The United States is full of cars. There are still many families without cars, but some families have two or more. However, cars are used for more than pleasure. They are a necessary part of life.

Cars are used for business. They are driven to offices and factories by workers who have no other way to get to their jobs. When salesmen are sent to different parts of the city, they have to drive in order to carry their products. Farmers have to drive into the city in order to get supplies.

Sometimes small children must be driven to school. In some cities school buses are used only when children live more than a mile away from the school. When the children are too young to walk too far, their mothers take turns driving them to school. One mother drives on Mondays taking her own children and the neighbors' as well. Another mother drives on Tuesdays, another on Wednesday, and so on. This is called forming a car pool. Men also form car pools, with three or four men taking turns driving to the place where they all work.

More car pools should be formed in order to put fewer cars on the road and use less gas. Too many cars are being driven. Something will have to be done about the use of cars.

The United States is filled with cars, but                      .

       A. not every family has a car           B. few families have two cars or even more

       C. every American has a car            D. every family has a car

What's the main idea of the second paragraph?

       A. Workers drive cars to offices and factories    B. Salesmen drive to carry their products.

       C. Farmers drive into cities to get supplies.      D. Cars are widely used.

Which statement is true according to the third paragraph?

       A. Small children are driven to school. 

B. All children go to school by bus in some cities.

       C. Mothers drive their children who can't walk to school. 

D. School buses pick up all children.

Mothers form car pools in order that                      

       A. they can drive to school    B. they can take turns driving their children to school

       C. they reach school quickly   D. they can drive their children to school in time

A farm planted levels or floors is called a vertical（垂直的）farm. A skyscraper type building can house a vertical farm. Since the garden is built upwards，rather than outwards，it requires much less space than a conventional farm.

The world is quickly running out of room for conventional farming. Vertical farms could be a key to this situation. An 18­story vertical farm could feed as many as 50,000 people，all in an area which is the size of the average city block. Vertical farms in the city could cut down on transportation costs as well. Think about the amount of fuel it takes to transport food from farmland to city. The resources saved would be surprising. Besides saving travel time，food would be delivered in fresher condition and with less damage.

There is a growing concern about the use of pesticides(杀虫剂) in agriculture today. But the vertical farm would be a greenhouse type environment, avoiding the need for a large number of pesticides. Vertical farms can be built in a contained space，therefore they are an excellent solution for living well in an environment far different from our own. Hydroponics(水耕法) could be a big part of vertical gardening. This would reduce the amount of soil needed to grow food. Of course，not all food does well with this type of planting，but there are many crops that actually seem to do better.

In some climates，a lack of sunlight creates a short growing season. The solar power option may not work as well here. The addition of grow lights would make it possible to grow crops in vertical gardens in these areas .In other words，we could grow crops in areas where we never could before.

Vertical farms may just be a concept for now，but they are a concept that will solve many of our problems in the future.

1.According to the passage, a vertical farm________.

2.Compared to the conventional farm, the vertical farm can________.

3.It can be learned from the passage that vertical farms________.

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

The United States is full of cars. There are still many families without cars, but some families have two or more. However, cars are used for more than pleasure. They are a necessary part of life.

Cars are used for business. They are driven to offices and factories by workers who have no other way to get to their jobs. When salesmen are sent to different parts of the city, they have to drive in order to carry their products. Farmers have to drive into the city in order to get supplies.

Sometimes small children must be driven to school. In some cities school buses are used only when children live more than a mile away from the school. When the children are too young to walk too far, their mothers take turns driving them to school. One mother drives on Mondays taking her own children and the neighbors' as well. Another mother drives on Tuesdays, another on Wednesday, and so on. This is called forming a car pool. Men also form car pools, with three or four men taking turns driving to the place where they all work.

More car pools should be formed in order to put fewer cars on the road and use less gas. Too many cars are being driven. Something will have to be done about the use of cars.

1.The United States is filled with cars, but                      .

       A. not every family has a car           B. few families have two cars or even more

       C. every American has a car            D. every family has a car

2.What's the main idea of the second paragraph?

       A. Workers drive cars to offices and factories    B. Salesmen drive to carry their products.

       C. Farmers drive into cities to get supplies.      D. Cars are widely used.

3.Which statement is true according to the third paragraph?

       A. Small children are driven to school. 

B. All children go to school by bus in some cities.

       C. Mothers drive their children who can't walk to school. 

D. School buses pick up all children.

4. Mothers form car pools in order that                      

       A. they can drive to school    B. they can take turns driving their children to school

       C. they reach school quickly   D. they can drive their children to school in time

D

As public playgrounds grow increasingly worn and shabby, the for-profit centers offer clean, safe, supervised activity as well as a variety of challenging exercises to develop youngsters’ physical fitness, usually for a fee of around $5 an hour. “Playgrounds are dirty, not supervised,” says Dick Guggenheimer, owner of the two-month-old Discovery Zone in Yonkers, N.Y., part of a Kansas City-based chain. “We’re indoors; we’re padded(铺上软垫); parents can feel their child is safe.”

