Most homes have different kinds of spaces. People often go to a special place when th

iggered by the presence of a fire. However, a home builder argued that because more than ninety percent of residential fires are extinguished by a household member, residential sprinklers would only marginally decrease property damage caused by residential fires. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the home builders argument？

A．Most individuals have no formal training in how to extinguish fires.

B．Since new homes are only a tiny percentage of available housing in the city, the new ordinance would be extremely narrow in scope.

C．The installation of smoke detectors in new residences costs significantly less than the installation of sprinklers.

D．In the city where the ordinance was proposed, the average time required by the fire department to respond to a fire was less than the national average.

E．The largest proportion of property damage that results from residential fires is caused by fires that start when no household member is present.

left nearly 3. 5 million without food, jobs or homes.【C2】______overnight, scores of tent villages bloomed【C3】______the region, tended by international aid organizations, military【C4】______and aid groups working day and night to shelter the survivors before winter set【C5】______ Mercifully, the season was mild. But with the【C6】______of spring, the refugees will be moved again. Camps that【C7】______health care, food and shelter for 150 000 survivors have begun to close as they were【C8】______intended to be permanent. For most of the refugees, the thought of going back brings【C9】______emotions. The past six months have been difficult. Families of【C10】______many as 10 people have had to shelter【C11】______a single tent and share cookstoves and bathing【C12】______with neighbors. "They are looking forward to the clean water of their rivers," officials say. "They are【C13】______of free fresh fruit. They want to get back to their herds and start【C14】______again. " But most will be returning to【C15】______but heaps of ruins. In many villages, electrical【C16】______have not been repaired, nor have roads. Aid workers【C17】______that it will take years to rebuild what the earthquake took【C18】______. And for the thousands of survivors, the【C19】______will never be complete. Yet the survivors have to start somewhere. New homes can be built【C20】______the stones, bricks and beams of old ones. Spring is coming and it is a good time to start again.

【C1】

A．injured

B．ruined

C．destroyed

D．damaged

time does not matter, modernize our homes and speed the machinery of living in order that we can go to the most places and do the most things in the shortest period of time possible. We try to eat, sleep, and talk efficiently. Even on holidays and Sundays, the efficient man relaxes on timetable with one eye on the clock and the other on an appointment sheet.

To squeeze the most out of each shining hour we have shortened the opera, quickened the pace of the movie and put culture in pocket-sized packages. We make the busy bee look like a lazy creature, the ant like a sluggard. We live sixty-mile-minute and the great efficiency smiles.

We wish we could return to that pleasant day when we considered time a friend instead of an enemy; when we did things willingly and because we wanted to, rather than because our timetable called for it, But that of course would not be efficiency; and we Americans must be efficient.

The phrase that best expresses the main idea of this passage is ______. ()

A．the modern pace

B．our interest in shortened operas

C．how to make the best use of leisure time

D．planning our time scientifically

Passage Five

In the 1900's, American townspeople usually washed and brushed their teeth and combed their hair in the kitchen. Or they kept a water pitcher (大水罐) and a wash basin in their rooms and took care of these things there.

The bathtub was a wash tub (澡盆) filled with water from the stove. If you were small enough you could sit down by drawing your knees to your chest, Otherwise, you washed yourself standing up. Often all the women and girls in the family bathed together. Then the men and boys did. In most families this was Saturday-night because Sundays they went to church.

A small number of families did have running water. But that depended on Whether there was a water system where they lived and on whether they could afford the plumbing (水管实施 ). Some people had bathtubs in their homes as early as 1895. But many others did not have their first bath in a bathtub until 1910 or later when they were fifteen or sixteen years old.

51. In the first paragraph, "took care of" means ______.

A. kept

B. looked after

C. used

D. kept and used

听力原文： When people care for an elderly relative, they often do not use available community services such as adult daycare centers. If the caregivers are adult children, they are more likely to use such services, especially because they often have jobs and other responsibilities. In contrast, a spouse usually the wife, is much less likely to use support services or to put the dependent person in a nursing home. Social workers discover that the wife normally tries to take care of her husband herself for as long as she can in order not to use up their life savings. Researchers have found that caring for the elderly can be a very positive experience. The elderly appreciated the care and attention they received. They were affectionate and cooperative. However, even when care-giving is satisfying, it is hard work. Social workers and experts on aging offer caregivers and potential caregivers help when arranging for the care of an elderly relative. One consideration is to ask parents what they want before they become sick or dependent. Perhaps they prefer going into a nursing home and can select one in advance. On the other hand, they may want to live with their adult children. Caregivers must also learn to state their needs and opinions clearly and ask for help from others especially brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters are often willing to help, but they may not know what to do.

Questions:

29. Why are adult children more likely to use community services to help care for elderly parents？

30. Why are most wives unwilling to put their dependent husbands into nursing homes？

31. According to the passage，what must caregivers learn to do？

(30)

A．They think they should follow the current trend.

B．Nursing homes are well-equipped and convenient.

C．Adult day-care centers are easily accessible.

D．They have jobs and other commitments.

