3.a composite body
4.elastic steel
5.aircraft prototypes
6.ultrasonic sensors
练习四
DO WE NEED CITIES ANY MORE?
A I don't want to live in a city. Perhaps we divide naturally into two types: those for whom cities are vibrant and exciting, a focus for human activity; and those for whom they are dirty, noisy and dangerous. It may be unfashionable, but I'm in the latter camp. I do not believe that we are a species whose behaviour improves in overcrowded conditions.
B A new study proposes a significant increase in the capacity of towns and cities through a combination of increased housing densities, lower onplot provision for cars and more onstreet parking, and the re-use of marginal open space that is “devoid of any amenity value”. The benefit of this approach is to reduce the loss of green fields and to help “move towards more sustainable patterns of development”.
C This study suggests that it would be possible to achieve a 25 % in crease in density in a typical provincial city without changing the traditional street scene, although it would be necessary to reduce the size of the houses an d substitute parking spaces for garages. Therefore, the cost of this approach is to have more people living in smaller homes at higher densities, along streets that are lined with parked cars. Can we really accept the notion that space with in dwellings may be reduced even further? In times when, we are told, living standards are rising in real terms, is it realistic to seek to reduce personal space standards?
D The streets of many inner suburbs are already lined with cars on both sides, reducing movement to a single lane. Increasing densities means accepting urban streets that are designed as linear car parks, bounded by even smaller living units and tempered only by occasional trees sprouting from the tarmac. Would the benefits of higher density be worth the disadvantages of increasing on-street parking? Can we achieve a satisfactory visual environment from such raw materials? Higher urban densities may be communally good for us, but they will fail to meet the aspirations of many prospective home owners.
E Those without economic choice can be directed to live in this way, but if we are to continue to rely on the private sector to produce this urban housing, it will need to appeal to the private developers' customers. Who will choose to live in these high-density developments of small dwellings, with minimal open space and a chance to park on the highway if you are lucky enough to find a space? The main consumers will be single people, couples without children , and perhaps some “empty nesters” (people whose children have grown up and le ft home). These are people who can choose to spend much of their time outside their home, making the most of those urban cultural opportunities or getting away at weekends to a country cottage or sporting activities.
F The combination of a young family and a mortgage restricts the mobility and spending power of many couples. Most people with a family will try to avoid bringing up their children in a cramped flat or house. Space for independent activity is important in developing the individual and in maintaining family equilibrium. The garden is the secure place where the children can work off excess energy.
G There is a danger that planners may take a dispassionate, logical view of how we should live, and seek to force society into that mould. A few years ago a European Commission study provided a good example of this. It took the view, quite sensibly, that housing should not be under-occupied because this is a waste of resources. Therefore, it would be much better if the many thousands of old ladies who live alone in large detached houses would move into small urban flats, thus releasing the large houses for families. What the study failed to recognise was that many of those old ladies prefer to continue to live in their family home with their familiar surroundings and, most importantly, with their memories. What is good for us is not necessarily what we want.
H The urban housing option may be technically sustainable, but individually unacceptable. There still seems to be a perception among planners that new housing investment can be forced into those areas that planners want to see developed, without proper consideration of where the prospective purchasers want to live. There is a fatal flaw in this premise. Housing developers run businesses. They are not irrevocably committed to building houses and they are not obliged to invest their resources in housing development. Unless there is a reasonable prospect of a profit on the capital at risk in a housing project, they may simply choose to invest in some other activity.
Questions 1-6
Choose ONE phrase A-G from the box to complete each of the following key points. Write the appropriate letters A-G in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
The information in the completed sentences should be an accurate summary of points made by the writer.
You may use any phrase more than once.
Example Answer
There will be more green space available... E
1.Residential density in cities will be increased ...
2.There are two types of ...
3.There are three types of ...
4.Developers are unlikely to build houses ...
5.Planners might try to dictate ...
6.Many people will not be happy ...
A people likely to want to live in high-density accommodation.
B living in higher density accommodation.
C if houses are built smaller.
D where old people should live.
E if residential density in cities is increased.
F where people do not want to live.
G attitude towards city living.
专项练习三SUMMARY & SENTENCE COMPLETION
练习一
Garbage In, Garbage Out
There are many ways of obtaining an understanding of people's behaviour. One of these is to study the objects discarded by a community, objects used in daily lives. The study of the refuse of a society is the basis for the science of archaeology in which the lives and behaviour of past societies are minutely examined. Some recent studies have indicated the degree to which rubbish is socially defined.
For several years the University of Arizona, USA, has been running a Garbage Project, in which garbage is collected, sorted out and noted. It began in 1973 with an arrangement whereby the City of Tucson collected for analysis garbage from r andomly selected households in designated census collection districts. Since then the researchers have studied other cities, both in the USA and Mexico, refining their techniques and procedures in response to the challenges of validating and understanding the often unexpected results they have obtained. Garbage is sort edaccording to an extremely detailed schedule, a range of data for each item is recorded on a standardised coding form, and the researchers cross-tabulate their findings with information from census and other social surveys.
This Project arose out of courses designed to teach students at the University the principles of archaeological methodology and to sensitise them to the complex and frequently surprising links between cultural assumptions and physical realities. Often a considerable discrepancy exists between what people say they door even think they do—and what they actually do. In one Garbage Project study, none of the Hispanic (Spanish-speaking) women in the sample admitted to using as much as a single serving of commercially-prepared baby food, clearly reflecting cultural expectations about proper mothering. Yet garbage from the Hispanic households with infants contained just as many baby food containers as garbage from non -Hispanic households with infants.
