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?

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.

1.What does the underlined word “greener” mean?

2.Which advantage of making Hyderabad greener is NOT talked about in the passage?

3.According to the passage, what problem does Sao Paulo have?

We know that there are too many net bars around us．The Internet is popular and it makes our lives colourful．Many of us like going online very much because we can learn how to use the computer and get more information form the Internet．We can learn English．We can read some good newspapers and magazines．We can also watch some exciting sports matches．It can make us clever in playing computer games．We can send e-mails to our friends quickly．We can chat freely online with our friends．It can help us get in touch with people from all over the world．

       But some students spend too much time in playing computer games and some stay in the net bars all day and all night．Teenagers even get to have boyfriends or girlfriends online．They send e-mail to each other．It takes them too much time to chat online so they do worse and worse in their lessons and they don’t study well any more．I think we mustn’t get online when it is time for us to study．We can do it in summer or winter holidays．We should get online with adults-our teachers or parents．

    At the same time，if we have lots of free time，we can do some out-of-class activities at school．We usually have activities from 4：50 to 5：50 in the afternoon．We have different kinds of activities．If you are interested in sports，you can play basketball or football．We can go to the English Corner．We can practice talking in English there．We hope we can spend more time on our subjects or on such activities that we can learn a lot from and spend less time on the Internet．

1．What does the underlined word“It”in Paragraph I refer to?

      A．A net bar．          B．A computer．      C．Going online． D．Watching matches．

2．Because of the Internet，our lives are becoming ________．

      A．richer and richer                                      B．more and more colourful

      C．worse and worse                                       D．more and more boring

3．Which of the following is the best out-of-class activity at school?

      A．Playing computer games．                       B．Sending e-mails to each other．

      C．Chatting on the Internet．                           D．Going to the English Corner．

4．The writer suggests that students shouldn’t _________．

      A．have boyfriends or girlfriends online            B．do different out-of-class activities

      C．get online during their holidays                    D．get online with their parents

5．What is the passage mainly about?

      A．Going online．                                        B．Computers．

      C．How to use computers．                             D．How to play computer games．