Rome had the Forum. London has Speaker' s Corner. Now always-on-the-go New Yorkers have Liz and Bill.    

Liz and Bill, two college graduates in their early 2Os, have spent a whole year trying to have thousands of people talk to them in subway stations and on busy street corners. Just talk.     

Using a 2-foot-tall sign that says, "Talk to Me," they attract conversationalists, who one evening included a mental patient, and men in business suits.     

They don't collect money. They don't push religion (宗教). So what's the point?

"To see what happens," said Liz. "We simply enjoy life with open communication(交流)."

Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, they decided to walk from New York City to Washington, a 270-mile trip. They found they loved talking to people along the way and wanted to continue talking with strangers after their return.

"It started as a crazy idea," Liz said. "We were so curious about all the strangers walking by with their life stories. People will talk to us about anything: their jobs, their clothes, their childhood experiences, anything."

Denise wanted to talk about an exam she was about to take. She had stopped by for the second time in two days, to let the two listeners know how it went.

Marcia had lost her husband to a serious disease. "That was very heavy on my mind,” Marcia said. "To be able to talk about it to total strangers was very good," she explained.

To celebrate a year of talking, the two held a get-together in a city park for all the people they had met over the past year. A few hundred people showed up, as well as some television cameramen and reporters.

They may plan more parties or try to attract more people to join their informal talks. Some publishers have expressed interest in a book, something they say they'll consider.

1.What did Liz and Bill start doing after September 2001?      

A．Chatting with people.

B．Setting up street signs.

C．Telling stories to strangers.

D．Organizing a speaker's corner.

2.What they have been doing can be described as______. 

A．pointless                              B．normal

C．crazy                                 D．successful

3.Why are Denise and Marcia mentioned in the text?        

A．They knew Liz and Bill very well.

B．They happened to meet the writer of the text.

C．They organized the get-together in the city park.

D．They are examples of those who talked to Liz and Bill.

4.What will Liz and Bill do in the future?     

A．Go in for publishing.                     B．Do more television programs.

C．Continue what they am doing.              D．Spend more time reading books.

5.How do they like the idea of writing a book?

A．They have decided to wait a year or two.

B．They will think about it carefully.

C．They agreed immediately.

D．They find it hard to do that.

There are 2000 boys in this school，and _________them like playing football.?

A.five hundred                                   B.five hundreds?

C.five hundreds of                              D.five hundred of?

______jobs will be lost if the company closes down.

We know almost half the world is urban(都市的) now – but what will our world look like in the year 2100?

It took about a million years for the global human population to come up to 1 billion in 1800. In the next 200 years, it came up to 6 billion, and it will take only about 20 more years to add another billion. By 2100, the United Nations estimates that the global population will attain more than 10 billion.

By the end of 2008, slightly less than 50 percent of the global population lived in cities. If economic development proceeds at today’s pace, over the next century or so it is highly likely that 8 billion people will live in urban centers, up from today’s roughly 3.3 billion. Yes, the world will indeed be able to hold so many people. The major reason is urbanization(城市化). There will be many more new cities in the year 2100, and some of today’s large cities will become super cities, including Beijing, Delhi, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and so on. At the same time, recent advances in agriculture, energy, and water technologies suggest that human creations will keep up with population growth. Rural areas will return to an agrarian (农业的)centre to feed the growing cities. Languages will drop from the current 7,000 across the globe to less than a few hundred. English will be the primary language of the world.

As we compress(压缩) people into the urban center, and as we leave behind the rural areas to feed us – will we really live a happy life at that time? We will have to live together in large buildings in cities and save on energy and services delivery cost. There will be few chances for us to get close to nature. We really need to think about the effect of the things we have done and are doing now!

1. The underlined word “attain” in the second paragraph probably has the same meaning as “________”

A. increase      B. gain     C. reach     D. limit

2.  With the development of urbanization, people in 2100 will have to      .

A. stay in urban areas and have no chance to get close to nature

B. develop industry rather than agriculture to create job opportunities

C. live a poor and unhappy life because there will be less energy to use.

D. make more creations in agriculture, energy, and water technologies

3.  What is the author’s attitude towards urbanization?

A. supportive    B. disappointed   C. surprised    D. worried

4.  What is the best title for this passage?

A. Global urbanization in the year 2100

B. The primary language in the future

C. Reasons for the rapid increase of population

D. The development of agriculture in 2100

C
Researchers have just offered evidence in a study that says obesity appears to spread through social ties, much like a virus. When one person gains weight, their close friends often follow. But the findings might also offer hope.
If friends help make obesity acceptable, then they might also be influential in losing the fat. The researchers note that support groups are already an effective tool in dealing with other socially influenced problems, like alcoholism.
The findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers used information collected from? 12 000 people. It was collected between 1971 and 2003 as part of the Framingham Heart Study.
The information was highly detailed. There was even contact information for close friends of the people in the study.
The researchers examined more than 40 000 social ties. They found that a person’s chances of becoming severely overweight increased by 57% if a friend had become obese.
A sister or brother of a person who became obese had a 40% increased chance of becoming obese. The risk for a wife or husband was a little less than that.
Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School was a lead investigator in the study. He says there is a direct causal relationship between a person getting fat and being followed in weight gain by a friend.
The study found that the sex of the friends was also an influence. In same—sex friendships, a person had a 71% increased risk of becoming obese. Men had a 44% increased risk of becoming obese after weight gain in a brother. In sisters, it was 67%.
The researchers also considered the effect of where people lived in  relation to each other. James Fowler of the University of California,San Diego, was the other lead investigator. He says a friend who lives a few hundred kilometers away has as much influence as one in the same neighborhood. He says the study demonstrates the need to consider that a major part of people’s health is tied to their social connections.
Both investigators say their research shows that obesity is not just a private medical issue, but a public health problem.
59.What does the underlined sentence in Para. 2 mean?
A.Obesity has a negative influence on a close friend.
B.Friends might also play a part in losing weight.
C.One might have a positive influence on one’s friend.
D.Friends usually don’t follow each other to lose weight.
60.Who is mostly likely to gain weight?
A.A man who has a fat brother.        B.A husband who has a fat wife.
C.A wife who has a fat husband.        D.A woman who a fat female friend.
61.Which of the following statements doesn’t the passage agree with?
A.You are sure to lose weight if you have a skinny friend.
B.If one gains weight, one’s friends are likely to get fat.
C.A person’s health is closely linked with his/her social relationship.
D.Even if the friend lives far away, the influence still remains.
62.The reason why the study involves both family members and friends is that_______
A.researchers fail to find a more different sample
B.researchers have different ideas for family members and friends
C.researchers can meet these people regularly
D.researchers can compare the results