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?

One of the most difficult questions to answer is how much a job is worth. We naturally expect that a doctor’s salary will be higher than a bus conductor’s wage. But the question becomes much more difficult to answer when we compare, say, a miner with an engineer, or an unskilled man working on an oil-rig(钻油机) in the North Sea with a teacher in a secondary school. What the doctor, the engineer and teacher have is many years of training in order to obtain the necessary qualifications for their professions. We feel instinctively that these skills and these years, when they were studying instead of earning money, should be rewarded. At the same time we recognize that the work of the miner and the oil-rig laborer is both hard and dangerous, and that they must be highly paid for the risks they take.

Another factor we must take into consideration is how socially useful a man’s work is, regardless of the talents he may bring to it. Most people would agree that looking after the sick or teaching children is more important than, say, selling secondhand cars or improving the taste of toothpaste by adding a red stripe to it. Yet it is almost certain that the used car salesman earns more than the nurse, and that research chemist earns more than the school teacher.

Indeed, this whole question of just rewards can be turned on its head. You can argue that a man who does a job which brings him personal satisfaction is already receiving part of his reward in the form of a so-called “psychic(精神的) wage”, and that it is the man with the boring, repetitive job who needs more money to make up for the soul-destroying monotony(单调) of his work. It is significant that that those jobs which are traditionally regarded as “vocations” --- nursing, teaching and the Church, for example --- continue to be poorly paid, while others, such as those in the world of sport or entertainment, carry financial rewards out of all proportion to their social worth.

Although the amount of money that people earn is in reality largely determined by market forces, this should not prevent us from seeking some way to decide what is the right pay for the job. A starting point for such an investigation would be to try to decide the ratio which ought to exist between the highest and the lowest paid. The picture is made more complicate by two factors: firstly by the “social wage”, i.e, the welfare benefits which every citizen receives; and secondly, by the taxation system, which is often used as an instrument of social justice by taxing high incomes at a very high rate indeed. Allowing for these two things, most countries now regard a ratio of 7:1 as socially acceptable. If it is less, the highly-qualified people carrying heavy responsibilities become disillusioned, and might even end up by emigration(移民) (the so-called “brain-drain” is an evidence that this can happen). If it is more, the gap between rich and poor will be so great that it will lead social tensions and ultimately to violence.

1. The professional man, such as the doctor, should be well paid because ______.

A. he has spent several years learning how to do his job

B. his work involves much great intelligence than, say, a bus conductor’s

C. he has to work much harder than most other people

D. he knows more than other people about his subject

2. The “brain-drain” is an evidence that ______.

A. well-educated people are prepared to emigrate whenever they can get a better paid job

B. people with jobs or responsibility expect to be highly paid

C. high taxation is a useful and effective instrument of social justice

D. the poor are generally more patriotic(爱国的) than the rich

3. As far as rewarding people for their work is concerned, the writer, believes that ______.

A. we should pay for socially-useful work, regardless of the person’s talent

B. we should pay people according to their talents

C. market forces will determine how much a person is paid

D. qualified people should be the highest paid

4. The argument of the “psychic wage” is used to explain why ______.

A. people who do socially important work are not always well paid

B. people who do monotonous jobs are highly paid

C. you should not try to compare the pay of different professions

D. some professional people are paid more than others

We experience different forms of the Sun’s energy every day. We can see its light and feel its warmth. The Sun is the major source of energy for our planet. It causes the evaporation (蒸发) of water from the oceans and lakes. Sunlight also provides the energy used by green plants to make their own food. These green plants then provide food for all organisms(生物) on the Earth.

Much of the energy that comes from the Sun never reaches the Earth’s surface. It is either reflected or absorbed by the gases in the upper atmosphere. Of the energy that reaches the lower atmosphere,30% is reflected by clouds or the Earth’s surface. The remaining 70% warms the surface of the planet, causes water to evaporate, and provides energy for the water cycle and weather. Only a tiny part, approximately 0.023%, is actually used by green plants to produce food.

Many gases found in the atmosphere actually reflect heat energy escaping from the Earth’s surface back to the Earth. These gases act like the glass of a greenhouse in that they allow energy from the Sun to enter but prevent energy from leaving. They are therefore called greenhouse gases.

When sunlight strikes an object, some of the energy is absorbed and some is reflected. The amount reflected depends on the surface. For example, you’ve probably noticed how bright snow is when sunlight falls on it. Snow reflects most of the energy from the Sun, so it contributes to the low temperatures of winter. Dark-coloured surfaces, such as dark soil or forest, absorb more energy and help warm the surrounding air.

1.According to the passage, the root( 根本的) cause for weather changes on the Earth is         .

A．the atmosphere surrounding the Earth

B．water from oceans and lakes

C．energy from the Sun

D．greenhouse gases in the sky

2.Only a small part of the Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s surface because most of it is         .

A．absorbed by the clouds in the lower atmosphere

B．reflected by the gases in the upper atmosphere

C．lost in the upper and lower atmosphere

D．used to evaporate water from the oceans and lakes

3.We learn from the passage that         .

