What do you think of a forest, what do you see? Just trees? Or do you see many other things, such as singing birds, colorful plants and wild flowers?

  The forest is a whole of its own. It is full of many different living things. But even though they are all different, they have one thing in common: they all need each other in order to live on.

  The trees feed the forest "people" by making food in their leaves; by using sunlight to join water and minerals from the soil and air. Their deep network of roots joins the soil together and stops it from dying out, making it possible for living things to live in it.

  Human beings are like the living things in the forest. We need one another in order to live. We need the farmers to grow our food, railroad and truck drivers to bring it to our shops and clerks (售员)to sell it to us. We need people to prepare our food and cook it and others to take our waste things away. Then, of course, we need doctors, nurses, government leaders, mailmen, telephone operators, and many others.

  We also need other human beings in another way. We need people for friendship, to talk over our problems, exchange ideas. Think how lonely and unhappy you would be if you lived all alone.

  Life is a matter of giving and taking. We need to help other people as much as we need other people to help us. Think what a good feeling you have when you have done something for someone else. You know, being a volunteer is so great!

1.According to the text, colorful plants and flowers live on______.

A. the leaves of the trees                   B. water and minerals

C. the soil and air                   D. all of the above

2.It is the ________ that make it possible for living things to live in the forest.

A. birds              B. trees                 C. plants                 D. farmers

3.According to the writer, human beings are_______the forest "people".

A. like         B. dislike                C. unhappy with      D. different from

4.The writer mainly wants to tell us ________.

A. we need people for friendship

B. the forest is a whole world of its own

C. we need one another in order to live on

D. the forest is full of different living things

5.Which one is the relationship (关系) between a forest and your life?

A. We are trees in the forests.

B. We like the living things in the forest.

C. We need farmers to grow our food in the forest.

D. We are the same as the forest: we need each other to live on.

Now, more and more cities are facing problems, such as high housing costs, pollution and crime. Let’s see what people in Hyderabad, India and in Sao Paulo, Brazil do to solve (解决) the problems.
Hyderabad, India
To improve people’s lives, Hyderabad is planting more and more trees. The city is even creating greener buildings that use less water and less electricity for power. Adding green to a city has a number of advantages. For example, trees make the air cleaner. In Hyderabad, streets were grey and dirty in the past. However, today they are filled with trees and flowers, making the city cleaner and more colourful. Green areas also give people places to relax or exercise. A study in the USA shows an interesting thing: the greener a neighborhood is, the less crime there is.
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Many people work in the centre of Sao Paulo, but they don’t live there. They’ve spread out to neighborhoods outside the city because housing is cheaper. Every day, these people travel into the city, and traffic is very heavy. City planners are using different ways to deal with (处理) the problem. First, they are building better subways. Another goal is to make it cheaper for people to live in the downtown area (中心区). Doing this will reduce traffic and pollution in the city.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “greener” mean?

假如你是王明，你将代表学校参加郴州市屮学生英诂演讲比赛。演讲的题目是 We should help parents do housework. 请你用英诰写一篇演讲稿。
要点提示：

Minoru Yamasaki was a well-known American architect (建筑师). He was born in 1912 in Seattle, Washington. Minoru went to college to study architecture. Every summer he worked in a fish factory to help pay for college. He slept in a room with 100 other men.

Yamasaki sometimes dreamed about his work. Once he woke up at three o’clock in the morning. He remembered a building that was in his dream. He got up and started to draw.  

Yamasaki was different from other architects. His buildings give people a feeling of peace and happiness. Many of his designs have pools of water, flowers, and windows on the roof to let in light. He wanted to give them a place away from the busy ways of modern life.

Yamasaki worked for several companies. But his success began when he started his own company. In 1956, he won the Architect’s First Honor Award for his design of an airport in St. Louis, Missouri. He won two more awards over the next five years. In 1962, he designed the World Trade Center in New York. In 1993, a bomb exploded (炸弹爆炸) in it. But the buildings did not fall down because they had a good design.

Yamasaki had strong opinions about his buildings. They had to be built his way. He refused to change the design of his buildings, even if he lost a job.

Minoru Yamasaki died on Jun,2 1986. He designed more than 300 buildings. People will enjoy the design and beauty of his buildings for a very long time.

The title            A     1.  American architect

Be born              In   2. in Seattle, Washington

In college           Studied  architecture  in college

                  Worked in a fish factory to 3. for college

                    4. a room with 100 other men

His design of buildings Made people feel   5.and happy

                  Had   6. opinions about his buildings

                  The World Trade Center didn’t fall down after a bomb explosion

Successful  career    Was not the   7. as other architects

                  Didn’t begin his successful career    8. he started his own company

                  Won    9. Awards for his famous design before 1962 and designed over 300 buildings in his life

Date of  10.          Died on Jun,2  1986