As prices and building costs keep rising, the “do-it-yourself” (DIY) trend (趋势)
题型：不详难度：来源：
As prices and building costs keep rising, the “do-it-yourself” (DIY) trend (趋势) in the U.S. continues to grow.
“We needed furniture(家具) for our living room.” Says John Ross, “and we just didn’t have enough money to afford it. So we decided to try making a few tables and chairs.” John got married six months ago, and like many young people these days, they are struggling to make a home at a time when the cost of living is very high. The Rosses took a 2-week course for $ 280 at a night school. Now they build all their furniture and make repairs around the house.
Jim Hatfield has three boys and his wife died. He has a full-time job at home as well as in a shoe making factory. Last month, he received a car repair bill for $ 420. “I was deeply upset about it. Now I’ve finished a car repair course, I should be able to fix the car by myself.”
John and Jim are not unusual people. Most families in the country are doing everything they can to save money so they can fight the high cost of living. If you want to become a “do-it-yourself”, you can go to DIY classes. And for those who don’t have time to take a course, there are books that tell you how you can do things yourself.
小题1:We can learn from the text that many newly married people _______.| A．find it hard to pay for what they need | | B．have to learn to make their own furniture. | | C．take DIY courses run by the government. | | D．seldom go to a department store to buy things |
小题2:John and his wife went to evening classes to learn how to _____| A．run a DIY shop | B．make or repair things | | C．save time and money | D．improve the quality of life. |
小题3: When the writer says Jim has a full-time job at home, he means Jim ____| A．makes shoes in his home | B．does extra work at night | | C．does his own car and home repairs | D．keeps house and looks after his children |
|
答案
小题1:A
小题2:B
小题3:B |
解析
试题分析：
小题1:A 推理题。根据文章最后一段1，2行Most families in the country are doing everything they can to save money so they can fight the high cost of living.什么吗A正确。
小题2:B 细节题。根据第二段最后两行The Rosses took a 2-week course for $ 280 at a night school. Now they build all their furniture and make repairs around the house.说明B正确。
小题3:B 推理题。根据本句He has a full-time job at home as well as in a shoe making factory.说明他还要做额外的工作来养家，故B正确。
点评：本文介绍了西方国家出现的流行的DIY，以及原因。集中考查细节题，解答细节题时要求学生抓住题干文字信息，采用针对性方法进行阅读，因为这类题的答案在文章中可以直接找到。 |
举一反三
Thanksgiving is an important festival in North America. We interviewed several students from the US and Canada. Here is what they have told us about their Thanksgiving experiences.
Josie from New York, USA
“In America, Thanksgiving is celebrated every year at the end of November. It is to remember the first group of people from Europe to live in America. When they first arrived, they found the environment strange. But they learned to survive after some native American friends showed them how to grow and find food. Thanksgiving is meant to be a traditional celebration.”
Todd from California, USA
“Thanksgiving is the first day of Christmas shopping. That means we have four weeks to buy Christmas presents for our families and friends. For me and my friends, the most important part of the festival is the big football game on TV. The match is watched by millions of people all over America. Thanksgiving is seen as an exciting day for football!”
Ian from Saskatoon, Canada
In Canada, Thanksgiving is held on the 2nd Monday in October. On the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, many people go to church. Thanks is given for all the good things that happened to them during the year. I always give thanks for the nice big turkey I’m going to have at the family dinner! Like all festivals, Thanksgiving is about food!
Katie from Maritimes, Canada
On Thanksgiving Day, we have dinner with all our cousins, aunts and uncles. It is always very busy. Sometimes we have two Thanksgiving dinners because we go to both our grandparents’ houses. The dinner is usually attended by more than twenty people at each house! My mother and my aunts do all the cooking but the washing-up is done by me and my cousins. And that’s not an easy job! But I don’t mind because Thanksgiving is meant to be a time to give thanks.