The Project leaders then decided to look not only at what was thrown away, but what happened to it after that. In many countries waste is disposed of in landfills; the rubbish is compacted and buried in the ground. So in 1987, the Project expanded its activities to include the excavation of landfills across the United States and Canada. Surprisingly, no one had ever attempted such excavations before.
The researchers discovered that far from being sites of chemical and biological activity, the interiors of waste landfills are rather inactive, with the possible exception of those established in swamps. Newspapers buried 20 or more years previously usually remained perfectly legible, and a remarkable amount of food wastes of similar age also remained intact.
While discarded household products such as paints, pesticides, cleaners and cosmetics result in a fair amount of hazardous substances being contained in municipal landfills, toxic leachates pose considerably less danger than people fear, provided that a landfill is properly sited and constructed. Garbage Project researchers have found that the leachates do not migrate far, and tend to get absorbed by the other materials in the immediate surrounds.
The composition of landfills is also strikingly different from what is commonly believed. In 1990 US survey people were asked whether particular items were a major cause of garbage problems. Disposable nappies (baby diapers) were identified as a major cause by 41 per cent of the survey respondents, plastic bottles by 29 per cent, all forms of paper by six per cent, and construction debris by zero per cent. Yet Garbage Project data shows that two per cent of the volume of land fills and plastic bottles less than one percent. On the other hand, over 40 percent of the volume of landfills is composed of paper and around 12 per cent is construction debris.
Packaging—the paper and plastic wrapping around goods bought—has also been seen as a serious cause of pollution, But while some packaging is excessive, the Garb age Project researchers note that most manufacturers use as little as possible, because less is cheaper. They also point out that modern product packaging frequently functions to reduce the overall size of the solid-waste stream.
This apparent paradox is illustrated by the results of a comparison of garbage from a large and socially diverse sample of households in Mexico City with a similarly large and diverse sample in three United States cities. Even after correcting for differences in family size, US households generated far less garbage than the Mexican ones. Because they are much more dependent on processed and packaged foods than Mexican households, US households produce much less food debris. (An d most of the leaves, husks, etc. that the US processor has removed from the food can be used in the manufacture of other products, rather than entering the was testream as is the likely fate with fresh produce purchased by households.)
One criticism made of Western societies is that the people are wasteful, and throw things away while they are still useable. This, however, does not seem to be true. Garbage Project data showed that furniture and consumer appliances were entering the solid waste stream at a rate very much less than would be expected from production and service-life figures. So the researchers set up a study to track the fate of such items and thus gained an insight into the huge informal and commercial trade in used goods that rarely turns up in official calculations and statistics.
The Garbage Project's work shows how many misconceptions exist about garbage. The researchers are therefore critical of attempts to promote one type of waste management, such as source reduction or recycling, over others, such as incineration or landfilling. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and what may be appropriate for one locality may not be appropriate for another.
Glossary
Leachate: water carrying impurities which has filtered through the soil
Questions 1-7
Complete the following notes using information from the passage. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS OR A NUMBER in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
The Garbage Project
started in 1973
organised by (Example)Answer: University of Arizona
first studied garbage in the city of (1)since then has
studied it in other cities in USA and(2)
method: garbage collected and sorted, the information noted on (3)
findings compared with(4)and other social surveys
reason for the Project: show students the(5)
of archaeological(6)
from 1987 Garbage Project studied(7)in USA and Canada
Questions 8-11
Complete the following sentences using information in the passage.
Choose the appropriate phrase A-C from the list in the box and write its letter in boxes 8-11 on your answer sheet. You may use any phrase more than once.
A more... than
B less... than, fewer... than
C as many ... as, as much...as
8. Hispanic women usedbaby foodthey said they did.
9. After excavating landfills the Garbage Project researcher found that there wereplastic bottlespeople thought.
10. Mexican families creategarbage American families.
11. Consumer appliances are reused was officially predicted.
练习二
Keeping Cut Flowers
While everybody enjoys fresh cut flowers around their house, few people know how to keep them for as long as possible. This may be done by keeping in mind a few simple facts.
An important thing to remember about cut flowers is that they are sensitive to temperature. For example, studies have shown that cut carnations retain their freshness eight times longer when kept at 12℃ than when kept at 26℃. Keeping freshly harvested flowers at the right temperatures is probably the most important aspect of flower care.
Flowers are not intended by nature to live very long. Their biological purpose is simply to attract birds or insects, such as bees, for pollination. After that, they quickly wither and die. The process by which flowers consume oxygen and emit carbon dioxide, called respiration, generates the energy the flower needs to give the flower its shape and colour. The making of seeds also depends on this energy. While all living things respire, flowers have a high level of respiration. A result of all this respiration is heat, and for flowers, the level of he at relative to the mass of the flower is very high. Respiration also brings about the eventual death of the flower, thus the greater the level of respiration, the sooner the flower dies.
Questions 1-3
Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 1. Use NO MORE THAN ONE WORD or NUMBER for each blank. Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.
1. A difference of 14℃ can extend the life of carnations by up to times.
2. and are two aspects of a flower's appearance that depend on respiration.
3. Respiration is also necessary for the flowers to produce .
练习三
With all the hundreds of plant species used for food by the Australian Aborigines, it is perhaps surprising that only one, the Queensland nut, has entered into commercial cultivation as a food plant. The reason for this probably does not lie with an intrinsic lack of potential in Australian flora, but rather with the lack of exploitation of this potential. In Europe and Asia, for example, the main food plants have had the benefit of many centuries of selection and hybridisation , which has led to the production of forms vastly superior to those in the wild. Before the Europeans came, the Aborigines practised no agriculture and so there was no opportunity for such improvement, either deliberate or unconscious, in t he quality of the edible plants.