In the United States，Christmas in most homes begins on the evening of December 24th,()

a life. For example, people should know the safety measures to take before opening a hall door during a fire. Also, make sure everyone knows how to unlock doors that may be in the escape path. At times, a key is needed to unlock a door from the inside. So, keep the key in the lock, or, you can put the key on a key ring and put it where it can be found easily.

If you live in an apartment, know the ways you can use to get out. Show everyone in the family these routes. Stress the importance of using stairways or fire escapes, not elevators.

From most homes and the lower floors of apartment buildings, escape through windows is possible. Learn the best way of leaving by a window with the least chance of serious injury.

In a home fire, windows are often the only means of escape. The second floor window sill is usually not more than 13 feet from the ground. An average person, hanging by the fingertips, will have a drop of about six to the ground. Of course, it is after to jump a short way than to stay in a burning building. Rolling away from the building when you land.

Windows are also useful when you are waiting for help. Often you'll be able to stay in the room for several minutes if you keep the door closed and the windows open. Keep your head low in the window to be sure you get fresh air rather than smoke that may have leaked into the room.

On a second or third floor, the best windows for escape are those which open onto a roof or balcony. From the roof or balcony, a person can either drop to the ground or await rescuer. Dropping onto cement or pavement might end in injury. Bushes, soft earth, and grass can help to break a fall. A rope ladder should be considered when the drop is too great.

In a town where the fire department acts quickly, it may be best to wait for rescuer. Close the doors and wait by an open window for help. Shout for help. Be sure to close the door before opening a window. Otherwise, smoke and fire may be drawn into the room by the draft.

From most homes you can escape a fire through the ______.

A．attic

B．garage

C．windows

D．balcony

Finding the Right Home—and Contentment, Too

[A] When your elderly relative needs to enter some sort of long-term care facility—a moment few parents or children approach without fear—what you would like is to have everything made clear.

[B] Does assisted living really mark a great improvement over a nursing home, or has the industry simply hired better interior designers？ Are nursing homes as bad as people fear, or is that an out-moded stereotype (固定看法)？ Can doing one’s homework really steer families to the best places？ It is genuinely hard to know.

[C] I am about to make things more complicated by suggesting that what kind of facility an older person lives in may matter less than we have assumed. And that the characteristics adult children look for when they begin the search are not necessarily the things that make a difference to the people who are going to move in. I am not talking about the quality of care, let me hastily add. Nobody flourishes in a gloomy environment with irresponsible staff and a poor safety record. But an accumulating body of research indicates that some distinctions between one type of elder care and another have little real bearing on how well residents do.

[D]The most recent of these studies, published in The journal of Applied Gerontology, surveyed 150 Connecticut residents of assisted living, nursing homes and smaller residential care homes (known in some states as board and care homes or adult care homes). Researchers from the University of Connecticut Health Center asked the residents a large number of questions about their quality of life, emotional well-being and social interaction, as well as about the quality of the facilities.

[E]“We thought we would see differences based on the housing types,” said the lead author of the study, Julie Robison, an associate professor of medicine at the university. A reasonable assumption—don’t families struggle to avoid nursing homes and suffer real guilt if they can’t？

[F] In the initial results, assisted living residents did paint the most positive picture. They were less likely to report symptoms of depression than those in the other facilities, for instance, and less likely to be bored or lonely. They scored higher on social interaction.

[G] But when the researchers plugged in a number of other variables, such differences disappeared. It is not the housing type, they found, that creates differences in residents’ responses. “It is the characteristics of the specific environment they are in, combined with their own personal characteristics—how healthy they feel they are, their age and marital status,” Dr. Robison explained. Whether residents felt involved in the decision to move and how long they had lived there also proved significant.

[H] An elderly person who describes herself as in poor health, therefore, might be no less depressed in assisted living (even if her children preferred it) than in a nursing home. A person who bad input into where he would move and has had time to adapt to it might do as well in a nursing home as in a small residential care home, other factors being equal. It is an interaction between the person and the place, not the sort of place in itself, that leads to better or worse experiences. “You can’t just say, ‘Let’s put this person in a residential care home instead of a nursing home—she will be much better off,” Dr. Robison said. What matters, she added, “is a combination of what people bring in with them, and what they find there.”

[I] Such findings, which run counter to common sense, have surfaced before. In a multi-state study of assisted living, for instance, University of North Carolina researchers found that a host of variables—the facility’s type, size or age; whether a chain owned it; how attractive the neighborhood was—had no significant relationship to how the residents fared in terms of illness, mental decline, hospitalizations or mortality. What mattered most was the residents’ physical health and mental status. What people were like when they came in had greater consequence than what happened one they were there.

[J] As I was considering all this, a press release from a respected research firm crossed my desk, announcing that the five-star rating system that Medicare developed in 2008 to help families compare nursing home quality also has little relationship to how satisfied its residents or their family members are. As a matter of fact, consumers expressed higher satisfaction with the one-star facilities, the lowest rated, than with the five-star ones. (More on this study and the star ratings will appear in a subsequent post.)

[K] Before we collectively tear our hair out—how are we supposed to find our way in a landscape this confusing？—here is a thought from Dr. Philip Sloane, a geriatrician（老年病学专家）at the University of North Carolina：“In a way, that could be liberating for families.”

