symbolic red phone boxes have become out of date in the age of the mobile, but villages across the country are stepping in to save them, with creative intelligence. Whether as a place to exhibit art, poetry, or even as a tiny library, hundreds of phone boxes have been given a new life by local communities determined to preserve a typical part of British life. In Waterperry, a small village near Oxford, the 120 residents have filled the phone box next to the old house with a pot of flowers, piles of gardening and cooking magazines, and stuck poems on the walls.

They took control of the phone box when telecoms operator BT said it was going to pull it down, an announcement that caused such dissatisfaction that one local woman threatened to chain herself to the box to save it. “I’d have done it, “ insisted Kendall Turner. “It would have been heartbreaking for the village. “ Local councilor Tricia Hallam, who came up with the idea for the phone box’s change, said quite a few people would have joined her, adding, “ We couldn’t let it go because it’s a British symbol.”

Only three feet by three feet wide, and standing 2.51-meter tall, the phone boxes were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1936 for the 25th anniversary of the reign of King George V. Painted in “Post Office red” to match the post boxes, they were once a typical image of England and the backdrop(背景) to millions of tourist photographs.

Eight years ago there were about 17,000 across Britain, but today, in a country where almost everybody has a mobile phone, 58 percent are no longer profitable and ten percent are only used once a month. “On average, maintaining them costs £800 a year per phone box-about £44 million annually,” said John Lumb, general manager for BT Payphones.

Some red phone boxes in Britain have been used for ____.

a. selling flowers    b. cooking   c. reading  d. exhibiting art or poetry

A. a, b   B. c, d   C. a,b,c  D. b,c,d

Why do the villagers want to keep the red phone boxes?

A. Because millions of people visit Britain to see the red phone boxes.

B. Because the local people could earn a lot of money from the red phone boxes.

C. Because the red phone boxes have already become a symbol of Britain.

D. Because the red phone boxes may be useful for some people in emergency.

What is the color of the British post boxes according to the passage?

A. Green   B. Red     C. Black    D. Yellow

What is John Lumb’s attitude towards pulling down the red phone boxes?

A. supportive   B. Opposed   C. Neutral    D. Indifferent.

短文改错(共10小题;每小题1分,满分10分)

此题要求改正所给短文中的错误。对标有题号的每一行做出判断:如无错误,在该行右边横线上画一个勾( V );如有错误(每行只有一个错误),则按下列情况改正:

此行多一个词:把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉,在该行右边横线上写出该词,并也用斜线划掉。

此行缺一个词:在缺词处加一个漏字符号(   ),在该行右边的横线上写出该加的词。

此行错一个词:在错的词下划一横线,在该行右边横线上写出改正后的词。

注意:原文没有错的不要改。

Dear John,

    How are you? I’ve got a wonderful news to tell you.                                  86.                             

Last month one hundred and twenty students took the exam                                   87.                             

for further education in Australia. Only a little were choose                              88.                              

and I was one of them. Therefore, my parents are not                                       89.                             

happy about it. They are against my go there. Firstly.                                         90.                             

they say it is too far away that they will not see me for a whole                      91.                   year. Secondly, they don’t want me to live alone. They advised          92.                     ____

 me to study in the capital that I can continue to live                                    93.           ________

with them. What can I persuade them to accept the fact                                  94.                             

which I have grown up?                                                                                                95.                             

                                                                                                       Yours,

 

                                                                             Li Hua.

 

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