The trees arrived by post, a half-open parcel. They were thin and straight, rather like arrows but with shiny leaves at one end and muddy roots at the other. Terry and his father took them down the garden and planted them in their prepared places. Terry had great hopes of the middle tree, now set in the memorial spot where Herry, his cat, run over, had been laid to rest a year before. The pine trees made an avenue down one side of the garden, where there was already a fifteen-foot stone wall between the garden and the back-yards of the Jenkins Street houses.

    “Why do we want a row of trees as well as a wall?”Terry asked his father.

    His father said,“For privacy. These trees grow very thickly.”

    His father's love of privacy often puzzled Terry, who was not one to keep himself to himself, but he could see part of the point here. The houses in Jenkins Street were on higher ground. His friend Leslie lived in number twelve, and Leslie had only to stand on a box to see right over the wall.

    “Will the trees grow higher than the wall?” Terry asked then.

    “Oh yes, twice as high if not more. It'll take a few years but they'll grow.”

    So they were going to have nine trees thirty feet tall, to keep them from being overlooked. Terry wondered why this was so desirable. He said, “Our garden is very pretty. Why can't we let the people over the wall see it? That wouldn't be showing off, would it?”

    “No, I don't think it would be,” his father said. “Yet some people might feel a bit less happy if they can always see a good thing that isn't theirs. We don't want to be the cause of any jealousy if we can help it.”

    This consideration for other people's feelings must be a grown-up thing, Terry thought. It was not his idea of how to run things. He said, “These trees? It seems a lot of trouble to go just to stop people being jealous of us.”

    His father looked at him. “It isn't much trouble, Terry,” he said. “These trees will grow without help from us. They'll be beautiful. And listen to them. You can already hear them whispering to us in the wind.”

(1) The passage mainly deals with the topic of ________.

[　　]

A．protection of environment

B．relationship between neighbours

C．generation gap

D．cause of jealousy

(2) Part of the garden is called a memorial spot because ________.

[　　]

A．a cat was buried there

B．Herry had been run over there

C．Terry's own tree was planted there

D．it was in front of Leslie's house

(3) The word “privacy” in the third paragraph most probably means “________”.

[　　]

A．to keep away from thieves

B．to avoid being disturbed

C．to keep the air fresh

D．to avoid being polluted

(4) Terry's father was a man who ________.

[　　]

A．was proud of his garden and liked showing it off

B．was very sociable towards his neighbours

C．preferred to keep himself to himself

D．felt jealous of the people in Jenkins street

(5) What did Terry not approve of?

[　　]

A．Letting outsiders see the garden.

B．The height of the houses in Jenkins Street.

C．The way Leslie managed to look over the wall.

D．His father's concern for other people's feelings.

—Do you ______ the idea of living a low-carbon life?

—It sounds tough, but it is a tendency.

A．adjust to

B．apply to

C．approve to

D．subscribe to

 

 

In the debates about how a particular piece of land is to be used, the priorities often conflict. What should you do, for example, if you find out that under the fertile fields of a farming community there is a thick bed of coal which can be strip mined(露天矿) ? Strip mining tears up top soil and plants. But mining may create jobs, bring money to the towns businesses. Those who approve of strip mining say that the coal is needed, and they point out that it is quicker and cheaper to get coal from the surface than to go deep into the earth to get it by standard mining techniques. On the other hand, it takes nature 500 years to create an inch of top soil. As the countryside fills up, people are becoming more aware of the need for open space. Nearly every proposal for a new power plant, highway, or airport draws fierce opposition. Everyone wants the big, land-eating “uglies” to be in someone else’s backyard. Minneapolis and St.Paul, Minnesota, for example, have been debating about the site of a future airport for years. Yet if a new airport is needed, it will have to go somewhere.

How do we find our way out of the land-used problem? One way might be to reexamine our values, to think in new directions. Does everyone have to have a car with its need for highways and parking lots? What about developing mass transport systems that use less land? Do suburbs have to spread? Can they be designed so they use less space? Do we have to have more energy? If we do, do we really have to strip-mine coal to provide it?

However difficult they may be to arrive at, choices will have to be made if we want to preserve the beauty and usefulness of the land. For there is at least one point on which all of us can agree: The land does have its limits.

1.The word “priorities” in the sentence means ____.

? A. the various needs           B. the most important goal

? C. the number one necessity     D. the first thing to be considered

2.“…, people are becoming more aware of the need for open space. ” tells us that ____.

? A. people are thinking to develop their living space into the sky

? B. people noticed the need for unoccupied land

? C. people are struggling to get more land from the space ?

D. people are becoming more active on the space issue

3.How do we find our way out of the land use problems?

?A. One way might be to reexamine our values, to think in new directions.

B. Everyone has to have a car with its need for highways and parking lots.

?C. We have to have more energy. We need strip-mine coal to provide it.

D. We may develop mass transit systems which use less land.

4.“Everyone wants the big, land-eating ‘uglies’ to be in someone else s backyard.” shows that        .

? A. people don t want more big projects

? B. people don t want to live in the neighborhood of the big projects

? C. people regard the large construction projects are “uglies ”

? D. people don t like the undesirable building projects

5.The main idea of this article is ____.

?  A. The Limits of Land            B. Land     

C. Land and Our Life Styles      D. Land and Space

 

—Do you ______ the idea of living a low-carbon life?

—It sounds tough, but it is a tendency.

A. subscribe to       B. apply to             C. approve to            D. adjust to

—Do you ______ the idea of living a low-carbon life?

—It sounds tough, but it is a tendency.

A. adjust to    B. apply to             C. approve to             D. subscribe to