Attempt a guess at the following question: In the English-speaking world, which country has the least affordable homes? You are wrong if you guessed the US, even with the housing bubble (气泡) and main sadness. Nor is it the UK, where prices have risen because demand is far from supply. According to a recent survey of 227 cities around the globe, you must go south of the equator (赤道) to Australia to find the priciest homes.
The report measured a city’s housing market along the following guidelines. An “affordable” home required three times or less of the average family’s income to purchase. At four times earnings, a home fell into the “unaffordable” category. And a “seriously unaffordable” home needed five times a family’s income. In Australia, homes in the least affordable city cost just about 9.5 times the average income. Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne were only a little under this figure.
Australian officials offered little comment, apart from a general statement on the dismal findings. These prices make the possibility that many Australians will one day own a home largely unbelievable. Land rationing (配给制) and excessive development charges have raised prices, and the problem will only be solved through urgent action by the Rudd government.
Some American cities were also included on the least affordable list, four of which were in California. America is still involved in a mortgage（抵押）crisis, though, affecting the affordability of homes. Yet a number of US cities garnered “affordable” status, namely Dallas and Kansas. Australia had no cities listed in the top fifty places with affordable homes.
The survey suggests that you can find affordable homes in most places, just not if you’re Australian and choose to live down under.To buy an affordable house, you should pay _____.
| A．3 times or less of the average family’s income |
| B．4 times or less of the average family’s income |
| C．5 times or less of the average family’s income |
| D．9.5 times or less of the average family’s income |
What caused the prices of houses to increase in Australia?
| A．The rising family’s income. |
| B．The demand over supply. |
| C．The excessive development charges. |
| D．The decrease of land. |
The underlined word “dismal” in Paragraph 3 may mean _____.
| A．cheerful | B．satisfactory | C．difficult | D．gloomy |
What might be the most suitable title for the passage?
| A．Affordable Houses |
| B．A House is a Dream First |
| C．Housing Bubble |
| D．Homes Too Expensive |
Light travels at a speed which is about a million times faster than the speed of sound. You can get some idea of this difference by watching the start of a race. If you stand some distance away from the starter, you can see smoke from his gun before the sound reaches your ears.
This great speed of light produces some strange facts. Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach us. If you look at the light of the moon tonight, remember that the light rays left the moon 1.3 seconds before they reached you. The nearest star is so far away that the light that you can see from it tonight started to travel towards you four years ago at a speed of nearly 2 million km. per minute. In some cases, the light from one of tonight’s stars had started on its journey to you before you were born.
Thus, if we want to be honest, we can’t say, “The stars are shining tonight.” We have to say instead, “The stars look pretty. They were shining four years ago, but their light has only just reached the earth.” Light speed is ______ sound speed
| A．as fast as | B．a million times slower than |
| C．about millions of times faster than | D．about a million times faster than |
If you stand 200 meters away from a man who is firing a gun to start a race, you will find out that ______.
| A．you can hear the sound before you see the smoke |
| B．the sound does not travel as fast as light |
| C．the sound will reach you before the man fires |
| D．sound travels about a million times faster than light |
Sunlight obviously (明显地) ______ than the light of the moon
| A．has to travel a greater distance | B．moves less quickly |
| C．travels much more quickly | D．is less powerful(有力的) |
The scientific way of saying "The stars are shining tonight" should be ______.
| A．the stars have been shining all the time |
| B．the stars seen tonight will shine four years later |
| C．the stars were shining long ago but seen tonight |
| D．the starlight seen today could be seen four years ago |
| Driver Wanted Drive for busy restaurant some evening and weekend work All meals are free Ring 33335678 |
House for Sale ￥150, 000, built in 1995 The house with 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, a kitchen and a breakfast room. It’s on the south side of the city |
| Yingbin Supermarket, the biggest shopping centre in our city will open on July 8, 2005. Everybody with today’s Tianjin Daily will get a small present that day. You are welcome. Tel: 27984321 Add: No.6 Huanghe Road Tianjin Daily June 1, 2005 |
Rose’s Special Concert Time: 2 p.m., July 3, Saturday Place: People’s Statium Ticket Price: RMB: 150 yuan for adults; 70 Yuan for students June 25, 2005 |
If you work as a driver in the restaurant, you may ______.
| A．never pay for meals | B．pay a little for meals |
| C．work on weekends | D．work in the afternoon |
If you buy the house, you ______.
| A．may pay more than ￥150, 000 for it | B．must have breakfast in the kitchen |
| C．have to take a bath in the public bathroom | D．may live on the south side of the city |
Any customer with a Tianjin Daily of June 1, 2005 will get a small present from ______.
| A．every supermarket | B．Huanghe Road |
| C．Tianjin Daily | D．Yingbin Supermarket |
If two adults and two students want to go to the concert, the tickets will cost RMB______.
| A．220 yuan | B．440 yuan | C．270 yuan | D．370 yuan |
Christmas Eve means a warm get-together with friends, a candlelight dinner, or perhaps a celebration at a pub(酒馆) for students. But, for Cai Yingjie, the night has a different meaning: helping beggars(乞丐) and the homeless(people without homes).
Cai, who is a student in journalism at Tsinghua, could be found at Beijing’s Wudaokou Light Railway Station that special evening. When she saw an old beggar, she took the cold, rough hands of the woman with her warm, clean hands, and gave the woman some warm bread and helped her put on a pair of new gloves(手套).
The woman was surprised for a few seconds, then burst into tears, saying “for the first time I feel respected(尊重)”.