小题1:People in the USA and Canada ____________.| A．all have the same opinion of Thanksgiving | | B．have different opinions of Thanksgiving | | C．feel that Thanksgiving is about food | | D．have no interest in Thanksgiving |
小题2:Which of the people interviewed feels that Thanksgiving is all about football?| A．Ian | B．Josie | C．Todd | D．Katie |
小题3:Where does the person who thinks that Thanksgiving is a traditional celebration come from?| A．New York | B．California | C．Saskatoon | D．Maritimes |
小题4:For what reasons do people give thanks at Thanksgiving?| A．All the good things that have happened | | B．Presents, a big turkey | | C．Grandparents, food | | D．Football, traditions |
|
WASHINGTON---At least four more U.S. air-traffic controllers are caught nodding off on the job at three separate airports across the nation, the government said Wednesday.
The controller working alone in the tower fell asleep and was out of communication for 16 minutes while a medical flight carrying a patient was trying to land at about 2 A.M. Wednesday at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement.
The FAA announced that it is also investigating a controller who fell asleep Monday at Boeing King County International Airport in Seattle and two controllers who were unresponsive at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee on Feb.19.
“I am sick of this,” Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, said in a statement. “We can’t have a system where some of the people responsible for safety are asleep at the switch.”
As the incidents pile up, sleep experts say it demonstrates that the agency faces a systemic issue with the thousands of people expected to work through the night in safety-critical jobs. Scientific research shows that workers on midnight shifts make more errors because it is so difficult for the body to adapt to sleeping during the day, they say.
The agency will add an extra controller at the 27 towers staffed with one worker on the midnight shift, the FAA statement said.
Representative John Mica, the Florida Republican who chairs the House transportation committee, criticized the decision to add controllers. “Only in the federal government would you double up on workers, averaging $161,000 per year in salary and benefits, that aren’t doing their job,” Mica said in a statement. Mica has pushed legislation that would allow as many as 90 smaller airports to switch from federal to private controllers.
“People have known these problems with fatigue（疲劳）have existed for years,” said John Goglia, a Boston-based aviation safety consultant. “They’re now showing up. The FAA is admitting they exist. Now the FAA needs to work on it.”
The four controllers in Nevada, Seattle and Texas have been suspended(暂时停职) during the investigations, the FAA said.
小题1:The underlined part “double up on workers” means “______”.| A．add two more workers | B．staff two workers at a post | | C．settle two workers in a double room | D．give the workers double pay |
小题2:According to John Goglia, fatigue problem ______.| A．is a known potential danger | B．has never appeared before | | C．is common for day-time shift workers | D．seldom shows up at night |
小题3:Which statement is true?| A．A controller fell asleep without communication for 16 minutes in Knoxville, Tennessee. | | B．A medical flight carrying a patient failed to land with the controller asleep. | | C．Jay Rockefeller pays little attention to sleeping at the switch. | | D．Mica refused to support the decision to staff more controllers on the midnight shift. |
小题4:We can infer from the passage that ______.| A．All the controllers in the US were working alone while they were on duty | | B．The incidents are rooted in fatigue problems and those on midnight shifts need an extra nap | | C．In the U.S. , thousands of people expect to work through the night in safety-critical jobs | | D．The agency has added an extra controller at the 27 towers |
|
Brazil has become one of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth, but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.
Brazil’s population growth rate has dropped from 2.99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1.93% a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.
Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (通俗电视连续剧) and installment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.
“Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values-not many children, different attitudes towards life, women working,” says Martine. “They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people aware of other patterns of behavior and other values, which were put into a very attractive package.”
小题1:According to the passage, Brazil has cut back its population growth _____.| A．by educating its citizens | | B．by careful family planning | | C．by developing TV programmes | | D．by chance |
小题2:What can you infer from the passage about many Third World countries ?| A．They haven’t attached much importance to birth control. | | B．They would soon join Brazil in controlling their birth rate. | | C．They haven’t yet found an effective measure to control their population. | | D．They neglected the role of TV plays in family planning |
小题3:Soap operas have helped in lowering Brazil’s birth rate because ______.| A．they keep people sitting long hours watching TV | | B．they have gradually changed people’s way of life | | C．people are drawn to their attractive package | | D．they popularize birth control measures |
|
A report has recently been published about what the earth might be like 20 years or so from now on. The report is a result of a three-year 46 .