A．all living things on the Earth depend on the Sun for their food

B．a forest looks dark in winter because it absorbs solar energy

C．only 0.023% of the energy from the Sun is made use of on the Earth

D．greenhouse gases allow heat energy to escape from the Earth’s surface

In the US and Britain, the slogan around colleges was “Save water. Shower with a friend.” Now, Wuhan University has come up with another system for the campus bathhouse. It charges students for the amount of time in a shower. Before entering the bathhouse, students pay for the amount of time they want in the shower with cash or their student ID card. The clock starts ticking the minute the tape is turned on. It pauses when a button is pressed for soap. An integrated circuit(IC) card reader at each tap shows the time. No money, no water. The benefits of the new system can be seen with the old system, which charged 1 Yuan for each person regardless of time in the shower. The university used about 320 tones of water daily under the old system, but only 160 tons now.

Many students use the new system but opinions on it are divided. Some students say it is bad because bathing had become a sort of race. Many people using it for the first time are not sure how long they need to shower. Some might be embarrassed if their time is up and they’re still covered in soap. They have to ask the bathhouse worker to help them buy extra time.

“It’s a flaw in the system that you can not buy extra time on the ID card,” said Ren, a freshman in Wuhan University. The university is also considering some students’ suggestions that they be allowed to pay after they’ve finished the shower. Not surprisingly, some are complaining about losing the hour shower. But many students say the move helps them develop a water-saving sense.

Without the time limits, most students tended to shower for 30 to an hour in the bathhouse.

Some even used the hot water to wash their clothes. “In my experience, 10-20 minutes is enough,” said Dai Zhihua, a third-year student who usually takes 8 minutes.

A similar system has been installed in other universities. Shanghai Normal University introduced it at its Fengxiang Campus in September. The bathing fee there is 0.2 Yuan per minute. One male student responded by setting a record with a two-minute shower.

1.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?

A. Students pay for the amount of time they want in the shower.

B. The clock times all through while the student is bathing except when the bather paused for soap.

C. If money runs out, there will be no water.

D. Having finished bathing, the student has to pay for it.

2.The underline word “flaw” (Paragraph3) most probably means______.

A. perfection       B. advantage            C. pity                 D. fault

3.Since the new system has performed, ______ of water can be saved.

A. a quarter            B. one third            C. one half             D. two thirds

4.It can be inferred from the passage that______.

A. the new operation can solve the water crisis.

B. The new operation can raise students’ environmental awareness.

C. a similar operation has been set in other universities.

D. The university has saved a lot of water by using the new system.

5.In which column can you find this passage?

 A. People.         B. Society         C. Campus Life.    D. Lifestyle.

E

Windows not only let light in to cut down an electricity use for lighting, but the light coming through the window also provides heat. However, windows are not something people typically associate with being a cutting edge technology. Researchers are now working on new technologies that enable a window to quickly change from clear to dark and anywhere in between with a turn of a switch.

“It took us a long time to figure out what a window really is,” says Claes Granqvist, a professor of solid—state physics at Uppsala University in Sweden.“It’s contact with the outside world. You have to have visual contact with the surrounding world to feel well.” So, windows and natural light are important for improving the way people feel when they’re stuck indoors.

Yet, windows are the weak link in a building when it comes to energy and temperature control. In the winter, cold air leaks in. When it’s hot and sunny, sunlight streams in. All of this sunlight carries lots of heat and energy. And all of this extra heat forces people to turn on their air conditioners. Producing cold air, which can feel so refreshing, actually suck up enormous amounts of electricity in buildings around the world.

Windows have been a major focus of energy research for a long time. Over the years, scientists have come up with a variety of strategies for coating, glazing, and layering windows to make them more energy efficient. Smart windows go a step further. They use some technologies involving changes of color.

Electrochromic windows use electricity to change color. For example, a sheet of glass coated with thin layers(层) of tungsten oxide(氧化钨) works a bit like a battery. Tungsten oxide is clear when an electric charge is applied and dark when the charge is removed, that is, when the amount of voltage(电压) is decreased, the window darkens until it’s completely dark after all electricity is taken away. So applying a voltage determines whether the window looks clear or dark.

One important feature that makes a smart window so smart is that it has a sort of “memory”. All it takes is a small shock of voltage to turn the window from one state to the other. Then, it stays that way. Transitions take from 10 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the size of the window. The development of smart windows could mean that massive air conditioning systems may no longer need.“In the future,” Granqvist says,“our buildings may look different.”

67.Which statement does not indicate the importance of windows as described in the first two paragraphs?

A.Windows can change from clear to dark to save energy.

B.Windows help to save energy by letting light in.

C.Windows help to save energy by providing heat.

D.Windows enable people to have contact with the outside world.

68.According to the passage, smart windows are windows_______.

A.that are coated                        B.that use electricity

C.the color of which can be changed        D.that have many layers

69.To make electrochromic windows change color, what is applied to the window glass?

A.Electricity.     B.Tungsten oxide.    C.A battery.         D.A voltage.

70.What will be the benefit if the research on smart windows turns out to be successful?

A.The buildings will look different.

B.Windows can be as large as you want.

C.We may not need air conditioners any more.

D.They are less expensive than traditional windows.