Cai said, “A beggar’s life is very hard. That’s why I want to help them.”
Cai was one of 14 Tsinghua students spending Christmas Eve among the poor. They walked in the cold wind along the streets from 4 to 7 pm on Friday, visiting 15 beggars in Beijing’s Haidian District.
They brought bread and gloves with them, and stopped to greet beggars and offer them some of the warm food. Each beggar greeted them with a look of surprise.
“I know the activity can’t help much, but it’s meant to show our respect and care for beggars and the homeless who have been neglected for so long,” said Sun, head of the group. “And Christmas is a good time for that.” What does Christmas Eve mean to the 14 Tsinghua students?
| A．Taking 15 beggars to Tsinghua. |
| B．Getting together with friends. |
| C．Showing care to the beggars and the homeless. |
| D．Selling bread and gloves to the beggars. |
What does the beggar mean by saying “for the first time I feel respected”?
| A．The beggar has been waiting for Cai for long. |
| B．The beggar hasn’t been shown care for so long. |
| C．The beggar has been respecting Cai for a long time. |
| D．This is the first time the beggar has seen Tsinghua students. |
What did each beggar feel when they received greetings?
| A．Sad. | B．Amazed. |
| C．Frightened. | D． Proud. |
The word “neglected” in the last passage means _______.
| A．protected | B．found |
| C．taken care of | D．given no enough care |
I worked for a short time as a cashier(出纳员) at a restaurant a few months ago. I also helped to clean up the tables when it was very busy. One night, just before Christmas, I found a large black wallet on the floor near one of the tables. I guessed I should check it to find out who was the owner, but I was very busy at the time. And I imagined that if there was something valuable(有价值的) in the wallet, the owner would be back. Sure enough, an hour later a man came up to the counter and asked if anyone had found a wallet. I asked him to describe the lost wallet, and after he described it exactly, I gave him the wallet. He expressed his thanks when I handed it to him. He asked me if I had opened it, and when I told him “no”. At once he opened it and showed that it had nearly $ 800 in cash(现金). He took out a twenty-dollar bill and handed it to me and I was amazed at this. “A reward(酬劳) for your honesty,” he said and then turned and walked away.
Thinking about it later, I began wondering whether I would have been honest if I had known what was in the wallet! I thought that if I had no way to find the owner and no one returned to get it, I might keep it. But it also came into my mind that I actually saved someone’s Christmas plans by finding and returning the wallet. The good feeling it gave me was worth more than anything could buy. Which of the following is true?
| A．The owner of the wallet found a twenty-dollar bill gone. |
| B．The writer wasn’t surprised when the man gave her a reward. |
| C．Nothing in the wallet was missing. |
| D．The man was very, very excited when he got his wallet back. |
The writer returned the wallet to the owner because _______.
| A．she thought Christmas was coming |
| B．the owner came back too soon |
| C．she didn’t know there was so much money in it |
| D．as an honest person, she didn’t care much about money |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．The writer accepted a reward of $ 20. |
| B．The writer regretted (后悔) that she had returned the wallet. |
| C．The writer didn’t return the wallet until the owner came back. |
| D．The writer fell very happy after she returned the wallet. |
I’ve loved my mother’s desk since I was just tall enough to see above the top of it as mother sat doing letters. Standing by her chair, looking at the ink bottle, pens, and white paper, I decided that the act of writing must be the more wonderful thing in the world.
Years later, during her final illness, mother kept different things for my sister and brother. “But the desk,” she’d said again, “it’s for Elizabeth. ”
I never saw her angry, never saw her cry. I knew she loved me; she showed it in action. But as a young girl, I wanted heart-to-heart talks between mother and daughter.
They never happened. And a gulf opened between us. I was “too emotional(易动感情的)”. But she lived “on the surface(表面)”.
As years passed I had my own family. I loved my mother and thanked her for our happy family. I wrote to her in careful words and asked her to let me know in any way she chose that she did forgive(原谅) me.
I posted the letter and waited for her answer. None came.
My hope turned to disappointment(失望), then little interest and, finally, peace— it seemed that nothing happened. I couldn’t be sure that the letter had even got to mother. I only knew that I had written it, and I could stop trying to make her into someone she was not.
Now the present of her desk told, as she’d never been able to, that she was pleased that writing was my chosen work. I cleaned the desk carefully and found some papers inside —a photo of my father and a one-page letter, folded(折叠) and refolded many times.
Give me an answer, my letter asks, in any way you choose. Mother, you always chose the act that speaks louder than words. The writer began to love her mother’s desk ______.
| A．after Mother died |
| B．before she became a writer |
| C．when she was a child |
| D．when Mother gave it to her |
The passage shows that ______.
| A．mother was cold on the surface but kind in her heart to her daughter |
| B．mother was too serious about everything her daughter had done |
| C．mother cared much about her daughter in words |
| D．mother wrote to her daughter in careful words |
The word “gulf” in the passage means ______.
| A．deep understanding between the old and the young |
| B．different ideas between the mother and the daughter |
| C．free talks between mother and daughter |
| D．part of the sea going far in land |
What did mother do with her daughter’s letter asking forgiveness?
| A．She had never received the letter. |
| B．For years, she often talked about the letter. |
| C．She didn’t forgive her daughter at all in all her life. |
| D．She read the letter again and again till she died. |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．My letter to Mother |
| B．Mother and Children |
| C．My mother’s Desk |
| D．Talks between Mother and Me |
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