According to the report, the picture of the earth in the year 2020 is not a 47 one. The world will be more 48 because the population will continue to grow. The population could be 49 9,000 million, almost 3,000 million more than that in 2009. More people would move into cities, especially cities in 50 countries. Cities in India and Thailand probably would 51 have a population of 20 million by then.
Food production will 52 , but not enough to feed all the people. Farmers will grow 90% more food than they did in 2009, 53 most of the increase would be in countries that 54 produce enough food for their people. Little increase is 55 in South Asia, Africa or the Middle East. Poor farming ways are 56 large areas of cropland, changing farms into deserts. More farmland is 57 as cities become larger and more houses are built. 58 will get worse as developed countries burn more coal and oil. Many of the world’s 59 could disappear as more and more trees are cut down. Energy will continue to be a serious problem. The experts say their 60 of the earth for the year 2020 may be wrong. They only 61 the situation as it is today. By changing the situation, by 62 the problems, the picture can be changed. There is 63 time for the nations of the world to 64 a plan of action. But they considered that 65 too long to make a decision would greatly reduce the chances of success
| 小题1: | | A．learning | B．instruction | C．notice | D．study |
|
小题2:A.pleased B.pleasant C.safe C.blue
| 小题3: | | A．dangerous | B．beautiful | C．crowded | D．terrible |
|
| 小题4: | | A．no more than | B．as many as | C．so much as | D．as large as |
|
| 小题5: | | A．developing | B．developed | C．big | D．mountainous |
|
| 小题6: | | A．none | B．each | C．no | D．neither |
|
| 小题7: | | A．last | B．reduce | C．increase | D．continue |
|
| 小题9: | | A．already | B．hardly | C．partly | D．never |
|
| 小题10: | | A．wanted | B．lacked | C．found | D．expected |
|
小题11:.| A．destroying | B．protecting | C．bothering | D．interrupting |
| 小题12: | | A．saved | B．lost | C．discovered | D．used |
|
| 小题13: | | A．Air pollution | B．Water pollution | C．Some diseases | D．All farmland |
|
| 小题14: | | A．animals | B．plants | C．forests | D．people |
|
| 小题15: | | A．photo | B．picture | C．aim | D．environment |
|
| 小题16: | | A．stopped | B．continued | C．exchanged | D．prevented |
|
小题17:.| A．solving | B．working | C．answering | D．dealing |
小题18:.| A．no | B．still | C．less | D．lots of |
| 小题19: | | A．give up | B．carry | C．make | D．get off |
|
| 小题20: | | A．visiting | B．suggesting | C．spending | D．waiting |
|
|
Canada’s western city of Calgary is the world’s best city when it comes to healthy living, local press reported Monday.
According to an international survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a London-based consulting firm, Calgary was put at the top of a list of 144 cities. It scored 121 points, just above Honolulu’s score of 120. Helsinki（赫尔辛基，芬兰首都） and Ottawa followed at 119.5 and 118.5 respectively.
Three other Canadian cities came in the top 20. Montreal and Vancouver tied for ninth and Toronto came in at 18th.
The scores are based on air pollution levels, availability and quality of hospitals and medical supplies, as well as the efficiency of waste removal and sewage systems.
In America, the lowest scoring city was Atlanta, which was ranked 76th. Athens was the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, ranking 120th because of its air pollution. London was ranked 59th.
小题1:How many Canadian cities are in the top 20?小题2:Which of the following is NOT taken into account when the cities were scored?| A．Weather conditions. | B．Air quality. | | C．Waste removal. | D．Medical supplies. |
小题3:Among the following cities, which is the lowest scoring one?| A．Atlanta. | B．Athens. | C．London. | D．Helsinki. |
|
最新试题
热门考点