江苏省泰州市姜堰区2014届高三上学期期中考试英语试题试卷(4)

Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor, plans to create 165,000 affordable housing units for 500,000 New Yorkers. Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caused by housing. So he recently announced that the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (DHPD) , whose duty is to develop and keep the city’s supply of affordable housing, will require all its new projects to follow ECP’s green standards.
Similar measures have been taken by other cities, such as Cleveland and Denver, but New York’s DHPD is the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country.
56. What is the purpose of describing the boiler room in the first paragraph?A. To explain the measures the city takes to care for poor people. 
B. To suggest that affordable housing is possible in all areas.
C. To show how the environment-friendly building works.
D. To compare old and new boiler rooms.
57. What is an advantage of the buildings meeting the Green Communities Standards?
A. Lower running costs. B. Costing less in construction.   
C. Less air to be lost in hot days. D. Better prices for homeless people.
58. It can be learned from the text that        .   
A. New York City is seriously polluted
B. people’s daily life causes many carbon emissions in New York City
C. a great number of people in New York City don’t have houses to live in
D. some other cities have developed more affordable housing than New York City
59. What is the main purpose of this text?
A. To call on people to pay more attention to housing problems.
B. To prove that some standards are needed for affordable housing.
C. To ask society to help homeless people and low-income families.
D. To introduce healthy, environmentally clever and affordable housing.

B
Work your brain!
    Between 2 and 3 pounds of wonder, it controls everything we say, do or think, who we are and what we care about. The way we walk or laugh or figure out things. What we like and the talents we possess. How we see and talk and run and jump and process our food.
    The brain uses 20 percent of our body’s oxygen and 20 percent of its blood. Somewhere within its protein, fat, 100,000 miles of blood vessels and 100 billion nerve cells, it helps us remember where we put our gym shoes. Change our temperature so we don’t die because of the heat or cold. Speed us up or slow us down. Help us choose between orange juice or orange­flavored drinks.
    Its complexity are stunning, far beyond anything most of us can imagine. To keep this work of art as polished as possible we need to eat right, exercise and keep mentally stimulated. Good nutrition helps brain cells communicate with each other. Exercise stimulates a hormone in our brain that improves memory. Mental stimulation keeps you sharp even as you age.
“It’s very important that we tell people to be physically active and mentally active,” said neurologist Malcolm Stewart.“People cannot stop aging, but you’re able to reduce the damage; you’re able to keep the function up.”
Following are Dr. Stewart’s advice for improving brain health：

Nutrition	Avoid fast food. Follow the old adage(格言): For breakfast, eat like a king; for lunch, like a queen; for supper, like a beggar.
Exercise	Do a combination of stretching aerobic and muscle­strengthening every day.
Mental games	Try to have a sense of hope about the future. Do puzzles. Listen to music. Reach out to others to make their lives better.

60. The purpose of the author in writing this passage is to ______.
A. inform us how the brain works
B. give us advice on how to keep the brain healthy
C. tell us that the brain plays an important role in our lives
D. show how special the brain is to us
61. The underlined word “stunning” means ______.
A. interesting 　  B. strange    C. significant　   D. amazing
62. According to the text，more exercise ______.
A. keeps our mind sharp       
B. helps improve our memory
C. gives our brain a rest 　    
D. is good for brain cells communicating with each other
63. In order to keep brain healthy，we should avoid ______.
A. eating a good lunch              B. doing puzzles
C. eating a large supper              D. taking aerobic exercise

C
    Thousands of people living in the Chinese capital will celebrate the start of the Chinese New year by heading for the ski resorts (滑雪场). Never mind that Beijing’s dry weather seldom produces snow. It is cold enough in winter for snow-making machines to make a covering for the hills north to the capital. And the rapid growth of a pleasure-seeking middle class has formed the basis for this new craze(热潮）.
    Since Beijing’s first ski resort was opened ten years ago, the sport has enjoyed astonishing increase. There are now more than a dozen resorts. Clothes markets in the city have added bright colored ski suits to their winter collections. Mr. Wei, a manager of a newly-opened ski resort in Beijing, sees the growth of an industry that could soon lead Chinese to head for the ski resorts of Europe. In recent years ski resorts offering natural snow have opened in China. But many are in faraway areas of the country and can’t really match the equipment and services of some ski resorts in Europe.