64. Elizabeth: Building houses with recycled materials and energy-efficiency systems

63. Catherine: Building a community without private cars

62. Helen: Making use of the heavy traffic to produce electricity.

61. Peter: Reducing plastic and other wastes through DIY. k*s5u

58. What does the writer mean by “it would be worth half what I paid for it ”(paragraph 2)

A. He should get a 50% discount.

B. The price of the camera was unreasonably high.

C. The quality of the camera was not good.

D. The camera would soon fall in value.

答案：D

考点：：

解析：推理判断题。第二段开头，作者分析了在卖场，自己将会被各种照相机的种类，弄的不知如何选择。但是“But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with”，最终我还是必须选择一款，但是无论选择哪一款都会有两个必定的结果：(1)会立马贬值。(2)会很快有新的产品。所以选择D。

57. The shop assistant insisted that the writer should　　　　　 　　　

A. try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it.

B. compare the camera he had chosen with the others.

C. get more information about different companies. k*s5u

D. trust him and stop asking questions.

答案：B

考点：：

解析：细节理解题。根据第一段作者与推销员之间的对话，可以了解到，推销员一直在劝说作者试一下机器，并且与其他的机器进行比较。故选择B。

56. The last sentence of the passage implies that if another drought came, ______.

　　 　A. the situation would be much worse

　　　 B. people would have to desert their homes

　　　 C. the city would be fully prepared in advance

　　　 D. the city would have to redevelop the neighborhood

答案：A

考点：：

解析：推理判断题。最后一段作者描述了目前自己居住的街道的变化，变得更加拥挤了。从而作者有了另一种思考：如果再来一次干旱，是否会造成如这次干旱一样的一些变化。从而可推测作者是隐射，环境会变的更加糟糕。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 E.

I needed to buy a digital camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps (快照), maybe occasionally for magazines. Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand. So I went on the net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store. There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked an assistant, “Can I have one of those?”　 He looked perturbed (不安). “Do you want to try it first?” he said. It didn’t quite sound like a question. “Do I need to?” I replied ,“There is nothing wrong with it？” This made him look a bit insulted and I started to feel bad. “No, no. But you should try it,” he said encouragingly. “Compare it with the others. ”

　I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.

But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The assistant seemed a sincere man. So I let him take out of my chosen camera from cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers… and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well.

Why do we think that new options(选择) still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine.

本文是一篇夹叙夹议的文章。

55. According to the writer, what eventually brought about the disappearance of the park?

　　　 A. The drought. 　　　　　　　　　　B. The crime.

　　　 C. The beggars and the rubbish. 　　　D. The decisions of the city.

答案：D

考点：：

解析：推理判断题。从第五段，可以明显的了解到：干旱结束了，但是政府仍然对公园不管不问，而是要重新规划这块废弃地，在作者眼中是“the city had planned to get rid of the park”。故选择D。