Discovery Zone has sold 120 outlets in the past 14 months, boasting sandboxes full of brightly colored plastic balls, mazes(迷宫), obstacle courses, slides and mountains to climb. Now McDonalds is getting into the act. The burger giant is test-marketing a new playground, Leaps&Bounds, in Naperville, Ill. Phys Kids of Wichita has opened one center and has plans to expand.

American parents are rightly worried about their kids leisure life. There are 36 million children in the U.S. aged 2 to 11 who watch an average of 24 hours of TV a week and devote less and less energy to active recreation. Nationwide decrease in education budgets are making the problem worse, as gym classes and after-hours sports time get squeezed. Says Discovery Zone president Jack Gunion: “we have raised a couple of pure couch potatoes.”

In an attempt to attract more people , the new facilities cater to the concerns of two-earner families, staying open in the evenings, long after traditional public playground have grown dark and unusable. At Naperville’s Leaps&Bounds, families can play together for $4.95 per child, parents free. Fresh-faced assistants, dressed in colorful sport pants and shirts, guide youngsters to appropriate play areas for differing age group.

These new playground are not meant to be day-care facilities; parents are expected to stay and play with their kids rather than drop them off. But several also provide high-tech baby-sitting services. At some of the Discovery Zones, parents can register their children in special supervised programs, then leave them and slip away for a couple of hours to enjoy a movie or dinner.

The most fun of all, though, is getting to do what parents used to do in the days before two-career families and two-hour commutes: play with their kid. That, at least, is old-fashioned, even at per-hour rates.

68. What is this article mainly talking about?

A. Children can play in the public playground without parents’ care.

B. The fast development of Discovery Zone.

C. A new type of playground for kids.

D. The decay of outdoor playground.

69. According to the article, which of the following is true to the new playground?

A. The cost is high for a family.

B. It’s a place where kids can watch TV while eating potatoes.

C. It doesn’t allow parents to leave their kids.

D. It’s a place where parents can play together with their kids.

70. What does the writer mean by saying “old-fashioned”?

A. The so-called new playground is outdated.

B. the new playground offers a fashion which is popular in the past.

C. The new playground is also enjoyed by old people.

D. The new playground is actually enjoyed by parents

71. What is the writer’s attitude toward the new playground?

A. Agreeable.         B. Indifferent.        C. Objective.         D. Neutral.

A farm planted levels or floors is called a vertical（垂直的）farm. A skyscraper type building can house a vertical farm. Since the garden is built upwards，rather than outwards，it requires much less space than a conventional farm.

The world is quickly running out of room for conventional farming. Vertical farms could be a key to this situation. An 18­story vertical farm could feed as many as 50,000 people，all in an area which is the size of the average city block. Vertical farms in the city could cut down on transportation costs as well. Think about the amount of fuel it takes to transport food from farmland to city. The resources saved would be surprising. Besides saving travel time，food would be delivered in fresher condition and with less damage.

There is a growing concern about the use of pesticides(杀虫剂) in agriculture today. But the vertical farm would be a greenhouse type environment, avoiding the need for a large number of pesticides. Vertical farms can be built in a contained space，therefore they are an excellent solution for living well in an environment far different from our own. Hydroponics(水耕法) could be a big part of vertical gardening. This would reduce the amount of soil needed to grow food. Of course，not all food does well with this type of planting，but there are many crops that actually seem to do better.

In some climates，a lack of sunlight creates a short growing season. The solar power option may not work as well here. The addition of grow lights would make it possible to grow crops in vertical gardens in these areas .In other words，we could grow crops in areas where we never could before.

Vertical farms may just be a concept for now，but they are a concept that will solve many of our problems in the future.

68．According to the passage, a vertical farm________.

       A．is mainly built outwards                    B．is dependent on solar power

       C．is planted on levels upwards                D．is only an environmental friendly farm

69．Compared to the conventional farm, the vertical farm can________.

       A．depend far less on sunlight                 B．greatly increase the use of soil

       C．help to protect the limited gardens       D．reduce the use of harmful pesticides

70．It can be learned from the passage that vertical farms________.

       A．have been put into use              B．only use hydroponics to grow food

       C．need less room than conventional farms D．may increase the transportation costs

71．What would be the best title for the passage?

       A．Vertical farms for our future           B．Ways to deal with future problems

       C．Vertical farms and green skyscrapers    D．Making Full Use of Our Limited Land