[L] Of course, sons and daughters want to visit the facilities, talk to the administrators and residents and other families, and do everything possible to fulfill their duties. But perhaps they don’t have to turn themselves into private investigators or Congressional subcommittees. “Families can look a bit more for where the residents are going to be happy，” Dr. Sloane said. And involving the future resident in the process can be very important.

[M] We all have our own ideas about what would bring our parents happiness. They have their ideas, too. A friend recently took her mother to visit an expensive assisted living/nursing home near my town. I have seen this place—it is elegant, inside and out. But nobody greeted the daughter and mother when they arrived, though the visit had been planned; nobody introduced them to the other residents. When they had lunch in the dining room, they sat alone at a table.

[N] The daughter feared her mother would be ignored there, and so she decided to move her into a more welcoming facility. Based on what is emerging from some of this research, that might have been as rational a way as any to reach a decision.

选出与该句匹配的段落：Many people feel guilty when they cannot find a place other than a nursing home for their parents.

a child’s life．My family and I 56 a lot of time together，including every 57 ．Even when my father is 58 on business，my mother，my sister，and I sit down at the table to eat and 59 our day．We don’t watch television but have

60 together．As a teenager， 61 with my parents is not the most fun thing I do but I feel it is necessary．I learn from them 62 we talk, whether it is about my dad’s job or my mother’s day.

I did a little research on the “family table” 63 ．Statistics show that only 50% of 64 sit down to dinner together each night．That’s a 65 ，because researchers 66 that kids who have these regular family dinners have 67 behavior，grades，and a larger vocabulary．They are also less 68 to smoke，drink，do drugs，or have eating disorders Time with their parents makes kids more 69 and gives them a sense of 70 and safety．Plus，they learn better manners．

Now with many single-parent families or homes 71 both parents work，making time together has become harder．There have been many recent studies showing kids are“ 72 ”than they used to be．I think it’s primarily parents’ 73 ．Only good things 74 taking 15 minutes away from television and five minutes from video games to have this time with your family．By spending 20 minutes with 75 ，I believe this idea of “wild kids” would decrease greatly．

56．A．spend B．pass C．take D．cost

57．A．morning B．dinner C．weekend D．party

58．A．away B．lonely C．back D．alone

59．A．welcome B memorize C．discuss D．remember

60．A．snacks B．meal C．sports D．fun

61．A．putting upB．getting upC．keeping upD．hanging out

62．A．every timeB．beforeC．some timeD．since

63．A．planB．mannerC．ideaD．project

64．A．parentsB．sistersC．brothersD．families

65．A．wonderB．shameC．miracleD．worry

66．A．supposeB．claim C．assumeD doubt

67．A．higherB．worseC．lowerD．better

68．A．unlikelyB．probablyC．likelyD．impossibly

69．A．stubbornB．nervousC．silentD．stable

70．A．belongingB．anxiety C．honorD．achievement

71．A．whoseB．whereC．thatD．which

72．A．smarterB．quickerC．wilder D．slower

73．A．dutyB．faultC．powerD．burden

74．A．come outB．contribute toC．come fromD．result in

75．A．the otherB．another oneC．the restD．each other

Text 4

As the twentieth century began, the importance of formal education in the United States increased. The frontier had mostly disappeared and by 1910 most Americans lived in towns and cities. Industrialization and the bureaucratization of economic life combined with a new emphasis upon credentials and expertise to make schooling increasingly important for economic and social mobility. Increasingly, too, schools were viewed as the most important means of integrating immigrants in to American society.

The arrival of a great wave of southern and eastern European immigrants at the turn of the century coincided with and contributed to an enormous expansion of formal schooling. By 1920 schooling to age fourteen or beyond was compulsory in most states, and the school year was greatly lengthened. Kindergartens, vacation schools, extracurricular activities, and vocational education and counseling extended the influence of public schools over the lives of students, many of whom in the larger industrial cities were the children of immigrants. Classes for adult immigrants were sponsored by public schools, corporations, Unions, churches, and other agencies.

Reformers early in the twentieth century suggested that education programs should suit the needs of specific populations. Immigrant women were one such population. Schools tried to educate young women so they could occupy productive places in the urban industrial economy, and one place many educators considered appropriate for women was the home.

Although looking after the house and family was familiar to immigrant women. American education gave homemaking a new definition. In preindustrial economies, homemaking had meant the production as well as the consumption of goods, and it commonly included income-producing activities both inside and outside the home, in the highly industrialized early twentieth-century, United States. However, overproduction rather than scarcity was becoming a problem. Thus, the ideal American homemaker was viewed as a consumer rather than a producer. Schools trained women to be consumer homemakers cooking, shopping, decorating, and caring for children "efficiently" in their own homes, or if economic necessity demanded, as employees in the homes of others. Subsequent reforms have made these notions seem quite out-of-date.

36. It can be inferred from Paragraph 1 that one important factor in the increasing importance of education in the United States was ______.

A) the growing number of schools in frontier communities

B) an increase in the number of trained teachers

C) the expanding economic problems of schools

D) the increased urbanization of the entire country